Zooming in on foliage = bad FPS

[Sephisto 1]

If I use a scope (binocs/sniper rifle) to zoom in on foliage in the distance my FPS will drop a bit, this makes it even harder to shoot. When I look into the sky or an open field while zoomed in my FPS is fine.

I tried changing Video Memory from Very High to Default but it still happens..

My PC is alright too..

W7 64-bit Home Premium

i7 920 @ 3.8 Ghz

HD Radeon 5870

12 GB RAM

Any help please?

[[frl]myke 14]

A screenshot of your ingame video settings might help.

[Sephisto 1]

Here you go

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/973/settingsd.jpg (110 kB)

[[frl]myke 14]

Raise shadow quality by one notch, besides of this everything looks fine.

Would you care to pass a few numbers about the FPS you have and what you expect to have?

[Sephisto 1]

I usually range from 40-70, depending where I am. I took a couple screenshots showing FPS now after raising Shadow Detail.. I think it actually made an improvement when looking at foliage. I remember having 25-30 FPS when looking at foliage, so big improvement now!

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7488/arma2oa20120708164018.jpg (644 kB) Not zoomed in

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/6480/arma2oa20120708164046.jpg (563 kB) Zoomed in

[[frl]myke 14]

I think this should now be playable. ;)

A short explanation why actually raising shadow quality results in better FPS. There are 2 different methods/algorithms to calculate shadow. One uses the CPU and is active on normal settings or lower. The other uses the GPU and is used on high/very high. Since ArmA 2 puts heavy load on the CPU, taking away the shadow calculation and move it to the GPU (which often has enough resources to handle this additional load) results in higher FPS.

[Sephisto 1]

Ah I see, good to know! Much appreciated, thanks :P!

[MavericK96 0]

I had similar issues, and turning down Anti-Aliasing helped a lot with that specific problem.

[NeuroFunker 11]

yes, i have turned AA completly off, instead using ultra SMAA, also setting object details to normal helps a lot at overall performance.

[domokun 515]

NeuroFunker: tried setting AToC=0

It is one of many tweaks listed in this post:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?85124-ArmA2-OA-%28low%29-performance-issues&p=2081466#post2081466

[daleyg 0]

Thanks for clearing that up [FRL]Myke,

I din't know setting shadows to High forces it to use GPU, this applies for ARMA2, Arrowhead, or both?

Could be usefull for my dual core.

[[frl]myke 14]

Thanks for clearing that up [FRL]Myke,

I din't know setting shadows to High forces it to use GPU, this applies for ARMA2, Arrowhead, or both?

Could be usefull for my dual core.

Afaik it applies to all games using the RV engine (this includes ToH).