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?

[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

Thanks.

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

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]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

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
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

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

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

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

[Paul Riley]

I guess so *damn,forgot about them*