rec.autos.simulators

by **Vintoo** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 02:16:34

This problem also happened to me in N4 and I've seen others experience it as
well.

For Papy and others who don't know what it is, this should let you
experience it.....

Do a 50% race with a full field of AI cars. Start the race and write down
your FPS. After the first pit stop write down the FPS again. With about 5
laps left, again, write down your FPS. I think if you do a 100% race that
the FPS would be even lower. Yellow flags also kill my FPS for the remainder
of the race even after everyone has pitted and fixed damage.

If after all this you don't notice a drop of about 20 fps then
congratulations, you have a great system.

I experienced this in OpenGL in N4 with a Gforce2 MX card and now I see it
in D3D in 2002 with my Radeon 8500.

Vintook

by **Blak** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 03:56:54

Your CPU could be getting hot......

| This problem also happened to me in N4 and I've seen others experience it as
| well.
|
| For Papy and others who don't know what it is, this should let you
| experience it.....
|
| Do a 50% race with a full field of AI cars. Start the race and write down
| your FPS. After the first pit stop write down the FPS again. With about 5
| laps left, again, write down your FPS. I think if you do a 100% race that
| the FPS would be even lower. Yellow flags also kill my FPS for the remainder
| of the race even after everyone has pitted and fixed damage.
|
| If after all this you don't notice a drop of about 20 fps then
| congratulations, you have a great system.
|
| I experienced this in OpenGL in N4 with a Gforce2 MX card and now I see it
| in D3D in 2002 with my Radeon 8500.
|
| Vintook
|
|
|
|

by **Joachim Trens** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 05:00:58

Could be that for some reason the AI start eating fps (CPU time?) under
certain circumstances. Tom Pabst reported something recently that could
indicate the same - it involved strange pitting behaviour of the AI,
followed by a radical drop of the fps.

Achim

by **John Pancoas** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 04:06:57

Sounds like a memory leak in the code perhaps.

-John

by **John DiFoo** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 05:01:38

> Could be that for some reason the AI start eating fps (CPU time?) under
> certain circumstances. Tom Pabst reported something recently that could
> indicate the same - it involved strange pitting behaviour of the AI,
> followed by a radical drop of the fps.

Except that in my case (exact same problem as Vintook) the slowdown
seems independent of any pit stops (I hate cautions so everyone pits during
the normal windows): even after 30 laps at Coca Cola (the effect seems more
pronounced at the faster tracks) I have gone from the 50's to the 30' (and will
hit the ***s after about 50 laps, reaching slide-show equivalents after 100).
The memory leak hypothesis due to some AI-related code seems most
likely: if I exit and reboot the game the frame rates are back up to optimal,
which rules out any chip overheating problems. If I run a race with half a
field, it still slows down but not as fast.
I have tried tweaking virtual memory, the core.ini memory settings,
and replay memory, all to no avail. I now have 512 MB RAM in my system,
of which the game (according to the memory file I have it printout upon exit)
only uses 23 Megs of, for some strange reason. Very frustrating...

John DiFool

by **lane** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 06:01:29

I've never seen it happen in N4, only N2002.

by **lane** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 06:04:39

Yea, and I find it hard to believe that Payrus/Sierra have never seen this
so WTF do we have this happening in what is supposed to be a very mature
series?

by **Allen McColle** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 06:28:55

I had this happen in N4. I found that it was the skid marks. I turned off
skid marks and this kept my frame rates solid throughout any length race. I
can't guarantee that it is the same in 2002 as I haven't turned skid marks
on.

by **Joachim Trens** » Fri, 01 Mar 2002 08:14:50

Interesting. Have you ever tried just reducing the size of the skidmark
buffer?

Achim

> I had this happen in N4. I found that it was the skid marks. I turned off
> skid marks and this kept my frame rates solid throughout any length race.
I
> can't guarantee that it is the same in 2002 as I haven't turned skid marks
> on.

> > This problem also happened to me in N4 and I've seen others experience
it
> as
> > well.

> > For Papy and others who don't know what it is, this should let you
> > experience it.....

