Clouds in FSO

[Nefarious]

Since the new Cloud Editor came out, there has been mixed reviews in the community about the clouds. Since the beginning of January we have used these new clouds in FSO.

What I want to know is using your experience only, how are the clouds effecting your gameplay in FSO since January. please answer the poll question for yourself. Not your squad or squad mates.

Please feel free to discuss, but please keep it civil and constructive.

[blazer65]

The new clouds being me down to about 30 FPS.  Not terrible, but still not good.  For some of my squad mates, they make the game nearly unplayable.  They really do look great, but IMO, do more harm than good to the overall gameplay.

[Nefarious]

I have a 1 year old machine and I am playing AH nearly maxed out. I see 50+ frame rates in flight and 25+ frame rates in the tower. Clouds or no clouds.

I will add that I want to make sure we are not leaving people in the dust with the improvements that AH is providing us. That being said, I am open to all suggestions in improving my setups into how we can create a happy medium that we can all enjoy in FSO.

[captain1ma]

is there anyway to turn them on somewhere else, so i can test my machine? i wasn't really paying attention to it, and would like to make a educated vote rather then one on assumption. thanks

[APDrone]

I did notice some lag hits when flying low over the ground under cloud cover.  Minimizing ground detail and graphic detail alleviated a bit of it, but was still noticible. 

I didn't notice anything over water.

Normally, I hold 59-60 for FR





Not sure if you're interested in specs, but here's a snippet of my dxdiag:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/2/2013, 10:11:10
       Machine name: MAINGAMING
   Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
       System Model: G41MT-S2P
               BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E7600  @ 3.06GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
             Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8190MB RAM
          Page File: 3574MB used, 12804MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
          Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
       Manufacturer: NVIDIA
          Chip type: GeForce GTX 550 Ti
           DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1244&SUBSYS_20593842&REV_A1
     Display Memory: 4046 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 1998 MB
      Shared Memory: 2048 MB
       Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)
       Monitor Name: ViewSonic VX2035wm
      Monitor Model: VX2035wm
         Monitor Id: VSCAF1E
        Native Mode: 1680 x 1050(p) (59.954Hz)
        Output Type: DVI
        Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 9.18.0013.0697 (English)
     Driver Version: 9.18.13.697
        DDI Version: 11
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 10/10/2012 20:23:48, 18252136 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: Yes
    WHQL Date Stamp:

[Nefarious]

You can view them in the SEA in CM Eye Mode or from F3 in the tower.

There are three weather fronts in this FSO. One over the Tyrrhenian Sea, one over the Adriatic and a set moving down Italy from the NW to SE.

These clouds are noticeably thicker than what was used in January.

[Badger85]

I have a really old machine and my frame rate dropped to 6-12 fps during combat last night. I don't even know if HTC should support such ancient computers as mine, but it would be nice to be able to tweak graphics settings back even more than is available now.

[TequilaChaser]

I found the clouds to be "Outstanding" , last night in FSO.......... flying along heading back to A98, I told Nefarious, I was staying constantly around 59/60 fps using 2048 textures at login in video settings tab / 4096 in the advanced tab and environmental slider ( top slider in Advanced tab, set in the middle, all other graphics checked/X'ed and detail sliders maxed to 4 miles on general graphics - right side settings table ) .  this is on my back up PC I am using at my Lady's Place

The clouds had no effect on my AMD PC, and the only real time I noticed a frame rate hit was when the mass launching at the beginning of the FSO frame started, I was dipping down to around 39 FPS......

Quick Specs of it:  built it back in June? of 2011?? or there abouts 
( NOTE:  tweaking and OC'ing the CPU to 3.8 GHz running @ 41 Celcius on Air and pushing my GPU to near 15% OC with Temp around 39 celcius, I can come close to equalling what my Intel i7-2600K pc will do, graphics wise, and the Intel has a 6950 2GB XFX card )

Operating System:
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1

Case:
Antec 900 Series Black ATX Mid Tower

Motherboard:
ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3
CPU:
AMD Phenom II x4 975 3.6Ghz w/ CORSAIR CAFA70 CPU HeatSink Cooler w/ 120mm Dual-Fans

System Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz

Graphics Card(s):
(1)XFX HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI-E ( using CAT 13.1 Drivers )

