so 25 fps in chernogorsk missions - on normal and very high

[jasonnoguchi 11]

^.. same for me at 500m and 8000m VD.

[-=seany=- 5]

As far as I've noticed so far it only has happened in multiplayer for me. There is something some stopping me from getting more than around 25-30 FPS. No matter if my settings are high or very low, I cannot pass the 30FPS boundary. Domination is one of the only missions I know that causes this every time.

The ticket/issue on dev-heaven is marked as rejected.

I cant tell if it is the server or the client that is controlling the Max FPS in online coops when there are alot of AI present. I do find it surprising that the clients seem to have to calculate the AI the same as the server does. I have also asked other people when online if they can get higher than my max fps and some say yes.

Try hosting and playing a domination mission on your own pc, you will see your FPS are exactly the same as when playing on a server.

I also have discovered that certain amounts of AI cause a CPU limited FPS wall of 25-30fps eg:

30 AI = 45FPS (turning down my GFX/VD will increase it)

60 AI = 30FPS (turning down gfx/VD does nothing for FPS)

90 AI =28 -30fps (Lowering gfx/VD again does nothing)

Technically this quite a good feature as it is like the game can tell when you are getting to low FPS and start scaling back the calculations, or somthing.

However, my main disappointment is that online the severs are not taking the brunt of AI calculations as I thought they would. They just seem to handle network traffic and that's it.

[DokiDoki 10]

I have it also, but not AI related or at least it seems. If I only load Chernarus in the editor it goes already something between 20 - 25 fps no matter where. Can go lower even in cities. Does not matter wether I play on full settings or lowest. The fps difference is only around 2 or 3 or so.

Utes runs a lot better, but where I get real good performance is with CAA1 on Sahrani (also United Sahrani with quite some AI). I get there a nice FPS which is between 40 - 60 depending on situation full settings. Arma 2 performs here actually better for me than Arma 1.

[ModeZt 0]

Maybe we should report it into the bugtracker? I can't belive it's normal that client's fps is limited by the number of AIs on the server.

[.kju 3244]

Did you make sure V-Snyc is off?

[Dead3yez 0]

Try hosting and playing a domination mission on your own pc, you will see your FPS are exactly the same as when playing on a server.

I also have discovered that certain amounts of AI cause a CPU limited FPS wall of 25-30fps eg:

30 AI = 45FPS (turning down my GFX/VD will increase it)

60 AI = 30FPS (turning down gfx/VD does nothing for FPS)

90 AI =28 -30fps (Lowering gfx/VD again does nothing)

I ran the domination on my PC, during the intro I am getting about 50FPS on normal settings, very soon after I believe AI starts to spawn, then again I am limited to about 30FPS.

After reading your post I did some tests with AI, placed about 15 groups each with a simple waypoint on utes. Was limited with FPS again, whether settings were on very high or very low, this made no difference. With about 30 AI there were no dramatic effects on performance, only what should be expected.

I am running:

Phenom II 965 BE X4 @ 3.55Ghz

4GB DDR3 ram

260GTX 896mb

X-fi extreme gamer

XP32

@ 1920x1200

All with latest BIOS, drivers etc.

[edit]

Suggestion made in suggestions section:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=91860

Also you can find there a link to the issue tracker where you can vote.

Edited December 15, 2009 by Dead3yez

[galzohar 31]

In the city I made, the FPS difference is very clear between running the mission on my PC that needs to handle both the AI and the graphics, as opposed to running it on some dedicated server so my PC only needs to handle the graphics. The latter gives pretty much the same FPS for me as if there were no AI in there. Also since it's dense it needs a lot less AI to start causing FPS drops - max I could get on the dedicated server while keeping FPS above 20 is 75, max I could get offline is ~35 (that is, when each unit is in its own group, otherwise the maximum number of AI is lower).

Also, when FPS drops are caused by AI you see it spiking like crazy even though there aren't any textures loading, probably because AI calculations only happen once in a while but when they happen they take a lot of CPU power.

Using i7-920 at stock clock here and an HD4890, running textures/objects on "high", PP effects off and everything else on max, 3500 VD. I could max everything out when playing in the open and/or in small towns, but then I'd have some FPS drops in Chernogorsk and in the city I made (which surprisingly isn't a lot more intense than Chernogorsk graphics-wise).

[jasonnoguchi 11]

It sounds like you have a HDD bottleneck there. Chernogork has a LOT of textures loading and textures are bottlenecked at the HDD for high end rigs.

[Yapab 10]

Never saw this thread but would like to say that I've had the same problem.

In the towns/cities the FPS is never past 24.... however in a dense forest the FPS is 60+.

Also in the campaign the fps is always around 20-24... never more even on LOW settings, very annoying and hard to play :(

[bono_lv 10]

Same problem here.

And some weird findings.

-) If I join "Hold" game type server where is no AI, performance is soooo smooth. Never drops below 40 fps, with exception - big cities. There I have same magic number - 24 fps. Sad that there is only few "Hold" servers.

-) If I join in progress to CTI server. Yup. 24 fps. But if I join CTI server from mission start - performance is smooth for some time. But it becomes worse with each minute.

-) If I join COOP Evolution/Domination to empty server - performance is actually good. But if there's already about 15-30 other players, performance can change from acceptable to bad.

Did you make sure V-Snyc is off?

Yes.

So from my experience I can make some guesses.

-) There must be done some graphics/models/shaders optimizations for buildings.

-) Playing multiplayer, clientside still utilizes cpu for AI calculations.

-) Serverside limits clientside max fps. I believe for solving some desync problems.

Perhaps last two guesses happens at the same time. I do not state that I'm talking true, I'm just guessing and sugesting developers to test some things.

[harryohh 10]

ya same proble here too.

In manhatten my fps never goes above mid twenties regardless of video settings.the difference between all lows and all highs is about 2fps.

I have a core i7 and a HD 4850.

[tonedog12 2]

so with all the latest beta i still struggle to get over 20 fps in these campaign missions.

[NeMeSiS 11]

This one is pretty heavy on the CPU IIRC, not much you can do about that except turning off all unnecessary background programs and overclocking. Also putting shadows on high instead of normal or low may help a bit.