Video Card Settings Optimization

[McHub532]

I'm going to break down and be the dork that comes out and asks.

Can someone give me advice on my video card settings and how to get the best performance out of them for SH5?

I have an:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470

A category in the Control Panel for the Card has several options and settings and I just don't know how to tweak them to maximize what I get out of SH5. The category in question is:

3D
* Anti-Aliasing: What the heck is this and what should I set it at? (use application settings or temporal anti-aliasing x2 or x4).

* Adaptive Anti-Aliasing: Enable Adaptive Anti-Aliasing (smo0th <-> Sharp)
(Super Sampling - Multi-Sampling)

* Anistotropoic Filtering: Use application settings or Per pixel settings (x2 <-> x16)

* Catalyst A.I.: Disable Catalyst A.I. (standard or advanced)

* Midmap Detail Level: (High Performance <-> High Quality)

* All Settings: Quick Page to adjust all settings above from one tab.

* More Settings:
Support DXT Texture Formats (on/off)
Triple Buffering (on/off)
Force 24-bit Z-buffer depth (on/off)

Right now I am running with 3D-Ship damage on, Particle Count at maximum, Windowed and everything else turned to minimums or off in game graphics options.

The game runs rather smooth except: my mouse moves like it's stuck in tar. It's like the mouse sensitivity is turned down to 3%.

There are so many options that I feel utterly lost on how to get the most out of this game. I feel like someone put 5 combination locks down on the table in front of me and expects me to figure them all out before lunch time. :)

Anyone with some advice?

Thanks!

[McHub532]

Well... here is one things I just figured out....

When I bought this computer about 1 1/2 years ago I was happy as a clam (still am). As time went on I did the normal Microsoft Updates... even went so far as to go into Device Manager and have it scan for updates to drivers, etc. Never found an update.

So.. here I am just now googling for my video card and trying to find suggestions and tweaking/optimization ideas on forums or blogs perhaps when I discover that my video card has had SEVERAL driver updates over the past two years.

Holy Craup (is that french? heh).

So... just upgraded from version 1 to version 3.?

Poking around the interface program right now and will load up SH5 soon and give it a whirl.. see if it solves a few of my 'lag' type problems and my 'mouse ultra-hard-to-move' issue.

[McHub532]

Why does my "navy dude" avatar/icon make me look like a village-people guy. Heh

[McHub532]

There is a marked improvement in the 'fluidity' of gameplay with my video card driver updates.. but I still have a very sluggish mouse.

Any suggestions for the mouse?

[Nico09]

If its in the sub then i think there is a bug, which should be sorted with the patch on the 12th April I believe :DL

Just bought myself a new gfx card, 1GB Nvidia GTS 250 OverClocked. Running everything fine atm, but if i ever have any probs i MAX everything then tweak things down until they run right, noting the changes as i go :DL

[mcarlsonus]

I, too, recently purchased a GTS250. Works like a charm --- and the price was right!

[kptn_kaiserhof]

it all depends on the hardware

[tonyw]

Turn off "shadows" in the options menu until the patch arrives.

[mcarlsonus]

dynamic shadows work well for me, but they ARE most definitely!, resource HOGS!

[McHub532]

dynamic shadows work well for me, but they ARE most definitely!, resource HOGS!

I have had to turn Shadows completely off, and anti-aliasing completely off. If I even hint at trying them my system acts like a Comodore 64. :)

[McHub532]

I discovered my problem. It was Captham's Audio Mod.

I'm not dumping on the mod.. it's just my system couldn't handle it.

It's removed now and WHAM... the game runs like buuuuuttter! :D

[TieJustice]

You will find that having it windowed will not help your graphics.

[McHub532]

You will find that having it windowed will not help your graphics.

But will it hurt it?

[McHub532]

Wow.. what can I say?

Now that my system is screaming fast I cranked up the graphics settings (Still left shadows and anti-aliasing off).

All I can say is: Visually Stunning.
My system is smooth as butter still with all the fancy beautiful graphics turned on. Crazy how a little sound mod effected it so much.

[THE_MASK]

If you are after more fps then set ParticlesDetail lower in the graphics settings in the sh5 grahic settings .

[McHub532]

If you are after more fps then set ParticlesDetail lower in the graphics settings in the sh5 grahic settings .

Once I took out that sound mod.. I can have my partical details maximum and the other graphics also and it's smooth as butter. No problem as all any longer.