One external HDD and single online storage service site. All 7z'd and taking up 15 GB right now. More important data i have also backed up on two additional USB keys.
I don't use automated backup or sync apps because neither seem to work the way i want it. Instead i created and organized an Excel workbook in which i manually handle backup information.
Seen this program highly recommended, it's free and does the job:
http://www.fbackup.com/
Perhaps someone finds it useful.
I don't use automated backup or sync apps because neither seem to work the way i want it. Instead i created and organized an Excel workbook in which i manually handle backup information.
Seen this program highly recommended, it's free and does the job:
http://www.fbackup.com/
Perhaps someone finds it useful.
Stumbled upon this link while performing some random browsing tonight:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_filtering
and... as much as i hate to say it, my understanding of mipmapping vastly differed from reality again
. After reading the summarized version in the link (scroll down a bit) I finally understood what you were saying. Ah, better late then never 
It looks like mipmapping could be used after all in a way you described it. We won't see the RGB versions in the sub-folders because hey are apparently precalculated and stored in the VRAM on the fly (possibly "generating, rebuilding").
This time i mistook mipmapping with more visible LOD texture quality change (not including geometry changes). You know, the type when the texture quality radically changes before your eyes when you get closer to it. Maybe it is the same thing with a different name to it but the one in LFS made way more subtle, I don't know.
I wasn't even aware that mipmapping existed in a way it's described until tonight. It seemed too simple to have it's own precalcualtion and even it's own name. An assumption which hindered my understanding of it sooner. The summarized version helped, the longer one sidetracked me into thinking it was LOD thingy, which could be the same thing, only I thoguht it wasn't
One thing that is true: larger texture filesize = longer loading time. Done simplest by resizing texture resolution to a lower value.
Had to post again in hope of rectifying my own mipmapping explanation in previous post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_filtering
and... as much as i hate to say it, my understanding of mipmapping vastly differed from reality again
. After reading the summarized version in the link (scroll down a bit) I finally understood what you were saying. Ah, better late then never It looks like mipmapping could be used after all in a way you described it. We won't see the RGB versions in the sub-folders because hey are apparently precalculated and stored in the VRAM on the fly (possibly "generating, rebuilding").
This time i mistook mipmapping with more visible LOD texture quality change (not including geometry changes). You know, the type when the texture quality radically changes before your eyes when you get closer to it. Maybe it is the same thing with a different name to it but the one in LFS made way more subtle, I don't know.
I wasn't even aware that mipmapping existed in a way it's described until tonight. It seemed too simple to have it's own precalcualtion and even it's own name. An assumption which hindered my understanding of it sooner. The summarized version helped, the longer one sidetracked me into thinking it was LOD thingy, which could be the same thing, only I thoguht it wasn't
One thing that is true: larger texture filesize = longer loading time. Done simplest by resizing texture resolution to a lower value.
Had to post again in hope of rectifying my own mipmapping explanation in previous post
Related text by Paul Craig Roberts (http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/paul-craig-roberts; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts) on http://www.globalresearch.ca/about (independent research and media organization):
http://www.globalresearch.ca/w ... the-stage-for-war/5371695
Taking into account guy's pedigree and nationality I'd say is pretty interesting read to say the least. It is usually very valuable insight when a person with such high credentials speaks "against" it's own government. Text is on the weak side arguments wise, but true nonetheless.
Short thought about the amusing fake reporting photos: not wanting to go into details but only a reminder about propaganda. There are propagandas of propagandas. Very easy to create in these cases, and easier to avoid responsibility. Not aiming at a particular one posted here, but more like a general idea. Something to be aware of.
You may have noticed some relation between the first two paragraphs by the time you read this. The monumental difference is only one comes with a name and background, and consecutively, accountability.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/w ... the-stage-for-war/5371695
Taking into account guy's pedigree and nationality I'd say is pretty interesting read to say the least. It is usually very valuable insight when a person with such high credentials speaks "against" it's own government. Text is on the weak side arguments wise, but true nonetheless.
Short thought about the amusing fake reporting photos: not wanting to go into details but only a reminder about propaganda. There are propagandas of propagandas. Very easy to create in these cases, and easier to avoid responsibility. Not aiming at a particular one posted here, but more like a general idea. Something to be aware of.
You may have noticed some relation between the first two paragraphs by the time you read this. The monumental difference is only one comes with a name and background, and consecutively, accountability.
Thanks for taking the time to post Anon. People of the world are aware of whats going on despite the mass media biasness. I dare to say so because of the comment sections on the articles of western news sites, The Guardian (British) for one. Those ones that share your sentiments get most positive feedbacks. And that means a lot.
@ACCAkut
Couldn't find Radionov, either via google or http://rt.com/about-us/management/.
By the looks of things what follows next is drop of tensions, followed by elections and other political stuff, guarantee of safety for the civs by the new government and then russian soldiers returning home. Any deviations will result in same thing happening but taking longer time.
@ACCAkut
Couldn't find Radionov, either via google or http://rt.com/about-us/management/.
By the looks of things what follows next is drop of tensions, followed by elections and other political stuff, guarantee of safety for the civs by the new government and then russian soldiers returning home. Any deviations will result in same thing happening but taking longer time.
