Client side FPS locked at 60?

[gameboy1234]

I noticed that the FPS display on beta test shows as about 57 FPS, which is kinda low on my machine.  Overwatch runs at about 75 FPS.  My monitor refresh rate is 80 HZ I think and in game it shows as 75 Hz under the Options menu.  CPU: i7 6700 HQ 2.6GHz. GPU: 1060M

 

This is a pretty low priority request, since the performance feels fine, I just thought it was odd and it might be looked into the next time someone is looking a client side optimization.  It's kind of a stream of consciousness bug report.

 

Also I notice that certain things in  game slow the FPS down quite a bit, like the base portal is AP.  This almost feels like a CPU issue more than a GPU one.

 

Cell shaded mode continues to be the bomb!

[Faultline]

Try /maxfps 80 (or whatever number). Add -maxfps 80 to the launch options to make it permanent.

 

/maxinactivefps for when the game has no focus. I think /maxmenufps when you're on a full screen menu but I'm not sure on that one.

[gameboy1234]

I'm not sure if that helped.  If I stare at something uninteresting (i.e., not many polygons, and isn't moving) and I don't move myself, then I can hit up to 75 FPS.  If I'm running around or standing by Ms. Liberty (animated war walls, other players, etc.) the FPS seems to hover around 57 max.  Note the game doesn't feel laggy or seem to slow down, I'm just watching the FPS display monitor.  It's possible that FPS display number is not reporting correctly too.

 

[Xanatos]

Did CoH run at higher FPS for you in the past?

[gameboy1234]

I'm not sure, I haven't been checking it regularly.  I just logged on to Test and said "hmm, this looks odd."

 

The bug isn't critical or even high priority.  I think it's probably something that could be noted down and then looked at the next time someone does a performance pass on the client.  It just seems odd to me that such an old game seems to have any issues running on a modern machine. @Xanatos

 

 

[kenlon]

1 hour ago, gameboy1234 said:

It just seems odd to me that such an old game seems to have any issues running on a modern machine.

Not really, when you think about it. Modern games are much prettier, but they also take advantage of the increased capabilities of modern hardware (and, more importantly, the APIs that such hardware supports) much more than an ancient game like CoH. 

[Xanatos]

8 hours ago, gameboy1234 said:

I'm not sure, I haven't been checking it regularly.  I just logged on to Test and said "hmm, this looks odd."

 

The bug isn't critical or even high priority.  I think it's probably something that could be noted down and then looked at the next time someone does a performance pass on the client.  It just seems odd to me that such an old game seems to have any issues running on a modern machine. @Xanatos

 

 

 

Ah it was probably running at 60FPS before and you didn't realise. I'm running The same CPU as you but with a GTX1070. The performance I get is pretty much the same as you've described here.

 

CoH is a pretty poorly optimised game by 2020 standards.

 

[GM Tock]

I believe refresh rate is also a factor.  If your monitor's rate is 59/60Hz, it's refreshing at 59-60 times a second.  FPS and Hz aren't linked.  You can set the game to push 80FPS-120FPS, but it won't be seen on a display working at it's own maximum of 60Hz.  Adding 20FPS like Faultline mentioned can help the game smooth out in semi-laggy areas, but your framerate will drop on hard lag regardless of the maximum.  The difference between 90Hz - 120Hz is diminishing returns as the biggest improvement in visual perception is ~30-80Hz (with less than 30 being a bad idea since even older NTSC/PAL TV Broadcasts are at least 30Hz.  Lower than that and it's like watching a cartoon flipbook.)  But you'll be hard pressed to find 90Hz PC Monitors over the 120Hz ones coming rapidly to market.

 

On a laptop, going past your monitor refresh rate means undesirable effects since most laptop components are operating on more terse limits to keep battery life and heat acceptable. (Especially on low-noise cards like NVidia's Max-Q: certain setting 'clamps' are in effect to attain that low-noise condition.)  It's not the same danger as overclock, but a really bad idea on battery power.  (Which you probably shouldn't use on City of Heroes anyway.  Gaming is best on AC.)

 

In short, if you have the video card and monitor for it, knock yourself out.  If not, you're not going to see much past 60FPS anyway.

 

(Edit: As one of my childhood heroes puts it, you don't have to take my word for it.)

Edited October 29, 2020 by GM Tahquitz