Performance and Video Tweaks That Worked

Somnulus

Hello all.

I decided to give Vanguard another chance and reinstalled it to my computer. My main issues with the game were due to poor performance (framerate stutter, especially in heavily populated areas) the washed-out appearance of the colors in the game and the canned content.

The last issue I couldn't do anything about. The quests are middle of the road and as some have pointed out, do seem to lack a "hook" to draw you into the game.

However, the performance issues and appearance of the game I could do something about. I started with a performance tweaks page that I found on the Vanguard forums and started making changes while in game. I have to say that the end result was a game with greatly improved performance and appearance.

My system is an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.48ghz), 2GB PC3200 RAM, Abit KV7 motherboard, GeForce 6800 SE 256mb RAM and AC'97 Onboard Sound.

Here is what I did. Hopefully, even if you, the player, are still not satisfied with the game content and mechanics, at least this will help you see the game as it was intended to be seen.

In the folder you installed Vanguard is a file called VGCLIENT.INI in the BIN folder.

Open that file in NotePad (or your preferred text editor) and make the following changes to the lines listed below:

(Change these lines to match your normal desktop resolution)

WindowedViewportX=1024

WindowedViewportY=768

FullscreenViewportX=1024

FullscreenViewportY=768

When you start the game, it will be in 1024x768. You can change that resolution using the game settings. The result is that your Full Screen setting will be your desired screen resolution but your Windowed resolution will match your desktop.

AnisotropicFiltering=off (you can change this in-game as you modify the video to match your system)

UseJoystick=False

bUseHDR=False

bUseToneMapping=False

UsePrecaching=True

UseCubemaps=False

DesiredRefreshRate= (set this for your refresh rate numerically; mine is set for 75)

ReduceMouseLag=False

UseTripleBuffering=True

UseVSync=True

LowQualitySound=True

TextureDetailWorld=5

RenderQuality=5

Save your changes and start the game.

Those changes above gave me an immediate jump in FPS. However, there were other changes I had to make to get the results I wanted.

In the game, use the ESCAPE key and go to SETTINGS.

In SETTINGS, turn off the Volumetric Sky setting. I noticed that if I rotated the mouse so that I was looking directly at the ground, I had nearly ZERO framerate stutter. As soon as I turned off Volumetric Sky, when I navigated the world normally there was a drastic improvement (between 5 and 10 FPS).

In addition to that, I also turned on Global Tree LOD Blend. That setting again boosted my performance.

The final setting that really made a difference in appearance was, surprisingly, the GAMMA, BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST settings. Many people have commented on how the colors in the game seem washed out. Apparently, my video card doesn't agree with the default settings in these areas. I changed the CONTRAST first using the slider and that made the colors pop out. Suddenly, the world was not washed out; it was vibrant. I made slight adjustments to the gamma and brightness settings until I had balanced them out so that I had a combination of good color and reasonable brightness and gamma.

At this point, you can change settings as you see fit. In game, I reset my Anisotropic Filtering to x4 and turned on the HDR setting. It improved my overall display without a significant impact on performance.

So; I would recommend at least giving these settings a try and trying the game again so that at least you can see the graphics in the game the way I'm sure the developers intended you to see it. It may not improve your overall opinion of the gameplay/mechanics of the game, but at least you will probably be able to actually play the game and the experience will be more enjoyable overall.

Link to formerly sticky post of other tweaks :

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/109071

 

tjhusker

 Great post!  I will try some of these tips tonight.

hartam

 I did the .ini tweaks.



 The FPS got raised a bit but its starting to stall more often when loading things.

Somnulus

I forgot to mention a tweak that was included in the forum tweaks:



Under [Engine.NullRenderDevice] add the line:

CacheSizeMegs=64



I just found another post here at MMORPG.COM that summarizes the tweak post from the forums. You can refer to it directly here

swede2

Ive got about the same system as you except cpu is 3200 and am running a x850 xt . i havent done any of the tweaks except common ones every gamer does and am running the game no problems

brihtwulf

You can also try lowering the reflective and refractive distances.  I cut them in half and it seemed to give me a small FPS boost without any noticeable graphics change.

