I know a lot of people run on crappy hardware and my PC is especially crap. If you don't care about how your game looks and only care about squeesing as many frames as possible out of your crap rig, you might be interested in this. Heres the config lines I use to make my 2.2 run well but look shit. Paste this into your autoexec.cfg in your Empires/cfg folder: Code: // // Registry // cl_lagcompensation "1" cl_updaterate "101" cl_cmdrate "101" cl_interp "0.01" cl_smooth "0" cl_smoothtime "0" // // Graphics // cl_drawmonitors "0" cl_detail_avoid_force "0" cl_detail_avoid_radius "0" cl_detail_avoid_recover_speed "0" cl_detail_max_sway "0" cl_detaildist "0" cl_detailfade "0" cl_ejectbrass "0" // mat_showlowresimage "0" mat_bumpmap "0" mat_filtertextures "0" mat_fastnobump "1" mat_trilinear "0" mat_forceaniso "0" mat_antialias "0" mat_vsync "0" mat_picmip "2" mat_clipz "1" mat_compressedtextures "1" mat_reducefillrate "1" mat_framebuffercopyoverlaysize "0" mat_bufferprimitives "1" mat_envmapsize "0" mat_envmaptgasize "0" mat_forcehardwaresync "0" mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "0" mat_debug_postprocessing_effects "0" mat_debug_process_halfscreen "0" mat_debugdepthmode "0" // r_phong "0" r_flex "0" r_3dsky "0" r_occlusion "0" r_fastzreject "0" r_updaterefracttexture "0" r_renderoverlayfragment "0" r_updaterefracttexture "0" r_maxnewsamples "0" r_maxsampledist "0" r_norefresh "0" r_minnewsamples "0" r_TransitionSensitivity "0" // gl_clear "0" flex_smooth "0" lod_enable "1" lod_TransitionDist "1" // // Water // mat_wateroverlaysize "0" r_waterforceexpensive "0" r_waterforcereflectentities "0" r_WaterDrawReflection "0" r_WaterDrawRefraction "0" r_cheapwaterend "1" r_cheapwaterstart "1" r_forcewaterleaf "0" cl_show_splashes "0" // // Light // mat_debug_autoexposure "0" mat_debug_bloom "0" mat_specular "0" mat_fastspecular "1" mat_hdr_level "0" mat_hdr_enabled "0" mat_disable_lightwarp "1" mat_disable_ps_patch "1" mat_disable_fancy_blending "1" mat_autoexposure_max "0" mat_autoexposure_min "0" mat_filterlightmaps "0" mat_disable_bloom "1" mat_bloomscale "0" mat_force_bloom "0" mat_parallaxmap "0" r_dynamic "0" r_lightaverage "0" r_worldlightmin "0" r_worldlights "0" r_maxdlights "0" r_PhysPropStaticLighting "0" r_dopixelvisibility "0" r_ambientboost "0" r_ambientfactor "1" // // Models // g_ragdoll_fadespeed "0" g_ragdoll_important_maxcount "0" g_ragdoll_lvfadespeed "0" g_ragdoll_maxcount "0" r_eyes "0" r_eyemove "0" r_eyegloss "0" r_eyesize "0" r_eyeshift_z "0" r_eyeshift_y "0" r_eyeshift_x "0" r_teeth "0" r_lod "-1" r_rootlod "2" cl_ragdoll_collide "0" // // Shadows // r_shadowmaxrendered "0" r_shadows "0" r_shadowrendertotexture "0" mat_shadowstate "0" // // Props // props_break_max_pieces "0" props_break_max_pieces_perframe "0" cl_phys_props_max "0" func_break_max_pieces "0" // // Sound // snd_mixahead "0.1" dsp_enhance_stereo "0" dsp_slow_cpu "1" // // Ropes // rope_smooth_maxalphawidth "0" rope_smooth_maxalpha "0" rope_smooth_enlarge "0" rope_wind_dist "0.01" rope_subdiv "0" rope_smooth_minwidth "0" rope_smooth_minalpha "0" rope_averagelight "0" rope_smooth "0" rope_shake "0" rope_collide "0" r_ropetranslucent "0" // // Decals // r_maxmodeldecal "0" r_drawmodeldecals "0" r_decals "0" r_decal_cullsize "9999" r_drawflecks "0" r_drawbatchdecals "0" mp_decals "0" // // Violence // violence_ablood "0" violence_agibs "0" violence_hblood "0" violence_hgibs "0" // // Preload // cl_forcepreload 1 sv_forcepreload 1 // // Binds // bind "kp_5" "cl_detaildist 0" // // Misc // fps_max "101" con_enable "1" jpeg_quality "100" cl_downloadfilter "none" cl_hidehints "1" cl_hideactionindicators "1" ///// ///// Clear ///// ///// Also, this is the commands I use in my Launch options: Code: -dxlevel 70 +mat_bumpmap "0" +mat_specular "0" heapsize 262144 -novid +sv_forcepreload "1" -w 800 This is what it looks like: With these settings there is a small issue where armour will not display properly (if u are inside a vehcile your armor display sometimes disappears for a second, when ur repairing a vehicle somtimes the armor and hull health appears to be zero for a second). This is either an issue with runing dx 70, or running 800x600 resolution, I cant remember. Anyway these issues