patch 1.2 performance

[scalelokt]

Just wanted to take a moment to comment on patch 1.2 performance for those of you who have not had a chance to try it yet. Granted I only played for about 15 minutes at lunch today, but I noticed one thing immediately. My frames per second with environmental effects on pre 1.2 were pretty bad, mouse movement was laggy and it just wasnt very playable. I'm talking about times with no fog by the way, when I had fog my machine slowed to a crawl. With 1.2 installed my FPS with environmental effects on and fog turned off are MUCH better and the game is smooth as silk now. This is very interesting to me because the fog isnt an issue, I'm comparing 1.1 and 1.2 during times when there is no fog in the game. In other words, it seems to me they must have tweaked the graphics performance quite a bit. Not only that but I bumped my resolution up to 1600 x 1200 with no noticeable slowdown. I'd say the performance must have been worked on quite a bit. BRAVO to the devs!! :up:

[malkuth74]

I guess I will have to start a new game, but the readme says that the 1.1 inbase saves are compatible. I just tried out it it loaded fine but I ran into some jap destroyers the depth charged me (seems the thermal layer is not the protection it once was) but I recieved no damage whatsoever. But my ship just plundged into the spiral of death. The really wierd thing was that I was at 1200 feet and only then did things start to get damaged.

I shut it off and coughed it up to you have to start a new game. Oh well I guess.

Also I noticed that they returned the red Max depth Hand back like in SHIII.
I also noted that I still could not change my pre war Conning tower in my Gato. And it was may 1943. Of course it still might be just the save.

[Fercyful]

hey scalelokt! those are great news! please can you post you rig? (CPU+video card, etc) for have a more detailed report. thanks!

:arrgh!:

[melb00m]

For me performance pretty much remains the same. If I choose a higher resolution and turn on AA/AF, it obviously becomes worse.

But overall I am very satisfied with the performance. I run the game 1280x1024 with 4xAA and 8xAF, and most effects switched on on my P4 3.4, 1.5 GByte RAM, 512 MB Geforce 7800 GT.

Performance from external view is about 20-28 fps, inside 45-50.

:up:

[scalelokt]

Cant explain why my performance has increased if hasnt for others. But I can say with certainty that my game is running smooth as silk after 1.2 with transparent water, where as before I was laggy and choppy. I'm not talking subtle difference here, this is substantial.

Here is my rig
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz
Nvidia 6800GT OC
2 gigs RAM

[Fercyful]

thanks for the update! :up:

hope my 7800GS AGP will do the job... latter I will report my comparative results here :cool:

[MONOLITH]

I'm running an ATI X1950 Pro. Widescreen LCD set to a native 1680x1050, and I have to say I think I've seen a noticable improvement with frame rates with the 1.2 patch.


Which is odd, considering the res is now higher, and I'm now using AA and AF.

So far so good.

[darius359au]

Ive gotten a big enough boast from 1.2 that i can play with enviroment And post processing on now and still have the same frame rates or slightly better than I had before - I could only have 1 or the other on before :D:D

[Faamecanic]

I still get bad FPS when I have all the goodies on (especially light shafts and 3D wake)...and my PC is no slouch....

[stabiz]

Thats it, this game goes on the shelf for now. The insane stutters are still here, and even with AA on 8xS I get a solid 40-50fps, but the game runs better when I record with fraps.:rotfl:The videos I have made does not show the hell I`m living when fraps is off.

Thank God I have Armed Assault and my racing sims.

So, cheerio, SH4! (for now)

[tater]

I get very high CTD and BSOD rates now. That's not a good thing.

[SteamWake]

Thats it, this game goes on the shelf for now. The insane stutters are still here, and even with AA on 8xS I get a solid 40-50fps, but the game runs better when I record with fraps.:rotfl:The videos I have made does not show the hell I`m living when fraps is off.

Thank God I have Armed Assault and my racing sims.

So, cheerio, SH4! (for now)

(scratches head) :shifty:

[cowboys98]

if you look close to this picture the where the waterline is near the guys face,you can see that the water is also visible in the mans face.can some explain is this a glitch or what?
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/7361/sh4img1742007201231828lm7.th.jpg (http://img392.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img1742007201231828lm7.jpg)










http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/1493/sh4img1742007201359468jr6.th.jpg (http://img392.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img1742007201359468jr6.jpg)

[MONOLITH]

The insane stutters are still here, and even with AA on 8xS I get a solid 40-50fps,


40 to 50 FPS for this game is great fps. I only get that on the interiors.

