Guess I'll add my numbers to the study:
Date / Time: 10/4/2003 2:40:54 PM (9378484ms)
2100MHz, 512MB, 256M ATI Radeon 9800 PRO (DeviceID=0x4e48) Driver=6.14.10.6378 Shader=2.0
H:\HALO\halo.exe -use20 -console -timedemo (Version=1.0.1.580)
Frames=4700
Total Time=111.51s
Average frame rate=42.15fps
Below 5fps= 5% (time) 0% (frames) (6.306s spent in 11 frames)
Below 10fps= 5% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 15fps= 6% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 20fps= 6% (time) 0% (frames)
Below 25fps= 9% (time) 2% (frames)
Below 30fps= 21% (time) 10% (frames)
Below 40fps= 39% (time) 25% (frames)
Below 50fps= 65% (time) 52% (frames)
Below 60fps= 93% (time) 88% (frames)
Memory used Max=162MB, Min=132MB, Ave=151MB
I don't know why, but I had to force PS2.0 on the command line. I'm using Radlinker, and it says to use the default for PS version. Using PS2.0 gave me a small but consistent 1.5 FPS. Not much better, but definitely not worse.
One problem with PS2.0, though, is that sniper rifle + zoom + night vision is broken. The zoomed image has a black rectangle where the NV image should be. This works with PS1.4
I'm using no FSAA nor AF. But turning off AF actually helped the IQ... I was getting very noticable and annoying mipmap transitions. Maybe a lower setting would help (I was using 16x)
All eyecandy on and maxed except shadows, which I don't like anyway. At 1024x768 things run smoothly at all times.
I'm very pleased with the game. I love the physics, especially of the explosions. Covies flyin' thru the air with arms flailing, fountains of dirt or water shooting into the air. Great stuff.
The warthog is, so far, the only vehicle in any FPS I've played that I like. Its slipping and sliding makes it more like the strafing I'm used to. I like the AI and the alien and team mate chatter.
On another topic, I saw a comment somewhere that said the PC graphics were worse than the xbox (aka slow pc with small hd, old GPU and crappy monitor). Unless Gearbox *REALLY* fucked up, I find this impossible to believe: 640x480 better than 1600x1200?
So I went searching for some xbox screenies... Only 1 site showed screens from the actual game running on a TV. All the rest were high res renders that may have come from an xbox, but were certainly not 640x480. And they weren't just simple in-game screen shots... they were carefully composed and not from a standard 1st or 3rd person view point. Do screen shots get saved in maximum resolution? I know some games dump in max res and IQ. But these are *NOT* indicative of the way the running game looks. So I still wonder how it looks on the xbox.
And don't forget: timedemo *WILL* nuke your latest checkpoint. SAVE it first.
System:
ABIT NF7Sv2.0
Athlon 3000+/400FSB
2x256 Corsair PC3200 (dual channel 400Mhz)
ATI 9800PRO 256M