Sound Card:
 7 in 1 Card Reader

Monitor(s):
ASUS VE278Q Black 27" 1920x1080 2ms Full HD HDMI 300 cd/m2

Screen Resolution:
1920x1080p HD @ 60Hz ( DVI )

PSU:
Thermaltake BlackWidow 850W High Perf. 80+ Silver certified

Hard Drives:
(1) Curcial M4 128GB SATA 6.0Gb/s  SSD
(1)Western Digital VelociRaptor WD4500HLHX 450GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
 
Optical Drives:
(1)ASUS Black SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1LT LightScribe Support - 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache

(1)ASUS Black SATA 10X BD-R Reader / DVD Re-Writer with LightScribe Support

Cooling:
CPU:(2) 120mm fans VC:(2) 100mm fans Case:(4) included


Awesome looking clouds you had made in the setup last night, Nef  <S>

TC

[TequilaChaser]

Also, I noticed in someone's directX report they was running Windows 7 64 bit, and their pagefile USED was above 3500+ MB's........

a clean install ( not tweaked )  of Win 7 64 bit will put you somewhere around 900 to 1100 MB's USED...... if you tweak your system and shutdown any unneeded resources you can get down between 600 to 800 MB's USED or better.....

having over 3500 MBs used, shows that you have an extreme amount of other stuff running in the background, from my experiences with Windows 7..... Drone, you might want to take a look at that, and possibly even go visit BlackVipers website to see if you can clean or even tweak your system / processes / resources, Sir......

Hope This Helps

TC

[j500ss]

I have a 4 year old machine, what I noticed was while flying in clouds I could hold around 50-55 frame rate. In the cockpit if I turned and looked at the clouds frame rate dropped to 12-14, sometimes single digits even, look the other way into clear blue sky, 55-60 fps.  I had a ton of mini freezes and stutters last night as well, especially when I pulled the trigger   

I know it's probably part my machine, and probably internet too, but that was my experiences.

   

  jdog

[SlipKnt]

I love the clouds personally however I do experience a massive FR hit when the action gets very hairy (i.e. lots of planes and shooting, etc...).

I suppose it could also be other thinsg running in the background.  Since I am very inexperienced in identifying what to turn off in the background, I generally leave it alone in fear I may break something in my PC.  Any suggenstions?

I normally run 60 to 70 FR and drop to about 40 something during heavy engagements.  Lately, I have flown through formations of bombers at a 7 or less for at least 30 seconds until things start to settle down a bit...

[wmills]

 I cant tell a difference, but I have ground and water detail turned down anyway. Not sure if that is helping. Running 4 year old dual-core and vid card. Frame rates steady at 57-59. Have noticed clouds look cool.

[ImADot]

My frame rates are usually 55-60 (vsync forced on). In the clouds I'm around 40-50. I'm fine with that.

If needed, people can try turning off the cloud bump mapping and turning off ground clutter while in flight; this may help a little bit. If you use ANY environment mapping other than perhaps the first notch from the right (which is just a static image applied to the reflective surfaces), I'd suggest turning that off as well.

[APDrone]

Also, I noticed in someone's directX report they was running Windows 7 64 bit, and their pagefile USED was above 3500+ MB's........

a clean install ( not tweaked )  of Win 7 64 bit will put you somewhere around 900 to 1100 MB's USED...... if you tweak your system and shutdown any unneeded resources you can get down between 600 to 800 MB's USED or better.....

having over 3500 MBs used, shows that you have an extreme amount of other stuff running in the background, from my experiences with Windows 7..... Drone, you might want to take a look at that, and possibly even go visit BlackVipers website to see if you can clean or even tweak your system / processes / resources, Sir......

Hope This Helps

TC

Thanks, TC..

I ran the DXDIAG this morning, while I was playing with photoshop, bridge, outlook, and a couple other apps plugging away.  Didn't know to watch that parm.. I'll pay more attention from now on.. thanks!

I'm about ready for a system upgrade anyway.  Somehow I've convinced myself I need USB3 support..

 

[cohofly]

I am running a Dual core, bigger power supp, maxed RAM (for the 32bit version of XP) and a fairly decent Vid card. I usually run 58-60 FR with most candy turned on. Not full updates, no shadowing myself or others. I found the clouds extremely vivid on Friday and our squad remarked on how much better they looked then say a year ago. I was fine until the actual fight began then got a moderate frame rate hit. I turned off my detailed ground and water and my FR shot back up to 50s.
<S>
Carver