capping your fps.........

([=O=]SMYLER) #1

whats the advantage to performance and did I hear right ping as well ?

On my AMD XP 3000+, 1 GB DDR, 128MB GF4 Ti4600 I get from 40ish (INTENSE action outside with rain and snow etc) to 250ish (staring at a wall like a psychotic goth). I have now set the upper limit to 85 and am just about to try it out to see if there is a difference but I would very much appreciate someone whos’ knowledge of such matters would give me some words of enlightenment as I have a feeling I won’t notice any difference apart from the fps in the top right not going above 85 (but I could well be wrong).

Thanks people.

(Karin) #2

fps depends on many issues,from console commands/settings of the game,to connection.
there has been another similar thread about fps check it out also.

FYI, i got 2600+,gfti4200 and i get from 40-50 outside to 125( maxfps 125 for me).When i make a server and play at home alone, i dont drop below 100 fps at 1024@16 bit.

but when i play online lag makes fps really bad (isdn 64k) and its like the machine is crawling sometimes…fps is somewhat connection/lag dependant.I d suggest to find a suitable server to play that hasnt got much lag or packet-loss and i m sure you can see much difference.

as for some settings you can use mid-low details for graphics options,set colour to 16 bit etc…and set your maxfps to somewhat 125 or something
/com_maxfps 125
you could try the cg_lowatmoshericeffects 1 also (eh not so sure if this is the correct command but it doesnt really matter tbh…->>),but usually pb overrides this command and enforces its own will :disgust:

hope it helped a bit :drink:

(Domipheus) #3

What some people dont understand, that online, there are other players zooming about, and these players are very fps-eating.

I dont know what the poly count of the player models are, but of 2 are in your screen online, moving, with thier gun out, that is alot more stuff the engine has to draw and so the fps is lowered. now, if these 2 guys now go and fight 2 enemies, thats 4 players on the screen, guns out, and im sure there may be some grenades/airstrikes/panzers going places - more stuff to draw.

When playing offline, you are jsut seeign the map really, no other players are around to draw, and hence the engine has not as much work to do.

the command your looking for is cg_atmosphericeffects 0

(Jack) #4

I keep mine capped at 74, have done this since original RtCW for crate jumping reasons (game physics…long story), but it works great with ET.

Now my range stays between 74-60, the lowest I have seen was maybe mid 40’s in intense FFs.

Specs:
P4 2.5
MSI gf4 4600/128
1024 DDR 2700
ASUS P4PE GBL
SB Audigy 2
Win XP PRO
Videocard set at 4x/32bit, 1024x768 (75hz), games looks beautiful.

Atmospheric effect had no effect on my system, so I leave them on, besides if others have to look through the snow and rain, I feel that I should have to also.

-j

([=O=]SMYLER) #5

Well I’ve just come back from an hour or so in the game and didn’t notice anything :???:

(Ifurita) #6

http://ucguides.savagehelp.com/Quake3/FAQFPSJumps.html

([=O=]SMYLER) #7

Well with doing a quick scan of that all capping fps does is let you jump further and higher more easily, is that it/all ?

(Freedom[]Tickler) #8

There was a PB issue w/ maxfps causing lag, setting it to 60 or so mitigated lag noticably. I assume this was fixed, but still have mine at 60. Im gonna change it to 74, never heard of this before … I thought q3 125 issue was last I was gonna hear of FPS affecting ingame jumping/speed … hrm : )

FPS is a client side only affair that shld not affect net performance - lag/PL etc (except PB issue noted above)

The original issue in q3 was anyone who could sustain 125 fps or higher had advantage in straffe jumping and jumping distance. This was unfair in that a p3/amd 1 gig and geforce 1 DDR was required to sustain that kinda FPS, not burst up to it, and the P3/amd 1 gig cost $1000.00 when they became available for sale, and the g1 DDR was about $300+ - boku $$, clearly class warfare had entered the arena : ) Alot of q3ers were cappin at 125 and tweaking the shit outta their CFG to squeeze every frame possible. this was first remedied by the 125 mhz mod in OSP/q3comp and then in the 1.25 point release for q3.

I use same CFG as I did in RTCW w/ fps capped at 300, because I wanted to seee highest frames achievable, but had to change it in ET due to PB update of june 19, when I was mysteriously lagged out of every server despite ping and tracert showing low latency and hop counts. Infact it was Ifurita who posted link to the solution - YOU STILL ROCK Ify !!

(Ifurita) #9

ummmmm … yes, unless you consider the speed advantage to be very significant :slight_smile:

(bogs) #10

I could be wrong 'cause I’ve been known to be way off in the past… but…

I thought since the 1.25 patch of q3, client “frames” were no longer used to calculate your movement, it’s now done ONLY based on the number of snapshots you receive from the server. So a server running sv_fps 20 (like most do), your motion is only going to be calculated at most 20 times / sec. And I’m guessing for antilag to work properly it would have to be done this way?

