Screen Size & Resoulation?

[dlawrence1950]

I have become 100% confused about trying to get my game to appear clear and sharp when it come to CFS3 scenery and objects.

I have an old Sony 17" Monitor. My computor is running a Diamond S9250PCI256DDR graphic card and I have been trying to get a better image with my game by playing around with either going with 16 bit or 32 bit settings on display settings along with the screen size resoulations from the following list the game offers.

800x600
1024x768
1152x864
1280x720
1280x768
1280x960
1280x1024


But to no avail regardless what I set them on my scenery appears choppy and blurred especially if I fly down close to the deck. The Railroad tracks become looking like jagged lines with no clear aspects of being a rail line a train could ride on.

I have applied so many different upgrades to the railroad lines that have been offered from other fellow SOH members. Using the install method they state with their downloads, but it makes no difference they all appear the same. 'Blurred'

Maybe it's time for a new LCD Monitor and a new Computor.

Also what is the difference between 'high res dds' and 'low res dds' images in the 'Assests' folder that some downloads require you to place them in?

Any insight from others sure would be appreciated on my part!!!

:isadizzy:

[hairyspin]

Before remortgaging the cat for a hot new rig, I've never seen a railway track in CFS3 that looked realistic close up - it isn't worth the processor load. My last rig could drive the monitor at 1280x1024, but it wasn't worth it because the monitor couldn't keep up with the card - it flickered/shimmered at 60Hz at best. Ran fine at 1024x768, 32-bit colour.

If you press Z in the game you'll get a load of figures in the top left of the screen - one of these will be a FPS (frames per second) figure and if it's hitting single figures then the cat will just have to be hocked... 30fps or better, especially down near the deck, is much more useful. You can also play with the display quality settings in the game to see how you get on - turn clouds down to 2 or 1 for starters.

Aircraft textures - the paintwork, insignia etc - are conventionally made on a special bitmap sized 1024x1024. CFS3 is capable of using high-res 2048x2048 textures, but depend on a more powerful machine than the base spec. Practically any decent machine from the last few years should be up to displaying high-res textures, unless it's El Cheapo.

[dlawrence1950]

I have tried everything to get my FPS above 20 but to no avail.

In the 'Display Options' I have changed everything almost to the lowest settings and still my frames per second will hover around 15 to 18.

This is how they are set now:

Colors: Thousands (16bit)
Resolution Size: 1024x768

Image Quality Settings Aircraft Detail: 1
Terrain Detail: 3
Scenery Detail: 3
Effects Quality: 3
Clouds Quality: 1

Shadows: Unchecked
Reflections: Unchecked
Terrain & Scenery Lighting: Unchecked

And it will still at times get a choppy screen flow. Simiular to when you watch a DVD movie and it will stutter or stop, when your movie disc is either dirty or has scratches on it.

Does this problem comes from a slow graphic card, a slow computor, or an out of date Monitor. My Monitor is an CRT type that is over tens year old.
My computor is a Gateway that is about eight years old.

So how do I determine what 'needs to be updated?'

:confused: :isadizzy:

[willy spaten]

Hi dlawrence1950,

For your computer, you might check the manufacturer's website to determine if/ how the PC can be upgraded...such as addition of more RAM, etc..
in the meanwhile, try this:

set your overall Image Quality: 2

Aircraft detail: 3
Terrain Detail: 3
Scenery Detail: 1
Effects Quality: 1
Clouds Quality: 1

If you still get stuttering with the 3's, move them to 2's,

Keep the shadows, scenery lighting etc 'unchecked'..

If you have other programs or internet page(s) open at the time you are playing, close them.

[Bravo/4]

What are your CFS3 config sliders set at?

Sorry didn't read all of your post, the lower the sliders are, the less detail you will get, you can mess with your resolution all day, but if the sliders are set low you'll get jagged textures!

If your getting stutters with your sliders set so low, looks like your Card/PC can't handle it, CFS3 is a RAM hog!
CRT monitor should be fine, up until recently I was running one for years, they are actually slighty better regards colour reproduction!

