F1RS Voodoo Tweeks.

I'm wondering what those of you running F1RS in 3Dfx mode are setting your refresh/gamma and MHz clock speed to, and if so, are you seeing any boosts in performance? I am also wondering if anyone has edited the batch file (if there is one) , and what you have done to that. It seems like one could do multiple things to effect the performance similar to all the Quake and Quake 2 tweeks out there. Thanks Ben

I tried upping the refresh rate and the display got really dark and ugly in F1RS. Went back to default and then switched the hardware acceleration slider in the Monster 3D properties sheet to "faster but less compatibility". That got me flashing graphics in places but no better frame rate. Went back to the default on this, too. I haven't tried upping to the clock speed in autoexec.bat for fear of overheating the chips on the card. It runs well enough as it is. But what you said makes sense, and if anyone else has experience with this I'd love to hear about it. Eagle Woman Remove the spam blocker NOSPAM to email me. http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison

This is what I have in my batch file: set FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH=1 set SST_FASTPCIRD=1 REM set FX_GLIDE_SWAP_INTERVAL=0 REM set SST_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0 set SST_FASTMEM=1 set SST_GAMMA=1.7 set SST_GRXCLK=55 set SST_VIDEO_24BPP=1 set SST_SCREENREFRESH=85 call C:\WINDOWS\UbiSoft\UBISETUP.exe -play F1RS The settings are pretty conservative, but I don't take any responsibility if they damage anyone's card. The two remmed out lines may work for some but slightly degraded the video quality on my setup. NB: For Alison & anyone else with the 'dark at high refresh rate' problem, the Glide gamma settings only take effect at the higher refresh rates if SST_VIDEO_24BPP is set. Cheers, Richard

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>This is what I have in my batch file: >set FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH=1 >set SST_FASTPCIRD=1 >REM set FX_GLIDE_SWAP_INTERVAL=0 >REM set SST_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0 >set SST_FASTMEM=1 >set SST_GAMMA=1.7 >set SST_GRXCLK=55 >set SST_VIDEO_24BPP=1 >set SST_SCREENREFRESH=85 >call C:\WINDOWS\UbiSoft\UBISETUP.exe -play F1RS

Do these settings have to be placed in autoexec.bat, or is it sufficient to place them in win.ini under the [3dfx] section? Also, what's a good program to benchmark performance of the 3dfx card? Thanks, Clark

Go to the 3DFX Interactive site. They have a benchmark program available for download. Sorry, I don't have their URL handy but a quick search using '3DFX' will bring it up in the first 10 listings. -- Bruce (at work) "Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." (Jules Renard)

From what I know about setting up games like Quake 2 (which obviously isn't the same as F1RS, nor as cool) I bet you are best off making a batch file to create your tweeks for F1RS , but I could be full of shit. This way if you have any other 3Dfx games you can have different settings. I will create a batch file like Richard's which will start up F1RS and then create a shortcut with it on my desktop. As for benchmark programs, go to 3Dfx Mania or Voodoo Extreme. I positive that Voodoo Extreme has various benchmark programs in their downloads section. It is at http://www.voodooextreme.com And if for you need help making a batch file, I can e-mail you instructions how. One more question for anyone, how about a config. file? Would one work, where would I put it, and what should I put in it. I don't know how much one can tweek this game Thanks Ben

Bruce Kennewell heeft geschreven in bericht <GRIN> How about.... www.3dfx.com Silly, innit??? :-)

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> I haven't tried upping to the clock speed in autoexec.bat for fear o > f > overheating the chips on the card. It runs well enough as it is. > But what you said makes sense, and if anyone else has experience wit > h > this I'd love to hear about it.

Try it, it works great! I'm running my 3Dfx at 55, the default is 50, so thats a potential 10% gain straight away, F1RS flies on my pc with no probs. (not sure what the actual increase in performance is though?) I've read that o/c 3Dfx cards to 59 is ok, but watch for overheating. Mine is *very* stable at 55. (Using a Maxi Gamer 3Dfx card) F1RS didn't like it when I clocked my card to 57, (game froze on the track) but up to 55 it works a treat. Is there any utility available at the moment which allows us to see the cpu occupancy or fps rates in f1rs yet? I haven't seen any on my travels? 8?) * Peter * 8-) Please remove asterix from address to email.