wont be fixed becuase they are sub-recommended settings, so if it bothers you you can turn settings back to fix it. Note this config is based on one I used for insurgency for the same purpose, so there may be a few commands that don't apply specifically to Empires and arent needed. If anyone knows of any other commands that I have missed to reduce detail or imporve performance in any way please let me know, i want to get the best performance possible and don't care how crap the game looks as long as it is playable! Also if I have any typos or bad syntax or anything please let me know. I hope people find this useful. Also, check out Empty's cheap particle pack - ScardyBob
*** Updated OP with a pic of what the settings look like in-game. @ Sonata: Some of the settings you mention there only work in OB so won't be represented in those pics, which you took in pre-2.2 empires from the looks. Also I think you are running in higher DX level (I run in bare minimum, so DX 7 :D )
i tried applying these, but I'm getting problems with my menus. for example, the skills menu, change weapons menu are all invisible also the drop down menus are all invisible. I can still select things if I randomly click, although that's a major annoyance. anyway to change back to default settings?
How far can you stretch it without significantly lowering graphics quality? Just a few modest tinkerings here and there, like on weapons effects.
You shouldn't need mat_fastnobump. It's "fast" because it lets you toggle it on and off quickly, for testing purposes. There is not, at least there shouldn't be, a performance difference, since the bump maps are still being calculated for. I also don't see mat_specular on there. By the way, I love the impossibly low-resolution textures. Makes it seem so 8-bit. =P
Those screenshots are a cry for help! It's like seeing children from Africa on the television. We must not longer look the other way, there are people out there that need our help! Let's pool some money and buy BumGravy a new computer!
lol thanks mcgyver. I turned off specular and bumpmap in the launch option command I also mentioned in the first post, I guess the fastnobump command is unneccesary. Also even if you don't want to have the game run on settings quite this low, it is a good place to start and then you can turn on things that you link look really bad, or raise the DX level accordingly.
Meh I saw this post and was happy, I thought I could maybe play on my craptastic laptop while on downtime at work as I dont know much about tweaking settings but I cant access the menus, cant click on them at all. This is useless to me =/ Thanks anyways.
It looks like crap but the game is still fun. I still get like 5-10 FPS when things get really busy but I can still top scoreboards and win games.
I tried every resolution possible, The menus show up but clicking on them does nothing. For isntance in the class menu I can see the box where I can pick my first rank skill, but when I click on it nothing sppears to happen although the skill will sometimes change to speed. In whatever the resolution was by default from your OP, I could not even get past the server's welcome message. I COULD highlight the button to do so (which was in the bottom right as the menu takes up the entire screen in your reso) but clicking it did nothing. I can take pics if you really need, I just wiped things to have a normal game tho, laggy as it may be. If you need I can reload your stuff and post it later.
Thats strange, I never had any problems with menus since using this config. Wait actually in testing I remember there is an issue, If u change your resolution in options and then try to go on to a server, it messes up the OK button on the join message window, but if you retry in console and rejoin the server it works fine again. Like I said this only happened when changing resolution in the menus before joining a server. Could that be your problem?
omg yes... it hurts my eyes to look at that. I couldn't bring myself to play that way more then 10 seconds. As for exploit... it very well cold be, using the ultra low crap you can clearly make people out in the distance much easier. If its not blurry or one color then, its an enemy so shoot it!