Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Open Beta Test => Topic started by: KillerPops on March 20, 2016, 09:19:33 AM

Title: Get higher frame rates
Post by: KillerPops on March 20, 2016, 09:19:33 AM
This probably is a bug in AHII and AHII ? I don't know, I only have two other games installed, X-plane and DCS, and this is no problem with those two.

Lots of laptops (maybe also desktop ?) have hybride display adapters. There is one general for everyday use (Intel integrated graphics in my case) and a 3D card used only for rendering (Nvidia 960M in my case). By default the settings are in "automatic", which means the software decides if the 3D card is to be used. This works fine with X-plane and DCS, but NOT for AHII or AHIII.

In AHII/III the intel graphics card is chosen by default, and there is no option to select Nvidia (on the splash screen settings). Then AH simply ise Intel graphics, and the FR is abyssmal. To change this I have to open the NVidia control panel and change it from auto to NVidia in the global settings, or change it even "more manually" in the "program settings" tab. Both methods work.

Only when doing that will AHII/III show NVidia graphics card in the splash screen. Then FR goes from abysmal to 60 and above (depending on actual settings in the game of course).

A bug? X-plane and DCS have no problem selecting the correct adapter, so it probably is.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 21, 2016, 04:29:07 PM
That is actually a bug in the Nvidia control panel.  Sometimes the NVidia driver fails to pickup a game and it has to be added manually.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: KillerPops on March 22, 2016, 04:40:20 AM
Maybe, but the driver does indeed pick up AHII in the control panel, but not in the game. The game does not pick it up before NVidia is set to the default renderer. It does not pick up DCS in the control panel, but DCS works just fine (with stunning graphics), so it does indeed pick it up in the game.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 22, 2016, 06:12:55 AM
No, not a "maybe".  It is a well established fact the NVidia driver/control panel does not correctly detect games all the time.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: KillerPops on March 22, 2016, 08:11:19 AM
Whatever the cause is. My experience is that it does not ever detect AHII or AHII, but always X-plane and DCS. DCS detects this even though the Nvidia control panel does not. AHII does not detect it, even though the NVidia control panel does indeed detect AHII automatically. Obviously there is a work around somewhere.

The point is, that for other people with similar setup as me, the FPS goes from abysmal to very good by specifying this manually. By default it is in automatic. People will be, for no good reason, put off by this is they should try AHIII and the FPS is 10, when it could be 60+.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tuton25 on March 22, 2016, 11:04:37 PM
Sounds like I possibly have this problem. In AHII I run my settings almost to the max, but I do disable ground clutter and the horizon. I normally get 60 fps, and I knew with AHIII the demand on my system would be larger, but I wasn't expecting to have to run 640x400 and all of the graphics disabled and set to minimums. Is this an issue with my system or are the requirements for AHIII just that much greater. My laptop is only about a year old as well.
Thanks,
Fish
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 23, 2016, 02:05:39 AM
Sounds like I possibly have this problem. In AHII I run my settings almost to the max, but I do disable ground clutter and the horizon. I normally get 60 fps, and I knew with AHIII the demand on my system would be larger, but I wasn't expecting to have to run 640x400 and all of the graphics disabled and set to minimums. Is this an issue with my system or are the requirements for AHIII just that much greater. My laptop is only about a year old as well.
Thanks,
Fish

A DxDiag report would help, or at least some further information about your laptop. Age doesn't mean much, PC's aren't consoles. It makes a big difference whether it's a $249 Walmart bargain or a @1500 gaming laptop with all bells and whistles.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 23, 2016, 06:16:50 AM
All you have to do is go into the games "Video Settings".  It will show you which video card is being used.

Sounds like I possibly have this problem. In AHII I run my settings almost to the max, but I do disable ground clutter and the horizon. I normally get 60 fps, and I knew with AHIII the demand on my system would be larger, but I wasn't expecting to have to run 640x400 and all of the graphics disabled and set to minimums. Is this an issue with my system or are the requirements for AHIII just that much greater. My laptop is only about a year old as well.
Thanks,
Fish

AH3 moves ALL the graphics work to the video card, so video card performance matters a lot.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tuton25 on March 23, 2016, 08:28:38 AM
Sorry, I have a HP Pavilion with an intel(R) HD Graphics Family card.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 23, 2016, 08:40:43 AM
Sorry, I have a HP Pavilion with an intel(R) HD Graphics Family card.

No further investigation necessary, that explains your low frame rates.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tuton25 on March 23, 2016, 03:08:14 PM
No further investigation necessary, that explains your low frame rates.

Is there a way to fix it? Or is that a question for another forum???
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 23, 2016, 04:00:03 PM
There are two options.

1) Reduce all the graphic options to minimums.  Even then some Intel video chips (older) may struggle.

2) Add a video card to the computer. With HP it may be problematic.  Check with them to see what they allow in that particular model.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: killjoy1 on March 24, 2016, 12:48:10 AM
I have a Dell laptop with an Nvidia Geforce GT750M  with an Intel Core i7 processor

I'm running the game at 1920 x 1080

The Nvidia processor is being reported by AHIII on the opening screen setting and I have it linked via Nvidia's settings panel.

The problem is that I am getting 13 fps.  My experience with AHII is 60 fps.  It appears that the Nvidia card is not engaged even though it is reported. 

