rec.autos.simulators

   Wow.

   Patches 1 and 2 went on without a hitch.  

   Maxed sound and visuals, to see how hard my P3/600/V5 would
cry.  Loaded newest Fraps.  

   At Sepang:

   Ok, it's not perfect, but surprisingly smooth.  10 FPS on
the back of the full field start grid, pops up to high 20s,
mid 30s even with cars in view out on less visually complex
sections of track.  That's as good as the movies.  Second
time past front straight drags it down to 15 with intricate
grandstand on left and pits on right.  It's so beautiful, I
might be able to live with it as is.  

   Monaco?  No way.  It's a slide show.  Nice to finally go
downhill from *** to Marabeau after the uphill and flat
representation of that section in the last two EA F1 titles.  

   I haven't tried anything else, not even my favorite, Spa.  

   So, I'm looking for the "sweet spot" of tuning down the
sound or display to get a good look and a smooth race.  I
have a feeling that for anything but Monaco, it should be
close right now.  Monaco will be tougher.  What visual or
audio settings do people lower that have the most benefit
for the frame rates and the least impact on the graphics?  

   I did take a look at Deja, but there are lots of posts
there and I didn't see this addressed in any subject lines.  

                                                    Thanks
                                                    Larry

                                          Larry

  That's your biggest framerate fix right there.  Lower the color resolution
to 16, lower your screen rez to something like 12x10 or 10x7 and choose
medium graphic details in the game.  With the ol V5 you might want to go
even lower with the screen resolution and enable 2xfsaa.
dave henrie

you don't need fraps either, just hit ctrl-f

--
Joe Marques

   Thanks.  

   The frame rates, reported by FRAPS and <CTL F>, were about
the same, but there is now question that the racing is much
better.  

   I'm having trouble dropping the display quality, it looks
so nice, but the sim, even at Monaco, is completely drivable.  

   I might try dropping res further and using FSAA, as Dave
suggested.  

                                                      Thanks
                                                      Larry

The V5 is clocked at 176 and the Athlon is an unlocked 1.2 running with a
140FSB and x10 multiplier. I can just run it at 10.5x133, but I get better
speeds with the higher FSB.

I get an average of 30-40fps, with highs of 60-70 and lows of 20-25. The
only time I get the 20fps is with the GT v2 mod and only then on the start
finish straight with lots of cars. I've lowered the visible cars to 10 and
that certainly helps with the stuttering I used to get on the start walk
through.

Incidentally I tried running at 640x480x32 and 800x600x32 with 2x & 4xFSAA
and there wasn't a big enough difference compared to 1280x1024x32 to warrant
using it.

I rarely ever use the FSAA at all, with games like Unreal Tournament, I can
run it perfectly at 1600x1200x32, and still get 50fps, and it looks every
bit as good as it does with 4xFSAA enabled at 800x600x32. I'd rather have
higher resolutions myself... after all what's the point of having a huge
monitor capable of 1920x1440x32x70hz if you can't make use of the higher res
in games.

Heckler