Like a fish on dry land mate...
Source code has 711 views, there is still hope
Source code has 711 views, there is still hope
Some facts about Crimea from RT.com:
http://rt.com/news/crimea-facts-protests-politics-945/
Those being presented as facts, going back from 18th century to present time following todays context, should be checkable.
I have read some, not much, from RT before and have not come across biased reporting. It's worth checking out, at minimum as a counter balance to the 'giants'.
Someone posted this in the comments on advance.hr: http://www.ef-magazin.de/ which appears to be worth a check if you're friendly with german language. Mighty looking impressum if anything.
Following alternative news sources will be overwhelming at first, clouded in suspicion and conspiracy flavor, discouraging further self informing. Good thing is you will be bumping into those more often then not, stuff will naturally build up, forming little by little your attitude towards things. Most important is thinking for yourself, observe who is telling what, how is it being told. Presence of checkable facts presented in a calm, nice chronological way is a good sign. On the other hand, stuff presented as facts, in a loud manner, without context is a very bad sign.
I also want to point out that opinions don't matter. For example: all the people of the world can have opinion about one matter but it takes only one argument to counter them all. In a high importance decision making processes your really want exclusively arguments.
@ Racer X
Been reading your posts some for some time and... you have to tell me how do you organize the stuff you bookmark. I have a couple of thousand sorted by couple dozen categories, sorted by date. But it just doesn't cut it, it is still an unorganized mess... I have lots of examples to show but not willing enough to spend hours to find the relevant ones, too damn lazy.
I guess I'm asking for your categories and sub-categories, if that's the case, which I could then apply to my own. But if your post are result of great patience, care and willingness to rummage through it all just to share info for us then I'm super-amazed!
http://rt.com/news/crimea-facts-protests-politics-945/
Those being presented as facts, going back from 18th century to present time following todays context, should be checkable.
I have read some, not much, from RT before and have not come across biased reporting. It's worth checking out, at minimum as a counter balance to the 'giants'.
Someone posted this in the comments on advance.hr: http://www.ef-magazin.de/ which appears to be worth a check if you're friendly with german language. Mighty looking impressum if anything.
Following alternative news sources will be overwhelming at first, clouded in suspicion and conspiracy flavor, discouraging further self informing. Good thing is you will be bumping into those more often then not, stuff will naturally build up, forming little by little your attitude towards things. Most important is thinking for yourself, observe who is telling what, how is it being told. Presence of checkable facts presented in a calm, nice chronological way is a good sign. On the other hand, stuff presented as facts, in a loud manner, without context is a very bad sign.
I also want to point out that opinions don't matter. For example: all the people of the world can have opinion about one matter but it takes only one argument to counter them all. In a high importance decision making processes your really want exclusively arguments.
@ Racer X
Been reading your posts some for some time and... you have to tell me how do you organize the stuff you bookmark. I have a couple of thousand sorted by couple dozen categories, sorted by date. But it just doesn't cut it, it is still an unorganized mess...
I have lots of examples to show but not willing enough to spend hours to find the relevant ones, too damn lazy.I guess I'm asking for your categories and sub-categories, if that's the case, which I could then apply to my own. But if your post are result of great patience, care and willingness to rummage through it all just to share info for us then I'm super-amazed!
Now you wait, either for Russians to stabilize the situation... again. Or the pro-nazi elements infiltrated into the protester groups, supported by the western/western asian regimes and their puppets, to escalate it.
Direct military conflict is unlikely. Common sense is still dominant among higher ranking military officials on either side. Also, from what i read the maiden formed rule doesn't actually control the police or the military. The Russians are acting in accordance of the international laws and treaties and are placed there to protect the civilians not to occupy.
I'm not speaking out of my ass but summarizing the evens happened in the world in the last few years by following independent and accurate news sites. Those are not: lying, hypocrite, financed by unknown interest groups, etc sites. For reference: 1 lie = lying! Keep that important thing in mind. Do yourself and the world a favor and find a legit news source.
For my fellow croas & neighbors i recommend this outstanding news site:
http://www.advance.hr/
For the rest you can try and search for independent intellectuals and journalists and their texts as a backup when your site fails. Same rule as for site legitimacy applies. The better ones will provide sources for cross-referencing purposes. Be prepared for mass media established fairy tales to crumble.
Direct military conflict is unlikely. Common sense is still dominant among higher ranking military officials on either side. Also, from what i read the maiden formed rule doesn't actually control the police or the military. The Russians are acting in accordance of the international laws and treaties and are placed there to protect the civilians not to occupy.
I'm not speaking out of my ass but summarizing the evens happened in the world in the last few years by following independent and accurate news sites. Those are not: lying, hypocrite, financed by unknown interest groups, etc sites. For reference: 1 lie = lying! Keep that important thing in mind. Do yourself and the world a favor and find a legit news source.
For my fellow croas & neighbors i recommend this outstanding news site:
http://www.advance.hr/
For the rest you can try and search for independent intellectuals and journalists and their texts as a backup when your site fails. Same rule as for site legitimacy applies. The better ones will provide sources for cross-referencing purposes. Be prepared for mass media established fairy tales to crumble.