Any ideas?
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 24, 2016, 05:06:41 AM
I have a Dell laptop with an Nvidia Geforce GT750M  with an Intel Core i7 processor

I'm running the game at 1920 x 1080

The Nvidia processor is being reported by AHIII on the opening screen setting and I have it linked via Nvidia's settings panel.

The problem is that I am getting 13 fps.  My experience with AHII is 60 fps.  It appears that the Nvidia card is not engaged even though it is reported. 

Any ideas?

The NVidia 750 is a mid-performing video card. The 750M is slower.

The new graphic engine depends on the performance of the video card.  AHII did not.  Just disable the graphic features of AH3 (Post Lighting, Shadows to start with) and the performance will increase.

Even with al the features disabled, AH3 looks better than the best AH2 could look.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tboy1972 on March 26, 2016, 02:36:52 PM
I can see from the discussion that people are experiencing low frame rates in AH3.  I am also having this problem.  I have a pretty decent rig built by Digital Storm.  Right now I am using an Nvidia GTX GeForce 760 which is superclocked. I run a constant 60 fps in AH2, and have no issues in any other PC games such as the COD Black Ops games, as well as many other on Steam.  However, I am lucky to get 13 fps on AH3.  This cannot possibly be normal, and is clearly an issue since so many others are experiencing the same problem.  I should not have to set the details that low with the system I am running. 

I was in a conversation with a guy last night who is running a GTX 960 and he was getting 11 fps.  This is not normal. That is a beast of a card.

What gives?  :bhead
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: RTR on March 26, 2016, 03:56:29 PM
I'm running an i7 with a GTX960. I am getting a pretty steady frame rate of 60. Have seen it drop to high 40's low 50's near the deck in a busy area. Vsync off I get over 100 fps.

For the one who is running the same vid card, i suspect something else is going on there.

RTR
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Devil 505 on March 26, 2016, 07:04:50 PM
I also have a GTX 960 and my frame rate is not very steady. It's usually in the 50-60 range while at alt, but it drops into the 30s close to the deck and is awful (below 20) near an enemy base/town with ack firing.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Pudgie on March 26, 2016, 07:19:38 PM
I can see from the discussion that people are experiencing low frame rates in AH3.  I am also having this problem.  I have a pretty decent rig built by Digital Storm.  Right now I am using an Nvidia GTX GeForce 760 which is superclocked. I run a constant 60 fps in AH2, and have no issues in any other PC games such as the COD Black Ops games, as well as many other on Steam.  However, I am lucky to get 13 fps on AH3.  This cannot possibly be normal, and is clearly an issue since so many others are experiencing the same problem.  I should not have to set the details that low with the system I am running. 

I was in a conversation with a guy last night who is running a GTX 960 and he was getting 11 fps.  This is not normal. That is a beast of a card.

What gives?  :bhead

Hello,

If I may ask, how much dedicated video memory does your vid card have onboard? Do you know how many cuda cores your vid card's GPU has enabled, or if any at all, to do the graphical post processing of the Beta to offload the card's GPU? Do you know how much available vid card memory bandwidth your vid card has to effectively handle the increased memory buffer traffic from GPU to memory to display? All this data is important to know to determine if the vid card you currently have is sufficient enough to run the Beta w\ all features turned on....and all vid cards of the same family aren't equipped the same.......

The recommended equipment specs for this Beta haven't been finalized & published yet (most likely will be published on the official launch of AHIII) but it has been suggested that a minimum of 2Gb dedicated vid card memory onboard and GPU is compatible w\ at least Shader 3.x coding be used for the time being to allow for the increased graphics frames quality\size due to the Shader 3.x graphics rendering coding. After this it will be squarely on the GPU's capabilities, especially the amount of cuda cores embedded within the GPU (Shader 3.x coding is designed to use these cuda cores--shader cores if you prefer--to do most\all of the graphics post processing to offload the GPU from having to do these functions along w\ the rest), from reading on the BBS the minimum number of these cores needed onboard to get meaningful GPU performance w\ some\most of the features enabled is estimated to be somewhere around 1000 cores & up available and of course the more memory bandwidth available to smoothly pipe all this from GPU to the memory once created and then to be flipped to the display when called for is desired. I believe the estimated amount is at least 100Gb\sec or faster........ This doesn't cover any other aspects of a computer's components that may also be implicit in seeing poor FPS w\ this Beta, just the vid card estimated specs.

This is geek speak to say that your current video card may not have enough gas in the tank to run the Beta w\o disabling features, if at all.

Even w\ a GeForce 960 vid card the amount of dedicated onboard memory can be an issue as these vid cards come w\ various amounts of onboard memory (some 1Gb, some 2Gb & some 4Gb), not to mention the frequency of said memory (speed) and the total bandwidth available to move all the finished graphics frames around from the GPU to memory buffer to display.

