Engine Smoke Massive FPS Loss

[Slushie 1]

Hey guys, 

 

So I just recently picked up Strike Fighters 2 again, and I am having a horrendous time with the game very suddenly. It used to run so super smooth on my machine on Unlimited Settings with NO FPS hiccups, then today, when I went to play it, I noticed that the smoke emitted from the jet exhaust is causing my frames to dip into nothing. It runs great like it used to, until there's exhaust smoke in the viewpoint, and then it all goes to hell. I did install a MiG-15 mod before I tried playing today...is that maybe what is causing the issue? I removed the mod, but the problem with the jet exhaust remains. I've tried lower settings, and everything, and I can't understand what could be wrong, as I used to play it on Unlimited with no problems before. It's frustrating to have to turn everything down suddenly.

 

Any help would be appreciated! 

[MigBuster 2,884]

If you look in the original MiG-15 download - was there anything you had to drop into the effects folder?

[Slushie 1]

If you look in the original MiG-15 download - was there anything you had to drop into the effects folder?

Negative, I downloaded the MiG-15 BIS "Fagot" B, and it contained some objects, some decals, and a sound, but no effects. I recently removed my flight and effects folder (I did have Stary's SARCASM and Cumulative Effects Pack installed) and I did get some improvement in frame rate. I'm running the July 2013 update to Strike Fighters 2 and Strike Fighters 2 Europe, so perhaps these mods are broken due to this new patch? 

[Slushie 1]

UPDATE: Ok, so I removed my effects folder, and the FPS loss was still there, however it was a little less pronounced. So with default effects  and none of Stary's outstanding effects =[ I had to turn the setting down to medium. This doesn't make sense to me. I have a Nvidia Geforce GTX 560. Why are default effects having to be set so low all of a sudden? At medium on the effects the game becomes playable again, but still this is frustrating because it used to play on Unlimited with Stary's Awesome Cumulative Effects Pack and ran well above 60FPS. I have videos recorded with FRAPS to prove this as well, and if anyone's ever used FRAPs you'll know what a horrible resource hog that is, and yet those videos were recorded on Unlimited with no stuttering at 1080p.

 

I'm baffled to say the least.

The rundown of my changes:

Removed Stary's Cumulative Effects Pack   (Was able to keep Stary's SARCASM Mod tho! )

Object detail to medium,

Object Textures to medium

Cockpit Textures to High

ground objects, water, and vanilla effects to medium.

Horizon Distance to Normal

Terrain Detail still Unlimited (Thank God because I also have Desert V3 and Stary's GermanyCE terrain mods)

Terrain Texture to High

 

 

 

I've got my frames back...  but I'm miffed to say the least. My rig's setup shouldn't require me to do this...especially when everything listed above used to be unlimited. 

[+NeverEnough 78]

A GTX 560 video card should be able to run everything comfortably.  You might try updating to the latest Nvidia video drivers, if you are not currently running them. My prior video card was a GTX 470, and everything ran great as long as I reduced Horizon Distance from unlimited to normal. 

[Slushie 1]

It would make sense that it could be my drivers, as the game ran completely fine before I installed the latest driver from NVIDIA. So now that I have the newest drivers, I'm almost certain it's related, as my other graphically intense games like Il-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover and Skyrim run on high settings with no FPS loss. Since Strike Fighters 2 is older, I wonder if the new driver doesnt support it.

[MigBuster 2,884]

Yes you get good and bad drivers - especially with older games - I still use an older driver for Falcon 4s benefit - newer ones will work but its often a case of trial and error.

[Slushie 1]

Yes you get good and bad drivers - especially with older games - I still use an older driver for Falcon 4s benefit - newer ones will work but its often a case of trial and error.

 

I'm beginning to just accept this fact. These newest drivers had resolved some other issues that were plaguing me in my other newer games, so I'm hesitant to rollback. More testing shows me that I can leave everything on high and unlimited except for the effects option, which I can turn down to medium. In all honesty, I guess that's not too much of a sacrifice. I'm going to add in Stary's Cumulative Effects Pack again at medium, and see if it'll perform at 60 FPS like vanilla has been on the medium setting. 

