To: devnull@hitech.k9.com (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) From: devnull@hitech.k9.com (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Reply-To: devnull@hitech.k9.com (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Sender: devnull@hitech.k9.com (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Return-Path: devnull@hitech.k9.com (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Errors-To: postmaster@hitech.k9.com Precedence: bulk Bcc: hitech-sim-out Subject: Hitech Simulation Digest V3 : I41 Hitech Simulation Digest Volume 3 : Issue 41 Wed Dec 20 06:30:49 PST 1995 Compilation copyright (C) 1995 Jeff Beadles Send submissions to "hitech-sim@hitech.k9.com" Send add/drop requests to "majordomo@hitech.k9.com" Archives are available via ftp from cactus.org Today's Topics: Re: Ef2000 (frame-rate) Andrew Stevens Subject: Re: Ef2000 (frame-rate) >What kind of frame rate are you getting with your machines.. I have a >dx4/100 with 16meg of ram... is my machine too slow to really play with a >decent frame rate? I have a similar set-up (Intel DX4) and find EF2000 emminently playable. However, take the following with the usual pinches of salt regarding the performance of your cache, ram, and video Card. I have SiS461 based VL-motherboard running a 2-1-1-1 burst (as quick as it gets) 256K cache and 32M of 70ns RAM running 4-3-3-3 and a 2M Tseng ET4000/W32P card. Some data to help you choose: - `Base' frame rates (straight-ahead, no virtual cockpit, no texturing) 320x200 `smooth' around 15fps+, 640x480 'tolerable' around 8 fps. - Texturing seems to slow things down by about 2/3's. - The (wonderful!) virtual cockpit slows stuff down by 2/3's again. - As with all simms loads of other aeroplanes close by of flying close to lots of ground objects slows stuff down. Thus: full texturing, virtual cockpit, taxi-ing around the airbase gets you around 3 fps. I tend to fly either 320x200 medium texturing detail (flying around the countryside) switching to 640x480 to get extra precision for combat, in-flight refueling, and so on. You can flip resolutions and texturing on/off with single key-strokes to suit during the game. Personally, my feeling is that although the visuals are excellent the real strength of the simulation is its depth and potential for further development. Finally, one point that should be fairly obvious from these figures. There is unlikely to be any PC on the market that can run EF2000 15fps+ with all the goodies turned on. Even the best 133Mhz Pentia offer under 3 times the throughput of a good DX4, and once you factor in bottlenecks like writing to the graphics card, bus-cycles stolen for the sound card,... As a test I ran EF2000 on my 90Mhz Pentium at work. As expected, textured 640x480 could frequently drop through the pain threshold of a (subjective) 6-7. I plan to save my upgrade money until a good stable 3D rendering card is available. I suspect a so-so low-cost Pentium with a good card will produce far better results (e.g. allow true colour) than an ultra-costly CPU with a dumb frame buffer. Wouldn't it be nice if Helmets were more affordable! Andrew PGP KEY: email, or finger as@comlab.ox.ac.uk ------------------------------- [[ End of digest Volume 3 : Issue 41 ]]