Now what I'm going to say here is more geek speak and some may not agree with but since WinXP (MS Vista & up) these OS's have been upgraded to the PAE specs which will allow a 32-bit vers WinOS to "address" more than 4Gb of memory & the 64-bit vers WinOS can address more than 4Gb of memory by design so the vid card makers have written into their drivers to create a "swap file" in system memory (this is to address vid cards w\ small amounts of onboard memory but this is still done even w\ vid cards that have lots of onboard memory) in which the driver will tell the OS to address the same amount of system memory (if it is free & not being used) as what is onboard the vid card to essentially "double" the "available" amount of graphics memory and if a vid card's GPU has to page out finished graphics frames to this created "swap file" due to the onboard graphics card memory buffer becoming full then flip them from there to display it WILL slow your computer's FPS down. Even worse is if there isn't enough system memory available to create this swap file in system memory it will be created on the HDD, which is even slower than system memory. This is why the amount of onboard vid card memory is more important for AH Beta as AHII graphics frames are generally much less graphic intensive (meaning smaller in size) than the new AH Beta even w\ features disabled so a graphics buffer overrun is less likely to happen w\ AHII vs AH Beta. So the amount of system memory that is being used in a computer along w\ the amount of onboard vid card memory can have some negative effect on overall performance due to what I typed here. From reading of the various memory testing reviews online the minimum amount of system memory to use to alleviate this is 8Gb and up. I haven't brought up the CPU's role in this either as AH Beta is far more harder on vid cards than CPUs but this doesn't leave the CPU's capabilities (or lack of) totally off the hook.........

Not my intention to scare you or make you feel bad or upset you but this type of info needs to be put out here so users can gain a better understanding of what the changes coded into the new AH Beta\upcoming AHIII can impact on various computer equipment being used to play the game......and for others who frequent this BBS to be able to assist you w\ getting the most out of your existing hardware while playing the Beta.

Just trying to be real here as the Beta is still being checked for bugs & anomalies before final release but all issues w\ this Beta aren't associated w\ the software alone and it is not very forthright or fair to use the performance of much older software code on a particular computer to judge the performance of a newer version of the same software that has more advanced code being used in it w\o seriously considering where the hardware is from a capability standpoint that was used w\ the older software to be used to run the newer software on and expecting a similar or better result. Software developers can only make so many tweaks to make newer software to run on older equipment and still deliver the intended graphics looks and performance of the newer features that they wrote into their software so that they can effectively compete for overall user market share dollars.

I know this is nothing new in geek land but it does need to be put out from time to time as a reminder.

To put this in better context, you can't just say that a GTX 960 "should" do better w\o understanding the onboard memory amount on said GTX 960 may not be enough along w\ the amount of cuda cores present on said vers of GTX 960's GPU along w\ the amount of available memory bandwidth to get the most out of said GTX 960 depending on the game software and it's coding to be used. Same goes for the GTX 750 vid card that you have listed as the vid card that you're using in your computer. You got to do the homework & research on the product to be able to determine that........just saying so doesn't "make" it so.

Hopefully a recommended equipment specs list will get published soon to assist users w\ running this game.

 :salute
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Chilli on March 26, 2016, 08:46:40 PM
Tboy,

Don't feel frustrated.  This is beta and whatever answers you get, I think the best one will be to consider that although you have a very "good" video card and above the minimum requirements, you most likely will have to turn down the graphics and make sure that everything with the computer is "tweaked" properly to give you the "best" result.

In short, currently I don't believe there is an off the shelf video card that won't suffer some degree of fps drop if the game is not properly dialed in.

Dialed in = video card settings, monitor settings, motherboard settings (in some cases), game video settings (from 1st spash screen), then the many, many combinations of graphic detail settings.  Even then, this may change from patch to patch, as HiTech is finding and eliminating memory leaks as well as making more features available as well.

You can start to ease your tension with an attachment of your dxdiag.txt  This is the best way to let someone take a look under the hood, to provide the tune up.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tboy1972 on March 27, 2016, 02:00:36 AM
Hello,

If I may ask, how much dedicated video memory does your vid card have onboard? Do you know how many cuda cores your vid card's GPU has enabled, or if any at all, to do the graphical post processing of the Beta to offload the card's GPU? Do you know how much available vid card memory bandwidth your vid card has to effectively handle the increased memory buffer traffic from GPU to memory to display? All this data is important to know to determine if the vid card you currently have is sufficient enough to run the Beta w\ all features turned on....and all vid cards of the same family aren't equipped the same.......

The recommended equipment specs for this Beta haven't been finalized & published yet (most likely will be published on the official launch of AHIII) but it has been suggested that a minimum of 2Gb dedicated vid card memory onboard and GPU is compatible w\ at least Shader 3.x coding be used for the time being to allow for the increased graphics frames quality\size due to the Shader 3.x graphics rendering coding. After this it will be squarely on the GPU's capabilities, especially the amount of cuda cores embedded within the GPU (Shader 3.x coding is designed to use these cuda cores--shader cores if you prefer--to do most\all of the graphics post processing to offload the GPU from having to do these functions along w\ the rest), from reading on the BBS the minimum number of these cores needed onboard to get meaningful GPU performance w\ some\most of the features enabled is estimated to be somewhere around 1000 cores & up available and of course the more memory bandwidth available to smoothly pipe all this from GPU to the memory once created and then to be flipped to the display when called for is desired. I believe the estimated amount is at least 100Gb\sec or faster........ This doesn't cover any other aspects of a computer's components that may also be implicit in seeing poor FPS w\ this Beta, just the vid card estimated specs.

This is geek speak to say that your current video card may not have enough gas in the tank to run the Beta w\o disabling features, if at all.

