When I'm playing alone, I'm getting around 10-15 fps instead of my average 30. When on a crowded server, I can get around 1-10 fps. I ran a scan and my computer came clean, but ads still come up (but in IE instead of Firefox). Also, I'm running patch W, so I don't think it's the game's problem, but my computer's problem. What could be robbing my power?

Also, here are my specs:

Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
nVidia GeForce 2 MX100/200
512 RAM
Unsure about my motherboard, though

dunno, press ctrl-alt-del and see what kind of crap you got running in the background hogging your resources

make sure a 2nd user isn't logged on either, that will easily do it

I don't see anything out of the ordinary (of course, I suck at computers) but I can't see anything I can't detect.

The GeForce 2 doesn't support HVS (Hardware Vertex Shading), if I remember correctly. Since LFS uses this you'll probably not get brilliant performance.

a 1.6 GHz P4????
is there even such thing??

seems a bit slow for a P4, P4s are usually around 3 GHz

mess with your LOD settings ingame, remember that the LOD settings did change in this patch, so you need to lower them

Quote from XCNuse :

a 1.6 GHz P4????
is there even such thing??

seems a bit slow for a P4, P4s are usually around 3 GHz

mess with your LOD settings ingame, remember that the LOD settings did change in this patch, so you need to lower them

P4's are around 3ghz?? Where have you been? The first P4's that came out was around 1.4ghz if I'm not mistaken.

Nowadays P4 is ard 2.1 gHz, i overclocked my Core2 Duo frm 2.8 to 3.3 hehehe. This prob has something to do with ur graphics card. Check that the motherboard isnt overheating and maybe u'll like a change of graphics card. I recommend Nivida GeForce 7XXX Series.

Oh, and guys, my parents are misers who wouldn't let their children buy stuff with their own money, so I'm stuck with my graphics card and CPU. And it doesn't support HVS, so I'm kinda stuck, but I don't think there's anything wrong with my setup right about now - it's ample, until there are like 20 people on a server. I might have gotten 30-40 fps before, but now I get 10-15 fps and I want to find out why. By the way, I did change the LOD. I might have a virus or trojan or something

your lucky to even then those FPS with that setup.

The best way of improving your FPS is to get nearly ANY graphics card with HVS support(Full DX 8.1 compilant). In my waaaaay old P3 1GHz does crappy GeForce FX 5200 pretty good job, no problem to get 50 fps on patch W.

Quote from MadCatX :

The best way of improving your FPS is to get nearly ANY graphics card with HVS support(Full DX 8.1 compilant). In my waaaaay old P3 1GHz does crappy GeForce FX 5200 pretty good job, no problem to get 50 fps on patch W.

Now you have to tell us how. *sorry for threadjack*. I have an P4 with 1.4 GHz and an Excalibur Radeon 9800 PRO, and 1GB SDRAM. I only get like 5 FPS with full starter field, 30 whem I am alone. I have all the stuff in my traybar that is not essentially needed (that is, everything except virus scanner and firewall) turned off, and also disabled all unneeded services running in the background.

In the attachments you find some screenshots of my current Graphics and Misc settings.

Sadly those first P4s that came out (Willamette Core) had some performance issues - being slower than equivalently clocked P3s of the time. Anyway turn down the settings as much as you can and hope for the best!
You might also want to play with the AGP aperture setting in the BIOS - change it once, record the FPS you get, then try another setting.

Quote :

but ads still come up (but in IE instead of Firefox)

There's your problem right there. You have adware. I'd recommend running adaware, spybot search & destroy, and every other malware removal tool you can find - because until those ads stop coming up the stuff is still there and installed.

yep, download ccleaner and spybot, i use them (the only things i use) and they work great (and both are free, thats a big +)

my P4 though is 3 ghz
which.. sucks because i have a P4 i want a duo :S
actually i dont really want.. i need one lol soon

Quote from the_angry_angel :

The GeForce 2 doesn't support HVS (Hardware Vertex Shading), if I remember correctly. Since LFS uses this you'll probably not get brilliant performance.

You can set HVS off if needed?

yes but what he is saying is that HVS extremely increases performance, without HVS a person's FPS is about half or less of what it could be with HVS on

@architect, if you really want to boost your FPS, make sure the sky is turned off, it usually adds a good 10 or so FPS

Quote from St4Lk3R :

Now you have to tell us how. *sorry for threadjack*. I have an P4 with 1.4 GHz and an Excalibur Radeon 9800 PRO, and 1GB SDRAM. I only get like 5 FPS with full starter field, 30 whem I am alone. I have all the stuff in my traybar that is not essentially needed (that is, everything except virus scanner and firewall) turned off, and also disabled all unneeded services running in the background.

In the attachments you find some screenshots of my current Graphics and Misc settings.

You might try to enable MipMapping and upgrade to the latest patch(but i suppose you did it already). 50 fps is max value I can push out from it when on Blackwood. LFS is still playable when there are 10 car on the grid. I have Sky and Fog enabled also, because it doesn't affect performance.

