A couple of issues I have noticed

[Paul Riley]

I am sure these 2 issues I am about to describe have been well observed long before now but nonetheless I think I ought to mention them all the same.

1: I have noticed sometimes a graphical glitch on the navigator's table,where the textures appear garbled.Then if I manually go into the WO's post then back out and then into the Navigator's post and back out it disappears.I think it mainly happens just after diving.
This doesnt happen all the time,just sometimes.
I have a feeling it could be linked to my ATI card,as even though they make good AGP cards they have also been known to release drivers that cause problems in some games.
I have the latest Catalyst drivers for the record.

2: This is a performance issue,and is observed on the deck during heavy storms.If I look straight forward and then say 25 degrees to either side the performance slows down pretty bad,and as I pan my view around to the sides and then the rear the performance is fine again.

Any info concerning the above?

:up:

[GoldenRivet]

havnt heard of the number two issue.

but what you described in 1 is a bug in SH3 as old as the hills. i think to select the nav officer and weapons officer positions as you have described is the only known fix.

[Paul Riley]

Thanks for the reply GR.

I am curious to wait for anyone with ATI cards to comment on no:2,as I do have a gut feeling it could be linked to ATI cards.As I mentioned it is noticed in heavy storms with driving rain,yet any other time the performance is normal.

Again,thanks.

[GoldenRivet]

what card do you have?

mine is a radeon 8800 GTS and it runs great all weather etc.

[meduza]

I also have an ATI card (Radeon 1950, had a 9800pro before), and never experienced the problem #2 you've described.

[TAW_CZAREJS]

I have the Ati radeon mobility 9000 and I do get the navigator table glitch. Sometimes it happens most of the time it doesn't. I do believe that it has something to do with the card, but I have no proof.:hmm:

[Paul Riley]

I have an ATI X800 Pro (256MB onboard RAM)
CPU = P4 at 3Ghz
RAM = 2GB
Sound = SB Audigy 2

I appreciate some of my hardware may seem dated by today's standards now,but when I built my system a few years ago all the above was high spec then,shame things become obsolete even quicker now with ever more powerful hardware.
I am ready to install some new upgrades soon anyhow,with a new PCI express based system and dual core CPU :nope:

Thanks.

[danlisa]

I have an ATI X800 Pro (256MB onboard RAM)
CPU = P4 at 3Ghz
RAM = 2GB
Sound = SB Audigy 2

I have a testing rig that's the same as yours.

Issue 1: This happens with all GFX cards and is caused by periods of TC. It can be cleared by clicking on the maps.

Issue 2: The one describe is one of two things. First, the bow spray, reduce the particle settings. Second, more odd this one. There is a strange occurrence in SH3 where FPS drop suddenly when looking/aligning to a given heading, IIRC due south or there abouts. It has been investigated but no solution has been found. As you say it only occurs in very bad weather which leads me to think it's a angle/direction vs rendering issue in the game code.

[Captain Nemo]

2: This is a performance issue,and is observed on the deck during heavy storms.If I look straight forward and then say 25 degrees to either side the performance slows down pretty bad,and as I pan my view around to the sides and then the rear the performance is fine again.

I currently have an ATI X1650 pro 512 MB and prior to this an ATI X300se 128 MB (Hypermemory) and have experienced something similar to what you describe in your point 2 with both cards. What best describes my experience is that when panning around the conning tower, in a specific direction FPS take a noticeable hit (obvoiusly hardly noticeable with the X1650). I can't quite remember the exact direction I am looking when my FPS goes down but that direction remains constant no matter which direction my uboat is heading. For example, if I am heading due south and south is where the FPS drops then looking directly ahead from the conning tower I notice an FPS drop. If I'm heading north, then looking towards the stern of my uboat the FPS drops. Everywhere else I look FPS goes up considerably. Doesn't bother me now, especially since I upgraded my card. A stange issue indeed.

Nemo

[Paul Riley]

Strange indeed.
Good to hear it has been observed by many though.
Thanks for the input.

[Pisces]

Yup, I can confirm your findings aswell. I have a Sapphire Radeon 9550 card on an Asus P4P800SE motherboard, P4 2.6 GHz HT, 768 MB DDR2. Sofar I've played with Catalyst 7.9 and had both those issues. Last week I installed Catalyst 8.7. Haven't seen the map corruption yet, but have seen the 'bow framerate drop'. Which Danlisa gives a very plausible reason for. I've noticed those (3d) map corruptions were more frequent when I changed AA settings in Catalyst control when the game was running (so alt-tab-ing often).

Unfortunately that catalyst update also resulted in my 3d dial bitmaps to show in low resolution. I hope it was just a fluke.

