Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Axis vs Allies => Topic started by: TheBug on July 17, 2004, 10:05:35 PM

Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: TheBug on July 17, 2004, 10:05:35 PM
Did anybody else notice this?  I tried to fly in the CT tonight and the fight was near A40 against the IJ CV, but didn't stay very long because of very poor FPS in the area.  Sitting on the runway at A40 I was getting 9 FPS, the teens over A40 and at best the low 20s just North of the base.

I switched to other airfields and was able to get between 35-60 sitting on the runway.  

I also flew the Snapshot Friday night on the map and didn't notice any FPS hits in the area of the map that the event took place.

A40 has something around that makes that area unplayable for me.  Anybody else have FPS problems on the Slot map?
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: B17Skull12 on July 17, 2004, 10:12:23 PM
20 fps!?!?

that is ultra fast bug!!!!
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Soulyss on July 17, 2004, 10:36:09 PM
Have company over at the moment, but I'll try and check on A40 and see if I get a frame rate hit too.  If so (or if other people report the problem) I'll see about moving the front away from a40 if feasible (ie another area where bases are close enough to facilitate a battle).
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: J_A_B on July 18, 2004, 12:23:49 AM
I dunno what field I was at, but my framerate inexplicably dropped from its usual 40-ish to 12 and wouldn't improve after about 30 mins or so in the arena.


J_A_B
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Grits on July 18, 2004, 12:52:41 AM
We were at A40, but I think its the fleets, pointed away from them my FR was maxed at 60, pointed at them it was 12.

Another odd thing, as I was flying away from A40 with no fleets in sight, if I looked out the left rear view I got the usual 55-60 FR, if I looked out the right rear, I got 12. Something is wrong, but donno exactly what.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: DJ111 on July 18, 2004, 12:58:39 AM
Just a question, but do you think we could use another map or git rid of fleets?...

I can't get over 10 FR anywhere near a fleet/fight. :(
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: fluffy on July 18, 2004, 01:09:57 AM
Yes TheBug, not only did my frame rate deteriorate during the CAP event this afternoon - which was played in the Slot map - to about 5 fps by the end of the event, but when I attempted to enter the CT several times tonight, my PC froze and I eventually was dumped to desktop.  Did
it have anything to do with the large number of CVs concentrated in a small area?  But that doesn't explain why the low fps at the end of the CAP. I was the last plane in the area when I landed the CV, we were not in sight of land, and my fps was waaaay down.

Is it the server that the SEA and CT are in - because I noticed a different ping rate on those arenas compared to the MA?
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Slash27 on July 18, 2004, 01:22:09 AM
Im having same problems.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Soulyss on July 18, 2004, 01:42:02 AM
There really are too many fleets... when I get a chance I"ll move most of them so far out of the way it'll take most the week for them to get anywhere near land. :)
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: CurtissP-6EHawk on July 18, 2004, 01:49:34 AM
100+ here:D
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Slash27 on July 18, 2004, 02:16:13 AM
100+ fps? .  Whats your set up?
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Octavius on July 18, 2004, 03:30:42 AM
Dont normally post in the CT forum, but this caught my eye.

BlkKnit and I were having the same problem last night while testing the Slot for today's CAP event.  One was a CV group C23 or C24, and I *believe* A40 was also a culprit.  Our frames went down to about 15-20.  However, after alt-tabbing to make a post about it, and popping back in minutes later, the frames *did* show improvement.  

We're not sure why this is happening... it's not consistent.  The CAP event went smooth as a baby's bottom - no one mentioned anything about poor FPS (I was relieved).

Dux, the creator of the map, also reported a similar situation with framerate.  At the moment, the range of possible specific problems is too wide.  We *think* it might have to do with the latest patch.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Oleg on July 18, 2004, 04:19:16 AM
Argeed with Grits - something wrong here. One time I had about 7-8 FPS in A40 tower or runway, other time 40-50 (both within half hour i believe, CVs still around). I roll from one of CV at south from A40 (3-4 our CVs was there) - ~50 FPS, flew to N and saddenly FPS drop to 1 :eek: , nothing in sight, clear sea. FPS restored in ~1 minute.

Preload textures is on.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Oldman731 on July 18, 2004, 09:14:43 AM
Quote
Originally posted by fluffy
when I attempted to enter the CT several times tonight, my PC froze and I eventually was dumped to desktop.  

Same thing happened to me (three times, I learn slowly).  Finally made it in later on, and things went fine.  I put it down to the grab bag of fleets right off A40 at the time.  When I was finally able to get in, they had moved further south.

Bag the fleets, I say.

- oldman
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Grits on July 18, 2004, 11:25:04 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Octavius
We're not sure why this is happening... it's not consistent.


