Tweak Doom3 seta image_cacheMegs "256"

[L1FE]

Seems like if you go into DoomConfig.cfg and find the line similar to this:

seta image_cacheMegs "32"

and set the 32 to a higher value you can get a huge performance increase. People are seeing the ability to go one res higher and higher quality settings!

I'm currently at work right now so I can't test it out but maybe someone at home right now can check?

EDIT: Also apparently it does not affect timedemos....shrug I guess the only way to tell is when I go home

 

[Lonyo]

I tried this.
Benchmarks (9800np, 2272MHZ AMD XP 1GB PC2100 RAM)
1024x768 @ medium

Setting at default (for me) of 20:
39.1 (3 & 4th runs, second run was disturbed, 1st run discounted)
(During second run, MSN messenger popup window appeared which messed it up and gave 36.0fps)

Setting to 128:
44.6 (2nd run)
44.4 (3rd run)

First runs are discounted because they are slower as things are cached, but they went from 35.1fps to 39.4 fps

So an increase of 5 or so fps, which isn't bad (at the same settings for everything else).
Haven't tried with even higher values.
Doom 3 was not restarted after each run.
I loaded it up, from menu ran "timdemo demo1" 3 or 4 times.

 

[Looney]

I posted my results at Hardocp, but i'll post it here again.
I changed the value from 20 to 256, and got an increase of 100% in FPS. I'm playing at 1920x1200, and use to get 30fps average, with fights dropping to 10fps. But with this, i get average 50fps, and fights are 20fps+.

And it certainly is smoother in games. But when i reduce my resolution to 1280x1024, and set it to ULTRA, i'm still getting 40+ fps on my machine, which should be impossible.

3200+
1gb ram
radeon 9800pro 128

So there's no way i should be getting ULTRA, certainly not at that fps. So i'm thinking it must be limiting something, because that's just too good to be true. I haven't had a chance to take screenshots and compare Ultra with Medium quality, but as far as i can tell, there is no difference in quality.

 

[L1FE]

Wow, those are some amazing results. I don't think it's limiting so much as loading everything into RAM as opposed to Video ram. Are you seeing any performance decreases after you exit the game (I heard some people's system may not be freeing up the used ram). Thanks for the input! I can't wait to try it out when I get home.

 

[brigden]

How do you run the demo?

 

[xcript]

Originally posted by: brigden
How do you run the demo?

\timedemo demo1 1

 

[cw42]

Originally posted by: L1FE
Wow, those are some amazing results. I don't think it's limiting so much as loading everything into RAM as opposed to Video ram. Are you seeing any performance decreases after you exit the game (I heard some people's system may not be freeing up the used ram). Thanks for the input! I can't wait to try it out when I get home.

With a game like this, and Far Cry my system will take like 20 secs to go back to normal speeds after I exit (512mb ram).

 

[L1FE]

Apparently the settings do not actually affect timedemo that much, but is more apparent in the actual game. Sorry for the confusion, but I'm still at work and haven't been able to try myself!

 

[brigden]

OK, I ran the demo three times. First two times with the value of 256, both times I hit 31.8 fps. Third test I ran with the default value of 20 and scored 31.7.

 

[Looney]

Well, after further testing, i don't think it does anything. It was just where i had left off yesterday, and in the new area, it's a bit easier on my system. I've just retested it 4 times, and increasing it to 128 and 256 didn't do anything.

 

[Czar]

very very little change for me
24.4fps at 20
24.7fps at 256

On Athlon 1800xp, 1gb ram, 9700 pro