Setting up Sli

[RickRuski]

Although I have only recently gone Sli I feel that I have found some things that help to get it running reasonably well.

(1) make SURE that all settings are the same in all adjustments (control panel, Invidia Inspector, etc) sometimes I have found that they aren't.

(2) Try and get all cards balanced so that voltages, frequencies, etc are the same. ( I use EVGA precision Tool for this purpose available at EVGA , my two cards are from different stables and therefore not the same clocks etc.)

(3) Overclocking sometimes has a negative effect (although my cards are factory O/C I have turned them down to stock settings and find them more stable)




Now have smooth play after cards reach operating temps.
Get EVGA "Precision" tool to show fps and card temps, also to balance frequencies and voltages.

SOMEONE SAID IN ONE OF THE REPLYS SOMEWHERE THAT THE "EVGA PRECISION TOOL" WOULDN'T WORK WITH THEIR GIGABYTE CARDS, I HAVE BEEN ASSURED AT THE EVGA FORUMS THAT THEY WILL WORK WITH ALL NVIDIA CARDS, SO WILL THE ALTURNATIVE MSI TOOL. So people give it a try.




THESE WERE OLD INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE PRIOR TO THE RELEASE OF LUTHIER'S SLI CODE AND I HAVE REMOVED THEM.

PLEASE USE THE CODE RELEASED BY LUTHIER: -


Profile "Il2: Cliffs of Dover"
ShowOn GeForce
ProfileType Application
Executable "il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover/launcher.exe"
Setting ID_0x00a06946 = 0x000240f5
Setting ID_0x1033cec1 = 0x00000001
Setting ID_0x1033cec2 = 0x00000002
Setting ID_0x1033dcd1 = 0x00000004 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1033dcd2 = 0x00000004
Setting ID_0x1033dcd3 = 0x00000004
Setting ID_0x1074c972 = 0x00000001 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1095def8 = 0x00000004
Setting ID_0x1095def8 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x10f9dc81 = 0x00000010 UserSpecified=true
EndProfile

See this thread on how to instal Luthier's Sli code: -

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=37316





RickRuski

[katdogfizzow]

(4) Choose a title that is SLI supported. (Cliffs of Dover currently is not...it was broken in April)

[RickRuski]

Maybe not anymore, I see "Il2 Sturmovik Cliff of Dover" is listed in the latest "Nvidia Inspector" profile list. I have just made some adjustments to my original profile, and hello now have the smoothest play i have had with the new 285.27 beta driver. I will update the information in my post.

RickRuski

[CrazySchmidt]

(5) Stop showing off Ruski. :D

[Purg]

MSI Afterburner shows that SLI is working and load is being displayed on my 2nd card but performance increase is absolutely zero compared to it running single GPU.

[335th_GRAthos]

Nice solution Rick, I tried it on my two GTX570 and it is very nice and smooth play.

I can not say whether it is because of new NVIDIA drivers (wishfull thinking) or because of your SLI setup but anyhow, the result is very good! Thanks! :)

~S~

[ATAG_Snapper]

MSI Afterburner shows that SLI is working and load is being displayed on my 2nd card but performance increase is absolutely zero compared to it running single GPU.

What I'm seeing is similar. My single card works at 90% -100% with good frame rates (45 -60 fps) at high detail and slight micro stutters at low altitude over landscape. Temperature runs quite warm (60 - 70 C) with fan running at high speed (noisy).

With beta 285.27 driver and Rick's settings in SLI the two cards are running in near parallel at 45% - 65% (higher percentage over land at low altitude) and temps are a little cooler (50 - 60 C) with fans running at lower speed (quieter). Frame rates seem the same as the single card with slight stuttering as well at low altitude over land.

I'm going to remain in SLI mode since there seems to be less operational wear & tear on the cards. Also there may be greater potential to handle greater graphical workloads such as Effects (explosions, clouds, instrument panels), but further work (well, play - actually ;) ) required here to determine that.

My 2.67 CPU is likely a bottleneck for SLI, and possibly 1C will come out with an optimized SLI profile to increase SLI performance.

Nice work, Rick!

[RickRuski]

Hey "Crazy" good to see you here, about time you got your butt of the couch. How about having a look at a "Mission Mate" for "Dover"

Cheers

Rick

[RickRuski]

Purg, one thing to have a look at is the "Control Panel" , make sure you have "Sli enabled". Also the other thing I have done in the C/P is to set "PhysX Settings" processor to cpu in the RH panel.

[katdogfizzow]

Maybe not anymore, I see "Il2 Sturmovik Cliff of Dover" is listed in the latest "Nvidia Inspector" profile list. I have just made some adjustments to my original profile, and hello now have the smoothest play i have had with the new 285.27 beta driver. I will update the information in my post.

RickRuski


Glad you got it rocking. What video cards are you using?

Nevermind I saw it, 450s. To what capacity are both cards running?

[RickRuski]

Last ime I checked both cards were up around 95% ( within 1% of each other) and running temps were about 58--59 deg. The EVGA GTS 450 is the hotter of the two, and the Asus GTS 450 runs slightly cooler. As I have said I use EVGA Precision tool to balance both cards and find this helps. Don't know if you noticed in the above reply to "Purg" I have set Physics processor to CPU. Maybe if we all try optimising the profile settings we could get one that will work for all. Takes about 3--4 min for both cards to reach normal running temps. and I am getting good playable fps over ground cockpit "on" (London raid 45--60fps depending on activity ) with all setting on "High" except buildings and forests "Med" Very happy with the performance of the 450's would love to go to better cards but after a major rebuild the dollars ran out. Next upgrade I hope.

Also I detuned my O/C cards back to stock freq and voltages through "Prcision Tool" and "Nvidia Inspector", found they became better balanced

Cheers

Rick

[EZ1]

I was told by EVGA suport that the cards will balance themselves. I have 2 EVGA 480s, one superclocked the other is standard. They work very well in other SLI applications, especially IL-2 classic. I may try your setup today.

Thanks.

[katdogfizzow]

Last ime I checked both cards were up around 95% ( within 1% of each other) and running temps were about 58--59 deg. The EVGA GTS 450 is the hotter of the two, and the Asus GTS 450 runs slightly cooler. As I have said I use EVGA Precision tool to balance both cards and find this helps. Don't know if you noticed in the above reply to "Purg" I have set Physics processor to CPU. Maybe if we all try optimising the profile settings we could get one that will work for all. Takes about 3--4 min for both cards to reach normal running temps. and I am getting good playable fps over ground cockpit "on" (London raid 45--60fps depending on activity ) with all setting on "High" except buildings and forests "Med" Very happy with the performance of the 450's would love to go to better cards but after a major rebuild the dollars ran out. Next upgrade I hope.

Also I detuned my O/C cards back to stock freq and voltages through "Prcision Tool" and "Nvidia Inspector", found they became better balanced

Cheers

Rick

really wow...looks like I may have to give it a shot again, thanks. q= any reason why you have triple buffering off? My cards are from Gigabyte...cant use Precision Tool but Ill assume everything the same out of box..no oc here

[katdogfizzow]

Although I have only recently gone Sli I feel that I have found some things that help to get it running reasonably well.

(1) make SURE that all settings are the same in all adjustments (control panel, Invidia Inspector, etc) sometimes I have found that they aren't.

(2) Try and get all cards balanced so that voltages, frequencies, etc are the same. ( I use EVGA precision Tool for this purpose available at EVGA , my two cards are from different stables and therefore not the same clocks etc.)

(3) Overclocking sometimes has a negative effect (although my cards are factory O/C I have turned them down to stock settings and find them more stable)

Hope these few things that I have found during testing help others who might be struggling.

Here are my new "Profile" settings applied after 285.27 beta driver.

Sli compatibility bits (DX10) = 0x00000011
Sli compatibility bits = 0x00000011
AA-mode = override any application setting
AA-setting = 2x (2x Multisampling)
AA-Transparency Multisampling = Enabled
AA-Transparency Supersampling = Off/ Multisampling
Text filtering-Anisotropic sample opt.= OFF
Text filtering-Negative LOD Bias = Clamp
Text filtering-Quality = Quality
Text filtering-Trilinear opt. = OFF
Max pre-rendered frames = 3
Multi-display/mixed-GPUacceleration = Single display performance mode
Power management mode = Adaptive
Treaded optimization = Auto
Triple buffering = OFF
Vertical Sync = Force on

Sli : -

AA-SliAA = AA MODE SELECTOR SLIAA ENABLED
Number of GPU's to use Sli = SLI_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIA predefined No.GPU's = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_TWO
NVIDIA predefined No. GPU's = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIApredefined SLI mode DX10 = SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_DX10_FORCE_AFR
NVIDIA predefined Sli mode = SLI_PREDEFINED_MOED_FORCE_AFR
SLI rendering mode = SLI_RENDERING_MODE_FORCE_AFR

Other : -

Do not display this profile in the C/P = CPL_HIDDEN_PROFILE_DISABLED
Enable application for Optimus = 0x00000011 (Il-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover)

In the "Nvidia Control Panel" Sli setup RH panel I have set "PhysX settings" = cpu

Now have smooth play after cards reach operating temps.
Get EVGA "Precision" tool to show fps and card temps, also to balance frequencies and voltages. These will display on screen instead of using "Fraps".

