Please help me improve my gaming experience

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ferny
  • Start date Start date
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Ferny

Hello. Recently I've taken to tweaking my system to get the most out of the
only game I play, Battlefield 1942. I've created a new hardware profile in
WinXP that has a slew of services disabled and whatnot but I found that I've
still been getting a hit in framerate. My next idea was to mess with the
ATI control panel and see what I could find. Well, to be honest I don't
know if I did any good, but I definitely noticed a difference. After
fudging with the settings, D3D and OpenGL, I found that the in-game script
looked, well, fudged. Now I would like to get back to *some* playable
framerate but I would also like to forego the translation of the written
Sanskrit. My specs:

P4 2.4
AOpen AX4B-533
512MB PC2100
Radeon 7500
SB Audigy 2 ZS

With regards to the ATI control panel settings:

D3D
Main Settings: Optimal Quality

Custom Settings
AF: 16X
AA: 4X (quality)
Texture Preferences: High Quality
Mipmap: High Quality
VSync: Application Preference

OpenGL
same as above except
VSync: Default On

Ok, I realize a *few* of these settings are a little too beefy for my
graphics adapter and they will be addressed. My concern, however, is the
quality of text as mentioned above. If any of you knowledgeable people
could help this guy out he would be very happy. Sorry this is long but I
wouldn't be me if it wasn't. :)

Ferny
 
Ok - Im sure you'll get a whole slew of suggestions on how to improve your
performance, and they wont all agree with what im about to suggest, just
listen to what we each propose and use your own judgement.

Firstly, with a 2.4GHz P4, those background services you disabled are
unlikly to be eating up much more than 1%-2% of your CPU time. The do eat
up a little memory though, and if you have the cash I'd suggest boosting
your RAM to 1GB.

Next, you dont say what resolution you are running the game in, but you may
want to try changing the 4x AA to 2xAA and 16x AF to 8x AF. Above 1024x768 I
find those settings are fine though I hasten to add im using a 9800XT.

CrimsonLiar
 
You didn't perchance turn on the "Alternate Pixel center" under the
"Compatability" button did you? Only game I've found needs that is Final
Fantasy VIII few eyars ago.

I also upgraded (actually dual-boot) to XP with 98SE. After couple of weeks
I deleted XP as I found every game I played (and that was using Cat4.3's
under both OS's) I had to drop resolution by one notch and usually also take
some of the eye candy off.

I'd also check what's "actually" turned on regarding AGP textures etc. What
does "Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\SmartGart" have to
tell you? On mine, it refuses to enable AGP Write but all the others are
"On". Sorry to say I didn't notice this "utility" until I'd deleted XP and
after I'd updated to Cat4.3 under both OS's. Initially both "AGP ..." were
disabled (PCI ... was enabled) but after retesting the "AGP Read" now is
enabled. I have no idea why, impact on XP versus 98SE etc. etc.?

I'll add, my system hasn't seem to be "as robust" playing games since I
upgraded to Cat4.3's from the last WHQL certified drivers that were
pre-Cat's. Couple of glitches fixed in a very few games but it does appear
there is a cost on performance. I suspect a lot of it is simply the code
having to determine which card's being used, e.g. testing newest first for
what "call" to make, As both of us are using older cards (7200 here) a fair
amount of the routines to handle the newer cards is simply bloat. The
rendering engine itself is better, it's just our cards are at the bottom of
the "decision tree" so everything takes just a little longer before it
'done". Anyway, that's my theory.

I suspect within next couple of weeks system will get stripped again for
another clean install. I intend to

1) install 98SE clean
2) install motherboard driver
3) install "testing" version of WDM, driver, CP and TV-IN component of MMC
4) check there's no "MS Video/TV Connection" under network properties so
internet isn't screwed up when wtahcing video-in.
5) install NFS:U and see what she does for res and eye candy

If not OK, start at #1 again.
 
Ferny said:
P4 2.4
AOpen AX4B-533
512MB PC2100
Radeon 7500
SB Audigy 2 ZS

Main Settings: Optimal Quality

Custom Settings
AF: 16X
AA: 4X (quality)
Texture Preferences: High Quality
Mipmap: High Quality
VSync: Application Preference
Click to expand...

1) Only with my P4 3.25 / Radeon 9700 setup will I activate FSAA 4x. I would
never recommend activating FSAA with a Radeon 7500. If I were you, I'd
quickly go to either 'optimal performance' or 'high performance', or upgrade
my video card ;-)
2) The fuzziness you see in the menu text is caused by FSAA. At least, in my
case, if I activate FSAA I see the fuzziness, if I dont act. FSAA I dont see
the fuzziness :P

Well, thats what I'd do. Like CrimsonLiar (??) said, your CPU wont be the
troublesome factor in your setup. Playing with services wont do you any
good. I have to disagree with him on the memory question, 512 is enough...
Realy, your vid card is just a bit dated, thats all... I must say,
Battlefield is a great game... I can run it even on my laptop (P3 1.2,
Radeon 7000), and when I activate all details and stuff, it looks great on
my game box.