Even w\ a GeForce 960 vid card the amount of dedicated onboard memory can be an issue as these vid cards come w\ various amounts of onboard memory (some 1Gb, some 2Gb & some 4Gb), not to mention the frequency of said memory (speed) and the total bandwidth available to move all the finished graphics frames around from the GPU to memory buffer to display.

Now what I'm going to say here is more geek speak and some may not agree with but since WinXP (MS Vista & up) these OS's have been upgraded to the PAE specs which will allow a 32-bit vers WinOS to "address" more than 4Gb of memory & the 64-bit vers WinOS can address more than 4Gb of memory by design so the vid card makers have written into their drivers to create a "swap file" in system memory (this is to address vid cards w\ small amounts of onboard memory but this is still done even w\ vid cards that have lots of onboard memory) in which the driver will tell the OS to address the same amount of system memory (if it is free & not being used) as what is onboard the vid card to essentially "double" the "available" amount of graphics memory and if a vid card's GPU has to page out finished graphics frames to this created "swap file" due to the onboard graphics card memory buffer becoming full then flip them from there to display it WILL slow your computer's FPS down. Even worse is if there isn't enough system memory available to create this swap file in system memory it will be created on the HDD, which is even slower than system memory. This is why the amount of onboard vid card memory is more important for AH Beta as AHII graphics frames are generally much less graphic intensive (meaning smaller in size) than the new AH Beta even w\ features disabled so a graphics buffer overrun is less likely to happen w\ AHII vs AH Beta. So the amount of system memory that is being used in a computer along w\ the amount of onboard vid card memory can have some negative effect on overall performance due to what I typed here. From reading of the various memory testing reviews online the minimum amount of system memory to use to alleviate this is 8Gb and up. I haven't brought up the CPU's role in this either as AH Beta is far more harder on vid cards than CPUs but this doesn't leave the CPU's capabilities (or lack of) totally off the hook.........

Not my intention to scare you or make you feel bad or upset you but this type of info needs to be put out here so users can gain a better understanding of what the changes coded into the new AH Beta\upcoming AHIII can impact on various computer equipment being used to play the game......and for others who frequent this BBS to be able to assist you w\ getting the most out of your existing hardware while playing the Beta.

Just trying to be real here as the Beta is still being checked for bugs & anomalies before final release but all issues w\ this Beta aren't associated w\ the software alone and it is not very forthright or fair to use the performance of much older software code on a particular computer to judge the performance of a newer version of the same software that has more advanced code being used in it w\o seriously considering where the hardware is from a capability standpoint that was used w\ the older software to be used to run the newer software on and expecting a similar or better result. Software developers can only make so many tweaks to make newer software to run on older equipment and still deliver the intended graphics looks and performance of the newer features that they wrote into their software so that they can effectively compete for overall user market share dollars.

I know this is nothing new in geek land but it does need to be put out from time to time as a reminder.

To put this in better context, you can't just say that a GTX 960 "should" do better w\o understanding the onboard memory amount on said GTX 960 may not be enough along w\ the amount of cuda cores present on said vers of GTX 960's GPU along w\ the amount of available memory bandwidth to get the most out of said GTX 960 depending on the game software and it's coding to be used. Same goes for the GTX 750 vid card that you have listed as the vid card that you're using in your computer. You got to do the homework & research on the product to be able to determine that........just saying so doesn't "make" it so.

Hopefully a recommended equipment specs list will get published soon to assist users w\ running this game.

 :salute

Thanks for replying.  I tried to attach my system info on my GeForce GTX 760 video card.  You are right, there is a lot of information that I need to know, and don't know about the beta.  Hopefully, the attachment will give that. 

So I played AH3 for hours today.  I wrote the post about the frame rates after the first few hours.  Later on, I was getting really decent frame rates.  I had the details set pretty high in the game. Not maxed out, but very high.  I was playing with a consistent 40-60 fps.  I must say, this game is absolutely gorgeous.  The detail is incredible.  Not only does it look incredible, but the audio is absolutely incredible as well.  The audio really adds a lot to the experience. 

I'm really looking forward to all the hours I am going to be putting in playing AH 3.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 27, 2016, 03:57:39 AM
If you are playing using default settings, the Environment Map slider is at 1. For those who don't know, here's what it does in layman's terms: The Environment Map makes shiny objects mirror their surroundings. The higher the value, the more often it refreshes the mirrored image. Also, the more objects around you, the more mirroring occurs. That's one reason why flying on the deck and in a crowd causes FPS dropping. Just think about a shiny P51, how many more images it has to mirror on deck compared to the clear blue sky when flying level high over the ocean. The latter doesn't actually need image refreshing at all, thus giving you the best possible frame rate.

On my system I currently get 29 FPS in the Tower using default settings, looking over the desk. Setting the EM slider to 0 I get 33 FPS. Doesn't sound much as such, but doing some calculation says it's almost a 14% increase and 14% is a lot.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 27, 2016, 06:16:03 AM
I can see from the discussion that people are experiencing low frame rates in AH3.  I am also having this problem.  I have a pretty decent rig built by Digital Storm.  Right now I am using an Nvidia GTX GeForce 760 which is superclocked. I run a constant 60 fps in AH2, and have no issues in any other PC games such as the COD Black Ops games, as well as many other on Steam.  However, I am lucky to get 13 fps on AH3.  This cannot possibly be normal, and is clearly an issue since so many others are experiencing the same problem.  I should not have to set the details that low with the system I am running. 

