jg0001

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Hey JG, i have a GeForce 9600GT graphics card and the game runs perfect. Only thing i noticed was that on my dads ati system he has reflections in the water of buildings etc...is there any way to enable that on the geforce card?

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I'm not aware of any feature that is available on an ATi card but not an Nvidia card. Try PMing Billzbubba...

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Your graphics quality should be the same in windowed and desktop mode.

Unless I missed some memo.

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I have a GTX 280 SSX on my best PC, running Vista 64. While I'm not sure about windowed mode, I can tell you that merely bringing up a browser window (and making it the focus) drops FPS by half.

I've got 180.something installed now on my Vista 64 machine (as well as two XP machines) and haven't noticed anything unusual.

I do make it a point to write down my video/color settings before updating the driver, as it seems to haphazardly toss out my brightness/contrast/digital vibrance/gamma settings.

177.92 seems a better for me (crashwise, as tested by a racing game I play (GRiD)) than the .83 version. However, I also installed a hotfix recently, so perhaps that is my actual salve. [I ran a 3dmark Vantage test and the .92's peformed almost right on top of the .83's]

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I got a Nvidia 9600 GT and have issues sometimes where the screen gets dark (like I'm playing in the night time). This happens usually in a dark room or when I'm visiting a black/dark web page. Is it my settings?

I also get a Nvidia control panel window that pops up every time I start my computer.

Thanks in advance.

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Are you playing on a screen with automatic dynamic contrast? This is more common with LCD HDTV sets than with PC monitors, to my knowledge... (with these, the screen brightness/contrast will automatically adjust BOTH for the ambient lighting in the room AND for the brightness of what's on screen).

Here's a quick test. Set your windows background to solid black. Open up a colorful picture in paint or something... make it so that it only takes up about 1/4 of the screen or less. Open up notepad and expand it so that it would take up most of the screen. Drag notepad so that it is mostly off screen and not showing. Keeping the mouse button down (to continue to drag the notepad window), rapidly move it so that it takes up most of the screen and then zip it away again. Keep your eyes focused on the picture. Does it seem to change when notepad is on screen and then again when it's off? If so, you'll want to check your monitor for an auto settings in relation to contrast/gamma/brightness. I know SHARP LCDs have this feature, though I forget it's name. Sometimes you can only minimize it's use, which is a be-otch if you really hate it.

Anyone buying a new video card needs to keep in mind the following 'physical' properties of the card, in order of greatest importance:

(1) Slot type -- PCI-Express, AGP, PCI -- almost all new cards are PCI-e; some people still have older AGP slot PCs, however

(2) Power Requirements of the Card -- most mid-range cards require additional power - most of these will be fine with molex style adaptors off the PSU, assuming the PSU has enough juice; ALL high-end cards require additional power, and many are beginning to truly tax the output of PSUs to the point where you really want a 600W+ PSU OR you need to watch your power requirements very closely. The NEWEST video cards (GTX 2__ series, for example) require considerable dedicated power lines from the PSU, with the GTX 280 requiring both a 6 pin and an 8 pin power connector. Very few PSUs older than 1 year old will have 8 pin PCI-E power connectors; even most current ones do not have that.

(3) Video Card LENGTH -- this is a potential deal killer; height is important too, but rarely an insurmountable problem. Be sure the card you want to buy isn't too long to fit inside your case. I have relatively large cases (Antec P180's) and I have to remove the extra 3.5 drive cage to fit in most high end cards. On some motherboards, the video card will also extend very close to memory slots (mine does, it fits, but it's snug) and on others, the video card may actually block SATA ports entirely.

(4) Video Card HEIGHT -- while this does matter, few people use up so many slots that the height is a dealkiller. I pretty much expect my video cards to be double height, and plan for that when getting a mobo.

(5) Exhaust/fan type & placement -- poor airflow can lead to a dead card OR hot air blowing from the card onto other components

Not including the superclocked cards (which would cost more), you're looking at a 10-35% increase in performance going from the 9600GT-> 8800GT. Given that they are priced quite close to one another, why bother with the weaker card? We don't need to debate this ... the numbers in the link you provided can speak for themselves versus whatever pricing deals people can find online.

