GPL Online Question/Help

Hi. I have been dying to play GPL online for a while now - but no matter how I set the graphics I can't ALWAYS keep 36fps. Reading other posts at RAS and reading Alison Hine's website have led me to believe that it's essential to be able to keep that framerate. I haven't bothered screwing up anyone's race by showing up & not being able to keep that framerate so I've played around with tweaking my system to see if i could get a little more consistant FPS. Speaking of my system, it's: PII300 128meg ram i740 8meg AGP card CL VooDoo2 12 meg Some sort of generic Yamaha sound card USRobotics 56K modem I always make sure to ctrl-alt-del & close everything non-essential before firing up GPL and most of the time I'm around 36 fps when running with 5-8 cars and minimum sound - except at the start (18-24fps) and when i smack a wall or do something else stupid (i don't know the exact fps at that stage 'cause i'm usually too busy swearing to note the framerate). Anyway, I'm frustrated cause I think I'm fast enough at Monza (1:30 flat consistant, a smidge lower if I'm feeling lucky) and at the Glen to play online. Any guidence as to what I should do would be most appreciated.... Thanks. Mark

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> Hi. I have been dying to play GPL online for a while now - but no matter > how I set the graphics I can't ALWAYS keep 36fps. Reading other posts at > RAS and reading Alison Hine's website have led me to believe that it's > essential to be able to keep that framerate. I haven't bothered screwing up > anyone's race by showing up & not being able to keep that framerate so I've > played around with tweaking my system to see if i could get a little more > consistant FPS. Speaking of my system, it's: > PII300 > 128meg ram > i740 8meg AGP card > CL VooDoo2 12 meg > Some sort of generic Yamaha sound card > USRobotics 56K modem > I always make sure to ctrl-alt-del & close everything non-essential before > firing up GPL and most of the time I'm around 36 fps when running with 5-8 > cars and minimum sound - except at the start (18-24fps) and when i smack a > wall or do something else stupid (i don't know the exact fps at that stage > 'cause i'm usually too busy swearing to note the framerate). > Anyway, I'm frustrated cause I think I'm fast enough at Monza (1:30 flat > consistant, a smidge lower if I'm feeling lucky) and at the Glen to play > online. Any guidence as to what I should do would be most appreciated....

My advice to you is to go ahead and play online. IT's very rare for anyone to get 36fps at the start line, if you're usually seeing 36 fpls most everywhere else, you'll be fine. Trips D. Bell on VROC

Sounds like you've got plenty of equipment to race online, as some of the fastest guys out there make do with less. Nobody gets 36FPS on the grid offline unless they're on the front row, and without having to control the AI, there's less stress on your CPU in online races. Just be sure to use the recommended core.ini and DUN settings, and pay close attention to your pings and FPS once you're online. If your pings are much over .400, you should probably join another race, as your warping will make you a hazard for the other racers. But don't worry; you'll be able to find plenty of hosts with good connections with GPL Spyboy; watch for DSL or cable hookups and low pings. See you online :-) Steve B. remove "edy" from address for email

% Hi. I have been dying to play GPL online for a while now - but no matter % how I set the graphics I can't ALWAYS keep 36fps. Reading other posts at % RAS and reading Alison Hine's website have led me to believe that it's % essential to be able to keep that framerate. I haven't bothered screwing up % anyone's race by showing up & not being able to keep that framerate so I've % played around with tweaking my system to see if i could get a little more % consistant FPS. Speaking of my system, it's: % PII300 % 128meg ram % i740 8meg AGP card % CL VooDoo2 12 meg % Some sort of generic Yamaha sound card % USRobotics 56K modem I have a similar setup (except I have ADSL instead of using a modem). I run online in 640x480 and use the glidewrapper to set mirror refresh to every other frame. I have most of the details on (except driver's arms, driver's texture, mirrors are set to cars only), detail bias is set to the left (just about under the "s" in bias, which is equal to about 33%). At some tracks the frame rate may dip to 33 at some corners. While the grid may drop to the high 20's the frame rate is a pretty good solid 36fps. Don't judge your online frame rate by the frame rate you see while offline with the AI. The CPU overhead for the AI will greatly reduce your frame rate (of course this does not apply to online play). Try the above settings, go online and see how your frame rate runs. I think you should have no trouble keeping a high enough frame rate to run online. The glidewrapper can be found at http://www.grandprix2.com/gpl/patches/glide2x.zip % I always make sure to ctrl-alt-del & close everything non-essential before % firing up GPL and most of the time I'm around 36 fps when running with 5-8 % cars and minimum sound - except at the start (18-24fps) and when i smack a % wall or do something else stupid (i don't know the exact fps at that stage % 'cause i'm usually too busy swearing to note the framerate). % Anyway, I'm frustrated cause I think I'm fast enough at Monza (1:30 flat % consistant, a smidge lower if I'm feeling lucky) and at the Glen to play % online. Any guidence as to what I should do would be most appreciated.... -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hi Bo, I have a P2/333 64MB ram with a V2 12mb card. I get 36fps at the start and it only slows down at some turns - like the hairpin at Rouen. To get the best performance online, here is my setup in GPL: * All textures in forward view * No textures in mirrors * Turn off spectacular highlights and dynamic lighting. * Turn off dirt, dust and skids. * Move the detail bias to the left -- 0% details. * Set the resolution to 800x600 * Set the mirrors to cars only In replays you can turn ALL details back on to get great screen shots. Don't worry about testing FPS with the AI. The AI take up *a lot* of CPU resources. Get the FPS to be 36fps in training mode. You'll find that driving against people online does not impact your FPS like 10 AI drivers would. Jason.

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> Hi. I have been dying to play GPL online for a while now - but no matter > how I set the graphics I can't ALWAYS keep 36fps. >Speaking of my system, it's: > PII300 > 128meg ram > i740 8meg AGP card > CL VooDoo2 12 meg > Some sort of generic Yamaha sound card > USRobotics 56K modem > Thanks. > Mark

-- Jason Monds theCLAPPER in Kali "My other car is a Ferrari" http://members.home.net/gpl.mondsj/gpl/ - My combined gas/brake setups (Remove 'no spork' when replying)

I got a P2 233, 192mb SDRAM, Voodoo2 card.... I get 36fps online, dropping to 34 now and again for a fraction of a second... I had to turn off quite a lot to get this performance... the only forward view items i have checked are.. racing line wall textures car textures trees wheel textures detail bias to left.... mirrors... cars only trackside objects... many I use the glide wrapper to set my mirrors to every 4th refresh... but the best performance boost came from setting soundquality=0 I get smooth online racing at the cost of nice graphics bit it don't look too bad... resolution 640x480 From Lol SpeedFreek.... (underpowered!)

<snip> % but the best performance boost came from setting % soundquality=0 If you need this to get solid fps, go with it. However, this can be a hazard when driving in a heated battle. This setting seems to switch from stereo to mono. I use the stereo placement of cars to judge where/when cars are when they are along side and out of range of the mirrors. Setting the sound to mono reduces the only cue (except look left/right -- which I don't have much time when attempting to defend or pass in turns) we have when we lose sight of the cars we are doing battle with. -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=