Oi Ant how is your 3rd year uf1 withdrawal going?
I need to build up hype so digi gets updated for s3 release in matter of months
I need to build up hype so digi gets updated for s3 release in matter of months
Oh damn, it wasn't your bad. It was mine 
The "mapping" suffix lead me to think it was about the shaders. Sorry
My understanding is that dds is basically GPU friendly file format. If the textures are made for example in jpg they would get converted into dds before being used by GPU. By being in dds there is no need for conversion, resulting in faster loading times and less VRAM usage.
Mipmapping I haven't seen used in LFS. I reckon it would be most noticeable on the distant tree textures but there is none of that. I also checked a few dds files and didn't notice mip patterns. The only place that is affected by LFS's LOD setting is the exterior geometry of the car as I am aware of.
There doesn't seem to be a place for mipmapping to be used at this point, with texture sizes and VRAM usage contained with all loading very fast. From modders point of view, who generally like to make larger and more detailed textures, this is something to tackle with.
The "mapping" suffix lead me to think it was about the shaders. Sorry
My understanding is that dds is basically GPU friendly file format. If the textures are made for example in jpg they would get converted into dds before being used by GPU. By being in dds there is no need for conversion, resulting in faster loading times and less VRAM usage.
Mipmapping I haven't seen used in LFS. I reckon it would be most noticeable on the distant tree textures but there is none of that. I also checked a few dds files and didn't notice mip patterns. The only place that is affected by LFS's LOD setting is the exterior geometry of the car as I am aware of.
There doesn't seem to be a place for mipmapping to be used at this point, with texture sizes and VRAM usage contained with all loading very fast. From modders point of view, who generally like to make larger and more detailed textures, this is something to tackle with.
I'm also not good at graphic, only speaking from experience which isn't unique to myself and some logic tied to it so they hold some merit i would hope. Until someone proves me wrong that is. And i try to add 'not sure' or something similar when i'm about to say something i am, well, not sure of
LFS does not use pixel shader technology so the texture mapping doesn't play a role in loading time because it doesn't exist. Would it play a role should it exist? Yes but not by very much. It's not as large in size as a texture but it's more of an information calculated on the fly, every frame, then added to texture surface information, resulting in change of its appearance. Such as rainy roads, shiny metal surfaces in bright light conditions, adding visual appearance of bumpy surface on an perfectly flat texture, stuff like that. When done with care it makes a more immersive environment. It's down size is very heavy GPU load. Not in loading time but pure processing power. It is still more efficient then adding more polygons to achieve the same level of visual detail.
In LFS the roads are simple flat polygons except on places where two polygons join at different angles. But, if you look the suspension forces while driving on a visually flat surface like Blackwood back straight it appears you're constantly driving over bumps. But they aren't there, so what are they? My theory from when i first saw that is that those bumps are programed into track elevation info or something. Kinda like the shader stuff but it results not in visual appearance but a virtual physical force, affecting handling. Way to save on GPU power and is pretty neat how it's done.
Those different colored copies of the images i don't think are textures as we know but information how to stick shaders to it. If that shader info was 4x larger as indicated on your picture the texture loading part would take 4x times longer, but from my experience that isn't the case. My experience shows negligible difference in loading times without using shaders compared to slight increase of using it (different game ofc).
Different sizes of them are what you have said - LOD textures that are used at far distances. Commonly used is open game areas to save on memory so that environment closer to you can be presented in more detail. And lower resolution textures also look better at far distances because the high detail of high res textures would be lost on the relatively big sized pixels on the LCD monitor making it look like blurry, jittery (when moving) mess.
Nice example of that are the high resolution road textures for LFS. The detail is so high that it is smaller then the pixels are able to present and it ends up looking like one shade of gray from anywhere above 10m distance and/or lower view angles. Depends on monitor resolution but not by much.
Those generating and rebuilding can mean anything, only the author knows for sure
My guess is they are expressions for various stages of texture loading and placing them in 3D space. Nothing too fancy.
LFS does not use pixel shader technology so the texture mapping doesn't play a role in loading time because it doesn't exist. Would it play a role should it exist? Yes but not by very much. It's not as large in size as a texture but it's more of an information calculated on the fly, every frame, then added to texture surface information, resulting in change of its appearance. Such as rainy roads, shiny metal surfaces in bright light conditions, adding visual appearance of bumpy surface on an perfectly flat texture, stuff like that. When done with care it makes a more immersive environment. It's down size is very heavy GPU load. Not in loading time but pure processing power. It is still more efficient then adding more polygons to achieve the same level of visual detail.
In LFS the roads are simple flat polygons except on places where two polygons join at different angles. But, if you look the suspension forces while driving on a visually flat surface like Blackwood back straight it appears you're constantly driving over bumps. But they aren't there, so what are they? My theory from when i first saw that is that those bumps are programed into track elevation info or something. Kinda like the shader stuff but it results not in visual appearance but a virtual physical force, affecting handling. Way to save on GPU power and is pretty neat how it's done.
Those different colored copies of the images i don't think are textures as we know but information how to stick shaders to it. If that shader info was 4x larger as indicated on your picture the texture loading part would take 4x times longer, but from my experience that isn't the case. My experience shows negligible difference in loading times without using shaders compared to slight increase of using it (different game ofc).
