Hi Guys,

I've been away from WOFF for the past 4 or 5 months and in the interim I found this performance tool I've been using on older game executables similar to CFS3. I applied it to the CFS3 executable in WOFF about a week ago and noticed some immediate improvement in performance in a couple of areas. At 16x time compression I was only getting 2-4 FPS making it hard to scroll the view. Using this 4GB patch I now get a little over 20 FPS in 16x time compression. Also, in moderate congestion I was getting 55-60 FPS but in heaviy conjested areas like Flanders in 1917 and 1918 I would fall off to as low as 25 FPS in busy dogfights. Now I'm dropping no lower than the mid 40's FPS when there are a lot of planes in the air. Or I'm able to run 55555 instead of my old numbers of 53355 with better FPS rates than my old FPS rates. Overall I've gotten better performance and the ability to use it in some different areas of the game.

It may be useful to those of you with a minimum of 4GB of RAM. You can read more about it here:

http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

Be sure to back up your CFS3 executable (it will be called an "Application" in Windows Explorer ) before trying the patch just in case you need to back out the change.

Sounds nice. Does it has any effect for users with more than 4GB and 64-bit OS?

This is ALREADY applied to WOFF. If you need to use it then, you messed up your install by replacing WOFF's CFS3.exe.

No, I've never moved any files from the CFS3 directories to WOFF. I've never even looked inside the CFS3 directories (I didn't own CFS3 prior to buying WOFF).

Maybe the patch failed when I installed WOFF? In any case WOFF's running better than ever for me now

If it didn't do anything then were your observations just a Placebo Effect?

What do you know about the veracity of NTcore.com?

Is this really just a Trojan Horse loader?

I doubt its a Trojan Horse loader. Bucksnort is a valued member of the flight sim community precisely because he does not advocate risky things and often makes thoughtful contributions.

While it's possible that it's a placebo effect, I would lean towards a different explanation. Frame rates can vary quite wildly depending not just on graphic settings, but also what part of the world that you are flying over and what time, date and year you are doing so.

For instance, flying over the a specific area of the Front Lines may get you 20 FPS in 1916, but flying over that same area in 1918 might possibly drop FPS to 3 - 4 if there is a major battle going on or do to the massively increased air activity. I suppose the only way to be sure is to fly the same mission at the same time from the same squadron, etc, etc both with and without the add on recommended.

That said, if there are those who have "modified" the CFS3 for any reason, it may well be worth trying Bucksnorts' recommendation. As long as you back up your original, as he recommended in his original post, its probably worth a try.

hellshade.....a thoughtful and considered response...nicely put...love this community
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I spent some time researching independent reviews, and it seems fairly legit, though perhaps not of much value for WOFF since the >2Gb functionality is already built in.

Thanks for posting this Bucksnort! It may be redundant for WOFF, but I tried it in CFS3 and it works great, definite improvement to performance.

I suspect it would work great on the old OFF too.

The 4GB patch isn't applied later.

If you see a difference then something else is wrong. Or something/someone replaced the exe.

Some tools allow you to see the current status of the Large Address Aware bit in the exe before you patch it should show it as OK.

There is no need whatsoever to use a different/modified CFS3.exe with WOFF. You do not need a DVD/CD in when flying with the exe in WOFF so do not modify the exe further.

After reading Pol's first response from yesterday I went back and tested a little more last night. These are the CFS3 exe's I found:

CFS3.exe date/time stamp 2-7-2003 10:35am v3.1 located in my MSCFS3 directory as purchased from GOG.com

CFS3.exe date/time stamp 7-27-2011 10:38am located in my OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields directory

I had applied the 4GB patch to the CFS3.exe located in my OBDWW1 directory dated 7-27-2011 (after backing it up)

I ran 4 sorties last night, two with the 4GB patch applied and two using the CFS3.exe dated 7-27-2011 and here are two screen shots typical of what I saw (with all Workshop settings and graphics card settings the same):


Jasta 9 sortie on Jan 18, 1918 (x8 frame rate is 23) with 4GB Patch exe:




Jasta 9 sortie on Jan 19, 1918 (x8 frame rate is 2) with WOFF CFS3.exe dated 7-27-2011:



Could it be the 4GB patch has done something else also. Or done the same thing differently. If its a placebo effect, so far I can't get inverse results with the 4GB patch version running more slowly, which should occur on a 50/50 random basis. It doesn't seem to have improved my top end FPS of 55-60, but seems to have brought up my bottom end FPS.

Would be interesting to see some testing from others with mid to low end systems who aren't running 60 fps under all circumstances. If you are uncomfortable doing this, then by all means don't do it. But for those who are comfortable with testing this it would be interesting to see your results. Maybe it is a placebo effect, but I can't get the placebo to show itself

Hi Pol,

I just read your second response which got posted while I was posting my screen shots. I totally believe you, but so far I'm getting dramatic increases in my bottom end FPS. Oh well, I'll keep testing off and on and will continue to run the 4GB patch version and maybe I'll see the placebo effect over time. Or like you said, maybe something else is going on.

Thanks!

Bucksnort, I down loaded the patch. How do I install it and where does it go. At this point I am ready to try anything that will improve my game play. My computer meets and exceeds the max requirements for WOFF, yet my fps is 2 on x8 time compression. Please help me

Thanks
Rich

Simple : don't go on x8 TC...
x4 is by far enough and with Ankor's mod I drop only from 60 to 45 fps going from real time to x4. Never even tried x8.
Let's say an average flight to the front line takes some 20 minutes, you will cut it down to 5 minutes.

If you use the "next waypoint" command to skip the boring "turn and climb" stuff you will find that flying real time will certainly improve your game play.

Hi Rich,

Keep in mind this may not help at all. You can flip a coin 10 times in a row and have it come up heads all 10 times, so I just may not have yet seen the placebo effect the others have mentioned. And if you get this wrong plan on having to reinstall WOFF to set things right. With that said...

1. Create a backup folder that you can find easily named WOFF CFS3 Before 4GB Patch (or something like that).

2. Go to the "OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields" folder and find the CFS3 application file dated 7-27-2011, highlight it and then do a copy/paste of it to your backup folder in Step 1.

3. Now run the 4GB Patch program by double clicking on it and it will open a window called "Select Executable." Drill down and find the CFS3 executable in your OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder, highlight it and then click the Open button in the bottom right corner. You will quickly see a pop-up that says the executable has been updated and when you do you are done.

Run WOFF and see what you get. If you don't like the results then go to your backup folder from Step 1 and copy/paste the original WOFF CFS3 file back to the OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder, select "Copy and Replace" and you are back to the original executable.

DON'T RENAME YOUR BACKUP CFS3 EXECUTABLE FILE AS WINDOWS EXPLORER WILL CHANGE THE FILE EXTENSION. JUST COPY/PASTE IT AND YOU CAN MOVE IT AROUND JUST FINE.

Hope that helps. If the steps above don't make sense then don't do it. For some this will be very easy. For others very confusing depending on computer skills, so do so at your own risk assuming you will have to reinstall WOFF if something goes wrong. But this is no more difficult than installing Ankor's mod, so if you have done that you should have no problems with this.

Good luck!

Thanks, I'll try it tonight

Rich

Well, I just had my first sortie where my x8 time compression ran at 2 FPS, so...never mind. But it was worth a try