Major FPS drops in cockpit view

[xclusiv8 35]

I cant really figure this out. Ive tried lowering graphic settings but this slow down only occurs inside cockpits. I assume it has to do with something inside the cockpit that is eating frames. If i look up the frames go back to 60+ but as soon as i look inside the cokpit and on the gauges or something the frames just go south. Anyone else having this issue?

 

My Hardware:

Win7 x64

Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz

8800GTS 512mb

4gb Ram

 

Running the game @ 1920x1080p

Most things on high except Horizon that is on Normal and shadows that i have set to low.

 

With cockpit on.

 

Cockpit off, same scene.

 

Thank you.

Edited October 19, 2010 by xclusiv8

[Gr.Viper 131]

Is it the same with the radar off?

[+starfighter2 112]

I think that your video card is on it's limits here. For the gamer, there are three main factors that have the most influence on how much graphics RAM you'll need: resolution, visual quality detail settings, and AA. For the most part, 512MB of RAM seems sufficient to push one of these factors to the limit, and in most cases, it can handle two of them at once. But if you plan to maximize all three--the highest resolutions, visual quality settings, and AA--then more video RAM than 512MB is a good idea. The primary consideration should probably be resolution, because this is a hardware limitation for many of us. Typically, 20" or smaller monitors will cap out at 1680x1050, so in this case, spending extra on 1GB of graphics RAM(to buy new card) might be frivolous. Conversely, if your monitor is 21" or larger with a 1920x1200 native resolution, purchasing a graphics card with 1GB of RAM might be a wise investment.

 

Try to lower down resolution (I know it will look...hmmm a bit ugly when not native), but...

 

Did you tryed in Options.ini to set >

 

[GraphicsOptions]

..................

UseAdvancedShaders=1

.............

That should help a lot.

[xclusiv8 35]

Is it the same with the radar off?

 

It does not make a difference with the radar on or off. Had to try it when you said it . What i did notice though is that if i turn my head towards a city with the cockpit on the frames drop. If i turn of the cockpit and turn my head around, looking at citys or anything the frames stay rock solid at 60+fps. When i look at the desert trough the cockpit the frames stay at 60 just as when i look at the sky but as soon as i turn towards the city and the buildings come into view the frames drop with the cockpit on... I dont know if that helps anyone. Just an observation i did.

 

Thank you

 

Edit: I did try it at 1280x720 and i get the same problem as described above.

 

Edit2:

[GraphicsOptions]

DisplayDeviceID=0

DisplayWidth=1920

DisplayHeight=1080

DisplayDepth=32

AspectRatio=1.777778

AntiAliasing=4

UseAdvancedShaders=1

ForceDX9=FALSE

ForceVSyncOff=FALSE

LensFlare=0

DetailLevel=4

ObjectDetail=2

ObjectTexture=3

CockpitTexture=3

CockpitMirrors=1

CockpitReflection=1

EffectsDetail=2

TerrainDetail=2

TerrainTexture=2

HorizonDistance=1

GroundObjectDensity=2

WaterDetail=2

CloudsDetail=2

Shadow=0

Edited October 19, 2010 by xclusiv8

[Bossco82 11]

Hi Mate,

 

I've been doing a lot of looking into how to run SF2V on unlimited settings, ie what hardware is required. If you download GPUZ and Rivatuner you can use them to log the resources the game is using. When you have logged them look for a spike in the usage, that will be your fps drop.

 

To run my copy of SF2V which has the expansion pack and all the eye candy I see upto 3.6ghz used on both cores of my E8500 running 4ghz and upto 902mb of vram used on my GTX 280. This is what it requires to run high settings with a maximum of 1024mb textures, detail mesh 4, normal horizon but no shadows and no cockpit mirrors or reflection.

 

The other thing you can do is dial back each graphics setting and find which one is causing your fps hit.

 

Finally what motherboard do you have. I found a massive difference running an fsb of 450mhz.

 

Let me know how you get on.

 

However there are people on here who know a lot more than me, they should be along shortly

[+malibu43 142]

I cant really figure this out. Ive tried lowering graphic settings but this slow down only occurs inside cockpits. I assume it has to do with something inside the cockpit that is eating frames. If i look up the frames go back to 60+ but as soon as i look inside the cokpit and on the gauges or something the frames just go south. Anyone else having this issue?