My latest screen shot from "London Attack" after applying 285.27 and "Profile"update

I have had some feed back from the members at "Nvidia Sli Club" on my profiles, they seem to work ok with dual cards but not with 3+ cards in Sli. Those who are using 3+ cards all I can suggest is try different things in "Nvidia Inspector" to get the best results you can until an official release for Sli is done. (17/9/2011)


RickRuski

Didn't work with my Gigabyte 460s. Still the slow and jittery fps mess. Also did C/P = CPL_HIDDEN_PROFILE_DISABLED, Enable application for Optimus = 0x00000011 and "PhysX settings" = cpu

thanks for sharing, looks like my hardware is a no go with this profile

http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww141/ekoepp/IL2%20Cliffs%20of%20Dover/e4c259fd.jpg

[EZ1]

I just got it all set up and and running per instructions from RickRuski. Results: Yes, it runs evenly on both GPUs. Yes, it is pretty smooth but not quite as smooth as single GPU. But, I don't see any performance improvement. I would think SLI isn't going to give us much until they get AA working right.

Thanks again for the info.

[snwkill]

Very well done, noticed a bit of improvement but I also fly with grass off because it is easier to see runways. Thanks though, only time it pauses is when I am looking around like a mad man trying to find my pursuer ;)

[RickRuski]

Hi Snwkill,

I am at the moment trying to get the best I can from the current situation with "Dover", that means I will accept advise and or sugestions from all. We will all have some input that we can try, and the more that try with Sli the better we could achieve with our performance until an "offical" profile is provided.

I also fly with Grass and Shadows "Off", cant see any sense in having a performance hit from 1500 mtrs up.

My setup that I have posted is what is working for me, I realise that it won't for everyone but lets keep at it, then the developers will see that there is enough of us using Sli to warrant some effort there.

[RickRuski]

Hi Katdogfizzow,

Sorry for the slow reply, I have tried "Triple Buffering" but found no visible difference on my system so I left it "OFF'.

[EZ1]

I forgot to mention. I have all vedio settings at highest, except grass and SSAO are off and Landscape shading is medium. The only time my frame rates are in the unacceptable range is when I am flying low over a lot of buildings and when there is a lot of smoke in the field of view.

[katdogfizzow]

Hi Katdogfizzow,

Sorry for the slow reply, I have tried "Triple Buffering" but found no visible difference on my system so I left it "OFF'.

Ok, just wondering as they supposedly work hand in hand. Thanks again for the feedback and the info.

I did notice my voltages fluctuate a bit, but I believe its from one card being idle when Im monitoring. Not sure what else I could try. I'll have to just wait for the profile I guess.

Getting 35-40fps over London so Im quite happy as is....I am SLI enabled, but the second card isn't working to capacity...~10%

[335th_GRAthos]

Guys, in my opinion you need to have your eyes locked on the memory % usage of your GPU.

If your VRAM is occupied at 95% or more, your fps rate will halve.

~S~

[335th_GRAthos]

Hmmm....it is very strange.

I had two days of great SLI playing on the REPKA Server #3 with 70-100 fps and no stutters.

The third day (today) I had a different experience:
Flying towards the enemy (blue) base island, towards a dogfight with many planes, my fps dropped to 6-14fps !!!!!

This time there were some planes more in the server but I still can not explain the difference.

So I am sad to say that the problems remain to be solved.
I can not however explain the first two good days of flaing though.

~S~

[r0bc]

Its weird that just a few more planes would cause that kind of FPS drop.
Has to be something else going on.

[chris455]

Rick,
Downloaded Nvidia Inspector but, contrary to what you indicated earlier, can find no reference to a profile for COD, just plain vanilla IL2 and The ace expansion pack. Do I need to create a profile for it?
Thanks!

[Bokononist]

Didn't work with my Gigabyte 460s. Still the slow and jittery fps mess. Also did C/P = CPL_HIDDEN_PROFILE_DISABLED, Enable application for Optimus = 0x00000011 and "PhysX settings" = cpu

thanks for sharing, looks like my hardware is a no go with this profile

http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/ww141/ekoepp/IL2%20Cliffs%20of%20Dover/e4c259fd.jpg

Same here, two 460's, I've got all the same settings, created a custom profile for Launcher.exe and it doesn;t seem to have an effect, one card going like the clappers @99% and the other between 10 and 14%, it's not a 'jittery mess' but if its working for others I'd like to join the party! What can I have missed?
I'm new to SLI so maybe it's something obvious, any suggestions gratefully recieved. SLI is enabled in nvidia control panel and works like a beast with every other game.
Also, when the official SLI profile becomes available will it automaticaly take precedence or will I have to delete my custom profile?
Thanks in advance,
Boko.

[RickRuski]

Hi Bokononist,

Check your Nvidia CP, see if you have one of your cards set for "Physics". If the answer is YES change it to CPU in the settings. Also each time before you go into COD set your "Inspector" to the correct profile (it tends to reset to "Global") and then "Minimise" Inspector, don't turn it OFF. See if this helps. The reason for this Physics setting see my edited profile settings (28/9/11)

Rick

[Bokononist]

Thanks mate, all working fine now, 60% each card now rather than 99/10!
Your time and suggestions are very much appreciated.

[Ataros]

Thanks mate, all working fine now, 60% each card now

Why is it only 60%? Does not CloD need more with maxed out settings and res?

[Bokononist]

Why is it only 60%? Does not CloD need more with maxed out settings and res?
Probably because this is a 'make-do' profile and not the official version, when official driver support comes in we'll see what happens.
Until then things are running better, and my top 460 doesn't have to run at 99% for hours on end!

[RickRuski]

Hi Chris455,

If there is no profile "Cliffs of Dover" or "Launcher.exe" make a new profile as Cliffs of Dover using the one I have suggested. Also see my reply to Bokononist as to setting "Inspector" and "Nvidia Control Panel".

Sorry for the slow reply.

Cheers

Rick

[15.Span_Valalo]

Hi Guys. Hi RickRuski

I did what you had ordered, but in my case, the SLI works but I have many stoppages in the cities ... I I have done the same profile that you are using physic CPU and SLI is turned on ....

I have 2 target in SLI (GTX 275) on ASUS P6T motherboard with 6gb ram trichannel and microprocessor is I7 at 2,8....

My FPS is in the water 60, the game runs fine, but in cities ... fps is very poor ... The levels of detail in cities and forests are very low and medium quality textures ...

Any ideas.

Thank you.

[RickRuski]

Hi Span_Valalo,

I have 2x GTS450's in Sli and find that until my cards have reached full operating temp's they stutter a bit (this takes about 2 min.). Also are you leaving "Inspector" minimised or are you shutting it down??. I find that I must check my settings each time I go to start COD, "Inspector" seems to reset to "Global" settings when shut down. Don't know if you are running your cards over clocked, mine were O/C by factory but I have detuned them to standard clocks each time and find them more stable. Are both your cards from the same manufacturer??, Mine aren't and have different clocks, that is why I use EVGA "Precision Tool" to set both cards to same clock speeds ( Standard, no O/C). You can also use "Inspector" to set your clocks, Just make sure that you "unlock" minimum and Maximum. With "Precision Tool" you can Syncronise both cards clocks. These small adjustments I have found seem to make small improvements each time. EVGA Precision tool works with all Nvidia cards I have been told by EVGA, also MSI tool. The "Profile" that I'm using is only a work around until hopefully the developers and Nvidia come up with an "Official" profile, and only seems to be ok for some and not all (especially those with 3+GPU processors in Sli). I have just installed the latest Nvidia "Beta" drivers 285.38 but haven't had time to test them properly, at this stage I haven't seen any improvement from "285.27 Beta". Check and see if both your cards are running at the same temps or within 1--2 Deg of each other, if not this will indicate one card isn't operating properly in Sli. I'm getting fps over land 40--60fps depending on activity and 60--90fps over water. What Vram do your cards have?? anything less than 1gig with each card and you probably will be struggling. Each card must have the same amount of Vram to run in Sli (you can't mix a 1gig card with a 512mb card even though they are the same model, it won't work with Sli). This is information I have recieved from "Nvidia SLI Club".

