FPS problem on recent computer [Fixed]

Hello everyone! Not sure if this question was already made or a similar thread opened, but I couldn't find anything relatable so here's my case, I'm having a problem, I made a clean install on a laptop which was bought last year and almost couldn't play it because of the white car glitches and the start the game once and never start again problem, which were solved by downloading and installing the 9.6 patch I believe and the no-cd (and nothing else, no mods or anything), but the main problem, I fail to understand the reason why it happens, is, in a 1 year old computer I'm having problems running smoothly a 15 or so year old game! I'm puzzled because even being a pretty generic computer with Windows 10, Intel Graphics and a Celeron N series processor, it should be able to run the game at a relatively high fps range with full graphics, and the situation is at low graphics and everything turned down, the game still has a really low fps count at the starts and at some tracks in some areas with lots of things around, or the whole of Monaco! To add, the computer runs similar aged games fine like Combat Flight Simulator 2 and GTR2(at mid range graphics has no problems) so my guess is that this is not a compatibility issue! So if anyone knows how or has any suggestions on improving this situation, help is much appreciated!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2016 09:33PM by mortal.

Hi there.
A couple of questions:
1) Have you installed, and are you launching the game through, GPxPatch? This goes a long way towards fixing a lot of issues.
2) Could you post the contents of your F1Graphics.cfg, located in the same folder as your GP4.exe? (Probably don't copy and paste it here, as it's quite long; try Pastebin or something)
3) Could you post your system specs?
4) What frame rate have you set in the Options menu?

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F1 Graphics Swapper --- Lensdump - Renders and Screenshots --- GP4 Performance Generator

I'll answer them one by one! And thanks for the help! So,
1) No, I was launching through the regular (no-cd) GP4.exe! I read on the forums about the GPxPatch but couldn't quite understand and make out what it was/is, so I didn't risk installing something I had no idea what would do to the game! So I will try it!
EDIT: I have tried it and it didn't help much! I did seem smoother and more fluid than before in the middle of a race but still had some stutter moments in the middle of the race but mainly on the start and first corner!

2) I already changed the f1graphics.cfg on two occasions, the 1st to change the screen resolution to 1920x1080, and with that the graphic settings menu became useless so I changed the graphic settings on the cfg to see if decreasing even more the graphics and trackside objects would do any good (it didn't), here you go: [pastebin.com] (also thanks for the suggestion)

3) As I said, it's a pretty generic, non-gaming laptop that I bought because of work, something able to read PDF and use Word and other work tools, but since these games are old I figured this would have no problem running them, I'm not so sure now lol... Here you go:

Processor:
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N2830 @ 2.16GHz
Manufacturer Intel
Speed 2.2 GHz
Number of Cores 2
CPU ID BFEBFBFF00030678
Family 06
Model 37
Stepping 8

RAM - 4GB

Video Card
Intel(R) HD Graphics
Manufacturer Intel
Chipset Intel(R) HD Graphics
Dedicated Memory 64 MB
Total Memory 1.8 GB
Pixel Shader Version 5.0
Vertex Shader Version 5.0
Hardware T & L Yes
Vendor ID 8086
Device 0F31
Plug and Play ID VEN_8086&DEV_0F31&SUBSYS_14DD1043&REV_0E
Driver Version 10.18.10.4358

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10 (build 14393), 64-bit
Service Pack 0
Size 64-bit
Edition
Version 10.0.14393
Locale 0809

BIOS
X551MA.510
Version American Megatrends Inc. X551MA.510
Manufacturer American Megatrends Inc.
Date

4) I tried differente frame rate options to see what happened, but I think that the default setting which was 30, was the way to go, it did have lag problems and the game stuttered on starts and on graphically crowded areas (so to speak) but for example, I turned it up to max setting (60) and the game didn't stutter but everything was awkwardly slow, slow motion like, so it didn't seem like an option!

But this is really strange! This afternoon I was playing GTR2 with said mid-range graphics, and ran a 32 car grid and the game didn't stutter, didn't have a hard time on the start and everything was ok, but then GP4 has these problems, it's really puzzling!
Ad
Again, thanks for the help! Really appreciate it!



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2016 08:17PM by Madbigdog.

Thanks for providing all of that, this sort of thing is so much easier with as much info as possible.

With all of that, I'm pretty sure that it's just your laptop (mainly that Intel graphics) not having the grunt needed for GP4, at least at your current graphics settings.
GP4 is quite graphics intensive; the recommended hardware requirements it was advertised with all those years ago were so far from the mark it wasn't funny.
I also think it doesn't do some things very efficiently by today's standards - though others, with better knowledge of the graphics side of things, might be more qualified than me to say so - but it was pushing the boundaries of what was possible back in the day, and it left a lot of room for further expansion.
The good news is that, today, if your computer can handle it, the models and textures we make can be many times more detailed than the originals.
Bad news is that it's still not easy to run at full potential.

However, as someone who used to play with a PC about as powerful as your laptop, I might be able to suggest some things.

