Why had I never tried this before?

[Von Paulus 8]

BirdDog I was referring to the softpedia one. But if you want to try you should download the last one from here or from softpedia. It has a lot more options than CCC. And one of them is Direct3D triple Buffering.

But I prefer the implementation of D3Doverrider, because at least I know it's running.

As for the Rivatuner I like to use it also for monitoring the CPU, memory and graphic card. Very useful.

 

The ATITool is very old. I used it a long time ago with a Nvidia card, I just don't remember for what reason.

Edited March 18, 2010 by Von Paulus

[Olham 164]

Rich, there are the "Tips & Tricks" in the OFF General Help; then the "General Help Topics"

above, in the sticky threads; and the FAQs on the website

 

www.overflandersfields.com

 

I think you mean the graphic sliders; thy are in "Workshop" > Graphics Config > File > Custom settings

 

You will get a warning popping up; ignore it.

The "Overrides" are found there too, go in Custom Settings to Window, then Overrides.

 

But to set those up, you should look for the instructions in the above help topics.

[jwrich 0]

Thanks Guys, I found the location of the sliders. I will try various settings to see what works best for me & my PC.

 

Thanks

Rich

[Olham 164]

Just as a possible guide, here are my settings. (I'm running an ATI HD 4870 card).

No need to switch off the aids below left, and right side in "Overrides", nor the movie stuff.

But the rest - middle left - seems good for me.

 

My sliders are on 5, 4, 3, 5, 5, and all is running fine.

 

 

[Von Paulus 8]

You're settings are different from the FAQ, Olham.

[Olham 164]

Don't know, were they are different; must check. But they work fine - see my screenshots.

[Barkhorn1x 14]

Don't know, were they are different; must check. But they work fine - see my screenshots.

 

 

Indeed they do.

 

Saved thread. Will steal settings w/ new ATI card and 10.3 drivers.

[Von Paulus 8]

Don't know, were they are different; must check. But they work fine - see my screenshots.

 

Disable Terrains Texture Ring Blend

 

Index Buffer Pool : D3DPOOL-DEFAULT

Fullscreen Swap Effect: D3DSWAPEFFECT_FLIP

 

 

And in my case disabling shadows give some good FPS improvement.

EDIT: And also using in Catalyst Control Center or ATI Tray Tools, AI Catalyst in HIGH mode.

Edited March 18, 2010 by Von Paulus

[Olham 164]

I thought, "Terrain texture ring blend" makes the terrain go hazier towards the horizon

in a ring around the player - that's why I left it on.

 

The others: must try it this way to see what happens.

[Von Paulus 8]

I thought, "Terrain texture ring blend" makes the terrain go hazier towards the horizon

in a ring around the player - that's why I left it on.

I really don't know what it does because I've always used it disabled.

Probably it won't affect much the performance.

I was just pinpointing it, Olham, nothing more.

[BirdDogICT 3]

I really don't know what it does because I've always used it disabled.

Probably it won't affect much the performance.

I was just pinpointing it, Olham, nothing more.

Actually, it has to do with how the game uses the texture ring memory architecture that ATI built into their cards since the early Radeon 1600 series AGP cards. I haven't noticed any differences with it turned on or off, so leave it disabled. It's not that relevant when you have 512+ MB graphics memory.

 

The one difference in Olham's settings vs the FAQ is D3D Page Swap Discard instead of Flip. Doesn't make a big difference with newer cards.

[Von Paulus 8]

The one difference in Olham's settings vs the FAQ is D3D Page Swap Discard instead of Flip.

 

Index Buffer Pool - leave as is - should be set to Default. It's what it says in FAQ.

BirdDog you seem to know a lot about those settings. Can you tell what is yours, and what is your rig, please?

Edited March 18, 2010 by Von Paulus

[Olham 164]

Just tried the above FAQ settings, and noticed, that clouds now built up noticably,

whereas before, they were just there. So I'll switch it back to my settings.

[BirdDogICT 3]

Index Buffer Pool - leave as is - should be set to Default. It's what it says in FAQ.

BirdDog you seem to know a lot about those settings. Can you tell what is yours, and what is your rig, please?

I'm not an expert, but have read enough technical articles from ATI to have a sense for how their cards work. There are some excellent guides out there that cover the basics of graphics cards for gaming, for example: http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html

 

My rig: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO motherboard, AMD X2 550 CPU OC'd to 3.6, 4GB G.Skill DDR3 memory OC'd to 1600, ATI 5770, 1TB Seagate Barracuda HD, 23" LG widescreen monitor, 750W Corsair PSU, Antec 900 Two case, CH FS/PT/PP, TrackIR 4, Windows 7 64 bit.

 

Most of the settings in the FAQ are relevant to older graphics cards, and may not have as much impact on newer cards, especially since around Catalyst 9.8 or so. I use the settings in the FAQ, with the exceptions of Shadows off (as you suggested), and Dual Pass Render off (as suggested by Sitting Duck). I use 1920X1080 resolution with in-game AA off, Sliders at 54555 and Ground Object Density to medium.. Catalyst settings are 4X AA (Box filter, which is what most cards used whan CFS3 came out), Antialising Mode to Adaptive Multisample (although this may cause anomalies in the form of transparent textures, it gives the best quality with lowest FPS hit), 8X AF, Catalyst AI at Advanced, Mipmap Detail Level at Quality, Vertical Refresh to Always On, and OpenGL Triple Buffering on. I have to use D3DOverrider to make the last two selections actually work. My objective is the best image without stutters or tearing when changing views with TrackIR. I get FPS of 35-60 in 8 plane furrballs over the field.

