New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

[Johny Dread]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Hey man, this tool works really good. If you can add support for more resolutions (1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2048x1536) or custom resolutions it would be even better. As for screwing someones display up, you can just put in a notice that you can't be held responsible for any damage done, etc. Most people interested in an app like this know what their displays are capable of anyway.

Support for running several timedemos would also be good, like running 2 or more timedemos over several resolutions automatically.

Anyway, I hope you can keep improving on this app, it will definitely come in handy for me.

[Johny Dread]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

I also had an idea that if you wanted to provide an average framerate score you could grab the last however many results (1000-2000? Would depend on the timedemo used I guess) from the .csv and average them. That would then essentially discard the first bunch of 500-600+ fps results that get logged on the menu waiting for the timedemo to start playing and give you a fairly accurate average fps number.

[nathanieljla]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

"Support for running several timedemos would also be good, like running 2 or more timedemos over several resolutions automatically."

You mean literally multiple maps? If you talking multiple resolutions per setting it can already do this. Just select all the resolutions and different settings you want to do.

Ya, I'm feeling a little guilty I haven't wrapped up the next iteration. I did decide just to go with a warning box for the higher resz. I have a sound On Off now too. I'm just strapped for time right now. BF2Bench has taken a back set

It does provide the average score on the right or the report. You should see something like:
med-1280
48

48 is the average. I fixed that too so now it says 48-avg.

"on the menu waiting for the timedemo to start playing and give you a fairly accurate average fps number."
It already does this too. Those graphs are based off the common found time between the different tests where all the frame ranges are below 100 +a fudge factor. (as in game is capped at 100).

Glad you like the tool.
Hugh G. Wrection, I haven't forgotten you!

[Johny Dread]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

"Support for running several timedemos would also be good, like running 2 or more timedemos over several resolutions automatically."

You mean literally multiple maps? If you talking multiple resolutions per setting it can already do this. Just select all the resolutions and different settings you want to do.

Ya, I'm feeling a little guilty I haven't wrapped up the next iteration. I did decide just to go with a warning box for the higher resz. I have a sound On Off now too. I'm just strapped for time right now. BF2Bench has taken a back set

It does provide the average score on the right or the report. You should see something like:
med-1280
48

48 is the average. I fixed that too so now it says 48-avg.

"on the menu waiting for the timedemo to start playing and give you a fairly accurate average fps number."
It already does this too. Those graphs are based off the common found time between the different tests where all the frame ranges are below 100 +a fudge factor. (as in game is capped at 100).

Glad you like the tool.
Hugh G. Wrection, I haven't forgotten you!

ok missed the average framerate on the report tool, good work.

I mean running multiple timedemos over multiple resolutions. ie run 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 over mydemo1, mydemo2, and mydemo3 for a total of 9 results.

You can unlock the cap with game.lockFPS 0 in <Battlefield 2 Install Folder>/mods/BF2/Init.con command in init.con (correct me if I'm wrong there). In which case I think discarding results over 100 fps might not be the best way to provide benchmark results for guys with really high-end systems (I regularily see 100+ fps samples in the csv on my test machine when using high end graphics cards). Sampling the last few thousand results as I suggested (when I sample the last 10,000 frames from the csv using your timedemo the results are accurate to well within < 1 fps) or maybe working some more math to get rid of the really high results would be better?

Now I have a question that you might not be willing to answer, but I will ask it anywy. I have a custom batch file that works pretty well for BF2 benchmarking (not really that complex, but it makes my life easier). The only complaint I have about it is I have to sit there with it while it runs through the process to manually click the "Launch" button (or whatever it is labeled) before the demo will play, and then hit ESC when the demo finishes so the game will exit and allow the batch procedureto continue. How are you getting around this?

[nathanieljla]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Ah, I didn't realize that you could unlock the 100 fps cap. I'm not throwing out all frames above 100, I'm just finding a common point between all the files that have a frame below 100, then I report on the rest. I guess that could be some bad logic if you unlock and never drop below 100, but I'm guessing if someone is running with a min over 100 they don't really care about benching it, cause they can run full everything.

As far as exiting the app It's magic Since python called the app it can handle the exiting of it. I just check to see if a report's been written and make sure the app hasn't exited prematurely. If all's good python then exits BF2.

[Hugh G. Wrection]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Hey Nathanieljla. Just out of curiousity, why did you pick Python to do this?

[nathanieljla]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Python just seemed like a very clean, easy to use language...and it's free. I mainly script ( Maya and max), with very very little c++ experience so this seemed like a nice transition. That and my brother loves the language so I figured it'd be easier to hit him up if needed....which it was needed for killing the app after the demo ran. All that and dictionaries freakin rule!

Anyone a programmer here? Sorry I haven't put anything else new up. I'm pulling more hours at my work than most people will care to believe and I just don't have the energy to put in the needed 1-2 hours of work.

[nathanieljla]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Blah. New version up, though I didn't do the best with the name of the dir once unrared ("dist" instead of bf2Bench opps). Remember if you want to save your reports from the previous version make sure you copy the folders from with in the old "results" folder into the new "results" folder. I just added a sound on/off option and support for 1280x1024 and 1600x1200. Adding more resolutions in the future will be a breeze as I now have the warning box in place. I did test this out, but not with 1600x1200 since my Monitor doesn't support this, but it was just adding 1 more value to an array, so I'd be shocked if I screwed something up. I guess I need to pull the old CRT out. Also, as you can guess I have all the sound options but on/off hidden, hence the large empty box labeled "Audio".

