DiRT 2 Demo Native Surround Gaming

Special_K · Post by **Special_K** » 01 Dec 2009, 02:51

NOTE: THIS IS A STOCK INSTALL, NO MODS OR CHANGES REQUIRED OR DONE.

I'm not a big racing fan, but after playing the demo, I may get the game. Especially since it has native triplehead support and xbox 360 controller support, that only adds to the fun. :) At 3840x1024 I got 45fps average, and 32fps minimum. Since SLI doesn't work with the game yet, I can't wait to see the fps after its enabled. I especially love the centered HUD. Check it out. Max settings.

And my favorite with surround sound blaring.

btw photobucket resize smaller ftl.

Post by **suiken_2mieu** » 01 Dec 2009, 05:14

awesome, i'm going to hit this up in a bit.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 01 Dec 2009, 05:29

This game is free for me and many others that got a 5870 card, I just gotta dig up my coupon and register it.

Native eyefinity support and I think it has DX11 also doesnt it?

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 01 Dec 2009, 07:14

Native eyefinity support and I think it has DX11 also doesnt it?

Yup and Yup

So does anyone here have SLI'd 5800 series cards that wants to give up a code for dirt? ;) Or maybe someone thats Anti-Steam.

*Cough*

thenjwaslike · Post by **thenjwaslike** » 01 Dec 2009, 07:15

yeah i got the coupon for this game free but damn im still waiting for my replacement i7 cpu and my 5970 is STILL sitting in the box - havent opened/installed it yet.

Robobandit · Post by **Robobandit** » 01 Dec 2009, 08:06

It runs pretty well..

at 5760x1080 I can get away with 2x MSAA and maxed settings.

I get 30 fps min and about 38 fps average on my rig..

Post Processing on High is the real FPS killer.. that and AA are murderers of framerate.

Driving feels good at that framerate, so I'm not willing to sacrifice my eyefinity setup for higher frames :)

Specs -

E8200 @ 3.2Ghz (Core 2 Duo)
4GB DDR2 RAM
MSI HD 5870 @ stock
3x Dell P2310H displays
Windows 7 Pro x64
Dirt 2 9.11 Hotfix drivers

Post by **scavvenjahh** » 01 Dec 2009, 10:49

So does anyone here have SLI'd 5800 series cards

I doubt it. CrossFired, maybe ? :P

Great Dirt/Grid-like support. The Playskool HUD does not bode well for the general consolishness of the game, but that's another thing...

scooby · Post by **scooby** » 01 Dec 2009, 14:25

Yup! This game rocks, to bad the Steam version will be delayed till Dec. 4.

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 01 Dec 2009, 15:46

[quote]So does anyone here have SLI'd 5800 series cards

I doubt it. CrossFired, maybe ? :P

Great Dirt/Grid-like support. The Playskool HUD does not bode well for the general consolishness of the game, but that's another thing...

Oh boy. I should get some sleep ;)

Robbaz · Post by **Robbaz** » 02 Dec 2009, 06:12

Huh looks good :3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_doCqxseXo

Maxi · Post by **Maxi** » 02 Dec 2009, 20:33

One problem I have when playing at 5760x1080 is that I can see where the cockpit begins in the Baja car.

TwinIon · Post by **TwinIon** » 05 Dec 2009, 00:29

I downloaded the demo for this last night, it's awesome. I should see what kind of framerates I'm getting, but everything seemed really smooth. I haven't bought many racing games over the last few years, but Dirt2 just has everything that I could (technically) want. DX11, native EF support, native 360 controller support... I might have to buy it just to get the most out of my rig.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 05 Dec 2009, 02:09

was looking forward too it but delayed again till the 8th now and I dont want to download the demo and install it just for partial play for a couple of days.

Robobandit · Post by **Robobandit** » 05 Dec 2009, 03:52

was looking forward too it but delayed again till the 8th now and I dont want to download the demo and install it just for partial play for a couple of days.

Enter your key again.. it should say "You've already activated this" and then offer you an install option. Mine is currently downloading Dirt 2.. it doesn't show up in my games list or the bandwidth monitor, but it is downloading the files..

I'll post back about whether or not it lets me play.

Post by **scavvenjahh** » 05 Dec 2009, 11:38

One problem I have when playing at 5760x1080 is that I can see where the cockpit begins in the Baja car.

Some clipping on the side screens is to be expected in all games at that kind of res ;) Or do you mean sth worse than that ?

thatdude90210 · Post by **thatdude90210** » 05 Dec 2009, 18:13

Enter your key again.. it should say "You've already activated this" and then offer you an install option. Mine is currently downloading Dirt 2.. it doesn't show up in my games list or the bandwidth monitor, but it is downloading the files..

I'll post back about whether or not it lets me play.

Yes it lets you play. Found it on Steam forums that you can just start the game by going into the steam folders where Dirt 2 is installed. It should be something like "steam/steamapps/common/", just start Dirt2.exe. Couple of things: if you get a openal.dll not found, you will need to install "oalinst" from creative. And you will need to install games for windows live from MS... if you don't have those 2 installed already.

