GLQ2 Single-Player Tune-Up
[Baseline] [Options Settings] [Console Commands] [Overclocking] [Comparison] [CPU Speeds]
GLQ2 Single-Player Tune-Up
This page refers specifically to Quake II using the OpenGL miniport. While
some of these options may apply elsewhere, most of the console commands will
be irrelevant outside of this setting.
| Performance Baseline |
[Options Settings] [Console Commands] [Overclocking] [Comparison] [CPU Speeds]
All benchmarks were performed using the Stealth II under the following conditions. Benchmarks were performed three times, with the middle value being reported. For system info, click here.
The baseline value is 16.8 fps at 640x480 using Demo1.
The benchmark was conducted in the following manner:
1) Hit the "~" key to bring down the console.
2) At the console type:
timedemo 1
<Enter>
map demo1.dm2
<Enter>
3) The demo was run to completion and the numbers were recorded for three
consecutive runs.
Note: if you wish to play the game after running this benchmark, type
timedemo 0 at the console and hit
<Enter>.
This is for Quake 2 version 3.05, 16-bit textures, fullscreen, 75Hz refresh rate, highest-quality textures, no CD-music, high-quality sound, red dot crosshair.
The minigl.dll is dated November 11, 1997 and the v2000gl.uc is dated October 31, 1997.
The effects of all modifications to the baseline will be reported as a difference. For instance, if changing a setting produces 17.0 fps, then a value of +0.2 would be listed (17.0 - 16.8 = +0.2)
Note: while the effects of some of these tweeks are minor in single-player, they could be very pronounced in multi-player. 32-player Capture-the-Flag with everyone launching grenades and rockets into an open courtyard will produce system stress that will never be seen in single-player. In the future, I may construct a large multi-player demo and re-run these benchmarks.
| Options Settings |
[Baseline] [Console Commands] [Overclocking] [Comparison] [CPU Speeds]
| Setting | Description | Speed |
| Low-quality Sound | Uses 11KHz sound samples instead of 22KHz. The effects of this
setting will vary depending on the quality of your sound card . |
|
| 8-bit Textures | This setting uses 256-color instead of 65,000 color textures, cutting
memory used for textures in half. Surprisingly, the image quality is not affected that much. While no performance increase was noted, the effect would probably be pronounced in multi-player where texture memory is often maxxed out. |
| Console Commands |
[Baseline] [Options Settings] [Overclocking] [Comparison] [CPU Speeds]
These are only a few select commands that are directly related to performance. For a more complete console command list, check out Farenheit 176 on Planet Quake. The 3 Fingers' Quake 2 Tweak Guide by Brett Jacobs is also an excellent resource. You can get the latest version here or here. Some of Brett Jacobs' information is specific to 3Dfx Voodoo cards, so read carefully.
Console |
Default | Valid Values |
Description | Speed |
| cl_particles | 1 |
0 or 1 |
Setting this to "0" disables the display of particles. No blood,
no bullets, etc. |
+0.4 |
| gl_allow_software | 0 |
0 or 1 |
When set to "1", OpenGL functions not present in hardware will be emulated in software. I thought this would slow performance, but what do I know? |
+0.2 |
| gl_dynamic | 1 |
0 or 1 |
Setting this to "0" will disable dynamic lighting caused by stationary light sources (also, no weapon flash). |
+0.2 |
| gl_finish | 0 |
0 or 1 |
When set to "1", sends a finish call to the GL driver | +0.2 |
| gl_flashblend | 0 |
0 or 1 |
When set to "1", weapons that emit light will have that light representing by a glowing haze. Note: you can't light up dark corners this way. |
+0.2 |
| gl_mode | 3? |
0 = 320 x 200 |
This sets the resolution. Available modes are limited by the
amount of graphics memory on your card. |
not tested |
| gl_playermip | 0 |
0-4 (integer) |
In multiplayer, every player's skin uses up memory for the texture. In a large game, this could cause a HUGE slowdown as your video card has to load textures from you system memory. Each number above 0 here will halve the amount of memory used to store skins. "1" will use 1/2 the memory, "2" will use 1/4, etc. People will look blurry, but you may live long enough to kill them. |
not tested |
| gl_picmip | 0 |
0-4 (integer) |
The variable saves memory on all textures except player skins. Note: this command caused strange colors on walls on the bench- mark system and slower performance. Again, really only useful for multiplayer. |
-0.4 |
| gl_polyblend | 1 |
0 or 1 |
Setting this to "0" will disable the haze effect /color shift that
occurs when underwater, getting injured, or using a power-up. This can make you more competitive simply because you can see better. |
+0.5 |
| gl_swapinterval | 1 |
0 or 1 |
Setting this to "0" disables the time delay between frame swaps. Note: gl_ext_swapinterval must be set to "1". With the older OpenGL miniport, this setting didn't seem to matter (or work). With the new miniport and v3.10 Quake2, this must be set to "1" to stop the textures from flashing, at least on a Stealth II. With the flashing textures, the game runs about 1.9fps faster, but is pretty ugly. |
+0.0 |
| gl_ztrick | 0 |
0 or 1 |
Set this to "1" and the system will bypass clearing the Z-buffer (depth /z-axis) information. Can cause visual anomalies, but none were noted on the benchmark system. |
+0.1 |
What is the cumulative effect of some of these settings? These next benchmarks were run using the following settings from a commonly recommended multi-player autoexec.cfg seen in many of the Quake2-related newsgroups:
set s_primary "0"
set s_mixahead ".14"
set cl_predict "1"
set gun_z "3"
set gun_x "-3"
set gun_y "0"
set cl_particles "1"
set gl_dynamic "0"
set gl_polyblend "0"
set gl_playermip "2"
set gl_flashblend "0"
set gl_ext_swapinterval "1"
set gl_swapinterval "0"
set gl_ztrick "1"
set cd_nocd "1"
set in_mouse "1"
set in_joystick "0"
set in_initjoy "0"
You can download this autoexec.cfg here. Unzip it to your \Quake2\BaseQ2 directory.