[Olham 164]

Sounds interesting, BirdDog - never had "Open GL Triple Buffering" on - what is D3D Overrider?

[Von Paulus 8]

I'm not an expert, but have read enough technical articles from ATI to have a sense for how their cards work. There are some excellent guides out there that cover the basics of graphics cards for gaming, for example: http://www.tweakguid...Graphics_1.html

I know that guide. It's the best guide for ATI.

 

My objective is the best image without stutters or tearing when changing views with TrackIR.

That's also my objective since I installed OFF. I'm coming to conclusion that I cannot improve much more. I'm assembling a new CPU (I5-750), new memory (DDR3 Gskill 1600 CL7), new mobo (for the first time in my life a Gigabyte). I'm curious if there will be an improve with the same settings I used with the other CPU E8500 @3.18Ghz. We'll see.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Sounds interesting, BirdDog - never had "Open GL Triple Buffering" on - what is D3D Overrider?

It's a seperate utility from Rivatuner. BirdDog said that he knows a unbundled version, but the link he provided is not correct.

If you want you can always install rivatuner, copy out the tool to another dir/folder and then uninstall rivatuner.

I didn't uninstall rivatuner because I use it to monitor CPU, memory, etc, while playing some times.

Rivatuner is a utility created for Nvida cards to configure and OC. It works also with most of ATI cards, except 4850, 4870, 4890, and all 5xxx. But there is a workaround for those cards. But if you just want to use D3Doverrider you can use it without using rivatuner.

[BirdDogICT 3]

Sounds interesting, BirdDog - never had "Open GL Triple Buffering" on - what is D3D Overrider?

Oops, pasted the wrong link for the unbundled D3DOverrider before...this one whould work: http://www.mediafire.com/?2zzymudjfbh

 

Here is a good article on why to use Vsync and OpenGL Triple Buffering: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3591&p=2 You can only get them to work with ATI cards if you use a third party control like D3DOverrider.

Edited March 19, 2010 by BirdDogICT

[groumf 0]

BirdDogICT,

I have ATI HD 5770 GPU, too, (with Intel core I7, 4Go RAM). The settings you suggest (sliders and catalyst center) seems too high for my system, in spite of D3D overrider. Graphics look pretty good but the game is too slow and jerky. It appears that when I set antianisotropic filter on « managed by application », instead of 8X, 4X and even 2X, the game run fluider, but graphics are not as good. I cant' install ATI Tray tools (Windows 7 message :

 

"cannot connect to low level driver.Please reinstall Ati tray tools under local system administrator account or try to start drive manually using low level driver installation shortcut" ). I'll seek later how to disregard this message.

Does ATI tray tools provide signifiant changes and prevents the game from these annoying stutters and jerks ? I did not expect that I would have to overclock my GPU... What about other settings in graphics config > custom settings > "window" ?

 

 

[Olham 164]

BirdDog, I can't see an exe.file - how does that D3D thing get installed?

 

groumf, how fast is your Intel Core i7? My processor is an Intel E8300, overclocked slightly to 3 GHz.

Together with an ATI HD4870 GPU (with 1 GB onboard) and 4 GB RAM my sim is running fine.

Edited June 8, 2010 by Olham

[groumf 0]

Olham,

My processor is not overcloked (default speed : 2.80 GHz). Would the overclocking (up to 3 and even 3,6 GHz) noticeably increase the performances ?

[themightysrc 5]

When I get home later, I think I'll post up my system spec for everyone to laugh/marvel at. My current FPS is quite poor, and I suspect that some of the learned folk here might be able to help.

[Olham 164]

groumf, 3,2 GHz should be better and possible for you, but please ask the experts.

[themightysrc 5]

Right then, finally home. Just run PC Wizard, and here are the scores on the doors for my rig running OFF (not well enough). Tell me where the weaknesses lie, and the best route forward for me, please. Don't spare my blushes - this PC was a bargain in 2006:

 

Motherboard - ASUS P5VDC-MX

Chipset - VIA P4M800 CE

Processor - Intel Pentium D820 @ 2800 mhz

Memory - 2048 (2x1024 DDR SDRAM)

Video - ATI Radeon HD 2400 AGP Pro

 

I'm running XP Pro SP2.

 

Right chaps, my CFS3 graphics sliders are 4,2,2,4,1 and nearly all my other config settings are as recommended by OBD, but with shadows disabled.

 

How can I get the above rig to give me more than about 15 fps on a good day, with various services turned off via Gamebooster? Should I consider another package for that as well?

 

Cheers, and thanks for any replies,

 

Si

[Olham 164]

From what I just found in the web, your graphic card is said to be low end.

You would want to have a high end card for P3 - maybe even more for P4.

 

The CPU should be over 3 GHz - Winder said, processor speed is good to have.

 

Your system is 4 years old - today you have to change it every two years, at the least.

If you want to enjoy your newest sims.

[groumf 0]

Olham,

Thank you for your replies. I found on the net some forums about overcklocking. some i7 860 owners increase speed to 3,8 and even 4,2 GHz ! But in my case, I think 3,2 GHz will be enough...

Cheers.