Quote Originally Posted by gosh View Post
Is smoke etc done with vertex data?
If some type of graphics has some sort of knowledge on the resolution it could be that the processor needs to calculate more on higher resolutions. Don't know this, just one speculation
What I think happened here is that in stead of just changing resolution and GPU related load settings, he simply used presets to change between high settings and low settings.

Games for the past 1 or 2 generations give options for physics, particle debris, and smoke/shadows ... these are usually CPU duties.

I can run an experiment to verify. But those bombing runs, in low settings, do not throw up debris ... at high settings it is covered with debris.