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General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: earl1937 on November 24, 2013, 05:03:14 AM

Title: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: earl1937 on November 24, 2013, 05:03:14 AM
 :airplane: We flew a mission last night to the "Bish" strats and there was a fairly large formations of clouds, just east of the Bish Strats, can't remember the sector numbers, and the altitude seemed to be staggered from about 8K up to about 16K. Not one person in the mission, about 30 rooks, mentioned the loss of frame rate, nor any control damping with the clouds. I don't know if these are "new" clouds, set up a different way than the other I have encountered, but these caused no ill effects which I could detect.
I purposely descended down through them just to see if there were any ill effects and could detect non. I see no reason why we couldn't have these though out our game, because it certainly adds a touch of realism to the game.
We used to have a map in the game which had a lot of clouds, but I no longer see it in rotation, and it did affect frame rates and control issues.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Tracerfi on November 24, 2013, 07:04:36 AM
I have major issues with them without the clouds i average 59 with the clouds in the teens so some people can handle them and some cannot
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Karnak on November 24, 2013, 07:19:21 AM
Per HiTech the clouds are going to be reworked a bit now that shader 3.0 will be required and this will allow some improvements to the way they are handled.  Frame rate impact should be reduced.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: The Fugitive on November 24, 2013, 08:36:03 AM
I love the clouds!

(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii253/maddogjoe_photos/clouds_zpsee1077b3.jpg) (http://s266.photobucket.com/user/maddogjoe_photos/media/clouds_zpsee1077b3.jpg.html)
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: jedi25 on November 24, 2013, 09:11:40 AM
I was there last night too and didn't have any frame rate issue and btw I love the cloulds..

This was my real first experience flying in and out of them.. Finally, clould I used as cover.. :rock
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Sunka on November 24, 2013, 09:31:20 AM
I miss the clouds ,it gave a great depth to the game. Very few peoples pc cant handle it,wish HTC would bring em back.
The new clouds are great but we dont even have the hard deck 15 k cloud layer anymore.And that sucks.  :aok
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Megalodon on November 24, 2013, 10:28:42 AM
I have no problems with the clouds ....not sure if I have shader 3 though.....  :uhoh


Edit: I do  :x  :banana:


 :rock,
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Drano on November 24, 2013, 12:13:59 PM
My rig is a couple of years old. I usually had no problems with the clouds but on occasion did. I don't know if it was clouds on certain maps that did it or what. I totally miss the clouds. Flying in a Martian atmosphere totally devoid of any clouds at all kinda takes away from the experience. Glad to hear HTC is working toward bringing them back.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: LCADolby on November 24, 2013, 12:21:53 PM
My 3 year old rig barely notices them.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Tracerfi on November 24, 2013, 12:25:27 PM
how do i find out if i have shader 3?
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Triton28 on November 24, 2013, 12:25:27 PM
My laptop took a huge hit with the thick MA clouds.  I couldn't fly in the center island without having single digit numbers.  The thinner clouds they eventually got to in FSO were fine though.  Could always stay above 30 FPS.

New rig looks at the marshmallow clouds and laughs heartily.   :rock
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Greebo on November 24, 2013, 03:53:26 PM
how do i find out if i have shader 3?


What video card does your PC have? For Nvidia cards you are OK if you have a 6000-9000 series or one of the later 100-700 series cards. For AMD shader 3.0 support is included with the X1300, the HD 2000-7000 and the latest R7-R9 cards. Not sure about Intel, but I think the fourth generation cards all support 3.0.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Karnak on November 24, 2013, 04:01:55 PM
HiTech said that less than 20 accounts that logged in over the last year didn't have Shader 3.0 support.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Brooke on November 24, 2013, 05:37:47 PM
I think that clouds are fine for the vast majority of people and that even $500 computer systems can handle them fine.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Tracerfi on November 24, 2013, 05:47:22 PM
What video card does your PC have? For Nvidia cards you are OK if you have a 6000-9000 series or one of the later 100-700 series cards. For AMD shader 3.0 support is included with the X1300, the HD 2000-7000 and the latest R7-R9 cards. Not sure about Intel, but I think the fourth generation cards all support 3.0.


NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: PFactorDave on November 24, 2013, 08:45:12 PM
HiTech said that less than 20 accounts that logged in over the last year didn't have Shader 3.0 support.

I was pleased to read that when HiTech posted it.  Pleased that they are moving forward and not allowing a few folks with ancient machines to hold the game back.

There comes a time when a person just has to bite the bullet and upgrade or replace the machine.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Drano on November 24, 2013, 08:58:19 PM

There comes a time when a person just has to bite the bullet and upgrade or replace the machine.

Which is what drove me to upgrade mine when I did. After a year or so of trying to soup up my old P4 rig I found there was just no way to get to here from there anymore. No ammount of overclocking was gonna put that rig--max'd as it was hardware-wise-- where it needed to be to play AH which is all I play. In the computer world that is what it is. If you want the program to run that's one thing, but if you want to turn the graphics up--that's another. The hardware needs to be what it needs to be to do that. No way around it really.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Greebo on November 25, 2013, 01:28:55 AM
NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

This card supports shader 3.0, as you can see here (http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobo_gpu_tech_specs.html).

Since the new version of the game will use the graphics card to a greater extent than before, perhaps a graphics card upgrade will make more of a difference FPS-wise than on the current version the game.

Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Randy1 on November 25, 2013, 06:41:39 AM
I noticed too, that the clouds over tank island stayed above say eight thousand.  My squad mate noted that really helped since when they were lower, the processor was having to handle clouds and ground detail.
Title: Re: Clouds and Frame Rates
Post by: Fulcrum on November 25, 2013, 08:04:41 AM
My rig didn't even blink.  The "old" clouds hit my frame rates badly...great news indeed.   :aok