Thomas
 
Hello. Recently I've taken to tweaking my system to get the most out of the
only game I play, Battlefield 1942. I've created a new hardware profile in
WinXP that has a slew of services disabled and whatnot but I found that I've
still been getting a hit in framerate. My next idea was to mess with the
ATI control panel and see what I could find. Well, to be honest I don't
know if I did any good, but I definitely noticed a difference. After
fudging with the settings, D3D and OpenGL, I found that the in-game script
looked, well, fudged. Now I would like to get back to *some* playable
framerate but I would also like to forego the translation of the written
Sanskrit
Click to expand...

Same problem here with BF. I heard turning on alternate pixel centre
can help. But I run with no AA, no AF, text is clearest that way.

I actually think you're better without AA in this game. You want the
sharpest pixels possible to see small things at a distance.

As to the fast writes being off, when i installed the latest Omega
drivers, he said it's best off on the 9800. I'm not sure about your
card. You should be able to turn it on with Ati driver though, with
Omega you choose when you install and can't turn it on later.

--
Asus P4P800 MB - 8 onboard USB2 ports
2 sticks of 512 meg DDR400
Pentium 4/ 2.66 at 533 FSB.
Asus CRW 4824A CD burner/reader
IBM 80 Gig Deathstar HD ATA100
Radeon 9800 Pro 128
SBLive Value
 
CrimsonLiar said:
Ok - Im sure you'll get a whole slew of suggestions on how to improve your
performance, and they wont all agree with what im about to suggest, just
listen to what we each propose and use your own judgement.

Firstly, with a 2.4GHz P4, those background services you disabled are
unlikly to be eating up much more than 1%-2% of your CPU time. The do eat
up a little memory though, and if you have the cash I'd suggest boosting
your RAM to 1GB.

Next, you dont say what resolution you are running the game in, but you may
want to try changing the 4x AA to 2xAA and 16x AF to 8x AF. Above 1024x768 I
find those settings are fine though I hasten to add im using a 9800XT.

CrimsonLiar
Click to expand...

Crimson

I've reduced AA and AF to your recommendations and that has really smoothed
things out. I also tried it on the "Native" windows hardware profile and
noticed the improvement. So I guess switching off those services didn't
really amount to much. So far I've been playing at 8x6 but I bumped that up
to the next one, 11x7 I think, and still found the game to be playable. But
the text still lacks the clarity it once had. I'll keep messing around.
Thank you.
 
Ferny said:
Hello. Recently I've taken to tweaking my system to get the most out of the
only game I play, Battlefield 1942. I've created a new hardware profile in
WinXP that has a slew of services disabled and whatnot but I found that I've
still been getting a hit in framerate. My next idea was to mess with the
ATI control panel and see what I could find. Well, to be honest I don't
know if I did any good, but I definitely noticed a difference. After
fudging with the settings, D3D and OpenGL, I found that the in-game script
looked, well, fudged. Now I would like to get back to *some* playable
framerate but I would also like to forego the translation of the written
Sanskrit. My specs:

P4 2.4
AOpen AX4B-533
512MB PC2100
Radeon 7500
SB Audigy 2 ZS

With regards to the ATI control panel settings:

D3D
Main Settings: Optimal Quality

Custom Settings
AF: 16X
AA: 4X (quality)
Texture Preferences: High Quality
Mipmap: High Quality
VSync: Application Preference

OpenGL
same as above except
VSync: Default On

Ok, I realize a *few* of these settings are a little too beefy for my
graphics adapter and they will be addressed. My concern, however, is the
quality of text as mentioned above. If any of you knowledgeable people
could help this guy out he would be very happy. Sorry this is long but I
wouldn't be me if it wasn't. :)

Ferny
Click to expand...
The best thing that you can do is go out and get yourself a 9800Pro. There
cheap ($210 Newegg) and it will greatly improve all your games. I have a
2GHz P4 and I went from a Ti-4200 to the 9800Pro and it's like night and
day. I can run all my games with 4xAA at 1024x768 and for me they all look
amazing. You'll be very happy with the 9800Pro it's a fantastic card for the
price.
JLC
 
Ferny said:
Hello. Recently I've taken to tweaking my system to get the most out of the
only game I play, Battlefield 1942. I've created a new hardware profile in
WinXP that has a slew of services disabled and whatnot but I found that I've
still been getting a hit in framerate. My next idea was to mess with the
ATI control panel and see what I could find. Well, to be honest I don't
know if I did any good, but I definitely noticed a difference. After
fudging with the settings, D3D and OpenGL, I found that the in-game script
looked, well, fudged. Now I would like to get back to *some* playable
framerate but I would also like to forego the translation of the written
Sanskrit. My specs:

P4 2.4
AOpen AX4B-533
512MB PC2100
Click to expand...
Radeon 7500
SB Audigy 2 ZS

With regards to the ATI control panel settings:

D3D
Main Settings: Optimal Quality

Custom Settings
AF: 16X
AA: 4X (quality)
Texture Preferences: High Quality
Mipmap: High Quality
VSync: Application Preference

OpenGL
same as above except
VSync: Default On

Ok, I realize a *few* of these settings are a little too beefy for my
graphics adapter and they will be addressed. My concern, however, is the
quality of text as mentioned above. If any of you knowledgeable people
could help this guy out he would be very happy. Sorry this is long but I
wouldn't be me if it wasn't. :)

Ferny
Click to expand...

4x by 16x is ..insane only older games like Vice City might do that trick!
 
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