I want my frame rate back
By
Hydrofoil_Zero,
Posted on: 2010-10-20 07:55 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Quote:
If you chose an Ultra-Mode setting, the texture slider will be locked to high... there are no low textures available in Ultra Mode.|
Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
I don't remember exactly how long ago it was, but it can't have been much earlier than August. I don't know if this affects the Windows client either. However, a couple months ago, we (or Mac users) lost the ability to change our shader settings. They appear as N/A, but they're still in use. These got auto-set to medium or higher. I used to keep Shaders on low so the game would maintain an acceptable level of frame rate in all zones, even when my computer was hot. When I sent in a support ticket about it, I was simply told "the option will return soon". Well, I think it needs to be readded now.
Why? My computer exceeds recommended specs for the game and always ran fine. And it still will, until my fans start spinning. Now, I know that sounds like a heat issue, but it isn't. City of Heroes is the only game where my FPS will drop to anywhere from 15 to 3 once my laptop gets warm (other games using Wine stutter a little, native games continue run fine and show no slow down). It didn't use to do this except when I had shaders up too high. And I know it's the shaders, which are stuck on medium/high/whatever and can't be changed, because the only thing I can turn down that gives any appreciable effect on frame rate is the 3D Resolution, and even then I have to drop it almost all the way down. Setting graphics to Minimum has almost no effect. So please, let us change our shader settings again. I'm sick of having ludicrously low framerates in any place other than low-shader mission maps without turning my screen into a blurry mess. I want the framerate I had in Praetoria when GR launched. That zone and its specific instances have become all but unplayable for me. |
To get fps back up, you'll have to lower settings elsewhere. If you post a CohHelper and HijackThis logs in the Tech forums, we'll help you tweak your system.
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... oh where is it...|
Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
I don't remember exactly how long ago it was, but it can't have been much earlier than August. I don't know if this affects the Windows client either. However, a couple months ago, we (or Mac users) lost the ability to change our shader settings. They appear as N/A, but they're still in use. These got auto-set to medium or higher. I used to keep Shaders on low so the game would maintain an acceptable level of frame rate in all zones, even when my computer was hot. When I sent in a support ticket about it, I was simply told "the option will return soon". Well, I think it needs to be readded now.
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Because those graphic settings really don't exist anymore. Building Ultra-Mode also allowed the developers to clean up certain messy hacks in the older engine and make appropriate OpenGL API calls. E.G. Water Effects are now fixed on ATi cards. Intel cards have also been one of the biggest kludges in the engine. Keep in mind, Intel doesn't actually make a GPU. They make Graphics Accelerators. In almost all of the shipping Intel graphics chips the central processor is used to accelerate graphics functions that are/were handled on the GPU by ATi, Nvidia, XGI (and their parent SiS / Trident), S3-Via, Matrox, and even going back far enough, 3DFX. Unfortunately, if you are using an Intel card, you are pretty much stuck on either waiting for the developers to re-kludge the engines, or for somebody on the Intel Windows Driver Development side to fix the Intel drivers. For this issue, you are going to be better off going and talking to Intel. Not the CoH devs. |
Ultra Mode Features are ONLY exposed through the Highest Shader Model leveraging the OpenGL 3.x API.
Ultra Mode Features are NOT EXPOSED through lower shader models. So, like Zombie already said, you have an Ultra Mode Feature turned on. You will need to disable Ultra Mode features in order to leverage a lower shader model.
Now, if you don't know what is an Ultra Mode feature, I can help you there. I've got a nice long post in the Technical Support thread detailing all of the available graphics options as of Issue 18: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219534
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| Why? My computer exceeds recommended specs for the game and always ran fine. |
However, outside of the new PowerMac's with RadeonHD 5770, there hasn't been an Apple system sold that meets the Ultra Mode Minimum Requirements. Ergo, I can probably safely tell you that your computer does not meet the minimum requirements for running Ultra Mode Graphics.