[Paul Riley]

My board is an Intel D875PBZ.Old now I know :nope:
I dont really use AA in any of my games,as playing in 1024 gives me a good enough image quality as it is,and enabling it saps a lot of your video memory too.I much prefer having 16x AF,which enables you to see much farther as it eliminates the fogging effect and increases the draw distance considerably,ideal for SHIII.
I dont know how you configure your card but I would also disable vertical refresh for games too,as that slows the framerate down to match that of your monitor's refresh rate,very inappropriate.
Enable geometry instancing also as that speeds up the rendering of objects that are drawn frequently,in our case that would be things like,waves,trees,etc.
And finally,I enable Triple buffering for my game,as that again speeds things up as it provides a third buffer for drawing textures etc.
I at least hope some of these settings have helped those with ATI cards.

[Paul Riley]

Its a horrible balancing act,trying to configure your card for optimal settings in certain games :doh:

[danlisa]

Its a horrible balancing act,trying to configure your card for optimal settings in certain games :doh:

That's why you create ATI profiles for your games.;)

[Paul Riley]

I guess so *damn,forgot about them* :88)

[Paul Riley]

Hey Danlisa,
While we are talking about graphics cards here,there is one setting that still baffles me,have you any idea exactly what catalyst AI does in games?.Apparently it optimizes certain settings for games,but that answer is a bit too generic and basic for my liking,I want to know exactly what it does.It comes in 2 modes,standard and advanced.Now I have used both settings but cant seem to find out what its supposed to be doing ingame.
I have currently disabled it.

Cheers pal :up:

[danlisa]

Enable it.:yep:

Catalyst AI uses ATI's Texture Analyzer technology to optimize performance in any Game/3D application. ATI believe that whilst doing this they maintain the correct image quality and in some cases can even improve IQ. Cat AI does this by analyzing individual textures as they are loaded in order to choose the best and fastest way for them to be displayed.

For a full article about CAT AI, go here - http://www.driverheaven.net/articles/atiop/

:up:

[Paul Riley]

According to your research it sounds like CAI does a similar job to geometry instancing,thus speeding up the rendering of textures?.
So,do you have it on?and,which level,standard or advanced?
That was very useful,thanks sir! :up:

[danlisa]

According to your research it sounds like CAI does a similar job to geometry instancing,thus speeding up the rendering of textures?.
So,do you have it on?and,which level,standard or advanced?
That was very useful,thanks sir! :up:

Correct.

Yes, I have it enabled and on Advanced. However while this will improve texture processing, using the Advanced option may increase CPU drain. Although I have not noticed this.

I also use optimized drivers, I gave up on ATI's bloatware years ago and I now use Omega Drivers. They come streamlined and keep all the same options.

[Paul Riley]

I almost forgot!
Another thing that I need to clarify,you know after starting up CCC,you get 2 more apps that fire up in task manager,they are:
1: CCC.exe
2: MOM.exe

Now I disable both these apparent hogs,as CCC is obviously the control centre is not important for to be running in the background,at least not while gaming,and the MOM.exe is a little shady,as I have done a few searches on this .exe and the answers I get dont seem too sure themselves,at least not at the present time that is.
Again,thanks! :up:

[Paul Riley]

bloatware :rotfl: I like that one

[danlisa]

MOM.exe is a monitoring application for CCC.exe, so if you are disabling one, disable the other. That's why I like Omega drivers, they have none of those applications.

[Fincuan]

Just a note on Catalyst AI: The warning that setting it to high might result in graphical glitches is not hogwash. Another thing is that the texture quality might be a bit worse(hence the gains FPS), even though it might not be that noticeable. I'm running a Crossfire system, so for me Catalyst AI in high position is a must since it should force all games to run in alternate frame rendering-mode, which is usually the fastest. The only serious glitches I've had are navmap problems in SH4, which are only seen when vertical sync is on AND Cat AI is high. If either of them is something else then no visual problems but smaller FPS. Another game with Cat AI=high related problems is IL2, where I get black areas all over the ground. Set Cat AI to low, and problems gone. Note that I'm using Ati Tray tools, so I choose between off, low and high settings. It think the corresponding settings in CCC are off, basic and advanced.

[Paul Riley]

As I mentioned earlier about CAI I wasnt too sure about it's application,so as Danlisa advised me I switched it on to basic,and it HAS certainly improved the fps quite a lot in fact,with no noticable change in the graphics.If there HAVE been any changes in the way the graphics are displayed in which areas do you think the changes may have been made?,because I cant spot them.
Lastly,if any of you have seen my post on performance problems during heavy storms it seems that enabling basic CAI has even improved the fps in those conditions too,without almost any loss at all,especially when facing to the front of my boat which seems to be the main gripe in that issue.

Thanks.