annoying fps drops - HL2DMU Forum Archive

the_big_cheese

2010-06-15 06:19:40

I get pretty decent fps (80-150) most of the time.
But whenever something explodes right next to me, or I have a burning barrel in my view, I drop down to ~20.
Also happens with orbs sometimes, or in cs:s a smoke grenade will ruin my framerate for a few seconds.
Anyone know any commands or specific settings that can help this?

Thx,
The_Biggest_Cheese

Paradox

2010-06-15 06:32:05

This always been happening or is it a recent development?

the_big_cheese

2010-06-15 08:05:47

Its always happened with this computer. I just noticed it when I was playing through episode 2 recently and my screen was lagging all over the place during parts.

The Argumentalizer

2010-06-15 09:57:12

Divine Intervention. It's slowing down time so it doesn't do as much damage. Like bullets at half speed.

[EYE] Valar

2010-06-15 15:47:46

lower shaders

the_big_cheese

2010-06-15 19:07:13

Already at low. Anti-Aliasing is also off.
Good thought though because when they were at high it was even worse.

[EYE] Valar

2010-06-15 20:19:00

Wait fir Vsync should be off as well BTW.
this issue has to do with computing particles...i'm assuming this started happening after HL2 and its ep's got updated and you played through ep2?

the_big_cheese

2010-06-15 20:44:15

Yep that's off too.
Are there any links you can give me regarding this?

the_big_cheese

2010-06-15 23:49:59

Update
Neolinkster was a very nice guy and helped me determine the cause.

Swap buffers
A lot of time in Swap Buffers is usually a fillrate problem. Be sure to run full screen and at a lower resolution to test. You can also use mat_viewportscale to test if you are fillrate limited; watch for performance shooting up as the value decreases.
Here are some useful bindings for changing mat_viewportscale using the "[" and "]" keys:
bind "[" "incrementvar mat_viewportscale .1 1 -.1"
bind "]" "incrementvar mat_viewportscale .1 1 .1"
High fillrate can be caused by a number of things, but it's usually expensive materials that cover large amounts of screen space. Expensive materials include:
Water, especially water that overlaps over or under other expensive materials.
Fire, smoke or steam effects.
Glass or other transparent textures, especially with refraction.
Bump, normal-mapped, or specular (reflective) materials.
Any other material with complicated shader effects.
To solve fillrate problems, reduce the number of expensive materials in the scene by simplifying the materials themselves or reducing their number by removing geometry.
Commands:
mat_bumpmap 0/1
mat_specular 0/1

The console commands did nothing for me. Right now the only way I've been able to increase my performance is by lowering my screen resolution.

Ade

2010-06-16 00:44:10

for me, its the heat

my gfx card cant handle 35 degrees celsius in house lol im at top floor
not only drops to 40 fps, but one time it rebooted after sayin 'power saving' .. nvidia rulz

keefy

2010-06-16 22:17:23

Ade wrote:for me, its the heat my gfx card cant handle 35 degrees celsius in house lol im at top floor
not only drops to 40 fps, but one time it rebooted after sayin 'power saving' .. nvidia rulz

Can you give me some of you heat? I will gladly take it off your hands.

Monarch

2010-06-17 09:28:20

man, i have exactly the same.. all can help us is a new videocard

srsly

btw this shit made me play 640*420 on dxlevel 80 - at this resolution it's not possible to see the dust or smoke and it doesnt lug... that's what can really be useful, but on small resulotion be ready not to see anything in 20 meters xd

i can tell 100% there is one console command r_drawparticles 0 but it works only with sv_cheats 1.. try it on local, feel the game
i was wondering of some addon to make it open for using on the server, but it's not so perfect - u cant see smoke of the rpg rocket, or laser of grenade so..