Okay, these are a few suggestions for those of us with "non-optimal" systems. PLEASE DON'T rant about how COX is messed up in this way or that way. PLEASE DO post your ideas on maximizing performance.
On another note, BillZBubba's guide on performance is useful for just about everybody -- check it out first. Basically I am assuming you have updated your driver and turned off backgroud programs and whatnot; I am just talking about COX settings here.
My system, if you care to know, has an Athlon XP 2000+, an ATI Radeon 9200SE (128MB), and 512MB of RAM. Maybe sometime I will get more RAM, maybe not. Now I KNOW that many of you play on systems that are even less sophisticated than mine, but I have a computer that meets the minimum specs of the game.
What do I consider playable? Well, since I have a pretty weak system I have pretty low expectations. Even FPS of 15 is OK if it STAYS at 15. The worst thing is when it drops below 5 FPS regularly. My settings enable me to have only sporadic occasions of FPS bottoming out.
Obvious Performance Hogs
World Detail Slider. Okay, no surprise here. One of the biggest, easiest things to change and test. In COH I can put it at 70 or 80% -- in COV it stays at 50%.
FSAA: Full Screen Anti-Aliasing. This one was a heartbreak to give up on, because it helps tons with the jaggies. However, I can't have it on in Grandville -- no way. If I am going to be playing in COH for a while, though, I will put this to 2x (through my driver -- not through the game).
World Texure Quality. Another big one. I put this one on Medium.
Shader Quality. Another one that hurt me to turn down. I like the new surfaces but I can't hack it. Mine is on Low (No World Bumpmaps).
Lesser Performance Hits
One setting that I was surprised about was Max Particle Count. I found that turning this waaaaay down to like 300 or 600 (yes, I didn't skip a zero there) had a pretty noticable effect on framerate. Zoomed in on my Warshade, with his stealth power activated, even having it at 1000 noticably slowed down my FPS.
Character Texure Quality. I have this on Medium most of the time, but again I can put it on High while playing COH.
Shadows. Yeah, turning this one off will give a bump to FPS, with only a minimal visual degradation.
Vertical Synch. Since my framerate is generally pretty low, disabling this didn't produce much "tearing" of the image. Keep in mind that if you have a LCD screen you may not be able to disable this one.
Questionable Performance Hits
Screen Resolution. This one is weird -- it doesn't have nearly the performance hit that I expected. When I turned off FSAA I increased the resolution of my screen. I am trying out 1280x1024 right now, even on my 17 inch CRT monitor. Remember that you can increase the size of the chat font if it is too hard to read.
Particle Physics. This one was hard to test. I have had it on Low and seem to do alright. Even on Low I like the extra "flavor" that it gives to the eye.
Geometry Buffers. Impossible for me to test. Grandville locks up my system with this enabled (common problem for ATI 9200 and 9250 cards).
Character Detail Slider. Hard to notice much of a difference. I left mine on 100%.
AF (Anistropic Filtering). Tough one... I've had it off, on 2x, on 4x -- without FSAA it seems to exaggerate the jaggies sometimes. No recommendation, stand on a highway and look at the lines on the road while you change it.
Sound. I have heard that turning this off helps a bit, especially in a big team with tons of powers going off. I have been trying it turned off. Not that much to hear, anyway.
Water Effects, Bloom, Depth of Field. Not supported with the card I have.
Well, there you have it. I know some of you are wincing as you read this (poor BillZBubba). Does it surprise you that my favorite elements of the game are badges, story arcs, and souveniers? In other words, non-visual elements? Anyway, try out a few of these and see how far it takes you. Good luck!
Okay, these are a few suggestions for those of us with "non-optimal" systems. PLEASE DON'T rant about how COX is messed up in this way or that way. PLEASE DO post your ideas on maximizing performance.
On another note, BillZBubba's guide on performance is useful for just about everybody -- check it out first. Basically I am assuming you have updated your driver and turned off backgroud programs and whatnot; I am just talking about COX settings here.
My system, if you care to know, has an Athlon XP 2000+, an ATI Radeon 9200SE (128MB), and 512MB of RAM. Maybe sometime I will get more RAM, maybe not. Now I KNOW that many of you play on systems that are even less sophisticated than mine, but I have a computer that meets the minimum specs of the game.
What do I consider playable? Well, since I have a pretty weak system I have pretty low expectations. Even FPS of 15 is OK if it STAYS at 15. The worst thing is when it drops below 5 FPS regularly. My settings enable me to have only sporadic occasions of FPS bottoming out.
Obvious Performance Hogs
World Detail Slider. Okay, no surprise here. One of the biggest, easiest things to change and test. In COH I can put it at 70 or 80% -- in COV it stays at 50%.
FSAA: Full Screen Anti-Aliasing. This one was a heartbreak to give up on, because it helps tons with the jaggies. However, I can't have it on in Grandville -- no way. If I am going to be playing in COH for a while, though, I will put this to 2x (through my driver -- not through the game).
World Texure Quality. Another big one. I put this one on Medium.
Shader Quality. Another one that hurt me to turn down. I like the new surfaces but I can't hack it. Mine is on Low (No World Bumpmaps).
Lesser Performance Hits
One setting that I was surprised about was Max Particle Count. I found that turning this waaaaay down to like 300 or 600 (yes, I didn't skip a zero there) had a pretty noticable effect on framerate. Zoomed in on my Warshade, with his stealth power activated, even having it at 1000 noticably slowed down my FPS.
Character Texure Quality. I have this on Medium most of the time, but again I can put it on High while playing COH.
Shadows. Yeah, turning this one off will give a bump to FPS, with only a minimal visual degradation.
Vertical Synch. Since my framerate is generally pretty low, disabling this didn't produce much "tearing" of the image. Keep in mind that if you have a LCD screen you may not be able to disable this one.
Questionable Performance Hits
Screen Resolution. This one is weird -- it doesn't have nearly the performance hit that I expected. When I turned off FSAA I increased the resolution of my screen. I am trying out 1280x1024 right now, even on my 17 inch CRT monitor. Remember that you can increase the size of the chat font if it is too hard to read.
Particle Physics. This one was hard to test. I have had it on Low and seem to do alright. Even on Low I like the extra "flavor" that it gives to the eye.
Geometry Buffers. Impossible for me to test. Grandville locks up my system with this enabled (common problem for ATI 9200 and 9250 cards).
Character Detail Slider. Hard to notice much of a difference. I left mine on 100%.
AF (Anistropic Filtering). Tough one... I've had it off, on 2x, on 4x -- without FSAA it seems to exaggerate the jaggies sometimes. No recommendation, stand on a highway and look at the lines on the road while you change it.
Sound. I have heard that turning this off helps a bit, especially in a big team with tons of powers going off. I have been trying it turned off. Not that much to hear, anyway.
Water Effects, Bloom, Depth of Field. Not supported with the card I have.
Well, there you have it. I know some of you are wincing as you read this (poor BillZBubba). Does it surprise you that my favorite elements of the game are badges, story arcs, and souveniers? In other words, non-visual elements? Anyway, try out a few of these and see how far it takes you. Good luck!