30 FPS cap?

Well, I managed to get the C&C3 demo from Fileplanet today. When I first started it up, it managed to default to Ultra High graphics settings at 1152X864 and 2xAA. Pretty nifty.

But, as I'm playing the game with FRAPS running, I notice that the FPS doesn't go up any higher than 30 FPS. It'll sit at 30 FPS the whole time. Now, 30 FPS isn't bad, but I didn't expect it to cap at that speed.

I figured I'd double check my nVidia CP to see if anything there is causing the problem. Nothing, a number of options are to let the app decide, and others don't matter in this case. Even VSync is set to let the app decide, and the C&C3 demo doesn't have a VSync option to change, But, when I check the "Adjust settings with image" option with FRAPS running, the spinning 3D logo itself is capped to 30 FPS.

What gives? What's happening to cap my FPS to 30?

 

I don't know why it would happen outside of the game itself, but even in C&C Generals, with V-Sync off in display panel, I am also capped at 30fps with my 7600GS, X1950Pro and Go7400. It might be just the game - does it happen in other games?

 

Not really. Even SC doesn't cap at 30 FPS, although that's the average FPS I get with it, but that's a whole other story.

If it is within the game itself and we cannot change it, then I guess we just have to wait until someone hacks the game files and changes it.

 

Could easily be the game itself, yeah. They might cap the framerate at 30 just because. They wouldn't be the first game to do it either. I believe SWG did the same. And of course, many console games do it too.

Apart from everything, it might actually look better than unstable framerates (constantly jumping from 60 to 30 and back looks far worse than something that's stable at 30). If that's likely to happen in C&C3, they might have capped the framerate just to solve that problem.
A fixed framerate also makes a number of programming issues easier to deal with.

 

ahhh!!!! the demo is out! ill dl it and report back my fps

 

Jalf is right. Many games cap out at 30fps, and if you're not capping out at 30fps on other games, then it's probably just the game. Other games such as Doom 3 and Quake 4 cap out at 60fps; it's just up to the developers really.

 

ORLY its out!!?!?!?!?! Wow forget the stalker demo i'm going to play this!

Wow 45 minute wait until I can download =/

 

Well, I think it may be some sort of internal VSync method they have, which would be nice to go in and disable. I would like to see the game go over 30 FPS.

 

Being an RTS do you really need it over 30fps?

 

Well, it wouldn't hurt...

 

So, what are your opinions about the game? I hate demo's just because its a tease and i hate to be teased.

 

I love it but I always wait for reviews to come out before I make my decisions. Its no warcraft 3 but i've been waiting 4 years for a replacement (because blizzard works too slow) so yea.....

 

Ik know that the game gta3 was also capped at 30fps. In that game it was possible to turn the option called 'frame limiter' to 'off'. Maybe it is possible to force V-sync of in the nvidia control panel to get rid of your problem, but i'm affraid it wont work It's the only thing i can advise you at the moment.

 

hmm, I like it... A blast from the past, yeah, but still entertaining, and I always had a weak spot for the C&C universe and storyline.

Still, 1996 called to say they want their gameplay back... It is kinda funny how little the game has evolved when you compare to DoW or CoH or other recent RTS'es.

But in the end, the demo is entertaining to play, and I guess that's what matters

As for the 30fps cap, I doubt it can be solved short of a (major) patch. The game time is fixed to the framerate, which means all is well as long as the fps stays at 30fps. I played a bit on my laptop though, and got lower framerates, which didn't make the game too choppy, it just... slowed down the game.

I didn't know anyone still used this method to synchronize their game logic. But I guess technology-wise, the game belongs in 1996 as well... (Making each frame correspond to a fixed amount of gametime was a common trick in the DOS days, and it's still used sometimes on consoles. But on a modern PC, it's ridiculous. It forces them to make a hard fps cap, and it makes the game run in slow-mo on low-end computers... Also makes multiplayer sync a lot harder...

 

more easier actually the game isn't hard to run -.-

 

No, Jalf was right. The same problem is present in both the BFME games. If your computer can't push out the required 30fps, then instead of skipping frames, it just slows the game speed. If the difference is too great, then other players have to wait for you to catch up, because their units are moving faster than yours, so the high performance players get the jerkiness then.

 

did you try turning Vsync off in the driver CP?

 

Westwood RTS games have always done something like this - but at least their is a cap on SAGE engine games. Red Alert, Tiberian Sun, Dune 2000, etc. all run as fast as your computer can possibly render them while at full game speed - which needless to say makes them impossible to keep up with on modern machines. This fundamentally isn't a bad idea - in fact it's a great idea, because no one's getting screwed in multiplayer if their frame rate chugs - but it unfortunately relies on people knowing when their framerate is too low and turning down settings. And there are a lot of idiots out their who just won't listen when you tell them their S3 Unichrome of GMA 900 just can't handle modern games.

 

I realize the reason but the 30fps cap is slightly anoying at first but I got over it extremely fast.

 

I made a big simulator with some students in Opengl. But it wasn't hard for us to hold on the same speed when you get more fps. The only thing you have to do is to make a 2 variables: One for saving the time of loading the last frame and one variable for saving the time before your current frame is loaded. (in Nanosecs )

With these two variables you can make a 3rd variable to use as a mutiply factor for every movement. The higher fps you get the lower number your 3rd variable has.

 

Actually, it is. The "proper" way to do it is to decouple the framerate entirely from the game logic. So even if you're playing the game at 2fps, the game still progresses at the same speed behind the scenes. The game state still updates at the same rate (say, 120 times per second - this can be done much faster because it doesn't involve rendering), and the gpu just renders a new frame when it has time.

That way everyone's game progresses at the *exact*same speed, and if someone has a slow computer, it only affects him, no one else. Most games do this, but unfortunately, the C&C team seems unable to grasp the concept.

 

Aren't they owned by EA now? That would explain a lot...

 

Yea, mine caps at 30FPS too at full settings even with an 8800GTX. At first, I was like, that is really odd, even CoH runs better than that. It is very smooth running at 30FPS though, one thing I thought wasn't all that great in the demo was the shadows, even at full settings they were very jagged. I guess I could go into nVidia control panel and do more AA.