Introduction

Raven Software and LucasArts have collaborated to bring us the long awaited sequel to the original Dark Forces and Jedi Knight: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Based on the Quake III engine, in Jedi Knight II you’ll continue the adventures of Kyle Katarn as he battles against the Empire. We’ll save the complete rundown for the final review, but already JK2 has attracted quite an online following. Considering the fps roots of FiringSquad, we felt it was only natural that we examine the performance of this game with today’s latest video cards.

As of right now, there are two methods of benchmarking in Jedi Knight II. One option is to create a shortcut to the multiplayer executable file for Jedi Knight II and add “+set sv_cheats 1” to the target field of the shortcut. Therefore, the target field would read:

"C:\\Program Files\\LucasArts\\Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast\\GameData\\jk2mp.exe" +set sv_cheats 1

Next, you drop the console by pressing the shift and tilde keys, and enter “timedemo 1”, press the return key, and then type “demo jk2ffa”. Once the timedemo is complete lower the console and press the Page Up key until you see your frame rate.

Another option (officially sanctioned by Raven Software) involves running the multiplayer executable and typing the following in the console:
devmap ffa_bespin
timedemo 1
disconnect
demo jk2ffa

Once the demo is complete scroll up to see your frame rate.

System Setup

AMD Athlon XP 2100+

ASUS A7V333

256MB Corsair XMS DDR333 SDRAM

ATI RADEON 7500
ATI RADEON 8500 64MB
Hercules 3D FDX Prophet 8500LE
Driver version 7.68

VisionTek Xtasy Ti 4600
VisionTek Xtasy Ti 4400
VisionTek Xtasy MX 440
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 reference board -- 64MB
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 reference board
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 reference board
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti reference board
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX reference board
Driver version Detonator 28.32

30GB IBM Deskstar DTLA 307030 ATA/100 Hard Drive
AFREEY 12X DVD-ROM

Windows XP Professional

DirectX 8.1

Desktop Resolution: 1024x768x32

Benchmarks

Jedi Knight II – Normal, High Quality (jk2ffa demo)