How was performance affected?
| Resolution | Multi-player settings used? | Overclock Stealth II? | Performance | Effect of Multi-player .CFG |
640x480 |
No |
No |
16.8 fps |
-- |
" |
Yes |
" |
17.1 fps |
+0.4 |
" |
No |
Yes |
20.7 fps |
-- |
" |
Yes |
" |
20.5 fps |
-0.2 (Don't know why) |
512x384 |
No |
No |
22.3 fps |
-- |
" |
Yes |
" |
22.7 fps |
+0.4 |
" |
No |
Yes |
24.3 fps |
-- |
" |
Yes |
" |
25.6 fps |
+1.3 |
As you can see, the effect of software tweeks other than running a lower screen resolution is fairly minimal, at least for single-player on the Stealth II.
| Overclocking |
[Baseline] [Options Settings] [Console Commands] [Comparison] [CPU Speeds]
| Card | Memory Speed | RISC speed | Performance |
| Stealth II | 118 MHz |
59MHz |
+3.9 |
The benefit here is obvious. Clocking above this speed on my board produced minimal benefits and occasional instability. Better cooling might help.
| Comparison |
[Baseline] [Options Settings] [Console Commands] [Overclocking] [CPU Speeds]
| Renderer | Comments | Speed | Change vs. Baseline |
| Software rendering | Using the Stealth II | 10.9 fps |
-5.9 |
| VQuake2 (v1k renderer) |
Using the Stealth II. Note: the v1k renderer is optimized
for the V1000 chips. The V2x00 chips, therefore, are not much faster than V1000 chips here. Plus, GLQuake2 looks much better (colored lighting, etc.) |
16.0 fps |
-0.8 |
| VQuake2 (with full-antialiasing) |
Using "v1k_antialiasing 7" | 14.2 fps |
-2.6 |
| Monster 3D (no tweeks) |
Although not much faster than the Stealth II here, the Monster 3D proved much more responsive to tweeking. |
18.7 fps | +1.9 |
| Monster 3D (tweeked) |
Using multi-player .CFG file listed earlier and the following Voodoo-specific variables:
SET FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL=0 |
30.2 fps |
+13.4
|
As stated before, the Monster 3D appears more responsive to tweeking variables.
| CPU Speeds |
[Baseline] [Options Settings] [Console Commands] [Overclocking] [Comparison]
I re-ran the baseline tests at two different CPU speeds to note the effects. Here are the results:
| CPU Speed | Bus Speed | Performance |
166 MHz |
66 MHz |
-0.5 |
225 MHz |
75 MHz |
+0.1 |
For information on overclocking your CPU, check out Tom's Hardware Guide.
For information on other CPUs, check out the CPU page.
| Benchmarking System |
[Baseline] [Options Settings] [Console Commands] [Overclocking] [Comparison] [CPU Speeds]
Relevant Hardware (latest non-beta drivers as of Jan 8, 1998)
Intel Pentium 166 MMX overclocked to 200MHz.
Megatrends HX-83 Motherboard
64mb 60ns EDO RAM (Micron)
Diamond Stealth II
Diamond Monster 3D
3.2gig Quantum Fireball EIDE Hard Drive
Soundblaster AWE64 Value
Diamond Monster Sound
Relevant Software and Settings
Win95b (OSR2)
GDI acceleration disabled for Stealth II
1280x1024x16-bit Desktop Settings