Any recomendations for Halo and 9700 Pro?

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iddqd

This game is slugish as heel - I get the feeling it's done on purpose to
make some people think "wauw it runs nice on XBOX - it must be more
powerfull than I thought":-(

My config:

ATI 9700 Pro
P4 2.533 Ghz
1 GB Dual DDR ram
WinXP Pro with all MS patches.
Latest ATI driver with default settings eg. medium.
Halo with latest patch. Everything max including sound (no 3D sound though)

I've just started playing this game so I'm still on the spaceship and
when I get to the part where the aliens are on walkway around in a room
and there are a few friendly down on the floor with me the framerate
drops way down.

At first I started out playing in 1600*1200 with all settings max and
now I'm down to 1280*960 and it didn't help much.

I'm thinking there is proberly one or two things I need to turn down but
what is it. Is it something in the ATI driver setting or some setting
within Halo?

Regards

Bruno
 
I played it on a AIW 7500 on a P4B266/512 P4 2.0- setting as high as
the card would take. It was actually not bad, and I was surprised. The
game lacked luster obviously, but AFA "speed" I was able to hold my
own playing it .

Ran it on my 9700 pro and it ran really nice P4B533/512 P4 2.8. I
really don't like the game that much, and I remember having hiccups in
pixelation, but all in all it ran great. I found also that SOUND
drivers are a huge factor. Extremely important if your running 4.1
5.1 etc. it effected video bad, but the sound during was 'OK', IOW if
you weren't an audiophile, you might not have noticed that one channel
was 'not quite right' IYKWIM.

More rambling then info I guess, hope ya figure it out.

Check the Aperture size in the bios and try various settings below 256
(never had good luck at 256)
Shadowing (if applicable for your MB) can adversely affect performance
on some configurations. In Bios also.
 
Halo is most dependent on your CPU as far as performance goes. It will run
fine on most video cards, but Only only if you have a fast CPU and
motherboard/ram. You aren't going to get great performance at 1024x768 or
above no matter what... Play it at 800x600 and be happy is what most will
say. This is for the one player part of the game... multiplayer runs great
for people usually because the CPU doesn't have to do as many AI
calculations or physics calculations.

Halo for PC is one of the most horrible ports i've ever seen, and Gearbox
should never ever EVER be given the task again to port over such a great
game to the PC. The visual difference is noticeable between the Xbox and PC
versions... Xbox being more polished and nicer to look at. The shader
effects on Xbox are done better.. like the flashlight effect, and headlight
effect from vehicles.. bumpmapping is better quality and more evident on
Xbox, some textures are better quality.. notice there is no specularity
anymore on the human assault rifle in the PC version.. Water effects are
smoother.

The Xbox version looks and runs better on my PC monitor using a true
progressive scan VGA adaptor than the PC version does at 1024x768 or any
other resolution, with details maxed. In other words, the Xbox version is
better in many ways.

A few things that might help though... don't use pixel shaders 2.0 or 1.4.
Use 1.1.. It's closer to what the Xbox uses, and the shader effects for Halo
PC actually look better with version 1.1 than the others. If you don't
believe me, try using 2.0 and look at the flashlight effect and headlights
shining on any surface. They are hard edged, and not nearly as nice as the
Xbox with it's softness. Then, use 1.1 shaders and look at them again. They
are much softer and closer to what the Xbox does with those effects.
 
||This game is slugish as heel - I get the feeling it's done on purpose to
||make some people think "wauw it runs nice on XBOX - it must be more
||powerfull than I thought":-(
||
||My config:
||
||ATI 9700 Pro
||P4 2.533 Ghz
||1 GB Dual DDR ram
||WinXP Pro with all MS patches.
||Latest ATI driver with default settings eg. medium.
||Halo with latest patch. Everything max including sound (no 3D sound though)
||
||I've just started playing this game so I'm still on the spaceship and
||when I get to the part where the aliens are on walkway around in a room
||and there are a few friendly down on the floor with me the framerate
||drops way down.
||
||At first I started out playing in 1600*1200 with all settings max and
||now I'm down to 1280*960 and it didn't help much.
||
||I'm thinking there is proberly one or two things I need to turn down but
||what is it. Is it something in the ATI driver setting or some setting
||within Halo?
||
||Regards
||
||Bruno


