Texture Compression Recommended?

[MrPabulum]

Hey,

I'm running a KT400/Barton 2500+ at 2.1Ghz (mostly through multiplier), 1GB Samsung PC2700 and ATI R9700 Pro. For Madden 2004, does anyone recommend turning texture compression on, or should it stay off? When its off, I need to reduce the res. to 1024 x768 for it not to stutter, though transition from playcalling and game is very smooth. If it's on, then 1152 x 864, but the problem is that the transition from playcalling screen and the game can get choppy once in a while (textures loading probably). Any thoughts on getting this game to run at its best? AA is at 4X quality, AF is turned off, since it was hurting framerate w/o any noticeable IQ improvment. Vsync is also turned off to get game to run smoothly. Is my PC producing the right FPS? What are other people's results?Lots o' questions, I know. Thanks for any help guys!:beer:

 

[MercenaryForHire]

You're bitching over a little stutter and you're at 4X AA? Talk about high standards.

My suggestion is to turn texture compression back on, drop AA down to 2X, and AF up to 2X.

- M4H

 

[0roo0roo]

compression all the way

 

[danbfree]

I have a similar setup, KT400 Barton 2500 at 2.16G mostly through multiplier. I have 512 Corsair 2700XMS and a 128MB GF4 Ti... My guess is the game itself is pretty intensive. With the nice video card you have I say keep it 2X AA and you should be able to crank up AF. Some games (mostly new ones) are simply not meant to run at high rez since the graphics are so intense. BTW, Owner mode is the bomb in Madden '04!

 

[BFG10K]

Leave texture compression on unless you experience severe artifacts. You'll get better performance and in some cases higher image quality as some games load larger textures when you ask them to use compressed textures (eg UT, MOHAA, etc).

 

[MrPabulum]

I have no problem dropping the AA down to 2X and leaving texture compression on, but does anyone get that minor hiccup between playcalling and the game when TC is on? Anyway I'll give it a shot; maybe it was the 4xAA causing the extra stutter. Do you guys also have vsync also turned off?

So far, I've learned that my system does 4xAA/8XAF at 1024 x 768, 1152 x864 tops, which is pretty nice.

Edit: Game is playing well at 1152 x 864, 4xAA, no AF, vsync off, texture comp. on. The transitions seem to have gotten smoother the longer I play a game. AF has to remain turned off b/c the frame rate hit is too large...thanks for the help!

 

[MrPabulum]

bump

 

[BFG10K]

Do you guys also have vsync also turned off?

Most definitely.

 

[MrPabulum]

Just for this specific game, or in general? I'm not a fan of turning it off, given some frame-shifting that occurs, but the frame rate increase is hard to ignore.