Some advice tweaking ofp

[zeep 3]

I would like your advice for the best performance / detail balanced setting for my system. (tcw , rh and res)

My current settings are ok i guess but i'd like to know your opinions about it.

My main gripe is that trees 'change' so much when i look at them. The closer i get then they get more detail ofcourse but i feel maybe it could be tweaked.

My specs: a7v8x-x + recent via4in1 drivers, athlon xp 2400+, 512 ddr 400mhz, win 98se, sblive, gf 2 pro 64mb + det 45.23

I have the Goty installed and left all settings at default. (score 5357)

Resolution - 1027x786x32

Performance:

-total mem 496mb

-tex / file heap max (16)

-geometry performance 5216 ( What setting should i use here? I've read that setting it to max doesn't affect performance?)

Effects: All on/max

Textures:

All are 2048x2048 but

special effects 64x64

Auto drop-down x4 ( Should i change it? )

Details:

Max objects = max

Objects LOD = 0.019

Shadows LOD = 0.050

In game video:

1024x768x32 / default refresh ( properties set to 100hz, vsync app)

All settings Enabled

Frame rate 18..36 (what does this do exactly?)

Visual quality 8..20

Visibility 1008

Terrain detail = Normal

Audio:

Hardware acc Enabled.

EAX off

Voices all

If you have a suggestion please let me know.

One more question, if i put a radeon 9800pro in my pc will opf run better than it does now with a gf2pro? I mean, the ofp engine is sort of dated so maybe ( like the UT engine ) is relies more on cpu than gpu power.

Thanks for your help.

[theavonlady 2]

Search The FAQ for terms such as "tweak" and performance".

[zeep 3]

Hi there:)

I have searched the faq. More than once too

[Guest]

Price vs Performance I'd say you would get a better hit from VGA update rather than CPU. 2400+ is still quite compeditive, whilst a GeF2Pro is....not the latest. Also Terrain detail is probably the single largest factor in frame rate....so if you are unhappy with your FPS, try turning it down to Low (to test....try turning it up to Very High...and enjoy the 2 or 3 frames you will see lol). Also set object textures to 1024 (nobody uses higher than that AFAIK), landscape textures to 512 (again, same reason), and cockpit to 1024 or lower (mine is set to 64....since I always use external view in vehicles anyway).

Also...try turning on EAX if your card will support it ok. It's lovely! And turn frame rate right up.

There you go.

[thirtyg 0]

One more question, if i put a radeon 9800pro in my pc will opf run better than it does now with a gf2pro? I mean, the ofp engine is sort of dated so maybe ( like the UT engine ) is relies more on cpu than gpu power.

I recently updated from a standard Geforce 3 (clock to GF3 Ti500 specs) to a 256mb DDR II 9800pro, other than the fact i can now boil water with the heat the ram produces i noticed some benefits in OFP. I was able to play with higher LODs, i also could increase the res to 1600x1200 and increase the view distance. It made very little difference to the landscape textures.

Edit

More RAM may also help, you should check your memory usuage while playing flashpoint, u'll probably find that your using more that just your RAM.

However any performance gains were limited on my computer because it is clogged full of crap (case and disk) and is in desperate need of a reformat and some dusting.

[Greg 0]

From my experience with OFP and hardware, I got the most speed increase moving from a Pentium3-450 to a Athlon XP2100. The difference from a Geforce3 to a GeforceFX5800 meant almost nothing except that I could run at almost any resolution (I currently use 1280x1024 just so I can set monitor to 100hz) with no performance decrease. It is my opinion that the game is particularly sensitive to CPU and RAM speed, so the fastest combo of CPU and RAM will help you. For example, on my 1.3ghz machine with 100mhz ram, the game is WAY slower than it was on my older 1.2ghz system with 266mhz RAM. You can happily run the game with a Geforce2 so long as you stick to 640x480 or such, but slow the CPU or RAM and you will have a hard time even aiming properly.

Also note that the official missions tend to perform WAY faster than the user made missions, because many of the users do not configure the missions correctly, or they create the mission for their own 'ultra' machine. The official missions were probably tested to work on the recommended minimum machine and the developers understood the cost of doing things, that's perhaps why they didn't go mental, like some user missions/mods have with particle effects everywhere.

As a little proof of the CPU/RAM bound nature of the game, run the Battlefields mission. Notice that after everyone is dead, your frame rate is about 3x higher (using FRAPS) than it was before, yet the ground is covered in more bodies and vehicles than you started with. The AI slows the game significantly, so it's up to the level designers to get it right, or you to add more power, because lowering the resolution and turning off shadows only goes so far.