Consistent framerates

[Tanyrhiew]

Been busy getting OFF to run just so but getting consistent frame rates proved to be difficult on my c2d e6600, 4gb RAM and 8800GTS 512. I followed the various guides/faqs but was unable to improve things until I found that the effects slider has a massive impact on fps on my PC. The impact is such that fps will drop to single figures. Reducing this to1 I can now run at settngs of 1600x1200, x16q AA and 16x aniso, sliders at 5-3-3-1-5. FPS is consistently now in the 20s+ with Vsynch on in a 1918 campaign mission with full air activity.

 

So for anyone struggling with frame rate, drop that effects slider and watch your fps shoot up!

[Tanyrhiew]

I beg to differ, after doing more testing today, the culprit is the object shadows. I suspect that when cfs was originally released, using the cpu for generating the shadows was ok for the relatively small number of objects back then. With OFF the number of objects requiring shadows has been greatly increased. This explains why my fps fluctuated so much - it depended on how many objects were in view at the time. Now that I've determined that it was the shadows causing the problem, I have been able to bump the particles back to 'effects-5' levels. In fact I can set the object density in OFF manager to high with minimal impact on frame rate.

 

Regarding clouds I will happily trade blocky aircraft shadows and no object shadows for a sky full of clouds and an AI that cannot see me - this is a flight sim after all, the sky is where the action is!

 

Anyway now that I have everything running nicely, I'm off to try the campaign - wish me luck!

Edited October 30, 2009 by Tanyrhiew

[BirdDogICT]

I beg to differ, after doing more testing today, the culprit is the object shadows. I suspect that when cfs was originally released, using the cpu for generating the shadows was ok for the relatively small number of objects back then. With OFF the number of objects requiring shadows has been greatly increased. This explains why my fps fluctuated so much - it depended on how many objects were in view at the time. Now that I've determined that it was the shadows causing the problem, I have been able to bump the particles back to 'effects-5' levels. In fact I can set the object density in OFF manager to high with minimal impact on frame rate.

 

Regarding clouds I will happily trade blocky aircraft shadows and no object shadows for a sky full of clouds and an AI that cannot see me - this is a flight sim after all, the sky is where the action is!

 

Anyway now that I have everything running nicely, I'm off to try the campaign - wish me luck!

Tanyrhiew,

 

After trying many combinations of graphics settings over the past 10 months, I have to agree with you that turning shadows off has a big impact on frame rate. The only time I've found shadows to be useful is near the ground, and who wants to fight there? The shadows are rendered with lots of jaggies, anyway.

 

Turning shadows off as you suggest allows me to run sliders of 53355 with avg FPS of 30 @ 1920X1050, 8XAA, 8XAF, with a 512MB 4870 and 4MB 800MHz DDR memory running in XP. I'm limited some by my 939 dual core processor, overclocked to 3GHz. Smooth as glass, though. Hard to justify a upgrade with those settings.

 

Cheers

[The_Black_Knight]

Drop the last setting, "clouds", well below 5.

This really hurts framerates.

Based on your rig, a "2", would be the most conservative.

 

I run 4-5-3-3-5-2, and pull consitent frame rates at 32 FPS, 1920x1080, AF 4X, AA X8.

[BirdDogICT]

Drop the last setting, "clouds", well below 5.

This really hurts framerates.

Based on your rig, a "2", would be the most conservative.

 

I run 4-5-3-3-5-2, and pull consitent frame rates at 32 FPS, 1920x1080, AF 4X, AA X8.

The Black Knight,

 

Not sure for whom your last post was intended, but you're correct, 5 for clouds is a FPS hog. BUT it prevents enemy aircraft from seeing you through the clouds.