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Posted
on August 22, 2001 by Thomas
McGuire
Display Settings Optimization
#2
Decal
Limits. This slider controls the maximum amount of
bullet holes/explosion scars in a level, where setting this to a Higher
position will increase the maximum number available & vice versa.
Once this limit is reached the oldest decal will be removed, & so on. Using
a Lower setting can improve game performance, although this is
semi-determined by how bad your aim is (& that of the enemies). Given the
little need to backtrack in levels I’d personally recommend setting this to Medium
only.
Projectile
Limits. This slider sets the amount of optional effects,
e.g. Pieces of debris from shooting walls, or bullet casings from weapons, that
will be rendered in Max Payne, with Low rendering the minimum
amount, while Medium will render a greater amount, & High will
render the greatest number. If you have a slow CPU then set this to Low,
while those on faster systems, or with Hardware T&L capable Graphics Cards
should set this to Medium or High.
Fogging.
Set this to Enabled to enable the rendering of fog in the game,
this is more for atmospheric purposes than to hide far of objects/detail
although on some Graphics Cards this can adversely affect performance. Set this
to Disabled should you find your frame rate lowers too much in areas
where fog effects are visible.
Sounds.
Set this to Disabled to disable all Audio playback in Max Payne.
This should only really be considered a final troubleshooting method (Assuming
the tips earlier didn’t help) or if you intend to benchmark Max Payne’s
performance perhaps. Although as Remedy’s co-founder, Markus Mäki, said over
on 3DPulpit;
There's
no demo record or benchmarking mode in Max, unfortunately. Use 3DMark :-)
So,
basically leave this setting set to Enabled at all times.
Task
Switching. Setting this to Disabled will (surprisingly
enough) disable the functionality of certain key combinations during the
Game, e.g. ALT-TAB. This should eliminate the possibility of you accidentally
minimizing or closing Max Payne. For those of you who may need to have such
functionality you should set this to Enabled.
Screen
Buffers. This setting controls the number of screen buffers
to use for Max Payne. Triple buffering allocates a 3rd frame buffer, this
frame buffer can improve performance by allowing the hardware to render at the
same time that the 3D application performs other tasks – which can improve
performance. However, Triple buffering requires extra Video memory so on
Graphics Cards with a low amount of Video Memory (16MB or less) you should set
this to Double buffering for best performance.
Particle
Detail. This slider controls the complexity of particle
effects used in Max Payne, the most obvious example being the Snow that is
present to varying degrees in most levels. Using a Lower setting will disable
the more resource intensive of these effects, which will make the Game a bit
duller, i.e. Being in NY’s worst snow storm ever, but without snow falling,
although can improve performance greatly on systems with a slow CPU. If you have
a relatively fast CPU (700Mhz or more) then you should set this to High
for the greatest number of these effects, which will add to overall realism.
Object
Detail. This setting controls the LOD used for Weapon,
Character & other Object models. When set to Medium/High the
highest LOD is used for rendering these, which will give best Model quality.
Setting this to Low will lower quality Models may be used for these,
which is recommended if your system is close to the Minimum recommend system
spec. for Max Payne, or if your system has a low amount of RAM.
Character
Variations. This slider controls the variety of textures used
for Character models. When set to Low there are no variations per skin,
when set to Medium there can be 2 variations per skin, while when set to High
there can be up to 6 variations. Depending on how much Video memory your
Graphics Card has you should set this accordingly – I’d recommend setting
this to High if you have 32MB or more of memory, while those with 16MB or
less should set this to Medium or Low if AGP Texturing is
unavailable. As you can guess using a reduced variety of textures will result in
more generic/clone-like player Models appearing throughout the Game.
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