FEAR Demo - run smooth for me, why not everybody else?

[conan60]

Ok, so I downloaded the FEAR demo yesterday just like everybody else and all the posts are either about how great it is (which i totally agree - it rocks!) or the ****** perfromance people are getting. First, my specs (briefly):

AMD AthlonXP 2400+ @ 2800 speeds
1 gig ram
Leadtek 6800 128 mb w/16 pipes and 6 vp's unlocked @ 361/760
Windows Xp Sp2

So I run the demo at 1024X768, EVERYTHING (including soft shadows) maxed, excpet for texture detail which is at medium. 2x AA and 4X AF on as well, and it runs smooth as butter, no slow dowsn, only when the autosave function is on. I see ppl with far better specs complaining about hitching and pausing throughout like its unplayable, my questions is what gives w/their systems?

If the retails version runs as well as the demo (and i bet it runs better with some optimization left before it is released), i'll be very happy.

How's it running for you guys?

[dumb1]

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33824768

[conan60]

thanx tips, i dont have a 9800 pro so thats why i started a new thread

[Destroy]

You must be special. I call shens.

[Flinch]

AA is also broke, so no matter what you set it at in game, it isn't applying.

[Dizoja86]

runs well on my 6600gt with only soft shadows off and textures at medium at 1024x768, but there are scenes where the framerate is lower.

[quartz01]

Originally Posted by Dizoja86

runs well on my 6600gt with only soft shadows off and textures at medium at 1024x768, but there are scenes where the framerate is lower.

Mine runs fine on my 6600GT too

[Jaillum Malord]

Originally Posted by Flinch

AA is also broke, so no matter what you set it at in game, it isn't applying.

Its a game bug. The devs have nited this. The only way around this is every time you start up the game, goto display options and - if you have v-sync on, turn it off and if you have it off turn it on, and then click OK. Now goback and repeat the process, but this time you should ned up with your desired setting. Now when you run the game, AA will be on. I guess you have to reinitialize the renderer to activate it, turning v-sync on and then of bypasses the bug. It anoying that it has to be done every time you load the game up...oh well.

[rayzian]

Runs like SH*T. But then again I have everything maxed out @ 1024x768.

[Sweetz]

Originally Posted by rayzian

Runs like SH*T. But then again I have everything maxed out @ 1024x768.

I'm thinking with the game's AI and physics your processor is the weak point. As someone else pointed out, don't people realize there are settings between everything at max and the absolute lowest? Why does everyone insist on running settings their computer can't handle. The game has a perfectly fine auto-detect - use it!

Anyway I've been running the game at 1024x768 with no AA and 2x AF and everything at maximum with the exception of no soft shadows. Except for the occasional stutter here and there when entering a new area, it's been running consistently over 60fps for me. Soft shadows knock about 10-20fps off, but I can live withouth them. Haven't tried enabling AA, but I don't really use AA in any games that much anyway. I sit far enough from my monitor that it never really bugs me.

[john2]

Originally Posted by Stevedroid

I'm thinking with the game's AI and physics your processor is the weak point. As someone else pointed out, don't people realize there are settings between everything at max and the absolute lowest? Why does everyone insist on running settings their computer can't handle. The game has a perfectly fine auto-detect - use it!

Anyway I've been running the game at 1024x768 with no AA and 2x AF and everything at maximum with the exception of no soft shadows. Except for the occasional stutter here and there when entering a new area, it's been running consistently over 60fps for me. Soft shadows knock about 10-20fps off, but I can live withouth them. Haven't tried enabling AA, but I don't really use AA in any games that much anyway. I sit far enough from my monitor that it never really bugs me.

The main problem of all of us is the stutter.It runs here almost perfectly (well there are some points that the framerate drops as in the place with the pool and without the soft shadows) but this stuttering is really %^##^%#$R##@ .It destroys most of the atmosphere.When i was playing it stutter when you're about to climb the stairs and see the girl.The stutter destroyed all the feeling,pfffffffff.Given the fact that some guys said that they tried it with 2GB Ram and still had stutter i don't see any solution.Also i let it autodetect my system and i still had stuttering.I emailed Sierra for this issue and i'm waiting for an answer.I don't mind the all the other bugs/issues but the stuttering is really annoying

[wanab]

Originally Posted by john2

The main problem of all of us is the stutter.Given the fact that some guys said that they tried it with 2GB Ram and still had stutter i don't see any solution.

they may have had 2 GIG or RAM but maybe some other setting were eccessive.


i see a pattern developing here. they guys with 16pipe cards run good if they have defraged and all the planets are alligned.


bottom line is turn down the setting until the stuttering goes away and let us know your specs and settings. then compare others with same/like setups and your will be in the ballpark.

9800pro's seem to really choke on this game.

i have a felling the X700pro256 will play a lot better.

[rayzian]

Originally Posted by Stevedroid

I'm thinking with the game's AI and physics your processor is the weak point. As someone else pointed out, don't people realize there are settings between everything at max and the absolute lowest? Why does everyone insist on running settings their computer can't handle. The game has a perfectly fine auto-detect - use it!

Anyway I've been running the game at 1024x768 with no AA and 2x AF and everything at maximum with the exception of no soft shadows. Except for the occasional stutter here and there when entering a new area, it's been running consistently over 60fps for me. Soft shadows knock about 10-20fps off, but I can live withouth them. Haven't tried enabling AA, but I don't really use AA in any games that much anyway. I sit far enough from my monitor that it never really bugs me.

I guess my XPM is starting to show it's age.

Auto-detect you say?

[wanab]

Originally Posted by rayzian

I guess my XPM is starting to show it's age.

Auto-detect you say?

auto detect will only get you in the ballpark. you will have to go up or down or it will be just right.