Somnulus

---

Originally posted by brihtwulf
You can also try lowering the reflective and refractive distances. I cut them in half and it seemed to give me a small FPS boost without any noticeable graphics change.

---

Good point, brihtwulf. I did the same and got a good FPS boost.

I also changed the CacheSizeMegs=128 just to see what happened. That seemed to decrease my loading problems (where the game would pause when loading new areas). I'm a little surprised Sigil didn't include a method for setting a cache size in their video settings section in-game.

It still isn't performing as well as I would like, BUT it is performing pretty well for a beta server environment on a mid-range PC.

Kilim

If you HAVE a Multi-Core CPU in your Laptop//Desktop, I suggest using this tweak we have found out about a while ago.
It improves your Multi-Core CPU performance.

Windows XP Multi Core config - Does your OEM do it for you?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

This is my current system:

Sager 5760: 17" WSXGA+
T2500 Core Duo
100gb Hitachi 7200RPM HDD
2gb DDR2 667 RAM
Nvidia go7900GTX 256mb
Logitech G7
Below is a sample of the review I made with my laptop.

NOTE: For examples of scores (before & after), check out Kilim's Core Duo notebook review, as well as the others in this forum.

Check out this chart of FPS for BF2 (Battlefied 2) before and after the hotfix.
From Kilim's Sager 5760 (Clevo M570U) Review:

For Oblivion:

Also:
Some people say this helps also.

Shader Cashing - vgclient.ini

Add this line under "[General]" to minimize hitching: bUseShaderCaching=1

Should read:

---

[General]
bUseShaderCaching=1

---

Also.
About the Resolution on the OP.
"The optimal rez is your monitors default resolution. Lowering rez is really only viable for people still stuck on CRTs."

Also.

IF you play in Windowed mode.
You can ONLY change the Gamma/brightness/Contrast via your GPU Options.

Lanmoragon

Not sure if this has been posted but tonight I turned off the volumetric clouds and I got a HUGE FPS boost.  I mean literally 20-30 FPS in some areas.  If I put the graphics on maximum quality with the clouds on, I would get about 8-15 FPS.  Without the clouds I can pretty much max out the game and get about 25 FPS on average.  Not sure why this would descrease performance that much unless its just the nature of how the cloud graphics work.

Smithy021

good post the game is gona rock.. i just hope ppl dont jump ship to early

Hashbrick

He's the problem you guys don't realize. You should never have to tweak out ini files, if you meet the minnium requirements. That's just bad programming on their part and proves it isn't worth your time and investment to continue this realtionship furthur. You need to get rid of it like a ban-aid "One motion, right off!!!"

Dienekes

Originally posted by HashBrick


He's the problem you guys don't realize. You should never have to tweak out ini files, if you meet the minnium requirements. That's just bad programming on their part and proves it isn't worth your time and investment to continue this realtionship furthur. You need to get rid of it like a ban-aid "One motion, right off!!!"

I'm sorry but I couldn't let this go.    Just because you meet the minimum requirements doesn't mean you can't gain higher performance from tweaking.  Computers and game graphics engines are very complex technologies.  There is no way to create a game that will run perfectly on any machine that meets the minimum specs.



Unfortunately what is in the ini is mostly available in game on the options menu.  However, many computers can gain benefits from some of the options in the ini that are set as defaults so that they do not cause problems on most systems.



So feel free to edit your ini to gain an improvement just be sure to backup the file first.  And don't listen to the above poster.  Tweaking computers has been a long and solid method. 

Somnulus

---

Originally posted by Dienekes
Originally posted by HashBrick He's the problem you guys don't realize. You should never have to tweak out ini files, if you meet the minnium requirements. That's just bad programming on their part and proves it isn't worth your time and investment to continue this realtionship furthur. You need to get rid of it like a ban-aid "One motion, right off!!!"

I'm sorry but I couldn't let this go. Just because you meet the minimum requirements doesn't mean you can't gain higher performance from tweaking. Computers and game graphics engines are very complex technologies. There is no way to create a game that will run perfectly on any machine that meets the minimum specs.

Unfortunately what is in the ini is mostly available in game on the options menu. However, many computers can gain benefits from some of the options in the ini that are set as defaults so that they do not cause problems on most systems.

