Quake3World

prince1000 wrote:a lot of people are reporting little fps gain to minor fps loss, as you.

what about at the lower resolutions? any increase there?

minor loss i could swallow easier, but my nettimedemo dropped from 100.71 fps to 84.9 fps (i run at 1024x768)

lower resolutions ? - i'll make time to run it through the mill for you

Got the update from the id site and installed it.
http://www.idsoftware.com/

I don't have hyper-threading, but updated anyway.

No problem connecting to servers.
Interesting to note that many servers are still running version 1.0.0.0 win-x86, having not applied the previous 1.0.4.0 win-x86 update.
Also, the Linux server version is incremented one past the windows version.
The older Linux version is 1.0.5.0 linux-x86, and the new version will be 1.0.6.0 linux-x86 as soon as someone installs the update.

As of this note, no servers of any operating system have been found running this most recent update ( update dated Dec 8 2005 ).

I like to run a dedicated server on my desktop, so that I may check out maps and such.

The new 1.0.5.0 win-x86 update causes the client to fail when connecting to a local dedicated server.
The problem is the client trying to extract gamex86.dll to the q4base folder, while the server has already started and has qbase\gamex86.dll in use.

This is a new problem that did not occur with the 1.0.4.0 win-x86 version.

The work around I use for starting a local client is:

@set basepath="\Quake 4"
@
@rem rename gamex86.dll in case server is running already
@if exist %basepath%\q4base\rengamex86.dll del %basepath%\q4base\rengamex86.dll
@if exist %basepath%\q4base\gamex86.dll ren %basepath%\q4base\gamex86.dll rengamex86.dll
@
@cd %basepath%
@"quake4.exe +connect 127.0.0.1"

SturmUSA wrote:
As of this note, no servers of any operating system have been found running this most recent update ( update dated Dec 8 2005 ).

My linux server was updated last night .

Oeloe wrote:

MidnightQ4 wrote:Unless your computer was built with top components in the last 12 months it will basically suck at playing this game at anything more than the very lowest settings.

That goes only for CPU, basically. My Radeon 9800 Pro gets me 63 fps with only some small drops on most custom maps, a bit lower on the stock maps and SP. An Athlon 64 3200+ and a 9800 Pro weren't 'top' components 12 months ago. It seems quite some people have stuttering sound and video in MP games even with better specs than mine, but i wouldn't know if that will be solved by this update.

Well perhaps a 9800 is a little bit older than 12 months, but still it was around $250 - $300 back then, which at the time was moderately pricy for a graphics card. That is actually what I have myself, with a 3.2 P4, and on the stock maps I get fps drops into the 10's with averages around 25-35 on crowded maps. This is with all settings tweaked that I could find at 800x600. Sure, it is true the tweaked maps give pretty good performance with average fps around 50, but then most people trying the game out with the demo aren't going to know that, and they might give up on the game due to poor performance.

As much as I'm happy about having SMP so we hard core types can take advantage of our full CPU (I'm upgrading to x2 soon), it sadly doesn't really fix the problem for people with something less than a 9800 pro which I think is about the minimum you can get away with and have a decent playing experience. I'd guess about 70% of users have less than a 9800 pro, with the other 30% being the more hardcore fps player. Of course I recognize that people need to upgrade every 24 months at least if they expect to play the latest and greatest, but for a lot of kids out there on limited budgets, these newer cards are a bit pricey. $700 for a top card these days? And the top systems running SLI? I think that's great for enthusiasts who have a small penis, but really it wouldn't be that hard for id to include some backward compatibility for slower systems, just like they did with vertex lighting in Q3 which worked beautifully for it's purpose. Or at the very least, fix the light detail level in the maps and give people a rundown of settings to tweak for better performance in the literature.

MidnightQ4 wrote:Well perhaps a 9800 is a little bit older than 12 months, but still it was around $250 - $300 back then, which at the time was moderately pricy for a graphics card.

Off-topic: (2 years ago) in january 2003 the 9800 pro was 175-250 euros here.

I'm using 1024x786 at high detail btw (only a few settings turned down) so your card's performance could be better. Make sure you disable muzzleflash (causes huge frame drops)! I really max out on 63 very often, on some maps with lightdetaillevel 0, but u usually use 4. I need 6 on The Edge.

It seems to me this patch is aimed at the small group with high-end systems, probably like the pc's used at leagues like CPL. Pretty useless because we're still stuck with all the flaws and broken and missing features (a demo menu please?? autodownload?). :icon13:

Autodownload for sure...

For me it's not about what I max out at, it's about what i drop down to, and even at 800x600 with many more settings tweaked that just muzzleflash, I still drop into the 10's. When I play the custom maps with lightdetaillevel = 9 then ya I get pretty solid fps, mostly in the 40-60 range which is playable. But really you can't say that a 9800 pro is all that great on a crowded normal map server. Just go find a longest yard server with 10 people on it and watch those frames go bye-bye. Of course the cpu probably has something to do with that as well.

MidnightQ4 wrote:Just go find a longest yard server with 10 people on it and watch those frames go bye-bye. Of course the cpu probably has something to do with that as well.

True, but i played through the entire SP with an average FPS of 45 perhaps and the Q4 space maps are the only maps that really drop down much in FPS here. It's not excellent and unacceptable in certain MP situations, but just perfect for SP, MP duels and bigger games with lightdetaillevel tweaked maps.

I noticed a significant performance boost with the patch.

Not so much in absoloute FPS, but in the smoothness of gameplay -- I no longer get slowdowns in heavy firefights online and the sound stuttering is much improved.

Playing post-patch feels almost like playing q3 back in 99(with the tnt2-ultra and first generationg geforce cards) in terms of overall feel on a network game.