playing GRAW 2 with no physx card, but with effects!

ergonomics · 2 Aug 2007 at 00:16

nice little work around i found (bound to have been found before, sorry if repost)

the file to edit is here:

C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2\Settings\profiles\(your name)\settings.xml

and there are 2 lines to change, they are:

<has_physx value="false" />
<physics value="0" />

change them to 'true' and either '1' for high physics or '2' for extreme

with a Q6600 @ 2.7ghz, i notice no slow down whatsoever with the physx set to extreme

more and more reason to not go physx

edit: a picture if people are sceptical about playability. 1680x1050, all max settings.

NightSt@lk3r · 2 Aug 2007 at 00:23

wonder what it will be like on my Dual

ergonomics · 2 Aug 2007 at 00:28

shouldnt be too bad, if it gets too heavy, set it to physx high (value number 1)

but even at extreme its miles away from unplayable as many claim it to be

ergonomics · 2 Aug 2007 at 13:01

also, here is how i did it in xp, as its quite different than the method for vista, as the file paths are completely different.

the file youre after is:

"C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2\Settings\profiles\(your name)\settings.xml"

make a copy of it just incase.

to get it to work in game start a new game, and during play, go to advanced video options (you should see that either of the physx options are enabled) and just click on the slider so you can say apply. click apply and now the physx effects are enabled

Pottsey · 2 Aug 2007 at 17:30

“but even at extreme its miles away from unplayable as many claim it to be“
As far as I am ware no one every said extreme was unplayable and if they did they might have meant the Physic map on extreme not the normal maps on extreme.

Does the high detailed physic map work? Do you get the wind and other effects and what’s performance like?

What I find really funny is people go around saying the PPU effects look rubbish when it’s only on the PPU but the same effects on the CPU which look the same as the PPU somehow magically turn from rubbish looking to amazing looking.

EDIT: This is great news as now we can benchmark the same IQ with and without a PPU.

JohnnyG · 2 Aug 2007 at 18:48

Well it definitely works and looks pretty good, more definition and some good touches like more blood splatter. There's a slight performance hit but nothing you'd notice.
I can't get the physx map to work but I might have a play again later.
I wouldn't spend any money on a dedicated card though if you can get similar results with a simple .xml edit

With sneaky physx:

JohnnyG · 2 Aug 2007 at 18:48

Without:

ergonomics · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:15

the ageia island doesnt work for some reason with this workaround

edit: pottsey i notice this was pretty much aimed at my statements a while back

'What I find really funny is people go around saying the PPU effects look rubbish when it’s only on the PPU but the same effects on the CPU which look the same as the PPU somehow magically turn from rubbish looking to amazing looking.'

for your benefit, i still find the effects poor. i just found this out and posted it to prove that these physics cards are just to take our money, and that a cpu is perfectly capable of these tasks, which many many people have claimed to not be true. im still extremely frustrated how none of these particles stay on screen for more than about 5 seconds.

i can almost garuntee that the ageia effects can be forced on every other game that supports it, and i will go out of my way to find out and let everyone know.

Pottsey · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:22

”and that a cpu is perfectly capable of these tasks, which many many people have claimed to not be true”
So far this proves the CPU is not perfectly capable of these tasks. The effects done on the PPU which are said to be to slow on the CPU don’t work even with the tweak. You have not proven anything yet.

No one ever said extra particles won’t work on the CPU only that extra particles cause slow down. That’s just what happens. It’s the other effects like cloth, wind, liquids that’s the CPU cannot do at decent speeds.

The tweak posted is not adding the new effects. It only increasing the particles. My comment before wasn’t aimed at you it was general.

ergonomics · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:23

Pottsey said:
”and that a cpu is perfectly capable of these tasks, which many many people have claimed to not be true”
So far this proves the CPU is not perfectly capable of these tasks. The effects done on the PPU which are said to be to slow on the CPU don’t work even with the tweak. You have not proven anything yet.

No one ever said extra particles won’t work on the CPU only that extra particles cause slow down. That’s just what happens. It’s the other effects like cloth, wind, liquids that’s the CPU cannot do at decent speeds.

The tweak posted is not adding the new effects. It only increasing the particles.

so you will eat your words if i manage to get the ageia island to work yeah?

edit: im not out to argue, im just confident i can get this to work

Pottsey · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:26

“so you will eat your words if i manage to get the ageia island to work yeah?”
Work at playable FPS at normal setting and resolutions. I expect at least a 50% FPS drop doing it on the CPU if not more. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone got it to work, it would surprise me if it’s at playable speeds.

JohnnyG · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:46

If you do get the island to work mate let us know how

willhub · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:53

Pottsey said:
“so you will eat your words if i manage to get the ageia island to work yeah?”
Work at playable FPS at normal setting and resolutions. I expect at least a 50% FPS drop doing it on the CPU if not more. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone got it to work, it would surprise me if it’s at playable speeds.

God your so bloody obsessed with that damnd Physx card, your know its not worth the money and not worth buying and you still defend it :rolleyes:

Pottsey · 2 Aug 2007 at 20:07

“God your so bloody obsessed with that damnd Physx card, your know its not worth the money and not worth buying and you still defend it !”
People are entitled to opinions. Just because you don’t find it useful doesn’t mean other people wont. I am not going around telling everyone to buy it or saying its useful to everyone so stop telling me what I find useful. The performance boost alone makes it useful to me. If its useful to me then its worth buying for me.

willhub · 2 Aug 2007 at 20:09

I'm just saying, in my mind, at this moment in time, I dont think it is worth touching, not one game I play needs a physx card, and in my mind, 2 games aint worth buying a physx card for.

martin9887 · 2 Aug 2007 at 20:35

I play GRAW 2 a lot, And did GRAW 1. I won't be buying a PhysX card for them either, They don't really add anything spectacular to the games to be honest (GRAW games that is).

And now this workaround, If your running a dual core CPU you'll probably be fine.

I have tried this and it does work fine, I use a E6600 CPU with a 8800GTX, FPS is still high and doesn't drop below 40.

Gerard · 2 Aug 2007 at 20:56

For me with a quad core if its set to extreme and applied i the options its a slideshow. :eek:

ergonomics · 2 Aug 2007 at 23:30

Gerard said:
For me with a quad core if its set to extreme and applied i the options its a slideshow.

odd, its well fine for me. even in pretty hectic parts its still fairly playable, never goes below 30.

and im thinking the way to get the island to work, would be to try to trick your pc into thinking you have the card installed.

so im working my way through the driver files to see if theres anything at all that i can change (same with the registry)

NightSt@lk3r · 2 Aug 2007 at 23:48

Gerard said:
For me with a quad core if its set to extreme and applied i the options its a slideshow.

the one time i went to options and did the apply trick beffor loading the map it was like a slideshow for me too, but if you load the map beffor going to options and applying it works fine.

Pottsey · 3 Aug 2007 at 06:59

“i can almost garuntee that the ageia effects can be forced on every other game that supports it, and i will go out of my way to find out and let everyone know.”
How can you guarantee that? What do you know something we don’t? So far all but 1 of the PPU main effects have never been done on the CPU and the one that has, put the CPU down to single digits and that was cloth.

You seem to be acting like you got GRAW 2 working on the CPU with the PPU effects. Well you haven’t none of the PPU new effects work out of large list of effects. All you did was increase the particle count but we all know the CPU can do particles.

Still I hope you do pull it off so we can do fair benchmarking between the PPU and CPU.