So feel free to edit your ini to gain an improvement just be sure to backup the file first. And don't listen to the above poster. Tweaking computers has been a long and solid method.

---

While I do agree that tweaking INI files for game performance has been de rigeur in the past, I have to agree to a certain extent with Hashbrick. A game should work moderately well right out of the box if you meet the minimum system requirements.

Tweaking INI files, for me at least, has always been a method to get more out of both my system and the game in question, NOT a necessity. I personally do it because I like to work toward a balance of the best performance and the best quality in any game I play.

As all systems are different to a certain extent (a lower CPU but a faster video card with more robust features, onboard sound or an add-in sound card with better memory and its own processor, slightly higher RAM, etc) a certain amount of tweaking is necessary if you want to get the best possible performance out of any game.

That said, it shouldn't be something that the developer expects the customer/subscriber to do just to get fair performance, especially at this point in computer hardware and software development.

If you purchase a game and meet all of the minimum requirements, you should be able to reasonably expect the game to perform well within certain parameters right out of the box, i.e., a frame rate that isn't a slideshow, models and animations that if not breathtakingly beautiful are at least serviceable.

If it doesn't, the developer fibbed a bit on the minimum system requirements to make a few more sales or they just honestly didn't test the game very well.

And while there are certainly many more variables that affect the performance of an MMO (server performance, client or server-side lag, poorly designed or just slow databases, etc.) the client itself should still perform at a given level within the parameters set by the minimum and recommended system requirements.

I'm certain Sigil is doing everything they can possibly do to prepare their release servers for the best possible performance based on the information they are gathering now. That should go a long way in improving overall performance.

However; if the client is still suffering frame rate loss and rendering artifacts in areas of little to no activity and the customer's system is at the minimum requirements or a bit higher, then the developer should have done a little bit more testing and perhaps been a tad more honest when stating the minimum system requirements.

fwhite

Thanks,

I did use the configuration file from the outset because there was no settings button before the load screen.  These few extras will probably help a great deal as well.

m0ck

Great post! When I played around with the settings, I really couldn't tell any difference between HDR and non-HDR. I went inside a building in order to get a darker spot (this was during nighttime) and turned on HDR. Still no difference except that the NPCs in the room no longer cast a shadow. This actually led to a slight performance boost inside. I have yet to try the HDR setting in dayligt which might be a better place to tell the difference between HDR and non HDR. Could anyone replicate this finding?

matrix6000

I have a question guys

I opened the .ini file and i dont see any of the lines you say to change do i add them in under general?

 

Shinuz

Originally posted by m0ck

Great post! When I played around with the settings, I really couldn't tell any difference between HDR and non-HDR. I went inside a building in order to get a darker spot (this was during nighttime) and turned on HDR. Still no difference except that the NPCs in the room no longer cast a shadow. This actually led to a slight performance boost inside. I have yet to try the HDR setting in dayligt which might be a better place to tell the difference between HDR and non HDR. Could anyone replicate this finding?

I think HDR is not enabled yet

Poldano

Originally posted by HashBrick


He's the problem you guys don't realize. You should never have to tweak out ini files, if you meet the minnium requirements. That's just bad programming on their part and proves it isn't worth your time and investment to continue this realtionship furthur. You need to get rid of it like a ban-aid "One motion, right off!!!"

I don't think it's bad programming in general. It's more likely a conscious choice at this time to invest effort into game internals rather than into utilities for optimizing client system performance. The range of hardware capabilities is huge and getting huger. You are not going to get one single default setting that both runs well on minimum systems and does justice to the capabilities of higher-performing system.

I hesitate to use the overused excuse "it's only beta", but there is a bit of validity to it in this case. When your basic functionality and performance requirements are met, you can worry about tweaking your deployment. To put it another way, if you've got no product to ship, don't worry too much about getting it out of the box. A utility for tuning settings based on client system capabilities is a deployment feature. If it really needs to happen to help customers who are otherwise OK with updating drivers (a hideously more dangerous activity), it can happen after release.

 

Yukkione

used the tweaks found here:

I get between 17 and 27 fps ave. It's very playable. My computer is quite average.