Please correct me if this info is wrong.

(colic) #11

I have to say connection type does effect your FPS. For example on normal rtcw I have used a normal config and a tweaked config. Both of these I get the same FPS when no one is on the server or I make my own.

On maps like Tram inside the castle my fps are good 76 capped I step outside and expectadly they go down. Worse thing is though my ping goes from around 75 to over 200! Simply because of the FPS! I step back inside and im fine.

Same thing happens with ET as well and with all the maps being based outside it makes the game unplayable.

I get the same FPS on 600 * 480 as I do on 1280 x 768 though which is annoying, so I dont play ET much at all.

One thing last night I noticed on WTV last night I was using a standard config and quite high detail. My FPS never went below 76. Yet with my modded lower detail config when im on a person with 12 people then my fps tend to be around 45-50 :frowning:

(SCDS_reyalP) #12

Pretty much just so you can jump a little bit better. This certainly DOES work in RTCW. For example, getting on the crate behind the AA gun on depot can be done every time at 76 FPS, where people at other frame rates just can’t do it. I have not verified that this is true in ET, but most likely it is.

I’ve always felt that having a steady FPS gives a smoother experience, but that is pretty subjective.

One of the upset chaps pages also mentions that your com_maxfps should be evenly divisable by your cl_maxpackets. I don’t know enough about this to be sure that it is true, but it makes a certain amount of sense.

(kotkis) #13

Also capped fps of 43 gives you higher jumps.

(Lekdevil.NL) #14

This behaviour can be obtained in ET (and in RtCW) when the server is configured with pmove_fixed 1. This will give all clients identical movement physics (as if everybody is showing 125 fps). However, almost no server is using this setting, unfortunately. So, for most of the servers out there, setting your com_maxfps does affect your moving/jumping in the game.

(Snowman) #15

Can someone tell me what the ideal com_maxfps setting is?

I have the attention span of a two year old I can’t read that whole thing.

I saw this…

Matching our conditions with the table, we predict that the best frame rates would be about 29, 41, 83, 92, 120, 140, and 170. Notice that these numbers are very near the values that people have found experimentally. This match between theory and experience lends credence to the model used. …

But someone said they were using 76.

?

(kyleb) #16

com_maxfps 80 works great for me. any easy way to figure it out is simply by starting up a game of goldrush and there is four little boxes grouped together and three more stacked on top right near the tank starts. go there and try to hop directly onto one of the top boxs. if it doesnt work, try a different setting.

(Dawg) #17

The point of the article is that there is NO ideal cap. It depends upon how high an FPS you can achieve on a regular basis. If you can get a rediculously high FPS regularly, then you would benefit from setting your max FPS at 140 or 170. But if you never manage to get anything better than an FPS of 95 (for sake of discussion), then you are not going to benefit from a cap of 140. You want to select a cap that will be applied when you are trying to make a jump. For most people, its more realistic to cap at 41, 83, or 92.

Play around with it and see what works best for you and your machine.

Dawg

p.s. of course, I could have read the whole thing wrong. Its been a while since I read it completely.

(Mat L) #18

Here is the definitive study of FPS & Physics in Q3 as originally penned by Coriolis over at Quake3World.
It’s incredibly in-depth, but at the same time very informative.

([=O=]SMYLER) #19

Well after a night of play, I’m going to ignore all the technical stuff above and tell of my experiences and put them simply :

  1. Didn’t notice any difference in gameplay but think I got a few more kills from a more constant fps rate.

  2. Never tried any jumping stuff so no idea.

  3. Ping wasn’t affected at all (sure I read there is a graphical tweak to raise it, or one of the lads in the clan did it for regular wolfy although it will prob make the game look like shite).

  4. It took a load of the GF4 Ti4600 which I think overheats once in a while and causes a reboot, this no longer occurs.

  5. I think I’ll stick with my cap.

(DG) #20

the preffered fps should be 125, 76 and 43 - in that order. 333 or something is even better but not many people can maintain that sort of fps.

There is a slight increase in jumping height+distance with those fps, chances are you wont notice it unless trying to go atop certain boxes or making superjumps. the difference in it seems to be much less in ET than rtcw, where “bunny hopping” seems to be harder, plus there was amny points where the superjump (superjump pretty much overestimates it tbh) for example onto any of those boxes on assault that you just cant seem to reach, or jump the wall sections over the flag in two leaps to go from one good sniper spot to the safest one… there’s some custom map and some vids showing off the trickjumps.

generally though, there’s not exactly much difference in ET, i’d just stick a fps cap on to try and keep a steady fps for smoothness/consistency.