Maybe increasing sound lag and installng official Catalyst drivers can help also. Make sure that there is no unwanted background process running on your system, a screenshot of TaskManager Processes tab would be helpful...

Quote from MadCatX :

You might try to enable MipMapping and upgrade to the latest patch(but i suppose you did it already). 50 fps is max value I can push out from it when on Blackwood. LFS is still playable when there are 10 car on the grid. I have Sky and Fog enabled also, because it doesn't affect performance.

Maybe increasing sound lag and installng official Catalyst drivers can help also. Make sure that there is no unwanted background process running on your system, a screenshot of TaskManager Processes tab would be helpful...

I tried the official catalysts earlier ago, the OMEGA Drivers give a lot more FPS to me.
And about the unwanted tasks...

Quote from me :

I have all the stuff in my traybar that is not essentially needed (that is, everything except virus scanner and firewall) turned off, and also disabled all unneeded services running in the background.

Thanks for your advice!

Quote from the_angry_angel :

The GeForce 2 doesn't support HVS (Hardware Vertex Shading), if I remember correctly. Since LFS uses this you'll probably not get brilliant performance.

But you might be able to remedy that:
(Thanks to BulliT)

Quote from BulliT :

There is also loads of laptops without HVS. I posted an improvement suggestion in case you haven't enabled the Intel/AMD optimized software mode.
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=368182

AND.... try Dynamic LOD Reduction set to 1.0
(that always gives me about 10-15 FPS more on multiplayer)

I also lost alot of performance in patch W. I must turn my LOD's way down in order to get the same performance and the graphics now look significantly less detailed for me. Older graphics cards like ours are now becomming obselete.
(edit: I forgot I set Multiplayer speedup option to NO. As soon as I put it back my FPS went back to normal)



edit: OOPS,
Rmedy to HVS option support - Software
From another thread......

Quote from axus :

You should turn on HVS, it will make a substantial difference in FPS. As for that suggestion, that's something directed at Scawen which will allow people to use Software Vertex Shading - you can't do anything to turn that on until support is added.

Quote from St4Lk3R :

I tried the official catalysts earlier ago, the OMEGA Drivers give a lot more FPS to me.

+1

Definitely go for the Omega drivers imo. Better quality visuals and better performance. And they come with ATI tray tools instead of that bloaty, horrible Catalyst Control Center.

I'm sorry but in 2007 you can't expect any sort of game to run on a sub 2ghz pc, especially when powered by a 3D card that was midrange when it was introduced somewhere in 2000.

The fact that LFS works at all is testimony to how hardware friendly LFS is. But even then you need a 2ghz cpu with something as basic as a Geforce 4 ti 4200 which was a midrange card mid 2002...

Quote from Niels Heusinkveld :

I'm sorry but in 2007 you can't expect any sort of game to run on a sub 2ghz pc, especially when powered by a 3D card that was midrange when it was introduced somewhere in 2000.

The fact that LFS works at all is testimony to how hardware friendly LFS is. But even then you need a 2ghz cpu with something as basic as a Geforce 4 ti 4200 which was a midrange card mid 2002...

Bear in mind that my computer is usually for school stuff, and I only occasionally play games like LFS, so I really don't need a uber computer. Would I like a better CPU? Sure, but at this point I really don't need it.

Your CPU is able to keep up with it for some acceptable framerate.
Your bottleneck is your graphics card.
These days you can have a GeForce 6200 for €40 or something in that pricerange.
Performance of the computer is dependend on 3 things. CPU power, Memory and Graphics card. Those 3 need to work ok. Otherwise the other waits for the other.etc..
Also a problem that I experience is at work (I work at a computer company) is that parents have no clue about games these days.
They buy themselfs a new computer to give their old to their kids to play games :S
They are in the understanding a game is just a game and doesn't need much power. Well... Computer Games use the most advanced programs etc. So they need the latest systems to run perfect.
Today there is more money in the game business then hollywood actors earn.

Quote from The Architect :

When I'm playing alone, I'm getting around 10-15 fps instead of my average 30. When on a crowded server, I can get around 1-10 fps.

I run LFS on a pentium 3, 1ghz, tablet PC (I dunno, 14" screen or something daft like that...). Frankly, you should be getting better frame rates than that. Online I usually get 20fps (+/- 5fps), except at the turn one bottlenecks, where I have to hang back because LFS becomes a magic lantern slideshow.

It depends what the competition is too: UF1s, XFG/XRGs - good frame rates; TBOs on South City - don't bother...

It is a pain in the arse because it does dictate race strategy - I can't even think about leading from the front, because there's no way I'll keep control of the car with a lot of polygons hogging the frame rate in my mirror. Pretty much every race has to fought from the back, picking cars off one at a time. But, hey, that's racing on a budget in a nutshell!