Box Jumping - You might be capable - Video Card

[HabibGoatAss]

Folks,

I just got a new video card and I was all happy to put it in and get cranking.

My old one was pretty fast, nothing blazing but a decent card.

My old one could get over 90 fps which made me "eligible" for the "box jump".

The box jump is when you can jump high up on a box, like in q2dm8. 

The old card could render (?) 50,000 triangles a second while the new one could do like 54 billion (I made the numbers up).

When I put the new card in, I could not get the frame-rate to go past 60 - man I felt stupid about getting this new card that could not run fast.

To get the box jump you need to set a few settings, which I checked:

1 - set your cl_maxfps to 120

2 - Make sure you run a time demo to see if your card goes over 90 fps

   2A) Start Quake in the console type:
          timedemo 1 [Enter]
          demomap demo1.dm2 [Enter]

You should see a demo play and it will tell you how fast your frame-rate is.  Your current computer may just need to have the cl_maxfps set to 120.  I tried my new card out and was bummed - only 60 frames.  I tried all types of things, feeling that I had bought a lemon of a video card.

Then, I tried one more thing - I set my adapter card (using the program in windows that the video card folks made) not to sync-every-frame.  This was the key.  I tried the demo again and got an amazing 580 frames per second. 

So the short answer is that many of you might have a good video card that you just need to tune a little to be able to get some better performance.   This little enhancement will give you some neat jumping abilities that you did not have and they new "skill" comes just by setting the card up right.

In any case folks, if you cannot do "box jumps" you might be really close to able and just not set to do it.

First move:

Try setting your frame-rate, nothing special:

cl_maxfps 120

Second Move:

Check your vertical sync-every-frame setting - if it is set to on, that will keep you from jumping well.

Third Move:

Try the time demo above and see if you get over 90 fps

Fourth Move:

Play with resolutions

Finally: 

Buy another video card. 

Ok - I hope you look into these settings - it may make your gaming a little more fun.

Regards,

Habib

[Jay Dolan]

Also, I hear that using the mouse in conjunction with the keyboard can improve your play.  But it takes some getting used to.. Myself, I'm still 100% keyboard.

[R1CH]

Or you could just use gl_swapinterval 0 instead of forcing driver settings.

[Whirlingdervish]

having vsync off, in either your vid hardware properties or in your q2 config will definitely increase your framerate, but with a tradeoff. You will get an ugly tearing effect when you move the mouse too quickly or turn your character because the refresh rate is out of sync with the rate that your vid card is trying to draw the game.

I prefer having vsync on, but only if everything is set up correctly:

depending on your operating system, you may need to force a refresh rate on a CRT monitor to get it to display at the rate it is capable of when vsync is on. (gl_swapinterval 1)

XP has a silly little problem that makes it force a maximum refresh rate of about 60hz even when the monitor can do better, and that rate will cap your maxfps in q2 with vsync on, effectively giving you the problem habib was talking about in the beginning of this thread even if you have an awesome vid card.

A lot of the lcd monitors wont push more than 60-75hz so it's not a problem there, but if you want to run that 120hz and have a CRT monitor capable of it, there are workarounds to make XP stop capping it and allow you to run vsync (gl_swapinterval 1) and still get the 120FPS you need for the coolest jumps.

here's one:

http://dervish.tastyspleen.net/files/reforce.zip

This is a handy dandy little utility that allows you to force a refresh rate and res of your choice on your monitor, against windows XP's nefarious will.

It can cause issues if you stupidly set a custom value beyond what your monitor is capable of, and I wouldn't try pushing the refresh rate past 75 on an LCD, but for a decent old CRT monitor, you'll be able to get much higher framerates with vsync on, which makes the game incredibly smooth and altogether elminates tearing if you have the maxfps of your q2 client and the refesh rate of your monitor set to the correct (and nearly identical) values.

I believe you can find those values in a thread here on TS that elysium made about tips and tweaks to make your q2 smoother and more enjoyable.

Edit: here's the thread Ely made with the optimal refresh rate and maxfps values that you can use with vsync "on"

http://tastyspleen.net/quake/forums/index.php?topic=895.0


Note, this will only help you if you have hardware capable of drawing over 60fps and a monitor that's capable of refreshing at a rate higher than 60hz.

[lidz]

See the problem with all the posts are....

That I don't understand what the hell you guys are talking about.  I need one of you chumps to come over my house and do all this for me.  But I have been known to drug people and remove kidneys, so I wouldn't advise it.

 

[HabibGoatAss]

Or you could just use gl_swapinterval 0 instead of forcing driver settings.

Oh cool too - I just want to let people know about this.  It took me 6 years before I even tried it and it's a capability nobody should be without. 

Too important to "keep to yourself"

[HabibGoatAss]

See the problem with all the posts are....

That I don't understand what the hell you guys are talking about.  I need one of you chumps to come over my house and do all this for me.  But I have been known to drug people and remove kidneys, so I wouldn't advise it.

 

Lidz - so one question - if you are in q2dm8 "warehouse", can you jump from the ground in front of the grenade launcher UP to the launcher?  If not, you might enjoy looking into changing your settings.

[ReCycled]

Strange thing about large box jumping (64 units high) is that only certain ones can be jumped. Quake2 has made all the "large" size boxes the same height on all maps - they just might have different textures. The smaller boxes are 32 units and 16 units. The large size was chosen so that in 1998 it was just high enough to not be able to jump onto it. That all changed with higher FPS graphics cards. Anything above 90 FPS can scale the large crates - sometimes. I've never got a reasonable explanation why this is. Here's the ones Hab was talking about.
Also here's some crates on Base1 - some can be jumped, some can't. Same height.

[Kyper]

According to the old wireplay Q2 jump guide, crates have to be in the negative z-axis of the map. I guess you can use a map editor and take a look? I'm not too sure myself.

Also, with 90- fps, I find that I have to do a jump in the air without touching the crate, and then the second jump forward will climb the crate. Around 110+ you should be able to go up climbable crates without any problems.

Another useful jump would be on ptrip, the red armor boxes. Coming from the chaingun room, you can climb the crates to the red armor.

[ReCycled]

I checked the Base1 crates in my Map Editor and could't find any consistency with a negative Z-axis.

1) The Rocket Launcher is at -48 and the crates below it, so that ties in.
2) The Shotgun is at -168 and the crates at the same level but they can't be jumped.
3) There is a Grenade in the far corner of Base1 at -32 with 2 crates that can't be jumped. Half the crate is above the z-axis and half below.
So I dunno......