Profile won't delete for FEAR!

[ikjadoon]

Hi, this is my system:

E6600 @ 3.465GHz
2GB DDR2-770
8800GTS Stock
ASUS P5N-E SLI, BIOS 401
Vista Ultimate 64-bit, 100.65 drivers
(Overdrive PC Core2.SLI)

If you need anything more, do ask!

Anyways, I set up a really high-quality profile for FEAR. Of course, it was a big hit, so I deleted the profile. However, the game still runs at 33FPS versus 65FPS (before). I do have dual-monitors (clone), but the game still runs slow even with the second one disabled.

I ran 3DMark '06 and the score (8825) came out about right. I'm not sure if this is a driver problem or a FEAR problem.

Thanks!

~Ibrahim~

[AngelGraves13]

Have you set your NVIDIA control panel to "multiple display performance mode" under hardware acceleration in the "Manage 3D settings"?

[ikjadoon]

Yes and I've changed it to Single Monitor Performance as well. Same 33/34FPS.

Since my first post, I've tried to restore the system and run F.E.A.R under defaults (not performance defaults, Defaults in the Options tab). Neither worked. Right now, I'm reinstalling FEAR (uninstall, reinstall).

Quick question: Whilst installing FEAR, it asked me to install DX9.0c, which I had to or the installtion would not continue. Is this bad? I thought I was using DX10?

Thanks for your reply!

~Ibrahim~

[AngelGraves13]

The game doesn't make use of DirectX 10. It was programmed for DirectX 9. Try installing the latest Redist package for DirectX from the Microsoft website. It should be the April 2007 Redist. It'll install newer versions of DirectX files that programs and games use or will use.

[nekrosoft13]

i had this happen on XP once or twice, what happened to me, each time i messed around with "XXXXXXXX display performance mode" it always cut my performance in half or more. only way to restore performance was to uninstall driver and install it again.

[Princess_Frosty]

I think some of the profiles have in them specific fixes and optimisations for games, you can't choose these in the control panel but they can be set in the file while holds the profile info

in:

C:\windows\system32\

You will find an nvapps.xml file which you can open with notepad, you can add these lines anywhere between the start and end profileset, make sure they dont already exist first.

<PROFILE Label="F.E.A.R.">
<APPLICATION Label="FEAR.exe"/>
<APPLICATION Label="FEARmp.exe"/>
<PROPERTY Label="multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02602001" Itemtype="predefined"/>
</PROFILE>
<PROFILE Label="F.E.A.R: Extraction Point ">
<APPLICATION Label="fearxp.exe"/>
<APPLICATION Label="fearxp-spdemo.exe"/>
<PROPERTY Label="multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02602001" Itemtype="predefined"/>
</PROFILE>

Make a backup for the nvapps.xml FIRST and make sure to have the control panel closed before you do this.

These profiles are from the 101.41 drivers, whether they have specific fixes in them or not I dont know, but it might be worth giving it a shot.

Don't attempt this if you're not happy with making and restoring from a backup, no responsability of borked drivers comes back to me, etc etc etc ;)

[nekrosoft13]

there is nothing special in that profile

this line

<PROPERTY Label="multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02602001

is only if you have SLI, has nothing to do with single card

[ikjadoon]

OK, I will try that in a moment.

Currently, the reinstall of FEAR did absolutely nothing. Except to remove my custom resolution. Even then, with 1280x960, I scored a paltry 35FPS average.

I restored my computer to a date even earlier. I'm going to make a profile for FEAR, but set everything to 'normal'/application-controlled. If that still does not work, I'm going to try the tweak you mentioned, Princess.

Thanks!

[Princess_Frosty]

I dont think all of the fixes are listed in the profiles in the xml file, it might be that you need the profile to be called a certain thing before it works correctly, how exactly nvidia impliment their application specific optimisations might extend past just whats in the profile.

Even so this method should work if you can get those profile lines from another set of drivers more suited for your OS and video card, these are beta SLI drivers and as such might be different to other sets, If anyone else has other vista drivers before these ones paste the same lines of code between some code tags, cheers.

[grey_1]

Couldn't someone running the 100.65s just post the profile and he can c&p it into his nvapps?

Heck, be quicker to reinstall the drivers.

[ikjadoon]

I've already reinstalled my drivers. That was the first thing I did. Shame it didn't work! Might try again, however. Just for kicks, lol!

So, I finally got FEAR to run at 1280x1024. Another 34FPS score. I'm going to make that 'default' profile now.

Yeah, if someone (God Forbid) is still running 100.65, I'd like that file. A single-card setup would be nice, too. I'm going to try Princess' idea next if this new profile doesn't work out.

~Ibrahim~

[ikjadoon]

I went into the nVidia Control Panel, and lo behold! I find a FEAR profile with my previous super-high-maximum settings. I change EVERYTHING to either off (minus Triple Buffering/VSync) or "Use Global Setting". I press Apply and run the game. Still bad frame rates. I go back into the Control Panel and I find that some of my settings stuck, while others did not. The only settings that got stuck were:

Antialiasing - Mode: Override any Application Setting
Antialiasing - Setting: 16xQ
Antialiasing - Transparency: Supersampling

Everything else stayed at OFF or Global Setting. I'm going to try it again, however. See if those get turned off this time.

~Ibrahim~

[ikjadoon]

HELL YEAH! I fixed it! I figured out the problem. I had set AA Mode to Global Setting, which was Application Controlled. This time, I just selected Application Controlled. And it worked. A new record FPS for me, too. Instead of 65FPS, I got 77FPS!

~Ibrahim~

[Princess_Frosty]

Good work, sounds like a bug with the drivers, might be worth reporting that one with the Nvidia bug report form thing, I can't remember the link now :/

[ikjadoon]

Good idea, I forgot about that! The link is in a sticky in this forum, I think.

~Ibrahim~