 

My next question, is a bit random. Playing with the MiG-15 BIS mod I recently installed I was able to take out 2 F-4 phantoms before I was shot down by the sidewinder I didn't see, but during this time with no damage whatsoever I noticed that as I'm flying, it seems as though the plane would randomly start turning, as though my joystick was out of calibration. However, my stick in calibrated, and I can clearly see the virtual flight yoke in the cockpit view, and it was not moving, however the plane starts to randomly go into a left hand roll every once in awhile. Is this a borked file somewhere in the plane, or is this something that a real MiG-15 would do? I can't remember my speeds. so perhaps I was going beyond the plane's limitations and thusly it was affected?

 

This is the MiG-15 bis "Fagot B" by Paulopanz found here: http://combatace.com/files/file/14610-mig-15bis-fagot-b/

 

Thanks again you guys for your help and suggestions. It's a great community here that I'm grateful to be a part of. 

[MigBuster 2,884]

Are you saying it was rolling to one side like it wasn't trimmed properly (or had more weight on one wing like a single drop tank?).

 

If its only this jet then - was it rolling for the entire flight?

 

Could be FM error

Could be you were hit by flak did you have any stores

Could be an old bug - jettison stores used to fix it (there is no trim in this)

[Slushie 1]

Are you saying it was rolling to one side like it wasn't trimmed properly (or had more weight on one wing like a single drop tank?).

 

If its only this jet then - was it rolling for the entire flight?

 

Could be FM error

Could be you were hit by flak did you have any stores

Could be an old bug - jettison stores used to fix it (there is no trim in this)

 

I was not hit by any ground fire, as there were no AA emplacements or SAMs in the area. I was not damaged by another plane, as this was happening before my flight even engaged the enemy F-4's.

 

I tested it again on a bomber intercept against IL-28's and I notice this happens whenever my speed exceeds 800 knots IAS. So, I'm beginning to think it's part of the plane's modeling to simulate the real MiG-15, although I still haven't been able to confirm that MiG-15's in real life had this issue. It's almost as if the plane wants to stall, it begins to act random, and whichever wing it wants will begin to dip downward and the whole plane begins to shake. I'm thinking this is a feature of the FM and not an error. 

 

ALSO some great news! All of my settings are back to unlimited on Strike Fighters 2 with absolutely no loss in FPS. My frames are now sticking around the 40-60 mark! The culprit?

 

When I updated my Nvidia drivers, I elected to do a clean install, as I had begun to think my previous drivers had somehow gotten corrupted. The clean install of my drivers absolutely solved all the problems I was having, right up until I got into Strike Fighters 2. I was baffled. Well, it turns out, in my Nvidia Control Panel Settings, Vsync was forced on for Strike Fighters 2 (apparently a default setting for Nvidia Cards)

 

I do not know why having Vsync enabled in the control panel was the cause of all my problems, but turning it off has solved everything. Admittedly there is a very tiny amount of screen tearing if I pan my view really quickly in the cockpit, but that does not bother me in the least. What bothered me was the absolute garbage for frames I was getting in one of my most cherished games, lol.

 

Apparently an older game like Strike Fighters 2 does not like Vertical Synchronization enabled. Which is strange, because I don't have that problem with any of my other games.

 

So for anyone who may be having the same mind-boggling, infuriating issue where you have a machine more than capable of running Strike Fighters 2, but it's suddenly running like crap, check your graphic card's settings and see if it's forcing something.    

Edited March 24, 2014 by Hero540

[Fubar512 1,350]

Does this occur over a certain airspeed?  The MiG-15, MiG-17, and the F-86 all suffered from wing warp, which would cause the aircraft to roll into the effected wing surface. In the case of the F-86, this generally occurred above 675 MPH at low altitude, on the MiGs, it occurred anywhere from 400-485 knots.

[Slushie 1]

Does this occur over a certain airspeed?  The MiG-15, MiG-17, and the F-86 all suffered from wing warp, which would cause the aircraft to roll into the effected wing surface. In the case of the F-86, this generally occurred above 675 MPH at low altitude, on the MiGs, it occurred anywhere from 400-485 knots.

 

Fubar, you're the man! Check my post just above yours, I think you hit the nail on the head. It happens whenever I exceed 800 (whichever unit of measurement the Russians use) on the airspeed dial. I said knots in my above post, but I guess it's not measuring that. 

[Fubar512 1,350]

That 800 is in KPH.  And, it appears that Paulo is using some of the same parameters that I used in the MiG-15 FM that I penned up for the KAW mod, so it is not an issue, it is there by design.