Project Reality Forums

Just wondering if anything is being done about the performance of PR getting worse. This is frustrating since I used to play and have no real issues whereas now I get lag when in the presence of enemies on some maps right when I don't need lag, or rubberbanding. Plus there are a lot more crashes and worst of all CTDs. Those of you who are also having these issues please speak up, I just hope that the devs care about this. thanks.

Yes, I do have a much lower FPS then I did pre-1.0. This has been an issue since the release that was trying to be fixed, but I don't think there is an answer. There are a lot more things in 1.0 that slow things up. Lucky for me it is still playable until I decide to upgrade.

I am new to PR and I've been playing for the past 2 months.

I am running PR on a 4 yr old laptop. It has Intel C2D 2.2Ghz with 4GB DDR2 Ram and a dedicated ATI mobile graphics chipset. I thought it would be enough for PR but I mistook PR to behave like vanilla BF2.

I also felt that PR to be much more stable on 1.20.

I am now having a lot of performance issues on 1.2.1.0. Especially, graphics glitches on maps such as Khamisiyah, Burning Sands and Vadso City. Half Invisible/Clipped buildings and trees and screen freeze when I use scopes or other zooming materials and almost near to zero fps and certain locations of the maps. Numerous CTDs on different occasions, both ingame and on loading screens.

I hope the DEVs take notice of this sudden instability with 1.2.1.0 as many have reported. I don't want mods like these to die. I wish I had discovered PR much sooner.

My guess seeing that your running PR on a laptop, your having gfx glitches, its summer and your profile says your from Pakistan, most of your problems are most likley from your laptop overheating which will not only harm your FPS but will cause many gfx glitches and can seriously damage your computer.

Might be worth looking at getting a laptop cooler at the very least.

I think PR Specs are pretty special.
As we all now it's not optimised for quad so a fast core 2 duo like an OCed E7XXX or E8XXX is going to be more than sufficient.
As concerns the GPU it gets more complicated as it SEEMS not to like the newer nvidia 7XX cards but where PR is a direct X9 game the optimum seems a nvidia 5XX card above 560.
RAM seems useful only up to 4 from watching use in game.

We all do have a penalty with the smoke, fires and higher playcount since V1, but using second-hand parts if needed a reasonable price/fps seems obtainable. The problem seems more with portables as post V1's demands seem higher than all but the very best gaming laptops and even then you'll run into issues with newer cards.

I am just building a PR only computer from bits using any old 775 mobo, a 30 USD E8500 and a 150 USD Gtx 560 ti, I'm planning to try older BF2 era drivers to see if they work better.

One question I have is what takes the strain for the problem areas in PR V1, namely smoke, fire and close action, CPU or as I suspect GPU?

I firmly believe a recommended spec page is needed on downloads page as many people expect it to be the the same as VBF2 which it clearly isn't.

OT check temps using piriform and all laptops must be cleaned or else expensive death will occur. I use a c2d portable with 4GB and a 9600MGT and its too slow since v1 or 1.2.

PLODDITHANLEY wrote:One question I have is what takes the strain for the problem areas in PR V1, namely smoke, fire and close action, CPU or as I suspect GPU?

A decent CPU is the main thing needed to process the effects and draw calls which is the main problem most people have with PR. If your CPU gets throttled with an overwhelming amount draw calls like on maps like Fallujah, then it can't tell the GFX card what it needs to process and as such, the GFX card just has to sit back and wait twiddling its thumbs until the next order comes in so having a super decent GFX card in those instances isn't going to help if there is a bottleneck at your CPU.

I have an Intel i7-2600K CPU running at 3.4GHz but yet I only have a 5yr old GTX 260 Graphics Card and yet, with that combination I can play PR maxed out without any issues on any map or any situation.

This is most likley mainly down to my CPU but may also be that newer GFX cards simply struggle with the old BF2 engine but I have no proof to back that up with, just a hunch based on many peoples problems.

