rFactor:strange problem with framerate?

I have a strange framerate problem in rFactor: Generally everything is very smooth, but every now and then it becomes nearly a slide show, perhaps about 2-3 times during one lap. I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this a commonly known problem? Any advice? My system is: Radeon 9600 XT-4 driver version 6.14.10.6414 Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz Thanks in advance! Arto --

"Arto Wikla" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:wikla.1126545798@wrl-55...

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>I have a strange framerate problem in rFactor: > Generally everything is very smooth, but every now and then > it becomes nearly a slide show, perhaps about 2-3 times during > one lap. > > I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of > details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem > not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this > a commonly known problem? Any advice? > > My system is: > > Radeon 9600 XT-4 > driver version 6.14.10.6414 > > Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz > > Thanks in advance! > > Arto > -- >

Try changing the shaders to something other than you currently use. I know with my system (high low-ended, I guess) I use DX7 for shaders for the best performance. You might also check for background programs running, especially virus programs. Try and empty out all unnecessary programs, using maybe EnditAll 2, and then bring them back one by one, if the problem was solved through emptying. Also, fiddle a bit with the sound and try turning vsync on or off, etc. You could also try different video drivers. I know I have a nVidia 5700 card and the best drivers for me are the 78.03s. Alanb

[email hidden] (Arto Wikla) wrote in news:wikla.1126545798 @wrl-55:

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> I have a strange framerate problem in rFactor: > Generally everything is very smooth, but every now and then > it becomes nearly a slide show, perhaps about 2-3 times during > one lap. > > I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of > details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem > not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this > a commonly known problem? Any advice? > > My system is: > > Radeon 9600 XT-4 > driver version 6.14.10.6414 > > Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz > > Thanks in advance! > > Arto

How much RAM do you have? Is this at every track or certain ones only? Have you locked down your swap file?(yes this old win9x trick did wonders for my memory limited system with GTR) Shadows seem to have a big affect. The first addon track(lime rock) had a patch to improve fps due to how the trees where handled. The readme for Birmingham recomends a couple of settings to improve fps. Check those out. Good luck. dave henrie

I had a similar problem when using FSAA. Every time I got near more than a couple of AI cars the frame rate would drop to under 10 fps. This would happen even if I couldn't see the cars (eg. when I was driving past the pit lane and the cars were hidden behind the pit wall). Turning off FSAA fixed it, even if it isn't quite as pretty. :( Mr Q -------------------

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> [email hidden] (Arto Wikla) wrote in news:wikla.1126545798 > @wrl-55: > > >>I have a strange framerate problem in rFactor: >>Generally everything is very smooth, but every now and then >>it becomes nearly a slide show, perhaps about 2-3 times during >>one lap. >> >>I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of >>details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem >>not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this >>a commonly known problem? Any advice? >> >>My system is: >> >>Radeon 9600 XT-4 >>driver version 6.14.10.6414 >> >>Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz >> >>Thanks in advance! >> >>Arto

"Arto Wikla" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:wikla.1126545798@wrl-55...

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>I have a strange framerate problem in rFactor: > Generally everything is very smooth, but every now and then > it becomes nearly a slide show, perhaps about 2-3 times during > one lap. > > I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of > details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem > not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this > a commonly known problem? Any advice? > > My system is: > > Radeon 9600 XT-4 > driver version 6.14.10.6414 > > Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz > > Thanks in advance! > > Arto > --

I had the same problem occur when fiddling with graphics options, when I changed AGP Aperture (in BIOS) from 128Mb to 32Mb. Turned in back up to 256Mb and problem disappears. Hope that helps. Ade.

"Arto Wikla" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:wikla.1126545798@wrl-55...

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>I have a strange framerate problem in rFactor: > Generally everything is very smooth, but every now and then > it becomes nearly a slide show, perhaps about 2-3 times during > one lap. > > I have tried different resolutions and different amounts of > details - both nearly from top to minimum. These changes seem > not to have any effect to the problem! Quite strange! Is this > a commonly known problem? Any advice? > > My system is: > > Radeon 9600 XT-4 > driver version 6.14.10.6414 > > Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz >

Step 1 - turn down drawn opponents. This is especially critical in this sim since all the cars are in the pits even when the driver isn't in it so passing the pits can cause big probs as can any time when a lot of cars are in view. Got mine set to 8.

Thanks Alanb, dave henrie, Mr Q, Ade and Byron Forbes, your advice helped and now rFactor is running quite smoothly. I list below what I did and what I did not. Perhaps this list may help others, too? As some kind of remainder? (My system is Radeon 9600 XT-4, Pentium 4 3.20GHz 1024MB) 1) I chose the "DX7 (performance)". Not too ugly. 2) I did not stop _all_ the other the programs, but I stopped nearly all the programs started by me: browser windows etc. I think 1024MB memory is enough, when unnecessary programs are stopped. 3) vsync is off. 4) I did not update the video drivers. 5) I did not lock down the swap file. 6) I set the shadows off. Not too big loss of immersion. 7) I did not dare to touch the FSAA. 8) The passing hidden AI cars near the pit lane really seemed to be often the place where fps's dropped! Strange: does the program draw also hidden objects? See comment 10 below. 9) I did not dare to touch the AGP Aperture settings in BIOS. 10) I turned down to 8 the number of opponents drawn. It would be nice to be able to set that asymmetrically: more cars drawn in front of you than behind. Now with the setting 8 the popping cars in front of you is a little disturbing... I must try something like 10-12? There are so many combinations of settings that it is really complicated to test, which changes had biggest effects... BTW: Is there any easy way to see the fps's in rFactor, like alt-F? BTW2: To me rFactor looks promising. After GPL there has been so many disappointments... Thanks again guys! :-) Arto --

"Arto Wikla" <wrote in message > BTW: Is there any easy way to see the fps's in rFactor, like alt-F? nearly had it right:) try ctrl-F cheers steve

"Arto Wikla" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:wikla.1126679443@wrl-55... > BTW2: To me rFactor looks promising. After GPL there has been so many > disappointments... > and I *think* finally we have something without "Papyrus" on it that is worth the purchase!

Hi Arto, Glad to hear you have made some progress on eliminating the FPS issues. Note that I am running 20 visible cars, with shadows set to high and DX9 mode, and I do not have noticable FPS slowdowns. My system specs are slightly less than yours (AMD XP2500, 512mb, Radeon 9600). On my system rFactor seems to run quite a bit smoother (with similar settings) then GTR and GTL. I was quite surprised that I could run in DX9 mode with decent FPS. I think you should make changes one at a time to see their effects. I'm guessing some of the things you did helped, while otheres may be competely unnecessary. Good luck! -Pat

"Mr Q" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:43266024$0$21912$[email hidden]...

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>I had a similar problem when using FSAA. Every time I got near more than a >couple of AI cars the frame rate would drop to under 10 fps. This would >happen even if I couldn't see the cars (eg. when I was driving past the pit >lane and the cars were hidden behind the pit wall). > > Turning off FSAA fixed it, even if it isn't quite as pretty. :( > > Mr Q > ------------------- > >

That's odd but the way sometimes things go. I swear using FSAA and running as many cars as possible doesn't seem to touch my framerate, for some reason. It's nearly the same with or without AI drivers. But take LFS. Running the AI in LFS chews up the frames to an unbelievable degree. So many things are going on with all these different systems and configurations, that there's always an odd difference between what occurs on one machine and what occurs on another. That's why I will always prefer the computer over the consoles. Consoles are just no fun. There's nothing to try and figure. Alanb