Different sizes of them are what you have said - LOD textures that are used at far distances. Commonly used is open game areas to save on memory so that environment closer to you can be presented in more detail. And lower resolution textures also look better at far distances because the high detail of high res textures would be lost on the relatively big sized pixels on the LCD monitor making it look like blurry, jittery (when moving) mess.
Nice example of that are the high resolution road textures for LFS. The detail is so high that it is smaller then the pixels are able to present and it ends up looking like one shade of gray from anywhere above 10m distance and/or lower view angles. Depends on monitor resolution but not by much.
Those generating and rebuilding can mean anything, only the author knows for sure
My guess is they are expressions for various stages of texture loading and placing them in 3D space. Nothing too fancy.
The point of my post was to explain how LFS isn't XP dependent, to relieve fears of LFS being stuck in the past, unsafe to use or that is it waste of time and resources to support it by keeping it DX9 and, consecutively, XP compatible.
It is not affected by how many users are using whichever OS or which one is the best (and which one is preferred to thyself). Now, everyone can use it, including Linux users which is great, and for a very long time at least in the IT timeframe.
To prove that one statement which caught peoples attention about XP being superior to later MS OSs would be a time wasted. Not in a sense you wouldn't understand or something like that but rather it wouldn't change anything.
MS will continue to overprice newer, modern OSs which will become less and less usable, more restrictive, slower and at the same time more demanding for processing power. I can't say it is because of catering to the less experienced userbase because that is done differently by adding failsafes, not by removing essential stuff. The reason it's done the way it is done is because of less gifted managers and/or programmers being employed. The reason for that is stagnation of the education system and bombardment of bad examples through mass media, so people have almost noone to learn from. Or worse, they learn from bad examples.
So, sorry I'm not going to solidify my statements with arguments, I hate doing that and is often contra-productive. I wish I had the patience and optimism about the end result as a motivation to write down my experience, but I'll provide the next best thing: other people experiences
Google that, skip the non argumented statements (good luck finding those), compare, welcome abroad.
It is not affected by how many users are using whichever OS or which one is the best (and which one is preferred to thyself). Now, everyone can use it, including Linux users which is great, and for a very long time at least in the IT timeframe.
To prove that one statement which caught peoples attention about XP being superior to later MS OSs would be a time wasted. Not in a sense you wouldn't understand or something like that but rather it wouldn't change anything.
MS will continue to overprice newer, modern OSs which will become less and less usable, more restrictive, slower and at the same time more demanding for processing power. I can't say it is because of catering to the less experienced userbase because that is done differently by adding failsafes, not by removing essential stuff. The reason it's done the way it is done is because of less gifted managers and/or programmers being employed. The reason for that is stagnation of the education system and bombardment of bad examples through mass media, so people have almost noone to learn from. Or worse, they learn from bad examples.
So, sorry I'm not going to solidify my statements with arguments, I hate doing that and is often contra-productive. I wish I had the patience and optimism about the end result as a motivation to write down my experience, but I'll provide the next best thing: other people experiences
Why is Windows XP better than Windows 7
Why is Windows 7 better than Windows XP
Google that, skip the non argumented statements (good luck finding those), compare, welcome abroad.
How can i make this work with dx9 version of LFS?
I am truly lost without my digi...
I am truly lost without my digi...
Technically, LFS is made to work on DX9. That means it will work on any post XP OS made by MS because DX is backward compatible. Meaning LFS isn't tied to XP's fate directly.
Indirectly, chain of evens yankman mentioned, leading to stopping software support for DX9 by companies is a very slow, predictable processes. Although serious one it is dealt with in a similar way as 8 to 9 switch was made.
Dropping official support for XP by MS was another slow and predictable process which is even more easily dealt with. That is simply doing exactly nothing and continue to use the best OS MS has made to date, for as long as you don't run out of driver support. That is pretty much the only reason that should force an upgrade. For smaller reasons there is dual-boot, if you want to work fast and efficient then you're already using XP.
This is coming from an XP user who has been using unsupported XP for 10 years on the same PC without ever having a virus, malaware, spyware, trojan etc., never reinstalled XP, never unexpected slowdowns, and so on - doing all kinds of stuff which would be considered unsafe security wise. If you don't know what you're doing official support will not help you. Aside from myself another three persons with various amount of experiences have been using that same machine with the same results.
Now for the fun stuff - some short personal modern OS rating
win7 is a piece of shit
Indirectly, chain of evens yankman mentioned, leading to stopping software support for DX9 by companies is a very slow, predictable processes. Although serious one it is dealt with in a similar way as 8 to 9 switch was made.
Dropping official support for XP by MS was another slow and predictable process which is even more easily dealt with. That is simply doing exactly nothing and continue to use the best OS MS has made to date, for as long as you don't run out of driver support. That is pretty much the only reason that should force an upgrade. For smaller reasons there is dual-boot, if you want to work fast and efficient then you're already using XP.
This is coming from an XP user who has been using unsupported XP for 10 years on the same PC without ever having a virus, malaware, spyware, trojan etc., never reinstalled XP, never unexpected slowdowns, and so on - doing all kinds of stuff which would be considered unsafe security wise. If you don't know what you're doing official support will not help you. Aside from myself another three persons with various amount of experiences have been using that same machine with the same results.
