Parts of this guide give different advice depending on what hardware you have. If you are playing on a computer you received as a gift or just generally don't know much about computers I recommend a free tool called Speccy. Speccy will give you a simple overview of what components your PC consists of. You can download it here.
Special thanks to blaqwar for his great write-up on performance.
Part 1 - Client optimization
Use the 64bit client version
Click the gear in the top right corner of your RoR launcher and select 64-bit.
What this does:
Secrets wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2017 10:23 am It enables multi-threading options by default (previously had to pass command line args to enable it, which would require a new launcher) and changes the memory cap on the executable to 3000MB from 1250MB for the texture cache, which means that less cpu cycles are spent recycling textures and instead they can sit comfortably in memory. The 4gb patch is already applied to this executable as well.
The other thing it does is disable the 'debug' version of the LUA library. This means that UI actions should execute quicker.
Video settings
Here is the most balanced setup in terms of performance vs quality that I could find:
Worst offenders for your framerate are Effects and Shadows settings. If you are crashing during keep fights the first thing you should do is set Shadows to None or Balanced and set ability filter to Self. On a lower end computer I would also turn off grass.
Texture memory cache - does it actually do anything?
Judging by the testing I've done it looks like increasing the slider does make the game use more VRAM:
If you are playing on a computer with a dedicated graphics card that has 1GB+ of VRAM you are likely to benefit from maxing the slider. If you are playing on a laptop or an older desktop PC I would not recommend changing this setting.
Fullcreen VS Borderless window - which is better?
Tabbing in and out of the game while in fullscreen mode triggers a painfully long mesh retexture:
Running the game in a borderless window fixes this issue but has two drawbacks:
- Switching back to fullscreen mode by pressing Alt+Enter will mess with some addons. For example, group icons in Enemy will stop scaling correctly. If you then try to reload UI the client will crash. This only happens when using the key combination. Using settings menu to change window modes causes no issues.
- Borderless window mode performs slightly worse than fullscreen mode. According to some relevant information I found on stackoverflow the penalty is negligible. Source: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questio ... 071#107071
Addons
Below I list addons that have the most impact on performance and separate them in to three groups:
- Optimization friendly - Useful addons that can be configured to use less resources (and how).
- Depreciated - Resource demanding addons for which there is a better alternative.
- Nonfunctional - Broken/harmful addons which nobody should use.
A must have addon if you plan on using the Auction House. Shinies will help you find the cheapest items as well as allow you to automatically undercut your competitors when submitting your own. Note that you can drag and drop items from your backpack in to the Item Name field to search for that item.
Some of the more performance demanding features of this addon include custom tooltips for items that show item count across all characters on your account and historical AH price data. To turn these modules off do the following:
Spoiler:
A major improvement over the default combat text but does cause framerate dips when you are subject to a lot of damage. The most performance friendly setup is disabling notifications for incoming damage and buff/debuff fades. Buffhead and Incoming Damage Statistics in Enemy already provide you with the same information.
Here's how you apply the fix:
- Run /wsct menu command.
- Apply the following settings in respective event categories:
Spoiler:
Recognized by the community as the best choice when it comes to tracking ability effects. If you are already using Buffhead and are comfortable with your setup here's how you optimize for performance:
- Run /buffhead command.
- Go to Perfomance section under "Enhancements"
- Apply the following settings:
Spoiler:
If you are switching from Daocbuff or installed Buffhead recently there is a ready configuration file maintained by Jacub:
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=17466#p189598
[Enemy] Group Icons
The best choice for displaying group icons. The most performance friendly configuration is only showing icons for your own group. Showing icons for other groups in a full warband will have a negative impact on your framerate, especially in larger oRvR engagements.
Here's how you configure the module:
- Right click Enemy icon (looks like an arrow target) and select Configuration.
- From there go to Group Icons section.
- Apply the following settings:
Spoiler:
[Enemy] Combat Log parser
When you receive a lot of damage your combat log gets flooded with updates. If you have an addon loaded that parses your combat log this usually results in a massive framerate drop which in turn makes it very difficult for you to react quickly.
On the flip side knowing how much damage is coming in and from where is important information. While disabling all combat parsers will definitely give you the most fps gain it will also make it harder for you to play your best. The compromise that I found is tracking incoming damage via Combat Log module in Enemy and disabling other addons with similar functionality. Below are the settings I use and how to apply them:
- Right click Enemy icon (looks like an arrow target) and select Configuration.
- From there go to Combat Log section.
- Apply the following settings:
Spoiler:
Should be disabled when you are not actively growing seeds. If you are really serious about framerate I suggest you don't learn cultivating on the character you play the most. From my own experience on my Zealot (has culti+apoth) I get noticeably worse performance compared to all other characters on exact same UI and settings.
[Enemy] Killspam
An enemy module that keeps a kill/death score for all players in the zone as well as cataloging kills by subregion. This can be very useful for figuring out where the action is and which premade groups/warbands are present in the zone.
The drawback of using this module is that your performance gets progressively worse the more time you spend in rvr. The more players there are on the list the more work Enemy has to do to keep the list updated every time someone dies. Having this module enabled will force you to reload UI often as the stuttering it causes eventually becomes unbearable.
To turn off the module go to Enemy -> Config -> Killspam -> turn off "Enable kill parsing". Kills window can be hidden by rigthclicking it in the layout editor and selecting "Hide Window".
Daocbuff Causes stutters in large scale RvR.
Dpsmeter A combat log parser that can be useful when testing effectiveness of abilities. Don't forget to turn this off if you are not actually testing something.
GroupIcons
If you have it installed disable and delete it immediately. It’s broken to a point of causing massive stutters when joining a warband. I can’t fathom why it’s still bundled with the default client.
DetauntHelper
Does not function as advertised since RoR server implementation does not allow selecting enemy targets by name. Using this addon purely for gathering incoming damage statistics is not optimal as Enemy does this already.
Overhead Names
When it comes to overhead text such as names, titles and guild tags you have two options: disable them completely or leave them on but use a simple font. The first option will give you the most fps gain while the second will greatly reduce the impact.
To change font style press Esc -> Customize Interface -> Targeting and set "Names Font" to Simple. You can choose which strings to hide in the same section.
Chat Logs
In your UserSettings.xml file there is a flag that decides if your client will keep logs of your chat activity. Each chat channel is saved to a separate file so if this option is enabled your client is constantly saving information to several files on disk.
To avoid unnecessary disk I/O you can turn off logging by navigating to:
Code: Select all
Warhammer Online\userClient uptime
No matter what you do the longer the client runs the worse it will perform. If you are playing for longer periods of time it’s a good idea to restart the client at least once an hour.
