81 replies to this topic

[lettuce]

Wait, so its ok to use the latest driveres now?, rather that the 182's we had before. As i though whilst all the latest drivers now saved the position of the DMD they cause the screen to go black when using nudges on FS tables??

[settingsons]

Wait, so its ok to use the latest driveres now?, rather that the 182's we had before. As i though whilst all the latest drivers now saved the position of the DMD they cause the screen to go black when using nudges on FS tables??

Try them - can always unwind after.

[maceman]

I think it hasalwaysbeen okay to use the latest drivers...it depends what you want to run. If VP only, then fine.

If you want FP as well with a working BG then no,you need 260.99

On either driver, I still need to always have any reflections turned off or i get artifacts, but i don't notice it turned off so it is no issue here.

[ta2686]

Geting back on topic for a moment......

Does this frame rate boost only apply to the cabinet users, or can those of us who are desktop users benefit from this also? Most of the posts I've seen on this topic seem to come from cabinet users, so I'm wondering if the desktop user can use this as well. It is a known fact that VP runs best when there are not many processes running in the background on the desktop tables, so what has changed to allow this to happen?

(I know this is a dumb question, but some of us would really like to know the answer to this)

[moondrummer78]

Geting back on topic for a moment......

Does this frame rate boost only apply to the cabinet users, or can those of us who are desktop users benefit from this also? Most of the posts I've seen on this topic seem to come from cabinet users, so I'm wondering if the desktop user can use this as well. It is a known fact that VP runs best when there are not many processes running in the background on the desktop tables, so what has changed to allow this to happen?

(I know this is a dumb question, but some of us would really like to know the answer to this)

I'm non-cab. I downloaded the newest drivers and haven't noticed a performance increase or decrease, but I did notice increased dual monitor support (I use my PC to watch movies on a projector as second screen -- also awesome for VP!). The newest driver allows you to change the positioning of the monitor displays, I could see this being handy for folks playing Spanned FS tables. I think in my system the CPU is the weakest link that causes some tables to have stutter (mostly ones with a ton of light animations. UW's BOP is unplayable for me, sadly.

[ta2686]

Geting back on topic for a moment......

Does this frame rate boost only apply to the cabinet users, or can those of us who are desktop users benefit from this also? Most of the posts I've seen on this topic seem to come from cabinet users, so I'm wondering if the desktop user can use this as well. It is a known fact that VP runs best when there are not many processes running in the background on the desktop tables, so what has changed to allow this to happen?

(I know this is a dumb question, but some of us would really like to know the answer to this)

I'm non-cab. I downloaded the newest drivers and haven't noticed a performance increase or decrease, but I did notice increased dual monitor support (I use my PC to watch movies on a projector as second screen -- also awesome for VP!). The newest driver allows you to change the positioning of the monitor displays, I could see this being handy for folks playing Spanned FS tables. I think in my system the CPU is the weakest link that causes some tables to have stutter (mostly ones with a ton of light animations. UW's BOP is unplayable for me, sadly.

Thanks for the reply.

However. I'm asking for those of us who only use 1 monitor, not 2 or more. Some of us don't have the physical space to use 2 monitors on their PC.

[SnailGary]

Does this frame rate boost only apply to the cabinet users, or can those of us who are desktop users benefit from this also? Most of the posts I've seen on this topic seem to come from cabinet users, so I'm wondering if the desktop user can use this as well.

When I started the topic I actually witnessed all this weirdness on a desktop machine (single monitor).
I was trying desperately to clock performance, trying to optimize the game code - but always ended up with something totally unpredictable. Sometimes the official v912 code performed better, sometimes it was worse than my modified versions.

Since then, things have changed a bit - at least on my system. Many people have reported that the latest Nvidia drivers (v270.xx) make a difference and I can actually confirm that.

I had a 260.something driver before and VP was never able to use 100% of a single CPU core. Now with the latest drivers this bottleneck is gone and performance got a huge boost!
(Your mileage may vary, though.)

Now this is not exactly the remedy I had hoped for because if the bug had been in VP code we would have been able to fix it at some point. With the current situation however you can never be sure what problems NVidia will introduce with their next driver update...

Edited by SnailGary, 21 April 2011 - 10:35 PM.

[numiah]

270.61 solved all iffy tables for me. (except Monopoly but hey)
Future Pinball also works a treat with these drivers.

[settingsons]

270.61 solved all iffy tables for me. (except Monopoly but hey)
Future Pinball also works a treat with these drivers.

Sounds good... which Windows are you using?

[lettuce]

270.61 solved all iffy tables for me. (except Monopoly but hey)
Future Pinball also works a treat with these drivers.

Does even the backglass work in FP with these drivers then???

Also FS tables that have the startshake command in used to give a blackscreen for a few seconds when the table used to shake, is this still the case?

[numiah]

To prevent double threads and hijacking this one, I replied to the nVidia 270.xx thread : linkage

Edited by numiah, 23 April 2011 - 03:52 PM.

[maceman]

No driver other than 260.99 works with FP BG with Windows 7 64 bit.

I have tried it myself several times with 10-15 drivers, including the newest 270.

