Fraps

[Fabregas 10]

So, does anybody know if FRAPS actually works for Arma 2? I've seen a couple of mentions that it might be reporting the wrong fps. Personally it's telling me I'm getting 25-28 fps but it seems a lot smoother than that would suggest.

Can anybody suggest any other software to try out just in case Fraps is indeed getting it wrong.

Cheers

[Bulldogs 10]

Check if you have the latest version of Fraps.. that said, i have the latest version and it doesn't seem accurate to me (my fps seems to high)

[bushlurker 46]

I mistrust Fraps a little myself...

Someone suggested EVGAPrecision - which I've just downloaded but haven't looked at yet... I think someone said it was Nvidia only though....

However - while searching for FPS counter myself I found this little thread started by BenniM in "addons and mods - suggestions"

It looks like one of the new scripting commands is an inbuilt FPS count.... You're unlikely to get more accurate a figure than a clock from the game engine.....

I'm watching this thread hoping someone will pick up on the idea... You can try it yourself - just paste that code into an "init.sqf" and throw it in beside a mission.sqm in the editor

it appears in a arma2 style "hintbox" and matches the GUI nicely.....

A properly made little self initialising script using this command would give a nice wee fps counter available in any mission or in the editor in preview - VERY handy!

Any scripters around??

B

[hoak 0]

FRAPS uses a driver that gets it's frame rate info from the DirectX API, and while it should be accurate for all DX games, some have argued the overhead of the driver and the way it works may make FRAPS telemetry inaccurate with some games and/or under really heavy loads.

One application you can try if you're using Nvidia hardware is EVGA Precision, this works with any Nvidia video card, and the On-Screen Display Server (which is the part we're interested in here) may actually work with ATi cards as well as the application was coded by the same feller that makes RivaTuner.

EVGA Precision's On-Screen Display Server is probably the most state-of-the-art tool currently available for this sort of thing as you'll see from all its control options, it's also FREE. Of course the best and most accurate telemetry would come from ArmA II RV engine itself -- but it's present ms output needs some deobfuscation so we can know what it means.

:)

[bushlurker 46]

"Let Deobfuscation Commence!".... hehe - like the word...

Yes - the output seems to consist of quite a few decimal places... theres a seperate command for minimum framerate as well as average, etc..... I wouldnt be surprised if an Arma2FPS appears once Hoak's amusingly-named procedure gets tackled by someone who knows what they're doing.....

B

PS - EVGAPrecision installed fine on Windows7 x64 - seems to work fine...

[hoak 0]

Actually deobfuscation is a word that I think was coined by Wikipeida, regarding exactly this sort of thing, or when there were multiple different entries of the same title...

Some nice features EVGA Precision offers are that it installs no Ring-0 driver so nothing is running when the program isn't (unlike FRAPS), has a very tidy installer and no DRM to junk up your registry -- so it's very 'safe' to try out...

:)

[bushlurker 46]

Sadly it also clashes horribly with the modified dxd9.dll I use as part of my Kegetys' SoftTH triplehead rig... Fraps does it too... hence my search for an alternative...

A pity... EVGAPrecision looks great! (And works fine when I'm in singlescreen 1920x1200 mode)...

B

Edited June 30, 2009 by Bushlurker

[jaundiced 10]

i've personally started to think that perhaps the quick fix DX9 Steam overlay is being read for FRAPS - or rather, is overriding ARMA II.

when i change settings the frame count rockets up to say 35fps, then in a matter of seconds is back down to 20-21fps again.

considering they had to release a beta steam candidate to circumvent issues this wouldn't surprise me at all - considering the overlay is admittedly a DX9 instruction call.

am i crazy? or possibly on to something?

[hoak 0]

No, you're not crazy, in fact I see better frame rates windowed then in a full-screen view port of the same resolution, and that's the opposite of how things should be. DirectX pretty much is the end-all of the render backplane on Windows and is responsible for a lot more then many assume. A good analogy is the Microsoft NTFS defragmentor API; there are a bizillion defrag tools, but in order to do what they do, they all have to use Microsoft's API, and at the lowest level they all do the same thing -- of course there are 'tricks' and work-arounds for some of the limitations and issues in the API, and that's where a lot of money is made.

Unfortunately we can't easily swap out different versions of DirectX, and being able to would probably cause as many problems then it solves with drivers being optimized on specific version of DirectX... Worse, Microsoft is obviously more interested (financially motivated) in getting Developers and End Users 'on-board' with DirectX 11 (and is up to all sorts of no good to 'psych up the retards for another trip to the zoo') -- so a lot of the challenge BI faces in scaling their game across a multitude of systems has as much to do with messed up or poorly DirectX system internals as how they use them.

I hope we see BI with the resources and motivation to roll OpenGL render support on their engine; a lot of work to be sure, it should make resolving a lot of these sorts of issues a lot easier to fix in the long haul, make for a better performing renderer in most cases, and obviously give BI and their games complete platform independence...

:butbut:

[Bulldogs 10]

I tested out running Evga precision and Fraps at the same time. The framerates I'm getting are roughly the same (evga updates faster) but they seem to be spot on now (although, I rarely had a problem with it, except in heavy fog areas)

That said, while running EVga precision, the game is running smoother... no idea why.

[rocket 9]

I run an extremely old version of Fraps to take my screenshots for my Maule, and it gave me accurate FPS readings.

[MegaSevan 10]

Same issue here. No matter what settings I put, my FPS reads 23-25 frames a second. Only in the menu screen do I see 25+ in the 60s and 80s.

[Hans Ludwig 0]

I tested out running Evga precision and Fraps at the same time. The framerates I'm getting are roughly the same (evga updates faster) but they seem to be spot on now (although, I rarely had a problem with it, except in heavy fog areas)

That said, while running EVga precision, the game is running smoother... no idea why.

Sooo what are you trying to say?

[MegaSevan 10]

the evga tool gives me slightly higher fps, but it's roughly the same. I still think there is some kind of inaccuracy in the fps reporting, at least in single player mode. Neither the evga program or fraps should have a significant impact on performance.

I've also noticed that even though post processing says it's on high, it's actually disabled until I switch it to very high, or back to low then back to high, on start up.

Edited July 1, 2009 by MegaSevan

[Bulldogs 10]

I think it comes down to the API. Fraps and Evga will be accurate for most machines but inaccurate with some (conflict between Fraps and how Directx handles Arma 2 on your computer)

I can tell you that when I am above 30 fps I have extremely smooth gameplay, when it go's below 28 I start to notice lag. Having Anistrophic filtering on helps.