Cheers

Rick

[15.Span_Valalo]

Hi Span_Valalo,

I have 2x GTS450's in Sli and find that until my cards have reached full operating temp's they stutter a bit (this takes about 2 min.). Also are you leaving "Inspector" minimised or are you shutting it down??. I find that I must check my settings each time I go to start COD, "Inspector" seems to reset to "Global" settings when shut down. Don't know if you are running your cards over clocked, mine were O/C by factory but I have detuned them to standard clocks each time and find them more stable. Are both your cards from the same manufacturer??, Mine aren't and have different clocks, that is why I use EVGA "Precision Tool" to set both cards to same clock speeds ( Standard, no O/C). You can also use "Inspector" to set your clocks, Just make sure that you "unlock" minimum and Maximum. With "Precision Tool" you can Syncronise both cards clocks. These small adjustments I have found seem to make small improvements each time. EVGA Precision tool works with all Nvidia cards I have been told by EVGA, also MSI tool. The "Profile" that I'm using is only a work around until hopefully the developers and Nvidia come up with an "Official" profile, and only seems to be ok for some and not all (especially those with 3+GPU processors in Sli). I have just installed the latest Nvidia "Beta" drivers 285.38 but haven't had time to test them properly, at this stage I haven't seen any improvement from "285.27 Beta". Check and see if both your cards are running at the same temps or within 1--2 Deg of each other, if not this will indicate one card isn't operating properly in Sli. I'm getting fps over land 40--60fps depending on activity and 60--90fps over water. What Vram do your cards have?? anything less than 1gig with each card and you probably will be struggling. Each card must have the same amount of Vram to run in Sli (you can't mix a 1gig card with a 512mb card even though they are the same model, it won't work with Sli). This is information I have recieved from "Nvidia SLI Club".

Cheers

Rick

Hi friend, thks for fast reqest. I have got 2 nvidia GTX275 ZOTAR the 2 grapich cards are the same... the memory that one grapich card, VRAM is 896MB DDR3...

But I have other Pc with single grapich card to GTX 465 with VRAM 1024MB - GDDR5 and motherboard P5K premium (5 yars old) with 4gb Memori Ram DDR2 and intel core quad duo, at 2,6ghz and this pc the game run better...

I hope that Nvidia and Luthier make profile to SlI, it is very important...

[RickRuski]

Hi Span_Valalo,

The problem with Sli is that if you have 2 graphics cards with 896mb each of Vram the amount of ram that is available is still only 896mb, not 2 x 896mb. What does double is your "Cuda" cores, you will have 480 with your GTX275's instead of 240 single card. You might find that the GTX465 1045mb card will give you better performance at the moment on it's own. That being a GDDR5 as GDDR3 of the GTX275. If you haven't already got EVGA "Precision Tool" go to the EVGA site and download it (it is a free tool). See link: -

http://www.evga.com/precision/

If you have trouble getting it, send me a pm and I will send it to you it's about a 6mb file.

Cheers

Rick

[15.Span_Valalo]

Hi Span_Valalo,

The problem with Sli is that if you have 2 graphics cards with 896mb each of Vram the amount of ram that is available is still only 896mb, not 2 x 896mb. What does double is your "Cuda" cores, you will have 480 with your GTX275's instead of 240 single card. You might find that the GTX465 1045mb card will give you better performance at the moment on it's own. That being a GDDR5 as GDDR3 of the GTX275. If you haven't already got EVGA "Precision Tool" go to the EVGA site and download it (it is a free tool). See link: -

http://www.evga.com/precision/

If you have trouble getting it, send me a pm and I will send it to you it's about a 6mb file.

Cheers

Rick

Thanks Rick, but, this program, uhmm... overcloking??? u other use??? thaks

[RickRuski]

Hi Span_Valalo,

I know it says it is an overclocking tool but I use it to take my clock settings back to "standard" ( de-clock factory O/C), and run my two cards at stock clocks. Don't think that it is solely an O/C tool, you can also use it in reverse in partnership with "Inspector" and then syncronise both cards to same clocks.

e.g.

Memory clock factory setting: - 1900
My setting: - 1804 (both cards)

Shader clock factory setting: - 1700
My setting: - 1566 (both cards)

Cheers

Rick

[15.Span_Valalo]

Very good this program mate, tnks for sharing.

other question to O/C GTX 275 Zotar...

How I can I overclock the graphics card safely?? where I can find references overclocling me??

thks Risk

[RickRuski]

Hi Span_Valalo

If you haven't already, join "Nvidia Sli Club" which is at the Nvidia site.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/home.html

You will find lots of relevant information there, also help with you cards as to O/C. There are different threads for each series of Cards, just put your questions there just the same as you would here. The only thing is, they will scan your system to make sure it is a "SLI" system before they will allow you to join. If you have a "Genuine" SLI system and not a "Hybrid" there should be no problems.

Cheers

Rick

[335th_GRAthos]

a "Genuine" SLI system and not a "Hybrid" there should be no problems.

What is a "Hybrid" SLI system?????


~S~

[RickRuski]

Hi Grathos,

See this @ Nvidia: -

http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybrid_sli.html

Cheers

Rick

[335th_GRAthos]

Cheers Rick!

[RickRuski]

Hi People,

I have been doing some trial changes to the "Inspector Profile" and would like some help to see how this works for others.
If anyone would like to try these changes to see how they work for you and give me some feed back. ( remember to backup the original profile, I won't do any changes to that in the post until I can see the results).

Line: -

Text filtering-NegativeLOD Bias = Clamp (Change to "Allow")
Text filtering-Trilinear opt. = OFF (Change to "ON")
Max pre-rendered frames = 3 (Change to "0")
Triple buffering = OFF (Change to "ON")

These changes seem to have made some minor improvements to "stutter" in "London Attack" single player.

Cheers

Rick

Remember to make similar changes in control panel.

[335th_GRAthos]

Thanks Rick, I will try it next time.

Remember to make similar changes in control panel.

What do you mean? (I thought if I change the profile using the Inspector the profile has global reach).


~S~

[RickRuski]

Hi Grathos,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote: -

What do you mean? (I thought if I change the profile using the Inspector the profile has global reach).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doesn't seem to, I have made changes to "Profile" and when I have checked the CP the changes are not showing there. So have also had to manually do a change in CP to match.

Just check.

Cheers

Rick

[RickRuski]

Don't know if any one has used this Sli Patch version 1. Can be downloaded from Nvidia, see link.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_sli_profile_patch.html

[335th_GRAthos]

C'mon Rick,

what is the SLI performance with the new patch????

~S~

[GOZR]

Xfire ... real bad !!

[335th_GRAthos]

Xfire ... real bad !!

Who asked you!?
For you, it is the deserved punishment for buying ATI...you traitor! R.O.F.L!!! :D :D :D :D

Just joking of course...


Hmmm... just in case GOZR, check whether the stereoscopic option is set to off. As it was expected, the 3D option halves the fps (and the new ATI and NVIDIA cores will not be out for Xmas :( :( )


~S~

[RickRuski]

Hi Grathos,

The new Beta patch has done nothing for me , apart from making me frustrated. Was hoping we would see some improvements to the stutters a lot of us are having regardless of whether we are running single or multi cards. It seems that graphical glitches have been put on the back burner and left to simmer while the candy gets priority. We will just have to wait and hope Luthier and the team sort out the priorities. Sli got shelved for some time with ROF until their development team got together with Nvidia to sort it out. Sounds like both with regards to COD are blaming each other.

Here is part of an FAQ post by Luthier dated 31/3/11
For full article see: -
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=19819


2. Q: I have an above-recommended SLI video card set up and my FPS is very low.
A: At some point in the very hectic pre-release rush, we have broken SLI support and we have not yet been able to discover the reason for it. We are working very hard to re-enable it. In the meantime, disabling SLI will significantly boost your FPS.


As you can see, that was nearly 7 months ago and nothing as far as we have heard or seen has been done to correct it.


AMD M4N98TD-EVO
AMD Phenom2 965 x 4 3.4gig
8gig DDR3 Ram
2x GTS 450 Sli
1Tb HDD Partitioned x 5
700w Coolermaster single rail P/S 52a
19" Samsung 931BW monitor
1280 x 960 Resolution

[335th_GRAthos]

Hmmm... :(

Well, I did not run yet in SLI mode the new beta.

I set the Beta yesterday and run Black Death on one GPU. I tried what I read in some other posts: removed the tick from Grass and Ground Shadows (left only Roads as ticked).
No micro stutters at all. (at 3072x1024)
fps is rather low at 40-50 yet again, it is a single GPU performance.

As soon as I have tried the SLI configuration I will post.

~S~

[RickRuski]

Hi Grathos,

Yes I'm running about the same settings as you. Grass off, Shadows off, AA off, and all but forests and building ammount (which are medium) on high. Micro stutters are still there but not so noticeable when flying straight, only when glancing around and down they become more obvious. I'm still getting good frame rates, no complaints there but the game play isn't as smooth as I think it should be. Try flying over land with a built up area, pan around to either left or right and down, hold that view for about 15 seconds and let me know what results you have.

It looks like from the read me with the latest beta patch that Ilya has promised Sli and crossfire support in the coming days---weeks, after about 7 months I hope it's days.