And for your rig, based on your sig list, you should not have a problem with the game.

Just offering some friendly advice, but there has to be something else going on in your system. If your getting stutters when data loads, you may have background programs running you don't know about, or often it is a sound card issue. Lower the sound card settings in the options menu. Reduce the number of 3D zones, turn off "delayed sound", and on your system make sure EAX is off, and sometimes there is sound 'hardware acceleration", try that on or off.

Lots of times these CPU stutters are related to the sound data loading issues.

Can't hurt to try.

[CCIP]

I think by AA there he meant Armed Assault, not Anti-Aliasing.


I'm really digging this.
Game runs high 20s, mid 20s near convoys. It used to be just mid-20s.

BUT

The thing is that in 1.1 I played without Environmental Effects (mostly because of the fog slowing me down), AA and AF disabled. Now I'm running 4x AA, 8x AF, and Environmental Effects on in 1.2, and the frame rates are up rather than down!

Can't comment on stability, but looking pretty good so far. I'd be surprised if something started crashing and burning here.

[Ark]

Same here. Performance seems to be up.

Can't really explain it, but 8xFSAA and 16xAF at 1600x1200 is giving me an increase in performance (performance was through the roof before anyways, so I'm not sure it matters. lol).

SHIV certaily looks 100% better. :up:

[PeriscopeDepth]

Your system specs make me drool Ark. ;)

PD

[Ark]

Your system specs make me drool Ark. ;)

PD

Hehe

THanks, PD. :)

[MONOLITH]

I think by AA there he meant Armed Assault, not Anti-Aliasing.



Ah...yes. Sorry, moving too fast trying to help all these issues.

I actually see that statement makes a bit more sense now. :oops:


Those are good points about the sound card/settings though. I'm interested to see if that helps him at all.

On some games, turning on EAX just about shuts me down. And SH4 has some serious 3D sound processing if you crank it up, and it will load the CPU, which in turn would cause the stuttering he's talking about.

[U-Bones]

I think by AA there he meant Armed Assault, not Anti-Aliasing.


Ah...yes. Sorry, moving too fast trying to help all these issues.

I actually see that statement makes a bit more sense now. :oops:


Those are good points about the sound card/settings though. I'm interested to see if that helps him at all.

On some games, turning on EAX just about shuts me down. And SH3 has some serious 3D sound processing if you crank it up, and it will load the CPU, which in turn would cause the stuttering he's talking about.

Yeah I had to turn 3d sound off from the jump.

The game sure is beautiful now, but with all the broken mechanics it feels like a pigboat with lipstick. Damage modeling is worse than ANY sub game I have ever played, a simple death screen is preferable to the goofyness we have right now.

Maybe it will seem better in the morning...

[CCIP]

Ooh, another thing I need to note about performance - the TC performance is MUCH better now.

I really couldn't do much at above 4096TC, and generally the optimal setting was around 3500x. Now I can do the full 8000 no problem :rock:

One new problem I encountered so far is not so new to most people - now that my FPS in the open sea hits 40-50 (real nice), I do experience the micro-stutters that people write about and that I hadn't seen until now (not so nice). Most of the time they're unnoticable, but sometimes - an irritation.

[stabiz]

No, I was talking about FSAA, not Armed Assault. I have good fps with FSAA cranked up, but the game still stutters, as if frames are removed. It still almost makes me cry that it runs very well when recording with fraps. I dont get this, its really strange.

[Faamecanic]

And SH3 has some serious 3D sound processing if you crank it up, and it will load the CPU, which in turn would cause the stuttering he's talking about.

You mean unlike the sounds in SH4 where the engine room is in the bow, DD engine noises are backwards from inside the sub.... seems like all sounds inside the sub are 180 deg out of phase.

[stabiz]

I had no stutters in SH3 with hardware acceleration on full.

[7Enigma]

Stabiz can you post your sytem specs (particularly your video card and driver version)?

[AVGWarhawk]

I had no stutters in SH3 with hardware acceleration on full.


Your 8800 card, I do not know the mechanics of it, but the DirectX version you are running?

[AVGWarhawk]

Ooh, another thing I need to note about performance - the TC performance is MUCH better now.

