Shape changing trees

[sudayev 27]

I switched to GF7600 and I experience (escpecially on nam maps) something like treetops "flickering". The tree coronas change its shape from ugly blur to more detailed when you approach very, very close. Before the graphic card upgrade I`ve been using Fx5600agp and this shape change happened only at far distances. This is very annoying because it diverts attraction from spotting the VC in jungle to graphical issues.

Do you know what might be the problem ?

[Risasi 0]

Did you upgrade your video drivers after changing cards?

I noticed similar changes when cycling through different cards and not completely removing and reinstalling the video card driver.

[sudayev 27]

I tried with different driver versions and it didnt bring any changes to tree display.

[Pulverizer 1]

Try changing the lod settings via flashpointpreferences.exe and lower the fps value in the game's video options menu.

[sanctuary 19]

If changing the ingame settings (framerate slider to low and quality slider to high) and the preferences executable is not enough, try this that some people suggested on the forum some years ago :

-Open your Flashpoint.cfg and find the following

LOD=...

Limit_LOD=...

Textures_Drop_Down=...

and change these into :

LOD="0.005000";

Limit_LOD="0.005000";

Textures_Drop_Down=0;

save the changes (additionally ingame video options set your have framerate slider to low and quality to high)

That should force the first resolution lods to stay present in longer distance instead of switching more quickly to distant res lods.

[sudayev 27]

Quote[/b] ]If changing the ingame settings (framerate slider to low and quality slider to high) and the preferences executable is not enough, try this that some people suggested on the forum some years ago :

-Open your Flashpoint.cfg and find the following

LOD=...

Limit_LOD=...

Textures_Drop_Down=...

and change these into :

LOD="0.005000";

Limit_LOD="0.005000";

Textures_Drop_Down=0;

save the changes (additionally ingame video options set your have framerate slider to low and quality to high)

That should force the first resolution lods to stay present in longer distance instead of switching more quickly to distant res lods.

Thanks Sanctuary. This trick works fine but there`s another more serious problem. After the grahic card change I never played ofp longer than 30 minutes because this anomalies were annoying me (Ii am very picky guy). So I did tweak the .cfg file but after more than 30 mins of playing the game has crashed. I tested it three times and it happened every time I tested. Then I installed few more games and I noticed white artifacts (but no artifacts in ofp and vice city, which is strange). Methinks that the card is damaged. This is the new stuff and warranty is still hot.

[sanctuary 19]

For the 30 mn crash,

Try to setup the Flashpoint.cfg to default and then ingame only, move the video quality slider to max and the framerate slider to low , to see if the lod switching problem is always as heavy as in your 1st post.

Letting the lod to default should lower the game intensity on your card, as there are less optimised addons that are having way too many polygons in their 1st lods can then create a performance problem with the Flashpoint.cfg customised setting of the previous post.

And performance is very linked to stability in OFP.

Are your crashes occuring with a specific mod, or have you tried with BIS default unmodded game, to see if the stability problem could be related to the mod you are playing with.

Something to try, to lower the load on your cg, would be to lower the view distance (default was 900 if i remember well, try not more than 1500) and the terrain detail (put it to low instead of normal) and lower the texture resolution in your FlashpointPreferences.exe (or edit them manually in the Flashpoint.cfg)

Another point of problem is related directly to the CG driver.

With Nvidia, the big problem "latest drivers" is very different from best drivers. Usually latest nvidia drivers are nearly for the latest games out, and there are lot of chances to break older games in some way.

I remember the old Operation IGI , nvidia broken the interface of the game (most of it became invisible) in a specific driver (the 20 serie if i remember well) , and none of the later driver repaired the problem.

So basically if someone would like to play this oldie with a nvidia card he would have to install a very old driver (that can't be used with recent nvidia card anyways).

So try to use an older driver with your new CG, but if possible try to use the drivers that were delivered with you new card, there is a good possibility those drivers that came with your card will be more stable with your game and CG temperature than any of the most recent nvidia ones.