I've got an iMac G5 2ghz with 512mb ram. So, I've been playing VO with somewhat mediocre graphical settings. Stuff like high textures (not very high), screen rez around 1000-1500 (I've got a widescreen). And I had a lot of fps droppage in certain sectors like Sedina/Corvus (whatever sector coord. that is...). So, I decided to turn up my screen rez and boost all my graphics settings. Strangely enough, my FPS more than doubled in these sectors, and dramatically increased in other places.

I know this isn't localized to just VO - I've seen the same thing with many other games (and with other computers as well), where the FPS actually goes UP when you turn the graphical detail and screen resolution up (the only exception being full scene glow effect). I've always been curious as to why this happens, because it greatly effects somebody's ability to choose the optimal graphical setting for their computer/game combo.

Really? I've been playing VO for so long at the absolute LOWEST settings that I forgot that there was such things as starfields, planets, and those little space rocks.

I have an iMac G5 as well, tho its the 1.8 GHz version but I have a GIG of RAM so nyah.

I'll log on tonight and test it out...

Yeah, its kinda wierd how it happens. Sometimes you just have to tweak and tweak and tweak - Its really strange the combination of things you can turn up and the game actually runs better. The real slowdowns still occur for me, however, when I get close to a station.

hm.. I have an iMac G5 (iSight) with 1.5GB RAM.. I can have the setting all to the max and I never go below 30fps on any location I have been. Mostly the fps is around 60 to 100. The only thing I noticed is that certain stations bog down my fps to 5fps, until I log off and return, then its back to normal. Weird?

M. Duncan

Really? I have a powerbook g4 (1.5 ghz, 512 mb ram, video card with 64 megs ram) and I play fine with medium space dust, and the default settings at 1024x768 (with the second to highest set on textures and backgrounds).

Another thing you can do to speed up loading of graphics is to create a disk image and run it out of there (so it's loading from memory). Takes a good amount of ram, though.

I've got a G4/400 with a GeForce 4MX, and the only way I get smooth performance is by turning everything down to "lowest". I still like my starfield on, though. NThe only major performance hit is when I'm fighting. Then I'll just get this huge, nasty burst of lag that drops me to about 10fps.

BTW, there is an update for the "ATI Displays" Preference pane. Version 4.5.7(0002) allows to run VO with AntiAliasing turned on, even though its not in the client. ROCKS!
Works on my Ati Radeon x600Pro. You can also set a few other settings that override built in or app settings.

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/DLRedirect.asp?fileIDExt=db0d4963149c89b0cc76ffd6aaacf002&accountID=737&deptID=894

M. Duncan

I..have a iMac G4 with a...(please don't laugh it is 4 years old) GeForce 2MX :p

VO works fine fo rme...although on some stations like the TPG capitol my fps goes down :O

PowerMac G4, Dual 1.42, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 4 Ti 4600 card... runs VO without lag in highest resolutions (1900x1200 resolution) in 10.4.3. I've been very pleased...

heya, I run on a powerbook g4 1.25 ghz, connected to a dell 20.1" widescreen lcd, which has a native resolution of 1680 x 1050.

what would be the best resolution to run? I have no real problems with any of the typical settings, but the aspect ratio is sometimes a bit squished.

Anyone else running this set up?

Just tested VO with my new Quad Core G5 with 7800 graphics card and 23inch cinema display. In low traffic I was getting 350+ FPS with every setting maxed. In busier sectors I was still pushing 150+ fps. Still waiting to see a convoy to see what that does, but I turned on Vsync and it stays 60FPS so far in every situation.

SWEEEET

-tm

I have a similar setup to you, mellow. I currently run at 1280x800, which gives the same aspect ratio as the screen's full resolution, but eases the load on the game somewhat and works well for switching to windowed mode when needed. You'll then want to set the hud scale to match by typing the following into the chatbox:
/set rHUDxscale 1280
/set rHUDyscale 800

Those values also work well if you bump the game resolution up to 1650x1080, since it maintains the correct aspect ratio, but doesn't shrink the text to unreadable levels.