Cheers

Rick

[RickRuski]

I have been experimenting with the Process Affinity Mask (P.A.M.) and settings, here is what is happening for me.

With P.A.M. activated the micro stutters are minimised.
With P.A.M. deactivated the micto stutters are more noticeable.

With the patches P.A.M. seemed to disappear from conf.ini so I have added it back in.

I'm running a 4 core proccessor so have set it to 15, see scale below.

This was posted at Ubi Forums some time ago and is also in a reply by 335th_GRAthos in these forums.



Process Affinity =
=1 - core 0
=2 - core 1
=3 - core 0+1
=4 - core 2
=5 - core 0+2
=6 - core 1+2
=7 - core 0+1+2
=8 - core 3
=9 - core 0 + 3
=10 - core 1 + 3
=11 - core 0 + 2 + 3
=12 - core 2 + 3
=13 - core 0 + 2 + 3
=14 - core 1 + 2 + 3
=15 - core 0 + 1 + 2 + 3

My entry is at the bottom of the (rts) section and is installed like this: -


[rts]
; 0 - not use, 1 - show cursor and not capture, 2 - not show cursor, and capture
mouseUse=2
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
joyUse=1
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
trackIRUse=1
ProcessAffinityMask=15

To enable P.A.M. remove semicolon
To disable P.A.M. add semicolon (;ProcessAffinityMask= 15)

As you can see from the above table depending on the setting you should be able to force your CPU to use if possible the cores you want.

15= cores 0,1,2,3 (all 4 cores)

For those like me who are using EVGA Precision Tool it is interesting to see how the useage of the GPU's fluctuate using Sli. One GPU doesn't work the hardest all the time, there are shifts (although briefly) between each card. GPU1 will be operating at say around 80%,GPU2 at about78%, then as demand shifts so does the loading from GPU1 to GPU2. Both cards are running within about 2% of each other which indicates to me that I am getting good balance between the cards. This is in my on screen display with EVGA Precision.

Cheers

Rick

[ATAG_Snapper]

Thanks, Rick, will give it a try and report back here if it seems to help with the stutters or not.

[RickRuski]

Here's my current conf.ini for those interested: -

[BOB]
EpilepsyFilter=0

[window]
DepthBits =24
StencilBits=8
DrawIfNotFocused=0
SaveAspect=1
Render=D3D10_0
width=1280
height=960
posLeft=0
posTop=0
ColourBits=32
FullScreen=1
ChangeScreenRes=1
Frequency=60

[NET]
speed=100000
localPort=27015
serverName=My Server
serverDescription=IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover
serverInfo1=
serverInfo2=
serverInfo3=
serverInfo4=
VAC=1
maxPlayers=255
socksEnable=0
socksHost=
socksPort=1080
socksUser=
socksPwd=

[Console]
IP=20001
UseStartLog=1
WRAP=1
PAUSE=1
HISTORY=1024
HISTORYCMD=1024
PAGE=20
LOG=0
LOGTIME=0
LOAD=console.cmd
SAVE=console.cmd
LOGFILE=log.txt
LOGKEEP=0

[rts]
; 0 - not use, 1 - show cursor and not capture, 2 - not show cursor, and capture
mouseUse=2
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
joyUse=1
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
trackIRUse=1
ProcessAffinityMask=15

[rts_mouse]
SensitivityX=1.0
SensitivityY=1.0
SensitivityZ=1.0
Invert=0
SwapButtons = 0

[rts_joystick]
FF=1

[core]
RandSeed = 0
TexQual=2
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0
Shadows=0
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=2
LandShading=0
LandDetails=1
Sky=3
Forest=1
VisibilityDistance=3
LandGeom=2
DrawCollisions=1
Water=-1
Effects=2
EffFlags.Light=1
EffFlags.SpriteRender=0
Grass=-1
CordEffect=1
UseFog=0
UseLandCube=1
UseLandConnectedObject=1
LinearObjectManager=1
Roads=1
Sun=1
Clouds=1
EffFlags.LightSpritesProj=1
ShadowMapSize=5
TexFlags.AsyncLoad=1
TexFlags.ShowTexture=0
SimpleMesh.SWTransform=0
SimpleMesh.QuadTreeClip=1
SimpleMesh.InstancingHW=1
EffFlags.LightContextSprites=1
CloudsFlags.Detailed=1
TexFlags.CreateHDR=1
Decals=2
EffFlags.SWLight=0
TexFlags.CockpitOnePass=0
MegaTexture=0
TexFlags.Reflection=0
RenderTargetQual=1
MSAA=0
MeshStatics=0
MeshStaticsDetail=2
SimpleMesh.QTNoCompose=0
MeshFirstLod=0
MeshShowLod=0
SpawnHumans=0
TexFlags.SSAO=0
TexFlags.VSync=0
TexFlags.FastTransparency=1

[sound]
SoundUse=1
DebugSound=0
SoundEngine=1
Speakers=1
Placement=0
SoundFlags.reversestereo=0
RadioFlags.Enabled=1
RadioEngine=2
MusicVolume=14
ObjectVolume=7
MusState.takeoff=1
MusState.inflight=1
MusState.crash=1
MusFlags.play=1
MasterVolume=14
Attenuation=7
SoundMode=0
SamplingRate=0
NumChannels=2
SoundExt.occlusions=1
SoundFlags.hardware=1
SoundFlags.streams=1
SoundFlags.duplex=1
SoundExt.acoustics=1
SoundExt.volumefx=1
SoundFlags.voicemgr=1
SoundFlags.static=1
VoiceVolume=8
Channels=1
SoundFlags.bugscorrect=0
SoundExt.extrender=0
SoundSetupId=8
ActivationLevel=0.02
Preemphasis=0.8
RadioLatency=0.5
AGC=1
PTTMode=1
RadioFlags.PTTMode=0
RadioFlags.PlayClicks=1
ActLevel=9
MicLevel=10
SoundFlags.UseRadioChatter=0
SoundFlags.AutoActivation=0
SoundFlags.forceEAX1=0
speakers=1
vgMaster=7
vgVoice=7
vgMusic=7

[game]
mapPadX=0.6179687
mapPadY=0.0625



Cheers

Rick

[335th_GRAthos]

Hi Rick,

I gave it a try with the new patch, on the ATAG server.
Big map (English channel) and 50+ players.

SLI seems to be working nicely.
I did not have stutters (ok, never had). doubled my fps with SLI.
Flying high the ground looks very good.

Problems start when my VRAM (1,3Gb) is reaching its max.
On a dogfight low above England I noticed some delays when dogfighting with max zoom (in order to be able to track the bandit).

Maybe I am wrong but I think that this is not an SLI issue but, a VRAM size issue.
My friend who has a machine with a single GTX450 card experiences the same graphic delays must sooner than I do.


~S~

[310thDiablo]

Although I have only recently gone Sli I feel that I have found some things that help to get it running reasonably well.

(1) make SURE that all settings are the same in all adjustments (control panel, Invidia Inspector, etc) sometimes I have found that they aren't.

(2) Try and get all cards balanced so that voltages, frequencies, etc are the same. ( I use EVGA precision Tool for this purpose available at EVGA , my two cards are from different stables and therefore not the same clocks etc.)

(3) Overclocking sometimes has a negative effect (although my cards are factory O/C I have turned them down to stock settings and find them more stable)

Hope these few things that I have found during testing help others who might be struggling.

Here are my new "Profile" settings applied after 285.27 beta driver.

Sli compatibility bits (DX10) = 0x00000011
Sli compatibility bits = 0x00000011
AA-mode = override any application setting
AA-setting = 2x (2x Multisampling)
AA-Transparency Multisampling = Enabled
AA-Transparency Supersampling = Off/ Multisampling
Text filtering-Anisotropic sample opt.= OFF
Text filtering-Negative LOD Bias = Clamp
Text filtering-Quality = Quality
Text filtering-Trilinear opt. = OFF
Max pre-rendered frames = 3
Multi-display/mixed-GPUacceleration = Single display performance mode
Power management mode = Adaptive
Treaded optimization = Auto
Triple buffering = OFF
Vertical Sync = Force on

Sli : -

AA-SliAA = AA MODE SELECTOR SLIAA ENABLED
Number of GPU's to use Sli = SLI_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIA predefined No.GPU's = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_DX10_TWO
NVIDIA predefined No. GPU's = SLI_PREDEFINED_GPU_COUNT_TWO
NVIDIApredefined SLI mode DX10 = SLI_PREDEFINED_MODE_DX10_FORCE_AFR
NVIDIA predefined Sli mode = SLI_PREDEFINED_MOED_FORCE_AFR
SLI rendering mode = SLI_RENDERING_MODE_FORCE_AFR

Other : -

Do not display this profile in the C/P = CPL_HIDDEN_PROFILE_DISABLED
Enable application for Optimus = 0x00000011 (Il-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover)

In the "Nvidia Control Panel" Sli setup RH panel I have set "PhysX settings" = cpu (The reason I have this setting is to take the "Physics" load off GPU1 and give me a better balance on both GPU cards) Edit: -28/9/11

Now have smooth play after cards reach operating temps.
Get EVGA "Precision" tool to show fps and card temps, also to balance frequencies and voltages. These will display on screen instead of using "Fraps".

