How to boost your Doom3 performance by 40% on ATI hardware

Thank you sweet angel from the heavens.

 

He does work for Ati

 

Recommended CPU is a 2.4GHz .... a 2400+ is in that reange....CPU is fine. The 9800/OGL drivers/whatever they did to cripple OGL performance are the factors here.

Now....I'll change the mobo and RAM.

 

Take a look for yourself-

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149&p=7

See the P4 2.4 there - no fps difference between 800*600 and 1280*1024. 800*600 is far less work for the video card, therefore the CPU must be holding everything up there. Compare with the quicker CPUs. I know Xoc3 doesn't have a 6800 ultra, so the comparison isn't necessarily valid, but clearly the 9800 pro isn't the weakest link in his system. I'd agree he needs new m/b + ram though too.

I don't think people are quite realizing this yet, but D3 is probably the biggest CPU hog ever - thanks to the dynamic shadows. It's the first game my P4 2.4 hasn't been up to.

 

Doom 3 results after test timedemo demo1.demo usecache

Doom 3 set on 1024x768, High Quality, No VSYNC, No FSAA and OpenGL Control Panel settings of No FSAA, No VSync, 8x FSAF, No TrueForm.

Dell PowerEdge 400SC, 2.4Ghz HT, 1GB PC3200 (512MBx2 PAT), Intel i875P Canterwood, AGP 8X, Fast Writes.

No Tweak: 37.9 FPS
With Patch (378Mhz/338): 42.6 FPS (R350 9800 PRO)
With Patch (400Mhz/360): 44.6 FPS (R350 9800 PRO OC'd)
With Patch (412Mhz/365): 45.6 FPS (R350 9800 PRO OC'd)
With Patch (412Mhz/365): 49.3 FPS (R360 9800 XT)
With Patch (418Mhz/365): 49.5 FPS (R360 9800 XT + Overdrive)

The entire game is NOTICIBLY faster, the time demo scores don't accurately reflect the change. I'm pulling 60 to 50 FPS in just about every situation. The game is now smooth as silk. It's a shame I've already beaten it before I had a chance to experience it with the Humus "patch". No texture "tearing" or abnormal artifacts. The game in my eyes looks just as good, if not better.

Thanks Humus and the others for all your hard work. I really appreciate you sharing this with the community and looking for ways to improve the playability of Doom 3 on ATI cards.

Thanks,
Nathan

 

I posted this before, it's similar to your suggestion yet different, it may appear more complicated but it isn't, just put the following in your autoexec:

Code:

seta filter "image_filter gl_linear; set filter_toggle vstr image"
seta image "image_filter gl_linear_mipmap_linear; set filter_toggle vstr filter"
seta filter_toggle "vstr filter"
bind c "vstr filter_toggle"

The above is a good template for many cvar toggles you might want to try, to test out the different settings in game:
For example, toggle through different AF modes with one key:

Code:

seta af16 "image_anisotropy 16; set afilter_toggle vstr af8"
seta af8 "image_anisotropy 8; set afilter_toggle vstr af4"
seta af4 "image_anisotropy 4; set afilter_toggle vstr af0"
seta af0 "image_anisotropy 0; set afilter_toggle vstr af16"
seta afilter_toggle "vstr af16"
bind x "vstr afilter_toggle"

 

Sorry, I have to disagree here. Japanese developers will often not use mipmaps because they don't want things to get so blurry. Also, aliasing can be useful for a noise-type effect.

-FUDie

 

Hey, your boost is cool! What is your 9800Pro, is r350 core flashed? or r360 flashed? What bios you have used

 

Suprisingly, all cards tested are running the factory Built-By-ATI BIOS. I actually tested three different cards, the 9800 PRO running 412/365; I was going to reflash it but because it was only an R350 core I was afraid there would be issues (IE, 9800 XT BIOS looking for R360 core). I believe/assume/extrapolate that the 9800 XT performs (measurably (sp?)) better due to the advantages of the R360 core, not true clock speed or BIOS. I've seen some 3DMark '03 results for a 9800 PRO reflashed with an XT BIOS and only saw a gain of 200 pts, which roughly translates to about 1 FPS in Doom 3 Timedemo scores.

The other 9800 PRO (400Mhz/360) is a true 9800 XT PCB, but I don't plan on reflashing for the same reasons as above as well as the fact I'd have to underclock the card (The core just won't handle anything higher than 400Mhz without sparkle/artifacts).

 

Thanks for the tip, guys... udk_jack is right--what I tried doesn't work (ok, so I'm lazy), but I found inglo's suggestion works very well, except that I prefer "c" for crouch, and used "g" instead (for "GL"--so these aging brain cells can remember...), and it works instantly and very well. Thanks again fellas!

 

Hi Guys ! Here are my results, first of all my config :

- At 2600+
- Ati Radeon 9700 PRO - last catalyst
- 512mo 3500
- Asus A7N8X Deluxe - last Bios

Test made on timedemo demo1

== 1024x768 / Low detail / No effect NO PATCH

1st : 33,4 fps
2nd : 32,4

Average : 32,9 fps

== 1024x768 / Low detail / No effect WITH PATCH

1st : 36,7 fps
2nd : 36,5
3rd : 36,5

Average : 36,5 fps

So the optimization is about 10%. The game looks smoother and with less lag than before, thx Humus.


But it is still too slow and i am in low detail and can't enjoy the nice graph

Do you think with 3200+ and 1go ram i should have a great improvment ?

Cause the com_showmemory cmd shows that D3 mem usage is about 800 mo even with low detail !!! And i feel that in high detail there are a lot of disk so it is unplayable...

Or the 9700 pro is too short ? I hope nope no in fact i did not used it for one year !!! :?

Thanks for the support and keep on that way. Bye. COil

 

Another thing i get the same about the same results in 1064 , 800 and 640 resolutions in low detail ! I saw only the diff in high detail...

 

yah

With that rig you should be able to pull off medium detail without any problems. Looks pretty nice too.

 

Whats the best way to get the most out of Humus' tweak people have been saying that you need to enable AF by the ATI control panel.
Now on my Radeon 9800pro properties it says:

ANTI-ALIASING/Application preference

ANISOTROPIC-FILTERING/Application preference
ANISOTROPIC-FILTERING METHOD/Application preference

Does that have anything to do with the whole AF control pannel?And how do I enable AF by the control panel? Im using Catalyst 4.7
I also hear that on High settings it automaticly goes to AA 8X so in the advanced options do I leave AA of or leave how it is since HIGH as 8XAA? Thanks guys..

 

AA

Doom3 sets the AF level to 8x on High settings. It will not set AA for you.

If you want to set the AF level in the control panel, make sure you set the AF level of Doom3 to "1" in DoomConfig.cfg. I think the line you want to edit is r_anistropy or something like that.

 

I sent the exact same post to humus private message do you think ill get a relpy?

 

do you know how this works on:
p4 2,53
ati 9200 128(i don´t hawe more money)
512ddr(333)
I dont have doom3, but i want to know

 

No real effect really on my 9000pro, so probably not.

 

I recently tried doing this on my ATI mobility radeon 9700. Previous to this change, i was getting alot of lag when cutscenes or heavy load sequences would begin. Afterwards, they are as smoothe as can be. I don't understand fully why it works just yet, but it definately does. Now to spend the next week trying to understand it, hehe