FEAR - What is this I don't even...

Had FEAR for years, right around the time it launched as a matter of fact but I've never (yes, never) finished it but that's not the point of this thread... although do feel free to antagonize me about not finishing a now 6-year-old game.

The point of this thread is to address a couple of things:

1. What is with the lagging both in the menus and during gameplay? That's just annoying.

2. You'd think I'd be getting fantastic performance given my specs right? Wrong. The benchmark reports I should be getting anything from 59 to well over 100 frames during play, which still seems extremely low but then again I am forcing 12xEQ AA and using SSAA so that's not a bother. The problem being in actual gameplay the frames are 51 and below, so below that once I made it to the first fire after exiting the car, you know, the fire in the garbage can, frames dropped to 13 and wouldn't go up again.

I'm using the Crysis.exe CFX profile if it matters. I'm also running everything on Maximum. And by everything I mean everything.

Looking at your system specs and your HD6950 CrossfireX I have no idea why your not flying through games. I presume you have your drivers updated. I wish I could help.

Terronium 12 said:

I'm also running everything on Maximum. And by everything I mean everything.
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Well, there's a start - try the max in game settings; don't force anything.

Game now smooth? If so start forcing settings until it becomes 'unsmooth'

If not - disable CF. I can't remember if this is a CF friendly game or not. But a single 6950 should om nom it anyway.

Try one of the compatibility modes. XP SP3 for a start since it's an XP era title.

If those don't work - scratch head. Return to drawing board.

Good idea. Will report back in a few.

Okay. Reverting back app only AA didn't do any good. Started off in the high 100's and then progressively lowered and lowered, and after about 5 or so minutes it was capped at 15.

Disabling Crossfire (read: disabling support, not actually turning Crossfire "off") - same deal.

This is starting to ring a bell - I recall having the same issue. It had something to do with a HID device.

FEAR, Logitech HID bad performance - nV News Forums

G5/G7/G15 + FEAR ! Solved ! (F.E.A.R.) - Logitech Forums


From memory I kept disabling HID devices in Device Manager until I found the culprit - and viola! FPS back to normal.

(Just make sure you don't disable your mouse or keyboard! - create a restore point first, just in case)

I always found all the FEAR games lagged regardless of how good the machine was.
Really you cannot overcome the limitations and\or bugs that the engine carries.
This link details some of the reasons why the game is difficult to get to run right.

In this instance though, the FPS drop then cap was solved by disabling HID devices. At least it did for me when I last played it.

I honestly don't remember how well it played after that. (I can't even remember what rig/setup I played it on... ) All I can remember it was definitely 'smoother' and playable once the frame rate cap was fixed. It certainly wasn't one of the better engines, that's for sure.

So here's a synopsis of how spot on Patrick was with the HID problem:

With keyboard and mouse: low 50's, average 70's, maximum 120+
Without keyboard and mouse: low 120's, average 250's, maximum 700+

Like, really, Sierra? In order to not have a 13-15 frame cap with my Logi hardware after 5 or so minutes I'll either have to play the game telepathically or with PS/2 stuff? That's... that's not even. I'm uninstalling this.

EDIT: Okay so maybe I was a little short and hasty. Disabling all HID-Compliant Devices these are the new numbers:

minimum 165, average 354, maximum 860

Now, do I leave them disabled permanently or do I only disable them when playing FEAR leaving them enabled everywhere else?

New day, new problem, although this time it isn't with FEAR; HID fix/workaround is working like a charm, although if I forget to re-enable the devices I'll eventually BSOD... but that's neither here nor there . Today the problem is with my Xonar DX and the inability to enable EAX effects in the game despite having read reviews where such was enabled under a 7 environment.

Any help would be appreciated. But a bit to go on: all EAX effects are grayed out and I've ticked the GX button on the Xonar console and it doesn't do a thing. I've run FEAR in just about every compatibility mode there is and still nothing.