My latest screen shot from "London Attack" after applying 285.27 and "Profile"update

I have had some feed back from the members at "Nvidia Sli Club" on my profiles, they seem to work ok with dual cards but not with 3+ cards in Sli. Those who are using 3+ cards all I can suggest is try different things in "Nvidia Inspector" to get the best results you can until an official release for Sli is done. (17/9/2011)

SOMEONE SAID IN ONE OF THE REPLYS SOMEWHERE THAT THE "EVGA PRECISION TOOL" WOULDN'T WORK WITH THEIR GIGABYTE CARDS, I HAVE BEEN ASSURED AT THE EVGA FORUMS THAT THEY WILL WORK WITH ALL NVIDIA CARDS, SO WILL THE ALTURNATIVE MSI TOOL. So people give it a try.


RickRuski

Rick...I wonder if your profile settings would work in a crossfire setup.

[RickRuski]

Hi Diablo,

You could try but I don't think so. Inspector is for Nvidia cards, don't know if ATI have a similar program. If they do all I can suggest is try.

Cheers

Rick

[RickRuski]

Hi GRATHos,

The Vram issue is what I thought as well, so I have a poll running in the main section. Interesting to see the results so far, some with an excess of 1gb Vram are also having problems. About 75% of replies to the poll are having stutter problems regardless of Vram size. It is all pointing to graphics engine optimisation.

Cheers

Rick

[335th_GRAthos]

Rick,

if you ever have some free time, test how SLI works in window mode....


I just noticed that my game runs very nicely at 3072x1024 window (my desktop is 3840x1024) but very poorly (with sutters) in Full screen or pseudo screen mode.

Who knows....


~S~

[RickRuski]

Hi GRATHos,

Tried your suggestion, made things worse as far as stutters were concerned. What I have tried is to use the best refresh rate my monitor will give, that seems to have helped a little (75hz).

Cheers

Rick

[jimbop]

Hi guys, I'm using 285.62 WHQL 64-bit with two GTX480s. Your suggested profile results in everything being mirrored between the two cards in Precision (GPU memory, temp, usage but only at abut 50%) but no increase in frame rates and stuttering which I don't usually get.

Also, IL-2 doesn't appear in the Inspector list now. Do you know if there have been some changes in 285.62 that stop your profile increasing FPS or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

[KeBrAnTo]

Just tried Rick's settings and didn't work for me first time, only one GPU was doing the job.

I found out I had to enable another two options further down the list in nVidia inspector, and now SLI is working for me, both cards at 99%, temp at 80-81º and 50 fps average at 1680x1050 and medium settings ingame, very good :grin:

[KeBrAnTo]

Also, IL-2 doesn't appear in the Inspector list now. Do you know if there have been some changes in 285.62 that stop your profile increasing FPS or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

It doesn't show up actually. You have to manually create your own "launcher.exe" profile and check if SLI is really working using a tool such e-vga precision.

Are you absolutely sure your SLI is working?. Did you check it using some kind of tool like I was mentioning before?

[RickRuski]

Hi Guys,

Sorry I haven't been too active on the forum lately. The other things to look at is make sure that you don't shut down Inspector when playing COD, (you will have to select the correct profile each time as in my case it reverts to GLOBAL) just minimise it. EVGA Precision tool is a great way of checking that your Sli is operating as it will show: -

Temp of both cards
How the card useage is on both in % (I find that the demand on both cards shifts from one to the other thou not greatly as the graphics demand).
And FPS on both cards.
This tool is available through the EVGA web site and is suitable for all Nvidia cards regardless of manufacturer.

In the Nvidia control panel set Physics option to CPU (this takes the demand off the GPU).

I still have some minor stutter problems but only when down low and mainly over land (hope the coming patches will address a fully working Sli (this was broken prior to release and hasn't been fixed as yet, the profile I am using is a work around until then).

Cheers
Rick

[jimbop]

@KeBrAnTo, RickRuski: Yes, SLI is definitely working while flying with mirrored temps, usage, VRAM usage in EVGA Precision. Just no increase in framerate and increased stutters.

[KeBrAnTo]

@KeBrAnTo, RickRuski: Yes, SLI is definitely working while flying with mirrored temps, usage, VRAM usage in EVGA Precision. Just no increase in framerate and increased stutters.

Hi jimbop, I just started a thread where I wrote down some tips in order to help some people tuning-up their PC's for the sim. http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=27762

It doesn't seem to me that you are new to the subject I'm dealing with in that post, but who knows, maybe it could be helpful just to give it a quick read. :grin:

S!

[jimbop]

Thanks. Single card is fine with no stuttering and acceptable framerate (e.g. http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=25940). I was just wondering if SLI was still 'working' post patch.

[RickRuski]

Hi Jimbob,

Could you post a copy of your profile in Inspector and your Nvidia CP settings. If you are not seeing any improvement in fps have you got v/s enabled? if so fps won't show any higher than your refresh rate. I have had a look at what I am using at the moment in the profile and there is only one change that I have made from the one posted, I will change the profile to reflect the change. It seems to have made a very small improvement for me anyway.

Cheers

Rick

[jimbop]

Hi Jimbob,

Could you post a copy of your profile in Inspector and your Nvidia CP settings. If you are not seeing any improvement in fps have you got v/s enabled? if so fps won't show any higher than your refresh rate. I have had a look at what I am using at the moment in the profile and there is only one change that I have made from the one posted, I will change the profile to reflect the change. It seems to have made a very small improvement for me anyway.

Cheers

Rick

See end of post for the profile. I usually play with vsync enabled to reduce tearing but not during testing. This is on a clean 285.62 install. The only thing that is not as per your original post is the Sli compatibility bits since CoD is not found in my installation and 0x00000011 refers to a Star Wars game instead. As mentioned above the cards are both working according to EVGA Precision.

These results are for a 30 second average of the same track under SLI and single GPU. The average framerate is higher (14% higher under these conditions) but the stutters and sudden slowdowns make this unplayable for me regardless. This is reflected in the variable minimum framerate in SLI below vs the very stable results for single GPU:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6056/6338043433_29c1a4a57e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/61319592@N06/6338043433/)

And the video options were:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6338043307_ec81c97c1f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/61319592@N06/6338043307/)

I will continue to play around with it to see if the stutters can be reduced.

[jimbop]

Update: tinkering with settings can improve framerates somewhat but stutters are inevitable when SLI is enabled, at least on my system. Is anyone managing to get framerate increases without stutters on 285.62?

[RickRuski]

Hi Jimbop,

I have just updated to the latest Beta Nvidia drivers and find very little difference for me from the previous version. What I asked you for was your personal settings in "Inspector" and "Nvidia Control Panel" not your fps and ingame video settings, I wanted to have a look at what exactly you are using so that I might help you get it working more to your liking. Without that information I'm only guessing at where to start for you.
I'm running 2x gts450 Sli and have very playable frame rates with minor stutters low down over land but not bad enough to stop me enjoying the sim. It sounds like you haven't added "Launcher.exe" to your Control panel settings to match the Inspector profile, these are what I need to see to be able to help. If you are not sure how to do this ask for help, I will be very happy to. I know that the "Compatibility bits" setting refers to a Star wars setting but a lot of settings refer to multiple games. If you don't wish to try all suggested settings, then experiment with the settings yourself to try and get the best that you can. I am running all my in game video settings on High except for Building amount and Forests which are both medium, my resolution is 1280 x 960 on a 19" lcd, roads "on", Shadows "off" (find that is a big hit on fps) 2 x AA, V/S "off". Don't have any noticeable tearing, have tried it both ways and find "off" suits me better.

One thing to have a look at, in the Nvidia control panel when you set it up for Sli (I suppose you have) under the Physics settings make sure that you have CPU selected other wise one of your cards will be allocated for Physics use.

Your 2 x GTX480's should eat this sim.

Cheers

Rick

[diveplane]

I just got it all set up and and running per instructions from RickRuski. Results: Yes, it runs evenly on both GPUs. Yes, it is pretty smooth but not quite as smooth as single GPU. But, I don't see any performance improvement. I would think SLI isn't going to give us much until they get AA working right.

Thanks again for the info.

sli has always been a bit of a gimmic, never been right since day one that technology many dev teams still over look this feature, how about, or even better introduce x4 cpu support , i know dcs a10c dev team started to introduce multi cpu support , allowing audio to run on one cpu while the other cpu handles the general sim duties.

imo skip sli for now waste of time. rather see multi cpu support first.