I only played a couple of races so far. The menu isn't very intuitive, and there didn't seem to be some way to skip the opening video, but the the graphic looked great, and played amazing on 3 screens (Eyefinity in my case).

MIKsoul · Post by **MIKsoul** » 05 Dec 2009, 21:01

Seas
I got a big problem with the full version of the Game (non steam) !

When i start it with the SoftH files, its running on all 3 screens but only in 1680x1050 streched !
If I change the Res. in the Game, it will shut down and nothig else happens, i also tried to change the res in the config file but it has the same effect, the poup appears and nothing else.

Have someone else this problem and could help me plz ?

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 08 Dec 2009, 06:22

I played for a few hours today, really fun game and well done. The single 5870 ran 5760x1200 perfectly for the most part but when I got to like the 5th race where it was dark out and in the city with headlights I did notice some frame drop but not enough to make the game unplayable.

I like the music, I like the flow of the game.

I do not like how horrible I am at it so far :D I played it with my keyboard first and sucked and knew I would but just to see what the game was like and to see if the .exe would work. Then I restarted and used my xbox 360 controller and did a lot better but stil found myself spinning out often and out of control of my car. So figured I just needed my wheel so thats what I did today was hook up and install my wheel and play for a good solid 3 hours probably.

I was wowed to see I did probably worse with my wheel than I did the controller at least at first, seems to way over steer. I got better by learning to feather the throttle and slow down but then I am not keeping up with the computer cars and get last place :/ so far Baha is the only one I do good in I got 2nd place and almost first. That big truck seems to handle a lot better.

I may need to do some kind of control tweaking but I like it how it is since it leaves me room to grow and get better at the game. I drive by far best with the hood view it lets me know where my car is pointing for steering/drift the 3rd person view that is default I sucked with. I did cockpit view most of the day for that authentic feel but its a lot harder since a lot of your view is blocked by the actual cockpit stuff, especially when you drive through water or something, your totally blind for a couple of seconds.

Its in the cockpit view I noticed that the car wheel is not totally synced up to my movement it is slower to react so thats a good sign maybe that I do need to find some controller tweaks.

Dave Baumann · Post by **Dave Baumann** » 09 Dec 2009, 06:00

I got better by learning to feather the throttle and slow down but then I am not keeping up with the computer cars and get last place :/ so far Baha is the only one I do good in I got 2nd place and almost first. That big truck seems to handle a lot better.

Forget feathering, at its heart its a rally title, so its all about controlling the slide :) Learning how to flip the tail out on on medium corners, and using the oversteer well enough to get round, and using the handbrake on tight and hairpin corners is where its all at IMO.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 09 Dec 2009, 06:47

[quote]I got better by learning to feather the throttle and slow down but then I am not keeping up with the computer cars and get last place :/ so far Baha is the only one I do good in I got 2nd place and almost first. That big truck seems to handle a lot better.

Forget feathering, at its heart its a rally title, so its all about controlling the slide :) Learning how to flip the tail out on on medium corners, and using the oversteer well enough to get round, and using the handbrake on tight and hairpin corners is where its all at IMO.

Yeah I think so too but need to get there, so far not too good at that. Just making a few weaving turns often gets my back end loose and then I find myself trying to do small counter steers but I always end up in a spin out.

I think what I need to do is get more aggressive with the wheel not try small controlled steering but going from one extreme to the next for the drifting turns, but there are still a lot of easy turns that you dont drift that require good throttle control so that your back end wont come loose like I was just saying.

It probably has a lot to do with the car too, joining an online game half way in you dont get to do the car select so I am using the default car and they had these higher level ones.

So that said. My performance report.

Dirt 2 is the first game (besides Crysis) to crush a single 5870 at max settings.

The game looks great at what it defaulted at witch was 4x AA All high except only medium for post processing.
On the built in test it was like 42fps.

I went and changed post processing to high and my fps droped into the 10 or lower area instantly! and apparently High is not maxed, there is another setting of Ultra. I tried to just move Water from High to Ultra and again FPS went from 42 to about 12!

So no way a 5870 can max out this game @ 5760x1200 and with nearly single digit frame rates I dont think a 5890 will be able too eather. So you guys with a single 5870 and 3x24" monitors I would like to hear your config to see if you have one that you like a lot for both performance and looks.

I think I will stick with 2x AA, all High except Medium post processing. 40fps average is good but I did notice a dip in fps in one of those night time city levels with headlight effects.

I suppose this is all running DX11, there is a high chance that if I find a way to force DX9 that I will get a mass FPS boost and can crank up a few more options and overall the gains will probably make the game look better than the extra DX11 effects.

Its like DX10 all over again :D

to this day I do not think I know of one game I preferred in dX10 over DX9 the effects were minimal and the FPS loss was high.

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