Setting up Sli

[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~