Frame rate Graphics vs Game - which to monitor

[Bluzman 0]

what is difference graphics frame rate and game frame rate

what are good and excellent values to shoot for

any help appreciate

thanks

bluzman

[+peter01 2]

what is difference graphics frame rate and game frame rate

what are good and excellent values to shoot for

any help appreciate

thanks

bluzman

 

Not sure what you mean by the two rates. But, generally people speak about FPS or Frames Per Second. To get a smooth game play in flight sims you shouldn't drop below 20fps - it becomes a slideshow. Ideally it would be running at 30 plus all the time, but nearly EVERYONE has to make compromises unless they have the latest most expensive hardware. So play around with-in game graphics settings to get somrething that suits you aiming for a minium of 20-30 fps (try it with a test mission with few aircraft in the air close to the ground, with some clouds etc).

 

Of course if you can't get an acceptable fps, there are many ways to tweak either your graphic card settings and/or the game files.

 

All the best........

[tank03 1]

I've no idea what the difference between the two framerates are. I see it myself when I cycle through the "k" key.

 

I used a really good mod found in the knowledge base that allowed me to use most of the graphics setting on high, despite my crappy system. Check out this article by Charles and Chip:

 

"Sundry Graphics Tips

Kill the mirrors in graphics, they are monster frame-rate killers.

Kill the dynamic shadows, too, they kill the frame rate, and apparently also cause CTDs.

 

In the flightengine.ini file (in the flightdata.cat) there is something interesting! Under the section for:

 

[HighDetailOption]

HorizonDistance=75000.0

DetailMeshSize=6

DetailLevel=1

WaterEffect=1

NoiseTexture=1

MaxTextureRes=0 (you will read -1 here)

 

The last line is the texture resolution aka mipmap LOD setting in the graphic card control panel or any tweak tool. The thing I wondered about is that the stock setting there is -1. That means that the game uses it's own mipmap setting rather than the one I set in RivaTuner. I have set the mipmap LOD to 0, cause a negative value will automatically decrease the fps rate quite a bit.

 

Even -0,5 is too tough. When you know fly with the max detail settings in SF, you will automatically forced to fly with a mipmap detail of -1. That's a heavy load on the CPU cause the standard setting is always 0! On the ground I had around 25fps, now I have 38 with the mipmap distance to 0 and Vsync on. You can set the mipmap distance in OpenGL but not under D3D, so you need a tweaker. Always wondered, why the fps is so low in the cockpit, now I know why.

 

It only affects the highest detail settings cause for the lower detail, there are numbers around 265 which is pretty low. Set it to 0 and you can turn on the cockpit mirrors while the game stays smooth and you can use the highest detail in the game! It runs so much smoother now. Don't know why TK decided to use -1 cause there really is almost no viewable difference in the terrain quality. Hope I could help some of you who had notoriously low fps rates. You can even try a positive value like 0,5 which wouldn't look much different either. So there is no need to drop the detail."

 

The full post is found here in the knowledge base: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=8786

 

It really helped increase my graphics settings without really effecting myFPS.

[Bluzman 0]

RE Frame rates

with HUD on easy mode cycle thru the hud display

 

at top it says something like this

 

Frame Rate Graphics 15.5 Game 55.6

 

Game is usually 2 to 4 times graphic rate

 

Never seen a frame rate like this in other game

 

Thanks

[+peter01 2]

RE Frame rates

with HUD on easy mode cycle thru the hud display

 

at top it says something like this

 

Frame Rate Graphics 15.5 Game 55.6

 

Game is usually 2 to 4 times graphic rate

 

Never seen a frame rate like this in other game

 

Thanks

 

 

Never came across cycling thru the HUD display - what key(s)?

[tank03 1]

Never came across cycling thru the HUD display - what key(s)?

 

keyboard="K" cycles through the HUD display from normal, to normal with FPS at the top, to no HUD at all.

I use it a lot to cycle through to the no-HUD to take uncluttered screen shots

[+peter01 2]

Well, finally found the little sucker, its Alt+D in FE, maybe it was K in the other TW games? And its not in the manual. Have to look in the in game control section now to see what else I couldn't do before!!!

 

Bluzman, the graphics rate (the first number) is exactly what my third party fps counter shows, so its the standard FPS as I described. No idea what the game one is, hopefully someone can help. I'd be interested to know as well...

 

tank03, thanks for the tip and help. It does may a big difference. But I generally play on near/medium distance, as the far one in comparison is still comparatively costly fps wise. But I can now get about an average 30 to 40 fps on Far with your settings for a simple mission, better than before, so I am sure it will help others.

 

Cheers....

[Gr.Viper 131]

Well... maybe game FPS means some frames used in physics calculation, fm, AI... all that is not graphics.

[BUFF 8]

Well... maybe game FPS means some frames used in physics calculation, fm, AI... all that is not graphics.

Got it in 1.

These games have a two thread engine if you like.

1 handles the gfx & 1 handles the rest.

[+peter01 2]

Interesting, haven't seen this in other games, certainly useful. A nice feature. Thanks for the clarification.