Why is it that on Quake III Arena I can tweak my config and peak at over 1000 FPS, so high in fact that my connection suffers and I have to cap it, but I can easily maintain a cap of 125, yet on other Q3 games like SoF2, RTCW, ET & CoD I am lucky to peak at 125 or so, and can only maintain the “desired cap level” of 43, while using the same cvar tweaks and on the same machine?
FPS
Domipheus
(Domipheus)
#2
because SoF2, RTCW, ET & CoD are not Q3 games, there totally different and require thier own reccommended hardware which differs muchly from the very old q3.
Fusen
(Fusen)
#3
are tou sure you can reach “1000 fps” as on overclocking sites they could only reach 450 on a P4 oc’s to 4GHz using a radeon 9800xt so saying you got 1000fps you would need one beats of a machine
Bludd
(Bludd)
#4
Me facing a wall in spectator mode with a heavily tweaked config:
As you can see, my FPS is so high that it hosed my connection when I set com_maxfps 999, just to see how high it would go (my connection on that server was excellent, with a steady ping below 60). Perhaps it would have been even more if I “capped” it even higher, I dunno, I’ve never played Q3A enough to test a lot of things because I don’t care for the game, I just wanted to see what kinda FPS I could get with a tweaked config on the “granddaddy” game that all my favorites are built upon; those results led to my initial post.
Fusen: My box is nothing special: p4 2.53 ghz, a gig of pc2700 ddr ram, geforce fx5600 w/256mb ddr ram. I wouldn’t have expected such results from my box, since I don’t get anything near that fps on most games. I’m as confused as you.
What I meant was, those games are built on the Q3 engine (well, CoD is a modified RTCW engine, but that’s Q3, so…), I assumed that was common knowledge…
Sick_Boy
(Sick Boy)
#5
Can’t you see the difference in graphics between ET and Q3? The Q3 engine has evolved quite a bit, it’s normal that it’s get slower when it has much more details to show. Also the environment is much larger in games like ET and CoD than the small hallways in Q3.
pgh
(pgh)
#6
Because the rest of they games mentioned run of a HEAVILY modified Q3 engine. Hence, as suggest above, the likes of ET and SOF can support outdoor areas. I mean, you can even see a change when playing Team Arena let alone newer games. And, I dont think that 1000 fps is possible… from the looks of it you’ve lagged and its just to 1000, I used to get that on my old p2 400 when I would lag playing q3f. Highest i’ve hit tho is sitting around 500/600 on an Athlon 2.6ghz w 128mb Gf4 Ti 4800 SE + 512mb DDR Mem…
Domipheus
(Domipheus)
#7
Unfortunately im not as slow and uninformed as you seem…
Particle engines, Configs that cannot be tweaked to the extent of q3, much more complex game code, higher map triscounts, more special effects…
Call the games that these features exist in ‘q3’ just becaused they used the q3 engine as a base and your really showing your stupidity.
Sadly lots of people think the same way :banghead:
pgh
(pgh)
#8
Well, look at HL. Didnt that come from a modified version of the Q2 engine and look where thats ended up.
Bludd
(Bludd)
#9
Unfortunately im not as slow and uninformed as you seem…
Particle engines, Configs that cannot be tweaked to the extent of q3, much more complex game code, higher map triscounts, more special effects…
Call the games that these features exist in ‘q3’ just becaused they used the q3 engine as a base and your really showing your stupidity.
Sadly lots of people think the same way :banghead:[/quote]
Wow. You’re quite the a**hole Domi, you know that? I dunno what I did to deserve such a tongue lashing, I just asked a question. Remind me not to do that again…
As for the lag causing a false FPS reading, I don’t think that’s it; it seemed pretty evident that it was the opposite. When “uncapped”, the FPS caused the interrupted connection, which was immediately resolved when the FPS was recapped at a reasonable high. Also, I was easily able to maintain very high FPS when facing walls, several hundred in fact.
And yes, I do realize the more open environments have an effect on FPS, the fact that I understand facing a wall ups your FPS shows that (less things to draw = higher framerate). And I know those other games have added a lot of fluff, but to be fair, Q3A has a damn good bit of eye candy, too. In any case, with all those uneccessary visuals disabled in all those games (which I made clear I had done, so those effects don’t enter into this equasion), and when facing a wall/floor/ceiling with no other players nearby, one would expect at least similar framerates from similar games, wouldn’t one?
Anyway thanks for the replies, I guess I’ll never know why I can’t get a steady 125 on all those other games as well…
pgh
(pgh)
#10
The whole point he (Domi) was trying to make imo is that, as you put it Bludd, similar games is that they arent similar. The only thing kept is the engine but everything else has be upgraded (making it BETTER/DIFFERENT obviously) hence the similarities are gone.
Could’ve at least said something a bit less cheeky then maybe you can accuse Domi of snapping… and tbh. He knows his stuff. Im sure if you ask him he’ll show you HIS game engine (From scratch basically) based on the Q3 engine… but wait! FPS are different… 
Domipheus
(Domipheus)
#11
You asked a question.
I answered it.
You rubbished my answer.
Not much of a lashing, more of a wake up call.
Bludd
(Bludd)
#12
Honestly, it wasn’t meant to be cheeeky. I was simply saying “I figured everyone knew those games were built on the Q3 engine, but I guess not everyone does”. Apparently, Domi did know that, though, so I apologize if I offended anyone, I certainly didn’t mean to.
Hmm, internet forums are hard places to communicate, because inflection is interpreted by the reader rather than immediately understood by a listener…
edit Woken up from what? I’m fairly knowledgeable myself, although I confess I havn’t done a Q3 TC like you have. Anyway, just lighten up a bit, we’re talking tech about games, it’s supposed to be a fun, interesting exchange of ideas and knowledge, not an arm wrestling match! :drink:
Oh and PS, I’m descended from Scottish ancestors, so you have to be nice to me! 
pgh
(pgh)
#13
We have no choice to listen. We can only read and interpet as YOU type it. There is a thing called Netiquette mind, and one thing is that you need to think about what you type and how you phrase it, because as much as something might make sense to yourself or you know how you mean it… whats to say this other person or people reading will?
And his TC was for RTCW. Where as hes wrote his own engine. natch.
Bludd
(Bludd)
#14
Which is why I try so hard to always use proper english grammar (I fail a lot, of course), so as not to confuse…
Anyway, kewl about the engine, sounds interesting.
DarkangelUK
(DarkangelUK)
#15
- Sheer size of maps and detail on screen at once.
- As games advance, so do textures. Q3 is a 5 year old game using 5 year old texture mapping etc, just because it’s using the same engine, doesnt mean it uses the same textures . Example is Halo. It ran rather well on on the XBox. The PC version however is a different story. It takes an uber system much more powerfull than an XBox to run it properly and with the proper DX9 features and still hold a decent frame rate.
- By the looks of your screenshot, you’re looking at a wall and playing with a config that makes it look like Mario World. Can we have a screenshot of the game wit players and map in full view? I’m not denying you can get 1000fps, ive seen it before on the OPC forums… tho he didnt lag out.
Fusen
(Fusen)
#16
Sauron_EFG
(Sauron|EFG)
#17
Maybe there’s something on your system that makes ET run slower that it should? For one thing ET does require more system RAM and graphics RAM than Q3.
I could almost maintain 43 FPS with minor tweaks on my old AMD1200/GF2 (and peaked at >250 FPS staring at a wall), and I doubt 1000 FPS in Q3 was within reach on that computer…