I was in a conversation with a guy last night who is running a GTX 960 and he was getting 11 fps.  This is not normal. That is a beast of a card.

What gives?  :bhead

Are you running with the default graphic settings?  If not, what is the frame rate with default settings?
What resolution are you running the game at?

If you moved the environment map slider beyond "1", then that will kill your frame rates.  Even an NVidia 980Ti can struggle with that setting on full.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Pudgie on March 27, 2016, 01:52:55 PM
Thanks for replying.  I tried to attach my system info on my GeForce GTX 760 video card.  You are right, there is a lot of information that I need to know, and don't know about the beta.  Hopefully, the attachment will give that. 

So I played AH3 for hours today.  I wrote the post about the frame rates after the first few hours.  Later on, I was getting really decent frame rates.  I had the details set pretty high in the game. Not maxed out, but very high.  I was playing with a consistent 40-60 fps.  I must say, this game is absolutely gorgeous.  The detail is incredible.  Not only does it look incredible, but the audio is absolutely incredible as well.  The audio really adds a lot to the experience. 

I'm really looking forward to all the hours I am going to be putting in playing AH 3.

Hi tboy,

Thanks for providing the copy of dxdiag.

Could you provide the rest of it that lists the rest of your system as well as that info is also good to see?

The 1 thing that jumps out at me is that you're using Win 10 w\ this box which is using Dx 12 API which is currently using Shader 5.x Modeling code to do post processing graphics features.

The AH Beta is coded to use Dx 9.x API using Shader 3.x Modeling coding. Now w\ this being said, HTC is coding more advanced shader graphical features code into the Shader 3.x Modeling code that the later shader models (Shader 4.x. 5.x & the upcoming 6.x) has features for but not necessarily within the Dx 9.x API (in later Dx API's like Dx 10, Dx 11 & Dx 12) & may not be very backwards compatible w\ the AH Beta using Dx 9.c API and Shader 3.x Model w\ the advanced shader graphics coding of later Shader Model code could be a part of what is causing your system slowdowns, at least by my reasonings.

To date I haven't found anything out on the Internet where this backwards compatibility of Dx 12 to effectively work w\ Dx 9 was tested & verified especially w\ the Shader Modeling code differences (this issue is 1 of the issues that I have a concern about w\ Win 10 myself). MS Dx was "supposed" to be a backwards compatible API by design but there have been too many instances in the past where users had to actually download and install Dx 9.c API to fix issues w\ games coded for Dx 9.x (like AHII & the new AH Beta). I myself haven't upgraded to Win 10 yet & so I don't have 1st hand knowledge about this aspect but there are users on this BBS that are also using Win 10 w\ the Beta that can answer this better than I can so hopefully 1 of them will chime in here to help you out.

It may be just a simple download\install of Dx 9.0c API in Win 10 is needed to clean this up but I can't say for sure.

Skuzzy might can also give some insight on this subject as well the next time he's on this BBS.

Hope this helps you out.

 :salute
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: JimmyD3 on March 27, 2016, 05:08:13 PM
I'm not an expert on video cards, but the GTX960 I know is not that hot of a card. :confused:
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tboy1972 on March 27, 2016, 08:15:14 PM
Hi tboy,

Thanks for providing the copy of dxdiag.

Could you provide the rest of it that lists the rest of your system as well as that info is also good to see?

The 1 thing that jumps out at me is that you're using Win 10 w\ this box which is using Dx 12 API which is currently using Shader 5.x Modeling code to do post processing graphics features.

The AH Beta is coded to use Dx 9.x API using Shader 3.x Modeling coding. Now w\ this being said, HTC is coding more advanced shader graphical features code into the Shader 3.x Modeling code that the later shader models (Shader 4.x. 5.x & the upcoming 6.x) has features for but not necessarily within the Dx 9.x API (in later Dx API's like Dx 10, Dx 11 & Dx 12) & may not be very backwards compatible w\ the AH Beta using Dx 9.c API and Shader 3.x Model w\ the advanced shader graphics coding of later Shader Model code could be a part of what is causing your system slowdowns, at least by my reasonings.

To date I haven't found anything out on the Internet where this backwards compatibility of Dx 12 to effectively work w\ Dx 9 was tested & verified especially w\ the Shader Modeling code differences (this issue is 1 of the issues that I have a concern about w\ Win 10 myself). MS Dx was "supposed" to be a backwards compatible API by design but there have been too many instances in the past where users had to actually download and install Dx 9.c API to fix issues w\ games coded for Dx 9.x (like AHII & the new AH Beta). I myself haven't upgraded to Win 10 yet & so I don't have 1st hand knowledge about this aspect but there are users on this BBS that are also using Win 10 w\ the Beta that can answer this better than I can so hopefully 1 of them will chime in here to help you out.

It may be just a simple download\install of Dx 9.0c API in Win 10 is needed to clean this up but I can't say for sure.

Skuzzy might can also give some insight on this subject as well the next time he's on this BBS.

Hope this helps you out.

 :salute

Hello, here is my computer info.  Take a look and see what you think.  I appreciate your feedback.  Thanks.