They can be placed in autoexec.bat but I find it easier to create a spearate batch file (e.g. F1RS.BAT) which contains those lines. Put a shortcut to F1RS.BAT on your desktop & use that to run the sim. The disadvantage of putting the commands in autoexec.bat is that you must reboot the machine everythime you change them. By having them in a separate batch file they get re-initialised everythime you run it. As for putting them in win.ini, I wasn't aware this was an option <g> I always used Quake's timedemo feature. Cheers, Richard

> I'm wondering what those of you running F1RS in 3Dfx mode are setting your > refresh/gamma and MHz clock speed to, and if so, are you seeing any boosts > in performance? I've tries many things to increase framerate - Lower draw distance, low detail cars, lower sound in .ini file, no sky, overclock, etc, all to no avail. I'm of the opinion that the problems are processor related. Yer pentium is where the bottleneck is. The Voodoo card seems to throw the graphics around without even breaking into a sweat (the game doesn't really have any flash fx like Q2 or G-Police to deal with), so reducing graphic quality gives no improvement - upping Mhz does. I've seen it run on a PII-300 and it's glass smooth 100% of the time. Mark Reading, UK

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> I tried upping the refresh rate and the display got really dark and ugly > in F1RS. Went back to default and then switched the hardware > acceleration slider in the Monster 3D properties sheet to "faster but > less compatibility > Eagle Woman > Remove the spam blocker NOSPAM to email me. > http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison

Richard Walkers post mentions something about the dark and ugly display. See it below. Ben

>>Also, what's a good program to benchmark performance of the 3dfx card? >I always used Quake's timedemo feature. The Quake engine shows up the difference between Voodoo and Voodoo Rush supremely, but for normal games like F1RS etc, something like Wizmark from the 3Dfx site is better Voodoo Rush is 30% slower when runninng Quake (simultaneous alpha and z buffering - or something like that) But only about 7% slower when running "normally"....i.e G-Police, F1RS etc

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>>I'm wondering what those of you running F1RS in 3Dfx mode are setting your >>refresh/gamma and MHz clock speed to, and if so, are you seeing any boosts >>in performance? I am also wondering if anyone has edited the batch file >>(if there is one) , and what you have done to that. It seems like one >>could do multiple things to effect the performance similar to all the Quake >>and Quake 2 tweeks out there. >This is what I have in my batch file: >set FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH=1 >set SST_FASTPCIRD=1 >REM set FX_GLIDE_SWAP_INTERVAL=0 >REM set SST_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0 >set SST_FASTMEM=1 >set SST_GAMMA=1.7 >set SST_GRXCLK=55 >set SST_VIDEO_24BPP=1 >set SST_SCREENREFRESH=85 >call C:\WINDOWS\UbiSoft\UBISETUP.exe -play F1RS >The settings are pretty conservative, but I don't take any responsibility >if they damage anyone's card. The two remmed out lines may work for some >but slightly degraded the video quality on my setup. >NB: For Alison & anyone else with the 'dark at high refresh rate' >problem, the Glide gamma settings only take effect at the higher refresh >rates if SST_VIDEO_24BPP is set. >Cheers, >Richard

Where can I learn what all these 3dfx commands do? Is there a 3dfx FAQ anywhere? Many Thanks, -- Richard Cowl

Richard, try this: www.o3dfx.allgames.com/index.html

On Sat, 17 Jan 1998 10:26:46 +0000, Richard Cowl

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>>>I'm wondering what those of you running F1RS in 3Dfx mode are setting your >>>refresh/gamma and MHz clock speed to, and if so, are you seeing any boosts >>>in performance? I am also wondering if anyone has edited the batch file >>>(if there is one) , and what you have done to that. It seems like one >>>could do multiple things to effect the performance similar to all the Quake >>>and Quake 2 tweeks out there. >>This is what I have in my batch file: >>set FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH=1 >>set SST_FASTPCIRD=1 >>REM set FX_GLIDE_SWAP_INTERVAL=0 >>REM set SST_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0 >>set SST_FASTMEM=1 >>set SST_GAMMA=1.7 >>set SST_GRXCLK=55 >>set SST_VIDEO_24BPP=1 >>set SST_SCREENREFRESH=85 >>call C:\WINDOWS\UbiSoft\UBISETUP.exe -play F1RS >>The settings are pretty conservative, but I don't take any responsibility >>if they damage anyone's card. The two remmed out lines may work for some >>but slightly degraded the video quality on my setup. >>NB: For Alison & anyone else with the 'dark at high refresh rate' >>problem, the Glide gamma settings only take effect at the higher refresh >>rates if SST_VIDEO_24BPP is set. >>Cheers, >>Richard >Where can I learn what all these 3dfx commands do? >Is there a 3dfx FAQ anywhere?

Try here: http://www.op3dfx.com/hardware/env_vars.shtml -------- To replay via e-mail, remove ".spam" from the end my e-mail address (Tyring to avoid junk mail)