 

My Hardware:

Win7 x64

Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz

8800GTS 512mb

4gb Ram

 

Running the game @ 1920x1080p

Most things on high except Horizon that is on Normal and shadows that i have set to low.

 

With cockpit on.

 

 

Cockpit off, same scene.

 

 

Thank you.

 

I found that mirrors cause a much higher FPS drop in SF2 than they did in WoX. I used to be able to run with mirrors on and only see about a 5 fps drop. With SF2, it's much higher. Try mirrors off.

[xclusiv8 35]

I found that mirrors cause a much higher FPS drop in SF2 than they did in WoX. I used to be able to run with mirrors on and only see about a 5 fps drop. With SF2, it's much higher. Try mirrors off.

 

I did try everything. Tried to lower all of the setting one at a time.

[Bossco82 11]

Are you still having this problem mate?

Which title is this in?

Is this model of F-15 an add on?

Can you confirm that you have tried all settings on low?

How old is your graphics card?

[xclusiv8 35]

Are you still having this problem mate?

Which title is this in?

Is this model of F-15 an add on?

Can you confirm that you have tried all settings on low?

How old is your graphics card?

 

Yepp!

Ive got all the games merged and its the stock F-15.

I just tried everything on low and the problem dissapers. I think its as you said before. The VRam proberbly isnt enough to keep up with the desert3 level of detail at my resolution. Time to purchase a new graphics card. Any tips from you guys? I dont wanna buy a GPU that makes my CPU the bottleneck. I am assuming a top notch graphics cards would do this. What GPU do you guys think would suit me?

 

And thanx for the help by the way Bear to you all if you'r ever in sweden!

 

Edit: Is there a way to actually see how much Vram is used when i play the game?

Edited October 19, 2010 by xclusiv8

[Bossco82 11]

HI Mate,

 

As for a GPU, I need to know what your power supply is. I recently bought a GTX 280 nvidia card off ebay for £100gbp which is a good price for that card and it allows me to run high settings in SF2V. If you look on ebay there are many of nvidia's high end GTX 200 range card selling for a fraction of what they were new. Before that I had a 192 core GTX 260, that card could run a mix of high, medium and low settings. Before that I tried a GTS 250 1024mb that could use a mixture of medium and low settings, mostly medium.

 

Also can you confirm that this problem is only in the stock F-15 cockpit and only in the desert terrain?

 

Also you have overclocked your Q6600, when I was overclocking my E8500 I first used fsb 425mhz with a 9.5 multiplier. However when I bumped up nbv and fsb termv one notch and used 450mhz fsb and a 9 multiplier. It seriously improved framerates. What motherboard are you using?

 

Before you go out a buy a new gpu. Download GPUZ. You can run it in the background while your playing SF2. Set it to "run in background" and "log to file". It will create a log in notepad that will be saved somewhere like "my documents". Do this and check if your graphics card is being maxed out before buying a new card. You can also download Rivatuner, with this you can also log cpu usage, again just leave it running in the background, fly a mission then leave SF2, pause Rivatuner and look back at the usage it will be in a long graph.

 

That covers hardware for now, I dont have the desert terrain. Is this terrain modified? If it is did it come with different levels of TOD files. I ask because in the North Vietnam terrain I found the city TOD files to be framerate killers. The trees did very little. To get round my framrate loss over cities I used low TOD files for city tiles and high TOD files for jungle tiles.

 

I've spent a lot of time, trying to get my install of SF2V running perfect on high settings, i've had to customise my install in places, tweek my overclock, and i've tried 4 different graphics cards. I can now play SF2V on high settings using 1024 textures, in the linebacker 2 campaign over Hanoi with 12 B-52's dropping bombs nearby, (a very demanding scenario) with a constant framerate of 60fps, so I might be able to help out on this one. However i'll need some info.

 

Grpahics settings your using now,

Driver settings for your graphics card

Are you using DX9 or DX10

Your Flight engine,

How much is your GPU being used ie GPUZ log

How much your CPU and memory is being used ie Rivatuner log

Your overclock settings,

What level of detail TOD files are being used in the terrain folder, or look for the TOD files that iare associated with the city tiles and tell me their size in kb.

 

Hopefully with this information we can help you out.