I really couldn't do much at above 4096TC, and generally the optimal setting was around 3500x. Now I can do the full 8000 no problem :rock:

One new problem I encountered so far is not so new to most people - now that my FPS in the open sea hits 40-50 (real nice), I do experience the micro-stutters that people write about and that I hadn't seen until now (not so nice). Most of the time they're unnoticable, but sometimes - an irritation.

My machine much the same in performance. In all reality I just turned on the EE(no fog) and put my card on AA X4. All is good. One CTD but under sever action/weather/me pressing all the buttons like a lunatic AND I found more Sponge Bob games downloaded by my kids again. Dumped them, cleaned up the drive and registry, 1 hour of play and not issues other than shaking water...I had the in 1.1 occassionally so no biggy.

[tater]

WW2OL BSODs me now too. It's and IRQ not less or equal. Never happened before SH4. Wonder if it's the copy protection...

[ironkross]

What would happen if I leave my AA in the nVidia card setting on Application Controlled? In other words do I have to chose a setting like 4X for the AA to take effect?

[stabiz]

Stabiz can you post your sytem specs (particularly your video card and driver version)?

Sure, they are in my sig. I use the latest (official) nVidia driver. Version: 93.71

[stabiz]

What would happen if I leave my AA in the nVidia card setting on Application Controlled? In other words do I have to chose a setting like 4X for the AA to take effect?

Yes, you have to do it in the gpu control panel.

[stabiz]

I had no stutters in SH3 with hardware acceleration on full.

Your 8800 card, I do not know the mechanics of it, but the DirectX version you are running?

I have the 7950Gt 512MB DDR3, and the latest DirectX (march this year?)

[ironkross]

When I restarted my game after changing my AA/AF settings and my res setting I got a CTD when loading a 1.2 save. Starting in base loaded OK tho. I guess I will leave my settings alone for now since I would rather just play the game.

[7Enigma]

When I restarted my game after changing my AA/AF settings and my res setting I got a CTD when loading a 1.2 save. Starting in base loaded OK tho. I guess I will leave my settings alone for now since I would rather just play the game.

That's what I was afraid of. :cry: This is what currently happens with me in 1.1, I can play a mission, load/save as long as I've got SH4 running, but once I close it down (restart computer, off for the night, computer crash) I can no longer load the save. It forces me to essentially complete a full patrol in a single sitting which I've attempted twice now (2 and 4 hours respectively), only to end with one CTD and the other time I had to quit. :down:

[7Enigma]

I had no stutters in SH3 with hardware acceleration on full.

Your 8800 card, I do not know the mechanics of it, but the DirectX version you are running?

I have the 7950Gt 512MB DDR3, and the latest DirectX (march this year?)

There's a tweak setting we can use on our nvidia cards that changes the number of rendered frames ahead. Off the top of my head I cannot remember how to access it but I can when I get home. I think I needed Coolbits or some other 3rd party mod to gain access to this, but it helped IMMENSELY in TES:Oblivion (switched it from default of 3 to 1). I'll post up the method later tonight and you can try and see if it alleviates the stuttering.

HTH

[MONOLITH]

And SH3 has some serious 3D sound processing if you crank it up, and it will load the CPU, which in turn would cause the stuttering he's talking about.

You mean unlike the sounds in SH4


Oops...Time Out.

That was a typo fellas. Didn't mean to start an SH3 conversation. My post should have said "SH4 has some serious 3D sound processing.....".

[Fercyful]

well finally I try 1.2 and I`m happy with the performance boost! :rock:

before 38 FPS now 48 FPS at the same situation/settings! (nav training)

when I enable AA+AF I get 30 FPS so is good for my eyes! and the game look much more nice now...

at Pearl port (heavy loaded part) I still get 25 FPS, the same that with 1.1 BUT now is with AA+AF enabled... so I didn´t lost performance here, only go better.

GREAT WORK! :up:

my rig:

Core2Duo e6600 @ 2,4 (stock speed)
ASROCK 4COREDUAL-VSTA
EVGA 7800GS CO AGP x8 (stock speed)
1,5 GB RAM @333 (single channel)
HD IDE 80 GB @ 133

:arrgh!:

ps: if you use RIVATUNER you can go to D3D tweaks part and select VSYNC - "prerender limit"
and place 0, 1 or 3 (frames) (that is for the tip the other mate asks for...) I use "3" and I don´t get any stutters...

