Aces High - Gameplay Gone to Crap - Help?

[aknimitz]

Hello everyone,

Well, my FR and connection in general has gone to crap in 1.08.  Prior to 1.08 I was getting 77 FR sitting in tower at 21 (Mind) and now I get 50.  When I am flying, the screen seems to jump at times, often when I roll the plane and look out the opposite window.  

I would be very interested for anyone's advice/help on how to improve this (if that is possible) - or if anyone else is having a similar problem?

Additionally, I would be VERY itnerested to learn of how to improve FR in general.  I dont think I should have a FR problem, I think my system is strong.  I am interested in learning about everything from virtual memory to vsync.  Any and all things that can be done to increase performance.  Thanks guys.

Here is my sys (at the moment):

AMD Athlon 900Mhz
Asus A7 Mboard (jumperless)
256Meg Memory
10Gig Hard drive
Soundblaster Live Value
Elsa GF2 Ultra

Nim/Larry

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: aknimitz ]

[Mitsu]

I want no trees in next patch.
And I wanna see Frame rates.

Mitsu

[highflyer]

I still think that If Aces High were in openGl and with Transform and Lighting were used, we would have higher Quake like frame rates.  

[Fester']

dx 8.1
nvidia 21.81 drivers
texture overlays off
mip mapping on
enabled palatized textures (box unchecked)
1024x768x32


with these settings i get smooth play and 20-50fps with:

p3 550
asus p2bf
256mb sdram
20gig hd
visiontek geforce 2 mx400
sound blaster value
300watt power supply

on the new system I'm assembling (er finishing up the assembly of with better stuff inside) i get 85-100 fps in flight and 50-70 fps in areas with lots of action/polygons. smoke still brings it down to 20fps when a large field is flat and smoking from every hangar and smoke fills the screen...

amd tbird 1.4ghz  266fsb
asus a7m266 jumperfree
512mb ddr pc2100 ram
visiontek geforce 2 mx400
300watt power supply
30gb 7200rpm hard drive
sound blaster live

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: Fester' ]

[Wilfrid]

I still think that If Aces High were in openGl and with Transform and Lighting were used, we would have higher Quake like frame rates.  

Ans what exactly do you base that assumption on?

[highflyer]

Every SINGLE game/simulation/Program that I have used, that uses OPENGL Has HIGHER Frame Rates, Smoother Display and overall higher effective use of the video cards hardware.  

This has occured from A Vast range of Video Cards, From an MPG card to a Voodoo Banshee, From a Radeon DDR64 down to a Geforce DDR, Upwards to my newest Geforce 3.


Quake/maxpayne/unreal/X-plane/(high end professional 3D studio Software)Maya, Lightwave/Screen savers ported to both API (DirectX as well as OPenGL)/IL2/ and Numerous amounts of others.

[SKurj]

quake, maxpayne, xplane.. do not have anywhere near as many MOVING objects to render.  
Maxpayne and xplane don't even have network code to deal with.

Show me an online flysim MMOPG that uses OpenGL and T&A at framerates higher than Aces and I'll believe u.
HT has stated that T&A will reduce framerates, i tend to believe him.

P.S.  perhaps the Target series of sims will add some thing to this discussion.  I doubt IL2 will with its high sys requirements and limited online play.

[brady]

Well I average 70 to 80 while in flight in a quiet area, that drops to around 50 in a conjested area.

 1.5 P4
 256 MB Ram
 Nivida G force 2 Ultra 64MB
 DBG850 Motherboard
 64MB RDRAM PC 800
 IBM ULTRASTAR 36.4GB LZX ULTRA160(SCSI)
 SOUNDBLASTER LIVE XGAMER

[airspro]

aknimitz : Me and airreapr are both having mini freezes , still .

airbull and me both had crashing to taskbar . I also had loss of keyboard and the stick keyboard presses with Saitek x36 stick .

Fix for this for bull and me was to make a SGE file that was only directx button presses then map ingame . It fixed it for me , and him both .

reaper thinks his problems are sound card to DSL , problem ( hears cracking sound I think ) , also airguard has the very same problem , dicos and freezing screen . he has DSL also .

