Tweaking Crisis

[Ducimus]

For the last week, my new hobby has been trying to shoehorn Crysis into my existing machine.

2Gigs ram
AMD 64 3500
Nvidia 7800 GS / 256 MB RAM

Not the greatest system, not the worst, but its all this boy can afford. So, in continuing an age old tradition of "making do with what you have", ive been going over crysis as best i can. Up until this point, ive been able to run any FPS i want, and not have a problem. Crysis however, is pretty much a next gen game as FPS go, so where i normally didnt get into tweaking, ive now had to.

So heres an autoexec ive been working on. Ive been applying this to all game settings at Medium, with the exception of texture quality at low. Anything with a "//" in front of it, is remakred out and will not be loaded by the game.

con_restricted=0
//d3d9_TextureFilter bilinear
//r_displayinfo=1
//sys_enable_budgetmonitoring=1

sys_budget_sysmem=1024
sys_budget_videomem=256
r_CustomVisions=0

//object quality
e_terrain_lod_ratio=1.5
e_lod_min=3
e_lod_max=7
e_lod_ratio=3
e_view_dist_ratio=40
e_view_dist_ratio_vegetation=15
e_proc_vegetation=0
e_vegetation_bending=0
e_vegetation_min_size=2.0
e_cull_veg_activation=15
e_vegetation_sprites_distance_ratio=0.75
e_vegetation_sprites_distance_custom_ratio_min=0.5
e_detail_materials_view_dist_xy=64
e_detail_materials_view_dist_z=64

//shadow
//e_shadows = 0
e_shadows_max_texture_size=1024
e_gsm_lods_num=3
e_gsm_range=4
e_shadows_cast_view_dist_ratio=0.25

//physics
e_phys_foliage=1
e_cull_veg_activation=20
e_foliage_wind_activation_dist=0
es_MaxPhysDist=50

//game effects
g_ragdollMinTime = 5.0

//shaders
q_ShaderSky=0

//volumetric effects
e_Clouds=0

//particles
e_particles_lod=0.75

So far, it feels like ive gotten a pretty good FPS boost while being able to keep most of the bells and whistles of the game on. That said, i think the bottleneck in performance now, is geometry, and crysis has ALOT of it. It would be awesome if i could somehow reduce all the geometry.

Whats maddening, is that Far cry looks alot like crysis, and runs infinatly better. I can max most everything out on Far cry, and it looks better then crysis to me. So not being one to give up, im still trying to get Crysis to look like farcry, with similar performance. I think ill try a bottom up approach (setting game to low, and then tweak updwards), instead of a bottom down approach (setting game to medium and then tweak downwards)., and see if i cant find a happy medium. However, ive noticed that even at low, the game still kind chugs in urban areas - again, it's the geometry i think. One thing i havent done yet is reduce the screen resolution, but im not a far cry (pun not intended) from that.

[FAdmiral]

Right from the start, I have run the game at 800x600 and it looks GREAT to me.
That autoexec file I had gave the game custom settings in my graphics
options where I had it all set to LOW before. Now, rendering is also at a distance
whereas before, the foliage would suddenly appear when I approached it.
Of course, this is all using the SP maps where jungle fighting vs. the AI North
Korean bots is the norm. Too many players right from the start want to run it
all full bore (graphic options to extra high & resolution to the max) and then complain when there super PC can't handle it. I never had Farcry so I am not
familar with it. I know that the autoexec file can be tweaked for each single
PC and sometimes it's just a trail & error to get it right for yours. MP is a totally
different issue. The way it is now is a hugh step backwards from what the SP side
had to offer. Co-op play on large SP style jungle maps is what I was expecting
from the start. Unfortunately, the only thing I had to go on was looking at & playing the demo which is ALL SP play. I loved it so I bought the game. I will
play the MP side when Crytek gets the co-op or some like structure but suit vs.
suit is a copeout in my opinion. This game is maxed for stealthy play by infiltrating
suited team vs. an AI North korean bot occupying force. The aliens in this game
are a storyline that should have no basis in good MP games.....

JIM

[Ducimus]

Right now im taking a bottom up approach instead. Ive tried it at 800 by 600, and 1024 by 768, and in doing so, there is the sad confirmation that the bottom line is, i need a faster GPU. Lowering the resolution, doesn't seem to help me much - if it all. Maybe, 1 or 2 FPS, at best. The sacrifice between 800 and 1024 isn't worth a 1 or 2 fps gain.

The whole thing is a trial and error process. Right now ive got the background visuals sort of fuzzy (or what i thought was an acceptable level of fuzziness), and i may open those up a bit later on.


Currently, heres the new autoexec.cfg im working on, it is not complete yet, thiis file accounts for EVERTHING being set to low:

con_restricted=0
r_displayinfo=1
//sys_enable_budgetmonitoring=1

sys_budget_sysmem=1024
sys_budget_videomem=256

//texture
r_width = 1024
r_height = 768

//objects
e_terrain_lod_ratio=1.5
e_lod_min=3
e_lod_max=7
e_cull_veg_activation=15
e_vegetation_bending=0
e_vegetation_min_size=2.0
e_vegetation_sprites_distance_ratio=0.75 //distance stuff is turned into a sprite

//shadows
e_shadows=1
e_shadows_max_texture_size=1024 //higher res, cuts down flickering

//physics
g_joint_breaking=1
e_decals_allow_game_decals=1

//shaders
e_sky_type=1

//volumetric
e_Clouds=0

//game fx

//post processing

//particles

//water


//sound - medium
s_FormatSampleRate=48000
s_CacheSize=60
s_MPEGDecoders=24
s_Obstruction=2
s_ObstructionAccuracy=1
s_ObstructionUpdate=0.5
s_VariationLimiter=0.6

Certain objects such as specfic Trash car models are showing up with orange squares, so theres a shader i need to activate to get rid of those.

I think once this is complete, barring any further background visual rendering tweaks, it will be as good, as i can get it, at 1024 by 768 resolution. But ultimatly, i think the bottom line here, is therse too much geometry to process, and the only way to get it to run better, is to upgrade to a faster GPU. I am however, wondering if precaching over threading may help, i have the RAM for it.

[Ducimus]

This looks intresting:

http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=14544





----------
edit: Notes to self.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.09.html

e_precache_level=1
r_TexturesStreaming = 0
p_max_MC_iters = 2000
g_dof_ironsight=0

[FAdmiral]

Yep, like I said before:
"I know that the autoexec file can be tweaked for each single PC and sometimes it's just a trail & error to get it right for yours."
Start with low settings & then experiment with the autoexec till you like the
results. I saw a fantastic difference with my first try at installing the file.
It's just like I had a faster/better CPU & GPU. I only run a P4-3 gig cpu with 3
gigs of ram. My graphics is a GF 7600GT 256 DDR3 which do a fine job. I have never had better graphics in a FPS game than Crysis. Just get MP right !!!!

JIM

[Ducimus]

One thing ive noticed - now that i think about it - is that the game hardly even uses up RAM. 256 megs of video ram, isnt alot, but the game barely uses it. Ive also noticed it doesnt seem to use up more then 500 to 700ish megs of normal ram. So basically i have another gig of ram thats not being utilized at all. Think im gonna try prechaching the level and stop texture streaming tonight and see how it does. Object being to utize more ram, and maybe have less streaming to process. Maybe reduce stuttering in urbanized areas.