Anyone with problems with ATI drivers read this.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Coastie, the anisothing is based on the thing that if I set it to Application Controlled then it reverts to 2x every time I run IL-2, even it would be on 4x or anything else before that. Also when running application controlled the shimmering is closer to you than with forcing it to higher value with CCC. I ran on 16x and it was almost non-existent. But results may vary and we need to test more

I now changed rig to AMD Phenom II 965 BE + 790FX chipset Asus mobo added with 8Gb DDR3 in dual channel. IL-2 runs fine even there is still the blocky text. If you need something tested, just let me know and I will dig into it. I am for one very eager seeing IL-2 run fine on ATI cards and if testing helps then even better

[=PF=Coastie]

When you switch to app pref in the CCC it will revert to 2x. It has nothing to do with what the game is rendering. Try this for a comparison......

Start with a random CCC setting of lets say 4x and uncheck use app preference in the CCC. Now start game/choose a map with lots of long straight LEVEL roads/hit fly and lawn dart your plane onto a nice long stretch of level straight road(try to mark the place you crash so you can do it again in the same place). Now, using the external view, look straight down the road at ground level. NOTE HOW FAR YOU CAN SEE THE ROAD CLEARLY UNTIL IT FADES AWAY. (pick a tree or something to mark the spot).

Now close game and go back to CCC and tick use app pref in the aniso block. Also make sure you are using aniso as your mipmap filter in the conf.ini (TexMipFilter=3).

Now go back and crash your plane in the same place and compare how far you can see down the road. I am sure you will be amazed at the difference. I find that using the games aniso gives me much better results and higher fps.

[Brainless]

Hi,
I just wanted to share my config.ini settings. I've spend couple of hours in testing to find best settings for my system (ATi User).

System:
CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4600+ @ 3200MHz (Overclocked)
MEM: 2x1GB DDR2 @ 800MHz
Video: ATI Radeon 4850 512MB

Video Settings:
Resolution: 1280x1024 (I'm still using 19" 5:4 LCD)
VSync: Off
TrippleBuffering: Off
Video Mode: OpenGL,
Antialiasing: forced to 6x.
Anisotropic Filtering: forced to 16x
Catalyst A.I.: Low

Test is made with DeathTrack and Fraps.
The Benchmarking is started around one/two seconds after DeathTrack beginning, and stopped after 152 seconds.

The Result is:
Min: 21fps
Avg: 53.776fps
Max: 123fps ()

[window]
width=1280
height=1024
ColourBits=32
DepthBits=24
StencilBits=8
ChangeScreenRes=1
FullScreen=1
DrawIfNotFocused=0
EnableResize=0
EnableClose=1
SaveAspect=0
Use3Renders=0

[GLPROVIDER]
GL=Opengl32.dll

[Render_OpenGL]
TexQual=3
TexMipFilter=3
TexCompress=0
TexFlags.UseDither=0
TexFlags.UseAlpha=0
TexFlags.UseIndex=0
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0
TexFlags.UseClampedSprites=0
TexFlags.DrawLandByTriangles=0
TexFlags.UseVertexArrays=0
TexFlags.DisableAPIExtensions=0
TexFlags.ARBMultitextureExt=1
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineExt=1
TexFlags.SecondaryColorExt=1
TexFlags.VertexArrayExt=0
TexFlags.ClipHintExt=0
TexFlags.UsePaletteExt=0
TexFlags.TexAnisotropicExt=0
TexFlags.TexCompressARBExt=0

TexFlags.TexEnvCombine4NV=0
TexFlags.TexEnvCombineDot3=0
TexFlags.DepthClampNV=0
TexFlags.SeparateSpecular=0
TexFlags.TextureShaderNV=0

HardwareShaders=1

Shadows=2
Specular=2
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=2
VisibilityDistance=3

Sky=2
Forest=2
LandShading=3
LandDetails=2

LandGeom=3
TexLarge=1
TexLandQual=3
TexLandLarge=1

VideoSetupId=17
Water=0
Effects=1
ForceShaders1x=0

PolygonOffsetFactor=-0.15
PolygonOffsetUnits=-3.0

I've found that setting some TexFlags to 1 have great impact on fps. Don't know is that true with nVidia.

To dduff442: Can You try with my [OpenGL] config.ini settings (especially TexFlags) and post results. I think You can get far better FPS with Your MONSTER System (compared to mine).

p.s.: Sorry for my poor English.

[=PF=Coastie]

Brainless, your english is great.

Try checking "use application preference" in the aniso block of the CCC. You are already using the aniso filter in the conf.ini, so you might as well try it. I think you will find that it will give you a few more fps and you won't be able to tell the difference visually (ESPECIALLY WHILE FLYING).

Also, what ati drivers are you using and do you use the atiogl.dll in your IL2 folder?

Very strange you have these off:

TexFlags.TexEnvCombineDot3=0
TexFlags.SeparateSpecular=0

Do you see any texture problems in game?

