rec.autos.simulators

Anybody had any exerience with the Intel Extreme (onboard) video and
the Direct3d7 patch for GPL?  oh yeah it's under XP too.

I'm looking for recommended values for the sections:

[ Int Profile Values ]  and [ Direct3D7 ]

many thanks.

Try this:

[ Direct3D7 ]
D3DDevice = 0
TossHighestMip = 0
DoubleMirrorResWidth = 1
DoubleMirrorResHeight = 1
DirectMirrorRendering = 1
DisableZBuffer = 0
AlphaThreshold = 1
TransparentMipsDrawOrder = 1
TrilinearFiltering = 0
AnisotropicFiltering = 4
LODBias = -75

I used to run these on my old Kyro2. You could try setting TilinearFiltering
to 1, but it can make quite a difference on a slower system
Aniso doesn't seem to make so much of a difference to the framerate, set it
to 2 if it's too slow, or 8 for nicer texture filtering.

The LODBias is more down to personal taste than performance really, I set it
to -75 on my current Gf4, but imo if you don't have much filtering, set the
LODBias closer to zero too, and vice versa.

Malc.

Don't you mean "D3DDevice = 1"?

--Steve

That would only be needed for a Voodoo2 or similar addon card I think. If
you only have one 3d device (as I do) I guess it makes no difference. I have
mine set to 0 with a Gf4 and nothing else.

Here's the relevant quote from the readmeD3D.txt:

Adjustable Core.ini Options
---------------------------

* D3DDevice = 0

If you have multiple 3D graphics cards in your machine, make sure GPL is
using the graphics card you want to use. The rasterizer displays the name of
the graphics card it is using at the top of the screen when GPL first runs.
If it is not using the 3D card you want, then change this line to:
D3DDevice = 1, or
D3DDevice = 2, etc.

It seems to be a bit ambiguous on the 'correct' setting, so you may have a
point Steve. What made you think it should be 1?

Malc.

Thanks, there was some improvement but still no where near playable (<
10fps), any idea which parms are simple 1/0 and which have ranges that
deal with performance.

The motherboard has an AGP slot so I could disable the onboard and buy
a Gforce (Recommendations?  GF4 MX440?), but It's hard to beleive a
modern D3D compliant board won't run GPL.

Could XP be the factor?

Right, back to basics. I'm pretty sure your Intel graphics should run Dx7
graphics (like gpl) pretty well, although I think OpenGL support may not be
good.

If you are having framerate problems, the first thing to do is remove any
add-on cars and track graphics. In most cases the tracks don't affect
framerate much, but I had one problem with some Monaco trees that caused a
localised slowdown on one part of the track.

Confirm that you are using the latest D3D7 driver, there was an earlier one
that wasn't as good. If you got the patch from your gpl CD, you have the new
one. If your CD doesn't have the patch on it, go get it again from papy to
make sure you have the latest one.

Check that you have selected D3D7 in the options menu, and that you are not
running it in software mode.

Bring the resolution down, to 640x480 if you have to, and turn off things
like smoke effects and so on.

If each of these steps raises the framerate a little, and you can run it at
36fps (gpl doesn't go any higher) then your graphics card can't handle
anything better, and you therefore need to look at getting a better graphics
card. As Steve suggested, a Gf2 is easily good enough, and an MX440 should
be okay too. Best performance/value is probably a Gf4 4200 though, but of
course that's more expensive.

If you have reduced everything right down and still see no improvement, you
have a problem, either with gpl (unlikely, it's pretty stable) or windows
(much more likely).

Try disabling antialiasing, reduce anisotropic filtering, use bilinear
instead of trilinear filtering and so on.
You could also try assigning more memory to your graphics in the bios if
that's an option. While you're in the bios, check that an IRQ is assigned to
VGA too.

It's pretty generalised advice, but at least it will tell you whether you
really need to spend money, or just 'optimise' your system a bit.

As an example of what gpl can run on, I have a Duron 800 with a Voodoo3 that
is totally smooth with no add-on cars, and all but the latest versions of
the Lotus and Brab will run okay on it. You're right, your system should be
able to beat that.

Malc.

Who?

Actually Intel has a current opengl driver for this board that works under
XP (surprised me too).  I'm guessing that there's less code involved for
opengl then for DX8.1 under XP.

Original coventry at Spa for this test.

Just downloaded from www.papy.com/downloads this week.

Yep

Yep

AKA mcewena

http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37496&perp...
pagenumber=1

Malc.