Frame rates...what can be done about it?

[Stiglr]

OK, still "re-evaluating" AH.

Still complaining about the jerky animation. Funked keeps saying it's all due to my frame rates, which, now that I look, never get higher than about 19. Odd, in Brand W, they stay around 40 except in extreme furs with tracers and explosions. and the animation is smooth as glass there.

OK, so what can I do about it to get that same animation in AH??? I tried going to 640 x 480 mode, and just locked up worse than Philadelphia on Sunday. No thanks, don't need that kind of aggravation. Or is there some kind of patch or procedure to make this less perilous??

I've got a 12MB Monster II card, a 400MHz Celery and 128MB RAM. This should be plenty to get serviceable frame rates, right?

Anyone....anyone....Bueller.. ..anyone?

[Soda]

New video card.... AH is tough on video cards and I'm sure a lot of people here will comment that 32MB cards are best to get by framerate pitfalls.  I have a similar 400MHz Celeron, 128MB RAM, 32MB ATI Rage video and I still get frame rate crashes when smoke fills a majority of the screen or lots of bombers are close by.  I can run framerates in the 50's when flying high and alone, mid single digits when in the smoke... single digit framerates will get you killed every time.

From the computer standpoint, turn off everything not related to AH... fastfind, MSOffice toolbar, ICQ, etc.. each will cost a frame or two here or there.

Soda

[Ripsnort]

My first suggestion is to run 1024 res...everyone I've talked to gets LOWER frame rates at 800X or 640X...

2nd suggestion is a min. of 128 meg. Ram, which you have....

3rd would be a 32 meg Ram Video card, DRASTICALLY increased my FR (by 2-fold) compared to my other alternate system.

I upgraded to a 550 from a 350 since I was getting about 25 FPS with my 350...

 

Stigler:"Odd, in Brand W, they stay around 40 except in extreme furs with tracers and explosions. and the animation is smooth as glass there."

You get better FR in warbirds because of graphics, take a look at the two photos below, WB's and AH side by side, WB's has ALOT more water (smooth FR) and not nearly the graphic detail that AH has (not a dis, just a fact)

WB's F4U        

AH F4U
     



[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 09-18-2000).]

[danish]

Hia Stiglr ;=)
Just to confirm the above.
Have a PII 450 oc, 128 RAM, 32Mb TNT2 Ulta rig.Would like to tell the wife that I have to upgrade, but get minimum 30fps in 1024x768 16bit, lately even been flying 1280x1024 and have yet to regret.
Guess Ill tell the wife anyways..

danish

[Stiglr]

Thanks, I'm gonna try the 1024 trick first (hope I don't crash the PC again.....)....and I guess a DDR GeForce card is in my future....

[Wanker]

Stig, I have an extra 12MB Monster II card I'd be willing to donate to you, so you could run in SLI mode. That should help things out

If you're interested, email me at dahlen@home.com

[milnko]

I'm running a Intel PIII 733 (oc'd to 770 @140FSB)with 128 meg of 133mhz RAM, AGP GeForce2 GTS 32 meg videocard, 19" EV900 .26mm dot pitch monitor.

My avg FPS is 72

Low smoke covered flame racked bases drop FPS to low 20's

Zoomed in A/C explosions drop FPS to low 20's

This is what I have found:

1. I run my monitor refresh rate @ 75 hz,       lower hz gives me lower FPS.

2. I run 32bit 1280x1024, if I run in 16bit     mode I get lower FPS. If I run lower than    1024x768 I get a lower FPS.

3. I leave VSYNC on.

4. I run my Desktop at 16bit 800x600. And    only bare needs for background apps
   running. Modem icon is off as well.

5. Shift f2, Shift f3 will raise FPS, but       sacrifice the horizen.

6. Make sure ya have a good connection, it    SEEMS to me, that when I have a    so-so conn my FPS's drop too. Although I    have no idea why this would have any    effect.

My suggestions to Stiglr is to find a video overclocking program for the V2 @ 3DFiles.com

Warnings:
These are tips. I am not your customer support guy. Make sure you can undo this
if you have no idea what you're doing.

Using sysedit.exe located in your windows/system folder, add these to your lines to his SYS.INI file under [vcache]

[vcache]
minfilecache=2048
maxfilecache=8192
chunksize=256

Next setting up your Win98 like this also helps some:

In Control Panel, System, Performance, File system: There should be a bit asking you to say what type of computer you have. This is probably set to "Desktop Computer". Change this to "Network Server". Apparently this
makes Windows use the hard-disk more efficiently.

Then:
Go to the Performance/File System tab and change the these settings. I usually set the CD-Rom as 4x or higher with "no read-ahead"

Go to the Device Manager tab and open the system devices option, then look for the Direct Memory Access Controller (Usually the 1st or 2nd option) -Go to it's propeties and look for the settings tab and check the
reserve DMA buffer and get it to the max (64k).
Also check the address restriction settings and mark "Restrict DMA Transfer..." and select 4GB.

