rec.autos.simulators

Well, it changed mine! :-)

I have a duron 750, hercules GF2 mx 32meg, 128 meg memory, and MSFF
gameport.

Somewhere I read to set the AGP aperture in the bios to 256, and if it
worked, leave it alone.

After hearing other rumours, I decided to have a play last night.

Before - I was getting glitches in GPL. I'm currently at Monaco, and they
occurred leaving the pits, 'till half way up the hill. At the start of the
race, they would settle down once through the first corner.

I changed the aperture to 128, then 64 to see the difference. At 64, it was
the same as at 256, but setting it to 128 made an enormous difference!

The glitches disappeared completely, and I was able to run full details in
the mirrors at 1600, but that's not the most important bit.
This is - I suddenly found that driving 'round Monaco was much easier, and I
was much more consistent. It's made a huge difference to the feel of the
car! Try it.

I then wondered how it would affect GP3. Straight in, I discovered at 10%
drop in PO! I then discovered I could run it at absolute max, in the highest
res - EVEN IN THE RAIN!!! Yet again, the car felt much better, and I could
drive much more consistently.

Now I don't know what the aperture is, and how it should be set depending on
one's system, but getting it right's made such a difference, that I would
say it's well worth having a quick fiddle with.

R.

--
Posted from motgate4.mot.com [144.189.100.102]
via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.racesimcentral.net/

For me, changing it 64 -> 16 cured the freezes that crashed the game
occasionally. Theoretically that should drop the performance, but it
didn't, at least noticeably.

--
/K-P

Everyone seems to get different results with AGP Aperture size.

I found that with it on 64MB, GPL crashed quite regularly.  I also found
that with it on 32MB (which is the same size as the amount of VRAM on my
32MB GF2 gts), GPL and 3DMark2000 all performed better, so i've left it on
32 MB since.

I'll have a go at explaining what I believe AGP Aperture size does-

Basically you have local VRAM, this is the memory on your video card.  Then
you have system memory, this is your normal main memory.  AGP Aperture
enables your video card to have extremely fast access to a portion of your
system memory.  This memory is then refered to as non-local video memory
(because your video card can access it, but it's not physically on your
video card).  Non-local video memory is slower than local-video memory, but
faster than system memory (in terms of how quickly it can be accessed by
your video card).

Say your video card has 32 MB, and a game needs 50 MB of video card memory
to run with high-res textures.  Your video card can use the non-local video
memory (AGP memory) along with the local video memory to act like a card
that has more memory than it really does.  The results would be a little
slower than using a genuine 64MB video card, but at least the high-res
textures would work.

And obviously the aperture size controls how much system memory can be
controlled this way by your video card.

Anyway, those are interesting results you got, I think I'll try a little
experimenting myself :)

Its amazing how much system specs can affect the feel of a sim/game. I have
the DTR games from Ratbag. My system is an AMD k7 950 overclocked to 997mhz.
In Win98SE The games would run fine, but it felt like the cars had no grip.
I just accepted that as the way it was and adjusted my setups accordingly. I
just recently switched to Windows ME. At first the Ratbag games wouldn't
even run at all. Every thing else I had ran just fine, including GPL, N4,
F12K, etc. After much experimentation with settings and drivers I had come
to the conclusion that the Ratbag games just did not like ME. Well after a
suggestion from a former Ratbag employee I set my clock speeds back to
default, and low and behold every thing runs great. The cars even feel like
they have more grip now as well. It blows my mind that the bus speed made
such a big difference in the physics of the game. At this point when I see
someone running really well I wonder now if its their skill or their system.
Now don't get me wrong a bad driver will always be a bad driver, but it
might be the difference in those few extra tenths in lap times.

MadDAWG

On Thu, 21 Jun 2001 14:32:09 GMT, "Simon Brown"

Ditto . . . which makes me wonder how many of us are going to REALLY
***up our systems in the next day or so!

;-)

Where can you set these alternative "AGP Apertures"?  (Win98SE, GF2)
I guess it would be best that I do not know it, though... ;-)

Arto
--
--------------------

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/

  I should mention that from what I've read here, that 3dfx users 'should'
get zero benefit from changing the AGP Aperature size since those cards
access the memory in a different way.
  I hope I'm correct about that info.
dave henrie

Simon thanx for the info on AGP Aperture size and the use of it..
I never knew this and now I too can fiddle a bit..lol :-) Thom_j.