John

[hairyspin]

At about 8 years old, your machine probably is a Pentium III or one of the very earliest Pentium IVs if you spent a lot on it, and likely came with the Muppet Edition of Windows. :monkies: The bottleneck in your system is the system itself, sorry! CFS3 was released in late 2002 and could strain a good machine even then.

The computer owes you nothing if you've run it since new, but don't look for upgrades - it isn't worth it at that age even if you could find any. New (or newer) rig, I'm afraid.

And if your monitor has given eleven years' service, it deserves a long service medal! :salute: :medals: If you go for it, you'll love the new LCD ones!

[dlawrence1950]

Even though I stated in the second post to my Thread that my Rig was about eight years old, but it isn't. I appologize for my incorrect post on this unit.

My Rig is a 2005 Gateway 835GM Windows XP Media Edition.

Here are the following specs for the system.

'dual-core processing running 2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2x1 MB L2 cache'
'Intel 945 Chipset' 'Intel Graphics Accelerator 950'
'250GB Sata Hardrive'
'1024MB DDR2 Dual Channel Memory'

Like I stated in my thread I replaced the original graphics chipset with a Diamond S9250 PCI 256DDR Graphic Card and then updated it to the most recent drivers for the card at the time I installed it back in 2005.

Do I need to update my Graphics card or replace it with a more powerful one with more DDR2 memory or install more DDR2 system memory. Which I want to say at this time it can handle double the amount it came with. If I am not mistaken about what it is able to handle.

Also by chance could it be that I have installed so many addons and made alot of modifications to the game itself that now my Rig can no longer handle all of mods?

When I play the MAW addon I can get a steady 25FPS to almost 30FPS during normal flight without alot of combat action.

I have been wanting a new system just for Gaming with all the latest bells and whistles, but without having to give up Windows XP, because it has been such a stable operating system for me versus Windows 95 or 98SE.

Plus I have heard that Windows Vista has too many quirks about it to my liking. I'm not sure how CFS3 plays on the new Windows 7 format?

:monkies: :isadizzy:

[crashalot2]

Get more system memory and maybe a better video card .There was a cfs3 tweak guide here on sim outhouse that made a big improvment it my old P3 800mh .

[hairyspin]

That's better than a Pentium III! Definitely get more memory if the motherboard can handle it. It would be nice to get a better PCIe video card too, better replacements are not too hard to come by, but watch out for your power supply, you've only got 300W there.

Anyway, more memory would make a difference!

[hairyspin]

Is this your rig?

http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/5022/5022nv.shtml (http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/5022/5022nv.shtml)

You can stuff up to 4GB of RAM in there, should you wish! And Windows 7 runs CFS3 just fine - I should know!

[Henry]

You should not have a problem with that system
i have run cfs3 on a lot worse
1024X768 @ 32 bit
what is your config set to?
H

[dlawrence1950]

I have made sure that all back ground progams have bee turned off and even turned off my modem for my DSL connection to the net.

This is how I have my game configed now: in the CFS3 Display Options; Image Quality

Overall Image Quality: 1
Aircraft Detail: 1
Terrain Detail: 1
Scenery Detail: 1
Effects Quality: 1
Clouds Quality: 1

And it will still not get above 20FPS during free flight with Clear skies over land but when I fly over water it will go up to around 23FPS as long as I do not engage in any Combat action.

My only options are to either revert back to a completely stock CFS3 game with no mods or addons what so ever or invest in more system RAM memory plus install a more powerful PCI Video Card like 'hairyspin' suggested along with a bigger power supply unit for it.

Thanks for all of the feed back and suggestions from fellow SOH members.

One last thing what DOES CFS3 uses up the most system memory or video card memory?

:ernae: :icon_lol:

[Daiwilletti]

Hi dlawrence1950,
I think Henry is on to it: when you run cfsconfig.exe, what are the settings? I think you have only given the slider settings so far. CFS3 is very sensitive to the config settings. For example, with some systems, it is very important to have Dual Pass Render unchecked.

One clue you've given is that MAW runs over 20FPS. Does MAW install with config already set? If so, you could do worse that copying your config settings from MAW into your other CFS3 install. I don't have the files in front of me, but you can compare the files under your Application Data pathway (if you are using XP) - is it configoverrides.xml? Compare the MAW file with the problematic instal you are having trouble with.

HTH,

D