GRAND PRIX 2: Processor Occupancy

On Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:53:13 +0200, Lars Birkemose

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>> What does it mean if my processor occupancy is over 100%? >> Julian >If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over >100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. >However, its does NOT slow the game down.

<snip> Are you sure about this? If I have a spin & end up facing into lots of tyre smoke, the lap time counter seems to update _really_ slowly. The old Atari ST version of F1GP wasn't really up to giving a good framerate on the bog standard ST and it took about 10% longer to run a lap (as measured on a stop watch) than the time reported by the program. Given that so much of the game engine is based on the original, I am inclined to believe that very high occupancies _do_ affect more than just framerate. Here's hoping to be proved wrong.... :-) Richard

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>> What does it mean if my processor occupancy is over 100%? >> Julian >If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over >100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. >However, its does NOT slow the game down. >It is simply another way of telling the framerate. >Im not sure if the occupancy is linear, if it is, it would mean that 20 >frames, occupancy 200%, gives you a framerate of 10. >Normally you would want a occupancy around 100, because that means that >your computer is 100% booked... >LB

It does slow the game down to have the processor working at over 100%. Just look at an outside view in SVGA, 25fps, everything on, Monacco, racestart. My P120 works at over 300% in this condition and I would say it is very much slower. They way I see it, when the processor works at over 100% occupancy, it will use more than a second to display the defined number of frames. Torgeir

What does it mean if my processor occupancy is over 100%? Julian _____________________________________________________________________ University of Oxford

Em....yes it does. The game WILL display 20 frames, and that's why the illusion of speed is lost. If the car doesn't feel like it is moving quickly, drop your specified from rate to below the estimated level (which is an AVERAGE), and you will see a big imporvement. Over 100% is not good for the feel of the game, or for smooth handling. Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ ________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____/ * Sim Racing News * \____|::|__| \ /______:/ \::/ http://sneezy.dcn.ed.ac.uk/simnews/index.htm \::/ \._____\ http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~harmon/simnews

> What does it mean if my processor occupancy is over 100%? > Julian If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over 100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. However, its does NOT slow the game down. It is simply another way of telling the framerate. Im not sure if the occupancy is linear, if it is, it would mean that 20 frames, occupancy 200%, gives you a framerate of 10. Normally you would want a occupancy around 100, because that means that your computer is 100% booked... LB

On Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:53:13 +0200, Lars Birkemose

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>> What does it mean if my processor occupancy is over 100%? >> Julian >If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over >100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. >However, its does NOT slow the game down. >It is simply another way of telling the framerate. >Im not sure if the occupancy is linear, if it is, it would mean that 20 >frames, occupancy 200%, gives you a framerate of 10. >Normally you would want a occupancy around 100, because that means that >your computer is 100% booked... >LB

It is true that above 100% processor occupancy means the computer can't show the requested numbers of frames within 1 second. But instead of skipping some frames, GP2 makes in-game time slower than real world time which means that the game in fact WILL slow down. (a value below 100% sets the in-game time equal to real world time) In other words, processor occupancy above 100% is a value based on the ratio between in-game time and real world time. Below 100% indicates that you can increase frame rate and/or graphics detail without affecting the in-game time. However, this is special to F1GP and GP2. Most other sims varies the frame rates and/or graphics detail in an attempt to keep in-game time equal to real world time. -- Lennart Gr?nlund http://www.pip.dknet.dk/~pip2351/

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> On Mon, 22 Jul 1996 14:53:13 +0200, Lars Birkemose > >> What does it mean if my processor occupancy is over 100%? > >> Julian > >If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over > >100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. > >However, its does NOT slow the game down. > >It is simply another way of telling the framerate. > >Im not sure if the occupancy is linear, if it is, it would mean that 20 > >frames, occupancy 200%, gives you a framerate of 10. > >Normally you would want a occupancy around 100, because that means that > >your computer is 100% booked... > >LB > It is true that above 100% processor occupancy means the computer > can't show the requested numbers of frames within 1 second. But > instead of skipping some frames, GP2 makes in-game time slower than > real world time which means that the game in fact WILL slow down. > (a value below 100% sets the in-game time equal to real world time) > In other words, processor occupancy above 100% is a value based on the > ratio between in-game time and real world time. Below 100% indicates > that you can increase frame rate and/or graphics detail without > affecting the in-game time. > However, this is special to F1GP and GP2. Most other sims varies the > frame rates and/or graphics detail in an attempt to keep in-game time > equal to real world time.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I think I prefer the other way around, like in ICR2. Just switch off some details on the fly, or drop the frame rate to bake sim-time and real-time match up. I can put most grafics on is SVGA and get soooth frame rates (18+ fps) but the game becomes so slow moving that all feel of driving an F1 car is lost. Julian _____________________________________________________________________ University of Oxford

