Severe fps drop when firing

[Froggy]

This tends to happen mostly in GVs, wirbels inparticular, but M16s are bad as well. I'll be scooting along getting 70-75fps, but the second I pull the trigger and shoot at anything, my frame rate comes danger close to single digits. Usually to between 10 and 15fps. I know I'm on a laptop, but I wouldn't think a few tracers would kill 60fps! Especially with the graphics turned down as low as they are! Any idea why there is such a HUGE draw? This can be especially frustrating when you have someone in your sights but can't follow them due to video lag. I can provide a dxdiag if need be, let me know.

-Froggy

[ImADot]

Sounds like you're running out of resources, and in particular, when the gun sounds need to be loaded and played.

[Noir]

for some reason firing the whirbel is very resource intensive

try turning the gun effects off

[Tracerfi]

try turning the tracers off 

[Skuzzy]

A DXDIAG output could be helpful.  It may be more than just a resource issue.  Multiple sound devices on the same interrupt could cause it.  Sound devices configured to run full hardware acceleration when they have no hardware to help with sounds could contribute to it as well.

[Froggy]

www.suprs.net/flash/dxdiag.txt

-Froggy

[Skuzzy]

Ok it is a resource issue.

Your video chip only has 256MB of dedicated video RAM, part of which is being used up by Windows 7.

You need to crank down all the graphic settings (uncheck all options in Options->Graphic Details->Advanced, and check all the "Disable" options in Options->Graphic Details, and uncheck any "Enable" options there as well), in the game, along with using a "Maximum Texture Size" less than 1024.

It may not look good, but it should solve the problem.

[Froggy]

Everything with the exception of the terrain bump map was turned off, and a max texture size of 512. That's why the frame rates were as high as they were to begin with 

[Skuzzy]

I assume it will only pause the first time you press the trigger and is okay after that.

Try disabling "Superfetch", in the system services, that might help as "Superfetch" is designed to use all available memory.  That can contribute to slow load times for sounds and other types of data.

Are you running Norton or McAfee on that computer?

[Froggy]

No, it is slow until I let off the trigger. I noticed that bomber guns will also make it stutter, but not AS bad. I'll try the superfetch service and get back to you. I don't run Norton or McAfee.

[Skuzzy]

Make sure you also have the power management for the computer disabled, or set to "high performance".

[blazer65]

I had this problem.  All I had to do was turn off weapons effects and it was fixed.  I didn't really even notice a difference in the graphics.  Tracers still showed, flames still showed coming out of the guns, and I still see hits on enemy planes, so I'm not exactly sure what effects I turned off, but whatever it was it fixed the frame rate drop I had when firing.

[100Coogn]

I had this problem.  All I had to do was turn off weapons effects and it was fixed.  I didn't really even notice a difference in the graphics.  Tracers still showed, flames still showed coming out of the guns, and I still see hits on enemy planes, so I'm not exactly sure what effects I turned off, but whatever it was it fixed the frame rate drop I had when firing.

I believe it disables smoke from you guns, empty shell ejection and maybe muzzle flash.

 Coogan

[blazer65]

Not muzzle flash, I still get that.  Not sure about smoke or shell casings tho.  I also thought that maybe when weapon effects are turned on, it creates each individual bullet?  I would guess that would take up alot of power to do that, so maybe thats why turning weapon effects off has such a good effect on the frame rates.

[Skuzzy]

Not muzzle flash, I still get that.  Not sure about smoke or shell casings tho.  I also thought that maybe when weapon effects are turned on, it creates each individual bullet?  I would guess that would take up alot of power to do that, so maybe thats why turning weapon effects off has such a good effect on the frame rates.

Every bullet is modeled, no matter the setting.

Weapon effects are particles, casings, and possibly other things which have no bearing on the effectiveness of the rounds.  They are just superfluous graphics being disabled.