Secret "unoptimization" in F.E.A.R. for ATI users?

[Nyte]

Here's a neat trick that has just sprung up. Users of any R520 based video card can rename their "FEAR.exe" to "anythingelse.exe" will see a marked improvement in the area of 10-15%.

EDIT: I've just confirmed that this will work for R4XX based cards. Tested it on my X700 and X850XT PE and saw improvements in the average of ~10 fps.

Source: Beyond3D

[Thermopylae_480]

Why is this occuring? That sounds extremely fishy to me. Is it ATI or Monolith that has caused this?

[Tory]

Great! This is just what I needed. I was seeing as low as 17 fps in some places with my X800XT @ 545/570

[prophylactic]

I went ahead and did this little trick, not really expecting anything; however, I did honestly get a 10 (or more) FPS boost. Seems quite unfair to ATI.. looking at all these loaded benchmarks on anandtech and whatnot.

[Thermopylae_480]

I too got the additional 10fps with a X800. What the heck ! Did they honestly expect to keep this a secret forever? This makes me rather angry.

[boruvka]

I don't understand your faked surprise.

I have a nVidia Gayforce card.

nVidia pays a lot of money so the game publishers insert the "runs best on nVidia" logo. Obviously, that money does not go into overall better games. Why should a company pay for overall better games if it is mere chance the game is played on their hardware?
The money is paid -if everyone of us is lucky- solely into that silly logo, advertising. Spam, if you want. The game does not get cheaper if there are ads at its start displayed, right? So they force you to see advertising even if you buy a game. Like pay TV WITH ads.

That lot of money wasn't put under nVidia's CEO's pillow by the tooth fairy. No.
Ultimately, those people that buy nVidia products help fund that money that doesn't go into better hardware, but into ad-spam.
So we gamers are twice the fools. First, we pay for games but still get ads, second, we pay for the ads to be inserted into the game.
Some nVidia CEO must be laughing his ass off.

But I have to come back to my mentioning "if everyone of us is lucky".
I think we're not.
Why pay for ads, if you can boost your sales by funding a game company, too?
Let's assume company A pays a game publisher XY to make sure the approximately equal hardware of company B does not perform so well when playing XY's games.
Gamer magazines and websites will shout out "Company A products perform better! Buy A products!". And company A does not even have to put more money into research, but only a small amount of cash into the game industry. Those publishers are almost broke for a big part anyway, they do not have much choice.

Ironically, nVidia at the moment has the better, faster PCIe video cards. OK, not anymore in the AGP sector, but the GF7 series is pretty impressive and Ati is struggling to release contenders.
And returning much less profit. And less successful in the motherboard chipset market.
Still someone at nVidia must have deemed it necessary to play foul.
And deserves a kicking.

So, I bought a nVidia GPU, and a game that displays a big "Runs best on nVidia", I sure do expect that all the money my money that nVidia pumped into that game publisher pays off by me getting more frames out of it than my peers. They are even running more expensive Ati cards. They even have nicer looking AntiAliasing, so it's only fair if nVidia lashes back at them! It's in my interest, even!

(in case you do not note the irony, this was irony)

I am not proud to own a nVidia GF6800.

Here I am, running Microsoft WindowsXP, owning a GF6 video card, and my parents even have an Intel Coppermine in their PC.
Who am I to throw the first stone? I am deep within a glass house...

[zAAm]

Damn, no difference for my card. It's actually 1fps slower when it's renamed to something else lol! in 3 tests both I've confirmed this. 36fps on FEAR.exe and 35fps on PlayNow.exe. But that's real low nVidia... You could've just made your cards better instead of trying to make your opponent's cards seem slower you bastards .

[prophylactic]

New drivers had no effect whatsoever on FEAR's performance (5.11 comes out tomorrow officially, but you can get it from http://www.tweaktown.com/). The rename trick had quite an astounding effect for me.. the game is significantly more playable.

[wazzledoozle]

Yet another drama in the world of video cards.

Does this improve performance at all for Nvidia cards? (Im guessing not...)

[15th Warlock]

Geez, this is like the time Ati cards had a lower performance when you renamed the quake.exe to quack.exe in the Radeon 8500 days, but at least that was a "driver optimization" Ati used for cheating, seems both Ati and nVidia use dirty tricks to gain performance, makes you wander how many of these cheats go undetected....

[wtf8269]

This is a really odd story. From what I'm seeing it really is true. I don't have F.E.A.R. yet but I will try it once I get it (hopefully) for Christmas.