So it seems like an older but high spec card combined with a fast CPU either dual or quad should be able to keep things happy.
I too agree with your hunch about newer cards but no hard evidence.
Those new Pentiums are cheap too.

No performance issues. But I'm getting a lot of CTD's and disconnects since v1.2.1.0, whereas in v1.2.0.0 those problems seemed to have been fixed for me (just the other day I got disconnected from a server 3 times in just under 2 minutes). Also, my mate's PR takes like 5 minutes to load up, during those 5 minutes, according to the task manager, the exe "stopped working". He also gets a lot of lag (laptop).

'[R-DEV wrote:Rhino;2028815']My guess seeing that your running PR on a laptop, your having gfx glitches, its summer and your profile says your from Pakistan, most of your problems are most likley from your laptop overheating which will not only harm your FPS but will cause many gfx glitches and can seriously damage your computer.

Might be worth looking at getting a laptop cooler at the very least.

Dude, you are spot on with the heating issues!!!

The location at where I live has 40 degrees Celsius on average in summer, also spiking up to 48 degree Celsius whenever it gets the chance. Hence, I completely agree with you with certain parts of the laptop overheating and the performance degrading. But then, this laptop isn't even meant for hardcore gaming.

Anyways, I plan to build myself a decent budget dedicated computer (joining the PC master race). I plan to get the AMD FX 6300 or i5 i4670k/i3570k with an eVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti or GTX 760. I plan to overclock the CPU. I have yet to decide on a motherboard and ram.

I have heard/read a lot that AMD processors fall short in core to core performance against Intel processors but shine at heavily multi-threaded applications and PRBF2 isn't optimized to utilize multiple cores. However, if I get the AMD FX 6300 and overclock it to say 4.5 GHz with a decent cooling system.

Will it be enough for PRBF2 for it play/run smoothly throughout? Anybody has any experience with this?

Have I mentioned anywhere that this mod awesome and two months in and I am addicted already. Thanks guys.

I just hate the CTDs I never had this issue in 1.0 till now really a pain in the butt when your flying. I was carrying a full squad one day and was flying high like 500+ feet on Khamisiyah then I suddenly crash mumble was still running and I can hear the guys on local yelling as they fell to the ground.

uzipaz wrote:Dude, you are spot on with the heating issues!!!

The location at where I live has 40 degrees Celsius on average in summer, also spiking up to 48 degree Celsius whenever it gets the chance. Hence, I completely agree with you with certain parts of the laptop overheating and the performance degrading. But then, this laptop isn't even meant for hardcore gaming.

Anyways, I plan to build myself a decent budget dedicated computer (joining the PC master race). I plan to get the AMD FX 6300 or i5 i4670k/i3570k with an eVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti or GTX 760. I plan to overclock the CPU. I have yet to decide on a motherboard and ram.

I have heard/read a lot that AMD processors fall short in core to core performance against Intel processors but shine at heavily multi-threaded applications and PRBF2 isn't optimized to utilize multiple cores. However, if I get the AMD FX 6300 and overclock it to say 4.5 GHz with a decent cooling system.

Will it be enough for PRBF2 for it play/run smoothly throughout? Anybody has any experience with this?

Have I mentioned anywhere that this mod awesome and two months in and I am addicted already. Thanks guys.

K series i5 for 750ti and 760 is a bit overkill.

If you want good singlecore performance(and plays just fine in just about every game), do what I did and buy a Pentium g3258.
Mine runs(overclocked, obviously) at 4.5ghz and keeps 60+fps on every map I tried; that's with stock cooler(with a better cooler it can go stable easily to 4.7 or above depending on your luck).
I'm running on r9 280x so the only possible bottleneck is the cpu.

You have option to upgrade to i5/i7 later.

PLODDITHANLEY and others.

Let me drop some knowledge:

It's very important to unpark your cores when using older CPUs , for Intel, LGA775 C2D and newer. Doe AMD, anything newer than Phenom II, not including Phenom II.

