rec.autos.simulators

Okay, I committed this day to get the best possible frame rate out of GP2.
Here's what I found.

First, my current setup is Gateway-2000 P133, 32 MB RAM, Matrox Millenium with
4 MB WRAM. Previously I was running on SVGA with most details off, most
textures off, with a target fps of 19.6, and with a projected fps of 19.6
(processor occupancy was pretty much 100% at this point).

However, here's the trick I found to work all the time: ALWAYS SET YOUR TARGET
FPS AT LEAST 2.0 LOWER THAN THE PROJECTED FPS!!!

For guidance, here are my current settings:

For VGA mode
------------

Every texture on, except sky. Every mirror object on, mirror textures are on.
Object setting set to all ("Alles" on my GP2 ;).

Target frame rate: 17.0 fps
Projected fps    : 19.6 fps

Processor occupancies:
Hockenheim - 80-90% at most!
Monaco     - 100-110% at most!

For SVGA mode
-------------

Every texture on, except sky and hills. Every mirror objects are on except
fences. Mirror textures are off. Object setting set to all.

Target frame rate: 15.0 fps
Projected fps    : 17.0 fps

Processor occupancies:
Hockenheim - 90-110% (sometimes 120% peak)
Monaco     - 160-220% (brrr!)

The main point is, with these settings, my previous problems are gone! Namely,
when smoke comes up or when there is an accident, the machine doesn't slow
down to a crawl any more as it did before.

SVGA mode is pretty playable now, even though the frame rate is probably not a
lot more than 15.0 fps, but hey, there are a hell lot more objects around the
track now than before! :) Obviously, I will have to adjust the SVGA settings
for Monaco. VGA is now excellent and very much playable. (Did anybody notice
that the VGA and the SVGA settings are saved separately, so when I switch
between them, I don't have to re-click all the buttons again!? :-)

Anyway, the point is: set your target fps to 2.0 lower than the projected (or
calculated) fps, and you'll be fine! It certainly helped me!

Any comments, suggestions, send a personal email to me.

Thanx!

_____________________________________________________________________________
LaLa (Imre Olajos, Jr.)      _/ean /\/\ichel _/arre  and  -=\/=- angelis  fan
WWW : http://www.racesimcentral.net/~lala                       |    |


~~ []/\() ~~~~~~~~~~~ "Music should be free." /Vangelis/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julian
_____________________________________________________________________

                                University of Oxford

I'm using Zappa P90 o/c'd to 120, 24 MB RAM, Diamond Stealth SE
(32-bit card, unlike Stealth 64), 1 MB DRAM. I was thinking about
upgrading my graphics card, but the difference to Matrox 4 MB
WRAM seems to be very small. Has anyone actually tried GP2 with
two different graphics cards on a same system ? Is there a real
difference (John Wallace's ratings showed a 10 fps difference
between Matrox and Diamond Stealth 64, but the test was probably
done with some benchmarking program, not a real game).

I'm dropping the FPS usually three clicks worth. Experiment until
your p.o. goes below 100 %.

The same settings, I get projected 18.2 fps, and use target 16.0.
P.o's about the same.

Same settings (except fences are on in mirrors) give projected
14.2 fps . Must drop target down to 11.1 to get good occupancies.

That's a nice feature, but I'd have liked to see frames
adjustable on each track separately. I wrote a small utility to
query and copy different global setups to the f1gpstate.sav file
when starting the game. That way, I can have the right control
settings, steering lock and graphics options loaded at the start
and go straight to the quick race from the main menu.

That's right. The frame settings AI needs a fix :)
--
/sami

Agreed. I have discovered this too.  The estimated frame rate is too
optimistic, and the game slows horribly if you use it. Selecting a
lower rate gives you less frames, but you don`t really notice it, and
the game speeds up.

Martin