Now for the fun stuff - some short personal modern OS rating
win7 is a piece of shit
Are there another programs accessing the HDD is the background? Such as updaters, scanners, downloaders, defragmenters, various unneeded windows services, perhaps unknown to you, working silently and automatically. They would be identifiable through the process/service list i reckon.
My HDD is pretty average in terms of speed as were the older ones i used. But they all have common shortcoming: lets say you want to run two programs, one after another and total time needed for them to complete their job is 30 secs in total. But if I decided to run them both at the same time then time until completion becomes 60+ instead. Similar thing might be happening if textures are being scanned for viruses as they are being read or who knows what else
One time, while i ran complete system virus scan i also ran LFS and went online. During the track load I could easily read the % progress as it changed - 1 sec at a time.
For reference sake my load times increased considerably by installing Hi-Res stuff, in the ballpark of about 2.5+ times. You could do a short test with vanilla and modded to compare. If it takes similar time then there is no problem, not in a sense that it is a LFS bug that is.
If you really like how the textures look but you're bothered by loading times and have some spare time you can try to resize the image (resolution) of the modded texture file to a smaller one. But before that you would need to know what size is acceptable to LFS if that is even the case. Again, compare to vanilla texture sizes. You get to keep the looks and gain speed
@Daniel
It does sound weird what you said about SSD, are you really sure? Gimme sum tests of yours
I wish to know how much I benefit from avoiding SSDs
My HDD is pretty average in terms of speed as were the older ones i used. But they all have common shortcoming: lets say you want to run two programs, one after another and total time needed for them to complete their job is 30 secs in total. But if I decided to run them both at the same time then time until completion becomes 60+ instead. Similar thing might be happening if textures are being scanned for viruses as they are being read or who knows what else
One time, while i ran complete system virus scan i also ran LFS and went online. During the track load I could easily read the % progress as it changed - 1 sec at a time.
For reference sake my load times increased considerably by installing Hi-Res stuff, in the ballpark of about 2.5+ times. You could do a short test with vanilla and modded to compare. If it takes similar time then there is no problem, not in a sense that it is a LFS bug that is.
If you really like how the textures look but you're bothered by loading times and have some spare time you can try to resize the image (resolution) of the modded texture file to a smaller one. But before that you would need to know what size is acceptable to LFS if that is even the case. Again, compare to vanilla texture sizes. You get to keep the looks and gain speed
@Daniel
It does sound weird what you said about SSD, are you really sure? Gimme sum tests of yours
I wish to know how much I benefit from avoiding SSDs
I can say with certainty the cause are hi-res texture pack you're using. I know this because I have experienced the same in the past. All the textures have to be transfered from the HDD to the VRAM so they larger they are the longer the wait. This is mostly relevant the first time you load a track, any consecutive loads might be much faster depending on the amount of VRAM and the needed textures still present in it.
I can't tell for sure but it seems highly unlikely that this is LFS specific slowdown you're experiencing. I would guess thats the case because it happens is all apps where you add more visual content to be loaded, and because it would seem logical that, by now, this loading process is very old and very much standardized so every game uses more or less the same process. If this is correct then it's not a bug
I can't tell for sure but it seems highly unlikely that this is LFS specific slowdown you're experiencing. I would guess thats the case because it happens is all apps where you add more visual content to be loaded, and because it would seem logical that, by now, this loading process is very old and very much standardized so every game uses more or less the same process. If this is correct then it's not a bug
Oh, I didn't even notice something was missing from AA screens. The reason I have put AA on was because the Prt Sc outputted black screen if i took it without AA, and in doing it with AA enabled i also forgot about driver AA setting . And the reason for using Prt Sc in the first place was it was more convenient then built-in Ctrl+S because of no need for folder navigation to get to the .bmp
Basically, my main focus was so strong on the loss of image sharpness in DX9, using same settings as DX8, that i tunnel visioned everything else... sorry
The scenery loss does not bother or affect me as I don't use AA and, as ACCAkut tells us, people with newer drivers can disable adaptive AA and continue to use AA in-game normally. I can't do that because drivers are locked to my laptop manufacturer and it does not update them, making my scenery problem pretty unique and defiantly not worth solving. Actually there is no problem so to say, not on LFS's side as i see it. Since it won't affect me, it's all good?
By the way, using all three AA methods i mentioned earlier make parts of scenery disappear, if that matters. EDIT: This is incorrect! Multi-sample and Super-sample AA work without problems, I had to restart LFS to notice that.
Only thing that remains then is less sharp screen on DX9, most notably the menus and any text of the screen. Taken another screen to show what i mean, this time without AA, using ctrl+s. Added old one as well for comparison. It can be remedied using Mip bias settings though so it's not that big of a deal but it does work different than before, which I don't know if it is intentional or not. More detailed about that in my previous post, but ignore the scenery
Thanks for helping me in this peculiar issue and sorry for the confusion i caused
Excuse the delay for the reply too, I couldn't use the PC before due to damn headacke.