Hello, here is the information in my system.  Take a look and tell me what you think.  I really appreciate your insight. 
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Chilli on March 28, 2016, 03:22:40 AM
Tboy,

When asking for dxdiag.txt, we are referring to a specific Windows program.  Yes, the nvidia information text was helpful, but as stated before, loads of other information.  The pdf file lead me to believe that you were not familiar with dxdiag, so below is straight from Skuzzy's mouth (or fingers, I guess).

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Go to "Start" from the Windows desktop
2. Select "Run" from the pop up menu
3. In the Run dialog box, type DXDIAG and press <ENTER>
4. After a few seconds the DXDIAG utility will be ready (the progress indicator in the lower left corner will disappear).
5. Run the video and sound diagnostics (Select the Display and Sound tabs to do this).
6. Press the "Save All Information" button
7. This will save the DXDIAG data to a file of your choice

Step 8~ I (ChiLLi) am editing (original post was for email)
8. Once you have done this, simply attach the file to a post for us to look for any issues your system might have.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Zimme83 on March 28, 2016, 06:09:25 AM
Get rid of the clouds plz. I like the idea but the clouds kills the frame rate.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Chilli on March 28, 2016, 12:15:48 PM
Get rid of the clouds plz. I like the idea but the clouds kills the frame rate.

Zimmie,

Killing framerates?  Please, more information, like dxdiag.txt, or actual framerate comparison.  Throughout testing, I must say that the clouds have done little in terms of harming my framerates.

I am sure there IS a frame rate hit, but not so sure that it is drastic enough to deny "everyone" who enjoys them.  Again, if you give more information, like what settings you have and equipment, there may be an answer that helps your system to better tolerate them.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: hgtonyvi on March 28, 2016, 01:53:02 PM
I'm just wondering why my 980 card can't run the beta on full graphics. Do I need a Nvidia TitanX card??? Lol......all other new PC games that comes out runs really smooth with the card I have and their graphics are awesome. I'm just wondering because in AH2 I have everything maxed out and I get a solid 60frames even when I'm flying FSO with 180 or more planes around. By looking at AH2 graphics and AH3 graphics there isn't much difference to me(this only applies when everything is maxed out on AH2). I think I heard that AH3 only depends on GPU and AH2 is more of both processor and GPU. Can you guys at HTC make AH3 where it depends on both GPU and processor instead of just squeezing the GPU??? I think that would help more players that are complaining about frame rates since I believe they can run AH2 on max graphics with no problem.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 28, 2016, 01:59:44 PM
The 980 has no problem running with the graphics enabled.

What frame rates are you getting with the "default" settings (press the default button in the Options->Graphic Detail panel)?  What are you changing after that?
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Chilli on March 28, 2016, 02:36:29 PM
Skuzzy,

Is it my imagination, or do framerates get better the longer you are logged in or actively moving about?  I ask, because it is almost like new items are being stored in memory (or whatever magic) and after a while my framerates improve by about 10 to 15 fps.  Note, this is with vsync disabled for testing.

Another question/ observation:  Does it seem to anyone else that framerate in Beta does not interfere with smoothness of graphics down to the low 20s?  Below that maybe some, but nowhere near as bad as with the AH2 game play stutter / warp, etc..  I mean, I have only had problems once, and that was with the bomber mission with tons of AI in the clouds, and several patches ago.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: hitech on March 28, 2016, 04:35:43 PM
Skuzzy,

Is it my imagination, or do framerates get better the longer you are logged in or actively moving about?  I ask, because it is almost like new items are being stored in memory (or whatever magic) and after a while my framerates improve by about 10 to 15 fps.  Note, this is with vsync disabled for testing.

Another question/ observation:  Does it seem to anyone else that framerate in Beta does not interfere with smoothness of graphics down to the low 20s?  Below that maybe some, but nowhere near as bad as with the AH2 game play stutter / warp, etc..  I mean, I have only had problems once, and that was with the bomber mission with tons of AI in the clouds, and several patches ago.

Yes FPS does increase after all the skins have been checked.

HiTech
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tboy1972 on March 28, 2016, 07:03:14 PM
Tboy,

When asking for dxdiag.txt, we are referring to a specific Windows program.  Yes, the nvidia information text was helpful, but as stated before, loads of other information.  The pdf file lead me to believe that you were not familiar with dxdiag, so below is straight from Skuzzy's mouth (or fingers, I guess).

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Go to "Start" from the Windows desktop
2. Select "Run" from the pop up menu
3. In the Run dialog box, type DXDIAG and press <ENTER>
4. After a few seconds the DXDIAG utility will be ready (the progress indicator in the lower left corner will disappear).
5. Run the video and sound diagnostics (Select the Display and Sound tabs to do this).
6. Press the "Save All Information" button
7. This will save the DXDIAG data to a file of your choice

Step 8~ I (ChiLLi) am editing (original post was for email)
8. Once you have done this, simply attach the file to a post for us to look for any issues your system might have.

