The online racing simulator
Hello. Hopefully using the right topic:

I currently run LFS on a mid-2011 iMac through WINE. Until last update, with standard settings, I used to get constant 100 fps (dropping to 60-70 depending on number of cars displayed) in any track. New Blackwood is great, but I get nothing more than 8-9 fps (no cars) at some points of the track (e.g., starting line, end of back straight, etc). I believe the level of detail (i.e., far objects rendered), and most importantly, the complexity of the scenery as a whole might be the main drivers of this. At some points of the track, I get the usual 100 fps. So, my ask is: What are the main settings I may have to look at to try and bring fps to steady high rates? Unfortunately I will lose many of the recent improvements, but high fps's are of course key to properly run/enjoy LFS.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Mauro
Quote from MauroDiaz :So, my ask is: What are the main settings I may have to look at to try and bring fps to steady high rates?

When you put your car on the track, then go to Options->Graphics menu, you will see FPS display on right side of Graphics menu; Just try to change different settings and notice real-time how they affect FPS. There are some settings that affect it dramatically (dont remember them, but you will find quickly).

and from posts above:
Quote from Scawen :Did you try setting textures to "low res" (near the bottom of options - graphics).

The high resolution textures can affect older cards badly.

Quote from MauroDiaz :Hello. Hopefully using the right topic:

I currently run LFS on a mid-2011 iMac through WINE. Until last update, with standard settings, I used to get constant 100 fps (dropping to 60-70 depending on number of cars displayed) in any track. New Blackwood is great, but I get nothing more than 8-9 fps (no cars) at some points of the track (e.g., starting line, end of back straight, etc). I believe the level of detail (i.e., far objects rendered), and most importantly, the complexity of the scenery as a whole might be the main drivers of this. At some points of the track, I get the usual 100 fps. So, my ask is: What are the main settings I may have to look at to try and bring fps to steady high rates? Unfortunately I will lose many of the recent improvements, but high fps's are of course key to properly run/enjoy LFS.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Mauro

How is westhill in terms of FPS on your PC?
I purchased a tiny pc, an i3-6100T with 4g Ram and SSD. I got this to test small PCs for commercial use of LFS on Intel 530 graphics.

Prior to this update, it would run at about 75 FPS with some settings turned down. (BlackWood)
In fact I could almost run 2 instances of LFS at 30~60 FPS, but with lots of stuttering.

After this update, I have to turn it all to minimum just to get it to run LFS, but the textures are at low detail etc... with these settings the white line on the track is blurry except for the area right near the car.

In previous versions I could turn down the number of reflections on the cars and each time I reduced it there was a noticeable improvement in FPS, now, it does not matter how many there are it is pretty much the same from 0 to 8, no visible difference either, so not really sure what, if anything, it is changing. Maybe this is not actually changing anything in this version?
Number of reflections means how many nearest cars do have the reflections. So if you're alone in single player,1-12 will be same,0 turns off.
I only run the test with about 8 AI, sometimes 6 or 12. To simulate other players being in the game since my goal is to setup a multiplayer pay to play game.
Also (if I remember correctly) if you turn on post-processing shader,real time reflections have no effect. Not sure though,never tested that.
Quote from SimulatorRental.com :Maybe this is not actually changing anything in this version?

As I've said before, car shadows and anti aliasing (AA) are the most important performance factors .. Why are people writing forum messages and not trying various settings in the time they could write a forum message is beyond me. Intel 530 is dead slow by the way... http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-675MX-vs-Intel-HD-530-Desktop-Skylake/m10174vsm33102 .. If it cannot even outperform my 5 year old laptop card it's pretty hopeless.

Why be so limited on GPU investment for commercial usage? Eye candy is the number one selling factor. Funny thing is you invest in CPU, while LFS still can be happy with 1st or 2nd generation CPUs (or Core2Duo, but these are really getting museum status by now). You can find i3 2nd gen. SFF ex business desktops on Ebay for about $70-$80 .. You throw in some low profile GPU card and it's done.
With old Radeon 4850 (price on ebay 10-20€) you get on blackwood 50-100FPS with good graph setting
Yes, but it's not low profile. He seeks SFF format desktop casings for his project I guess (SFF = small form factor) and normal sized GPU cards would not fit.

But with a little bit of work you can find low profile GPU cards, especially in the USA. Prices for computer equipment there is in general a bit lower.

---
Or even better, make your own casing. Like OVH is doing with its massive server park; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47RM9zylFY .. Its simply a rack with slide in motherboards... Casings as we know them are overrated, contain way too much air. You find some PCI-E Riser sideways adapter; http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816129055 and the space problem is solved. (not for that price by the way.. way too expensive for such a simple print+socket).
I believe I mentioned turning all the settings down... all of them, especially the AA. Just to get LFS so it is not a slide show.

It was running just fine before with AA at 2 or 4.... not at max, but it was acceptable for commercial use. Now it hardly works at 0.

I was only pointing out that previously changing the car reflections made a 10-20 fps difference for each car, now it has no effect. (In the same test of AI # cars etc)

This 530 PC was going to be used for logging in drivers, not racing, but I have it, so I tried it. I needed to expand my graphics card experience from just the 2 or 3 cards I have ever had, I wanted to see the bottom, so I can know how far up the top is.

It was actually working well enough that I almost bought more to just use on the race pods, so I am very happy that LFS updated when it did. Now I know that I have no choice but to go bigger, I may get a zotac Magnus mini pc with a 1070 or rx480 built in, if they ever release the 480 version.

Right now I have my 480 machine once again running 3 instances of LFS at 75 to 100fps just fine, on new blackwood, so I should be able to get away with 1 PC for every 3 pods, maybe 4, at lower FPS. So the current plan is to try and cram 2 to 4 PCs into the 6U portable rack case I already have the server PC in.
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LFS Update: BAD! [frame rate on older PC]
(36 posts, started )
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