Campaign combat became unplayable.

[Siggi]

I'm not sure what's caused this, but it happened yesterday when I attacked the group of bombers, and it's happened twice again today (same mission).

Good FPS, even near airfields at low altitude (usually down to around 18 at the lowest). Ditto front lines.

I spotted a group of four or five hun scouts approx 4000ft ahead, AFTER I'd noticed my FPS suddenly drop to around 12fps. As I went after them the FPS became gradually worse, until I was hitting between five and ten as I got on the tail of one of them. This then settled to a steady ten as I chased and shot him. Needless to say the experience was bloody dire.

After that my FPS didn't really recover, no matter where I looked, remaining at a steady-ish 14fps. I next saw a group of British 2-seaters and my FPS went down to 5fps, 7, 9 and didn't go back up to around 14 until I'd turned away.

This doesn't happen in QC with six hun on the screen in front of me. It doesn't happen when I'm looking at my own flights. So what the hell is going on? Because it's unplayable if this is going to happen every time I engage enemy a/c in campaign mode.

It's not the scenery, it's not the terrain, it's not anything other than the a/c, and only those that are in groups and NOT of my own squadron's.

Any kind of a clue from the devs would be appreciated.

 

[Ultraman]

So what the hell is going on? Because it's unplayable if this is going to happen every time I engage enemy a/c in campaign mode.

I thought your post was informative and possibly even helpful to the devs until I got to this part. Seriously dude, after watching what these devs have gone through for the last couple years (I've only been around for half the total time they've been working on it), I'm amazed they haven't become more impatient with people.

They're currently working on a patch, and have already informed us that there will definitely be another (1.3), so perhaps you could continue divulging info about problems you run into without the "what the hell" stuff, and some of it may be looked into for patch work. I'm pretty sure the devs don't want your game to be "unplayable." You think?

 

[Siggi]

I thought your post was informative and possibly even helpful to the devs until I got to this part. Seriously dude, after watching what these devs have gone through for the last couple years (I've only been around for half the total time they've been working on it), I'm amazed they haven't become more impatient with people.

They're currently working on a patch, and have already informed us that there will definitely be another (1.3), so perhaps you could continue divulging info about problems you run into without the "what the hell" stuff, and some of it may be looked into for patch work. I'm pretty sure the devs don't want your game to be "unplayable." You think?

You're a bit delicate, aren't you.

The FPS struggle has been a bit of a sore point for many of us, and after all my particular attempts to get it playable this last experience was rather a kick in the teeth. So do please excuse my somewhat understandable frustration. I fly in real time, and after fourteen odd hours of it I get my first proper combat and it turns into a slide-show. "What the hell" was restrained, believe me. Out of respect for the devs, not in spite of it.

What bunch are you flying with by the way, the boy scouts?

 

[arjdsm]

Hi Siggi,
Are you sure it's not your system to blame for poor performance? CFS is pretty demanding application and requires a lot of tweaking on lower-end hardware.There were many posts here on low fps and how to fix it. Did you try disabling vertical sync?It worked well for me. You mind telling us your specs and your sliders settings?

 

[rockmedic109]

This is a very graphically demanding game. Far more so than I would've thought.

Do you have a slow GPU or one that has less than 512 of video RAM? I am thinking that the video RAM is getting filled up and forcing the low frame rates. I've read something of this happening but I haven't heard a confirmation on it yet.

 

[Siggi]

My system doesn't lack grunt chaps:

Asus Maximus Formula II mobo
Q6600 OC to 3.2ghz
8800GTX graphics (750+mb RAM)
2gb 1066 Corsair Dominator RAM @ 711mhz for 1:1 ratio
FXi Sound
Corsair 650w PSU

I've tried various tweaks, those posted here and my own. I thought I had it cracked, I've been getting a steady 30FPS 85% of the time, down to around 18FPS when looking at airfields. But always had those sudden mystery low spikes, usually when looking at the front line. I now believe it's been groups of non-own-squadron planes all along that have been causing it, and I'm at a loss to understand why. But I'm conducting tests, which are posted in another thread.

 

[Winder]

My system doesn't lack grunt chaps:

Asus Maximus Formula II mobo
Q6600 OC to 3.2ghz
8800GTX graphics (750+mb RAM)
2gb 1066 Corsair Dominator RAM @ 711mhz for 1:1 ratio
FXi Sound
Corsair 650w PSU

I've tried various tweaks, those posted here and my own. I thought I had it cracked, I've been getting a steady 30FPS 85% of the time, down to around 18FPS when looking at airfields. But always had those sudden mystery low spikes, usually when looking at the front line. I now believe it's been groups of non-own-squadron planes all along that have been causing it, and I'm at a loss to understand why. But I'm conducting tests, which are posted in another thread.

Are you still running Heavy Regional Air Activity?

That will get up to close on 300 planes in the air - Medium will suit better on your rig.

Even on Low you will still run into enemies etc.

WM

 

[Siggi]

Are you still running Heavy Regional Air Activity?

That will get up to close on 300 planes in the air - Medium will suit better on your rig.

Even on Low you will still run into enemies etc.

WM

I'll try it on medium and low. Does that setting affect also the QC combats?

 

[77Scout]

I'll try it on medium and low. Does that setting affect also the QC combats?

I don't see how it could. In QC you specify how many planes are in the air, it isn't up to the computer.

 

[Ultraman]

You're a bit delicate, aren't you. ...

