32Mb VRAM?

[markshot]

My video card has 32Mb VRAM should I be concerned about installing too many HIRES mods?

Do HIRES mods only slow your PC when you don't have adequate video memory?

Thanks.

[illo]

Hi-res grass and snow mods will slow your system down.

Btw. I made my hi-res terrain work faster by reducing the file size. I opened terrain files in Paint Shop Pro and reduced their color depth to 256. Visual quality didn't get any worse but CM runs more smoothly.

Hi-Res vehicle textures dont slow my system noticeably.

I hope this helps.

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: illo ]</p>

[Schrullenhaft]

It's a possibility that you could install 'too many' high-res mods. I'm not sure how textures are managed in the video card's VRAM. At some point you could have enough models on screen that call for more textures than your video card could hold at one time. Therefore it would start swapping out textures to the 'AGP Pool' in the main memory (I'm not sure how such swapping schemes would determine which textures get swapped out - possibly a 'least used' scheme). This swapping process is what can slow down the computer (since transfers over the AGP bus to main memory is slower than manipulating info currently stored in VRAM). I'm not sure if different cards and their drivers handle this process differently or not.

One of the ways around this is 'texture compression' that you may have heard of... like S3TC. However not all games utilize this feature, though I believe that there are DirectX functions that can use them. I don't know if CMBB's 'downsampling' will utilize the texture compression routines available in DirectX (and whatever may be available in RAVE).

Typically the high-res grass, trees and buildings cause the biggest slow downs (probably because they're among the larger/most-numerous textures in the game). A large variety of AFVs on screen could also cause slow downs (with less shared textures, the more VRAM needed).

[markshot]

How does CMBO process the texture files for terrain and vehicles? Are they all loaded with the mission or are they loaded on an as needed basis?

Meaning what is the best way to test if too many mods are degrading my performance? I have FRAPS (test frame rate) and CM MOD Mgr. So, I can easily test. So, is just loading a particular save game with and without the mods sufficient to test?

Thanks.