Agreed Octavius. It will slow down when you point at A40 for a few seconds, then when you point at A40 again, only a little later when you are at a different angle, it wont bog down. Same for the fleets, its not consistent in any way that I could tell, but I have not sat down and systematicly tried to eliminate things one at a time.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Dux on July 18, 2004, 02:09:29 PM
Wow, Bug... my problems almost verbatim. 9 FPS at A40. I played with all the sliders, screen res... everything and couldn't get it any higher. Went up to maybe 18-20 at altitude.

Logged on later that day, everything was fine. (and fun)

Now there are no "non-standard" objects or groups anywhere on the map, so I have to think that it's a thing that could happen on any map... really no clue.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: TheBug on July 18, 2004, 03:22:57 PM
Hmmm, maybe it was the fleets or maybe I should of just stuck around a little longer??

I will try again tonight. Hopefully all will be fine.  Almost made me cry, leaving when there were Zekes to be killed.

Thanks for the help guys .
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Dux on July 18, 2004, 04:13:46 PM
Hmmm, well that would be one thing to keep in mind, Soulyss. The original Slot had 10 fleets... this one had about 10 more added... just in case of whatever. Typically, the extra fleets would be parked somewhere out of harm's way.

But I still don't think that is what was causing yesterday's FPS hit, as there was only 1 fleet around at the time. Unless even at a distance, they cause some kind of interference...?
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Soulyss on July 18, 2004, 04:45:28 PM
I have removed the extra fleets from the playing area and left 3 cv's per side.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Reschke on July 19, 2004, 03:49:58 PM
Still have problems with the base there are A40? Just wondering.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: DJ111 on July 19, 2004, 04:25:54 PM
I'm still having a FR of 1-2 :(
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: CurtissP-6EHawk on July 19, 2004, 06:13:59 PM
I have a:
Dell Dimension DIMXPS
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
2.79GHz
1.00GB RAM

Monitor: Dell M992
Video Card: 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800
3D Settings: set on "Optimal Performance"
Defaults Vsync - OFF

Frame rate from 75 in CV tower,  to 350 looking up to 130 normal.
Mipmapping off
1280x1024x512
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: TheBug on July 19, 2004, 08:38:23 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Reschke
Still have problems with the base there are A40? Just wondering.


Was online last night and the fight wasn't near A40, but there was still some weird stuff going on.  I was IJN rolling off a CV S of A7(I think) and there was a second IJ CV NE of A7. When I took off I was registering around 85fps, stayed in the same area, nothing noticeable changed and I was suddenly down to 35 fps.  Nothing near as bad as the other night near A40, but there was only the faint hint of land in the distance mostly sea, so fps had no visible reason to be taking a hit.

This lasted for 5-10mins then slowly crept back up 40 then 50, etc.. till I finally ended back up in the 70s where I shut the fps counter off.

I wasn't the only one to notice this in the area.  I keep vsync on too so I don't get those drastic fps spikes looking into the sky.  Also supposedly that helps prevent rubber bullets.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Slash27 on July 19, 2004, 09:32:10 PM
Vsync - OFF  


I thought that was a bad idea?
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: CurtissP-6EHawk on July 19, 2004, 10:06:43 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Slash27
Vsync - OFF  


I thought that was a bad idea?


Thats what I thought but this is the best I get. With it ON it messes up other settings and I get very poor frame rates. Thats all I know how to do.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Slash27 on July 19, 2004, 10:17:33 PM
Thats all I know how to do.

Well if it works go with it. :aok
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Grits on July 19, 2004, 10:51:10 PM
Quote
Originally posted by CurtissP-6EHawk
Thats what I thought but this is the best I get. With it ON it messes up other settings and I get very poor frame rates. Thats all I know how to do.


Your not really getting those frame rates Hawk. Your monitor can only display frame rates to its refresh limit at a certain resolution. So lets say your running 1600x1200 in AH and your monitor has a max refresh rate of 70 at that resolution, it can only display 70 complete screens a second. If you have V-synch off and your computer is drawing 350, but your monitor can only display 70, it will either draw partial screens, or it will skip them all together, IE you are losing 280 FPS!

If you are in a furball, and you "ping" a bad guy in one of those "lost" frames, you DONT get credit for the hit, its gone. The only thing in the AH system that "registers" hits is YOUR FE, so if your computer doesnt "see" it, it doesnt exist. AH waits for a screen "frame" to send the hit information, if your "hit" frame is lost in one of the ones that doesnt get drawn, but thrown away, you lose it and the information is not sent to the server.  If you have V-synch on, your computer will only draw another screen when the monitor is ready, and you will not have "lost" screens, and as a result, no lost hits.

You should turn V-synch on regardless of what your frame rate sinks to, its better than losing hits. How low does your frame rate go with V-synch on?
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Karnak on July 19, 2004, 11:22:35 PM
Yeah.  It has nasty effects on frame rates.  Quite odd really.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: CurtissP-6EHawk on July 20, 2004, 12:39:13 AM
SO let me think.

