fraps doesn't turn down the framerate too much when running idly and showing the fps in the top, if you aren't recording, it's actually more accurate than 3DGS' fps counter .

on a side note, i noticed that you had lots of plants on screen....i really don't recommend having all those visible, try making a fade out code depending on their distance to the camera, and when they fade completely out, have them invisible, that way it doesn't render them, although they are in memory it takes the same amount of framerate as if those were the only plants in the level. also, try to do the same for trees, and also try disabling the normal mapping if you are far from the trees and plants as well, and if you are using A6, i don't recommend many shaders at all...just materials, because A6's rendering with shaders on many models will throw up lungs it's not a good idea, if you use shaders try using some FFP shaders because they won't compile the shader every frame, i've noticed that A6 has a problem with that, but if you are using A7 i'm not sure what to tell you about shaders, i haven't played around with A7.

hope that was some help and good luck on your project

Mpdeveloper_B