[RickRuski]

Don't know how you come to that conclusion Diveplane, have you ever tried Sli??. Just to give you some figures from my system: -


AMD Phenom2 965 x 4 3.4gig
8gig DDR3 Ram
2x GTS 450 Sli (1gig each)
1Tb HDD Partitioned x 5
700w Coolermaster single rail P/S 52a
19" Samsung 931BW monitor
1280 x 960 Resolution

Here is what is happening for me with Sli disabled and enabled running "London Attack" single player track.

Sli disabled: - 30----33 fps (still some micro stutters)

Sli enabled: - 53---56 fps (still some micro stutters)

Load on the graphics cards is about 70% running Sli, about 90% Sli disabled.

Using tracks over the channel I'm am getting fps 90--100 (Sli)

Both cards are running with temps of around 58---59deg

This is with graphics cards that most would consider un-useable with COD. So I personally think Sli is a good option but you must want it to work and it takes a bit of patience to set it up.
There are a lot of games that support Sli and more are being added all the time, I'm sure that the developers will get their Sli support fixed finally.

Cheers

Rick

[jimbop]

Yes, not to mention that video cards will become predominantly multi-GPU just as CPUs have. SLI, or multi-GPU, support is becoming increasingly important and should not be overlooked.

RickRuski, I'll extract the settings later today. Thanks for the helpful attitude.

[diveplane]

Don't know how you come to that conclusion Diveplane, have you ever tried Sli??. Just to give you some figures from my system: -


AMD Phenom2 965 x 4 3.4gig
8gig DDR3 Ram
2x GTS 450 Sli (1gig each)
1Tb HDD Partitioned x 5
700w Coolermaster single rail P/S 52a
19" Samsung 931BW monitor
1280 x 960 Resolution

Here is what is happening for me with Sli disabled and enabled running "London Attack" single player track.

Sli disabled: - 30----33 fps (still some micro stutters)

Sli enabled: - 53---56 fps (still some micro stutters)

Load on the graphics cards is about 70% running Sli, about 90% Sli disabled.

Using tracks over the channel I'm am getting fps 90--100 (Sli)

Both cards are running with temps of around 58---59deg

This is with graphics cards that most would consider un-useable with COD. So I personally think Sli is a good option but you must want it to work and it takes a bit of patience to set it up.
There are a lot of games that support Sli and more are being added all the time, I'm sure that the developers will get their Sli support fixed finally.

Cheers

Rick

still in its infancy , yes i agree sure they will fix it soon enough, but for greater performance for everyone, my point being the introduction of extra cpu threads, but this involves rewriting code. which should have been taken into account from day one.

[r0bc]

sli has always been a bit of a gimmic, never been right since day one that technology many dev teams still over look this feature,

I've been using SLI since the 8800 series and its always worked well and 99% of games have SLI support on day one

[jimbop]

Hi Jimbop,

I have just updated to the latest Beta Nvidia drivers and find very little difference for me from the previous version. What I asked you for was your personal settings in "Inspector" and "Nvidia Control Panel" not your fps and ingame video settings, I wanted to have a look at what exactly you are using so that I might help you get it working more to your liking. Without that information I'm only guessing at where to start for you.
I'm running 2x gts450 Sli and have very playable frame rates with minor stutters low down over land but not bad enough to stop me enjoying the sim. It sounds like you haven't added "Launcher.exe" to your Control panel settings to match the Inspector profile, these are what I need to see to be able to help. If you are not sure how to do this ask for help, I will be very happy to. I know that the "Compatibility bits" setting refers to a Star wars setting but a lot of settings refer to multiple games. If you don't wish to try all suggested settings, then experiment with the settings yourself to try and get the best that you can. I am running all my in game video settings on High except for Building amount and Forests which are both medium, my resolution is 1280 x 960 on a 19" lcd, roads "on", Shadows "off" (find that is a big hit on fps) 2 x AA, V/S "off". Don't have any noticeable tearing, have tried it both ways and find "off" suits me better.

One thing to have a look at, in the Nvidia control panel when you set it up for Sli (I suppose you have) under the Physics settings make sure that you have CPU selected other wise one of your cards will be allocated for Physics use.

Your 2 x GTX480's should eat this sim.

Cheers

Rick

RickRuski, the reason I did not include my Inspector profile settings (I assume this is what you mean by 'personal settings') is that they are exactly as per your post #1 with only your recommendations changed from the default settings. I would just be copy/pasting your post #1 settings. Let me know if this is not adequate and, if not, what you would prefer.

Yes, I have pointed the profile to launcher.exe in both Inspector and then NVIDIA Control Panel. The cards are running at identical clocks etc.

The point of the screenshots was to demonstrate that SLI was working to some extent but certainly not doubling the framerate. SLI causes annoying stutters / sudden framerate drops (call it what you will) compared with single GPU.

[RickRuski]

Hi Jimbop and all,

I was hoping to upload to file factory a copy of my settings in inspector but at this stage I can't get it to copy correctly. Until I can sort the problem the file has been deleted.

Update: - link fixed see original post page one

Cheers

Rick

[KeBrAnTo]

Hi all,

I've been doing tests for the last week and a half and I think I found another interesting setting that somehow increases performance greatly. I should say that there is not FPS gain, at least in my case, but everything runs smoother on higher graphic settings.

Now I'm playing at AA 4x Supersampling at Medium settings ingame and runs great at 65 FPS.

You should try "Dynamic Tiling" ON in the nVidia Inspector profile settings and also disable AA ingame if you have applied the override setting on AA in nVidia Inspector.

[335th_GRAthos]

I was hoping to upload to file factory a copy of my settings in inspector but at this stage I can't get it to copy correctly. Until I can sort the problem the file has been deleted.

Update: - link fixed see original post page one

Cheers

Rick

Hi Rick,

after the painful experience of FileFactory (never saw so much advertising before... :D) I took the liberty to find a comfortable way to post your pictures:

http://grathos.de/temp/CoD/RickRuski1.png
http://grathos.de/temp/CoD/RickRuski2.jpg

I hope you do not mind...

You can copy the links and have the pictures shown on your post at page1...


~S~

[Pegasus_Eagle]

im not getting to bad sli performance 1600/900 all high no trees

[He111]

any update on this?

I'm still only getting 40 fps in Hurricanes V He111 scenario, whether I turn on or off SLI in NVidia control panel ?? 2 x 580

I refuse to use Nvidia Inspector as it's full of SPAM software.

I have the latest Dvidia drivers 3.04 or something like that

I cannot find any game setup section in Nvidia Control Panel, other than in 3D section ??

Help!

.

[RickRuski]

Sorry He111,

There has been no further development with Sli from the team as yet so far as I can find out, BlackSix seems to be avoiding the questions that I have put to him. Lutier stated back in April 2011 that Sli would be their next big priority, this is a quote from him about 17 months ago: -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote: -

5. Resurrecting SLI support. This is our next biggest priority; it’s done by the same programmer now in final stages of optimizing buildings. We are really hoping this will be a quick task, but I don’t have an ETA at this point. It’ll either be a couple of days, or a much longer undetermined amount of time if we have to submit versions to card manufacturers and ask for their input.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The delay may be because of trouble they are having getting the graphics engine to perfom as they want, but no one wants to talk about it it seems.

I use Nvidia Inspector and have not found any spam software that you mention. My Sli system as you will see from my sig is far below your system but I'm getting good frame rates with it (nearly double that of one of my cards running with Sli turned off). I am only an off line player so can't comment for online performance. Try single player mission, London Attack and let me know what fps you are getting, with your 580's you should have fps at least 80fps with Sli with High settings on. You can make your own settings with control panel pointing it to the C.o.D exe file. I continue to try different things to see if I can improve the performance (especially the micro stutters that I'm getting but I even have those running just one card so can't put it down to Sli as some would suggest). Certainly the sim is very playable for me, try Nvidia Inspector along with EVGA Precision Tool. What are your system specs?.

Edit: - Opps sorry just noticed your sig with specs, I see that your m/b is 2x 16 pci-e similar to mine except my m/b is Amd. Check and make sure you have the Sli link seated correctly, if it isn't you won't get Sli performance. Are both the cards running at the same temps and usage?(within 2--5 deg temp and 5% usage, the peak usage will change from one card to the other depending on demand). If you have one of your cards running on idle there is something wrong with the setup.

[RickRuski]

Hi KeBraNto,

Sorry I haven't replied earlier, I have just sean your post and have tried the Dynamic tiling "on". Haven't had a chance to give it a good try as yet, maybe a slight rise in fps but still have micro stutters (don't notice them that much unless I'm looking down towards the ground chasing a target, certainly nothing during high altitude combat).

[He111]

When playing Single Mission - LondonAttack i get 30-40 fps

I run the game at ultra graphics - Vsync on, Anti-alias off (BTW, how do you turn the trees off ????)

I think i should get better with 2 x 580s.

Will do further testing ...

.