AMD 64 3000 slightly overclocked to  2127.55 khz

NVidia Geforece 6600 w/ 256 mb

Ram 2gb dual channel

HD SATA 150 8mb cache



Tired of hearing from people with excellent rigs whining about framerate.

tombclOne

Originally posted by matrix6000


I have a question guys
I opened the .ini file and i dont see any of the lines you say to change do i add them in under general?
 

Did you open the VGClient.INI or VGClient.INT, i opened the wrong one when i first tried

tombclOne

Originally posted by Yukkione

used the tweaks found here:

I get between 17 and 27 fps ave. It's very playable. My computer is quite average.

AMD 64 3000 slightly overclocked to  2127.55 khz

NVidia Geforece 6600 w/ 256 mb

Ram 2gb dual channel

HD SATA 150 8mb cache



Tired of hearing from people with excellent rigs whining about framerate.

I dont consider it whining, i know i expect abit more from a game thats been in development for 4 years and is just over 2 weeks from release.

I still get graphic lag after trying all the tweaks and downgrading and upgrading my drivers.

My Comp:

AMD 64 3700+

2gb Ram

7900GT 512mb

HDD 250gb 16mb cache

 

P.S.

Your link doesnt work

Tivmmorpg1

I tried, I really did. I used the tweaks, I set the settings down to the point the game looked like a Rorschach blot and it was still so slow as to be unplayable. Darn pity, as its the first mmorpg that I have tried that allowed for a canine player race.

I am not going to go into the listings for my pc, it is good, I have all the stuff that allows me to play EQII with full visuals and I have no lag/latency at all in WoW; so clearly its the fact that Vanguard is still in a basic lvl of alpha (if this is an open beta and they plan on releasing this in a few weeks, then great maker protect them, it's a mess), means that perhaps in a few weeks when they've fixed the code to be playable and thus testable, more of us will be able to actually be beta-testers ;-)

I will keep an eye on the boards here; but at this point, this game reminds me of beta-testing the Matrix Online, which at the time just before release was also a lag/latency mess of broken code (my favorite in that game were the doors that opened to brick walls...).

Peace now.

-Cai-

Originally posted by swede2

Ive got about the same system as you except cpu is 3200 and am running a x850 xt . i havent done any of the tweaks except common ones every gamer does and am running the game no problems

uh well i dont know anything bout tweaked but what are "the common ones every gamer does" ?

godpuppet

Having the map open ingame, kills like 10fps.



EDIT: Minimap

shaunpat90

Hey everyone. I just started BETA Testing Vanguard Last night. When i went on their it was rly laggy, so i had to put it down to highest performence. After about 10 mins of game play i went into my quest log, and i started to scroll down my quest description and all of the wirtting went black and started to smudge over so i could not read a thing. I have been having moe of these now, like when i am changing the settings. Its rly annoying and werid. I wondering if anyone new what was going on?

Just in case u need to know, why PC specs are:

2.4Ghz AMD 64 3800

1GB RAM

G-Force 7300 512MB//Clock speed. 1.3Ghz

Plz help, i rly wanna play vanguard.

xenorex

Originally posted by shaunpat90


Hey everyone. I just started BETA Testing Vanguard Last night. When i went on their it was rly laggy, so i had to put it down to highest performence. After about 10 mins of game play i went into my quest log, and i started to scroll down my quest description and all of the wirtting went black and started to smudge over so i could not read a thing. I have been having moe of these now, like when i am changing the settings. Its rly annoying and werid. I wondering if anyone new what was going on?
Just in case u need to know, why PC specs are:
2.4Ghz AMD 64 3800
1GB RAM
G-Force 7300 512MB//Clock speed. 1.3Ghz
Plz help, i rly wanna play vanguard.

Yes, it's called beta.  This stuff happens, the game is still buggy.  I've had a few weird things just occur out of the blue.  If it doesn't fix itself in a few seconds try logging out and back in, this usually has worked for me.  Also, on the menu screen where you log out, there is a button that says "Report bug", Use it, report it and maybe the rest of us won't have to deal with the same problems in the future.  Seriously, that is the point of beta, to find that stuff and fix it.