FPS drop when looking at a certain point

[AgamemnonZ]

Hi all,

When I look at a certain point of the map (it happens @ every map, havent tried them all though) I get huge FPS drops, from like 60+ to 1 or 2. When I look like 20 degrees to the left or right of that spot my FPS goes up to its normal state of 60+. I never experienced this bug before and I am playing since the demo.
Can anyone tell me why this is happening and how I can fix it? Thanks.

Specs:
AMD 3200+
ABIT NF7-S2G
2x 512 MB DDR Corsair
Sapphire 9800 Pro 128 MB
Creative Audigy 1

[coldmist]

I have seen this also. Also an AOpen NF2 with a 3000+ XP / 6800GT / Audigy 1.

It's either extra textures in memory (to draw different junk) and geometry (buildings and such) or (what I belive) it's an audio-induced glitch based on the reverb of the sounds, based on your position to the environment.

Try standing at the middle flag in Daqing oilfields, spin the mouse in a circle to see the video choppiness, and listen for a chopper to go overhead. You don't even need to see the chopper. just so it's around you, and you will see it get choppy.

I have seen a lot of posts about problems with Audigy 2 cards being 'fixed' by getting a beta OpenAL.dll file from creative and replacing a BF2*.dll file in the main bf2 directory. It didn't work for me, but I have heard it has helped other Audigy 1 users.

[redheadedfreak]

I had that...then I manually updated my PB and it fixed it.

Dunno if thats what fixed it or not...but thats the only thing I did when I had that problem.

[NoSoup4You]

First of all, what are your video settings at? And also your sound (yes it does effect FPS)?

My guess is the 9800 cannot handle the high settings of graphics and it probably strugles with AA as well.

[PunisherUK]

First of all, what are your video settings at? And also your sound (yes it does effect FPS)?

My guess is the 9800 cannot handle the high settings of graphics and it probably strugles with AA as well.

Sound will only drop your FPS if you are using Hardware with EAX

[NoSoup4You]

Sound will only drop your FPS if you are using Hardware with EAX

Or if you don't have enough power and use software on high.

[AgamemnonZ]

I have all the video settings @ medium and 2x AA
I put the sound on hardware and @ high quality, EAX on.

I just tried putting sound on software @ low, EAX off, but the bug still occurs.

dunno what to do =D

[NoSoup4You]

Tried turning off AA?

[AgamemnonZ]

Putting AA off didnt help, putting some video settings lower didnt help as well.
Changing to another soundcard (nVIDIA Soundstorm which is my onboard sound) didnt help as well. Im really puzzled atm. Im quite sure it has nothing to do with my video settings.

I forgot to mention something, the problem occured when I bought my new motherboard (the ABIT NF7-S2G) because my old motherboard (ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe) had some issues. But I cant see how my motherboard causes FPS drops, because FPS drops are caused by Video or Audio imo.

Maybe some settings got changed when installing the new motherboard or so.

The only thing I am suspecting right now is the OpenAL.dll which ppl tend to have problems with. Can any1 tell me how to fix that?

thanks for all the replies so far.

[AgamemnonZ]

I still dont know how to fix this T.T does any1 else have a clue?

[neo265]

Ive found that you need 256MB VRam for Texture/Terrain to be on Medium. Mine would run a very smooth 50Fps and everynow and again stutter at a ridiculous FPS and then resume. Ive put it mainly down to me only having 128mb VRam as when I dropped it to Low it runs very fast without stuttering.

Those with 256MB cards and having a stuttering issue, it could be certain shader/pixel effects causing a slowdown.

[NoSoup4You]

Yah sure I can tell you how:

First off, run the software update on Creatives website (requires Internet Exploerer 5.5+).

www.creative.com/support/

After you run that and everything is updated, go back to Creative's website and get the Beta drivers with OpenAL support, and also EAX 4.0.

Install both of those and then go here:

http://developer.creative.com/articles/article.asp?cat=1&sbcat=31&top=38&aid=46

Install that. Now open C:/Windows/system32. Find the file called "OpenAL32.dll" copy it but do not paste it.

Now open C:/Program Files/EA Games/Battlefield 2/, and find the file "BF2OpenAL.dll" and rename it "BF2OpenAL.original". Now paste the file we copied in your system32 folder. Rename that file "BF2OpenAL.dll". Start your game and reset your Audio to High, Hardware, and EAX on.

**Optional**

If that doesn't help you, there is one last thing to try. Open DxDiag (Start > Run > "dxdiag") and on the Audio tab, slide the acceleration to Basic.