Drop of Framerate with Drain power

[Orangina_Rouge]

Well playing a lot MP i have figured ( and i m not the only one ) that when using drain on multiple ennemies ( like 4 or more persons ) the framerate severely drops

Personnally i have all my drivers optimized for video card and AGP bus and got the score i m supposed to have on 3D mark 2001

I run on average at 20-25 FPS more or less depending if in/outdoor but never lower than 15 FPS

But if i m using drain on a small crowd, wherever i am, i drop at something like 7-10 FPS

 

So i would like to know the reason of this and if it could be fixed , coz i don t experience this side effect with lighning wich has a similar visual effect

[Swamp]

that's odd, ive heard others say that ... i have had no problems like this ... o no run!

[Jedi-Rogue]

Same happens to me. Drives me crazy!

[Rogue15]

SO WHAT WHO CARES!!!!!!!!

 

RAVEN IS A COOL NAME AND SO IS LEEEEEEECCCCCCC!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!1111111@!@!@@@@@

[ScribeJC]

How ironic, isn't it, that Drain sucks FPS as well as force power.

 

It seems even worse when they're draining and you're absorbing. Sounds studders -- the works.

 

I wondered if "Detail Shaders" was part of the problem -- but it doesn't change the slowdown. Switching from 32 to 16 bit color makes it somewhat better.

 

Something to do with the FX and lots of color gradients, maybe.

 

C'mon, tech-heads. What's the answer?

 

-JC

[Joruus]

I get this as well. Generally on a full server I'm pulling about 40 - 70 FPS on a GF3 Ti card with 23.11 drivers

 

But the minute I'm even NEAR someone draining more than one target, the entire game drops to about 1 - 9 FPS.

 

This same problem comes up when someone is targeting a target with absorb going with some form of force powers.

 

It occurs when I'm near this kind of thing...not just when I'm doing it...or can see it. I can be on one of the small overpass bridges on Bespin and not even be able to see the melee going on below me and if someone force drains or hits an absorb user with lightning or drain.....the whole game bogs down into a slide show.

 

Add that in with the hitch lag that occurs when people join the server...and it makes MP pretty dicey.

 

Whats worse is I get the same effect whether I'm running my video settings full quality, or completely dumbed down.

 

Heres my system specs.

 

PIII 866

512 Megs of RAM

GF3 Ti with 64 megs of VRAM

AGP Aperature set to 256

DX 8.1

com_hunkmegs set to 196

[CaptainRAVE]

The only time I get a drop in framerate is when I enter an outdoor area.....all the rest of the time its fine.

[Orangina_Rouge]

Well considering what u say joruus it appears that even with a big badass Geforce 3 it slow down to the same framerate ( personnally i got Geforce 2 so i thought that maybe the difference between my average framerate and the one with drain power wasn t so big )

What surprise me is that some users here says they don t get this trouble ....either they didn test this extensively ....either i m thinkin it could be more tricky :

maybe it could be an issue with Geforce cards ( well that would be pretty bad considering the number of players owning one )

 

So if u experience this too plez post also what Video card you are owning

[Joruus]

I've also talked to people that don't have this issue.

 

So it may be a very specific driver/direct x issue that only effects certain cards made by certain manufacturers.

 

Personally with my set up, and I've done alot of tweaking to get things smoothed out, I freeze completely for about 5 - 10 milliseconds every time someone joins the server I'm on. Something about the models loading no doubt, I could run model loading at death...but that just que's up the freezes til I die...and can freeze me up for anywhere from 10 - 30 milliseconds, or run force default models...but thats no fun.

 

And the Drain/Absorb FPS drop is just huge. Doesn't matter what in game video settings I use.....I was on a server with 4 people on it the other day and I drained the 3 of them in front of me and my FPS dipped from 90 to about 22 FPS instantly. Add more people, and the FPS drops even more. I've literally seen ONE frame per second in large melee's when a drain or absorb occurs, and this is using DX8.1 and the recommended 23.11 drivers.

[ScribeJC]

A new thing I've noticed is that the Drain effect on the victim is more animated than a simpler green/protect, blue/absorb glow. The red drain FX shimmer all up and down the victim's body.

 

Perhaps this means something -- or doesn't.

 

I, too, have GForce -- and old GF2 Mx. I use the newer, not-as-recomended drivers, I think.

 

I don't mind the occasional player-joining studder, but this drain thing is annoying -- especial 'cause I almost always play Light.

 

-JC

[Orangina_Rouge]

Well if someone from raven could express on this issue it would be cool

 

Also if u experience it plez say what video card u use and if u dont well post your video card too , so we can see if it s an issue with GForce cards or not