> > Do a 50% race with a full field of AI cars. Start the race and write
down
> > your FPS. After the first pit stop write down the FPS again. With about
5
> > laps left, again, write down your FPS. I think if you do a 100% race
that
> > the FPS would be even lower. Yellow flags also kill my FPS for the
> remainder
> > of the race even after everyone has pitted and fixed damage.

by **CarGu** » Sat, 02 Mar 2002 06:21:08

I haven't run skidmarks since N3 for the FPS hit they cause as they come
into view and I genreally run my draw ahead in the 75-80% range. This is one
'realistic' item that I can certainly do without to maintain smoothe frames.
Smoke is another I used to run without, but finally got a card that could
handle it with my GF3 and couldn't race without it now, but I can do without
the skid marks for certain.

Don't know if that's the problem though, didn't Tom say they (the AI) simply
pitted? There wasn't a wreck involved in his problem I didn't think. Sounds
like a memory or video memory leak in the game to me, but I don't code for a
living...I had this problem with Motor City Online, FPS fell to nothing and
then the game crashed on me. Turns out they had a bad memory leak somewhere
in the D3D coding and my GF3 was *** on it after a certain length of
data had been received.

Tom has enough grasp on what happened he should definetly get that onto
Papy's 2002 forum so someone over there can research the deal. Anyone
experience this online as of yet? I am about to get our league together to
start a season and it would be nice to know this wouldn't affect online
racing.

by **Allen McColle** » Sat, 02 Mar 2002 09:40:44

I did reduce the buffer but I still found that in a 50%+ race I would get
slow drop in frame rates.

> Interesting. Have you ever tried just reducing the size of the skidmark
> buffer?

> Achim

> > I had this happen in N4. I found that it was the skid marks. I turned
off
> > skid marks and this kept my frame rates solid throughout any length
race.
> I
> > can't guarantee that it is the same in 2002 as I haven't turned skid
marks
> > on.

> > > This problem also happened to me in N4 and I've seen others
experience
> it
> > as
> > > well.

> > > For Papy and others who don't know what it is, this should let you
> > > experience it.....

> > > Do a 50% race with a full field of AI cars. Start the race and write
> down
> > > your FPS. After the first pit stop write down the FPS again. With
about
> 5
> > > laps left, again, write down your FPS. I think if you do a 100% race
> that
> > > the FPS would be even lower. Yellow flags also kill my FPS for the
> > remainder
> > > of the race even after everyone has pitted and fixed damage.

by **Allen McColle** » Sat, 02 Mar 2002 09:47:36

I don't think it is a memory leak as it cleared up the dropping frame rates
when I turned skid marks off. In Tom's post I thought he made reference to
AI cars making repairs so therefore assumed that there were probably marks
laid down. I also found that even without an accident there was enough
skidding by the AI, and of course myself, to lay down extra ***. In a
50% race at Daytona I would start losing frames about 15-20 laps in and
would gradually lose up to 10 FPS over the course of the race.

> > I had this happen in N4. I found that it was the skid marks. I turned
off
> > skid marks and this kept my frame rates solid throughout any length
race.
> I
> > can't guarantee that it is the same in 2002 as I haven't turned skid
marks
> > on.

> I haven't run skidmarks since N3 for the FPS hit they cause as they come
> into view and I genreally run my draw ahead in the 75-80% range. This is
one
> 'realistic' item that I can certainly do without to maintain smoothe
frames.
> Smoke is another I used to run without, but finally got a card that could
> handle it with my GF3 and couldn't race without it now, but I can do
without
> the skid marks for certain.

> Don't know if that's the problem though, didn't Tom say they (the AI)
simply
> pitted? There wasn't a wreck involved in his problem I didn't think.
Sounds
> like a memory or video memory leak in the game to me, but I don't code
for a
> living...I had this problem with Motor City Online, FPS fell to nothing
and
> then the game crashed on me. Turns out they had a bad memory leak
somewhere
> in the D3D coding and my GF3 was *** on it after a certain length of
> data had been received.

> Tom has enough grasp on what happened he should definetly get that onto
> Papy's 2002 forum so someone over there can research the deal. Anyone
> experience this online as of yet? I am about to get our league together
to
> start a season and it would be nice to know this wouldn't affect online
> racing.

rec.autos.simulators

Nascar 2002 Frame Rate slowdown during long races? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

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Nascar 2002 Frame Rate slowdown during long races? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Nascar 2002 Frame Rate slowdown during long races? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?