If someone has this working with FP BG, then somethingis truly strange here....

Edited by maceman, 23 April 2011 - 07:32 PM.

[rob046]

Thanks for the reply.

However. I'm asking for those of us who only use 1 monitor, not 2 or more. Some of us don't have the physical space to use 2 monitors on their PC.

I'm single monitor as well, & I seemed to be the first one to notice this issue a few weeks back, & back then I said that I suspected that perhaps many people were having this issue but just didn't know it yet. I noticed it right away because my newer beefed up Nvidia card wasn't performing anywhere near as well as my previous ATI card. It actually still doesn't, but its almost as good.
It can be hard for some people to notice, because with many tables even VP running slowly is still fast enough for many tables to run smooth.

However I think with the new alpha ramps & new tables that include them, people who did have this issue were starting to notice that VP just wasn't performing like it should be. Now with these new tables you want all the performance you can get.
It also makes a little more sense now as to why some users here weren't seeing the same things I have with some of my issues & results from GPU testing. Now I see it is probably because they are on cabs, which the more I read seem to be a totally different animal when it comes to how they react to GPU's & driver versions compared to desktop users.

[maceman]

I may possibly have found something, but it will take some testing:

http://www.intel.com...b/cs-013134.htm

I have an intel board, but they say this applies to amd based boards as well. I will re-post the essential part of the article here:

Intel® Desktop Board
Critical driver installation order! Performance problems?

Driver installation order is one of the most crucial issues when talking about overall platform performance. This is especially true for Intel® chipsets. Drivers should always be installed in the order displayed in Table 1 below. The most critical step in the installation order is to install the Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility (INF) first before all other drivers. Once the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility is properly installed device driver installation order becomes less crucial and will have less impact on system performance.

If your hard drive was built using a different board model, it is highly advised that a clean operating system install be performed before conducting these driver installations.

Table 1: Installation & Configuration Order
Order
1 Operating system loaded OR clean install if hard drive was installed using a different board model
2 Latest Service Pack or Patch
3 Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility (INF Utility)
4 All other device drivers
5 Intel® Application Accelerator if needed
6 Microsoft DirectX 8.0 or higher


***Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility
The Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility (INF) is a driver that enables many features of the Intel chipset that are built into your Intel® Desktop Board. This utility must be installed FIRST in order for the operating system to accurately use the features built into the chipset. If this utility is not installed, the operating system will not know what chipset features exist. Peripherals added may, in most cases, not run to full potential. This is especially true with graphics performance.


I built my own system about a year ago. I cannot remember if I did the install in this order, but I think I probably didn't install the chipset at that point.

Like I say, this is just a though and I need to get the energy to try it to confirm!

Maceman

[rob046]

Yes it usually is a good idea to install chipset drivers right after a fresh OS install, but I can't imagine when you install them causing issues, as long as they are installed. But I can tell you that this is what I always do & have done with my current install & still had these issues I've talked about. I actually install chipset drivers ASAP after a new OS install, just because it seems like the most important thing. But then I also update chipset drivers any time, overwriting the old ones.
I always keep my chipset drivers up to date, probably update every few months at least. It usually don't affect performance when I update them, I think it is more for stability & just playing it safe.

In regards to graphics performance, I'm pretty sure the chipset drivers have no effect on graphics unless you have onboard graphics, which you do not. Graphics cards of course depend on their own software/drivers from a 3rd party.

I'd be really surprised if when you install chipset drivers makes any difference at all. I think the fresh OS install would help more than anything in terms of solving odd issues & things that get junked up over time.

[maceman]

...just when we thought we finally got rid of this tread eh?? he he...


I noticed recently that the new release of earthshaker is choppy for me. I opened up sound recorder and firefox but got no fps bump at all. I am hovering at 95-110 a never outside this range...

Can someone else try this one and let me know their playing fps's please.!

[kruge99]

...just when we thought we finally got rid of this tread eh?? he he...


I noticed recently that the new release of earthshaker is choppy for me. I opened up sound recorder and firefox but got no fps bump at all. I am hovering at 95-110 a never outside this range...

Can someone else try this one and let me know their playing fps's please.!

I reduced some of the stutter on the FS version (with UVP Backglass) by removing most of the lights from the UVP Backglass. (and turned up the brightness a notch on the UVP) There's not much action on the UVP except the bottom row of lights just above the speakers so it's no great loss for me to not have the light bulbs.


Best Regards,
Todd.

[maceman]

Thanx todd. I never knew to do that. Iwill give it a try....

So you had some studder too eh? Hmmm... Why are these newer tables giving us some studder and the old ones not....

[Flying Dutchman]

Also .. try change the color-quality of the screen playing the BG (+ 3rd screen playing the DMD) from 32-bits to 16-bits ..

Cheers,
FD.

[settingsons]

Also .. try change the color-quality of the screen playing the BG (+ 3rd screen playing the DMD) from 32-bits to 16-bits ..

Cheers,
FD.

I can confirm this definitely helps. Also try changing the ddraw to zero in the registry per vpinmame table where there is a separate DMD. So far everyone reports at least a 100+ fps increase. You only need to try it with one table initially .