Poor frame rate = frame freeze=no kills
Good frame rate=lost frames=no kills

You add it up...LOL

Thanks for the info grits> I will try it with sync on and see if it improves my 7 assists sorties into 7 kill sorties
:D
BTW my screen is set to 100Hertz refresh...whatever that means :(
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: CurtissP-6EHawk on July 20, 2004, 12:46:32 AM
OK, tried "performance" settings with Vsync on and I get a steady 75 across the board. Steady 60 is great right?:confused:
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: B17Skull12 on July 20, 2004, 12:48:55 AM
tes. vsync off give you rubber bullets.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Grits on July 20, 2004, 01:01:50 AM
Quote
Originally posted by CurtissP-6EHawk
OK, tried "performance" settings with Vsync on and I get a steady 75 across the board. Steady 60 is great right?:confused:


Right, you get steady 75 FPS because that is what your monitor is capable of displaying at the resolution you play AH at.  The AH frame rate display wont show more than what the monitor is capable of drawing with V-synch on, which is what you want even if it is much less than what it is with V-synch off. The eye cant really "see" more than 32-35 FPS so anything above that is gravy. If you have 75 FPS with V-synch on, leave it and you will have great frame rate, and no rubber bullits. :)

I limit my frame rate in the video settings to 45, no reason to go above that since I'll never see the difference between 45 and 75. This free's up processor time that would be spent drawing useless frames to be spent elsewhere.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: JoeBWan17 on July 20, 2004, 07:57:49 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Grits

If you are in a furball, and you "ping" a bad guy in one of those "lost" frames, you DONT get credit for the hit, its gone. The only thing in the AH system that "registers" hits is YOUR FE, so if your computer doesnt "see" it, it doesnt exist. AH waits for a screen "frame" to send the hit information, if your "hit" frame is lost in one of the ones that doesnt get drawn, but thrown away, you lose it and the information is not sent to the server.  If you have V-synch on, your computer will only draw another screen when the monitor is ready, and you will not have "lost" screens, and as a result, no lost hits.


First off I have to admit that I am not a game programmer and I am not an expert at the internals of Aces high. However intuitively I don't understand why it would work this way.  I could be totally wrong here, but let me explain what I am thinking.

First of all I believe the FE is more than just what you see on the screen.  I think of the front end as everything that is client side code (or in other words is running on your machine and not on the Aces High server someplace).

In order for anything to be seen on the screen it has to "happen" in the client side code first.  For example your "hit" has occur and some code has to decide that you hit a target and generate that graphic for you to see.  Just because that brief flash of shot gets dropped by your graphics card (because it can't display the frames fast enough), doesn't mean (to me) that the actual "hit" didn't occur on the front end and the appropriate response get sent to the server to let it know that it occured.

Of course I also don't understand why Aces High would wait for a screen frame to send information to the server, so I may be way off in left field.

I would love to understand this better though!
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: straffo on July 20, 2004, 08:37:25 AM
Quote

AH Does not have rubber bullet symdrome in the sence AW did.

Changes in vsync can make the gunnery look slightly different, and hence
people end up beeing 1 or 2 hit short of destroying a plane component. Even
thow they think they see the same number of hits.

We went so far as to implenent a hit checking persmision. And every time we
turn it on , (it shows you both client hits and what the host gets) they
have always matched for some one who thought that had rubber bullets.

On rare occasion there can be lag that will delay the destruction of a
compoent. But they will either be destroyed , or you will be dumped.
This type of occurance has nothing to do with vsync.


HiTech


source here : http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58847
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: Grits on July 20, 2004, 08:46:27 AM
Well, thats odd, I was repeating what I thought Skuzzy had told folks about V-synch, but HT seems to be saying the opposite.

I have no idea now. :)
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: straffo on July 20, 2004, 08:56:28 AM
I've no idea either ...
so the lack of comment in my previous post :)
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: J_A_B on July 20, 2004, 09:08:31 AM
Where is the V sync setting located in AH2?   I could find it in AH1 but with the new interface it's been eluding me.


J_A_B
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: straffo on July 20, 2004, 09:17:52 AM
Quote
Originally posted by J_A_B
Where is the V sync setting located in AH2?   I could find it in AH1 but with the new interface it's been eluding me.


J_A_B


Vsync is not configured in AH but in your video driver (check display properties in the  control panel).

With vsync OFF I've some tearing in the image when changing view,that's why I've vsync ON.
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: DJ111 on July 20, 2004, 11:23:26 AM
BF1942 is fun, but those stupid German snipers... GAAH!! :mad:


:D



:aok
Title: A40 Slot map a FPS killer?
Post by: J_A_B on July 20, 2004, 11:49:51 AM
Heh goes to show you how often I actually play with V sync....I musta been having flashbacks of my FPS days or something


J_A_B