. And the reason for using Prt Sc in the first place was it was more convenient then built-in Ctrl+S because of no need for folder navigation to get to the .bmp Basically, my main focus was so strong on the loss of image sharpness in DX9, using same settings as DX8, that i tunnel visioned everything else... sorry
The scenery loss does not bother or affect me as I don't use AA and, as ACCAkut tells us, people with newer drivers can disable adaptive AA and continue to use AA in-game normally. I can't do that because drivers are locked to my laptop manufacturer and it does not update them, making my scenery problem pretty unique and defiantly not worth solving. Actually there is no problem so to say, not on LFS's side as i see it. Since it won't affect me, it's all good?
By the way, using all three AA methods i mentioned earlier make parts of scenery disappear, if that matters. EDIT: This is incorrect! Multi-sample and Super-sample AA work without problems, I had to restart LFS to notice that.
Only thing that remains then is less sharp screen on DX9, most notably the menus and any text of the screen. Taken another screen to show what i mean, this time without AA, using ctrl+s. Added old one as well for comparison. It can be remedied using Mip bias settings though so it's not that big of a deal but it does work different than before, which I don't know if it is intentional or not. More detailed about that in my previous post, but ignore the scenery
Thanks for helping me in this peculiar issue and sorry for the confusion i caused
Excuse the delay for the reply too, I couldn't use the PC before due to damn headacke.
Last edited by Nilex, .
Indeed i have, it's labeled as "Adaptive Multi-sample AA". That, and another setting called Catalyst A.I. both do not have any options to make them application preference. Both appear to be working non-stop without any option to turn them off from within the AMD catalyst. For that reason I disabled whole AMD (AMD External Events Utility) from win7 startup in msconfig, only bare drivers are left. Even after that I am still not entirely sure if it's shut off completely . All this was done before E12 test, not E13 becuase there doesn't seem to be a reason for that.
Supposedly driver AA turns ON only after it's enabled by the game as well, and driver just tells it which method of AA to use.
Two reasons why it's hard to believe for me it might be that:
- rest of the image isn't AA'd, be it LFS or any other game
- picture remains the same even after i switch between different AA methods (again, in driver settings only), other two are "Multi-sample AA" and "Super-sample AA".
Needless to say AA is turned off in-game all the time, i can't stand AA anywhere
Thanks for the heads up though!
. All this was done before E12 test, not E13 becuase there doesn't seem to be a reason for that.Supposedly driver AA turns ON only after it's enabled by the game as well, and driver just tells it which method of AA to use.
Two reasons why it's hard to believe for me it might be that:
- rest of the image isn't AA'd, be it LFS or any other game
- picture remains the same even after i switch between different AA methods (again, in driver settings only), other two are "Multi-sample AA" and "Super-sample AA".
Needless to say AA is turned off in-game all the time, i can't stand AA anywhere
Thanks for the heads up though!
0.6E13 made it marginally better. But now i think i was to hasty to make assumptions as to why it happens, possibly side-tracking you little bit.
By moving the Mip bias sliders around (in E13) I got it to look similar to DX8 version. Sorry for not thinking of that before!
Story does not end there though
As it appears I'm only one affected with this problem I wouldn't want to ask you to hassle with that issue. Especially considering my rare hardware/driver combo for a rare laptop. The only problem I will ever have with it will be along the lines: does -1.1 mip bias make the text appear sharpest or is it maybe -1.0, but yesterday -1.2 was the sharpest... So yeah, no biggie
If you wish to tackle it anyway I'll provide feedbacks. Who knows if anyone else will be affected and how it will manifest itself when patch goes live. This time, just 7 screenshoots showing relation between AF and Mip bias (for text only, others i'll explain in words) in DX8 - 0.6E and DX9 - 0.6E13, without assumptions from my side. First three are dx8, next four dx9. Last four also confirm a bug previously mentioned: Prt Sc command outputs a black image, unless at least some AA is applied (tested in-game and full screen, all the driver settings set to app pref). The last four have all 2x AA applied for that reason.
First 3: classic DX8, behaving as I used to
Last 4: new DX9
In a nutshell I would like best if 6th looked like 3rd
Performance and logic wise it looks to me that it would be better to provide less demanding base to improve (0 AF with mip bias) then to improve more demanding base with more recourse costing improvements (16 AF with mip bias).
I hope i made sense explaining so much, and not made it to difficult to read and digest.
By moving the Mip bias sliders around (in E13) I got it to look similar to DX8 version. Sorry for not thinking of that before!
Story does not end there though
As it appears I'm only one affected with this problem I wouldn't want to ask you to hassle with that issue. Especially considering my rare hardware/driver combo for a rare laptop. The only problem I will ever have with it will be along the lines: does -1.1 mip bias make the text appear sharpest or is it maybe -1.0, but yesterday -1.2 was the sharpest... So yeah, no biggie
If you wish to tackle it anyway I'll provide feedbacks. Who knows if anyone else will be affected and how it will manifest itself when patch goes live. This time, just 7 screenshoots showing relation between AF and Mip bias (for text only, others i'll explain in words) in DX8 - 0.6E and DX9 - 0.6E13, without assumptions from my side. First three are dx8, next four dx9. Last four also confirm a bug previously mentioned: Prt Sc command outputs a black image, unless at least some AA is applied (tested in-game and full screen, all the driver settings set to app pref). The last four have all 2x AA applied for that reason.