[RickRuski]

He111,

I have all my video settings on high except for forrests and buildings which are on medium. Vert/ sync off, grass off, shadows off (this is a big fps hit). I'm getting the same fps asyou where there is a lot of flack etc but prior to and after that fps 50--70.min sometimes as high as 90. There must be a lot of difference in our video settings otherwise you should have better frame rates than what you are getting. The trees should be controlled with the forrests setting (there is an off selection there).

[He111]

yeah, ok after quite a bit of testing, I agree with most of your findings except SLI (turning off / on SLI gives no difference to me)

Current released version of CLOD I get 25-30 fps with everything on max.

Beta 18956 version of CLOD I get ;

* everything on Max - 30-40 fps

* Med forrest / housing - 40 -50 fps

* shadows turned off - 50 -60 fps

* no forrests - 60 fps

SLI turned ON or OFF - same

Obviously SLI is not working for me running AttackLondon .. maybe it only kicks in at different loads, not tested in AttackLondon ???

I've tested SLI on my computer, it is running playing Shogun Total War.

.

[RickRuski]

He111,

Here's a recent screen shot from my system showing EVGA Precision Tools readout in the r/h top corner. you will see that my 1gb cards are running at near max V/ram, card temps are very close to being the same (the Asus card has always run a few deg cooler than the EVGA) the % of use is near the same with both cards and they are running the same clocks. The % of use does vary between the two cards depending on which card is carrying most of the graphics at the time but they are always within 5% of each other. Check and see if your cards usage are about even when running C.o.D. if they aren't your Sli isn't working. What will show is one card or the other is maybe using only about 10% while the other maybe using about 80% and the temp of the card using about 10% will be down also. Are you using EVGA Precision tool or similar? MSI also has a tool that does a similar thing and these are free downloads from the respective sites and are compatibile with all Nvidia based cards. I couldn't balance my cards succesfully without this tool as they came with different clock speeds and voltages. I know you have said that you don't want to use Nvidia Inspector because of spam but I have never had spam with that software.

I've uploaded another screen shot taken with Sli disabled, as you will see Card 1 is now running near max card 2 is idling. FPS are down also

[He111]

ok, i used Gadget GPU meters on both cards. When playing Totalwar, both GPU gadgets showed both cards in action but when playing CLOD, only one gadget showed signs of life.

Gadgets may not be the best tools but they do show temp, gpu useage, gpu mem useage etc.

i'll wait and hope the team can look into SLI soon.

.

[Tads]

Please, I need some help here: on replay the engine acts as if the fuel pump has gone out and it revs up and slows down and sometimes cuts out with the prop stalled. There are other minor details presenting problems but this engine issue is the one that most bothers me. Thank you so much.

[BSS_Tintin]

Sir,
I've followed the guidelines given in this thread.
I do get a confirmation saying that the profile has been succesfully updated.
I have checked and SLI is definitly activated in my Nvidia control panel (no force alaternate rendring, just Nvidia Recommended.
I have also checked the box for Show SLI Visual Indicator...

... and it shows that something isn't right...
I still only load up one of my two GTX 580's...

Question:
After creating this Il2: cliffs of Dover profile;
how do I make sure that it runs when I run the game?
Do I have to point to the launcher file?
Do I always have to run the Nvidia Inspector application before I start Cliffs of dover?

Best Regards,

BSS_Tintin

[RickRuski]

Hi Tintin

I think that you might be using a profile that I was using prior to the release of Luthiers code, I have since removed it, and am using Luthier's Code now, you will need to follow the new instructions for the new code in the link that I have posted here at the bottom of this post.

What I do is this: -


(1) Make sure that you have activated Sli in the Nvidia control panel and don't have one of your cards selected as "Physics" (in this panel I have selected "cpu" not "auto select")

(2) Run Nvidia inspector, activate "Il2: Cliffs of Dover" in Nvidia Inspector by selecting it and clicking on "Apply Changes". Do this before starting C.o.D.

(3) I also run EVGA Precision which shows how my cards are running (fps, temps on both cards, percentage of use both cards, etc.)

You don't need to point anything to "Launcher" it will be found automatically.

I suppose both your cards are the same model with the same V/ram (they won't work in Sli unless they are) they can be from different manufactures but must have the same V/ram.

Remember that if you update your Drivers you will need to re-import the profile from where you saved it to back into Nvidia Inspector (because the Sli code was never officially activated by Nvidia, every time a new set of drivers is released and installed, the Il2: Cliffs of Dover profile will disappear from the List).

See this link for installing Luthier's Sli Code: -

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=37316

Check this forum there is always good advise here (you may need to register): -

https://forums.geforce.com/

[KG66_Manta]

I see to also be having the same issue, the profile has been saved in inspector ok but when I load the game the sli bar does not come on (it does for other games)

Any ideas where I am going wrong?

[RickRuski]

Hi Manta,

Sorry I have only just seen your post. If you have installed the profile correctly you should be ok. just one thought, have you recently updated your Nvidia drivers?. If you have, you have to reset your control panel Sli settings (these will have changed when you update your drivers). Make sure that you have "show Sli indicator bar" ticked in the 3D settings tab in Nvidia control panel. Here's a screen shot from my system with the bar enabled.

[He111]

Just downloaded the recent Nvidia GEforce driver update, and am now trying to reinstall the IL2 cliffsofDover SLI code back into the list ... but am having problems. i ran the GeForce_SLI_Profile_Tool, dated 13th Oct 2012 from Nvidia and tried to export profiles but it crashed! :( .. and no profiles text file. error is - " .. has stopped working. Windows will get back to you .. etc etc"

Any help?

[RickRuski]

He 111,

Have a look at this post.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=26236


If you have updated the Nvidia drivers you will have to re import your saved profile. What you will need to do is this: -

(1) install Nvidia inspector (if you have it installed already miss this step)
(2) Install "Luthiers" Sli code (you can find it in my first post with instructions on how to do this)
(3) It should then show as "Il2 Cliffs of Dover" in the Nvidia inspector profile list.
(4) Then export the profile list to some where like "My Documents". This will give you a copy to import back into Nvidia inspector when you have an update of drivers. (As there is no official support from Nvidia for Cliffs of Dover in their Sli profiles you will need to do this every time you have a driver update)

Hope this helps.

[He111]

ummm, just downloaded latest version of NvidiaInspector, ran it, and there is no option for profile files ????

He111

[RickRuski]

He111,

On the page you show, come to the driver version line. At the right hand end you will see the square with the crossed emblem in it, click on that and it will open up the profile page.

At the top of that page it will show the profile version currently in use (usually it will show "Global" unless you change it ). At the right hand end of the profile panel there is a small downward pointing arrow, click on that and it will show all the current Nvidia profiles in alphabetical order. Unless you have already installed Luthier's code there will be no "Il2 Cliffs of Dover" profile showing. If you have installed it, but have updated the Nvidia drivers and not re-imported the "saved" profile it will have disappeared from the profile list. As I have said, there is no official support from Nvidia for "Il2 Cliffs of Dover" so every time you update your drivers you must re-import the profile from where you have saved it (I have made a new folder in My Documents called "C.o.D. Sli profile" and that is where I exported the copied profile to so that I can re-import it back into Nvidia Inspector when necessary).


Now comes the part that you will need to do. Install Luthier's Sli code.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=37316

This post will tell you how to do this. Remember, save any changes you make at the right hand side of the profile page (Apply Changes). If you have done everything correctly you will then find "Il2 Cliffs of Dover" listed on the profile page below the two current Il2 official profiles. Open up the profiles list from the Profiles panel at the top of the page and select "Il2 Cliffs of Dover" , the profile will show the coding supplied by Luthier, once again apply changes.

If you have trouble with this procedure I will be happy to help you.

[He111]

Thanks Rick, that kinda worked, i now have SLI working for CLOD ... but it added a bug i didn't have before.

Now when i run CLOD, any version, The menu screens aren't refreshing. it appears to stall the program but when i mouse over the screen, menu options and click-boxes appear. Looks the the next screen loaded with options but background stayed as previous screen. Refresh problem?

I rebooted my computer, didn't help.

Any ideas, thanks again,good to see some CLOD faithful still around.

He111

[RickRuski]

He 111

Without seeing the screen I'm not sure exactly what you have. Do you realise that if you have a Tf moded game that other mods aren't compatible with that and won't work. I have 3 versions on my pc, the original with patches plus a Reticle mod. The TF version with the current update of theirs (no other mods in this) and a third version with the "Malta" mod with the Reticle mod.

I also have all versions on different drives (have my 1tb drive partitioned into 5 separate drives).
So far I don't have any funny screens appearing like you describe, can you post a screen shot?

Have you tried deleting the cache files from your 1c Soft Club in "My Documents/1c Soft club/Il-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover/cache/shaders", all the files in the shaders can be deleted and the game will rebuild them.
The other option is to go into "Steam" and get it to verify the game integrity (Double left click the Steam icon/right click on C.o.D. game/select properties/local files/verify integrity of game. This will check all your files and replace any that are faulty. If you have mods in there that you have installed yourself you may have to re-install them so make sure you have them backed up somewhere.