In other news, I'm now running a GTX 280 SSC that replaces the 9600GT I had in my Vista64 machine. FWIW, it is smoother by far than the old card, but I still get dips in FPS when things get hectic... (Q9450 @ 3.60 GHz for the CPU).

I wouldn't even consider the 9600GT ... the 9800GTX seems a little too pricier over the 8800GT though... make sure that 8800GT has 512 MB of memory if you consider it...

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Yeah - I am at 1680x1050.

Putting world detail back to 100% (from 200) made a big difference!

Thanks.

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I'd point out that World Detail really does change on the fly, so if you are outdoors, pick a nice distant building or a whole street to look at and tweak the slider around. Then, turn on your fastest travel power and zip in one direction down the street, paying attention to the buildings both near and far. Lower world detail until you care and you should have a nice FPS boost. [Sorry if by saying this you now pay more attention and want a HIGHER world detail level.]

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I checked the recommendations here, and tweaked my settings a bit. I have a pretty good (not top) system, but I can get fps as low as below 30 in, say, south Steele Canyon. (It can also go into the 50s, depending on what is in view).

I have an 8800GT (OC), 2GB RAM, dual core 2.6GH processor. Checking Task Manager, basically no CPU wasted on other programs and about 1/4 GB of RAM used for system crap. I hear of other people with similar systems (or worse) with settings set to what is suggested here, and they claim much higher FPS.

Is this surprising? Is any guru reading this, and saying to themselves, "Oh - that can't be right" ?? Just wondering if there might be something obvious or significant I am missing.

Sorry if this is straying from the OP topic - I wasn't sure if it fit or not.

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The one MAJOR item people forget to compare, when they state their FPS, is the RESOLUTION they are running at.

It's no different than having two identical cars, one with five fat dudes in it and one with a lone skinny driver and trying to compare acceleration times.

I run one screen at 2560x1600 using an 8800GTX and another at 1280x1024 using a much lower card... and they both perform admirably. The reason being that the 8800 GTX is handling 4 million pixels while the other card is pushing only 1.3 million pixels.

So, that said, what resolution are you running at?

If you're at 1680x1050 or higher and are getting a solid 30 FPS in most places with bumps higher (50+ or so), then you are fine.

One way to help with the FPS (without changing your resolution) is to lower the world detail %. World Detail determines how far out the scenery and buildings are drawn & detailed. Low world detail = pretty plain looking buildings and as you get closer, the details fill in. High world detail = buildings are drawn with most details and pop-in is virtually negligible. For a game like this, other than when traveling (rapidly), you may not notice popin too much. This isn't a racing game or a GTA like game where it would matter more.

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I will repost, but I wanted to hear from a master first, if this was a work-around-able issue or not I believe I read that it was a known issue.

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In general, the best workaround 'test' for a known issue is to try a different driver, even perhaps an older one.

I actually use an older driver on my 8800 GTX than on the other cards due to a noticeable drag in 2D performance from the newer driver. It's been a while since then, though, so perhaps I'll backup and then try again (I like to ACRONIS before any 'test' driver changes, so that I can be 100% sure of restoring back to what was).

Chuckers, sounds like a recurrent nvidia problem. Anyway, you should repost (and possibly delete the post above) as your own thread for a better reply from a wider audience. This topic is really aimed at non-erroneous tweaking.

I feel like a televangelist when I read these stories.... I got 15 more FPS and found JESUS! Praise the lord!

That said, I'm always happy that my slim concoction of luck and research resulted in a better play experience for someone. I owe a lot to BillZ who's ATI settings thread (old version) helped me think of new ways to tinker with my Nvidia settings.

Game on!

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Bah. I was having really bad tearing problems running in a window. When I set it to fullscreen it worked perfectly.

Vsync doesn't work in windowed mode, does it? I like to have my IMs open while I play.