Make sure you update to the latest 4.3's from ATI or even better
Omega's.(www.omegacorner.com) I used Omegas and I'm getting peaks of
100 fps ONLINE! Of course, I've turned off the biggest hog SPECULAR
which makes the graphics not nearly as good. But having an average of
60 fps is pretty damn good. The game "feels" slow and thats normal.
Its always felt like you're running at half speed. :(

Pluvious

P4 2.6C 800FSB
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
1GB Corsair XMS DDR PC3200
Win XP Home
ATI 9700 Pro (o/cd 378/330.75)
DirectX9.0b / Omegas 4.3
WD1600 JB 160gig 8MB Cache
WD1200 JB 120gig 8MB Cache
Lite-On DVDRW LDW-851S 8x
Creative Audigy Gamer
Nec 19" FE991SB
Logitech keyboard/mouse
 
This game is slugish as heel - I get the feeling it's done on purpose to
make some people think "wauw it runs nice on XBOX - it must be more
powerfull than I thought":-(

My config:

ATI 9700 Pro
P4 2.533 Ghz
1 GB Dual DDR ram
WinXP Pro with all MS patches.
Latest ATI driver with default settings eg. medium.
Halo with latest patch. Everything max including sound (no 3D sound though)

I've just started playing this game so I'm still on the spaceship and
when I get to the part where the aliens are on walkway around in a room
and there are a few friendly down on the floor with me the framerate
drops way down.

At first I started out playing in 1600*1200 with all settings max and
now I'm down to 1280*960 and it didn't help much.

I'm thinking there is proberly one or two things I need to turn down but
what is it. Is it something in the ATI driver setting or some setting
within Halo?

Regards

Bruno
Click to expand...

Hmm strange maybe it because game are made to be play at 1024x768.

what you got a 21inch screen?
 
Mike said:
A few things that might help though... don't use pixel shaders 2.0 or 1.4.
Use 1.1.. It's closer to what the Xbox uses, and the shader effects for Halo
PC actually look better with version 1.1 than the others. If you don't
believe me, try using 2.0 and look at the flashlight effect and headlights
shining on any surface. They are hard edged, and not nearly as nice as the
Xbox with it's softness. Then, use 1.1 shaders and look at them again. They
are much softer and closer to what the Xbox does with those effects.
Click to expand...
Thx for the tips guys.

So far all I have done is to use PS 1.1 and it did a lot of difference -
even if we are still far away from the framerates found in games like
Max Payne 2 and UT2K3/UT2K4. I'm even considering turning the resolution
back up to 1600*1200:-)

I haven't yet made to the inside of Halo (Playing on Legendary) so I
don't know if I eventualy will have to turn down more stuff but so far
so good.

An OT note. Halo is a lot easier on PC - my guess is that the superior
mouse+keyboard is whats making the difference.

Regards

Bruno
 
DreamMaker said:
Hmm strange maybe it because game are made to be play at 1024x768.
Click to expand...
Not likely - unless the programmers are total fools resolution should
only be relevant whne considering the fill rate performance of the
graphics card.

what you got a 21inch screen?
Click to expand...

Yes, a Sony F520. I play many games in 2048*1536 and I can only say good
things about my monitor.

Regards

Bruno
 
This game is slugish as heel - I get the feeling it's done on purpose to
make some people think "wauw it runs nice on XBOX - it must be more
powerfull than I thought":-(
Click to expand...
At first I started out playing in 1600*1200 with all settings max and
now I'm down to 1280*960 and it didn't help much.

I'm thinking there is proberly one or two things I need to turn down but
what is it. Is it something in the ATI driver setting or some setting
within Halo?
Click to expand...

HALO, while is a godo single player game - the technlogy of its
graphics engine is pure crap. You should run it in 1024x768.

Then download and play a game like UT2004, max it out and play it in
1600x1200... HALO is not smooth in comparision. demo at:
www.unreal.com
 
If you look the benchmarks (below), Halo doesn't run that fast, don't forget
an Xbox would be running at 640*480 max, because there is no point in
putting out anything higher to a CRT TV.
Do a timedemo to test your results. See the Halo readme for how to do this.

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-09.html
(Don't forget the benchmark machine is a P4 3.2 Ghz.)

Also Halo for PC has more in it (or so I read) than the Xbox version.
Halo is also one of the first DirextX 9 games, so I wouldn't expect it to be
as refined as a DX9 game written today.
I think Darty gets a cut every time he mentions UT2004, he certainly has a
hard-on for it ;-)
I sure it will be great for those who have broadband connections, or can go
to lans every week.

Cheers.
 
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