What is game loop? And how to keep it low?

[betterstranger 1]

Hi lads,

 

I have a question - I'm flying missions in Linebacker II campaign in A-7D... and my performance gets a lot of hits up to 15 FPS and game loop x4. When game loop goes to x3, then my FPS goes up to 30... What is this "game loop" and how can I keep it low so my FPSes will be high?

I had every gfx options on max, I reduced some of them but I cannot see any big difference...

Any ideas guys?

[+streakeagle 871]

Game loop does not cause fps drops, game loop responds to your fps.

Game loop is how fast the game processes all of the data: AI, physics, etc.

The game loop normally runs at x1: the same rate as your frame rate, but when your frame rate drops off, the game loop runs faster.

This ensures all of the other functions are maintained at an acceptable rate despite your PC's inability to display the information fast enough.

The game loop tries to stay at 60 fps, so if you graphic fps drops to 30, it goes to a game loop of x2, and if you drop to 15 fps, it goes to x4.

The fix is to have a hardware combination that can maintain a high frame rate despite the load on the system.

When flying Linebacker II, the number of aircraft, flak guns, and SAMs is tremendous.

The number of sounds alone loads the system down: flak bursts, radio calls being buffered up, etc.

 

What operating system and hardware do you have?

The latest and greatest does a pretty good job of handling the SF2 series.

I am usually locked at 60 fps unless I am flying over Iceland in SF2NA... but then I mainly fly pure air-to-air missions that don't have the load of air-to-ground.

[betterstranger 1]

well, i've got q6600 @3.0ghz, hd5850 and 4gb ram. It actually does really well with FC2 and TBH SF2 isn't very advanced in terms of gfx... so maybe the game is poorly optimized?

I'll try to set the gfx options even lower, maybe it will help?

Thx for your help and explanation! :-)

[+streakeagle 871]

If you fly a mission with just a few aircraft and minimal defenses, it will run great.

But one of the worst environments that slows down the game is in the vicinity of Hanoi in 1972.

There is just a tremendous volume of things going on: flak, SAMs, countless aircraft.

The game will not take advantage of four cores.