[He111]

No ,it's a clean download from Stream, released version. i also have 3 other versions, each with their own mod. I tried deleting the cash files, didn't help, and have already reverified the cache in Steam - no help.

Here's the pictures, all my 4 versions of CLOD have this problem, suspect it's a incompatible option in the SLI settings?

.

[RickRuski]

He111

Check your Nvidia Control Panel settings. This is what mine looks like: -

Physics Settings= CPU
Maximise 3D performance= select

[He111]

I cannot see that picture, it's too small, thumb nail doesn't expand that much.

But what I think i can see is that your showing me "configure SLI, Surround, PhysX" option, that would be good to see but i also would like to see your "Manage 3D settings" -> "program settings" -> "IL2:Cliffs of Dover"

Thanks.

H

[RickRuski]

He111,

The only things that you need to see in the control panel are: -

That the green bar below the two cards shows that Sli is linked.
You have selected "Maximise 3D performance".
Instead of one of your cards being selected for physics, change to "CPU"

That's all the thumb shot shows.

Can you post me a picture of the "saved" profile with the added code, I want to see if it is correct. It should look like this: -


Profile "IL 2 - Sturmovik"
ShowOn GeForce
ProfileType Application
Executable "il2.exe"
Setting ID_0x1033cec1 = 0x00000003
Setting ID_0x1033dcd2 = 0x00000002
Setting ID_0x1095def8 = 0x00400001
Setting ID_0x209746c1 = 0x0000fff3
EndProfile

Profile "IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles + Ace Expansion Pack"
ShowOn GeForce
ProfileType Application
Executable "il2fb.exe"
Setting ID_0x0019bb68 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x002ecaf2 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x007ba09e = 0x00000001 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x0084cd70 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x00a879cf = 0x08416747 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x00ce2691 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x00e5c6c0 = 0x74288976 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x00e73211 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x101e61a9 = 0x00000004 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1033cec1 = 0x00000003
Setting ID_0x1033ced1 = 0x00000002 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1033dcd1 = 0x00000002 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1033dcd2 = 0x00000002
Setting ID_0x107afc5b = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x107d639d = 0x00000002 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x107efc5b = 0x00000001 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1095def8 = 0x00400001
Setting ID_0x10d2bb16 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x10d773d2 = 0x0000000e UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x10f9dc81 = 0x00000011 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x200aebfc = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x208e55e3 = 0x00000001 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x209746c1 = 0x0000fff3
Setting ID_0x20c1221e = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x20fdd1f9 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
EndProfile

Profile "Il2: Cliffs of Dover"
ShowOn GeForce
ProfileType Application
Executable "il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover/launcher.exe"
Setting ID_0x00a06946 = 0x000240f5
Setting ID_0x1033cec1 = 0x00000001
Setting ID_0x1033cec2 = 0x00000002
Setting ID_0x1033dcd1 = 0x00000004 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1033dcd2 = 0x00000004
Setting ID_0x1033dcd3 = 0x00000004
Setting ID_0x1074c972 = 0x00000001 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x1095def8 = 0x00000004
Setting ID_0x1095def8 = 0x00000000 UserSpecified=true
Setting ID_0x10f9dc81 = 0x00000010 UserSpecified=true
EndProfile


This shows all the Il2 profiles with Luthiers added code.

[He111]

ok, here's my settings ..

.

[RickRuski]

He111,

They look very similar to mine, the profile looks like you have installed that correctly. Nvidia control panel, the only difference to mine is I have selected CPU in the physics option not auto select (I have 2x gts450s 1gb which are a lot weaker performing cards than yours and I want to keep the load off them as much as possible). I have also limited my fps through my EVGA precision tool software to 30 fps. Check and make sure that all your settings in game such as resolution, V/sync, etc. match the settings you have elsewhere (that you have no conflict with settings). Have you tried turning off any anti-virus that you have running? (don't know if you are mainly a offline or online player) try offline with the anti-virus turned off and see if that makes any difference. I started to get some weird graphics glitches at one stage and found that I had a conflict with settings from in game to Nvidia control panel (changed resolution etc. in one area and not in the other).

[He111]

Thanks again Rick , i downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers just before installing SLI profile update .. so I'm starting to suspect it might be driver related.

It's such a minor issue, menu screen backgrounds not refreshing while game works ok, that i might just leave it and hope for fix later. in the mean time, i'll check my settings.

Thanks again for your help.

.

[RickRuski]

He111,

Try a roll back of your drivers (re-install the last known good drivers ), I have the latest beta and all drivers have been working ok for me.

[Sabrefly]

Guys, would you post your current IQ settings, both Inspector and in-game gfx settings AA, etc.

Thanks.
Sabrefly

[RickRuski]

Sabrefly,

Here's my conf.ini settings: -



[window]
DepthBits =24
StencilBits=8
DrawIfNotFocused=0
SaveAspect=0

[NET]
speed=100000
localPort=27015
serverName=My Server
serverDescription=IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover
serverInfo1=
serverInfo2=
serverInfo3=
serverInfo4=
VAC=1
maxPlayers=255
socksEnable=0
socksHost=
socksPort=1080
socksUser=
socksPwd=

[Console]
IP=20001
UseStartLog=1
WRAP=1
PAUSE=1
HISTORY=1024
HISTORYCMD=1024
PAGE=20
LOG=0
LOGTIME=0
LOAD=console.cmd
SAVE=console.cmd
LOGFILE=log.txt
LOGKEEP=0

[rts]
; 0 - not use, 1 - show cursor and not capture, 2 - not show cursor, and capture
mouseUse=2
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
joyUse=1
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
trackIRUse=1

[rts_mouse]
SensitivityX=1.0
SensitivityY=1.0
SensitivityZ=1.0
Invert=0
SwapButtons = 0

[rts_joystick]
FF=1

[core]
RandSeed = 0
TexQual=3
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0
Shadows=1
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=1
LandShading=1
LandDetails=1
Sky=3
Forest=2
VisibilityDistance=3
LandGeom=2
DrawCollisions=1
Water=-1
Effects=1
EffFlags.Light=1
EffFlags.SpriteRender=0
Grass=3
CordEffect=1
UseFog=0
UseLandCube=1
UseLandConnectedObject=1
LinearObjectManager=1
Roads=1
Sun=1
Clouds=1
EffFlags.LightSpritesProj=1
ShadowMapSize=5
TexFlags.AsyncLoad=1
TexFlags.ShowTexture=0
SimpleMesh.SWTransform=0
SimpleMesh.QuadTreeClip=1
SimpleMesh.InstancingHW=1
EffFlags.LightContextSprites=1
CloudsFlags.Detailed=1
TexFlags.CreateHDR=1
Decals=1
EffFlags.SWLight=0
TexFlags.CockpitOnePass=0
MegaTexture=0
TexFlags.Reflection=0
RenderTargetQual=3
MSAA=0
MeshStatics=1
MeshStaticsDetail=2
SimpleMesh.QTNoCompose=0
MeshFirstLod=0
MeshShowLod=0
SpawnHumans=0

[sound]
SoundUse=1
DebugSound=0
SoundEngine=1
Speakers=1
Placement=0
SoundFlags.reversestereo=0
RadioFlags.Enabled=1
RadioEngine=2
MusicVolume=14
ObjectVolume=7
MusState.takeoff=1
MusState.inflight=1
MusState.crash=1
MusFlags.play=1
MasterVolume=14
Attenuation=7
SoundMode=0
SamplingRate=0
NumChannels=2
SoundExt.occlusions=1
SoundFlags.hardware=1
SoundFlags.streams=1
SoundFlags.duplex=1
SoundExt.acoustics=1
SoundExt.volumefx=1
SoundFlags.voicemgr=1
SoundFlags.static=1
VoiceVolume=8
Channels=1
SoundFlags.bugscorrect=0
SoundExt.extrender=0
SoundSetupId=8
ActivationLevel=0.02
Preemphasis=0.8
RadioLatency=0.5
AGC=1
PTTMode=1
RadioFlags.PTTMode=0
RadioFlags.PlayClicks=1
ActLevel=9
MicLevel=10
SoundFlags.UseRadioChatter=0
SoundFlags.AutoActivation=0
SoundFlags.forceEAX1=0
speakers=1

My inspector settings are those set with Luthier's Sli code.

I have AA turned off (not getting any tearing of image so can't see any advantage by turning it on, only disadvantages)

[Sabrefly]

Thanks, Rick.

Sabrefly.

[Sabrefly]

Under [rts] section there's FF=1 line. What if I don't use force feedback, should I turn it off?

Thanks,
Sabrefly.

[RickRuski]

Sabrefly,

I don't use FF either and I have tried it both ways, have not seen any difference in performance so have left it standard (on).