1. defrag your hard drive. the PR and addons installers tend to get fragmented, which slows down read/writes and slows down fps.
2A. Download and install IOBit Gamebooster3. Sorry
MajorGeeks.com has a decent video tutorial on using this program:
Using IOBit Game Booster 3 by Majorgeeks.com - YouTube


2B. Read through these guides:
Windows 8 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs ─ Sean's Windows 8 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs
Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs - Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs
Windows 8, 7 , Vista, and XP Tweakguides from Tweakguides.com TweakGuides.com - The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion

3. Download Bitsum ProcessLasso Free. Make sure you download the correct version, Free 32 bit or Free 64 bit, http://bitsum.com/prolasso.php
-- Start PR, alt tab to desktop, open ProcessLAsso window, right click on PR.exe, TR.exe, BF2.exe, PRMumble.exe and pnkbstra.exe and pnkbstrB.exe and give them default priority status of High, set the Tr PR and BF2 to gaming mode, and give them high or higher access to RAM.
4. Determine which OS you have, and if it is 32 bit or 64 bit. Once you are 100% certain you know , follow this guide for your OS:
PR:BF2 Support - Project Reality Forums

5. Check your Page File, if set to a sliding value, I suggest
deleting pagefile.
rebooting.
resetting pagefile manually to a single minimum/maximum.
Here is the raw information to determine your correct pagefile: How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows
And here is a video tutorial to figure out your correct pagefile size:

then optionally:
manually setting it to a single minimum/maximum, and getting a defrag progam that will move the pagefile to the beginning of your hard drive. A free option:FAQ Special files - How do I defragment "C:\pagefile.sys" (the swapfile)?

--------------------------------------------------------------


Another option is somewhat automated:

2. Download Razer gamebooster. Razer Game Booster Performance Boosting & Screencapture Software - Razer United States
Manually sort through and shut down as many background processes as possible when you use the Gamebooster Boost.
Manually Add PRLauncher E:\Battlefield 2\mods\pr\bin\PRLauncher.exe as a Game.
Installing GameBooster adds a new Power Plan to the Windows Power Management, it's called "Razer Game Booster Power Plan"

Make sure Gamebooster is running in the background , for the next part:

1. download bitsum processlasso free 64 bit . https://bitsum.com/processlasso/
install it. run it.
start PR, join a server.
alt tab out, Processlasso is in the taskbar, open it.
Right click on PRBF2.exe , set to Gaming Mode
Right click on PRLauncher.exe , set to Gaming Mode
explanation: https://bitsum.com/docs/pl/Gaming%20mode/

In ProcessLasso->Options->Configure Application Power Profiles
Add PRBF2.exe to the Razer Game Booster Power Plan
Add PRLauncher.exe to the Razer Game Booster Power Plan
Save your changes.

I can also offer this:
You can unpark the Cores of the i7-4700HQ, but PLEASE BE CAREFUL OF THE TEMPS.
In ProcessLasso->Options->Configure CPU Core parking

Then do this:
1. Pick Razer Game Booster Power Plan
2. On AC : Disabled
3. On AC Move slider all the way to right
4. On Battery : Enabled
5. On Battery : (This is up to you, you can slide to 10% to 25% to 50% , it will slow down your PC, but extend battery life, the lower the slider, the slower and less energy consumed)
6. Tick the "Show Parked Settings in Power Options" tickbox
7. CLICK APPLY

uzipaz wrote:Dude, you are spot on with the heating issues!!!

The location at where I live has 40 degrees Celsius on average in summer, also spiking up to 48 degree Celsius whenever it gets the chance. Hence, I completely agree with you with certain parts of the laptop overheating and the performance degrading. But then, this laptop isn't even meant for hardcore gaming.

Anyways, I plan to build myself a decent budget dedicated computer (joining the PC master race). I plan to get the AMD FX 6300 or i5 i4670k/i3570k with an eVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti or GTX 760. I plan to overclock the CPU. I have yet to decide on a motherboard and ram.