[7Enigma]

ps: if you use RIVATUNER you can go to D3D tweaks part and select VSYNC - "prerender limit"
and place 0, 1 or 3 (frames) (that is for the tip the other mate asks for...) I use "3" and I don´t get any stutters...

That's it! I couldn't remember the 3rd party program, but it was Rivatuner. It adds an extra tab under the display settings and you can change the value. It's default AFAIK is 3, but for Oblivion setting it to 1 increased the performance greatly on my system and others and alleviated some of the stuttering that occurred. I'd give it a shot and see if it helps.

[Wave Skipper]

well you guys are doing great bug testing - too bad you had to pay to do it. But I am heartened. I will likely dodge the draft until the year: Patch 1.4b. Until then I'll stay at the stage listening to Thompson, how he snapped his disk.

SOme of the problems you guys mention like circling torps sounds realistic. In the real war that happened a lot, and the torp death problems sounds realistic too - since in the beginning mark14 torps were going about 11 feet too deep per settings. I could be wrong about the details here as I am working per memory.

ANd I got to thinking, I don't look forward to many skin mods since US subs, unlike the Germans, never tried wild camo schemes.

BUT HERE IS WHAT STILL BUGS ME: I saw the ocean line cutting across the man's face. Fine - but what bothered me was the fact that whole man and image on deck did not look 3d. It looks flat - like a comic book. I place this picture next to my outside shots on U-boats and the flatness becomes very obvious. Why couldn't they just stick to using the SH3 engine as it was rather than trying to create a new one?

THe games are still on the shelves at my local Wal-Mart. I doubt I ever see a Patch 1.4, and may be lucky to see a patch 1.3. How long will Ubi waste on a game that isn't moving off of shelves?

I may just skip this war.

[AVGWarhawk]

well you guys are doing great bug testing - too bad you had to pay to do it. But I am heartened. I will likely dodge the draft until the year: Patch 1.4b. Until then I'll stay at the stage listening to Thompson, how he snapped his disk.

SOme of the problems you guys mention like circling torps sounds realistic. In the real war that happened a lot, and the torp death problems sounds realistic too - since in the beginning mark14 torps were going about 11 feet too deep per settings. I could be wrong about the details here as I am working per memory.

ANd I got to thinking, I don't look forward to many skin mods since US subs, unlike the Germans, never tried wild camo schemes.

BUT HERE IS WHAT STILL BUGS ME: I saw the ocean line cutting across the man's face. Fine - but what bothered me was the fact that whole man and image on deck did not look 3d. It looks flat - like a comic book. I place this picture next to my outside shots on U-boats and the flatness becomes very obvious. Why couldn't they just stick to using the SH3 engine as it was rather than trying to create a new one?

THe games are still on the shelves at my local Wal-Mart. I doubt I ever see a Patch 1.4, and may be lucky to see a patch 1.3. How long will Ubi waste on a game that isn't moving off of shelves?

I may just skip this war.

Ahhh, not really the topic here. Please comment if you have the game and the new patch.

[RickC Sniper]

Stabiz, please clarify.

Are you getting the stuttering in external view only or in other views as well?

Rick

[stabiz]

Hmmm ... I`m pretty sure its less noticable on the bridge, maybe none at all. But as soon as I go external the chopping starts. It has nothing to do with fps or performance at all, since I can go ahead out into the ocean on my own with the free cam and the sea stutters like a pulse approx each second or so.

BTW, no stutters at all inside the sub.

[CCIP]

I suspect these may be somehow tied to the sea shaders, and the infamous 'shaking sea' issue. Hope the devs look into both for the next patch :-?

[MikeJW]

Stabitz, I have a rig close to yours except I have a 256Mb 7900 and I also have weird chopping at times. Its not all the time and hasnt happened on the bridge either. But sometimes when I go to free roam and look at the sub the camera seems to stutter and the frames seem to drop even though the fps counter doesnt show much of a drop. It doesnt seem to bother the sub because theres no sound stuttering and it responds to commands but its real weird.

[ironkross]

When I restarted my game after changing my AA/AF settings and my res setting I got a CTD when loading a 1.2 save. Starting in base loaded OK tho. I guess I will leave my settings alone for now since I would rather just play the game.
That's what I was afraid of. :cry: This is what currently happens with me in 1.1, I can play a mission, load/save as long as I've got SH4 running, but once I close it down (restart computer, off for the night, computer crash) I can no longer load the save. It forces me to essentially complete a full patrol in a single sitting which I've attempted twice now (2 and 4 hours respectively), only to end with one CTD and the other time I had to quit. :down:
No , mine is not like that. I am fine now restarting saves. As long as I leave the card settings as the are I can shut the pc down and reload any saves after I changed my AA and AF. I'm happy with the res and the game is beautiful.