[Itchiee]

Runs good for me on my machine, hardly any stutters..
Maybe my 2GBs is killing it......All maximum settings.

[Dizoja86]

no stuttering on my 6600gt at the settings I mentioned, maybe it's people running the textures at high or something like that?

[jima13]

Originally Posted by john2

The main problem of all of us is the stutter.It runs here almost perfectly (well there are some points that the framerate drops as in the place with the pool and without the soft shadows) but this stuttering is really %^##^%#$R##@ .It destroys most of the atmosphere.When i was playing it stutter when you're about to climb the stairs and see the girl.The stutter destroyed all the feeling,pfffffffff.Given the fact that some guys said that they tried it with 2GB Ram and still had stutter i don't see any solution.Also i let it autodetect my system and i still had stuttering.I emailed Sierra for this issue and i'm waiting for an answer.I don't mind the all the other bugs/issues but the stuttering is really annoying

maybe> http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=937251

??

[Animal NL]

Originally Posted by Flinch

AA is also broke, so no matter what you set it at in game, it isn't applying.

You have to change AA ingame. Even when it's at 4 x aa already.

[Unreal]

AA doesnt work?

It works for me, i aint jokin either

Also the games running fine on my 6600GT, no stuttering - running it with medium textures

[lumpyhed]

Smooth to one individual is Too Slow to another. I see it with the release of any game on various forums. While it is not unplayable, i do not consider it upto scratch for me & i can not warrant spending 350 quid in order to play it as intended. I think i'll save that for my 360/HDTV combo when the deals appear + the 360 port that will run properly throughout.

[wanab]

Originally Posted by lumpyhed

Smooth to one individual is Too Slow to another. I see it with the release of any game on various forums. While it is not unplayable, i do not consider it upto scratch for me & i can not warrant spending 350 quid in order to play it as intended. I think i'll save that for my 360/HDTV combo when the deals appear + the 360 port that will run properly throughout.

hmmm!


so what your saying is your not happy with your system performance?

what did you expect? max AA+AF from a plainjane 6800? i see you have an SLI mobo and the last time i checked it was not 350quid for another card. the real game should be playable on max settings in 6800SLI.

keep on waiting for that carrot. i think you will see the same watering down of this game as you do others when they move to console. i laugh at all the peeps that say in not gonna spend the upgrade money and wait for the console version.


thats not cool.

[Brinkman]

another one of these "im running the game at 120fps maxed settings on my voodoo3"

shenanigans!

[lumpyhed]

I'm not even applying AA or AF!

[lewis_johnstone]

The game does seem to run fairly decent in 1024x768, x4 aa + x8 af @ max in-game settings. [looked pretty nice too]

But i just tried it again this morning and it would appear that aa has stopped working for me too . Looks a bit crappy

[conan60]

Originally Posted by Brinkman

another one of these "im running the game at 120fps maxed settings on my voodoo3"

shenanigans!

If you're refering to me, all i'm merely saying is that the game runs smooth for me, completely playable with no stuttering/hitching, maybe FEAR prefers nvidia cards, i dont know. Whatever.

Im just glad my post is a happy one about performance as opposed to many of the "this engine is crap and i have a 4800+ with 2 gigs of ram and a 7800" posts i keep seeing.

[DarkPretender]

Originally Posted by jima13

maybe> http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=937251

??

Everybody with a Creative card do what the above thread says. I went from barly hitting 50fps, usally avging 15fps to never falling below 30fps, averaging about 45-60, and getting as high as 200fps.

Much better experince now!

[lumpyhed]

Originally Posted by DarkPretender

Everybody with a Creative card do what the above thread says. I went from barly hitting 50fps, usally avging 15fps to never falling below 30fps, averaging about 45-60, and getting as high as 200fps.

Much better experince now!

I keep all that kinda bloat out of my install fortuantely

[Sweetz]

Originally Posted by lumpyhed

I keep all that kinda bloat out of my install fortuantely

CTHelper is installed with the drivers, you can't keep it out of the install, you can only disable it once it has been installed.

Typically I turn it off first thing, but I forgot the last time I formatted/reinstalled. This actually helped quite a bit, I still got a few stutters (which is probably related to texture loading and other things), but my framerate went up a good bit. I now get at least 80fps in everywhere except that room with the water (which is totally an eye candy room anyway). Damn Creative and their stupid software.

As far as people complaining about the stuttering. HL2 had WAY more stuttering when it was released (at least for me). Even worse the stuttering occured everywhere, even after I've been in an area and all the assets should've presumably been loaded. FEAR never stutters during firefights, only when moving between areas with no enemies. In fact I don't think it would be an unreasonable guess to say that Monolith is actually controlling when and where the assets are loaded and designed it so that the load points occur only in transitional areas.

I mean I certainly wouldn't like any stutters and hopefully Monolith can work out the memory management so that there aren't any, but I recognize that games these days are moving around huge amounts of data and that takes time. If I do have to live with them I'd much rather have the stutters in transitional areas than throughout the entire level.

[lumpyhed]

I check & cleanse my registry, start up menu & services everytime i install some hardware. Its definately not present, but annoying that it could cause such issues nonetheless.

[mda96bjh]

Originally Posted by conan60

If you're refering to me, all i'm merely saying is that the game runs smooth for me, completely playable with no stuttering/hitching, maybe FEAR prefers nvidia cards, i dont know. Whatever.

Im just glad my post is a happy one about performance as opposed to many of the "this engine is crap and i have a 4800+ with 2 gigs of ram and a 7800" posts i keep seeing.

I'm afraid I have to join the ranks of the people with 1337 rigs complaining......It is very juddery & enough have complained for it to be a game problem.

I will try the creative tip above though...