Back after a while... and in need a little guidance!

[Rampstrike]

Hello all!

 

I've been away from sims for a while, and just yesterday fired up a new install of SF2E with the ODS package. I must say that it is an awesome package, and I am really looking forward to getting back into it!

 

I did notice, however, that my poor 6-year old laptop is struggling a bit, and as I can't afford an upgrade for some forseeable time, I need a little help. In order to be able to fly with any useable framerates, I have all of my graphics set to Low, and I still get somewhere in the low teens for framerate. I do notice, however, that even at the lowest settings, there are still tons of volumetric clouds in the sky, and my framerates take an even bigger hit (down to single digits sometimes!) when the clouds are on the screen. Is there a way to turn off the volumetric clouds in an .ini somewhere? I searched the Knowledge Base, but no topics came up for 'clouds', so I'm asking here.

 

I'd be just fine with the clear skies/solid overcast options from the early days of the SF series...

 

Much thanks, Gents (and Ladies?)!

 

And again, amazing job on the ODS mod to all where were involved... brings back some fond memories of being a 19 year-old Marine deployed to the Gulf.

 

Cheers,

Rampstrike

[+DoctorQuest]

Go into the ODS mods folder, open OPTIONS.INI. In the graphics section you will find a CloudDetail parameter. As far as I know that is not adjustable from any game options screen. Try playing with that parameter and see if it helps.

 

What OS are you running? SF2 with DX10 support blows the doors off DX9 but that really requires you to be running Win 7 and have a DX10 capable card. I've heard there's a DX10 for WinXP but have not tried it.

 

The other issue with ODS (which is a good news/bad news thing) is that the missions seem to be much busier in terms of number of flights, etc. than the stock SF2 missions. Managing a lot of missions takes processing power and that may be hitting you as well. That's not as simple a fix in that you need to modify the campaign to reduce the number of flights for a given mission. There are some posts around that describe what to do. I think the various "supply rate" parms affect somewhat how many missions are generated.

Edited April 12, 2012 by DoctorQuest

[Rampstrike]

Thanks for the help, DQ! I found the line for cloud detail in the options ini and dropping it to the lowest value has certainly helped in my standard SF2E install, but like you said, with the number of flights in the ODS campaign im still watching a slideshow. My system is a Toshiba laptop running Vista, and I was able to find and install a version of DX10 for it, but I didn't notice any substantial difference in framerates afterwards. So for now, I'll just be happy playing SF2E again, but at a decent (as far as I'm used to!) FPS of 20-30.

 

Again, much appreciated, and all you modders are still doing amazing work!

 

Cheers,

Ramp