Anyone with problems with ATI drivers read this.

[dduff442]

Originally Posted by maclean525

dduff442, thank you! I have a 5850 running triple screen and have been struggling with the graphics settings since installing IL-2.

One question, could you attach or send me a link to the download of the ATI 9.2 OpenGL driver? I'm not sure exactly which file to use and where to find it.

Again, many thanks!

Cheers,
...Colin

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

[maclean525]

This worked FLAWLESSLY. Thank you very much! Looks wonderful in 5760x1050 and so much better with no text corruption!

[Flanker35M]

S!

Discussed this at ATI froums as well I run similar setup as DDuff. Some small differences in setup though. I run OpenGL and in conf.ini I do NOT use UseDither, PolygonStipple, DrawLandByTriangles at all, there is no performance gain or loss with them, no impact on visuals either.

As of Effects=0 or 1. This affects the "blocky text" corruption we get when loading the graphics of the game. With Effects=1 the blocky text clears after a moment when playing a track for example. Without it does not. Also with Effects=0 the 3D models flicker from grey to skinned etc. But with Effects=1 nothing of this is seen.

I wonder how you get VertexArrays NOT to produce the "blue hue" when firing guns? Or is it different in DirectX? I do not run DirectX as it looks crap, I rather use Water=0 in OpenGL than that ugly water in DX mode In OpenGL the blue hue is tied to TexFlags.UseVertexArrays=1, having it at 0 and no "blue hue" even the TexFlags.VertexArraysEXT=1 is used. Go figure.

I used 9.10 version atioglxx.dll before, but not with the new drivers. I just start the game, run a track for a few secs and join servers via IP address. New drivers give good perfromance The Black Death averages at 55FPS with 70 maximum and dipa to 26 minimum(La5 and Fw190 collision).

I did go through the logs of my game crashes and it seems it is due IL-2 engine making bad calls to driver and/or hardware thus creating a situation where the game will stop working and just CTD. Discussed this in length with some programmers at the annual virtual pilot convention and these code mongers did explain it would not be too hard to fix if there was more info available..mentions of some wrong values in the code etc.

[maclean525]

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

S!
In OpenGL the blue hue is tied to TexFlags.UseVertexArrays=1, having it at 0 and no "blue hue" even the TexFlags.VertexArraysEXT=1 is used. Go figure.

Thanks for this, I noticed the blue hue last night also, I'll try removing the UseVertexArrays=1 and setting it to 0. Will report back.

Also, if I set Water=2 and Effects=2 the graphics quality is way, way better than both set to 0, it's a significant improvement. Using OpenGL.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Using Effects=2 is not recommended even by Oleg as he said it causes slow performance and have artifacts especially in smoke. Can be flashing etc. I use Water=0 because of online play. I am not there to stare at wave tops but shoot down, or evading others most of the time

Blue hue is tied to UseVErtexArrays. If not using it, then no hue either. The VertexArraysEXT has no effect whatsoever.

DB605, getting back to you at Hades site.

[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 =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.