I am running OpenGL. Latest Detonator drivers (I think). I have
turned off v-sync, anti-alis, etc. There is a guide that has been
circulating around here (I am sure you have seen it) and I went
through all the settings.
Before my monitor died I was running at 1600x1280x16, showing 30 cars
ahead, maximum car detail, draw ahead around 60%, etc. Basically Avg
to High graphics settings, but not everything maxed out. At the drop
of the flag and with most of the field in front of me I would get
25-30 fps. On replay however, I would get 80+ fps. With the new
monitor I dropped to 1280x1024x16 and I am getting almost the exact
same fps. Since, from the graphics cards point of view, the replay is
the exact same as the live race, i.e. it still has to draw the exact
same thing on the screen, the only difference is that the CPU is not
having to calculate your car physics and the AI. The single biggest
thing I can do to increase performance is lower draw ahead distance
and the number of cars shown. I can crank car and world detail up all
the way and run the highest resolution my monitor will support and the
FPS stay about the same. But with the extra cars, the CPU now has to
calculate graphics data to give to the graphics card. Same with draw
ahead.
I could be wrong and there is some little tweak somewhere that would
gain me 40fps, but I really think I am CPU constrained. Your CPU is
not a whole lot faster than mine, but it is faster... maybe just fast
enough to calculate physics, AI and graphics data.
I am not complaining, I can live with the performance of N4 on my
system, I just hope N2002 does not put any more of a burden on the
CPU.
>I don't think cpu is your problem at this point Brian. I have a
>nearly identical system. When running against AI in a 43 car field,
>the FR will drop to around 22-24 just as the green waves, and then it
>smooths out to anywhere from 40-80 FPS. My system is a P3-1gz and a
>32mb GF2 card.
>Are you running OpenGL, and have you checked to be sure things like
>anti-alias and Vsync are turned off in your video properties?
>On Tue, 29 Jan 2002 14:40:33 GMT, Brian Oster
>>I have read about the improved graphics in N2002 and how it will use
>>texture compression when using Direct3D. N4 runs pretty good on my
>>system now (see specs below), but I have determined that my CPU is the
>>constraint in regards to frame rate. Does anyone know if N2002 will
>>require steeper system specs to get the same frame rates as N4? Right
>>now OpenGL is the choice for N4, but will N2002 run better under
>>Direct3d?
>>The reason I determined it was my CPU was that if I run a race with
>>all graphics options at the highest and run at the back of a 43 car
>>field, I get poor frame rates. If I run the replay (cockpit camera) I
>>get great frame rates. Since in both cases the graphics card is doing
>>the same amount of work it must be the CPU. I turn down the graphics
>>options some and I get good performance. I know the graphics card is
>>doing most of the work, but increased graphic options *does* put
>>addtional load on the CPU. Add this to the phyiscs, ai, etc. and the
>>CPU becomes the bottleneck. Will the texture compression put an
>>additional load on the CPU or will this work be passed off to the
>>Graphics card?
>>System Specs:
>>PIII 933
>>Geforce2 Ultra
>>SB Live Value
>>256 Meg Ram
>>Win98 First Edition
>>Brian Oster
> Tim Wortman
> North American Simulation Series
> www.nasscar.com
Brian Oster
