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Some useful tips to improve your fps
CacheSizeMegs
This is a common value to edit in the armyops.ini file of your system folder, however I feel that some people dont fully understand what this value has an effect on. Editing this value represents how much SYSTEM RAM you are devoting for the process of AASF. More system RAM allows more textures to be loaded for quick delivery to your video card. This will NOT increase your maximum attainable framerate, but it will smooth the average framerate out. Some people tend to have moments of 'lag' on larger maps while turning, or entering new areas. This is caused by textures loading into memory. A large Cachsizemegs value will decrease this occurance.
For optimal performance open your Armyops.log file and go to the very end of the file. There should be a string that says something like:
Uninitialized: Peak process RAM (or something similar) Number / Number
By looking at the two numbers that it spits out you can see exactly how much RAM the AASF process used the last time it ran. IF you have enough memory, set the Cachsizemegs in your Armyops.ini to the second Number. If this number is equal or greater than the size of your System ram, simply subtract 120 from your total system ram (mb) and insert that. You should only ever need ~120mb of system ram to run normal background processes, thus freeing the rest for AASF.
Disabling Clientside effects
Some computers seem to choke as they encounter firefights in maps with an already high number of polygons. Particle effects caused by rounds hitting hard surfaces eject further polygons which can severly limit your framerate in critical situations. Disabling particle effects will help or eliminate this problem altogether. The tradeoff, however, is that you will not be able to see bullet impacts, or impact marks (including 203 marks). Use this at your discression because impacts can frequently be helpful at triangulating an unseen enemy's position.
Compressed light maps
A fellow clanmember noted that he had generally 'uneven framrates' through all the SF maps. His framerate would dip and peak in unsual ways that seemed unrelated to almost any detail setting he could imagine. Apparently he found relief by DISABLING (unticking) the "Use compressed lightmaps" mark in the AASF options. Please note that he is running a P4 2.2ghz, with a Ti4200. Similar results may not exist on other cards.
Superhighdetail actors
There is an option in the Armyops.ini in the D3Ddrv section that allow for higher detail player models. If you seem to have generally poor framerates as other teammates or enemies are on screen set both the Superhighdetail, and Highdetail actors options to FALSE. This should remove some system slowing polygons, and speed up play.
Use Stencil
Setting this option in the Armyops.ini (D3Ddrv section) to FALSE can increase framerate up to 10fps on some cards. 'Jaggies' may appear more noticably where they did not prior, however. This is one of those 'quality' vs 'speed' issues, so use it judiciously.
16 bit textures
If you REALLY have a problem with textures, and texture related memory than set the two options in the Armyops.ini regarding 16bit textures to TRUE. This will make the game look horrible, but it will probably be much smoother.
Video Card driver switches
Antialiasing (AA)
Any GeForce or Radeon card is capable of displaying 2x to 4x (sometimes 6x) AA. AA is basically dithering of the surfaces in game. It makes the 'jaggies' formed by two surfaces meeting to be rounded and seem much more natural. AA can make a game look fantastic, but can cause significant FPS hits. For the Radeon Users, you will be happy to note that engaging AA may have little or no hit to your FPS at all, however GeForce users will notice a considerable FPS hit with every level of AA increase. Decreasing AA to 2x of 0x will increase FPS dramatically. Decreasing the value to 0x on Geforces is somewhat easy, simply slide the bar till it says 'No AA'. On Radeons it is a bit more complex. Slide the bar till it hits 2x, then click the box next to the slider that says 'Application preference'.
Anisotropic Filtering (AF)
Anisotropic Filtering allows textures at long range to come through with greater clarity and prescision. Again this is one of those Quality vs Speed issues. Radeon owners again will see little FPS hit while increasing the slider up to about 4x, but Geforce owners will be disappointed just as they were with AA. AF can make maps like recon look absolutely REAL, and also increase target identification at long distance. AF crispens distant textures, bringing out the subtle hues they should have. To remove AF simply do similar steps as with AA, sliding to 0x. Additionally, force PERFORMANCE AF rather than QUALITY. There is no real difference in actual viewing quality, and changing it to performance seems to make thing smoother.
AGP 2x, 4x, 8x and FASTWRITE
IF your motherboard supports any of these options, attempt to maximize them. Enabling AGP8x on and 8x compatible maching will increase bandwith to the video card increasing FPS. Enabling fastwrite (a BIOS option on newer motherboards) will accomplish the same task. Both together will maximize your Card's potential on your system.
AGP Aperture Supplemental information by [-UNITY-]Bane[ECF]
Newer motherboards are capabile of using system RAM as a secondary source for video memory. It's kinda like a on-board video memory system similar to integrated video cards (except in this case you use your dedicated video card memory first.) In any case, if your system resorts to using your system RAM to supplement to your video RAM, it is 1) slower than your video card and 2) much more CPU intensive. Overall system performance will drop.
Don't set this more than 128MB or 25% of your total system RAM...at the most. People with 128MB or more video memory should set this number small too.
The dreaded hardware modifications
If you have anything short of a 1.4ghz processor running a GeForce3 or Radeon 9000 or better you will probably get horrible FPS on the SF maps. If you are looking to upgrade your computer here are some tips on what some upgrades will get you:
CPU upgrade
This may require a new motherboard, but if you were smart with your initial mobo purchace it should be fairly expandable. Look to increase your FSB (front side bus) where possible as it will allow higher bandwith to all the system devices. However dont be fooled, sometimes increased FSB may mean you need new System RAM as well (Gulp). Short of a higher FSB, simply get a more powerful CPU that uses the same FSB but a higher clock value.
Increasing your CPU power will increase general framerates on all maps. Why? AASF is a highly polygon intensive game. CPU tends to be the great limiting factor when it comes to rendering polygons. If your CPU can only push so many polygons to your videocard in a certain time, some of your video card's raw power may go untapped.
If you already have a good videocard this is your best bet for computer enhancement. If you are a truly brave sole, I suggest researching overclocking.
Increased RAM Size or Speed
Increasing either RAM capacity, or speed will increase the texture bandwith to your videocard (assuming your mobo is up to it). This will decrease times of system lag as textures load on screen, causing dips in a stable framerate.
Supplemental information by [-UNITY-]Bane[ECF]
Ideally, you should always run your CPU and RAM at the same FSB. You should always run your CPU and RAM at the same FSB speeds on nForce2 motherboards.
A More Badass Videocard
The baddassest (is that a word?) videocard on the planet wont do you any good if you dont have an appropriately scaled system. For instance I would not dream of putting a thoroughbread Radeon 9800XT on a 1.2ghz Tbird with 133mhz RAM. The raw power of the video card would NEVER be tapped.
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