Well, I've just had the best 2 hours of offline flight simming I can remember...

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by naz

Hi all

When this game works, it works so good. I have been playing Il2 since the release of the original demo waaaaaaaay back when.

After countless hours tweaking and testing, reading and making a few posts here about my FPS troubles and generally pulling my hair out, I have finally got the game running well and am now simply enjoying flying.

I just did the first two missions of the Eagle Day LW campaign that adonys was kind enough to translate from the Russian forums and post here. I had the most absorbing and fun two hours in a flight sim in years. Constantly taking care of my engine, constantly watching my instruments, constantly trying to keep track of where everyone was (ashamed to admit i was an icon addict in IL2)...and all the while the sim looking gorgeous (to my eyes at least)... I bagged a hurricane and a part kill of another in mission one before returning to Calais badly shot up, and then bagged a Spitfire and a Blenheim in my second mission.... I loved every second of it.

There is a hell of a long way to go with this game, we all know it... but I hope those of you still having problems, those that are upset/disappointed/annoyed can stick with it...Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the frustration many are experiencing (especially those with the multiplayer sound issues)...but, when the game works, its just wonderful despite the many flaws. I look forward to CloD's further improvement and development.

Thank you Luthier and the devs...CloD is a diamond, rough as hell in many parts, but a diamond nonetheless.

I realize this is basically a nothing post, and is purely just my opinion...but if nothing else I hope Luthier realises that he's got at least one happy customer (albeit after much initial frustration) who is excited for what more is hopefully to come.

I am about to finally uninstall IL2-1946, I cant go back now...farewell old girl, you served me well for many years.

could you share that with us please?

S!

[LoBiSoMeM]

Originally Posted by Thee_oddball

could you share that with us please?

S!

Anything shared will be useless until you upgrade your CPU/GPU.

Don't even try without doing that. Will be frustrating...

[Ataros]

Links to campaigns http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...3&postcount=17

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by LoBiSoMeM

Anything shared will be useless until you upgrade your CPU/GPU.

Don't even try without doing that. Will be frustrating...

you must have posted this before you answered me in the patch thread....lol

[naz]

Originally Posted by Thee_oddball

could you share that with us please?

S!

Hi mate

I haven't done anything that hasn't been discussed across the various threads here really. Things I have been trying include, ingame settings (obviously ), Pseudo full screen v true full screen (which pretty much also includes single GPU v Dual GPU), disabling/enabling Catalyst AI, various RadeonPro xfire profiles, using msi afterburner or ati tray tools etc to change settings and monitor the system (temps, gpu clocks, gpu temps etc etc). It all takes a lot of time, and often it seems like you are banging your head against a wall.

I was getting pretty decent performance early on in Pseudo full screen, but when xfire was supposed to have been implemented, my rig's performance seemed to drop off instead of improving. The most frustrating thing was the inconsistency...one game session would be relatively smooth, the next worse than ever. Often I would also start a mission with high v-sync capped 60 fps over manston only for it to suddenly halve and remained halved for the remainder of the game session (others have been reporting that too). I eventually stuck with Pseudo mode again as that gave me the best overall experience.

I then had a bit of a hiccup when for some reason the latest 11.6 drivers seemed to cut my FPS by well over a half in pseudo mode as well (which is part of the reason for me continuing to do so much testing in true full screen mode), but that seems to have cleared up with the latest official patch. I have no idea why as there seems to have been no work done in that regards as listed in the patch notes, but there you have it.

I just think (and I don't pretend for a minute that I actually know what I am talking about) that the xfire support simply does not work too well in this game, at least for my system anyway. I have spent a lot of time, and I mean a LOT (lol) of time testing things out. My final conclusion (correct or not) is that whilst xfire is now active in true full screen, it is by no means used well by the game at all. I am getting very good, stable and consistent FPS again now by going back to Pseudo full screen mode (and thereby only using one of the GPUs on my card).

The game in pseudo mode absolutely screams along and I am finally just enjoying flying again now. The only drawback, of course, is the screen tearing with Track IR (due to no v-sync), but it is not so bad as to ruin the experience. To be fair, the tearing is much less noticeable on my system than it was in IL2-1946 without v-sync...and I simply don't notice it anymore... especially once I get into a furball anyway.

The only advice I can give to anyone reading this with ATI cards (especially a dual GPU card) is to compare true full screen with Pseudo mode, disable aero, do the delete shaders thing and most importantly, get rid of that damn ubi logo which does most of the harm in true full screen. Nothing more that has not already been posted many times all over this forum. Then play around with the ingame settings and find a balance between eye candy and smooth playability. I am running things with original textures and a mixture of high/medium settings elsewhere...FPS of 40+ over land (still 30+ over small cities) and around 70-80 over water for the most part...so i am happy.

London is still a worry however....FPS low 30s at altitude and in the teens at low level in a scenic flight..will be unplayable in a proper combat mission still. Hence the rider in my OP about "when it works..."

To be fair to Luthier, he did advise that people with ATI cards should stick with Peudo mode if having FPS problems. I think I just stuck with trying to get the true screen/xfire working for far too long when I could have been playing

Anyway, I am seriously considering buying one of those 3gig Nvidia 580 cards... xfire/sli always seem to give more headaches than they are worth across many games from what I read (Clod is not alone in that regard). Might think a bit more on that

The funny thing is of course, different systems give different results....I just read a recent post in another thread here where someone said that he was getting better ATI performance in true full screen rather than pseudo, and others for whom the Ubi logo does not seem to cap their GPU clock speed. I have been PC Gaming for over 20 years and so I have no doubt they are accurately reporting what they see....computers are just plain weird.

Anyway, despite all the hassle, I am enjoying what the game gets right, and look forward what isn't right being sorted.

Cheers