Ninja PC requires middling settings to maintain 60fps at all times.

[GunSlingerAUS]

Hey guys

Since TF's awesome patch, I've discovered CLOD in a big way. However, it's taken me 26 hours to finally get it running at a constant 60fps. Here's my rig:
2 x Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB in SLI mode, paired to 1080p projector
i7 3770K CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz - tested as 100% stable over many, many months
8GB DDR3 2100MHz memory
4 x SSD drives, with 1 x PCIe SSD RAID card for OS, separate SSD for game install
Sound Blaster ZXR sound card
Gigabyte G1 Sniper
Windows 7 64 bit edition
Latest NVIDIA beta drivers

As you can see, it's a bit of a killer rig. In fact, I'd wager that it's about as fast as you can get without installing two of NVIDIA's new $2000 Titan video cards

Stupidly, I thought this meant I could run IL2 CLOD at decent settings, especially after seeing folks claiming they ran the game smoothly with much worse hardware. And so began weeks of fiddling and tweaking. However, today I finally stumbled upon the perfect settings, that kept me at 60fps no matter where I was flying - but especially low over the big towns:

NVIDIA Control Panel
16 x Anisotropic Filtering
4x MSAA
FXAA on
No transparent antialiasing
SLI enabled via Luthier's SLI tweak
SMAA injected via JSGME

Game Settings
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Full Screen: On
Model Detail: High
Buildings Detail: Ultra Low
Land Detail: Medium
Forest: Medium
Visual Effects: Medium
Texture Quality: High
Anti-aliasing: 4x
Epilepsy filter: Off
SSAO: disabled
Damage Decals: High
Buildings Amount: High
Land Shading: Medium
Grass, Shadows, Roads all enabled

For the first time ever, I can take off from Ramsgate and FRAPs reports 60fps, without any stuttering. I tried the fix stickied at the top of these forums about reinstalling DirectX and .Net framework, and neither made a lick of difference - it was only when I lowered to these settings that it worked.

Now, before somebody weighs in and says there's something up with my PC, let me explain what I do for a living - I test PC components and write about them for magazines. I've been building and tweaking and perfecting PC builds for 15 years, and my gaming PC benchmarks perfectly. I meet with engineers from AMD, NVIDIA and Intel to discuss their latest hardware, and often share my experiences with them when things go wrong. So my PC is built pretty damn well, and it runs at the exact, high framerates expected... except for IL2 CLOD. This leaves me to conclude that those who claim the game runs at 60fps, with everything on high, are either running at very low resolution, or they're not recording the frame rate from somewhere demanding like on the ground at Ramsgate. Sure, everybody can hit 60fps in the middle of the channel, but it's when you're engaged in a desperate fur ball low over Hoskinge that 60fps really matters. I'd love to stumble upon some magic setting, but I've tried every tweak suggested in the entire IL2 CLOD performance forum, not to mention this forum.

The good news is the game still looks spectacular, and I've basically removed the background shimmering. I'd love to be able to run every thing at max - this is the only game I play that I can't - but I know now that this won't happen for another 5 years of hardware advancement, or unless Team Fusion can pull off something special. To those of you thinking you're going to get 60fps on lesser machines, I really doubt it, but try my settings as a baseline and go from there.

Now to see if the meshshowlod tweak still kills my frame rate ;)

[ATAG_Snapper]

Great post, Gunny! :thumbsup:

On my antiquedated system (save the video card) I found I was having a real problem spotting dots while running at my monitor's native res of 1920 x 1080. I took Philstyle's suggestion of knocking out all anti aliasing both in the Nvidia CP and in the ingame GUI. The thinking is that the various anti aliasing modes attempt to smooth and blend artefacts which unfortunately renders single pixels nearly invisible.

I turn off AA ingame, plus use Phil's Nvidia CP settings below. I don't run SweetFX/SMAA/etc. but I do have various settings on my Asus monitor (Realistic/Movie/Landscape/Gamer etc) which changes the viewing saturation and contrast. I think it's "movie" (or "Cinema" -- can't remember the precise term) that provides the richness in colour & contrast that I find looks best. Of course, any movie making I do requires some post processing on the washed out video recording (AA/saturation/contrast/shadows/unsharp masking) to replicate the desired SweetFX/SMAA-type effects.

The upside is that I can run native resolution with Phil's settings and still see distant dots -- especially formations. The downside is that distant landscapes are still a bit shimmery -- the price I pay to see distant aircraft.

Hopefully the whole LOD system will someday be restructured in that these compromises don't have to be made on many of our systems.

My system: i7 920 @ 2.67 mhz (Gateway BIOS locked out), 12 Gigs DDR3, GTX680 2 gigs, Asus 27" monitor, onboard Realtek soundcard, Win 7 64 bits, Warthog HOTAS, CH Quadrant, TrackIR 5, Sears mini beer fridge, American Standard ensuite relief system 8 LPF

[9./JG52 Ziegler]

First off you do have an excellent system! Unfortunately, the SLI does nothing much for you in CLoD. That said you should still be getting 60fps. I have the same system as you albeit not as many bits, but mine (same CPU & GPU) runs the game at 60fps with one evga gtx 670FTW. I have the card set at a 120% OC profile and I have the ingame vsync tik'ed so that it stays right at 60. Like Snapper, I have the AA in game off. I do use SSAO and everything else on High and unlimited on the buildings amount. No epileptic filter either. This setting is almost always pegged on 60 except maybe a low fight through London. With the Vsync off it runs higher FR but is less consistent. I started just having everything maxed and have toned down slightly for the consistency without really sacrificing any quality.