[Pheonix_789]

How do you this trick?!

[Thermopylae_480]

Originally Posted by Pheonix_789

How do you this trick?!

Just rename the FEAR.exe to (whatever you want).exe. my friend renamed it scared.exe .

[Thermopylae_480]

I don't exactly understand how it is NVIDIA's fault. It seems that it must be an issue with ATI drivers, don't their drivers recognize that it is FEAR and not preform as well? Or did NVIDIA right code into FEAR to actively screw with ATI's drivers, and then why only when its called fear.exe? It all seems fishy to me and I just can't seam to figure out who is at fault. Whoever did it has seriously misplace corporate trust, but then again I guess corporate trust is a contradiction in terms.

[Solaris17]

personaly i never new games could do this the .exe trick this sucks as someone said before wonder how many of them go undetected.....*sigh* im not blaming nVidia cause ati did it too i just wish they wouldnt stoop soo low make better producs dont pay off game makers.

[Polaris573]

Originally Posted by wazzledoozle

Yet another drama in the world of video cards.

Does this improve performance at all for Nvidia cards? (Im guessing not...)

I tried it on my 6800, performance was roughly the same.

[Pheonix_789]

Really just name it anything? the desk top Fear.exe right?

[Pheonix_789]

hey I dont have FEAR.exe what are you talking about???
as I have is a file name FEAR????
where is the file located? I checked in the sierra file and it is not there???
Iam confused.....

[Solaris17]

if u have F.E.A.R in stalled ull find the .exe in the host folder on your drive i dont own the game but im guessing X:/Program files/Seiarra...and any file folder could have frear.exe in it it could be out in the open too....also i replaced your drive letter w/ X just substatute it accordingly.

[Pheonix_789]

I checked there and there is no file called FEAR.exe but I did update the game awhile go.
hmm there is one file with a logo that reads: FEAR but no exe anywhere???

lol iam getting really crappy fps when i play this game i really hope I can do this trick...

card specs:

HIS X700 i-cooler
256Mb DDR
128 bit
6 vertex shaders
8 pixel pipelines
400mhz core
250mhz (500mhz) mem

(crappy card cant even overclock or else it will overheat extremely!)

[Solaris17]

^ ahh u may have the file extensions hidden ...when u mouse over it does it say exicutable file?

[Pheonix_789]

LOL it works! why is that file hidden in the first place???

I will see if I notice any performence increase!!!

card specs:

HIS X700 i-cooler
256Mb DDR
128 bit
6 vertex shaders
8 pixel pipelines
400mhz core
250mhz (500mhz) mem

(crappy card cant even overclock or else it will overheat extremely!)

[Solaris17]

^ the extensions are hidden by default in windows u can disable it by doing the following



My Computer/Tools(Tab)/Folder Options/Veiw(tab).....now look down u will see a folder symbol (their are two but it is the second Folder symbol down under it will be Many options "show hidden files and folders" "dont show hidden files and folders" ETC....the one u are looking for is "Hide extensions for known file types" uncheck this box and now u will see the extensions for your files ...EX: XXXX.exe XXXXX.jpg etc.

[Pheonix_789]

it didnt really help.... iam still getting slow fps here are my cards specs.....

HIS X700 i-cooler
256Mb DDR
128 bit
6 vertex shaders
8 pixel pipelines
400mhz core
250mhz (500mhz) mem

My setup:
AMD Sempron 3000 @ 1.8ghz
ASUS K8N4-E
1GB DDR mem Single Channel
200 GB IDE 133
HIS X700 i cooler 256Mb DDR

[Pheonix_789]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

^ the extensions are hidden by default in windows u can disable it by doing the following



My Computer/Tools(Tab)/Folder Options/Veiw(tab).....now look down u will see a folder symbol (their are two but it is the second Folder symbol down under it will be Many options "show hidden files and folders" "dont show hidden files and folders" ETC....the one u are looking for is "Hide extensions for known file types" uncheck this box and now u will see the extensions for your files ...EX: XXXX.exe XXXXX.jpg etc.

I already did the trick nothing has happened.... if you had read i said that i had did the trick

it didnt really help.... iam still getting slow fps here are my cards specs.....

HIS X700 i-cooler
256Mb DDR
128 bit
6 vertex shaders
8 pixel pipelines
400mhz core
250mhz (500mhz) mem

My setup:
AMD Sempron 3000 @ 1.8ghz
ASUS K8N4-E
1GB DDR mem Single Channel
200 GB IDE 133
HIS X700 i cooler 256Mb DDR