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| And it still will, until my fans start spinning. Now, I know that sounds like a heat issue, but it isn't. City of Heroes is the only game where my FPS will drop to anywhere from 15 to 3 once my laptop gets warm (other games using Wine stutter a little, native games continue run fine and show no slow down). It didn't use to do this except when I had shaders up too high. And I know it's the shaders, which are stuck on medium/high/whatever and can't be changed, because the only thing I can turn down that gives any appreciable effect on frame rate is the 3D Resolution, and even then I have to drop it almost all the way down. Setting graphics to Minimum has almost no effect. |
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| So please, let us change our shader settings again. I'm sick of having ludicrously low framerates in any place other than low-shader mission maps without turning my screen into a blurry mess. I want the framerate I had in Praetoria when GR launched. That zone and its specific instances have become all but unplayable for me. |
I posted here because this was a suggestion. Albeit a suggestion based on incorrect information provided via a support ticket, but a suggestion nonetheless. And it still is one, I just need to go and edit it based on what I just found out.
Basically, setting your graphics to Quality or higher will disable Shader Quality in advanced settings, no matter what you tweak. It will make it show up as N/A. Setting it to recommended or lower will enable you to change it to your heart's content. Turning on any ultra-mode feature other than Water will lock it to "High" and not allow you to change it. Ultra-mode water will let you change your Shader and even works on Medium shaders (staring at a laggy part of Imperial City actually shows a minor increase in FPS when using medium over low. Weird...), so not all ultra-mode features lock you in high shaders. As I can show here...
So, now my suggestion, which I will edit my original post to reflect, is allow Shader Quality to be changed when you set your graphics to Quality or Higher. Right now, by tweaking with advance settings, you can get the same graphics without losing access to shader options by setting to Recommended or lower and raising the advanced settings. That's rather.... unintuitive.
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"I want" and "fix this" are not "suggestions". They're demands or expressions of desire or requests for help.|
Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
I posted here because this was a suggestion.
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As such they belong in the technical support section.
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| So, now my suggestion, which I will edit my original post to reflect, is allow Shader Quality to be changed when you set your graphics to Quality or Higher. Right now, by tweaking with advance settings, you can get the same graphics without losing access to shader options by setting to Recommended or lower and raising the advanced settings. That's rather.... unintuitive. |
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Well, the topic got moved. So, I'm not going to bother arguing about that, even if they did revert my edit to the topic title, intentionally or inadvertently.|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
"I want" and "fix this" are not "suggestions". They're demands or expressions of desire or requests for help.
As such they belong in the technical support section. |
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| Maybe, but it does help avoid unforeseen graphics glitches due to certain things not being turned on when they should and interacting with other settings in an unforeseen manner. |
Anyway, since this is in tech support now, does anyone have any idea of how to fix this ugly sight? This only happens when I set Shaders to Medium and only when the lights are close. At a distance or high/low Shaders, they work fine. I don't remember this happening when GR launched, so did some update bork it?
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It will help to know more about your computer:|
Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
Anyway, since this is in tech support now, does anyone have any idea of how to fix this ugly sight? This only happens when I set Shaders to Medium and only when the lights are close. At a distance or high/low Shaders, they work fine. I don't remember this happening when GR launched, so did some update bork it?
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Please post the results of these two programs:
- CoH Helper - it will show us basic computer settings and your CoH configuration.
- HijackThis - it will show us what's running on your computer concurrently with CoH. Click on "Do a system Scan and save a logfile." It will automatically open up Notepad and put the info there. Make sure Wordwrap is off in Notepad (Format > Wordwrap unchecked) before you cut and paste here.
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
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Is that building on the far left playing tetris? :P
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Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
Well, the topic got moved. So, I'm not going to bother arguing about that, even if they did revert my edit to the topic title, intentionally or inadvertently.
Ok, in my haste I miswrote that. Instead, have it read "Don't set Shader Quality to N/A." It already locks on High if you set Recommended and lower and then turn on an ultra mode feature. Anyway, since this is in tech support now, does anyone have any idea of how to fix this ugly sight? This only happens when I set Shaders to Medium and only when the lights are close. At a distance or high/low Shaders, they work fine. I don't remember this happening when GR launched, so did some update bork it? |
hate you so much right now...going to bed with that theme stuck in my head
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Neither of those run on a Mac. I'm on a MacBook running latest 10.5 with 2.4 gigahertz duo core processor, 4 gigs ram, and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. Outside the game usually only Adium and Google Notifier are running, though sometimes Safari, Text Edit, and iAntiVirus (not scanning) are going too. In game settings I'll grab later when I don't need to rush to class. If nobody replies, I'll edit them onto this post.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
It will help to know more about your computer:
Please post the results of these two programs:
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Ok, in-game graphics settings...