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>>If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over >>100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. >>However, its does NOT slow the game down. >Em....yes it does. The game WILL display 20 frames, and that's why the >illusion of speed is lost. If the car doesn't feel like it is moving >quickly, drop your specified from rate to below the estimated level >(which is an AVERAGE), and you will see a big imporvement. >Over 100% is not good for the feel of the game, or for smooth handling. >Cheers! >John

OK, I probably totally don't understand what you're arguing about but my processor occupancy is sometimes 240%+! The game looks and feels great. I'm getting nearly 20fps on my P90 in VGA. If it matters, I don't have it set to automatic detail. I preffer manual control. Brett

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>>>If your settings for frame-rate are ex. 20, and your occupancy is over >>>100%, it means that the game cant reach the 20 frames. >>>However, its does NOT slow the game down. >>Em....yes it does. The game WILL display 20 frames, and that's why the >>illusion of speed is lost. If the car doesn't feel like it is moving >>quickly, drop your specified from rate to below the estimated level >>(which is an AVERAGE), and you will see a big imporvement. >>Over 100% is not good for the feel of the game, or for smooth handling.

The real problems lies with the start of the race. After things sort out, my processor runs at 85-100% on my P133. But through the first turn, I'm exceeding 150-200%. The cars virtually stop in the first turn. Not quite the e***ment of a starting start F1 race that I expected. I've even tried alt-d to reduce detail level to none for the start of the race, but it doesn't seem to help. _______________________________________ Tim Wortman NASS '96 Series Director Visit the NASS '96 home page http://www.webcom.com/twortman/nasscar/ _______________________________________

I think the point from where the game starts to slow is around 115% Feels that way. MKH

> I think the point from where the game starts to slow is around 115% > Feels that way. > MKH Easy for you to say..... Big mashine, enormous amount of hardware... AND the fastest time on IMOLA.. YOU PIG ;-) LB BTW, Haven't you got into the 1.20's yet.............

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> > OK, I probably totally don't understand what you're arguing about but > > my processor occupancy is sometimes 240%+! The game looks and feels > > great. I'm getting nearly 20fps on my P90 in VGA. If it matters, I > > don't have it set to automatic detail. I preffer manual control. > > BrettJust to clear the matter. > When occupancy rises above 100%, you DONT GET the 20 frames/sec. What > you get, is 20 frames spread over more than 1 sec. That is why the > pictures gets "series of stills", and the game starts running in > slo-mo...:-( > Still it's a VERY nice game.... > LBOK let's see if I understand this. Optimally we should be getting100%

occupancy. This way we will get the best frame rate possible. Yes or no? I'm so confused <G>

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> > OK, I probably totally don't understand what you're arguing about but > > my processor occupancy is sometimes 240%+! The game looks and feels > > great. I'm getting nearly 20fps on my P90 in VGA. If it matters, I > > don't have it set to automatic detail. I preffer manual control. > > BrettJust to clear the matter. > When occupancy rises above 100%, you DONT GET the 20 frames/sec. What > you get, is 20 frames spread over more than 1 sec. That is why the > pictures gets "series of stills", and the game starts running in > slo-mo...:-( > Still it's a VERY nice game.... > LBOK let's see if I understand this. Optimally we should have 100%

occupancy. Then we will have the best frame rate possible? Yes or no? Please try to clear this up for me I'm so confused. <G>

said... What that means is at the moment you're getting 240% occupancy, GP2 is drawing 20 frames in 2.4 seconds. Unlike ICR2/NASCAR, where graphics get choppier but the game still runs in real-time, GP2 keeps the graphics smooth but makes time pass slower. So, if you ran a whole lap in GP2 at 200% occupancy, a laptime of 1:30.000 will take three minutes to run. -- +------------------+--------------------------------------------+ | G. Warren Abao | Official BBL Jacksonville Jaguars Website: | +------------------++------------------------+------------------+ | SPOOOOOOOOOOON!!! | BBL Jacksonville 1-0 | IFL Chicago 11-6 | +-------------------+------------------------+------------------+

When occupancy rises above 100%, you DONT GET the 20 frames/sec. What you get, is 20 frames spread over more than 1 sec. That is why the pictures gets "series of stills", and the game starts running in slo-mo...:-( Still it's a VERY nice game.... LB