First 3: classic DX8, behaving as I used to
2nd image shows how text mip bias affects the menu sharpness in contrast to 1st image, moving bottom sliders to the left brings the image to look closer to the 3rd one
3rd image is most interesting because it gives me best quality and the AF setting of 16 overrides all the mip bias sliders - changing them does not affect a single pixel
Last 4: new DX9
4th & 5th behave same as 1st & 2nd
6th i would expect to give best quality and is the reason for my first and this report
7th shows that bottom sliders (all of them) now override the AF setting, opposite as before but provide sufficient tweaking options
In a nutshell I would like best if 6th looked like 3rd
Performance and logic wise it looks to me that it would be better to provide less demanding base to improve (0 AF with mip bias) then to improve more demanding base with more recourse costing improvements (16 AF with mip bias).
I hope i made sense explaining so much, and not made it to difficult to read and digest.
To add to what Gutholz said:
his link was to Rony's events every Tuesday or every other Tuesday. Even though it's an event and well organized it's very casual and friendly atmosphere. There's no need to register on third party website, no wall of text rules, etc. Get in, have fun without worries about someones ego tripping lol
Only rules there are you already know about: drive clean, drive respectful sorta thing.
There's two more events going on very similar to that one. Friendly, casual and mature are the keywords so i'll just put them here, all-in-one post: All three give me my own old school feeling (mine is 2007)!
his link was to Rony's events every Tuesday or every other Tuesday. Even though it's an event and well organized it's very casual and friendly atmosphere. There's no need to register on third party website, no wall of text rules, etc. Get in, have fun without worries about someones ego tripping lol
Only rules there are you already know about: drive clean, drive respectful sorta thing.
There's two more events going on very similar to that one. Friendly, casual and mature are the keywords so i'll just put them here, all-in-one post:
- https://www.lfsforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=254 (Torsdagsrace, ran by Swedish folks. Wall of text rules but it boils down to those three words. Only tning you have to know is race start time. They also experience low attendance lately so boost em up)
- The last one i don't have link for but... their server is called DeadMenRacing, and it's easily distinguishable on the large list. They have one race weekly (which day was it? ), forced cockpit view and maybe wind. Simply connect there and ask around for info, and race PW which i believe is always the same.
All three give me my own old school feeling (mine is 2007)!Short report about FPS gain and one unwanted graphic effect.
Setup is Win7 64-bit, all graphic driver settings are identical (application preference) as are in-game graphic settings (full screen 1366x768) including FOV; 19 AIs and myself as 20th on the grid.
GPU activity (GPU-Z application)
LFS DX8 (attachment 1):
LFS DX9 (attachment 2):
Don't know why they aren't at 100% (in either case) or close to it as there wasn't FPS limitation of V-sync. Perhaps 19 AIs bottlenecked the CPU.
Subjective experience is that DX9 is more smoother, managed to get FPS to low 30s without loss of smoothness. Whereas on DX8 there was barely noticeable micro-stutters bellow 40 FPS.
The unwanted graphic effect i mentioned, is clearly noticeable when comparing the two screenshoots. Manifestation is exactly the same as raising the "Mip bias" setting before. If i remember correctly that got changed, so todays 0.0 was roughly the same as -1.0 before and raising it to 0.0 looked like dx9 looks to me now. It looks like a poor-mans anti-aliasing, or like it's not running at native monitor resolution. I had exactly the same result by using the dx8->dx9 converter.
For the laughs i deleted the DLL and ran LFS to see if anything changes but same deal again
Anyone else having this as well?
Setup is Win7 64-bit, all graphic driver settings are identical (application preference) as are in-game graphic settings (full screen 1366x768) including FOV; 19 AIs and myself as 20th on the grid.
GPU activity (GPU-Z application)
LFS DX8 (attachment 1):
intel4000 ~30% average
AMD 7670M 0%
LFS DX9 (attachment 2):
intel4000 ~13% average
AMD 7670M ~33% average
Don't know why they aren't at 100% (in either case) or close to it as there wasn't FPS limitation of V-sync. Perhaps 19 AIs bottlenecked the CPU.
Subjective experience is that DX9 is more smoother, managed to get FPS to low 30s without loss of smoothness. Whereas on DX8 there was barely noticeable micro-stutters bellow 40 FPS.
The unwanted graphic effect i mentioned, is clearly noticeable when comparing the two screenshoots. Manifestation is exactly the same as raising the "Mip bias" setting before. If i remember correctly that got changed, so todays 0.0 was roughly the same as -1.0 before and raising it to 0.0 looked like dx9 looks to me now. It looks like a poor-mans anti-aliasing, or like it's not running at native monitor resolution. I had exactly the same result by using the dx8->dx9 converter.
For the laughs i deleted the DLL and ran LFS to see if anything changes but same deal again
Anyone else having this as well?
@ 12 minute mark - ran out of ---- ANGRY WORDS ----
Loved this vid
My comment for the finish line: ---- ANGRY WORDS ----
Loved this vid
My comment for the finish line: ---- ANGRY WORDS ----
The usual drop in a non-sale situation is a discount coupon which you will 100% not need.