1) 30 FPS will be better for you than 60 obviously as, at 30 FPS, everything only has to work half as hard.
2) There are certain graphical things that really affect performance. Model detail is one but, as we can't do much about that, here are some important lines in the F1Graphics.cfg:

1			; [MAIN VIEW] Display track shadows
3			; [MAIN VIEW] Shadow type (under cars) (0=> off, 1=> static, 2=> composite, 3=> projected)
400			; [MAIN VIEW] Reflect static objects within this distance (0 => off) v3

Shadows - especially Projected - and reflections are big draws on graphics power. I'd suggest turning them off completely or, if you want them, switch to Static shadows and turn the Static reflection distance down to 100 or 150.
Dynamic reflections are an even bigger killer, but they already seem to be off.

2250			; [MAIN VIEW] Distance cull ALL track objects past this distance (overides LOD, 0 => off) v2

Turn this number down to make objects disappear from view quicker. This is why Monaco is the most graphically intensive track in the original game; the circuit is so short that you're never too far away from ~90% of most objects.

1			; [MAIN VIEW] Draw Particles
1			; [MAIN VIEW] Draw rain (0 => off, 1 => on)
1			; [MAIN VIEW] DrawBrakeGlows  (0 => off, 1 => on)
1			; [MAIN VIEW] DrawExternalSteering  (0 => off, 1 => on)
2			; [MAIN VIEW] Draw crowds (0 => off, 1 => on, 2 => on and animating)
11			; [MAIN VIEW] Draw X objects in pit lane (0 => off, else max number of 'teams' to draw)

Getting rid of Particles - gravel kicked up, smoke from lock-ups - is a cheap way to free up some performance, and so are some of the other options here, particularly Crowds and 'Objects in Pit Lane'.
Other things near these values - Draw Bushes, Draw Near Stands etc. - are pretty self-explanatory, and can help a great deal.

The [MIRROR VIEW] and [VIDEOWALL VIEW] sections are only important if you have them on.

1			; Enable mirrors
1			; Full dynamic video walls v2

Will turn those off.

Turning mirrors off will have a greater impact on performance than turning off video walls but, if you don't want to turn mirrors off, turn as many of the options as far down (or off) as you can.

My suggestion would be:

1) Delete both your F1graphics.cfg and F1Graphics.BAK
2) Go into the game, go to the graphics options:


Just worrying about all the buttons under Screen Resolution, then click Advanced

Then click OK, and exit the game.

3) This will have generated a low-quality F1Graphics.cfg we can use as a base.
4) Change the first three lines of the file back to what you had them as.
5) Try the game now.
6) If it's still bad, exit and change some more settings in the file. Most of the options are self-explanatory, but feel free to ask if you're not sure on some of them.

One other thing I'd suggest - and feel free to try this whenever you want in the process above, maybe even before you start - is screen resolution.
Try something under 1920x1080 - anything listed here will be the same ratio; 1366x768 or 1280x720 - and, if it looks weird in full-screen, change

0			; [RELEASE] Run in a window

to '1'

1366*768 (1,049,088 pixels) is a lot less intensive than 1920*1080 (2,073,600 pixels), and 1280*720 (921,600 pixels) is a bit better again.

Hope that helps somewhat.

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F1 Graphics Swapper --- Lensdump - Renders and Screenshots --- GP4 Performance Generator



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2016 01:39AM by AUS_Doug.

Solved most of the problem, and didn't even need to do most of what you suggested! I started by deleting the cfg and bak files and when I went to set the screen resolution again as 1920x1080, I decided to try the other one you suggested, the 1280x720, and when I started the game the menu animations seemed more fluid and faster, and instead of tweaking the graffics to your suggested values I went directly to a quickrace in Monaco to see if the smoothness of animations was my impression or if the game was really more fluid and it turns out it was! It worked just fine, no stuttering and the game was really fluid, so I guess the problem was the pixel overload that the computer couldn't handle, the image it shows on the tv is smaller but in the TV settings I just zoom in and it almost fills the screen so it's all ok! I'll drop down the graphics anyway according to your suggestions to fiddle about with the settings and try to configure everything to my liking as I want to make sure everything runs fine in every situation! But it looks like the main thing was indeed the screen resolution and not the specific graphic settings!

Thanks a lot again for the help, great stuff! You're the man!

Just one more question, this is a bit off topic, but you don't happen to know how to set up the T500RS pedals as different axis, do you? The game assumes every pedal as one single axis and I didn't really find anything about this here in the forum!

Fantastic, glad to have been of help! It's nice when the simplest solutions work!

As for the pedals, I don't have much of a specific idea, but I'd suggest taking a look at Pinnacle Game Profiler.
I had a problem playing GP4 with my Xbox 360 controller, because the Triggers were a single axis. PGP let me split them into two separate axis'.

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F1 Graphics Swapper --- Lensdump - Renders and Screenshots --- GP4 Performance Generator

In this case I felt a bit dumb because I never thought about screen resolution as an image quality factor, rather a image size factor! I bet that knowing this now and trying it out on other games they'll preform much better now, and the image quality drop is almost unnoticeable, I'm a real noob in PC gaming!
On the PGP, I tried it and I'm having a hard time! I managed to split the pedals and wheel into separate axis but now the game doesn't recognize movement, so, the values show up on the calibration bars but they are unresponsive to input! I think I'll start a new thread about this and see if anyone around has a T500 that had the same problem!
Thanks again for the suggestion yet again! It might be the way to go and I'm probably doing something wrong again with it!