Framerate tweak guide

[Vithigar]

Cross posting this from the Purgatory boards, thanks Kargreth!
Formatting restored, got the bbCode.

Contents

Video Options

• 1. Display
  
• 2. World Appearance
  
• 3. Brightness
  
• 4. Shaders
  
• 5. Miscellaneous
  

1.) Display

Yup. My current video options, they may look similar to yours, they may look entirely different to yours and scare you.
I'll admit it, I run WoW pretty much maxxed out, bar one or two options. It is shiny, and I like it. I also cringe when I see WoW running on a computer that was made before the Berlin Wall fell. (A computer that shouldn't be running WoW at all.)

Resolution – “Changes the screen resolution of the game. Decrease to improve performance.”

Resolution, it makes the game “bigger”. NOT “smaller”. Things look smaller because there are more pixels to make up what you can see. Resolution is one of the top three things that will affect your lag the most. It isn’t recommended with any application, whether it be a game or otherwise, that you run it at a resolution higher than that of your desktop. It can cause driver/program conflicts and it also creates a lot of unnecessary work for your video card, having to switch between eleventy different resolutions. Ranked 3 out of 3.

Recommendation: If you’re going to turn the other options up, and your computer can’t handle WoW all that well, I’d recommend leaving this at default or vice versa.


Refresh – “Changes the monitor refresh rate. Higher rates flickerless.”

This basically changes how quickly the image on your screen is “refreshed”. I wouldn’t suggest that you touch this at all, because if you select the wrong refresh rate, there’s a good chance that your monitor or video card will go insane and kill themselves.

Recommendation: Don’t play with it.


Multisampling – “Increase multisampling to smooth out model edges.”

Multisampling, this is the second big thing that can decide whether WoW runs smoothly, or whether it runs like a hamstrung priest being chased by rogues. Basically it does what the description says, it smooths out model edges, making them less jagged and prettier to look at. Ranked 2 out of 3.

Recommendation: Leave this setting to default. Even I don’t run it maxxed out as it makes my frame rate plummet.


Use UI Scale – “Check to use the UI Scale Slider, uncheck to use the system default scale.”

This lets you change the UI (User Interface) size inside WoW. That’s basically everything you see on the screen, that disappears when you hit ALT-Z to hide the interface.

Recommendation: As far as I know, this won’t have any major impact on lag. Use it if you want to, I use it.


UI Scale – “Changes the size of the game’s user interface.”

Playing with the slider bar will change the size of your interface, I’ve moved mine to make all my stuff fit and to make it look less cluttered.

Recommendation: Again, use it if you want to.


Windowed Mode – “Check this to play in a non-fullscreen window. If this is checked the game will use your desktop gamma and you will not be able to adjust it via the slider below.”

Good old windowed mode. Playing from work? Avoiding your boss or a supervisor? Maybe you’re even playing at home and trying to make it look like you’re doing work?

Are you Evilfang or Kostas? They know what I mean. ;D

Windowed mode can be useful.

Recommendation: Use it if you feel like it, I use it in combination with the maximized setting. You can use it at a lower-than-desktop resolution to play WoW in a window, making it run faster.

Maximized – “Check to maximize window and remove borders.”

This maximizes your WoW window and makes it pretty much identical to WoW in non-windowed mode; with an exception.

You can alt-tab and programs will appear on top of WoW, making alt-tabbing much easier and quicker; as opposed to non-windowed mode which minimizes WoW entirely and make take forever to load. Very useful for if you want to quickly check an IM or if you want to look up something on Alla/Thottbot or whatever.

Recommendation: Using this in conjuction with windowed mode means you can alt-tab/switch between programs much quicker minus the lag. This method won’t necessarily improve your performance in-game, but it will out of the game if you need to switch between programs.

Just a few resolution options.

2.) World Appearance

Terrain Distance – “Changes how far you can see terrain. Decrease to improve performance.”

This one is fairly self explanatory. Can you see the mountains ten feet or a hundred feet away?

Recommendation: This is one of the settings that can have a large impact on WoW, depending on your computer. It will have a lesser impact than the big three, however..



Environment Detail – “Controls how far you can see objects. Decrease to improve performance.”

Identical to terrain distance, except it controls things such as trees, fences, players and whatnot. Hey look, a bunny!

Same recommendation as above.


Anisotropic Filtering – “Increases texture sharpness, particularly for textures in the distance. Decrease to improve performance. Requires game restart to take effect.”

Why hello there, filtering. This is the third and perhaps the biggest one of the big three that can make WoW shine or look dull. This will put your video card to work by making textures (what objects are “covered” with, e.g. the Orgrimmar AH has a roof covered with red thatched stuff, that’s a texture.) look more or less blurry. This will have a huuuuge impact on performance. Ranked 1 out of 3.

Recommendation: Do not touch this unless you know your PC can handle it. Leave it at default otherwise.

Terrain Texture – “Sets the terrain texture detail. Requires game restart to take effect.”

Do you want your terrain to look nice or blurred und crappy? That's all there is to it.

Recommendation: Makes general aesthetics lesser, but it's up to you.

Texture Detail – “Controls the level of all texture detail. Decrease to improve performance.”

This one is similar to anisotropic filtering but it doesn’t have as large as an effect. Decreasing this will make things look more “bleh”, but it wil boost your performance.

Recommendation: Makes WoW less pretty, but it improves your performance. Play with it and see what it does for you.


Character Shadows – “Enables character shadows for all characters within the game. Disabling this can sometimes improve performance.”

Character shadows, another self-explanatory one. Turning this off would probably only have a noticeable effect in places such as cities or crowded areas.

Recommendation: It might do something for you, try it.


Spell Detail Level – “Controls the detail level of spell effects. Decrease to improve performance.”

Another one that explains itself. Is pyroblast going to look AWESOME or is it going to suck? Either way, crits still hurt.

Recommendation: Toy with it, it may help.


Weather Intensity – “Controls the intensity of weather effects. Decrease to improve performance.”

This is a situational one, albeit a big one. Weather effects can make your computer come to a crawl. Then again, weather effects aren’t always around. It’s up to you really. Do you lag like a biatch when it starts to rain or when it’s foggy?

Recommendation: Again, this may help. Toying with things teaches.


Level of Detail – “Check this to enable dynamic reduction of terrain polygon detail. Check to increase performance.”

I had absolutely no idea what the hell this one did until I turned it off. I’m guessing you haven’t a clue in hell what that sentence means.

Best example – flight. Say you’re flying from Booty Bay to… Kargath. You can see the mountains and whatnot in the distance. Notice how they change shape fairly often? And they become more “complete” the closer you get? That’s LoD in action. Disabling this will make things in the distance appear “complete” as opposed to constantly changing shape.

Recommendation: This one will certainly help if you lag.

Here’s the multisampling menu and an example of how many settings there are. As you can see, I don’t run it on max. either.

Brightness

Use desktop gamma – “Use the same gamma settings as your desktop.”

This just toys with how bright or dark things are. Tick this box and you’ll be fine. Unless you’re some sort of obsessive compulsive, default’ll be fine for you.

Recommendation: Ignore it. Doesn’t affect performance anyway.

Shaders

Enable All Shader Effects – “Enables all pixel shaders.” (Enables/disables terrain highlights, full-screen glow effect and death effect.)

This doesn’t do anything itself, it just provides you access to stuff below.

Recommendation: Turn it on to allow the stuff below, turn it off if you don’t want to use the things it enables.


Terrain Highlights – “Enables specular highlights on terrain and water. Disabling this can sometimes improve performance. Requires logout to take effect.”

“Specular highlights”, nice word. I’m not entirely sure as to what this does myself, but I think it handles things such as the sun or moon reflecting off of terrain and water. As this is a logout-requiring effect, it can have a significant impact or none whatsoever.

Recommendation: Turn it on if you want, see what it does..


Full-Screen Glow Effect – “Enables a full screen effect that softens edges and lighting. Disabling this can sometimes improve performance.”

This is a lighting effect, and as such, if you have an old video card, this will have a large impact. Notice how Blizzard says “sometimes”. Too many variables can cause lag.

Recommendation: Change it if you want, it may work.


Death Effect – “Uncheck to disable glowing effect while in ghost form. Disabling this can sometimes improve performance.”

You know when you die, and you’re a ghost? And you either have a static blue colour all over the place, or fancy mist/fog effects and whatnot? This options changes whether it is fancy or not. I’ve noticed that disabling this has a gigantic effect on performance on low end PCs.

Recommendation: I’d recommend turning this off if you lag, it should help a lot.


Vertex Animation Shaders – “Enables the use of vertex shaders to speed animation. Enable this to maximize performance. Requires logout to take effect.” (Enables/disables Smooth Shading.)

I don’t know what this does either. It supposedly makes WoW run smoother.

Recommendation: I’unno. Turn it on I guess.


Smooth Shading – “Enable this option for smooth lighting across characters.”

This basically changes whether lighting looks good or whether it’s jagged and crappy.

Recommendation: Turn it off for better performance.


Weather Shaders – “Uncheck this if weather effects are causing your computer to crash.”

It would seem that this makes a fair few people’s computers go on the skitz. Turning this off can also improve performance.

Recommendation: Turn it off if it gives you issues. It can reduce lag.

Miscellaneous

Trilinear Filtering – “Enables high quality filtering of texture maps. Turn this feature off to increase performance. Requires game restart to take effect.”

Again, more texture related stuff. This one will have a large impact on your performance.

Recommendation: Turn it off unless you can handle it.


Vertical Sync – “Synchronizes your framerate to some fraction of your monitor’s refresh rate. Enable this if you see excessive screen tearing in game.” (Enables/disables Triple Buffering.)

I’d turn this only if you need to, I think it has something to do with NVIDIA cards only, I can’t remember.

Recommendation: See what the defaults say.


Triple Buffering – “Enables triple buffering of frames when vertical sync is enabled. Selecting triple buffering may improve your framerate.”

Again, do as the defaults say.


Cinematic Subtitles – “Enables subtitles during the intro cinematic.”

No freakin’ way! Tip: Turning this on gives free epics.


Hardware Cursor – “Enable this option for best performance unless you have cursor problems.” (Enables/disables Smooth Mouse.)

I’m not sure what this one does myself, I just leave it on by default.
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And that's the end of my gigantic tutorial. I hope you can find some use from it.

Now I'm going to play WoW.

And kill some Gnomes.

Stupid Gnomes.

2007 - Kargreth

[Vithigar]

I find terrain distance can can a huge difference to framerate in outdoor environments. Not so much inside instances. Outdoors I find it makes a bigger difference than anything else, your mileage may vary.

One note about resolution, if you're using a LCD monitor it is highly recommended that you use the native resolution of the monitor, regardless of all other concerns. Running a LCD screen at non-native resolutions tends to be ugly as sin. If your monitor is properly installed, your native resolution will be the largest that WoW will let you select.

I feel compelled to say something about the difference between lag/latency and framerate/slowdown.

Lag from latency is caused by network problems or server bugginess on blizzard's side, or a crappy connection or saturated bandwidth on the client (your) side. If you've got a crappy internet connection, there's unfortunately not much you can do. If your bandwidth is saturated, stop downloading/uploading so much stuff while you're playing WoW. You don't need all that porn that badly.
The effects of network lag are characterized in game by things like loot-lag, longer than normal cast times (especially on instant abilities), positioning bugs (too far away, you are not behind your target, too far away, you are not behind your target), and jumpy movement in other players.

Slowdown from framerate is what this thread has been dealing with so far. Adjusting graphics settings or upgrading your machine is the easiest way to address the problem. Having too much other stuff running in the background can also cause the same thing, so close all that down. If you notice during slowdown that your hard drive is being accessed a lot, it might be a RAM issue and not videocard, so you might want to look into that.
Slowdown is characterized in game by, well, low framerates during busy gameplay. Hit Ctrl-R if you want to see your current frames per second, above 20 is good, above 40 is ideal, and below 10 is generally unplayable. If you're effectively watching a slideshow or the screen has frozen entirely for a time, it's not network lag, it's the computer on your end not quite keeping up.

[Vithigar]

ATi Catalyst Control Center overview

Ok, if you're using an ATi card this applies to you, otherwise feel free to move on.

To access the CCC all you should need to do is right click your desktop and select it from the popup menu. It should be right at the top. Once it opens up, you should see a screen similar to this:


If you don't, you're probably in basic mode, there will be a button in the lower left to switch it to advanced. "Advanced" in this context apparently means "I want to actually have options to change."

Once you're there expand the "3D" tree on the left. If you don't want to fiddle with things, you can try just dragging the Performance<->Quality slider to different places and see how it goes in your game. If you want to fine tune more than that, read on.

The options available in the CCC are anti-aliasing, adaptive anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, catalyst A.I., mipmap detail level, and vertical refresh. You can look at a screen for each of these individually, or just select "all settings" to see them all at once. I could probably write a full page or more each on what all these do, but I will try to refrain.
Depending on how things are set in the CCC, settings here might override some of the settings in WoW. I'll mention what settings are overridden where applicable.



Anti-aliasing is the smoothing of the edges of onscreen objects by blending the colors where objects meet. Cranking it up can cause a considerable performance hit, but a much nicer picture. This setting overrides WoW's multisampling setting unless "use application settings" is checked.
The "temporal anti-aliasing" checkbox attempts a visual trick that fools the eye into seeing a better picture. The performance difference for enabling temporal anti-aliasing is very small, if any. This one's a matter of personal preference.

Adaptive anti-aliasing is a different method of anti-aliasing applied when transparent objects and fog are used. According to the CCC it gives you a large improvement in visual quality for a small performance hit. The CCC lies. Turn this on and your framerate will tank unless you've got same damned impressive hardware.

Anisotropic filtering is a texture filtering technique that vastly improves the smoothness of textures as they become more distant. Checking the "High Quality AF" box is self explanatory, better filter at cost of performance. This exact same slider (minus the checkbox) exists in the WoW settings, so it's just a matter of where you want to control it from. The high end of the CCC's slider is higher than WoW's, while the low end of WoW's is lower than the CCC's. Check "use application settings" to use the settings window in WoW.

Catalyst A.I. attempts to make small tweaks depending on what is needed by an application at any given time. I've never noticed it making a difference. If you play with it and notice anything, let me know.



Mipmap detail level is another texture setting. Turning this up will improve the clarity of object surfaces at a distance. The performance hit this causes is proportional to what your anisotropic filtering level is set to, since these are the textures being filtered.

Finally, vertical sync, not just an nVidia thing as Kargreth suggested. This is largely a cosmetic setting. If you notice that when there is a lot of left to right movement there is some "tearing" of the image, like the bottom half is not quite keeping up with the top, then this is off. If you don't like that, turn it on. Some people don't like this setting because it will "cap" your framerate at 30 or 60 or some other number depending on your monitor settings. If a framerate capped at 60 is an issue for you then you probably don't need a tweak guide.

As you can see from my screenshots, I run with everything pretty much maxed to the nines. Except adaptive anti-aliasing. Because it sucks.

[meanmoocow]

Ty vith- I found this helpful and I think I know why I'm having problems with the game.

[isamar]

huah wah? my head hurts now... i am no where near a comp genius as u r vith, and with that i bow to u

[Stompshifter]

Holycrap Vith, do one for Nvidia!

[Vithigar]

Unfortunately I don't have access to a nVidia card so I can't see the interface to tell you what's what. I do know that there should be at least some overlap between the two though. Things like antialiasing and anistropic filtering should be in both.

[kaeldan]

I could try and do one for Nvidia, if I can figure it out.... lol...