[xclusiv8 35]

HI Mate,

 

As for a GPU, I need to know what your power supply is. I recently bought a GTX 280 nvidia card off ebay for £100gbp which is a good price for that card and it allows me to run high settings in SF2V. If you look on ebay there are many of nvidia's high end GTX 200 range card selling for a fraction of what they were new. Before that I had a 192 core GTX 260, that card could run a mix of high, medium and low settings. Before that I tried a GTS 250 1024mb that could use a mixture of medium and low settings, mostly medium.

 

Also can you confirm that this problem is only in the stock F-15 cockpit and only in the desert terrain?

 

Also you have overclocked your Q6600, when I was overclocking my E8500 I first used fsb 425mhz with a 9.5 multiplier. However when I bumped up nbv and fsb termv one notch and used 450mhz fsb and a 9 multiplier. It seriously improved framerates. What motherboard are you using?

 

Before you go out a buy a new gpu. Download GPUZ. You can run it in the background while your playing SF2. Set it to "run in background" and "log to file". It will create a log in notepad that will be saved somewhere like "my documents". Do this and check if your graphics card is being maxed out before buying a new card. You can also download Rivatuner, with this you can also log cpu usage, again just leave it running in the background, fly a mission then leave SF2, pause Rivatuner and look back at the usage it will be in a long graph.

 

That covers hardware for now, I dont have the desert terrain. Is this terrain modified? If it is did it come with different levels of TOD files. I ask because in the North Vietnam terrain I found the city TOD files to be framerate killers. The trees did very little. To get round my framrate loss over cities I used low TOD files for city tiles and high TOD files for jungle tiles.

 

I've spent a lot of time, trying to get my install of SF2V running perfect on high settings, i've had to customise my install in places, tweek my overclock, and i've tried 4 different graphics cards. I can now play SF2V on high settings using 1024 textures, in the linebacker 2 campaign over Hanoi with 12 B-52's dropping bombs nearby, (a very demanding scenario) with a constant framerate of 60fps, so I might be able to help out on this one. However i'll need some info.

 

Grpahics settings your using now,

Driver settings for your graphics card

Are you using DX9 or DX10

Your Flight engine,

How much is your GPU being used ie GPUZ log

How much your CPU and memory is being used ie Rivatuner log

Your overclock settings,

What level of detail TOD files are being used in the terrain folder, or look for the TOD files that iare associated with the city tiles and tell me their size in kb.

 

Hopefully with this information we can help you out.

 

Ive got a 450W PSU. But that can be upgraded aswell if the new GPU needs it. I was actually looking at a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1GB OC. It requires a 450W PSU but i suspect that i would have to upgrade the PSU since i run my CPU overclocked. I havent really kept track of all the new GPUs so im a little out of the loop

 

This problem occurs in all jets. And its the same thing, if i toggle of the cockpit the problem magicly dissapers. As for the terrains, in the stock terrains this problem is non existent. Its only theire in Desert3 and the NatoIV+ terrain.

 

I am running my FSB @ 355mhz and the multiplyer is set to 9x. My ram is at 426x2mhz. All this in a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 motherboard.

 

I logged a test mission (saved a mission to always get the same results) with GPU-Z and it seems the Vram is beeing fully used. It logged at 507mb during the mission, not much to throw around with in the end i guess.

 

As for the desert terrain. I am using Piecemeals updated SF2 Terrain. Link

I dont really know what TOD files are but i did install the optimised tiles for the terrain. Link

 

Grpahics settings your using now,

 

Driver settings for your graphics card

Anisotropic filtering 4x

Antialiasing mode - Overide any application setting

Antialiasing setting - 4x

 

Are you using DX9 or DX10

Im using DX10 i think. ForceDX9 is set to False.

 

Your Flight engine,

I assume you mean the flightengine.ini Link

 

How much is your GPU being used ie GPUZ log

It runs @ 100% The Gpu core is running at its max all the time.

 

How much your CPU and memory is being used ie Rivatuner log

Same as in GPU-Z

Your overclock settings,

Multiplier 9x, FSB 355mhz, Ram 426mhz

 

What level of detail TOD files are being used in the terrain folder, or look for the TOD files that iare associated with the city tiles and tell me their size in kb.

The city TOD files range from 90kb to 215kb in size.

