Gotta love GTA3
- Thread starter AlphaWolf
- Start date
Trotterwatch
Active member
The engine is pretty damn sweet I reckon, it does have to put up with a lot of things happening at once. It also runs like a dream on my reletively low end system (even with 2x, or Quincux antialiasing on the first island). On the 2nd island, I turn off antialising to keep it rock solid.
Will post a few pictures later
Will post a few pictures later
Engine is sweet? It's shite.
Anyone who knows a little about 3D should agree when looking at my attached screenshot. The idea is for the engine to draw only as many lines as it needs, not the whole f*cking town. *sigh*
3DAnalyze was used to force wireframe mode. The screenshot is from the garage on Staunton island, our hero is facing a wall.
Anyone who knows a little about 3D should agree when looking at my attached screenshot. The idea is for the engine to draw only as many lines as it needs, not the whole f*cking town. *sigh*
3DAnalyze was used to force wireframe mode. The screenshot is from the garage on Staunton island, our hero is facing a wall.
Trotterwatch
Active member
True, it does overdraw more than it should (though surely it only textures the City as and when it needs to?)
However, the game runs damn sweet on my modest system:
Athlon 900, GF3, XP Pro, SBlive (not high end by any means)
So, yes I will call the engine sweet. If they manage to add (some) occlusion culling (or whatever it's called) to the patch, then all the better for people who own less than a high end GF2 card.
Morrowind is another game which I would say has a pretty good engine, but again the culling is atrocious. The same FPS is gained standing by a wall, as you get from standing viewing the entire city from the other side of the wall.
(though surely it only textures the City as and when it needs to?)However, the game runs damn sweet on my modest system:
Athlon 900, GF3, XP Pro, SBlive (not high end by any means)
So, yes I will call the engine sweet. If they manage to add (some) occlusion culling (or whatever it's called) to the patch, then all the better for people who own less than a high end GF2 card.
Morrowind is another game which I would say has a pretty good engine, but again the culling is atrocious. The same FPS is gained standing by a wall, as you get from standing viewing the entire city from the other side of the wall.
Trotterwatch
Active member
Martin, I've backed myself into a bit of a hole on this one, so I'll just stop digging. The engine is a pretty bad piece of programming (due to the overdraw), but as it runs ok for me, I guess that is why I considered it sweet.
Thinking about it though, a game that demands a GF3 as a reasonable minimum when it isn't overly complex, probably is taking the piss somewhat.
The problem with this engine as they are using at the moment, I seriously can't see a patch being made that can customise it enough to run well on lower end systems (or GFX cards). I guess it all depends on just how flexible the engine is. There have also been rumours that the instant replay function is part of the reason for the slowdown, as well as the game not converting texture formats correctly. All of that though is of course hearsay at the moment.
Thinking about it though, a game that demands a GF3 as a reasonable minimum when it isn't overly complex, probably is taking the piss somewhat.
The problem with this engine as they are using at the moment, I seriously can't see a patch being made that can customise it enough to run well on lower end systems (or GFX cards). I guess it all depends on just how flexible the engine is. There have also been rumours that the instant replay function is part of the reason for the slowdown, as well as the game not converting texture formats correctly. All of that though is of course hearsay at the moment.
Trotterwatch
Active member
Going over the jump, the odd thing about this picture, is that in realtime a Train was going right along the track towards where my car is about to land. In the replay however (regardless of how I position the camara) the Train isn't present at all:
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Yes, there's no way they'll replace the 3D engine, and as your saying, it's only customisable to a certain point. I think it's very unfair of them to release a game that requires such a dream computer for it to run good.
I've got a fast computer except from my GeForce DDR, which isn't actually that slow either, yet it runs terribly for me. As I mentioned in another thread, people with low end systems seems to have got it to run very smoothly (or at least they claim so) and the exact opposite; some with extreme machines have reported it as running slow.
15-20 FPS makes the game pretty unplayable or at least very annoying at times. I would expect there is a fair amount of users who have spent expensive money on this game and are disappointed.
It being a port from PS2 hardly helps with speed, does it?
I've got a fast computer except from my GeForce DDR, which isn't actually that slow either, yet it runs terribly for me. As I mentioned in another thread, people with low end systems seems to have got it to run very smoothly (or at least they claim so) and the exact opposite; some with extreme machines have reported it as running slow.
15-20 FPS makes the game pretty unplayable or at least very annoying at times. I would expect there is a fair amount of users who have spent expensive money on this game and are disappointed.
It being a port from PS2 hardly helps with speed, does it?
Trotterwatch
Active member
One thing that I have noticed has improved performance on two machines that my friends have, has been changing the sound option from it's default Miles Fast 2D, to Directsound Hardware (helped stopped the game lagging).
The only tweak I use with the game, is the NO CD crack, and all of the audio folder copied to my HD to eliminate any of the Music loading time.
I have set 2 different copies of this game up on 2 friends computers as well, the first one had a:
P3 500, GF2MX400 w/64 ram, SB PCI 128, 196ram, Win98se
The 2nd one had a:
P3-850, GF2 GTS, SB Live, Win98, 256 ram
On both of these systems the game started to run fine, once D3D Hardware sound was selected, and draw distance turned down to halfway at 800x600, the latter system could manage 32bit, the former only 16.
The first system slows down significantly when the game rains, as well as in large police chases. Resolution, graphics settings make little difference to this frame rate drop.
The second system works fine for the most parts, but can drop a little in frame rate when the AI is working overtime - large police chases (3 stars or more), + when there is a lot of explosions happening.
Something is definately amiss with this game. I have also read reports regarding people who had an older card such as a TNT2, then after upgrading to a GF2, the game suddenly runs smoothly with no lagging whatsoever (indicating that the texture optimisation is not good enough).
Also, I've read many reports about turning off HW T&L through 3D Analyse also speeds the game up quite signifcantly for some people.
The only tweak I use with the game, is the NO CD crack, and all of the audio folder copied to my HD to eliminate any of the Music loading time.
I have set 2 different copies of this game up on 2 friends computers as well, the first one had a:
P3 500, GF2MX400 w/64 ram, SB PCI 128, 196ram, Win98se
The 2nd one had a:
P3-850, GF2 GTS, SB Live, Win98, 256 ram
On both of these systems the game started to run fine, once D3D Hardware sound was selected, and draw distance turned down to halfway at 800x600, the latter system could manage 32bit, the former only 16.
The first system slows down significantly when the game rains, as well as in large police chases. Resolution, graphics settings make little difference to this frame rate drop.
The second system works fine for the most parts, but can drop a little in frame rate when the AI is working overtime - large police chases (3 stars or more), + when there is a lot of explosions happening.
Something is definately amiss with this game. I have also read reports regarding people who had an older card such as a TNT2, then after upgrading to a GF2, the game suddenly runs smoothly with no lagging whatsoever (indicating that the texture optimisation is not good enough).
Also, I've read many reports about turning off HW T&L through 3D Analyse also speeds the game up quite signifcantly for some people.
OP
AlphaWolf
I prey, not pray.
- Thread Starter
- #18
LOL, I had a hard time getting into this area I saw, and after I finaly figured out how to get there, I had some weird suspicions that you aren't supposed to be able to get there (the fire exit stairwells on the buildings went low to the ground, normaly they don't). But sure enough, after I walked a bit farther, I found this: (BTW I don't use cheats)