Shadows on others

[Midway]

Unchecking this box in advanced graphics increases my frame rate from 35 to 60.  

This one setting.   I turned it off and on several times to make sure and each time I clicked it my frame rate jumped from mid-to-high 30s to 59/60.


This is while I was in a furball with a couple dozen other aeroplanes around.

Screenshots:

[Krupinski]

I often wonder the same, "Smooth Shadow" on lowest shadow setting causes my FR to drop dramatically, other things as well.  

[Ack-Ack]

One of the biggest drains on a video card is rendering shadows, even on highend cards.  By unchecking the box for rendering shadows will free up resources as the video card is no longer drawing shadows for all the planes in your viewable area.  You'll get even a bigger frame rate gain by disabling shadows completely.

ack-ack

[Midway]

What is so odd about this is that I can't even see shadows on others as most of the time they are too far away from me and too small.  So disabling shadows on others has made no difference in what I see when I fly in a typical furball.

Using almost half of my frame rate to render shadows on others that I would only rarely see makes no sense, ergo I turned it off and am at my max 60 fps now most of the time.

I like self shadows and see those constantly.

[Kingpin]

disabling shadows on others has made no difference in what I see when I fly in a typical furball.

Perhaps with them disabled, you might also stop flying in the shadow of others. 

Or would that be in the shade...?

 




Sorry, MidAquaWho, couldn't resist.

[GuyNoir]

I wonder if it's possible to code it so that you only see others' shadows when they're very close to you (otherwise, they're disabled) and/or if they could be rendered as very low-rez shadows (since the planes're far away anyway).

[guncrasher]

Perhaps with them disabled, you might also stop flying in the shadow of others. 

Or would that be in the shade...?

 




Sorry, MidAquaWho, couldn't resist.

I heard he got the name midway back.  so who must be his shade now.


semp

[zack1234]

I have a hd6970 and water reflection kills frame rates.

I have shadowing on and that shiny setting.

Bitmap etc is on

Shadows for planes and buildings is always off 

I have 60fsp but as i have said before I have stopped looking at FPS, if the game looks alright while i am flying i am happy.

[Chalenge]

Midway... why are you using all that bump mapping? If 1024 shadows causes that problem you should turn the bump maps off also.

Use all that when you make movies if you ever do but otherwise you dont need it.

[Midway]

Midway... why are you using all that bump mapping? If 1024 shadows causes that problem you should turn the bump maps off also.

Use all that when you make movies if you ever do but otherwise you dont need it.

I have it all on because I'm at 60fps so it doesnt't cause any issues.  HTC went to the trouble of making the bump maps, so I might as well see them if no material performance hit.

[R 105]

 I have an 8 year old computer with an old Gforce8400 card. I have everything disabled and my frame rate in in the high teens and low twenties. I would be happy with a FR of 33 lol. The ground looks like a 3 year old s finger painting to me. I can't fight to low to the ground or the water because I simply can't see it well enough not to crash.

 There is an advantage to this like airfields show up in the distance easy because of the contrast between the field and the map terrain. Turn off all the eye candy you can and fly with a better frame rate it is what counts anyway. When I fire at another plane I am never sure it is even still where I see it when I fire due to poor FR.

[aztec]

I wonder if it's possible to code it so that you only see others' shadows when they're very close to you (otherwise, they're disabled) and/or if they could be rendered as very low-rez shadows (since the planes're far away anyway).

I'm sure it is and rumor has it HT WILL accept liquid bribes.

[TheFox]

Confusing isn't it .......... I can't even figure out if the Cross or X in the box means its enabled or disabled. If its enabled when the X is there its kinda counter intuitive ........ so I guess it must mean its disabled ?   

[Chilli]

I have been experimenting with video settings in order to get the best "POP" out of planes and vehicles in sight.  I actually reduce the screen resolution so that non zoomed distant aircraft become more noticeable.  I had also turned shadows on others to see if that also helped to contrast the few pixels at distance, to improve my SA. 

So far framerate hasn't effected the smoothness of game play on a 7 year old machine with a low end graphics card.  After this post I will try another comparison concentrating on differences with the box checked and unchecked.

Video Settings (from splash screen options)
Resolution 1280 x 720 (this is non native setting HPS2031 native setting is 1600 x 900)
Max Texture Size = 2048
Antialias = First notch above none
Graphic Detail Settings:
Gamma 1.1
Object Detail = Full Right (Faster)
Ground Detail = Full Right (0.5 miles)
Advanced Tab:
Bump Map - Checked / Updates = Full Right (none)
Shadow Texture Size = 512
Bump Terrain - Checked
Detail Terrain - Checked
Shadow on Others - Checked