I have heard/read a lot that AMD processors fall short in core to core performance against Intel processors but shine at heavily multi-threaded applications and PRBF2 isn't optimized to utilize multiple cores. However, if I get the AMD FX 6300 and overclock it to say 4.5 GHz with a decent cooling system.

Will it be enough for PRBF2 for it play/run smoothly throughout? Anybody has any experience with this?

Have I mentioned anywhere that this mod awesome and two months in and I am addicted already. Thanks guys.

An FX 6300 overclocked to 4.8Ghz will beat out a stock 3570k when it comes to almost any programs that's fairly threaded(uses more than 1 or 2 cores). Except for gaming. Gaming requires each core to be very strong. And at stock, 1 core of a 3570k, is more powerful that an FX 6300 core overclocked to 4.8Ghz. There may not be much of a difference at this point but the 3570k will still be a little stronger in my opinion.

With the coolermaster hyper evo 212, you can get the FX6300 up to around 4.4Ghz, and sometimes up to 4.8Ghz if you happen to get a good chip, which will outperform the i3-4330 in all tasks.

SO... depends on what games you play.
IN most cases, the i3-4330 is the better long term choice over the FX6300. The i5-3570k is the best of the three,.

read this:
[Discussion] FX-6300 vs i3-4330 (Haswell) with HT : buildapc

-------

Personally I run a i5-3570k at 4.5Ghz and PR runs at 100fps about 97% of the time. Never falls below 78fps.

After your advice I downloaded and tried razor gamebooster and process lasso, and for the first time in ages I had two black screen lock ups, since I have removed razor no more have occurred.
So I am a little wary and every where I read says you only get tiny improvements with it, however I have the habit of shutting down processes manually, after all these years of a low spec machine I am quite a master with knowing what they all are in the active processes list.

PLODDITHANLEY wrote:After your advice I downloaded and tried razor gamebooster and process lasso, and for the first time in ages I had two black screen lock ups, since I have removed razor no more have occurred.
So I am a little wary and every where I read says you only get tiny improvements with it, however I have the habit of shutting down processes manually, after all these years of a low spec machine I am quite a master with knowing what they all are in the active processes list.

Try manually enable gamebooster's "boost" without letting it add overlay to your game.

Afterwards I find it working nicely with sweetfx and a bunch of forced gpu settings.

Passmark Results

AMD FX 6300
PassMark - AMD FX-6300 Six-Core - Price performance comparison

Single Thread Rating: 1411

Intel Core i3-4150

PassMark - Intel Core i3-4150 @ 3.50GHz - Price performance comparison

Single Thread Rating: 2066


The AMD though is better for Games that use more than 4 cores, but that is just a very few at the moment, like BF4 and Crysis 3. And the AMD has a TDP of 95W vs 53W for the Intel. If you just want to play PR you could even buy a cheap Intel Celeron G1840 and that would still be faster in PR than the AMD FX 6300.

BTW I had a Phenom II X4 965 before, now I have the i3-4150 and noticeable better performance in PR.

Barbrady wrote:Passmark Results

AMD FX 6300
PassMark - AMD FX-6300 Six-Core - Price performance comparison

Single Thread Rating: 1411

Intel Core i3-4150

PassMark - Intel Core i3-4150 @ 3.50GHz - Price performance comparison

Single Thread Rating: 2066


The AMD though is better for Games that use more than 4 cores, but that is just a very few at the moment, like BF4 and Crysis 3. And the AMD has a TDP of 95W vs 53W for the Intel. If you just want to play PR you could even buy a cheap Intel Celeron G1840 and that would still be faster in PR than the AMD FX 6300.

BTW I had a Phenom II X4 965 before, now I have the i3-4150 and noticeable better performance in PR.

With how much fps I'm getting in BF4(Ultra, no stupid fxaa, x4 msaa, 1080p, 100% scaling) ~50-80 average depending on map. With pentium g3258 at merely 4.5ghz overclock.
6 cores isn't really worth the trade off.