Video Options

[MAA3057 0]

I have some questions regarding the video options on OFP. I have a fairly powerful machine when speaking in OFP terms so options on high are recommended.

Under video options what is Framerate supposed to be? I know what framerates are and how they work, but what significance does this option serve in the game itself? Also what is this Refreshrate? If on low will that make my eyeballs catch on fire? Should it be on 85Hz?

Now I got one question on the Advance Preference box. Under the textures tab, displays resolutions for Cockpits, Objects, Landscape and Special Effects. Is it recommended to raise it all the way to 4096x4096 if on a powerful PC? 4096x4096 is pretty drastic from 64x64.

[Sgt Anderson 0]

ok im no expert on this stuff (someone WILL correct me if im wrong;p) but the frame rate option (when lowered) will use the lower detaled versions (LODS) of objects generally reserved for rendering in distance, but are used instead closer to player to increase frame rate at the loss of quality of objects etc.

Refesh rates are specific to your monitor.  Check your monitor manual, or advanced options in display properties of windows for that info on COMPATIBLE refresh rates for your monitor.

As far as the Advanced Preference stuff is concerned, this tells OFP what resolution (maximum) to use for ingame textures.  Textures for this game are generally no higher than 1024x1024 ever.

[Heatseeker 0]

The frame rate slider reduces detail in an atempt to increase and maintain your frame rates/performance, the result is very constant lod switching making your OPF look quite bad if you set it too high.

You will notice everything around you switching to low detail lods much faster in an atempt to maintain better performance (in detailed or crowded areas, combat situations, etc), it doesnt really help much and the visual impact might make you cry.. If you decrease it you will have a smoother looking game at the cost of performance, set it to medium and its a good balance/compromise.

The diference betwean the frame rate and the visual quality sliders is that the frame rate one should only scale down visual quality when under stress (i think...)

The refresh rate sets your max display refresh rate, i cant explain it much better... lets see, if you run at 1280x1024x75hz your frame rate will be capped at 75 fps, its how fast your monitor will refresh the data send to it by the gpu or something like that..

(Some tech nerd feel free to step in now, im lost) .

The texture resolutions in the preferences utility wont go that high so i think you can max them out in OPF (i dont remember the max resolutions) but i dont advise you to do so in vbs since i believe the ground textures can go up to 2048x2048 and it might slow things down. Personaly i have everything at 1024x1024 just in case.

I increased the special effects one the other day and i think it made the sun look much better/shinier, i think the special fx one includes the lights, explosions and well... special fx.

Someone correct me if im wrong .

edit:

Sgt Anderson was faster...

[MAA3057 0]

Thanks! These replies were much help.

Heatseeker:

I always had the framerate option on maximum thinking that 'more is better' (in this case, in the visual aspect). When flying in helicopters I noticed that chunks of the forest would have a 'shift' in the LODs as I approached. I always thought it was apart of the engine. Right now I am testing these settings on VBS1, so I will have to see how it differs in OFP when it comes to the ground textures. I did notice a significant drop in framerates though.

[olemissrebel 0]

My default is 1440 by 900 by 32, with either 60 or 59 refresh rate. My question is, if i switch to 16 bit, is there actually a performance increase (i haven't noticed, and have switched back and forth over the years) also, if i manually set my graphics card to a custom refresh of 100, and OFP's to 100, can that allow the framerate to increase, or does it have nothing to do with it?

[Heatseeker 0]

16 bit will improve performance if you have a graphics card that isnt suitable for gaming and very ancient like a tnt2 (when OPF came out i ran in 16 bit for a while so i could up the resolution ).

Your refresh rate wont improve performance, it will cap your max frame rate but anything around 40 or 50 shouldnt be noticeable unless your CPU is under stress and the game is acting jerky. Your performance depends on your settings and harware, you dont need more than 60 fps so 60hz refresh rate should be fine.