Lastly, the below two settings are supposed to be for ATI. The ones you have are supposed to be for Nvidia:

PolygonOffsetFactor=-0.0625
PolygonOffsetUnits=-3.0

Your FPS are fantastic and it looks like you have found a sweetspot for your system. I am just trying to see if some of these make any difference in the real world.

I will test your settings too.

Good job!

[rakinroll]

Originally Posted by dduff442

Ooops -- got the version number wrong. That's 9.1 rather than 9.2. I've attached the zipped dll.

Checking for Catalyst updates on a regular basis is probably a good idea as well. Don't forget to backup the dll in your Il2 directory to test the updates, though, or otherwise you'll be stuck with 9.1 which isn't perfect by any means.

dduff

Mate, i will try this file too but do not know where to i put it.

[=PF=Coastie]

If you have an ATI 4xxx series card or newer, you want the 9.10 file, NOT 9.1. They are two totally different drivers.

[dduff442]

Originally Posted by rakinroll

Mate, i will try this file too but do not know where to i put it.

Just drop it in your main il2 directory.

[dduff442]

Originally Posted by =PF=Coastie

If you have an ATI 4xxx series card or newer, you want the 9.10 file, NOT 9.1. They are two totally different drivers.

The file attached to the post on pg 1 is the 9.10 driver though.

[dduff442]

@Brainless

I've done a lot of benchmarking but I've been fiddling around with the settings so much its hard to compare the results. My setup seems to have made peace with water=2 and gives acceptable frame rates now, the only problem is I can't pin down the exact reason.

The main problems now are freezes when the point of view is changed at the start of missions as the terrain and objects etc are loaded into memory. If anybody's having this problem, the simple solution is to pause at the start of the mission and have a good look around with external views enabled. Do the same for other a/c as well if needed and those annoying stutters at the start should be dealt with.

I'll post benchmarking results and settings tomorrow.

[dduff442]

I think I've found an answer to the shimmering water/wriggling shoreline problems and a way to use Water=2 with both good FPS rates and good image quality.

Because I was varying so many parameters before, I was mis-interpreting the meaning and effects of each setting. I was running with Catalyst AI disabled because I'd somehow gotten the idea this causes problems but with my other graphics settings too high this gave me the incorrect impression I needed to set Water=0.

Enabling Catalys AI together with maximising all the Catalyst settings gives playable FPS on my system but the problems of shimmering water etc. remain. This is because as the graphics settings are too high, Catalyst starts scaling back the anti-aliasing etc settings in GPU-intensive scenes. The shimmering/wriggling starts when the AI throttles back the AA and you basically get no AA when the GPU load gets too high.

I've found it best to start with AI disabled and every other Catalyst setting minimised except for AA Mode which I set to 'Super Sample AA'. Super sample AA has the biggest impact on both FPS and image quality. It's the only setting that will fix the shimmering/wriggling problems completely so if image quality is important to you this is probably the best place to start.

After checking that FPS is still acceptable, you can then start upping the other Catalyst settings bearing in mind that AA is both most intensive for resources and is most important to image quality (it being the reason for enabling the GPU-hungry 'super sampling' in the first place).

At 1920x1200, my HD5870 gives (Track) AvgFPS/MinFPS (TheBlackDeath) 49/15, (Kamikaze2) 48/15 and (P39vsBf-109) 79/49 with Catalyst set as follows:

AI disabled
4xAA using 'Edge Detect' for a total of 12x samples
Super-Sample AA
'Use Application Settings' for AF
'Quality' mipmap.

...the FPS drops in BlackDeath and Kamikaze are fleeting and barely noticeable. P39vsBf-109 is problably more typical of normal operation. Max FPS is anywhere from 120 to 160.

For anyone who joined the discussion late, I'll go through all the steps again: (1) edit conf.ini, using Flanker35M's settings. (2) Drop version 9.10 of atioglxx.dll (attached on pg 1) in your Il-2 directory (3) Switch off Catalyst AI, minimise all Catalyst settings and set the AA mode to 'Super Sampling AA'. Check your FPS in 'BlackDeath' -- if it's okay, start increasing AA and AF settings in Catalyst checking FPS after each increase. If FPS is too low with 'Super Sampling' enabled, you'll need to choose between lowering the resolution, lowering the Sampling method to e.g. Multi-Sample or setting Water=0 in conf.ini.

Multi-sample AA will cause wriggling/shimmering effects on water, but if you can live with that then fine. Otherwise you can enable Catalyst AI which will ensure a decent FPS but the wriggling etc. will still pop up every now and again.

Your final nuclear option to hang on to 'perfect mode' graphics is to set Water=0 and Effects=0 in conf.ini. That way you'll still get the maximum draw distances but lose a little eye-candy. Alternatively, you can lower the draw distance and hang on to the nice graphics settings -- they're very nice indeed with all the niggles ironed out.