IMO , think they have a serous bug that needs fixing . I know that the red dots are not working ? Thats one right ?

Anyway , alot of us in the very same boat , I told my mate that in time HT will fix us up .

We just got to hang tight till then .

take care
spro

[715]

Originally posted by SKurj:
Show me an online flysim MMOPG that uses OpenGL and T&A at framerates higher than Aces and I'll believe u.
HT has stated that T&A will reduce framerates, i tend to believe him.

Warbirds III (another MMOPG) uses hardware accelerated Transform and Lighting (via D3D, not OpenGL).  Frame rates are about the same as AH, but the number of polygons in the terrain, as well as the planes, is much higher.  The trees look quite a bit better, as do the aircraft.  The higher polygon count for the terrain is especially effective for ground vehicles: there are lots of hills and valleys to hide in.  There is less of a feeling of driving over very wide flat sections and more of a feeling of actual terrain.  This is less important, of course, when flying at anything above NOE.  At alt the quality of the texture maps is more important for terrain image quality, and AH uses better looking texture maps than WB.

I think the quality of the rendering for AH, as well as frame rates, could be improved using hardware T&L, but it would mean a complete rewrite of the basic 3D code- not something that is at all likely.

715

[highflyer]

WTG 715 ya hit the nail.  

Skurj, Take a look At graphic comparisons between aces and WB, Higher poly count, etc,uses Open GL, same or above frame rates.


need more be said?

[Sky Viper]

Originally posted by aknimitz:
Hello everyone,

Well, my FR and connection in general has gone to crap in 1.08.  Prior to 1.08 I was getting 77 FR sitting in tower at 21 (Mind) and now I get 50.  When I am flying, the screen seems to jump at times, often when I roll the plane and look out the opposite window.  

I would be very interested for anyone's advice/help on how to improve this (if that is possible) - or if anyone else is having a similar problem?

Here is my sys (at the moment):

AMD Athlon 900Mhz
Asus A7 Mboard (jumperless)
256Meg Memory
10Gig Hard drive
Soundblaster Live Value
Elsa GF2 Ultra

Nim/Larry

[ 10-07-2001: Message edited by: aknimitz ]

Hmph...

You guys that worry about 50 FPS being low are very funny!

With 1.08 I don't get much above 40, but I don't get much below 25 either.
This is an entirely enjoyable range for game play.

The screen jump on roll, or side window view is something that I experienced just before I upgraded my MOBO/case the last time.

Point of interest, when I upgraded, the only things that changed were the MOBO, Case, and processor.
I have reason to believe that the Powersupply was the cure.

The reason I say that is this: I rebuilt the old system.
I purchased a new GeForce 2 video card and moved my Voodoo 3 to the old box.
I had a enough of the other old supplies to complete the second system that way.

When I installed AH on that box, I got the same results as I had prior to the upgrade.
So, I pulled the Power Supply and replaced it. The change was from a 170W to a 250W.

The screen jump went away as well as a few other glitches. With the lower PS, my CH sticks would seem to have sticky buttons, HDD hits seemed to be more inhibitive, etc. Not so with the increased power.  
It did not increase FPS though.

Just an observation, but one that may be worth the few $ it takes to upgrade a PS.

Sky Viper
XO No. 54 Squadron
 

[Sky Viper]

BTW, here are my system specs.

Duron 750
ASUS A7V133
128M PC100
SB Live! (Driver vs. 4.11)
Visiontek GeForce2 GTS 64M DDR AGP (DetonatorXP 21.81)
300W PS
1024x768 32 Bit (Desktop and AH)
High detail set in AH

Viper

[SKurj]

Read again Highflyer, WB's uses D3D


SKurj

[highflyer]

uhm I downloaded it, and it USES OpenGL as well. IT also Runs MUCH smoother with OpenGL.

Kinda like the older Days when Glide was ultra smooth (Glide being a play off of openGL) compared to that of the older and less efficient DX.

OpenGL = Hi performance API to use

DX = Microsoft Go Between.