Screen/UI Resolution: 1280 x 800
3D Resolution Scaling: 1280 x 800
Refresh Rate: 60
Gamma 100%
FSAA: Off
Advanced Graphics Settings: Enabled
Graphics Quality: Customized
Enviroment Reflections: Disabled
Water Effects: Ultra
Advanced Shadows: N/A
Shadow Quality: Lowest
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Suppress FX When Close: Disabled
AGEIA PhysX support: N/A
Particle Physics Quality: High
World Texture Quality: Very High
Character Texture Quality: Very High
World Detail: 100%
Character Detail: 100%
Max Particle Count: 50000
Vertical Sync: Enabled
Mouse Cursors: Color
Use Geometry Buffers: Enabled
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture Crispness: Smooth
Shader Quality: Medium
Depth of Field: N/A
Bloom Effects: N/A
Bloom Amount: N/A
Desaturation Effects: N/A
Light Control: N/A
The last few options have, to the best of my knowledge, never been available on the Mac client.
Hate to triple post, but... nobody knows anything that can help?
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Any reason why you aren't running 10.6 (Snow Leopard)?|
Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
Hate to triple post, but... nobody knows anything that can help?
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The performance of the OS is a little better and there have been improvements in the Graphics drivers as well as OpenGL optimizations as well, from what I recall. They probably won't be a huge boost, but perhaps it would help somewhat.
Edit: CuppaManga is the resident CoH Mac expert here so perhaps sending a PM or post in the Mac forum would help.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=234442
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Currently doesn't fit in my budget.
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Originally Posted by PumBumbler
Any reason why you aren't running 10.6 (Snow Leopard)?
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You can pick up the individual SL disc for $29, but if that is too hefty, maybe you have family members who can share the tab if they have macs as well. The 5 user Snow Leopard family pack goes for $46 at amazon, which can make it less than $10/person. Or find someone selling their disc on craigslist.
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Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
Currently doesn't fit in my budget.
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It's more so several mandatory costs, like a busted car window, eating my available funds. I do intend to pick up 10.6 in the future, however.
But, in the meantime, CoX hasn't dropped 10.5 support yet. Plus, not sure if 10.6 would fix this horrid Praetorian lighting.
Edit note: Based on the following posts, I've changed this suggestion. The original was based on what turned out to be inaccurate information from a support ticket.
So, after complaining about my FPS being tanked recently and not having access to shaders and suggestion they be brought back since NC customer support told me they were gone temporarily (and was wrong), I discovered the culprit. Basically, if you set your graphics to Quality or Ultra and then go into advanced settings, you'll see Shader Quality grayed out with a N/A instead of "low, medium, high". However, if you set it to Recommended or lower and then go to advance settings, Shaders will be available. Even if you then go and max out everything to Ultra, the shadow option will still display it's settings, though will lock into High if any ultra option is enabled outside of water, this is fine.
What's not fine is losing access to Shader Quality if you set to Quality or Ultra without having to disable advance settings, lowers your graphics to Recommended or lower, and then enable advance settings again. Shader Quality should never gray out. Ever. I'm sure I'm not the only one who played on slightly tweaked Very High settings prior to Ultra Mode and then found themselves wondering why Quality, which is supposed to equal old Very High settings, causes considerable lag now and why Shaders are gone.
I'd also recommend forcing the use of the "Apply Now" button when setting anything that locks Shaders into high and popping a dialogue (with option to disable said message) mentioning that making this changes will lock Shaders on High. I'm sure someone's not realized Shaders got turned up or that it's the fact they turned Ambient Occlusion to lowest got them stuck with a higher Shader value than they can handle.