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Are you running Vsync in the game or via the driver? Also, another choice is to run your IM's as "always on top", which may require you to use nvidia's "nview" settings to custom set the child windows to always on top. You could then just shimmy over your UI items in game a bit to make room for that.

Midnight -- just make note that when/if you go to view something "real" (i.e. not game generated) like a digital photo or video, you may need to undo some of the digital vibrance or things may look too blown out. *side note: 'video' overlay stuff actually gets its own set of nvidia alterations via the tv & video settings*

BTW, for anyone wondering if they should buy a Core2Duo or Core2Quad, when it comes to this game, assuming you will get your CPU up to 2.8 GHz or so, it won't matter much... GPU is what matters!

If you plan to run 1680x1050 or higher with all the doohickeys, get yourself an 8800 GT or better. If you really intend to run this AND other games at 1920x1080 or have a 30" and run 2560x1600, then an 8800GTX or better is the only ticket.

Here're my current crop of PCs (recently updated):

Q9450 C1 @ 3.6 GHz w 9600GT @ 1920x1080 on 40" Samsung TV; 8 GB of RAM; Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Q6600 G0 @ 3.0 GHz w 8800GTX @ 2560x1600 on Dell 3008; 4 GB of RAM; WinXP

Q6600 G0 @ 3.0 GHz w 8800GT @ 1920x1200 on Dell 2405; 4 GB of RAM; WinXP

and my 'guest room' PC:
E6400 @ 2.8 GHz w 7950GT @ 1280x1024 on 17" Samsung LCD; Vista Home Premium 64-bit
(above E6400 was previously OC'd to 3.2 but I detuned it a bit for guest room use so that I could drop the fan speed to nearly silent)

The mobo on the Q6600 G0's is an ASUS P5W-DH and is the real limiter on the overclock I can get on them. The Q9450 is cranking on a brand new Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 and is just a monster.

The 8800GTX has made the rounds through various PCs with different CPUs, dual and quad, and it makes ALL the difference in this game, once a certain CPU power level is achieved.

The Q9450 is far more powerful than the two Q6600's I have and yet the 9600GT is dragging it down versus both the 8800GTX which is running a higher res AND the 8800GT which is running approximately the same res. I plan to get the 9900GTX when/if it comes out. Until then, I'll suffer.

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320MB VRAM

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Boom! That there could be your culprit. You may not be able to do triple buffering with only that amount of video RAM. What resolution are you running at and are you using high quality textures?

SPECIAL NOTE #2:
For anyone toying with the DRIVER settings while the game is running, please note that you may need to reset the game (i.e. exit all the way to the desktop and re-rerun it) for any particular item to take effect. [Please do try this before saying that you turned on or off a certain setting and didn't notice any difference.]

Extra special note on DIGITAL VIBRANCE SETTING:

For those of you new to NVIDIA driver settings (or who perhaps only recently switched to a flat panel from a CRT), Nvidia has a setting in its driver that offers to improve the "pop" of colors.

This glorious setting is known as DIGITAL VIBRANCE and can be accessed via the Nvidia control panel.

LOOK FOR:
[-]DISPLAY
--- ADJUST DESKTOP COLOR SETTINGS ---

do not confuse this with the [-]Video & Television settings that offer up "Adjust Video Color Settings" which looks very similar (though it does not offer the Digital Vibrance setting).

Everyone will have their own preference, but I've noticed that I like to set most of my screens to between 15% and 35% Digital Vibrance. This can make a game like CoH go from dull and drab to shiny and colorful. [It also let's you adjust your gamma settings a little better.]

Anyhow, enjoy! Sorry I didn't mention this earlier.

[*** As a caveat, please know that this may mess up your ability to properly judge color on non-gaming tasks... like digital photo adjustment/printing. Just be careful that you don't set this too whacky to make CoH pop and then inadvertently color adjust a ton of digital photos that suddenly looked too colorful. ***]

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I have a question, i had everything close to about what you have here, except for the .......Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode <--!!!!

Whats the difference between the Dual, and Single displays?

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Do you have more than one monitor connected to your video card? If you do not, then there is absolutely no reason not to have this on single display mode.

If you DO have 2 monitors hooked up, then I believe the 2nd display gets turned off if you set this to single, when running a 3D app, letting the video card focus all of its energies on one display.

Zem, you can certainly try flipping things the other way around... i.e. forcing AA in the driver and setting it to off in game... [At the low res you are running it, the 8800GT should be plenty capable of maintaining a good framerate with forced AA.] Actually, you could even try it on at both levels (in driver and in game)...

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Retried it. It is fixed. But I probably tried it ages ago and it was broken back then.

It still lags like hell though.

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Yay! We be stickied once more...

Anywho, if anyone has a particular question for me and/or if you post something here and think no one is looking, go ahead and PM me. Thanks and good luck to us all!

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Because Bloom and/or DoF doesn't mix with Anti aliasing. At least what I've tried. Those two options just plainly cancels AA, if I recall correctly from my experimentation.

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Wasn't that fixed? Either in a new driver, in game, or perhaps only in the newer series cards?

NVIDIA Settings for Quality
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Disclaimer: these settings are primarily aimed at those with high end cards; however, at the bottom of this setup, you will find suggested tweaks if you have a slower card.

Note: "<---!!!!" after a setting denotes a non-default setting and/or a setting you should be sure to check.

NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL
--you will need to enable ADVANCED 3D settings to see these choices

Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled <--!!!!
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: On
Antialiasing - Mode: Application-controlled <--!!!!
Antialiasing - Setting: Application-controlled <--!!!!
Antialiasing - Transparency: Off
Conformant texture clamp: Use hardware
Error repoting: Off (note: setting on older driver)
Extension limit: Off
Force mipmaps: None
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode <--!!!!
Stereo - Display mode: Use vertical interlace monitor
(note: the above setting does not appear on the earlier driver; I'm not sure what exactly it does, so I leave it alone)
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: Off (greyed out)
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Allow
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization: Off
Threaded optimization: Auto (note: setting on older driver)
Triple buffering: On <--!!!! {some people may claim this is not needed, though apparently it can assist if you turn on vertical sync (see next)}
Vertical sync: Use the 3D application setting <--!!!! {I enable vsync in the GAME options (see below), not here; others suggest trying things the other way around -- I found that using MY setup greatly enhanced FPS, but that may have changed in newer drivers and the game updates}


IN GAME SETTINGS
--selected via, MENU, OPTIONS, then Graphics & Audio
--set "Advanced Graphics Settings" to Enabled in order to see all the choices below

Screen/UI Resolution: set this to the MAXIMUM resolution of your display; this should ALSO be equal to the resolution you use for general purpose activities in windows; the first timeE you run the game, you will want to FIX THIS FIRST; set your resolution, then completely exit the game all the way to the desktop, then restart the game

3D Resolution Scaling: set to maximum -- should be equal to the Screen/UI Resolution, above

Refresh Rate: for most LCD panels, I imagine this will be set to 60; CRTs may offer additional choices

Gamma: 100% <--!!!! (Please note: you should tweak this as needed to correct for washed out graphics... however, serious cases of poor display quality (i.e. related to how things look even when you aren't moving and nothing is going on) will require color adjustment at the graphics driver level.)

Advanced Graphics Settings: Enabled <--!!!!(must be enabled to see all the settings)
Graphics Quality: n/a (greyed out -- this is only used if the advanced graphics settings are disabled -- you can toy with this afterwards if your performance remains subpar)

Suppress Extra Player FX: Disabled <--!!!!
Suppress FX When Close: Disabled <--!!!!
[Note: the two suppression settings above are the first things you should "Enable" if your system is having performance issues.]

AGEIA PhsyX support: n/a (greyed out, unless you have a PPU)

Particle Physics Quality: Very High <--!!!! -- it will warn you it's not suggested, but if you have a Core2Duo or better and a good video card, this is very much worth cranking all the way up [there is also the Ageia PhysX driver install you can use without the card, but this may be hard to find these days]

World Texture Quality: Very High <--!!!!
Character Texture Quality: Very High <--!!!!
World Detail: 200% <--!!!!
Character Detail: 200% <--!!!!
Max Particle Count: 50000 <--!!!!

Vertical Sync: Enabled <--!!!!
--note on vsync: for me, vsync is an absolute must; it keeps the screen 'solid' when you rapidly move around; if you turn it off, you will likely see higher FPS, BUT you will get those at the expense of "tearing", which is when part of a frame is drawn at one time, and part at another. With vsync off, if you spin in a circle, you should be able to see what I mean by this. One other note: some have suggested turning Vsync off IN GAME and turning it on in the nvidia control panel. I find that my setup works best for me, but feel free to try it the other way around.

FSAA: 4x <--!!!!
Shadows: Enabled
Use Geometry Buffers: Enabled
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x <--!!!!
Texture Crispness: Smooth <--!!!!
Shader Quality: High <--!!!!
Water Effects: High Quality <--!!!!

Depth of Field Effects: Disabled <--!!!!
Bloom Effects: Disabled <--!!!!
Bloom Amount: N/A (not selected if above is disabled)
Desaturation Effects: Enabled

Window Scale: 100% <--!!!!
{note: this is an interesting setting, especially for those with older 4:3 ratio monitors... if you can handle it, try lowering this to 85% to give yourself more space... most people with widescreen monitors will have less of an issue here; on my 2560x1600 monitor, I occasionally turn this up above 100%}

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Note on DoF and Bloom: selecting to disable both Depth of Field and Bloom can help FPS greatly, but some people prefer those effects, so do try them before you kill them off; the developers went to considerable lengths to add those in for "feel & atmosphere" and I'm sure many do enjoy those effects. Those two settings are purely by taste, and not necessarily better or worse, objectively, qualitative-wise.

ADJUSTMENT SUGGESTIONS IF THE ABOVE IS TOO MUCH FOR YOUR SYSTEM
If your PC can't handle the above, then lower any "(VERY) HIGH QUALITY" settings a bit AND enable both of the "suppression" settings. Lower the detail settings to 100% (from 200%). Drop FSAA to 2x and Anisotropic Filtering to 4x (note: both of those are in game settings). Lower maximum particle count to 25,000.

If that STILL doesn't do it for you, turn off FSAA and Anisotropic Filtering and lower the max particles to the minimum. From there, the next step is to lower the resolution, even if on an LCD (though this is not generally a good idea, 10-15 FPS at 1024x768 beats 3 FPS at 1680x1050).

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At the time of this writing (April 2008), I am running an Nvidia 8800GTX at 2560x1600 (163.75 driver), an Nvidia 8800GT at 1920x1080 (169.21 driver), and an Nvidia 7950GT at 1920x1200 (163.75 driver). I choose the earlier driver for the 8800GTX and 7950GT as I noticed some odd 2D slowdowns with the newer driver. I'd expect these to be corrected under the next driver iteration. Settings across drivers remain the same.
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{{{ PLEASE 'REPLY' TO THIS AND REFRAIN FROM QUOTING IT IN ITS ENTIRETY }}}

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No, I am not a hardcore farmer.

Use the status flags in the team search window.
Send a broadcast or request message.
Start and lead your own teams.

I still consider it rude behavior to send unsolicited tells to people already on teams.

Let's just agree to disagree.

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Agreed we disagree.

I answer any tell I get with the same or greater courtesy than how it was delivered. I see no reason why someone looking for a team can't ask someone already on one if they would like another.

You'd be surprised how well people respond when you treat them like humans and actually tell them "no, can't use you right now, sorry" instead of outright ignoring them or calling them rude or somesuch. So many people just ignore the tells of others that getting a response, even a "no", is received well.

The LFT flag system is nice, but many people don't bother with it after a while.