[Grothesj2]

I seem to get about the same performance after 1.2 as 1.1.

[stabiz]

Stabitz, I have a rig close to yours except I have a 256Mb 7900 and I also have weird chopping at times. Its not all the time and hasnt happened on the bridge either. But sometimes when I go to free roam and look at the sub the camera seems to stutter and the frames seem to drop even though the fps counter doesnt show much of a drop. It doesnt seem to bother the sub because theres no sound stuttering and it responds to commands but its real weird.

Have a look at this thread, it might work for you too, mate:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=112436

[cunnutazzo]

yesterday I have esperimented badly chopping or stuttering, suddenly the fps went down at 2 or 3. I have a 4000 AMD single core and a X800 PCI. May be the protection system? I heard the IL2 simmers have stuttering because the protection system.

[Schultzy]

I just finally installed 1.2 and had chance to play it.

I was really pleasantly surprised as my fps has increased too. 1.1 it was between 8 and 13 on the bridge, now it's between 15 and 25

Inside the ship before was a max of 19 now it's 35. A very noticable difference. Thanks dev team. So far so good. (at least for me!)

No crashes or oddness to report as of yet. *touching wood*

[TDK1044]

I installed 1.2 and left the fog option unchecked. I've always had the event camera unchecked, and my FPS within the sub is very high for this game, 50fps plus. On the Bridge and external camera views I'm seeing between 27 and 40fps.

I have a mid range system, and this game plays perfectly well on it and looks great. I haven't yet seen any stuttering.

[Jungman]

This maybe a stupid question (since I have an old card) what is Volumetric FOG? The regular fog you see in a stormy night, or some other 'foggy' effect at the distant horizon??

Maybe my card does not render it. THX.:o

[basilio]

This maybe a stupid question (since I have an old card) what is Volumetric FOG? The regular fog you see in a stormy night, or some other 'foggy' effect at the distant horizon??

Maybe my card does not render it. THX.:o
I have the same questions.
My system:
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz
2 Gig of ram
ATI X1950 PRO 512 mb AGP.
Everything in the game options was turned max as was everything on the Catalyst Control Center.
Loaded the artillery mission (submarine scool) and everything was fine.
15-20 FPS outside the sub
30+ inside.
Loaded the quick mission (the one in 1945 with a Balao sub-can't remember its name) when you start at night...on the bridge 3-5 FPS!!!!!!!!
I turn off the Volumetric Fog (everything else left to the max) and the FPS jumped to 19-20.
So for me VOLUMETRIC FOG is my FPS killer.
Now I'd like to know what I'm missing with this Volumetric Fog off.
Second question:
Will I get any improvement changing the
[DEVELOPING]
DevDebugEnable
DevEditEnable
MiniDump
in the main.cfg to "NO"????

[Jungman]

I guess no one knows, or being too busy to answer.:nope:

If I turn it off, I too get a huge increase in FPS.

I would like to know what I am missing. IF I ever had it...

[MikeJW]

It's hard to describe volumetric fog. Its more lifelife and has depth, I guess. I've messed around and unchecked volumetric fog once and it removed a light fog I was in.

[AVGWarhawk]

It's hard to describe volumetric fog. Its more lifelife and has depth, I guess. I've messed around and unchecked volumetric fog once and it removed a light fog I was in.

The volumetric fog is more of a mist in the air that you can see and I believe it moves also. It is very hard on the processors. Also, it is in addition to the fog already in the game. Now, if you turn off the vol fog you will still get fog and it is rendered very well. This fog does not kill frames as badly as the vol fog.

[MikeJW]

Theres some fog that wont appear for me if I turn volumetric off, but with the .cfg editing I can keep it on. I was in a real light, early morning fog off the water type mist and when I turned volumetric off it disappeared.

[Bilge_Rat]

VOLUMETRIC FOG is 3D fog, therefore more lifelike and also requires more CPU and GPU horsepower.

regular fog, as you see, impacts the point where a ship becomes visible, although it will still fade in with a fog effect. Much simpler to create and therefore less impact on your hardware.