Thanks, hopefully this is what you were looking for.  I appreciate your help.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: JimmyD3 on March 28, 2016, 08:30:08 PM
I'm just wondering why my 980 card can't run the beta on full graphics. Do I need a Nvidia TitanX card??? Lol......all other new PC games that comes out runs really smooth with the card I have and their graphics are awesome. I'm just wondering because in AH2 I have everything maxed out and I get a solid 60frames even when I'm flying FSO with 180 or more planes around. By looking at AH2 graphics and AH3 graphics there isn't much difference to me(this only applies when everything is maxed out on AH2). I think I heard that AH3 only depends on GPU and AH2 is more of both processor and GPU. Can you guys at HTC make AH3 where it depends on both GPU and processor instead of just squeezing the GPU??? I think that would help more players that are complaining about frame rates since I believe they can run AH2 on max graphics with no problem.

I'm running a GTX980 and have everything maxed out, with FRS of 55 to 85.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tboy1972 on March 28, 2016, 09:23:40 PM
I'm running a GTX980 and have everything maxed out, with FRS of 55 to 85.

Poor frame rates really seems to be a shared theme here for some reason.  I have a EVGA GeForce GTX 760 which I overclock.  This is a pretty decent card as well. Not quite as good as yours, but respectable.  I have the graphics settings in AH3 turned down some, and I get frame rates anywhere from 30 to 60 fps. Sometimes lower over bases.  I played quite a few games with my PC, including all the COD Black Ops games as well as quite a few games on Steam.  I can have those graphics set pretty high and get good frame rates with them. 

Maybe its because  its still in beta?
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 29, 2016, 01:08:53 AM
Tboy, I took a quick look at your DxDiag report. Pretty good rig you've got there, no bottlenecks that I could find.

As has been said here several times already, the Environment Map slider is a killer. Set it to 1 (default) or 0.

What caught my eye is that your Page File is quite big. What do you have running in the background?
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Chilli on March 29, 2016, 05:24:50 AM
Bizman,

Glad you looked at that.  The USB Camera caught my eye....  but it is an untrained eye.  The video card section looked to be acceptable, past that, and the admission by Tboy of getting 30- 60 fps ~ reduced over some bases, it mostly seems to be on par with what one would expect.

Doing some experimenting myself, and I enabled my video cards antialias to its max and for the first time experienced framerates lower than 25~ while in mid dogfight with one other plane.  This makes me wonder how much Tboy or any casual gamer has their video card's control panel tweaked for maximum performance for AH Beta.

Does anyone else care to share their Nvidia or other brand control panel settings?  I will attach mine below.

(http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=378288.0;attach=24170) (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=378288.0;attach=24172)
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 29, 2016, 05:50:24 AM
You probably do not want to have "triple buffering" enabled as we already do that in the game graphic engine.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: KillerPops on March 29, 2016, 12:29:20 PM
What is the recommended settings for all these parameters? I have tried myself different settings myself, but I feel I don't know exactly what I am doing, much because I don't know what the AH graphics engine does/expect.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 29, 2016, 12:34:10 PM
If you don't know exactly what each setting does, set them all to "Application controlled". Then you can play with AH (or any other game) settings to find the best combination of quality and performance.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Skuzzy on March 29, 2016, 12:34:58 PM
The best settings, for AH3, are the video card defaults.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 29, 2016, 12:42:27 PM
The best settings, for AH3, are the video card defaults.

Even better, should've thought about that.  :salute

Not even installing the entire control panel would save from all that hassle with multiple controls, but a minimized "Custom install" would seem so LoTech in a HiTech game no-one likes to do it.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Chilli on March 29, 2016, 02:59:18 PM
The best settings, for AH3, are the video card defaults.

Best performance I assume that is, there is also an "enhance application setting", which wasn't so sure if it did anything and the AA settings that I swapped by enabling on the card for testing and disabled in game to see visual comparisons ---> and performance tanked, but the image was slightly smoother.

Also, thank you very much, for the heads up on triple buffering.  It makes sense while the application (AH Beta) is controlling the Vsync, that it would also control this type of buffering.

Shader cache is either on or off, sense I had imagined that shaders were doing more work in the new version, I took a guess, that was an option to leave on.  Also, I omitted the top Anistrophic filtering option it is turned off, and looks like I guessed correctly (for performance values anyway).

Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: zack1234 on March 31, 2016, 01:44:03 AM
I have a 680 and don't seem to be getting a bad frame counts :)

59-60

Maybe because I don't fiddle with my card settings :)

When are we getting Avatars in our cockpits !

I have a picture of John Denvor ready.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: 68falcon on March 31, 2016, 06:12:24 AM
What are Tessellation Mode and Maximum Tessellation Levels? They have 3 settings to pick from they are AMD optimized, use application settings and override application settings
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: TequilaChaser on March 31, 2016, 09:23:25 AM
What are Tessellation Mode and Maximum Tessellation Levels? They have 3 settings to pick from they are AMD optimized, use application settings and override application settings

I would switch it to "use application settings"

BTW, I dropped a 12? Yr old ASUS EAH HD3870 512MB GDDR4 video card in one of my computers and after selecting default settings, it gets 37 to 49 fps with vsync on, ....

It seems to be very playable.....probably not in big furballing dogfights....