Johny Dread, I'll probably put a drop down list of resz for the last option (as I have space for 1 more), but can't say when I'll get to that. Did I kinda answer your question on how I kill the app? Or did you want actual specifics?

[Hugh G. Wrection]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Cool. Will try out as soon as I can.

Found one little bug -- it doesn't save selected Lighting value in the custom profiles. It does write out the correct value to settings.pref, but always comes back as Medium when app restarted.

[Johny Dread]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Blah. New version up, though I didn't do the best with the name of the dir once unrared ("dist" instead of bf2Bench opps). Remember if you want to save your reports from the previous version make sure you copy the folders from with in the old "results" folder into the new "results" folder. I just added a sound on/off option and support for 1280x1024 and 1600x1200. Adding more resolutions in the future will be a breeze as I now have the warning box in place. I did test this out, but not with 1600x1200 since my Monitor doesn't support this, but it was just adding 1 more value to an array, so I'd be shocked if I screwed something up. I guess I need to pull the old CRT out. Also, as you can guess I have all the sound options but on/off hidden, hence the large empty box labeled "Audio".

Johny Dread, I'll probably put a drop down list of resz for the last option (as I have space for 1 more), but can't say when I'll get to that. Did I kinda answer your question on how I kill the app? Or did you want actual specifics?

A multi-select list box would be a better option I think, then you could put as many resolutions in there as you want without having to worry about room in the app. An "add custom resolution" button which would let you add more resolutions to the list box would be cool as well, though I think that may be asking too much. :)

As for exiting after it's finished, you answered my question. I had initially thought that you might have found a switch or something that disabled the pop-up box that appears (the one that's hidden) but apparently not.

As an aside, do either of you guys know how to set anisotropic filtering in the game? I thought I read somewhere that when the texture detail slider is moved to 100% it corresponds to only 4x AF. I would like to go higher if that's possible (without forcing it using the graphics card console that is).

[nathanieljla]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

do either of you guys know how to set anisotropic filtering in the game? I thought I read somewhere that when the texture detail slider is moved to 100% it corresponds to only 4x AF. I would like to go higher if that's possible (without forcing it using the graphics card console that is).

"Texture detail slider" I'm assuming you mean the view distance slider, which I don't believe has anything to do with AF, but instead how far away a object can be when it actually starts drawing. AF is "Text Filtering" isn't it? I think Low is 1 method, and medium is the second method at 2x, while high is the second method at 4x....ah here we go "The texture filtering settings at Medium and High should correspond with 2x Anisotropic Filtering (AF) and 4xAF respectively, with Low being Trilinear." Quoted from http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_5.html

I don't think you get higher from the UI.

[Johny Dread]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

"Texture detail slider" I'm assuming you mean the view distance slider, which I don't believe has anything to do with AF, but instead how far away a object can be when it actually starts drawing. AF is "Text Filtering" isn't it? I think Low is 1 method, and medium is the second method at 2x, while high is the second method at 4x....ah here we go "The texture filtering settings at Medium and High should correspond with 2x Anisotropic Filtering (AF) and 4xAF respectively, with Low being Trilinear." Quoted from http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_5.html

I don't think you get higher from the UI.

Yeah I was talking about the texture filtering option, I just couldn't remember what the label said specifically. The easiest option would be to force it via the graphics card cp I guess.

[Hugh G. Wrection]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

As an aside, do either of you guys know how to set anisotropic filtering in the game? I thought I read somewhere that when the texture detail slider is moved to 100% it corresponds to only 4x AF. I would like to go higher if that's possible (without forcing it using the graphics card console that is).

Your correct, texture filtering on high = 4xAF. But unlike AA, you can force a higher AF level in graphic driver options.

I haven't really played with it, but the texture filtering (low/med/high) selection in the game appears to be the base option from which all the cache files are created, ie. it creates a different set of cache files for low vs. med vs. high. The last number in the directory name corresponds to the selection (1, 2, or 3).

So this means that selecting 16AF in graphic options doesn't override the in-game setting but is applied on top of whatever you select in the game. I would be curious to see pics of forced 16AF + Low vs. forced 16AF + High.

[Berrern]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

Very nice tool, thanks!
Been playing a bit around with it now, and it's really useful for benchmarking my system.

I've got a little suggestion/request...
A lot of players with the new X-Fi cards are experiencing performance drops in BF2 in sound-heavy areas. As you may know, the "Ultra High" audio setting in BF2 enables 128 simultaneous voices/channels, and it's on this setting a lot of people has problems (there's a 34-page thread with users having problems on the Creative forums).
So what I was wondering is if you could perhaps expand a bit on the sound bit of your utility? Especially Zatar Wetlands and Fushe Pass are maps where there's lots of sounds around, and people are experiencing slowdowns.

Keep up the good work mate! :)

[i'mez2kill]

Re: New BF2 Benchmarking Tool

I'm not computer sharp, so I think I installed this thing wrong or something. When I Generate Report I guess I should see a graph right? I just get some text that says "error" on line 93 or 193 something like that. Can someone tell me how to install or run this app in "benchmark for idiots" form?
Thanks a bunch