Perfect Mode - advice from designers, please?

[mango42]

I am using an Alienware m9700 to play IL2 '46, version 4.08m. It has twin 7900GS SLI video cards, 2Gb RAM and 2.4GHz AMD CPU running XPpro SP2 (but longing for a native Linux version!)

However when I set hardwareshaders=1, water=2, forest=2 or 3 trying to play it is more like watching a fast slideshow, even with only my own plane in the mission. Using the built-in FPS meter shows an average of 40-60 (Vsync ON) and a minimum of 24-30fps, so the bottleneck would appear to be the CPU...

Is this to be expected with such a rig or has something gone wrong with my set-up? Without hardwareshaders=1 the sim plays fine, even with 40-50 planes in the mix.

If it wasn't for the 'pop-up' scenery on mountainous maps, I wouldn't mind not using Perfect mode - but it sure looks gorgeous.

I'll post my conf.ini if anyone in the know feels they can help me towards full immersion in this very best of flight simulators. I'm trying to avoid a hardware upgrade until SOW comes out...

Thanks in advance,

mango

[bomath]

7900GS (even a pair of them) isn't anymore state of the art, and with 4x antialiasing and forced 16x aniso even a 8800 can struggle sometimes (even if when I turn vSync off I have 100-130FPS, sometimes it comes down to 25FPS).

Attach here your config.ini (don't copy/paste) and we'll try to figure something out.

[mango42]

Thanks for your response, bomath. A long shot, but I'm hoping for an Alienware owner to step in on this. I appreciate your comment on obsolescence - hence my query directed to the designers. Maybe they got such a rig to accept perfect mode?

Here's my conf.ini renamed .txt

[Baron]

Originally Posted by mango42

I am using an Alienware m9700 to play IL2 '46, version 4.08m. It has twin 7900GS SLI video cards, 2Gb RAM and 2.4GHz AMD CPU running XPpro SP2 (but longing for a native Linux version!)

However when I set hardwareshaders=1, water=2, forest=2 or 3 trying to play it is more like watching a fast slideshow, even with only my own plane in the mission. Using the built-in FPS meter shows an average of 40-60 (Vsync ON) and a minimum of 24-30fps, so the bottleneck would appear to be the CPU...

Is this to be expected with such a rig or has something gone wrong with my set-up? Without hardwareshaders=1 the sim plays fine, even with 40-50 planes in the mix.

If it wasn't for the 'pop-up' scenery on mountainous maps, I wouldn't mind not using Perfect mode - but it sure looks gorgeous.

I'll post my conf.ini if anyone in the know feels they can help me towards full immersion in this very best of flight simulators. I'm trying to avoid a hardware upgrade until SOW comes out...

Thanks in advance,

mango

Propably the CPU. A 7900GS (let alone 2) should have no poroblems whatsover with perfect mode. I did overclock mine a fair bit mind u.

However, i would recomend turning V-sync of and set AA and Ansio to a lower value. Its allways a tradeoff between good FPS and nice eyecandy, unless u running top of the line gear.

Same with screen reselutions, cranking it up one noch can shave of 10 fps in a hartbeat.



I run a AMD 3500+ (2,6 Ghz) with a GS 7900 G71 (overclocket from 450/660 MHz to 550/780 MHz) in perfect mode (res.1280X960) with V-sync of and AF x4 and have no problems playing on or off line.

[mango42]

However, i would recomend turning V-sync of and set AA and Ansio to a lower value. Its allways a tradeoff between good FPS and nice eyecandy, unless u running top of the line gear.

Thanks for the tips, Baron, and yep, very true about the trade-off - 1920 X 1200 is a stretch, for sure yet as I noted, my FPS doesn't look like it's the hit.

[Baron]

Originally Posted by mango42

Thanks for the tips, Baron, and yep, very true about the trade-off - 1920 X 1200 is a stretch, for sure yet as I noted, my FPS doesn't look like it's the hit.

That FPS can be relative when i think about it. One shouldnt stair to much at Black Death fps, its good for testing but any changes one makes, like reselutions is more apparent in Black Death than online for example...atleast thats what i think, and have noticed.

[bomath]

Alienware or not, an AMD2400+ and 2x7900GS won't help you too much on 1920x1200; since lowering the resolution is not an option (it'd be ugly on any LCD monitor), you have to accept one of these solutions:
1) Buy a 8800GT or 8800GTS with 512MB (not 320 or 640MB, they're less powerful than the cheapest 8800GT).
2) Lower AA/AF; no AA is acceptable on a high-res screen like yours, and 4x aniso (AF) could get by.
3) No 3Dgunners=1 (modify the conf.ini, set 3Dgunners=0).
4) Get rid of the lensflares; it's only a bit of eyecandy which usually annoy me when I come over a heavy situation (conf.ini, search for NoLensFlares and set =1).
5) Compressed textures are unnoticeable most of the time, and the planes always use .bmp skins; (conf.ini, TexCompress=1).
6) Maybe you can accept Forrest=1 too.

[mango42]

Originally Posted by bomath

Alienware or not, an AMD2400+ and 2x7900GS won't help you too much on 1920x1200; since lowering the resolution is not an option (it'd be ugly on any LCD monitor),

Agreed - that's why I haven't even tried to lower res.

you have to accept one of these solutions:
1) Buy a 8800GT or 8800GTS with 512MB (not 320 or 640MB, they're less powerful than the cheapest 8800GT).

Not an option as I gather these GS cards were designed specifically for laptops - it seems even the drivers are different to the std nVidia offering, if my Linux experience of trying to get them to work is anything to go by!

2) Lower AA/AF; no AA is acceptable on a high-res screen like yours, and 4x aniso (AF) could get by.
3) No 3Dgunners=1 (modify the conf.ini, set 3Dgunners=0).
4) Get rid of the lensflares; it's only a bit of eyecandy which usually annoy me when I come over a heavy situation (conf.ini, search for NoLensFlares and set =1).
5) Compressed textures are unnoticeable most of the time, and the planes always use .bmp skins; (conf.ini, TexCompress=1).
6) Maybe you can accept Forrest=1 too.

Thanks for the tips - I'll give them a try. With this sim I can accept anything that doesn't produce a slideshow (or pop-up scenery!) as, judging by the amount of whining here and at the UbiZoo, I seem to be one of a very few that are still totally enamoured of this brilliant, if ageing, piece of software.

As to your sig line - are you a member of that increasingly fascist organisation, FAST, by any chance? Your aspersion about liars is irritating to those of us who have not only bought every commercial update of IL2 from the very start but also bothered to take your poll!

It seems very simple to me - the more piracy, the less development. I would encourage all pirates, however casual, to spend at least six months trying to program something worthwhile - only then would they come to realise the patience, tenacity and dedication required - especially if they write for bug-ridden Windows[tm].