IL-2/PF on a Laptop

[JoaoMuas]

Hello.

I installed the IL-2/PF series on my Pentium 4 @ 3,2 GHz + 1GB RAM Laptop and still I can't get much further than 10fps!!!

I'm used to my old 1.7GHz AMD + 1GB RAM desktop from which I can squeeze 30fps online.

Can it be to video cards/ monitor?

The Laptop has a SiS M661MX/ TFT monitor.
The Desktop has a NVGeForce 3/ 19" LG CRT.

I understand the Laptop display was probably never intended to fast fps gameplay, but still I find this low performance results very strange...

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[MaXMhZ]

run il2Setup/PFSetup and set the systems to about the same configuration.
don't go beyond 24 bits graphics (LCD screens can't display those) but try keep the resolution the same (no AA or other enhancements that might influence performance). Also check conf.ini for same values for water,clouds etc
run under OpenGL

run the track called "the Black Death"

select "Loop" before running it.

Once it runs press Sift-Tab.
This will bring up the console command interface.
enter
fps START SHOW ON
(case sensitive)
This will bring up the game's fps meter.
Let the track run a couple of times and compare the average fps on each machine.
Make sure you have updated drivers for GFX card, Sound and Motherboard. (make a system restore point before you do in case you need to roll-back) - newer drivers does not mean better performance in all cases.

You should be able to reach values well over 20 fps (even my old P4 1.7/1GB DDR PC2100 with ATI 9600 reaches fps values from 20-40

Try to do a run without sound too - integrated soundchips can influence fps considerably.

[JoaoMuas]

I tried that already.

The Black Death track runs at barely 7fps on the Laptop... my desktop still reads 20 plus...

[MaXMhZ]

Try to run 3DMark 2001 on the laptop http://www.futuremark.com/download/3dmark2001/

What I read about the SiS makes me believe it's not meant for 3D gaming. You could try lowering the graphics settings in-game - this could make it playable...

[JoaoMuas]

Video Mode
Res 800x600
No Stencil Buffer

Video Options
Excellent + No Clouds

This makes it between 15 and 25 fps.

Lowering video options settings can bring a few fps more but only if I put it on Ver Low, which makes it look horrible.

I'll keep trying some more tweaks...