About the cash globes: in the final hours before the sale ends i expect to see pages upon pages on minimum possible selling prices. After sale ends all globe cards in existence get erased.
It's first time i experience that situation and it will be interesting, if not hilarious, to see will it play out how i predict or will greed play it's role and people will keep prices up expecting to get what they think they deserve rather then trying to get what they can, before they can't anymore.
And if steam market crashes = lolz upon lolz for me
About the cash globes: in the final hours before the sale ends i expect to see pages upon pages on minimum possible selling prices. After sale ends all globe cards in existence get erased.
It's first time i experience that situation and it will be interesting, if not hilarious, to see will it play out how i predict or will greed play it's role and people will keep prices up expecting to get what they think they deserve rather then trying to get what they can, before they can't anymore.
And if steam market crashes = lolz upon lolz for me
Glad it is sorted out! And that is my hope too
Same issue. It's a Samsung laptop, bought in 2013, model which does not exist on official site lol. Most similar other model has latest drivers for XP while i'm using win7 but are dated Oct 20, 2012 which at least does not seem so bad . My point is laptop manufacturer drives are a real mess. You can get lucky and everything works or not so much. I'm talking about Intel 4000 + AMD card combo, nVidia has much less problems of sort. Note that i'm accusing the driver quality not LFS itself for the issue. That is because game uses what driver provides. I don't think the game itself can't provide options what card to use.
My noob theory is since game is DirectX 8.1 (not sure) driver reacts by not bothering to turn on the AMD card when the Intel one has all the functions the game calls for. Later games made to work on never DirectX make AMD usage happen. This is consistent with my experience. Ideally, there would be an option to select which card gets used for what or even together in pair for even better performance, all provided by the drivers. Not even ideally, just common sense. This may vary between manufactures of course but it's not my point. Laptop i use has something similar but if it worked i would have not write all of this.
It gets weird: with intel+amd the Intel card will always gets reported as used by the game (which have that option), while the actual render might be done by the AMD as proved my GPU-Z. I've read about it and my conclusion is that while AMD does the render the Intel is in charge for displaying rendered fames to the screen. Yeah, go figure.
After many hours spent trying to find a way to update my drivers i gave up. LFS definitely is not the only game for which only Intel was used on my laptop, but it sure as hell is the only one which AMD should be used but it isn't. I get roughly 10% of the performance i would expect to get otherwise. Even so... ass kicking still very much happens 
Just one final advice i just remembered. This is a long shot but... in one post one guy (troy) posted a .dll file which converts DX8 to DX9 on the fly or something, the funny part is that another guy who tried it got a massive FPS increase. I immediately thought that this new DX9 voodoo magic trick triggered the driver to activate the AMD card. Not sure though, other guy never mentioned his specs. Just need to find the post lol.
EDIT: found it: here it is! (put the "v0.0035" .dll file in the same folder with LFS.exe); check two posts above that one too, interesting stuff
Final final advice: the correct term is "Switchable Graphic" laptop. Google the problems about it if you haven't already. Maybe the guys at Dell are better than the ones in Samsung
. My point is laptop manufacturer drives are a real mess. You can get lucky and everything works or not so much. I'm talking about Intel 4000 + AMD card combo, nVidia has much less problems of sort. Note that i'm accusing the driver quality not LFS itself for the issue. That is because game uses what driver provides. I don't think the game itself can't provide options what card to use.My noob theory is since game is DirectX 8.1 (not sure) driver reacts by not bothering to turn on the AMD card when the Intel one has all the functions the game calls for. Later games made to work on never DirectX make AMD usage happen. This is consistent with my experience. Ideally, there would be an option to select which card gets used for what or even together in pair for even better performance, all provided by the drivers. Not even ideally, just common sense. This may vary between manufactures of course but it's not my point. Laptop i use has something similar but if it worked i would have not write all of this.
It gets weird: with intel+amd the Intel card will always gets reported as used by the game (which have that option), while the actual render might be done by the AMD as proved my GPU-Z. I've read about it and my conclusion is that while AMD does the render the Intel is in charge for displaying rendered fames to the screen. Yeah, go figure.
After many hours spent trying to find a way to update my drivers i gave up. LFS definitely is not the only game for which only Intel was used on my laptop, but it sure as hell is the only one which AMD should be used but it isn't
. I get roughly 10% of the performance i would expect to get otherwise. Even so... ass kicking still very much happens Just one final advice i just remembered. This is a long shot but... in one post one guy (troy) posted a .dll file which converts DX8 to DX9 on the fly or something, the funny part is that another guy who tried it got a massive FPS increase. I immediately thought that this new DX9 voodoo magic trick triggered the driver to activate the AMD card. Not sure though, other guy never mentioned his specs. Just need to find the post lol.
EDIT: found it: here it is! (put the "v0.0035" .dll file in the same folder with LFS.exe); check two posts above that one too, interesting stuff
Final final advice: the correct term is "Switchable Graphic" laptop. Google the problems about it if you haven't already. Maybe the guys at Dell are better than the ones in Samsung
Last edited by Nilex, .
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