Jason,

As you seem to have your finger on the pulse at neoqb;

Is there any effort being taken to address the graphics performance degradation experienced by many following the v1.004/5 patches?

The tough thing is that it appears that only a small minority of folks are reporting the problem. Others seem unconcerned, and some even report framerate increases after the patches.

But for those of us experiencing the problem, it is very pronounced and symptoms very similar. In my particular case;

Framerates in cruising flight dropped from 40-50 FPS down to 20-25 FPS. In combat, framerates are now down to 10-15 FPS, which is way too low. Prior to the v1.004/5 patches, dogfights were fluid and smooth.

Perhaps worse than the framerate reduction is the new micro-stuttering. Even when FRAPS reports a decent framerate (say 25 FPS), the view is still jerky with micro-stutters. This occurs with TrackIR on or off. Doesn't matter. It just seems worse with TrackIR on.

I spent 2 days following the v1.004/5 patches trying to troubleshoot and resolve these issues, to no avail. Every time I try to fly a mission, I end up ESCing out of it because it's so disappointing now. And dogfights are pretty much impossible.

My system, for reference:

WinXP Pro SP3
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53 GHz (overclocked to 3.4 GHz)
4 GB 800 MHz RAM (although WinXP only reports 2MB)
nVidia 9800GT 512MB x2 (SLI)
TrackIR 4 Pro
Saitek X52 + Saitek Pedals

Has neoqb deemed this a non-issue? If so, I'll have to add RoF to my 'Used To Be A Good Sim' shelf.

Hedgehog,

I don't have any easy answers for you unfortunately. I personally do not experience these issues you speak of. My frames seem to be ok after all the patches. I do get sporadic reports of people not happy with performance, but with no obivous cause. Which is frustrating. That doesn't mean you aren't experiencing some bad FPS. I can only give you a couple suggestions at this point.

1. Since you have an SLI system I suggest getting the SLI enhancement files from EVGA that includes an SLI supported profile for ROF. Use with the 190.38 nvidia drivers.

2. Flying with Icons on does carry a pretty hefty FPS penalty at the moment. neoqb is aware of that issue though and should fix it.

As far as having the pulse of neoqb I don't necessarily have it. I'm not there with them working on these things. I mostly work with them on distribution issues and not technical ones. That's why they are in charge of tech support. I can only comment on what they tell me and we have not discussed this particular issue in any detail. I will pass your comments on to them though. I always suggest posting these issues on the official ROF forum so thay can read it themselves on their own site.

As far as them being concerned about perfomance I am sure they are not happy when reports of bad performance come in. They've been pretty responsive so far to other issues that have been brought to their attention, so I would guess that they will also be concerned with this issue.

I don't think they have deemed anything a non-issue.

Thanks for the post.

Jason

Thanks for the response Jason.

Just as data points;

1. I am using 190.38 drivers and had already installed the EVGA SLI 'patch'.

2. Icons ON or OFF makes virtually no difference in my framerate and micro-stuttering. In fact, I can turn graphics settings very high (including POST Effects) or low and disable everything with very little difference.

The framerate and stuttering are apparently not related to graphics rendering, but rather something that changed in the game engine itself. It seems like the sim is grinding and churning, doing much more in-flight processing, than it did before, and that's accounting for the performance drop.

Now, why would that impact only some players? I don't know. If I had a low-end CPU, it would make more sense. But an Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.4 GHz should be able to keep up nicely (I think).

My system benchmarks reasonably well on 3DMark default settings, about 15000 3DMarks. Other sims run at their highest settings with excellent framerates. RoF ran with great smoothness and framerates before the patch. Something weird happened with the v1.004/5 patch that only affected some of us, and nobody has been able to figure out what the common factor is.

I'm away from home for business until the end of the week. My plan at this point is to completely uninstall and reinstall RoF when I get home. Why? Because I've already tried everything else. Do I expect it to fix anything? No. But at least I'll know I tried.

Meanwhile I'll hope that someone at neoqb has observed what we're talking about and knows it's real.