How do I dumb down SH3's water and environmental graphics to increase FPS?

[frankiekam]

Hi Herr Kaleun

I know this sounds crazy, but I am trying to figure out a way to dumb down the water graphics effects in Silent Hunter 3. I am playing the stock SH3 without any mods. The main reason I am doing this is because I am running SH3 on my 2007 Dell Vostro 1000 AMD AthlonX2 (64bit) laptop that has integrated ATI graphics and 2.37Gb main RAM. All parts of SH3 runs satisfactorily until I click on the external view graphics with the sub surfaced - SH3's water graphics, that extends all the way to the horizon, slows down the framerate a whole lot on my 9-year old laptop. So I noticed that the water in SH3 is a major framerate-killer for older PCs.

Here are my Options | Video settings (set in-game):
Event camera = off
Full screen = off
Synchronized = off
Texture Quality High = Off
Particle Density = off

I have three questions:
Q1. Other than the in-game video settings, are there other filename.CFG tricks or tweaks that I can use to increase the graphics framerate?
Q2. How to I turn off the environmental effects in SH3?
Q3. IF I replace some of the tga files (and which ones are they) with plain blue colours so that the tga files are smaller in size, will the game's FPS increase? My hypothesis is that if I can reduce the tga file sizes, the ones that make up the water graphics, then I can increase the game's FPS (Frames Per Second).

In summary, I want SH3 to run faster in an old PC, especially in the external view with all the water surface showing when the submarine is shown surfaced.

Any ideas?

The is some method in my madness
Frankie Kam
Malaysia

[Fahnenbohn]

Hi Herr Kaleun

I know this sounds crazy, but I am trying to figure out a way to dumb down the water graphics effects in Silent Hunter 3. I am playing the stock SH3 without any mods. The main reason I am doing this is because I am running SH3 on my 2007 Dell Vostro 1000 AMD AthlonX2 (64bit) laptop that has integrated ATI graphics and 2.37Gb main RAM. All parts of SH3 runs satisfactorily until I click on the external view graphics with the sub surfaced - SH3's water graphics, that extends all the way to the horizon, slows down the framerate a whole lot on my 9-year old laptop. So I noticed that the water in SH3 is a major framerate-killer for older PCs.

In summary, I want SH3 to run faster in an old PC, especially in the external view with all the water surface showing when the submarine is shown surfaced.

Any ideas?

I would advise you to try my environment mod, that I've made on a PC like yours (old and not powerful, and with an Intel card => problems with reflections on the sea). I have better fps in game with my mod than with others 16 km atmosphere mods.

See in my signature.

F.