GPL- Gettting the best out of an old P166MMX with 3dfx?

I got my GPL last night and was able to play about an hour with it. After I ordered it last Wednesday, from EB, I started reading the limitations it has on Pentiums less than 300mhz. I have a HP P166Mmx with 32mb of memory with a Monster 3d card (Voodoo 1) The demos ran fine without any choppiness at all. Most of my other sims such as F1RS, N2, Motoracer, NHRA DR, Burnout, etc. etc.. run fine. Nevertheless, in GPL and I have not found the right balance between: 1. detail bias 2. screen resolution 3. number of sounds 4. texture usage 5. effects I would like to find out from my fellow friends on the RAS how they are adjusting these items on lower level (now) Pentium. Then I'll worry about adding opponents. As always Thanks ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Tim A. Deatherage "Admitted Sim ***"

On my system, which is similar except I have a Rendition card, I get best results with mirrors set to cars only, no dynamic lighting or any of that (except anti-aliasing), detail bias about 3/4 to the left, 3 sounds, and everything else on, at 512x384. This gives me 30-33 FPS in practice, 10-14 exiting pits or on starts, and 21-26 in traffic(w/9 AI cars). Hope this helps. -- Scott Moore Hoosier MotorSports [link lost in import] Sports *** Network [link lost in import: /***.com] >I got my GPL last night and was able to play about an hour with it. After I >ordered it last Wednesday, from EB, I started reading the limitations it >has on Pentiums less than 300mhz. I have a HP P166Mmx with 32mb of memory >with a Monster 3d card (Voodoo 1) The demos ran fine without any choppiness >at all. Most of my other sims such as F1RS, N2, Motoracer, NHRA DR, >Burnout, etc. etc.. run fine. >Nevertheless, in GPL and I have not found the right balance between: > 1. detail bias > 2. screen resolution > 3. number of sounds > 4. texture usage > 5. effects >I would like to find out from my fellow friends on the RAS how they are >adjusting these items on lower level (now) Pentium. Then I'll worry about >adding opponents. >As always Thanks ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! >Tim A. Deatherage >"Admitted Sim ***"

On Tue, 6 Oct 1998 21:37:30 -0700, "Tim Deatherage"

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>I got my GPL last night and was able to play about an hour with it. After I >ordered it last Wednesday, from EB, I started reading the limitations it >has on Pentiums less than 300mhz. I have a HP P166Mmx with 32mb of memory >with a Monster 3d card (Voodoo 1) The demos ran fine without any choppiness >at all. Most of my other sims such as F1RS, N2, Motoracer, NHRA DR, >Burnout, etc. etc.. run fine. >Nevertheless, in GPL and I have not found the right balance between: > 1. detail bias > 2. screen resolution > 3. number of sounds > 4. texture usage > 5. effects

Here's some info I sent to DoktorB as a follow-up to his survey... ----- Actually, it <fps> varies from about 18 to 24, so long as I stay on the track. If I hit the rail or spin or go off, it can drop into the single digits. race type/mode: training # of opponents: 0 # of sounds: 3 resolution: 640x480 detail bias: just a touch above 0 (at zero the wheels become octagons and make me dizzy :) trackside objects: minimal mirror detail: minimal effects: anti-aliasing only (a necessity, IMO, or else ICR2/N2 has spoiled me <Rendition mode>) any other boxes that you check/uncheck?: road surface, racing groove, tire texture, drivers arms (I'm startin' to dig that cute little guy :), smoke (to show lock-ups) Also, I'm driving in <gasp> arcade view. Sad but true... BTW, with these settings and using two joysticks (X1 for steering, Y2 for gas/brake), I've run 1:34.02 at Monza with the Eagle and nearly (~34 gal) tanks and the default set-up. So you *can* take advantage of the sim's driving model so long as you keep the frame rate at 20 or more. 15 starts getting twitchy and you can get a couple steps behind it. You can drive with the minimum 5 competitors, but your solo rate drops from 18-24 to 14-18 and in traffic you get into the high single digits. It's enough to learn the tracks and cars and get a taste of the sim. But I definitely want more soon. (Your full-on benchmark, as slow as it was, had me drooling for all the details. :) BTW, I didn't do the second benchmark, as my printer goofed up and didn't print a few lines around step 3 of test B. I think if I turn *everything* off (anti-aliasing is worth about 5-6 fps or 20%), I might hit 36 fps solo, but no way of doing it with any competitors. Test one was enough to satisfy my curiousity and get a chuckle (BTW, I bottomed out at 0.61fps at the start, your form wasn't precise enough to note that. :) ----- I'm running a P133 w/Intergraph Reactor (V1000). The numbers above are for Monza. Recently, I've started running Watkins Glen, which is tougher on the frame rate, particularly through the esses. Also, the parts for a C300A PC are on order. :) >Tim A. Deatherage >"Admitted Sim ***" It's good to have you at our meeting, Tim, but no last names, please. You've made the first step and acknowledged that you have a problem... :) NAR Northeast Regional Contest Board site - points and more...

Did some testing on my 200mmx and it seems that sounds and detail bias have great effects on fps. From there only cars in mirrors, effects off, etc. until you get a decent frame rate. It's known that the optimum video card espescially for slower ( under 300) systems is a Thriller 8 meg. After that add more ram, 64min. Even with my 200mmx,thriller8,64ram I need to turn off a lot of stuff to get a good frame rate with any ai cars on the track, without ai cars it goes full fps with all graphics. John > I got my GPL last night and was able to play about an hour with it. After I > ordered it last Wednesday, from EB, I started reading the limitations it > has on Pentiums less than 300mhz. I have a HP P166Mmx with 32mb of memory > with a Monster 3d card (Voodoo 1) The demos ran fine without any choppiness

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> at all. Most of my other sims such as F1RS, N2, Motoracer, NHRA DR, > Burnout, etc. etc.. run fine. > Nevertheless, in GPL and I have not found the right balance between: > 1. detail bias > 2. screen resolution > 3. number of sounds > 4. texture usage > 5. effects > I would like to find out from my fellow friends on the RAS how they are > adjusting these items on lower level (now) Pentium. Then I'll worry

about

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> adding opponents. > As always Thanks ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! > Tim A. Deatherage > "Admitted Sim ***"

I have a P166 non mmx,80mb, V2 12mb. If I am in training mode (no other cars) then I use the following to get 10-20 fps. 1 detail bias in the middle 2 800x600 (I have V2 to run this better than V1) 3 4 sounds (Enough sounds to hear your car) 4 only cars in mirror, textures turned off are clouds,driver,arms. 5 effects turned off are dirt,dust,sparks 6 turn off dynamic lighting, specular highlights set trackside objects to many. Most of these do little change in fps compared to how much it slows with AI cars. When I race 5 cars I turn everything off except for cars in mirrors, the track and walls,skids and driving line. I get about 5-16 fps. The GPL manual "Four Wheel Drift" explains that no other simulator has put so much detail into the car physics and AI and thats why it needs a very fast CPU. Lutrell, Dsr#74 :-) [link lost in import]

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>>Nevertheless, in GPL and I have not found the right balance between: > 1. detail bias > 2. screen resolution > 3. number of sounds > 4. texture usage > 5. effects >I would like to find out from my fellow friends on the RAS how they are >adjusting these items on lower level (now) Pentium. Then I'll worry about >adding opponents. >As always Thanks ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! >Tim A. Deatherage >"Admitted Sim ***"