rec.autos.simulators

I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of
details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem
not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this
a commonly known problem? Any advice?

My system is:

Radeon 9600 XT-4
driver version 6.14.10.6414

Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz

Thanks in advance!

Arto
--

Try changing the shaders to something other than you currently use.  I know
with my system (high low-ended, I guess) I use DX7 for shaders for the best
performance.  You might also check for background programs running,
especially virus programs.  Try and empty out all unnecessary programs,
using maybe EnditAll 2, and then bring them back one by one, if the problem
was solved through emptying.  Also, fiddle a bit with the sound and try
turning vsync on or off, etc.

You could also try different video drivers.  I know I have a nVidia 5700
card and the best drivers for me are the 78.03s.

Alanb

   How much RAM do you have?  Is this at every track or certain ones only?
Have you locked down your swap file?(yes this old win9x trick did wonders
for my memory limited system with GTR) Shadows seem to have a big affect.
The first addon track(lime rock) had a patch to improve fps due to how the
trees where handled.  The readme for Birmingham recomends a couple of
settings to improve fps.  Check those out.  Good luck.

dave henrie

Turning off FSAA fixed it, even if it isn't quite as pretty.  :(

Mr Q
-------------------

I had the same problem occur when fiddling with graphics options, when I
changed AGP Aperture (in BIOS) from 128Mb to 32Mb. Turned in back up to
256Mb and problem disappears.

Hope that helps.

Ade.

    Step 1 - turn down drawn opponents. This is especially critical in this
sim since all the cars are in the pits even when the driver isn't in it so
passing the pits can cause big probs as can any time when a lot of cars are
in view. Got mine set to 8.

your advice helped and now rFactor is running quite smoothly.

I list below what I did and what I did not.
Perhaps this list may help others, too? As some kind of remainder?

(My system is Radeon 9600 XT-4, Pentium 4 3.20GHz 1024MB)

1)  I chose the "DX7 (performance)". Not too ugly.
2)  I did not stop _all_ the other the programs, but I
    stopped nearly all the programs started by me: browser
    windows etc. I think 1024MB memory is enough, when unnecessary
    programs are stopped.
3)  vsync is off.
4)  I did not update the video drivers.
5)  I did not lock down the swap file.
6)  I set the shadows off. Not too big loss of immersion.
7)  I did not dare to touch the FSAA.
8)  The passing hidden AI cars near the pit lane really
    seemed to be often the place where fps's dropped!
    Strange: does the program draw also hidden objects?
    See comment 10 below.
9)  I did not dare to touch the AGP Aperture settings in BIOS.
10) I turned down to 8 the number of opponents drawn. It would be
    nice to be able to set that asymmetrically: more cars drawn in
    front of you than behind. Now with the setting 8 the popping cars
    in front of you is a little disturbing... I must try something
    like 10-12?

There are so many combinations of settings that it is really complicated
to test, which changes had biggest effects...

BTW:  Is there any easy way to see the fps's in rFactor, like alt-F?
BTW2: To me rFactor looks promising. After GPL there has been so many
      disappointments...

Thanks again guys! :-)

Arto

--

nearly had it right:)

try ctrl-F

cheers

steve

   and I *think* finally we have something without "Papyrus" on it that is
worth the purchase!

Glad to hear you have made some progress on eliminating the FPS issues.
 Note that I am running 20 visible cars, with shadows set to high and
DX9 mode, and I do not have noticable FPS slowdowns.  My system specs
are slightly less than yours (AMD XP2500, 512mb, Radeon 9600).  On my
system rFactor seems to run quite a bit smoother (with similar
settings) then GTR and GTL.  I was quite surprised that I could run in
DX9 mode with decent FPS.

I think you should make changes one at a time to see their effects.
I'm guessing some of the things you did helped, while otheres may be
competely unnecessary.

Good luck!
-Pat

That's odd but the way sometimes things go.  I swear using FSAA and running
as many cars as possible doesn't seem to touch my framerate, for some
reason.  It's nearly the same with or without AI drivers.  But take LFS.
Running the AI in LFS chews up the frames to an unbelievable degree.

So many things are going on with all these different systems and
configurations, that there's always an odd difference between what occurs on
one machine and what occurs on another.

That's why I will always prefer the computer over the consoles.  Consoles
are just no fun.  There's nothing to try and figure.

Alanb