Interesting post, Pudgie, about vista and later os' using swapfile and system ram and system HD.....am thinking at this point in the case of above mentioned VC, the SSD might be more beneficial to have os installation on it....edit also meant to add AH game installed

Still messing and testing... also been testing EVGA Nvidia gtx550ti 1GB VC, it's performing pretty good as well....( both vc's are using AMD mb, 4.2ghz CPU, 16 GB system ram, SSD win 7 ult. 64 bit)

Using 24" monitor at 1920X1080 res @ 60Hz

Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Hungry on March 31, 2016, 12:18:02 PM
Sorry if this has been asked, then on the SSD with the operating system Win 7, 8gb ram where should the virtual memory be?  On the SSD or a mechanical drive (where I have AH installed)

edit

I had read that virtual memory is not good for the SSD so I had moved it to the mechanical, but it seems to have been better on the SSD
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Bizman on March 31, 2016, 02:25:18 PM
Sorry if this has been asked, then on the SSD with the operating system Win 7, 8gb ram where should the virtual memory be?  On the SSD or a mechanical drive (where I have AH installed)

edit

I had read that virtual memory is not good for the SSD so I had moved it to the mechanical, but it seems to have been better on the SSD

It is faster on the SSD but the continuous rewritings will kill the SSD sooner than the mechanical one.
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Ramesis on March 31, 2016, 02:37:33 PM
I went into the Beta a few minutes ago and tired
the abs mission...solid 60 fps
I then went into craterMA.... 16-17 fps
Both instances I was on the ground
Net status was at 0 with only minor ticks up on both
Hope this helps...
Ramesis/Osiris
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: tboy1972 on March 31, 2016, 09:29:00 PM
Tboy, I took a quick look at your DxDiag report. Pretty good rig you've got there, no bottlenecks that I could find.

As has been said here several times already, the Environment Map slider is a killer. Set it to 1 (default) or 0.

What caught my eye is that your Page File is quite big. What do you have running in the background?

Thanks for taking a look.  I think my biggest problem was the mistake of not having the settings in my video card set to application controlled.  I forgot about that and had my video card settings set pretty high, then had Aces high settings set pretty high.  After I changed the video card settings I have been getting good frame rates.  I have the reflections disabled in AH3, but the rest of the settings pretty high, and I am getting 40 to 60 fps consistently.  The graphics in AH3 just blow me away.  They look incredible.

I am full on addicted to the beta.  I just wish there were more people playing it.  :airplane:
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Pudgie on April 01, 2016, 12:15:41 AM
Quote
Interesting post, Pudgie, about vista and later os' using swapfile and system ram and system HD.....am thinking at this point in the case of above mentioned VC, the SSD might be more beneficial to have os installation on it....edit also meant to add AH game installed

Hi TC,

This is precisely 1 of the reasons why I am currently using SSD's in my box in the fashion that I use them.

I use a separate SATA III 256Gb SSD instead of my main Plextor PCI-E SSD or my 1 storage SATA III 256Gb SSD as a "sacrificial" SSD for page file duty only so I will have isolated as much of the potential SSD rewriting issues to this drive so that I can enjoy the increased speed of the write page outs. I use the Plextor SSD caching software now after I finally understood just what this does for my PCI-E SSD to minimize the writes to this SSD to mostly at computer shutdown when the SSD cache (or ram disk if you prefer) created in my system mem writes all cached data back to this SSD before computer shutdown (I run the OS and all apps from this "SSD" which in actuality is running from the SSD cache created in system memory upon boot up, thus effectively reducing the potential writes to this SSD by a large margin). The storage SSD only gets written to when I down load something or save something that I want.

I also must add that this box of mine was setup & built to do only 1 thing......to play the games that I play w\ the main focus on playing AH, listen to music and surf so I ain't worried about it at all. Any important stuff is done on my wife's box on the spinner HDD's to date...and I have been thinking about setting up a NAS lately as well due to reading the posts concerning this on this BBS to use w\ her box.

 :salute

Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: Pudgie on April 01, 2016, 02:25:48 PM
(http://s15.postimg.org/az4qxvm3r/AMD_R9_Fury_X_AHBeta10_Performance_Crimson_15_12.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/az4qxvm3r/)

(http://s10.postimg.org/y4wsfxedx/AMD_R9_Fury_X_AHBeta15_Performance_Crimson16_3_2.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/y4wsfxedx/)

Here are a couple of MSI Afterburner graphs of how the Beta is running on my box in sig below. 1 is of Beta Patch 10 w\ Fury X using Crimson 15.12 WHQL drivers w\ FreeSynch and FRTC enabled and the 2nd is of the current Beta Patch 15 w\ Fury X using Crimson 16.3.2 Hotfix drivers w\ FreeSynch and FRTC enabled.

I have to say this Beta runs very sweet on this platform to date which, outside of the vid card and the PCI-E SSD, is a 4 yr old computer box running at stock speeds.

FWIW, AMD's FreeSynch working in tandem w\ AMD's FRTC is very worth the price of admission as the gameplay\graphics are butter smooth regardless of the usage patterns shown on these graphs. Note that in the Beta 15 graph the Crimson 16.3.2 drivers appear to override the AMD FRTC control & push the FPS on towards the max FreeSynch VRR set of 90 FPS (90 Hz) as set for my Asus MG279Q monitor when the GPU performance dictates so....

Just sharing data on the BBS.

 :salute
Title: Re: Get higher frame rates
Post by: bustr on April 01, 2016, 03:23:47 PM
Pudgie,

If everyone had your ring or an equivalent, 99% of the people in here with problems wouldn't be in here.