Finally
In the Device manager tab look for your CD and Drives devices and check if you have a DMA box (in the settings tab under the device's properties) and select it (you have to select it for each device - each CD and each HDD).
---------------------------------------------

Hope this helps ya some

 

------------------
CyberPilots have bigger Joysticks
BANDITS ON MY SIX!!!!

<< MILENKO >>
ACES HIGH ASSASSINS Website
WB/AH ASSASSINS Website

[Badger]

stiglr....

Here's a copy of an old post that I had put in the Hardware Forum.  I updated it after I increased the resolution I was using with AH.

=======================
For informational and comparison purposes only, I just finished building from scratch by buying individual components, the following system:

850MHz Intel Pentium III processor
Intel SE440-BX2V (100Mhz) Motherboard with Rev 15 BIOS
256MB 133MHz SDRAM (2 DIMMS)
300 Watt Power Supply
Microsoft Windows 98SE with DirectX 7.0a
21" Hitachi display (20" viewable, 22dpi)
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive

Motherboard based Ultra ATA-33 HD Controller
1 x 14.4GB IBM ATA-33 hard drives (7200rpm)
1 x 37.5GB IBM ATA-33 hard drive (5400rpm)
(Primary IDE as Master and Slave)

Hitachi Model 2000 DVD-ROM drive
100 Meg ZIP drive
(Seconday IDE as Master and Slave)

Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Annihilator 2 (32 megs)
Creative Labs WIN Video Driver v5.3
Creative Labs "Gamer" Live PCI sound card
3COM 10/100 network interface card

It worked first time on power up and I installed Aces High v1.03 (now 1.04). Although I haven't played AH in over a month due to boredom with current MA only environment, I went into MA and tested FPS rates as well as system stability for about an hour. I only over clocked the CL graphics card using their provided Game Launcher software just to the "yellow" zone so as to be conservative. Hardware AA was set about half way for graphics card and SBA was turned ON.

I got 80-84 FPS with AH set at 1280x1024 (32 bit color). It drops to about 45-60 FPS in heavy screen activity and close up fights around bases with lots of smoke. Important Note: Vsync was ON for this test, which was limiting factor in FPS.

System stability was perfect and no lockups or anomalies were experienced.

Regards,
Badger

Looking for a different kind of environment to discuss your favorite on-line flight simulator? http://www.egroups.com/group/flightsimsonline  

[Pongo]

I had
458 mhz celeron
64mb ram
16 mb Tnt 1 card

I was trying to focus like you on one thing to upgrade. Instead I got a nice infusion of cash and
708 mhz celeron
192mb ram
Gforce DDR card(asus)

Now I am in happy 70 fps land. I dont really notice frames unless a bomber blows up arround me or somthing like that. Smoke and clouds dont seem to effect it at all. I am going to do all of the sugjustions above and see the effect...
I have seen 150+ fps at very hight alt...
at 32k I cruised along in a 190A5 at 108 fps constant...
When your fps goes up prepare to learn how to shoot again. I couldnt hit anything after the upgrade for several days...

[Stiglr]

Wank,

Thanks, I already have the Monster running in SLI with some old, wimpy card from way back. I'd take you up on your kind offer, but I figure I might as well save a card slot while I upgrade for the future.....

but really, thanks for offering!!!

And you others, thanks also.

[-aper-]

And do not install Windows Millenium.
This thing porks frame rate alot in AH.
It's better to stay with Win95-98.

[Stiglr]

wasn't planning on making the ME mistake, aper, but thanks for the warning.  

[Westy]

" I already have the Monster running in SLI with some old, wimpy card from way back"

 I thought you could only run SLI mode with the same brand and type of 3D accelerator card?
 
 -Westy

[Sharky]

Stiglr,

Damn it is funny how slightly differant hardware makes a huge differance in performance in two differant sims.  I'm running a Celron 300@450 mhz and a viper 550 16 meg TNT1 card.  In WB to run 3d 1024x768 I have to run vsync off and I get a horrible FR studder whenever I switch views.

In AH I can run 1024X768 smooth as glass with frame rates of 35-40 pretty consistantly.  Our systems are about the same horsepower wise but yet have exactly the opposite problems, weird.

Anyway like has already been stated, switch to 1024X768.  I don't know why but almost everyone reports better frame rates in the higher resolutions.  Additionally there is a hires patch especially for 1.04, make sure you are using that, vice the old one you may have installed from an earlier version.

Another thing is make sure you are not trying to run in 32 bit color.  In lower end systems like ours it's a real FR killer.  I get about a 30-40% increase in frame rate when going from 32 bit to 24 bit color.

Last is yes, if you can afford it a better video card will help alot.  I just ordered a new Gforce2MX because I've heard nothing but good things about them and at about $100.00 ya cant really go wrong.  Besides your going to need one for WBIII  

Oh on other thing you might try.  Try just running with just your voodoo by itself.  I don't know how AH handles SLI.  It's worth a shot anyway.

Sharky

[Nash]

You'll get a hit to your frame rate if your monitor's resolution setting and AH's resolution setting are different.

I just discovered this and got about a 15 fps boost.