Log in

View Full Version : FPS problem with fog


tinker20
03-23-07, 05:06 AM
Hello,

I do have really big problems if the gameengine has to calculate “volumetric fog”.
This occors when weather turns bad, like rain and fog.

As soon as thus in the game happens and weather effects emerge, I cannot play no more in the external perspectives. Frame rates sink then under 5 fps.
Really unplayable.

There I must turn the weather effects off in the options menu, then it runs again liquid.

Too bad, that with turning of the "environmental effects", those loved effect that you can see through the water is deactivated, too.
But those water effects don´t slow the game down, only the fog does.....strange.

Without this effect it looks not much better than SH3, my judgement.

System is a Pentium 4 with 2.6 Ghz.
2 GB RAM
Windows XP
Radeon X1950 XTX APG grafics card with 256 MB RAM.
8x AGP activated.

I have somehow the feeling that the fog effects go extremst on the CPU (pentium processor)

Do you have any ideas, how to solve this?



This text in german:
Hallo,

ich habe extreme Probleme, wenn im Spiel das Wetter schlecht ist und der Grafikeffekt "volumetric fog" eingesetzt wird von der Engine.

Sobald also im Spiel Nebel und Wettereffekte auftauchen, kann ich in den Außenperspektiven nicht mehr spielen. FPS sinken dann auf unter 5.

Da muß ich dann die Wettereffekte in den Grafikeinstellungen abschalten, dann läuft es wieder flüssig.

Ziemlich doof, daß damit der Effekt wo man durchs Wasser durchschauen kann auch abgeschaltet wird. Wobei ich ansonsten den Effekt anlassen kann, und ich kann trotzdem flüssig spielen.
Aber sobald Nebel auftaucht ruckelt es wie ne Diashow und ist unspielbar.

Ohne diesen Effekt sieht es nicht viel besser als SH3 aus, meines Erachtens. Das nervt mich ziemlich.

System ist ein Pentium 4 mit 2.6 Ghz.
2 GB RAM
Windows XP
Radeon X1950 XTX APG Karte mit 256 MB RAM.
8x AGP aktiviert.

Ich habe irgendwie das Gefühl, daß die Nebeleffekte extremst auf den CPU gehen.

Was meint Ihr dazu?

Iron Budokan
03-23-07, 06:50 AM
Have you tried turning off other programs in the background? From what I've heard that fog really eats up the juice on your CPU.

tinker20
03-23-07, 07:19 AM
Hi,

I turned every other programms off, while playing SH4.

It really seams, as if my cpu is a bit too slow for the game...

Any other ideas?

I searched the internet also, but I couldn´t find any info wether this fog effect stresses mainly the GPU or the CPU.

Galanti
03-23-07, 07:30 AM
I've noticed my fps are halved in fog as well, but as I've got a 7950GT, that just means going from 70 fps on the bridge to 35 :lol:

I haven't really looked into it, but I believe there is separate effects file for volumetric fog. If it's in plain text, there may be some options to tone down the detail, without impacting the rest of the environmental effects.

Also, have you tried adjusting your partical detail slider in the graphics options?

Mud
03-23-07, 07:37 AM
Maybe a modder can make the volumetric fog fx file smaller or even transparant to reduce the huge impact on the FPS.
I'm not a modder so I don't know if it's even possible.

Mud

tinker20
03-23-07, 08:31 AM
Yes,

particles are totally down :shifty:
Same thing...unplayable with fog...

OneTinSoldier
03-23-07, 09:20 AM
Well, first I'm going to be picky. Now.. I may be wrong! But I don't think you can have an AGP ATI X1950 XTX...

an AGP X1950 Pro, YES.
An AGP X1950 XTX, NO.

Please, anyone, let me know if I'm wrong, and I would be curious to know where you got it.


With that said, have you seen the following thread?

ATI: Auto 2D/3D overdrive problem (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108259)

It's quite possible that what is being discussed in that thread is the problem. I am watching that thread myself because I just ordered an AGP X1950 Pro 512 MB card(HIS Brand) from Newegg!

The thread points out that the only ATI cards affected are the ones that have the 'Overdrive' feature, X18xx and X19xx series of cards.

stabiz
03-23-07, 09:55 AM
well, my E6600 dual core, 2GB ram and 7950GT has problems with fog too. Stutters of death, and less fps, even without post processing.

OneTinSoldier
03-23-07, 11:09 AM
Interesting stabiz. I wonder if someone with a Core 2 Duo like yours and an 8800 GTX has problems with volumetric fog?

Or does the effect take lots of CPU? Perhaps an E6800 Extreme + 8800 GTX?

Overall question of OP remains... what does it take?

Vikinger
03-23-07, 11:44 AM
Got exactly same problem. 5 fps when its turned on and when its of 85 fps.

Dualcore AMD 4400+
leadtek px 7800 gtx tdh pciE, latest nvidia drivers.
2 gig ram
raptor hd
etc
etc
etc :)

stabiz
03-23-07, 03:02 PM
So it is possible to turn off the fog?

Mud
03-23-07, 04:37 PM
I managed to turn it off ( sort of ) and gained about 10 FPS.
As said before I'm not a modder but I did some changes with notepad.
All I did reset values to zero in the volumetric fog fx.

Mud

stabiz
03-23-07, 04:47 PM
Where is that file?

THE_MASK
03-23-07, 04:47 PM
Core2Duo mod should fix it .

stabiz
03-23-07, 07:39 PM
I managed to turn it off ( sort of ) and gained about 10 FPS.
As said before I'm not a modder but I did some changes with notepad.
All I did reset values to zero in the volumetric fog fx.

Mud

What did you do to it, mud? I cant make anything out of the file.

Mud
03-23-07, 08:04 PM
You got a PM stabiz ;)

Mud

stabiz
03-23-07, 09:09 PM
I sure did!:rock: