Ok I thought I was the only one with the alt-tab issue. Usually I would use the Start Button to open up the menu. But since cleaning my system I also get a lock up, it would crash my system which I end up hard booting. So I unistalled 6.2 and went back to 6.1 and still have the same problem. (using Omega Drivers)
Bill, I have an x850XT PE AGP card. Like it MUCH better than the 9800XT I had before. I'm going to try some of the settings you have listed here but overall I get very nice gameplay except in obvious lag situations. One problem I've had since CoV was released that also shows up in CoH now is a zoning rubberband issue. One I switch from one zone and pop up in the other and start moving quick(SS, Fly, Jump) as I get rubberbanded back to the starting position intially. After the intial snapback I'm fine. Any idea if this is just me or happening to everyone?
Is anyone having issues with gamma changing when you hit cap lock on your wireless keyboard? I always seem to hit it in the heat of battle instead of tab and it will make the screen so dark its hard to see the foes.
Forgive me if this has been addressed earlier.
Playing on Freedom
KidQwik,
I get the exact same issue. Now when I zone, I wait 2 seconds before moving so that I don't experience it. I've always assumed it was a client issue rather than a system problem.
DarkOasis,
I used to have gamma issues on my old CRT. Now that I'm on a LCD with DVI, I haven't had a single gamma related issue. Are you able to reset the gamma by going into the options and clicking on the gamma slider? Not even really moving it, just clicking on it? The best fix I found for this was to set the gamma in game at the default, and then adjusting the gamma for 3D apps within the CCC way up.
I wish I knew what the real cause of ATI's gamma issues are.
Be well, people of CoH.
Can someone explain to me what does Fast Write do whether its "on" or "off". I do believe before i cleaned my drivers I had Fast Write On with no lock ups. But having it off I get alot of lock ups. I was told having it off you have better performance?
I turned Fast Write off (in addition to the other tweaks you mentioned) and I've been getting lock-ups as well. Have we talked to any CoH technical people yet?
When I had graphic issues about 6 months ago, support had recommended I always have Fast Write turned off. I didn't have really have any issues because of it, but had the issues everyone else was having with the sound loop crash. Since the 6.2 and 6.3 drivers I think I've left it on though. I'll try it with it turned off tonight to see how it goes. I'm begining to think their are issues with the 6.3 drivers. See my next post.
Is anyone else having problems with the 6.3 drivers? 6.2 seemed to do a world of good, but since I've installed the 6.3 drivers I'd had the game lock up on me a few time. Also, I've started to experience distorted contact pictures when I bring up the contact list and sometimes my costumes are also distorted when I go to switch costumer. I'll get half of my costume show up in the box it's supposed to be in while the other half will be a bunch of garbled artifacts. Same will happen with the contacts. It's similiar to the 3 in one pics people are having with costumes but instead of the two tiny pics of legs at the bottom of the main costume pic, I'll get black and the top will be my legs or all garbled stuff. Reading other threads I'm begining to think it's something Cryptic has done with the game because Nvidia people are getting it too.
BlaqueStar,
Yes, having Fast Writes OFF increases performance. BUT, I had lockups with it off while running the 6.3s. With the 6.2s, I get no lockups.
Pulled from a google search:
"Fast writes allows the CPU to send data to the Graphics card without having to go through RAM, making it a far more optimal approach. That said in reality most benchmarks done on this have shown it to be of little actual benefit, in some cases performing slower, not to mention on other systems it causes stability problems."
GreyDog,
I sent a PM in about the lockups with 6.3s and that PM was in turn forwarded off to another dev. I haven't heard anything since.
KidQwik,
Yes. 6.3s are garbage as far as I'm concerned. There was a 6.3 thread in the tech forum where I first brought my lockup concerns.
I've since rolled back to the 6.2s and haven't had the problem since. (Same issue: Contacts, character info, etc would lockup CoH/V client, and sometimes whole system.)
Be well, people of CoH.
I had a few lockups on info screens when trying fastwrites off a couple of months ago and went back to fastwrites on. I recently installed Omega's 6.2 and went for the fastwrites off option. Had another info screen lockup and switched back again. Best I can remember I never had an info screen lockup with fastwrites on.
ATI 9600 mobility 128 mb on a Dell 8500/8600 with Centrino 1.5.
Hope that helps Bill.
"With everything that I do, I hope that they see people struggling to live decent, moral lives in a completely chaotic world. They see how hard it is, how often they fail, and how they get up and keep trying. That, to me, is the most important message I'm ever going to tell." - Joss Whedon
Thank you Bill for clarifying about Fast Write 'ON' and 'OFF' perhaps it might be my video card, because I have had problems with it in the past. I will try installing 6.2 and trying it with fast write on.
Thanks. I think I'll try the 6.2 drivers with Fast Writes OFF.
The alt-tab lockups, or the lockups caused when just switching between programs in Windowed Mode, definitely seems to be affected by the Fast Write.
ATI X800XT
Running Catalyst 6.2 and 256M AGP Aperture size:
With Fast write OFF, I would get lockups - even keeping default settings on my ATI CCC Settings. I tested this by switching between COH and MS Paint. Sometimes the lockup would happen right away, sometimes it would happen switching between the two programs within 10 tries.
By just turning Fast Writes ON, I didn't get any lockups. I tried switching multiple times and no computer lockups. 
Now to reset the rest of my CCC settings. 
Good stuff, Ginsu_Master. Did you notice any difference in your overall average FPS between fast writes on and off?
Be well, people of CoH.
I think it decreased. I'm getting about 20-40 fps outside, as opposed to 30-60 fps. In the mission it's a little less (low 20s or lower sometimes as opposed to 20-30s), but tonight was the first time I was on a team with a fire blaster since I changed my settings originally so I don't know if that affected it. Basically, nothing I can't live with as long as it keeps my computer from freezing up.
I always feel like the framerate is a little slower if I have /showfps on, so I typically keep it off. (At least, it makes me feel like it's faster with it off. 
)
Thanks for the great info Bill - I'm going to apply your tips tonight and see how it goes. I just upgraded to 6.3, which sounds like it was a bad idea from the conversation. Guess I'll roll back to 6.2 first. I did experience a problem with a contact image glitch last night, after the upgrade, and now I understand why.
One problem I haven't seen mentioned is, for lack of a technical term, "fritzing." Basically the whole screen will fritz to garbage for a spit-second and then back - just lots of colorful pixellated garbage, no image that I can discern, and then back. Happens maybe once an hour or two, maybe less even. Since it doesn't break gameplay I haven't paid it too much attention - just an annoyance really. Hopefully something in your tips will clear it up.
I'm running on a Dell Dimension 8200 with 768 MB RAM and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro with 128MB (I think it said "Pro" - not sure anymore). So I get bad lag in large group missions with big fights - especially around MasterMinds with all their minions. I think your tips will help this greatly.
I get the Contact list lag first time too, so it's my habit now to hit that first after logging in, before moving on to anything else. The thing I hate worst is the travel lag at times, after login or zoning I guess, that leaves you blinking between different positions and ending up somewhere you didn't quite expect.
Thanks again - hopefully things will run better thanks to your help!
So far so good...Had a bit of a problem as I went too far with the services changes listed on overclockersclub.com, but a restore fixed that up and I was "less aggressive" the next time.
I implemented the changes from your Performance Guide 2.0, then started on the in-game stuff from the ATI Settings Guide. I noticed, though, that there are two differences in recommendations between the two guides. The PG2 says to go with Anisotropic Filtering at 4x, while the ATI says 8x. The other regards Adaptive Anti-Aliasing: the PG2 says disabled, while the ATI says enabled.
Any tips as to which way to go with these?
My comp's running a bit better I can tell - now I have to see about the game. It was time for the morning maintenance right as I finished the in-game changes, so I haven't tested it yet.
Thanks again!
Oh great, so now I'm contradicting myself...
Sorry bout that:
I honestly don't notice any difference between 4X and 8X AF. So I err on the side of performance and now have mine at 4X.
Adaptive Antialiasing will cause a huge performance hit from what I've bee reading, so disable it.
As always, I hope this helps make a better gaming experience for you.
Be well, people of CoH.
Just so you know:
I currently play at 1024X 768, cat 6.3s, P4 2.4, 1.5 gigs RAM, ATI 9800 Pro AIW, 128MB.
1. Had ALL of these issues, on a fresh load of XP. Came to find that as long as AGP writes was on, I could not run dual- channel memory without issues both in- game and out. This issue may be platform-specific to me. AGP wites is on, and I dont use dual channel mode.
2. AGP Fast Writes gave me fits w/the 6.2s. The 6.3s apparently prefer for the CPU to directly access the card. AGP FW on, no issues w/the weird contact grqaphics etc.
I honestly believe Antialiasing may be useless. Try these settings changes:
LCD: find and use monitor's native resolution in-game.
FSAA: app controlled (off in CoH) BTW = have my suspicions on Quincux.
Aniso: 4X (8X and 16X have never been seen as -better-, but are MUCH more costly)
Shadows: OFF - ATI has had issues in other games with shadows on.
Texture crispness: Crisp (YES, crisp, it's AWESOME looking)
Water effcts: High (Looks cool)
DOF and Bloom: I leave off but suffer little perf hit either way.
Was in leadership of Hami raid, and had graphics turned down, yes, but no crashes, never lost target, and dipped below 8 FPS seldom, including attack phase.
I DO use high quality texture settings in card options. This is because lower settings actually hurt me more. It uses texture compression, which chew Card cycles. 128MB is plenty for my in-game res and texture choices, so I am staying High Quality.
FSAA is unnecessary at 1280X 1024 for me. I still have it off at 1024X768, as I am fine w/tiny jaggies.
BillZ- Do you know that Triple buffering does nothing unless Vsynch is on? And Both Vsynch and Triple cause a good sized hit to card memory use as well as frame rendering speed when combined..... Some of your settings are ill- advised for those with low end, or older cards.
BTW VPU recover is also reportedly linked to performance and stability issues when enabled.
I get sound looping seldom, unless running for hours now. Researching that.
That is all....
Edit: Note that AGP writes and AGP Fast Writes are NOT the same thing.
Triple buffering is disabled to save card memory and card memory bandwidth. Vsynch is off, as I dont get a solid 60FPS+, so synching would only hurt performance.
Lallendos,
You raise some good points.
It is true that unless you have visual tearing, or if you are running benchmarking tests, you shouldn't enable vsync. (And yes, triple buffering should always be enabled IF you enable vsync and ONLY IF you enable vsync.)
However, at higher resolutions, like the 1920X1200 that I am forced to run out, tearing does occur unless I enable vsync. The other plus with vsync is for folks with high end GPUs that are running at lower resolutions. By locking the hori and vert refresh, you free up more graphical processing for other items.
My rule of thumb has been: CRT, set refresh to 75 at desktop, in game, and within driver with Ref-Rate Override. LCDs stay at 60 since refresh means nothing to an LCD.
About Fast Writes: I refuse to suffer the performance hit I'm seeing with Fast Writes On. But what you said about dual-channeling the RAM and Fast Writes was interesting. I can't see leaving my RAM in single channel, but I'm more than willing to go test it out and see what difference it may make.
Again, I only experience the Contact screen lockups with the Cat 6.3s and Fast Writes Off. As soon as I rolled back to the 6.2s that problem went away.
Yes, High Water is pretty. No denying that. But it did kill my FPS in sewer missions, so that's out. Tack on the fact that High Water, DoF and Bloom all kill FSAA with ATI cards, and it's doubly a no go. I CAN'T live with jagged edges, even at 1920X1200. Totally ruins my gaming experience.
I hadn't heard that about VPU Recover. I'll tack that on to the testing I'm about to do.
So thanks for more items to look at. Good stuff.
Be well, people of CoH.
Hey all, first off I'd like to thank you, BillZ, for making such a great guide!
Secondly, I have a fairly low-end vid card, (Radeon 9550), due to cash flow problems. I've used the settings in this guide, and I've not seen too much of a difference. I've tweaked settings as they've been posted in replies and such, but I'm still only running at around 14fps.
This is just unacceptable for me, and the only way I've been able to alleviate the stress this is causing is to run in a "special" video mode using a tag at the command line "-useTexEnvCombine"
I use this and framerate goes WAY up, but the graphics suck. It's just playable because it moves quickly.
Any suggestions, keeping in mind I'm on an extremely tight budget?
The_Conduit,
I PMed you a recommendation for a card, but if those are out of your pricerange, here's what I'd do:
Get rid of the "-useTexEnvCombine" flag. Go into the game.
Disable completely FSAA, AF, Shadows, Bloom, Depth of Field and Water.
Set World Detail to high and 50%.
Set Shader on Medium. (If this looks TOO bad, put it back on High.)
In your ATI driver advanced settings, disable Let Application Decided for FSAA and AF (if you haven't already) and set them for 2X/2X.
See if that helps any. It's really going to comedown to adjusting each setting to what your eyes can handle, in balance with what your video card can comfortably push.
Be well, people of CoH.
Sweet, thanks loads BillZ. I checked out those tweaks, and it runs alright now. Still not getting a great framerate, but I'm sure there's not much can be done about it.
That card looks pretty sweet, I've been kinda wanting to switch to Nvidia, so that's cool. Thanks for the recommendations!
Maybe this will help with that alt tab problem. Running with a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb and while playing with the "SHader Quality" did not affect the problem when I turned it from High to low. But when I quit out because I did manage to recreate the problem(managed to recreate it alot, sometime it fixed itself other times it did not, in this case it did not fix itself) and it wasn't going away when I went to start the game again it came up with some OpenGL error. Stupid me I forgot to write the wording of this message down, but going. The launcher would come up, but I could not start CoH. After doing a restart it ran fine, but my remembered accoun name was gone. no biggie, but it also reset some of my options, resolution among them. Reseting that back to desktop size(1280 by 1024) I was able to alt-tab again with out hassle. However some of the eye candy settings had been reduced to their low settings again. Playing further from there when I took Shader Quality back up to High the messed up screan came back too. However then lowering the shader quality back to low, did not fix the problem, in fact it did the error again where I had to restart the system again to get it to launch. That's as far as I am on it right now, sounds like I may just leave that shader quality option at low, to keep an ease of access to Vent & iTunes, unless there's a way to fix it.
BTW great job with the guide it has helped out CoH/V performance, I hope this info can help out in some way.
Fast Writes Off only locked me up with the 6.3s. Still haven't had a single lock since rolling back to 6.2s.
Be well, people of CoH.