| Everyone seems to get different results with AGP Aperture size.
|
| I found that with it on 64MB, GPL crashed quite regularly.  I also found
| that with it on 32MB (which is the same size as the amount of VRAM on my
| 32MB GF2 gts), GPL and 3DMark2000 all performed better, so i've left it on
| 32 MB since.
|
| I'll have a go at explaining what I believe AGP Aperture size does-
|
| Basically you have local VRAM, this is the memory on your video card.
Then
| you have system memory, this is your normal main memory.  AGP Aperture
| enables your video card to have extremely fast access to a portion of your
| system memory.  This memory is then refered to as non-local video memory
| (because your video card can access it, but it's not physically on your
| video card).  Non-local video memory is slower than local-video memory,
but
| faster than system memory (in terms of how quickly it can be accessed by
| your video card).
|
| Say your video card has 32 MB, and a game needs 50 MB of video card memory
| to run with high-res textures.  Your video card can use the non-local
video
| memory (AGP memory) along with the local video memory to act like a card
| that has more memory than it really does.  The results would be a little
| slower than using a genuine 64MB video card, but at least the high-res
| textures would work.
|
| And obviously the aperture size controls how much system memory can be
| controlled this way by your video card.
|
| Anyway, those are interesting results you got, I think I'll try a little
| experimenting myself :)
<snip>

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I did get around a 5% speed increase in GPL by switching to 128 MB AGP
Aperture Size.  I tried 32, 64, 128 and 256, and they were all identical
apart from 128 MB.

Don't know if it's reliable yet though.

Great info!! "MadDAWG" I wonder if this is definative? Does any of the
RAS Gurus know about what "MadDAWG" wrote below? I wonder as
ever since GPL' went from their original version to their upgrade v1.1 or
whateverthe #s was?
I was doing 2+secs a lap faster with the old version of GPL i.e. Monza,
Spa, Mexico etc and when the upgrade came out my lap times turtled!!
Really Turtle'd.. Phew.. So I heard so many bad things about ME I did
not upgrade [even tho I have ME, it just sits here] from Windows98SE.
Now it seems that my laptimes are a bit slow as per my 'System Clock'
via Win98SE... Can this happen?? And are there alot of bugs from SE
to ME as my SE system runs 'great' under my current SE and I'm very
reluctant to load it & then find out it has made all 50 of my sims/games
screwed'up!! Any ideas, suggestions, coomnets on all this?
Tia... Thom_j.
P.S. Yes!! "50 of my sims/games"...lol

| Its amazing how much system specs can affect the feel of a sim/game. I
have
| the DTR games from Ratbag. My system is an AMD k7 950 overclocked to
997mhz.
| In Win98SE The games would run fine, but it felt like the cars had no
grip.
| I just accepted that as the way it was and adjusted my setups accordingly.
I
| just recently switched to Windows ME. At first the Ratbag games wouldn't
| even run at all. Every thing else I had ran just fine, including GPL, N4,
| F12K, etc. After much experimentation with settings and drivers I had come
| to the conclusion that the Ratbag games just did not like ME. Well after a
| suggestion from a former Ratbag employee I set my clock speeds back to
| default, and low and behold every thing runs great. The cars even feel
like
| they have more grip now as well. It blows my mind that the bus speed made
| such a big difference in the physics of the game. At this point when I see
| someone running really well I wonder now if its their skill or their
system.
| Now don't get me wrong a bad driver will always be a bad driver, but it
| might be the difference in those few extra tenths in lap times.
|
|
| MadDAWG
|
|

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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.262 / Virus Database: 132 - Release Date: 6/12/2001

You change it in the BIOS.  Usually, getting into the BIOS involves holding
down the 'del' key when the second screen comes up in your system boot-up
procedure.
The first screen that comes up when you switch the PC on is your video card
init screen, then the next screen should have a message on it somewhere
telling you how to get into the bios.

What card, cpu and ram etc are you using Simon? If you already posted
it, sorry but I must of missed it...Tia.. Thom_j.

| I did get around a 5% speed increase in GPL by switching to 128 MB AGP
| Aperture Size.  I tried 32, 64, 128 and 256, and they were all identical
| apart from 128 MB.
| Don't know if it's reliable yet though.

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HWG Simon!! We'll all be swaring at you soon..lol only j/k ;-)

| You change it in the BIOS.  Usually, getting into the BIOS involves
holding
| down the 'del' key when the second screen comes up in your system boot-up
| procedure.
| The first screen that comes up when you switch the PC on is your video
card
| init screen, then the next screen should have a message on it somewhere
| telling you how to get into the bios.

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Ah good, seems to be reliable as well, no crashes.

Err...P3-650 / Creative Labs GF2 GTS 32 MB / 256 MB pc133 / Win98 first
edition / cool looking speakers / go-faster stripes / *** dice / racing
socks ;)