ICR Framerate and Detail Problems

Me too, I can't believe all the complaints of people not being able to run ICR2 will much details. On my computer it runs perfectly with all graphics except grass texture and road texture, and I have a 486 DX2 66!!!! I also use a Cirrus Logic video card with 1MB and 8MB or 80ns RAM on my motherboard. I run about 28 cars on the tracks very smoothly. Anybody else having such luck?

>Me too, I can't believe all the complaints of people not being able to >run ICR2 will much details. On my computer it runs perfectly with all >graphics except grass texture and road texture, and I have a 486 DX2 >66!!!! I also use a Cirrus Logic video card with 1MB and 8MB or 80ns >RAM on my motherboard. I run about 28 cars on the tracks very >smoothly. Anybody else having such luck? I have a Pentium 100 with 16MB and an ATI Mach64 with 2MB. And in SVGA, I have all the details off except for skid marks and horizon in order to get a consistent smooth frame rate. My biggest complaint is when I get stuck in heavy traffic, the game becomes choppy and unresponsive (usually causing me to push the joystick a little harder resulting in me loosing the back end). I wish this game could play as nicely as F1Gp did when in traffic. I remember playing F1GP on my 386 at 12 fps and the game always maintained a steady frame rate in traffic. I have tried ICR2 in VGA mode but the graphics look disgusting. I don't think papyrus optimized for VGA.

You MUST be in VGA, I have a similar system, 486/80, 1 meg video, 8meg ram, and I can run many cars with ALL detail on and get excellent frame rate in VGA, but go to SVGA and I can only run about 8 opponents with all detail OFF!! I can't stand the VGA mode, so I run few cars in SVGA and only have the stripes and skid marks on so I can see where the "line" and the start/finish is. Craig

graphics except grass texture and road texture<< In SVGA? Steve.

>>>On my computer it runs perfectly with all >graphics except grass texture and road texture<< >In SVGA? I can get really good ICR2 framerates (on my Pentium-133) with just about any mixture of textures as long as asphalt texture is off (one or two, like grass and stands, I set to Auto). Or I can turn asphalt on and wverything else off. For wahtever reason, ahphalt texture seems to eat CPU cycles like crazy. It's a bit annoying, because the sensation of speed is much better with it turned on (as long as the frame rate keeps up). So, don't feel bad if you have to buy a 3D graphics card to really make ICR2 fly on your system. I have a P133, and will be buying a 3D card myself when they get a bit better. Joe

Joe, Your setup sounds similar to mine except I have a P120. I don't like having things on auto as I find it distracting when they keep clicking on and off. The point I keep trying to make is that I don't want the game to keep speeding up and slowing down, e.g. if I'm in traffic, or going through a complex bit of track with bridges (e.g. Vancouver) - so I set the detail to a suitable level so that the game runs at a consistnet speed all the time. Hence, the only bitmaps I have on are the cars and walls, everything else is on, except without textures. Cheers, Steve.

Steve, I hear ya, I'm going to go with textures either on or off I think too, it is distracting when they flicker on/off (especially large bitmaps areas like the crowds). Joe

Yes, it runs perfect in SVGA and with the digitized sounds. When I type mem at the dos prompt, it says I have 624 base memory available, and 7,711MB of regular memory free. I use memmaker, from dos 6.2. Maybe this helps speed things up. To play ICR2, I shut down win95 and tell it to start in dos mode. Any other questions? >>>On my computer it runs perfectly with all >graphics except grass texture and road texture<< >In SVGA? >Steve.

What kind of 486 do you have? I have a lot of friends with P90's and P133's and they can't run as much detail as you do. I have a 486/66 and there is absolutely NO WAY I can run with almost ANY detail turned on, even in *VGA*. I can run a lot of stuff turned on if I'm the only car on the track, but as soon as there are a couple of other cars in my vicinity, I lose EVERYTHING unless I *FORCE* it on. That's pretty disturbing, especially when the brake markers go away... This machine is a Gateway 486DX2/66 with integrated VLB Cirrus Logic video. And I have UNIVBE installed, too (it's even worse without that). I've even lowered my max frame rate to 20fps, but yesterday during a race at Loudon I still have everything (EVERYTHING) blink out on me. It looked like F1GP...

Quoted text (16 lines)

>Yes, it runs perfect in SVGA and with the digitized sounds. When I >type mem at the dos prompt, it says I have 624 base memory available, >and 7,711MB of regular memory free. I use memmaker, from dos 6.2. >Maybe this helps speed things up. To play ICR2, I shut down win95 and >tell it to start in dos mode. Any other questions? >>>>On my computer it runs perfectly with all >>graphics except grass texture and road texture<< >>In SVGA? >>Steve.

-- Brian Wong Systems Engineering Group (Servers)

Quoted text (9 lines)

>I have an AMD 486 DX2 66 (Which is a little bit slower than the Intel >66). I don't set framerates, I just have everything turned on >permanently except for grass textures and road textures, which are >off. My video card is a Cirrues Logic 5426 VLB. I have to use UNIVBE >or else it gets choppy. If I run it in VGA, it seems to be the same >speed as SVGA. I don't know what the problem might be for others. >Are you sure you not running it under Win95 in any way, because if I >do, it goes really, really slow. So, I use dos 6.2 which drastically >speeds things up.

I don't even own win95, so that can't be the problem. I'm sure part of the problem is that I have ISA graphics, rather than your VLB. But I HAVE configured the system about as well as it's going to go, with UNIVBE, optimial cache strategy, I checked the memory for wait states, etc. I'm not talking about single-car practice. That's fine. It's almost OK in SVGA if I turn a few details off. It's races that are a ***. Every once in a while, for example, if there are four or five cars ahead of me, say on the back straight at Loudon, the entire track basically switches off except these blobs that are cars and this grey thing that's the track surface itself. Then I start missing turn-in points because the skid marks are gone and the brakemarkers (at other tracks) are done, etc. And occasionally I'll have a short pause, aftdr which things catch up. The pause is about 1/4-3/8 of a second, not really long but long enough to really***things up, especially if you're running damage on. The worst problem happens when the pause occurs as you are exiting a turn--half of of the time you get the pause on exit, the car just "snaps" into the wall, at least blowing a tire and sometimes breaking suspension pieces. (It's no problem, of course, if you're on a straight and don't need to brake or anything...) I've about had it with this business and I'm waiting for a new system... -- Brian Wong Systems Engineering Group (Servers)

My approach is to find a comfortable frame rate. I have a p5-90 with an ATI Mach64. In SVGA I can run with paint/skid and smoke/dirt on at about 20 frames, also have objects on, but detail off. When I have the cars detail set to auto the frame rate will dip to about 17-19 in heavy traffic or in some of the corners. One thing to keep in mind is that if you have anything set to auto, the computer has to reserve some computing time to controlling detail and counting frame rate. If you can live with a small drop in frame rate, it is better to leave the graphic of your choice as On versus Auto. Reserve the CPU cycles for racing, not deciding whether to show detail or not. -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: In SVGA I can run with paint/skid and smoke/dirt on at about 20 frames. : With cars detail set to auto the frame rate will dip to about 17-19 in : heavy traffic or in some of the corners. You get about 20fps and it dips to 19fps. Wow, you must have some eye for detail!!!