Also after a while of playing you can benifit from a fresh boot of the game. Free's up some memory. :thumbsup:

[II/JG53_TarJak]

Gunny, As a suggestion leave forest on medium and drop your Buildings amount to medium and then try the other settings on high. I also don't run in game AA and have Vsync off but SSAO on.

[DK_]

Just a few stabs in the dark...

turn off all extra video stuff like aa and anything that causing image smoothing in gui and nvidia control panel (becaue you want to find the dots), try pseudo full screen instead of full screen, rename the intro movie, use original textures not high, try it without sli.

It defies logic, as many things with this title, but I have read that original textures are better than high anyway.

[GunSlingerAUS]

Hey guys

I've tried everything suggested, such as changing forests and buildings to medium, pseudo instead of full screen, disabling the intro, etc, etc - I have tried every tweak suggested on the ATAG or official forums. Nothing could give me 60fps while in the hangar at Ramsgate.

Zodiac, would you mind running Fraps and spawning at Ramsgate in a Spitfire and telling me what you get while you're on the ground? If you can get 60fps with everything on high then there's something strange, but the fact you said you get lower fps over London suggests you'll probably not hit 60fps at Ramsgate. And considering so much action happens around there, I need it to stay pegged at 60fps.

The only thing I didn't change was disabling AA entirely - I hate jaggies with a passion, especially as they look so bad on my 85 inch projector screen. I might give that a shot and just use the SMAA injector.

[Tvrdi]

I must admit that Im pretty picky when it gets to performance. I dont have nuclear rig (i7920 OC to 3.65Ghz, GTX660Ti) but the game just isnt smooth at 1920x1200 even with all settings to medium (except model detail and textures at high). I tried with ingame AA and AF set to off both in nvidia CP and in the game. I also tried without AA injectors (completely without AA) and still no joy. Dont get me wrong, its playable but not smooth as Im used to in other sims. Dunno if thats because Im using vsync and TiR (usualy a "slower game" for me is more noticable when looking with TiR...like microstutters or a but sluggish movement). Over the sea is ok. I also tried with lowering my res to 1680x1050 but that didnt help much (?!). I also have a big experience with hardware and software so I tried many things to improve performance....nothing satisfactory (for my liking). Dunno if the ping has something to do with it as I usually have ping at 170 in ATAG server....
Maybe something can be done performance wise in one of the future patches with optimizing effects, textures, etc....

[92 Sqn. Philstyle (QJ-P)]

Nothing could give me 60fps while in the hangar at Ramsgate.


I have a 4GB GPU (GTX 670) and I get around 35-45 FPS when on the ground at Manston/ Ramsgate.
Trying for 60 in that situation is not necessary, and rarely achievable.

I get 120+ when flyiing out over the coat though...

[9./JG52 Ziegler]

I just tried the Ramsgate spawn Gunslinger and got just about the same as Phil in the 40-45 range on the ground. As soon as I'm in the air it stays pegged at 59-60 due to the vsync being on. With it off it really depends where I'm looking but seems to be over 60 unless I'm diving onto a contact or on the deck near a city.

[ATAG_Headshot]

I think part of the problem when you first spawn in and before you take off is that the plane is kicking up dust and the dust particle effect kills your frame rate. To me at least it gets a lot better as soon as you are off the ground and the dust stops.

[GunSlingerAUS]

I just tried the Ramsgate spawn Gunslinger and got just about the same as Phil in the 40-45 range on the ground. As soon as I'm in the air it stays pegged at 59-60 due to the vsync being on. With it off it really depends where I'm looking but seems to be over 60 unless I'm diving onto a contact or on the deck near a city.

Ahh, as I thought. That's the best I could get as well until settling on my new graphics options, where I now get 60fps, all the time, no matter what. I just can't abide anything less than 60fps, as it feels way too stuttery and clunky to me.

[DK_]

How about a pic of that 80" screen? That is something I would like to see...

[ATAG_JTDawg]

some screens in hanger 25742575257625772578

[GunSlingerAUS]

some screens in hanger 25742575257625772578

JTDawg, you're running with a lot of graphics options toned down though, right? I can see straight away that the SSAO, shading and grass all appear to be disabled?

One weird thing I've noticed is how much of an FPS hog the cockpit is. I get much higher framerates from the outside of the aircraft than inside.

[Tvrdi]

Ok I set textures to med and that improved things....and that is less ugly than high or original with lower game resolution (than the native of my LED screen)....

[ATAG_JTDawg]

JTDawg, you're running with a lot of graphics options toned down though, right? I can see straight away that the SSAO, shading and grass all appear to be disabled?

One weird thing I've noticed is how much of an FPS hog the cockpit is. I get much higher framerates from the outside of the aircraft than inside.


No not really SSAO is off , but that is only 5-8 fps = no biggy, i'll turn back on tonight an post . Model Detail = HIGH === BUILDING amounts med ==== Land Detail = HIGH===Forest amount =MED--- Visual Effects =high------ Texture= Original ---- Damage = High . === Building amounts = Med==== Land shading =High=== Roads are on . I do have grass an shadows off === only because I get shimmering on Trees , Which looks like crap. But I do have 2 XFX- 6870 BLACK EDITIONS In crossfire which does work on ati cards , only thing I can fault them is they are only 1 gig each. It is not uncommon for me to get high 200 + fps up high with no tearing, An on deck in furball 60 + :thumbsup: