Post by Vithigar on Jun 4, 2007 15:51:25 GMT -5
Cross posting this from the Purgatory boards, thanks Kargreth!
Formatting restored, got the bbCode.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[/font][/size]
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
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.)
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.
[/font][/size]
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