 

Thanx for your time and all your help:drinks:

Edited October 20, 2010 by xclusiv8

[Bossco82 11]

Hi Mate,

 

Ok with that information its quite obvious that your gpu is getting totally overwhelmed in that environment. There are 2 options...

 

Upgrade your GPU, in your position and if your not bothered about dx11. I would shop around on such as ebay for a used 216 core gtx 260 or a gtx 280. However if you would like to try a GTX 460 then Zotac, Gigabytes and MSI's overclocked GTX 460's have got very good reviews. SFP1ace on here has a GTX 460 and he gets good framerates. You might have to upgrade your PSU too. Whatever you buy get a decent branded psu don't skimp on that, 550w-600w will be more than adequate.

 

As for your settings you are asking way too much from your hardware to run SF2 with all those addons. My rig is more powerful than yours and I can't run your settings in SF2V.

 

I'm guessing your using the two unlimited options to get 1024mb cockpit/object textures. Try these settings in your options.ini

 

 

[GraphicsOptions]

DisplayDeviceID=0

DisplayWidth=1920

DisplayHeight=1080

DisplayDepth=32

AspectRatio=1.777778

AntiAliasing=4

UseAdvancedShaders=1

ForceDX9=FALSE

ForceVSyncOff=FALSE

LensFlare=2

DetailLevel=4

ObjectDetail=2

ObjectTexture=2

CockpitTexture=2

CockpitMirrors=0

CockpitReflection=0

EffectsDetail=2

TerrainDetail=2

TerrainTexture=2

HorizonDistance=1

GroundObjectDensity=2

WaterDetail=2

CloudsDetail=2

Shadow=1

 

If these settings don't work with you current gpu turn the highs down to medium.

 

Then in your flight engine change the high settings to this

 

[HighDetailOption]

HorizonDistance=60000.0

DetailMeshSize=3

DetailLevel=2

WaterEffect=2

NoiseTexture=1

MaxTextureRes=1024

 

I have been doing a lot of gpu logging with SF2V. With all the addons and unlimited setting the game wanted over 1024mb of vram. With the settings i've posted it wants 903mb in the most demanding scenario, Gpu load on my GTX 280 doesn't pass 72%.

 

While tweaking your settings carry on logging your GPU load and vram usage. You will see the difference in the impact high/unlimited setting has on your GPU.

 

Hope this helps, get back to me if you need any more advise

[stingray77 4]

Boostjunky, do you have some answer to my question about the "cycling" fps' (other thread) as well?

 

I already downloaded GPUZ and RivaTuner to get me a clearer picture - hope to scan my system over the weekend.......

[xclusiv8 35]

Thank you Boostjunky! I will try out your settings!

[SFP1Ace 33]

SFP1ace on here has a GTX 460 and he gets good framerates.

 

What he said. :) Recently I upgraded my oveclocked ATi Radeon HD 4890 1GB to a pair of Nvidia GTX 460 SLI. The SF2 runs about the same on GTX 460 as on 4890 (Radeon 4890 was apparently powerful enough to deal with DX10 shaders, effects & textures) with one noticable difference! While I had the ATi card, I was plagued with the noticable FPS drop (like 20-30% drop - measured with FRAPS, very noticable :D) when using TV/EO guided weapons and turning the radar on in planes using avionics60.dll. It's a known issue, I think, and it's been mentioned here at CA and over at TW forums. The great thing is that with my new cards the fps dips no more than 2-3 FPS when using EO and I can't notice any FPS drop at all when turning on radar in phantom F-4! I'm friggin' happy now!

 

Addendum - if you're going to upgrade PSU as well, I'd advise you to stick to branded ones. Antec, Seasonic, Corsair (esp. HX and AX series), PC Power & Cooling make first grade PSUs. I've swapped my old 600W PSU for a Corsair HX750W just to power them 2 GTX 460 SLI - all voltages are rock stable under load

 

This guide should be helpful:

 

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

Edited October 20, 2010 by SFP1Ace

[PJB 106]

these are actually mirrors 

but on my system sometimes SF2 is smooth with mirrors and sometimes slow and laggy i still dont understand why this happens ! 

 

i use dell e6540 8gb ram with 2 gb graphics card and 3.0 ghz cpu . it runs the game fine on high settings without mirrors and sometimes with mirrors also