Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: crumby on April 05, 2002, 10:42:51 AM

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: crumby on April 05, 2002, 10:42:51 AM

I wonder if any of the gurus out there can explain why upgrading to DX 8.1 caused a really ugly screen stuttering condition in AH. I have trolled thru the forums and tried things like downgrading the sound accelleration in DirectX. No Joy. I finally decided to install another copy of win2k on another disk and install DX 8.0a on the clean partition. That's better, but why??

Also, I'm only getting ~24 fps sitting on the runway offline. Do I need beefier CPU or GPU?

Config
 - P/// 750
 - 384M PC133 RAM
 - Geforce 2 Ti 250 w/Nvidia's 28.32 drivers

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: Skuzzy on April 05, 2002, 10:55:16 AM

A faster CPU would not hurt, and would probably raise your FPS.  I do not know how capable the video card is, but in testing the original GF2 Ultra and Pro cards, I found they could not be maxed out in performance until you reached at least a 933Mhz CPU.  Other CPU's slower than that would cause a drop in performance.

Hope that helps.

Title: Re: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: Kratzer on April 05, 2002, 10:59:23 AM

Quote

Originally posted by crumby
I finally decided to install another copy of win2k on another disk and install DX 8.0a on the clean partition.

That's your problem right there.

Get a gaming OS.

What resolution/color depth are you running?  The framerate issue could be that you are trying to push the video card too hard.

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: maddog1 on April 05, 2002, 01:14:32 PM

Bull.... win2k fine ....getting 75fps.... solid as rock... Thats what Bloom25 runin.... he knows everything....

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: bloom25 on April 05, 2002, 01:33:48 PM

Win2k drivers have come to the point that given sufficient ram, DX games are just as fast as 98 or ME.  XP is slightly faster, but still too buggy for me and somewhat lacking in security.

I run a dual boot system with 98 and 2k.  Running AH in win2k delivers identical framerates in AH, and better overall performance in the engineering applications that matter to me.  (The extra stability is a bonus.)

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: bloom25 on April 05, 2002, 01:35:46 PM

I run DX 8.1 and find it to be slightly faster than DX 8.0a was.  I have not noticed any stuttering.  (Though I do see stuttering when bump mapping is turned on in AH, but that happened with 8a as well.)

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: crumby on April 05, 2002, 01:46:59 PM

by "bump mapping" you mean the "Enable Mip Mapping" checkbox?

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: bloom25 on April 05, 2002, 04:04:42 PM

No, by "bump mapping" I mean pressing in the game and getting the little terrain speckles.  Mip mapping is something quite different and is derived from the latin (and I'm going to spell this wrong :D ) "multi in partium".  Basically what you are going to see by enabling this in AH is reduced terrain "shimmering".  Performance is reduced by enabling mip-mapping in AH, but it does result in much superior terrain graphics AND it is easier to spot ground vehicles. :)

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: Pongo on April 05, 2002, 04:19:30 PM

Bloom
You should start putting together tech docs for AH players and getting them posted  permenantly on the BBS somewhere..I had no idea what mip mapping was for. thanks

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: Wlfgng on April 05, 2002, 04:23:02 PM

seconded

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: Eagler on April 05, 2002, 04:26:34 PM

HTC should give bloom25 a free lifetime subscription to AH for all the help he has been to their subscribers

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: bloom25 on April 05, 2002, 06:01:16 PM

I appreciate the complement Eagler, but there are plenty of others who are equally deserving.  Lephturn and Skuzzy just to name a couple right off hand.  (Although they already probably do fly for free... ;) )  

HTC would be getting quite a bargin.  I generally post here whenever I need a short break.  I have very little time to actually fly online.   I logged an amazing 29 minutes and 2 assists a couple tours ago, and I remember that being at about 2 AM one night.

You guys probably know that I'm getting my BS in Electrical Engineering this June.  The combination of projects, studying, work, and side projects I end up taking on really limit my free time.  (Actually I'm typing this right now while waiting for a simulation to finish up. :) )

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: wizzer on April 09, 2002, 12:17:50 PM

Crumby,

Make sure you have the latest service pack (2 I think) loaded. It cleared up my all my video woes.

wizzer

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: Starbird on April 09, 2002, 12:34:57 PM

I thought ctrl-c was just a detail texture, not bumpmapping? If it is bumped its very slight.

Title: Stutters with DX 8.1, not 8.0a
Post by: crumby on April 10, 2002, 02:12:03 PM

Re: SP2 for win2k

That's the funny thing, the "main" installation with DX 8.1 and Win2000sp2 stutters like a dog, but the DX8.0a and stock win2000 "clean" installation is smooth as glass.

Re: screen resolution

Also, re: the screen resolution, the frame rates are roughly constant across all screen sizes, up to my usual 1600x1200x32. More evidence that the CPU is the bottleneck, I take it.