What bunch are you flying with by the way, the boy scouts?

Not delicate, just respectful, no matter how many hours in the air.

And not the boy scouts. They're a bunch of bullies.

Anyway, good luck with this issue.

 

[Siggi]

I don't see how it could. In QC you specify how many planes are in the air, it isn't up to the computer.

I was wondering if it affects the number of ground-units generated.

Medium settings have made no discernable difference in campaign. My FPS are now, in fact, remaining worse than they were before the last mission. Where I was getting a steady 30fps I'm now getting a steady 18fps.

I'm going to check that my CPU hasn't de-OC'ed itself. Panel says it hasn't but who knows, stranger things have happened. Maybe it's speed-stepping itself down during the game.

Clutching at straws now. Don't know why I'm laughing, it's looking like I'm going to have to give this beauty up.

 

[Giant2111]

Siggi, don`t give up! On thing comes to my mind. What about your temperature inside the case, on cpu, and gpu? maybe you generate to much heat, and your system is stepping back?

 

[Siggi]

Siggi, don`t give up! On thing comes to my mind. What about your temperature inside the case, on cpu, and gpu? maybe you generate to much heat, and your system is stepping back?

I have the case on the desk beside me and it blows cool air all the time. I've run Prime95 on it also before and it tops out at 65c. No overheating problem.

I'm wondering if an Intel E8600 might be a better CPU for this game...

 

[Mk2]

Siggi where are your sliders at? As an experiment drop them to 2, the sim should still look pretty good ...try it if you can (at least to see if that helps).


Also what processor are you running?

I also noticed you are OC the Mobo which can lead to heat issues under stress and make your FPS crap.

 

[arjdsm]

Its been said many times here that for CFS dual cpu is better then quad, for its capable of utilizing just 1 core. Now, I,am no expert but just curious if 1 core in quad is less powerful then 1 core in dual cpu...meaning 3 ghz in quad cpu is divided between 4 cores, while 3ghz in dual cpu, between just two...Can somebody explain this?

 

[Siggi]

Siggi where are your sliders at? As an experiment drop them to 2, the sim should still look pretty good ...try it if you can (at least to see if that helps).

I already tried them at 11111 in QC and was alarmed to see the frames at the thirty-ish mark for rather too long. Higher initial FPS and higher spikes (up in the seventies for brief moments), but the frames seemed to gradually grind down the longer the combat went on until they were roughly at where they'd been at 54351.

It's really weird, because it's like something has suddenly changed, right from the moment I had my first campaign combat. Didn't really pay it much attention then, I was concentrating so hard on the bomber, but today it did it again and this time I really noticed it (10fps slideshow on a scout's tail).

And now I'm no longer seeing the overall 30fps steadiness I was getting previously.

The game is a beast, no doubt, but I never regarded this PC as particularly crappy. Now it's looking to me like a POS Atari.

 

[Siggi]

Its been said many times here that for CFS dual cpu is better then quad, for its capable of utilizing just 1 core. Now, I,am no expert but just curious if 1 core in quad is less powerful then 1 core in dual cpu...meaning 3 ghz in quad cpu is divided between 4 cores, while 3ghz in dual cpu, between just two...Can somebody explain this?

CFS3 will use just a single core, of either a Dual-core or quad-core CPU.

Multi-core CPUs were the biggest scam yet foisted upon gamers by Intel. In all their marketing BS they cleverly failed to mention that only those games specifically coded for multi-core CPUs would benefit from them.

Now we know, after millions have bought them.

 

[Polovski]

One thing Siggi your CPU is hugely Overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3.2Ghz.

Check you do not have any CPU throttling enabled when hot CPUs can slow down too (if you do, then I'd lower to a more conservative over clock some to test before turning off any throttling).
Also memory performance can go down when adjusted to cope with those timings (1066 to 711mhz?)

 

[Siggi]

One thing Siggi your CPU is hugely Overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3.2Ghz.

Check you do not have any CPU throttling enabled when hot CPUs can slow down too (if you do, then I'd lower to a more conservative over clock some to test before turning off any throttling).
Also memory performance can go down when adjusted to cope with those timings (1066 to 711mhz?)

Good points Pol, and I've already determined to set everything back to stock and see what happens.

I won't give up on this game until I've tried everything I can. Not had so much fun gaming since RB2-3D.

Sniff.

 

[Gremlin_WoH]

Siggi, to feed that graphics card with data fast enough you need a fast CPU. I have an E8400 3 GHz overclocked to 4.15 GHz on a ASUS Rampage Formula mainboard and my 9800GTX is flying now at 1920x1200 screen resolution. About 40 to 60 FPS. Never falls below 30 FPS. I want to tune the graphics settings a little bit more as I am running 2x Anti-Aliasing and no Anisotropic Filtering. Your 8800GTX should be as fast as my 9800GTX especially yours has 768MB RAM mine 512MB only.

Generally you can overclock dual cores better than quads. Your quad is consuming 125 W and when overclocked that much about 200W as power consumption is non-linear with raising clock speed. If you say it tops out at 65°C in Prime could it be it tops out there because the processor gets constantly throttled and de-throttled such that it just keeps going on the 65°C border?

Also memory data transfer bandwidth and low latency is important. If you have the Maximus Formula II there should be some setting in the BIOS which influences the 'Performance Level' (what it is called on my board's BIOS, may differ on your's).