Subtle Performance Tweaks

New thread as requested by Mr. Bougo. This is a collection of performance tweaks that minimally if at all effect the visual quality of the game.

cl_projectiles_sloppy 1 (Much like gibs sloppy, it may allow projectiles such as rockets to penetrate walls temporarily, however it's completely unnoticeable even when your looking for it.)

cl_playerdetailreduction 5 (Character model LOD. Reduces the model detail when they're further away and increases the performance a bit. At 5 the reduction isn't really noticeable at least to me, especially when everything is moving. I personally keep mine set to 7 but at a stand still I can look for and spot the quality reduction.)

cl_gibs_lifetime 2 (They look cool when flying through the air and they look like crap when sitting still. Also the current default can cause maps to become cluttered at times, so I'd say it's probably best to keep these short/simple and to the point.)

cl_maxfps 0 (Maximum fps cap, 0 is unlimited which is what it is by default. I personally set this to 125 on an 85Hz display.)

cl_minfps 65 (your game will try to hold this, even if it has to reduce a few effects to do it)

cl_minfps_fade 1337 (How fast the game lowers effects to maintain the frame rate. Higher values make it drop faster.)

cl_minfps_qualitypower 1337 (Power that minfps_fade uses, higher will make the quality drop sharper.)


In addition to those, you may want to disable decals on models like I do. For whatever reason I get MASSIVE stutter when it's enabled and you'll want to make sure vsync is disabled. Same goes for anti aliasing, doesn't do much of anything and kills the frame rate. Offset mapping isn't nearly as noticeable in this game (unless you enable relief mapping... kill your GPU lol) as it was Nexuiz like lightmaps are and HDR has always been a performance killer as well. You should probably keep those disabled. Geometry detail for me isn't noticeable past normal, but has impacts on the frame rate when set higher. Anisotropy for me also isn't noticeable past 4, but can kill your frame rate quick if you crank it. Most particles for me aren't noticeable past 1000 either.

Another thing I've done is use the motion blur to hide choppy frames, however the slider in the GUI doesn't come close to where I need it and my game looks fuzzy no matter where I set it to. Here's the values I use, looks good at most frame rates and isn't excessive:


r_motionblur 0.007000 (DRASTICALLY lower than what the slider allows.)

r_motionblur_maxblur 2 (This is actually more than double the default, though it only goes this high when it should.)

I also have blur and sharpen post processing enabled with this.

Here are 2 not so subtle performance tweaks if your desperate try r_sky 0 and r_fullbright 1

sv_allow_fullbright 1 has to be enabled server side for r_fullbright 1 to have a positive effect FPS wise, if it is not allowed by the server you will just see a weird night vision effect that won't help your FPS. Even when its allowed it will depend on your GPU if you get a noticeable FPS boost.

How about implementing these tweaks in the menu? I imagine something like this: A submenu in the "effects" section that reads "performance tweaks". In the submenu the player's would find different presets, e.g. "Lee_Stricklin's Tweaks" or "Liquid Sin's" Tweaks". What do you think?

Sarge999, that is a good idea. :-)

Sounds like a neat idea actually. Add effects settings options for "performance (subtle)", "performance (competition)", and "OMG" to go along with the existing presets. Competition would remove almost everything that would be a hindrance to the frame rate, ditch the blood/gore, incorporate the subtle tweaks in this thread but ditch the motion blur completely, do some picmipping, etc. subtle would just do the stuff I listed, and well OMG would simply exec an updated omg.cfg file.

Do the numbers HAVE to be at 1337 or can they be anything?

Well, they could really be anything. Just remember, the higher you set them, the faster or sharper the quality drop. 1337 was mostly put there for lolz.