Does anyone with a Parhelia play HL-mods, get in here

[CaineTanathos]

Doesn't matter with mod u use, but could you guys try this
with the console command max_fps you can set the max fps .

With my GF3 ti200 everything under 50 fps the image gets blurry/not sharp .

so could you try it and tell me how it plays and how it looks.
try different fps , like 30 , 40 , 50

[UberLord]

The popular CS mod which I'm forced to play @ my m8's LAN parties (or SADCON as it's refered as ) runs OK on my P.

FPS varies from 75-99fps just walking around the map.


With 9 peeps on screen the fps drops to around 65 - still very playable.

However, add a smoke grenade or 2 to the same scene and it drops into the 40's.

The P. exhibits the same probs that all other cards did with smome grenades in CS - the fps really takes a hit. This happened with my KyroI, KyroII, ATI 8500 and now my P.

I think this is more of a CPU limitation/game design flaw than a fault with the P. as I've had the exactly the same rig with these 4 cards

AMD 1.4 (not oc'ed)
512 DDR PC2100 Crucial

[UberLord]

LOL - forget looks

KyroI & II - looks OK but not spectacular. Crap performance in OpenGL but excellent in D3D

ATI 8500 - Playing x128 aniso filtering really makes this old engine look good. I mean really good. Textures are nice and sharp everywhere

Parhelia - It's the only game I've got where the FAAx16 just doesn't look as good as the x128 aniso filtering from tehe 8500. On the other hand, it's also the only game where SmoothVision from the 8500 was actually playable - downside was that it blurred the text badly. Hence I never actually used it.

All in all, it looked the best on the 8500. The only other game that looked better (and played better) on the 8500 compared to the P. is Unreal Tournament - but thats due to the OpenGL renderer by Dan Voguel working nicely with the 8500. It just sucks on the P. On the flip side, D3D blazes away in UT on the P. whereas it crawled on the 8500.

Make of this what you will

[CaineTanathos]

nice thx, when matrox will fix the anisotropic filtering it will look better than a 8500

great info about the fps also
I heard some other stories when they runned CS they had fps between 40 - 70,

With my GF3 ti200 I have almost always 85 (I have set it with max_fps 85) will try the smoke grenade test, but I think its a driver bug

[UberLord]

Originally posted by CaineTanathos
nice thx, when matrox will fix the anisotropic filtering it will look better than a 8500

I don't know if the x2 aniso filtering limitation is driver or hardware. If it's hardware then it's never going to look better. Also, the higher level of aniso the slower it goes - so a balance must be found.

great info about the fps also
I heard some other stories when they runned CS they had fps between 40 - 70,

With my GF3 ti200 I have almost always 85 (I have set it with max_fps 85) will try the smoke grenade test, but I think its a driver bug

Really? Then I guess my Kyro's, 8500 and P. must all suffer from the same driver bug

[CaineTanathos]

parhelia should support 8x

tried that with the some grenades, with 3 smoke grenades my fps drops to 30 in CS_Assault

I meant a bug in HL

[UberLord]

Originally posted by CaineTanathos
parhelia should support 8x

Hopefully someone can clarify what it should support and what it actually does.

For example ATI took around 6 months to get SmoothVision working from launch.

tried that with the some grenades, with 3 smoke grenades my fps drops to 30 in CS_Assault

I meant a bug in HL

Yeah 30fps sounds about right

I don't think it's a bug per se in HL. More of a design flaw that they can't fix with the game engine too easily. Wether you classify that as a bug or not is upto you, but the developer in me tells me that it's a design flaw and not a bug

EDIT: Fixed quote

[az]

I think it's because HL wasn't made with smoke grenades in mind, and CS has to use what's already there - and lots of transparent textures will mean massive strain on the video hardware.

AZ