Getting the game to run well on my hardware?

[realitycheck]

First an aside question - whenever i try to log in an account for bf2 or any mod, it takes a minute or more to actually connect to the server to log in. Why does it take so long and is there any way to speed this up or is it the same for everyone?

Now, on to the performance issues with project reality.
My computer is reasonably old, i have:
Asus k8n motherboard
radeon x1950 pro AGP 512MB graphics card
amd 64 3200+ processor
1.5 GB ram (3 512 ddr dimms i think?)
xfi extreme gamer sound card

Now, i can run battlefield 2 on full settings and it works fine, even with anti-aliasing on 6 samples. (It's also strange that anisotropic filtering can not be run higher on bf2, nor can adaptive anti-aliasing be used (for partially transparent textures - grass, fences etc) as these would help the graphical quality a lot. I think someone managed to force them to work but i don't know how).

The problem comes when i try to play project reality. The game stutters a lot, but not in a consistent way, as it has the ability to be smooth sometimes i just don't know how to unlock it. It really is not playable in this state. I tried turning down the settings to medium for everything and 2x aa but even this didn't help that much.

For some reason it seems worse around buildings where as you would expect that it would be a lot better there as the game has a lot less to render.

The thing is, especially on medium (and even on high) i cannot see what is so graphically demanding that causes my computer not to cope with it. Especially considering it can run battlefield 2 without problems.
Also the performance issues seem to happen in a way that makes it seem like it is a problem with the battlefield 2 engine more than anything, and that somehow the battlefield 2 map designers were able to optimise and work around this where modders cannot?

I don't know, but considering how it takes ages and ages whenever i change settings in order to test them out (when optimising the shaders) then i guess it would be better to seek your help rather than stumbling around in the dark.
I don't know what to turn down that will make the game look less degraded but still help performance.

It is also very annoying how changing the settings for a mod effects the same graphical settings for all mods / the stock game.

Even forgotten hope 2 has problems. For this mod though, it is in general a lot better - can be run on max and only goes mad for some seconds after loading and then perhaps near certain areas with buildings on certain maps / with second pauses now and then but otherwise smooth and fine.

So yes, overall i really don't understand the performance issues i am having.

Oh also, if ever i alt tab out and then go back to the game, the screen goes black and i have to end task the game. I got the bf2 1.50 dx9 dll thing hotfix for that but it hasn't seemed to help.

Thanks for your time.

[Pedz]

For the logging in issue:
Delete all the servers from your favourites. This is because when you connect to an online account in BF2 or PR, it will automatically ping the servers in your favourites. If you have any servers in there that are not in use any more (highly likely) the ping will wait until time-out occurs (which is quite a while).

Also PR is a LOT more intensive than VBF2, This is due to non-optimised models and textures, and also larger map sizes. A lot more open buildings cause some extra lagg too, as a lot of the building in PR are open for you to enter. This means more polygons to make these causing more lagg.

The game is very dependant on the CPU, that's a problem with DX9 games across the board when it comes to modding, it means that there isn't as much of the game being given to the GPU to compute.

The best thing to do, is to shove it all on LOW.

I had a q6600 and 8800GTX and that was the best i could get out of it without CTD's and lower than a nice FPS constantly.

Now i have an i7-2600k OC'd to 4.5Ghz and 2x 570GTX, and I still dont get 100fps constantly, there are areas that drop it down to 30fps.

Another thing you can try is deleting the cache for the textures + levels, to do this:
Go to Mydocs> BF2>mods>bf2>cache
and delete the folders in there.

[realitycheck]

Ah okay the deleting favourites helped, although it took a very long time haha. Is there a file i can delete another time to speed it up (as in game, you cannot multi-select servers to delete i don't think, and also it pings them when you select - so if they are dead it can take a long time).

It is rather stupid how it pings your favourites when you long in though. Like you say, it kind of makes them worthless and better not to have any.



In terms of the rest, it's really odd how the performance can be bad, even for people with good new computers. Is the engine really that bad?
Still, i hope i can get it running smooth without having to put too much into horrid settings. At least my graphics card should manage high res textures since it has 512MB.

Are there any settings i kind of wouldn't want to turn down, due to not being able to see distant enemies?

Also, if people have terrain set to low, does this mean they can easily see you in bushes and things, since the game now doubt draws much less of them? as wouldn't that make it somewhat a cheat? :S

Thanks

[Pedz]

It's not the gpu that matters for textures in this game, as I said earlier it is very CPU intensive, it used RAM for textures and the CPU from what I can see... but yes the engine was not made for these high quality models and textures (and amount of textures).

The main setting not to turn down is view distance, ghastly should be at 100%. But draw distance is the same for everyone on all settings, the only small cheats are shadows that sometimes appear through walls or undo floors giving away your position if the enemy have shadows on...

But definitely try it on low, the only map I found looked awful was operation archer, where low textures makes the floor look really bad...

But yes the draw distance is another reason why these mods take more power, they are a lot further than the original BF2, and hence have to render more parts polygons etc..

[realitycheck]

Hmm i just meant the graphic's cards own ram for textures, and as mine is 512, that seems reasonable to keep them on high.

I am guessing it is a ram issue (and possibly slight cpu) in that it tends to have problems in larger maps / those with lots of houses. Skirmish ones seem okay with everything on max.

So yes, it's a shame that it almost runs on max but not quite.

Maybe terrain and geometry settings will help the most if it is a "lots of objects to load into not enough ram" issue?
I heard there was a big memory leak so maybe it is something to do with that? I mean, the maps were pretty big in the original too, so it's a bit confusing.


Is there any file to edit / delete in the profile that contains favourites so it can be done outside the game?

Oh also, the stuff you get with the kits seems a bit different to previous versions. And for some reason patches do not show up in the inventory list so i did not realise i still was issued with one until someone told me. A bit strange, as in coop/singleplayer, the kits seem to be similar to how i remember them?

Thanks for your help

[Pedz]

Hmm i just meant the graphic's cards own ram for textures, and as mine is 512, that seems reasonable to keep them on high.



Is there any file to edit / delete in the profile that contains favourites so it can be done outside the game?

Oh also, the stuff you get with the kits seems a bit different to previous versions. And for some reason patches do not show up in the inventory list so i did not realise i still was issued with one until someone told me. A bit strange, as in coop/singleplayer, the kits seem to be similar to how i remember them?

Thanks for your help

The problem is the textures dont get sent to the GPUs ram I believe .

I can't seem to find one unfortunately, but aslong as you delete it every few weeks or so, not many servers tend to go down...

Yes the kits in MP are different because you have to request them off crates/APCS, this is because the AI can't cope with requesting kits , so to make it simple on them, it seems like the devs worked around it by adding them as selectable.

[realitycheck]

Ok thanks.

I can play with textures on high and with filtering high / 6 AA but everything else on medium.

The only problem seems to come if i try to play on american servers or ones which are experiencing heavy load.

For example, on american ones, when i run, it can go kind of crazy, with the gun moving about all over the place and all players running sounds being repeated a lot, almost like they are tap-dancing.
This can happen at a server where my ping is listed as over 100. There can also be freezes / jitters due to this and in general it becomes hard to control.
I assume this is a lag issue rather than a performance one.

Is there anything i can do about this? altering any config files concerning interpolation or anything? And is it lag? Cos it would seem it but i can't be sure.
At the moment, it becomes nigh-on unplayable when that happens - however i see other people playing with those pings so i wonder whether they have a better connection or have done something to fix the issue.

Oh also, when i try to type in text on these servers, it can miss out characters that i have typed too, so that i have to go back and correct them - why on earth is this effected by lag? Seems rather strange?

In european servers that have load issues / lag spikes, it doesn't actually list my ping as increasing in this time, but other people report the issue too.

Thanks for your help.