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  • Tips for improving framerate


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    I have been in your position of having terrible FPS of 10-20 constantly or perhaps worse and especially in warzones the FPS drops can become unbearable to the point where you just give up on PvP altogether.

    Fear not, this guide will "help" to increase your overall performance of running SWTOR and also increase your overall FPS for both PvE content and for Warzones.

    This guide will provide the biggest benefit for those running Windows 7 64-bit processors with Nvidia cards and 6gb ram or more as this is what my laptop is spec'd to but you will still notice a massive difference by using this guide for other systems and configurations. This guide will include ways to optimize through graphic settings, tricks, tips and general advice to improve the running of your laptop and gaming and specifically for SWTOR.

    My own tweaks and tips are provided in this guide but also some from other members of the community who i will reference if used.


    1. VSync + Triple Buffering

    Firstly, the biggest increase you can get is to Enable VSync and Tripe Buffering at the same time which can be found in your graphic settings. If for some reason you don't have these options or not able to get into your graphic settings then please refer to this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DM1f87YOPA , the video is not mine but it shows you how to set-up D3D Overrider which basicly forces your game (SWTOR) to run with VSync and Triple Buffering enabled. Both of these must be enabled together as they work in conjunction with one another.

    I would still advise you to check that video out and download D3D Overrider anyway as it's a quick and sure fire way to enabling vSync+Triple Buffering


    2. Optimize graphics performance

    For NVIDIA users, open up your graphic Control Panel > 3D Settings > Adjust Image Settings > Use my preference emphasising > Move the slider fully on Performance.

    Next go to "Manage 3D Settings" > Global Settings > Under preferred graphics processor select your dedicated graphics card, if you only have an integrated one that's fine , but if you have a dedicated one select that.

    These are some important features you need to change that will help alleviate the strain from your GPU.

    Maximum pre-rendered frames > Set it to 4 or the maximum number you can get.
    Multi-display/mixed GPU acceleration > Single display performance mode
    Power management mode > Prefer maximum performance
    Texture filtering - quality > High performance
    Also double check that VSync and Tripe Buffering are both ENABLED

    Set PhysX Configuration > Again make sure you select your dedicated graphics card (nVidia cards only)

    Hit APPLY

    for AMD products you can also try these settings as allot of options are similar.


    Maximum pre-rendered frames > Set it to 4 or the maximum number you can get.

    If like me you have a good processor but a bad graphics card which is usually the case for most laptop users then this setting provides a massive difference by letting your CPU pre-render frames to prepare for the GPU, this increases the load on the CPU but reduces the load on the GPU which results in far smoother gameplay. The only downside is you get mouse/keyboard input lagg, but i have mine set to 4 and you cannot even notice it. The increase in smoother FPS and gameplay far outweighs and very slight input lagg.
    If however the input lagg becomes undesirable you can bring this number of pre-rendered frames down to suit your needs but then also be aware if you bring this number down you will get more fps dips if on a low end GPU.


    3. DirectX 9 Files
    For Windows 7 owners especially download these DirectX files found here
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...n.aspx?id=8109
    Extract the contents into a new folder on the desktop and then run the setup.exe within that folder once it's fully extracted.
    Locate your SWTOR folder usually in Program Files and change both the launcher.exe and the swtor.exe compatibility to run with Windows XP (SP3) also tick Run as administrator even if you already are.


    4. Gamebooster
    You can download Gamebooster from here http://www.techspot.com/downloads/48...e-booster.html
    It's a great program to close down any unnessacary background applications you don't need for gaming, you can switch to gaming mode and normal anytime and if you spend a few minutes to "Configure" the things you don't need by ticking them you can free up some ram for this next process.


    5. SWTOR Unleashed
    You may have heard about this great program which basicly dedicates your idle free ram to be additionally used to run SWTOR to increase the performance and thus general FPS. Don't worry it's not a hack or a cheat all it does is basicly mounts a virtual drive of ram for SWTOR which you can remove and enable at any time you want.
    If you have at least 6GB of Ram you will notice a good improvement , with 4GB ram you will still notice a minor improvement.

    Forum post : http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=529567

    The main problems people get are in combat situations such as Warzones so i will dedicate this section specifically for optimizing Warzones.

    Open up SWTOR Unleashed > Settings
    Tick Add DiskCacheArena
    Tick LocalApp

    In Assets tick the following
    swtormain_anim_humanoid_bfab_1
    swtormain_anim_humanoid_bfns_1
    swtormain_anim_humanoid_bmaf_1
    swtormain_anim_humanoid_bmns_1
    swtormain_art_fx_1

    These assets work in relation to character animations to optimize them which is especially important for Warzones.

    These settings overall will use 2894mb of ram and if you have the extra resources you can also
    Tick Add an extra 100mb to the Ram Drive size.

    After you've done go to the bottom of the window and hit "Save, Apply and Close" and click on "SWTOR Unleashed", give it a few seconds as it's just preparing the settings you just made. The launcher will open and proceed normally.


    6. Adjust Game client Settings
    This is a great tip from fellow SWTOR member OwenBrooks

    "Quote: Originally Posted by OwenBrooks
    Vista/7: Click Start, type "%localappdata%\swtor\swtor\settings" (without quotes).
    open the client_settings file

    Insert/edit one of the options below , recommend 0.3371195 first up
    FarClipScale = 0.1371195
    FarClipScale = 0.3371195
    FarClipScale = 0.5371195

    Don't FORGET to SAVE your "client_settings.ini" after u add "FarClipScale".

    After you've done that, close your "client_settings.ini" and right click on it - > Properties. On the bottom of Properties window you'll see a check box "Read-only". Check it! Now you should be ready to play!

    Just remember to remove read only if you want to save any further settings"


    7. Lastly and most obvious is to simply just lower your graphic settings when you go into Warzones, this will help allot with your FPS

     

    http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=619492

    Edited by Ztuke
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    • 3 months later...

    There was but I do not know if it is being updated still.

     

    I went and checked up and the program that I knew of, which was coded and supplied by MSI, is still available but many entheusiasts only use it if in dire need. It has a nasty habit of making unauthorised changes to graphic card clock settings, often gross changes which is a very BAD thing.

     

    You could try looking for ATI Tray Tools of which I know nothing about but much of what I read suggest that ATI chips are more secure in user tampering compared to Nvidia.

    Edited by Ztuke
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    • 10 months later...

    I know this hasn't been commented on in a while, but what exactly does this do and why does it help?

     

    Insert/edit one of the options below , recommend 0.3371195 first up
    FarClipScale = 0.1371195
    FarClipScale = 0.3371195
    FarClipScale = 0.5371195

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    It changes the draw distance or so BW state, what I believe it actually does, is alter the distance at which mist is placed to obscure far distant objects.

     

    The intent is to reduce the load on the graphics card and increase frame rate.

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    Okay, I figured it was something like that. There's a similar setting in the Skyrim.ini file that I have modified before, but the numbers were quite different so I wanted to make sure.

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