Macro(s) for huge fps jump in WoW

[JonBoy2001]

I apologize for the bump, but this has helped me gain 5-10fps depending on what's going on. I'd figure I'd also let everyone know about spelleffectlevel. Set it to 1 and AOE effects will be less detailed, and in raids such as ony25 when phase 2 starts, helps quite a bit with framerate. Instead of 2, I got around 8-10.

/console spelleffectlevel 1

The default is 9 or so.

[Taurous]

Meh, did nothing for me.

[Mythricia]

Skimming through a few pages of this thread I ended up seeing a few things that people should be aware of..

One thing is Vsync..

Don't, turn off Vsync! It does -nothing- for your performance, really; Your monitor has a limited refresh rate, I'm sure you've seen the settings everywhere (59hz, 60hz, 75hz, and so on). Actually it's slightly more complicated than that, as CRT & LCD monitors differ in how they display their images, but in laymans terms you're still talking about the screens "FPS".

Imagine your screen has a cap of 60Hz. Your game is running at ~30 FPS - if you increase the games FPS, it'll be visible on the display - however if you're at or above 60FPS, you -can not- visually see the increase in FPS. Because no matter how fast your game is, the screen will never go beyond it's set refresh rate / fps (Whatever it may be).

A lot of people think they're awesome when they uncheck the Vsync option and get mad FPS in games, but they probably end up noticing that the screen now tears (Image seems torn in half when there's movement/turning), without knowing that disabling vsync is the cause. I could run WoW at ~300 FPS if I wanted - but it looks terrible compared to 60FPS (Which matches my LCD) whenever there is any kind of movement in the picture.

TL;DR - Don't disable Vsynch to "get more FPS" - you're not accomplishing anything. Unless the game's FPS was so low that input felt sluggish, which won't happen, since that means you're playing on a monitor capped at ~25 FPS/hz or so, which, well. No!


Also I saw this;

The human eye can only detect 29.7 FPS, so anything above this value is perfectly fine.

This is downright false. The nervepaths from the eye to the brain does not work in packets of information or limited by some sort of electronic clock - it's pretty much a continous stream of information. Feel free to read on the topic > here.

I know for a fact I can see/sense a difference between 30 FPS (Feels/looks sluggish to me, I can't play games at that FPS, gives me major headaches), 40 FPS, 50 FPS and 60FPS, or anything inbetween - so, the eye easily sees more than "29.7" FPS


/geek mode off

[TehFurbolg]

Which line controls the viewing distance? I'd like to change that one back, but I don't know which one to change.

GFX1
Code:

/console ffx 0
/console hwPCF 1
/console shadowlod 0
/console timingmethod 1
/console showshadow 0
/console showfootprints 0
/console showfootprintparticles 0

GFX2
Code:

/console overridefarclip 0
/console farclip 177
/console horizonfarclip 1305
/console detailDoodadAlpha 0
/console groundeffectdensity 16

GFX3
Code:

/console groundeffectdist 1
/console smallcull 1
/console skycloudlod 1
/console characterAmbient 1
/console extshadowquality 0
/console environmentDetail 0.5

edit: There aren't that many lines, which could do that actually... But which of these is it?

GFX1
Code:
/console timingmethod 1

GFX2
Code:
/console overridefarclip 0
/console farclip 177
/console horizonfarclip 1305

[kouby]

I love you.

[Lumb]

vsync stuff

I've found Vsync to be notorious for causing noticeable input lag, even if the FPS is capped to my monitors refresh rate. Other than that, good advice!

(I know this post is old)

[gearscorethis]

It's probably been said, but opening the in-game video settings will reset many of these settings, requiring you to reapply the macro. There's add-ons out there that apply these settings automatically, search around on wowinterface.

[crack111]

I have vsync forced to off, and everything is ok. If i turn it on, im losing about 10fps.

[Gloves]

Don't know if it's been mentioned in here before, but the program GameBooster really frees up a lot of memory if you have a few processes running. Gives me an extra 5 - 10 fps.

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

[ComputerNerd]

VSync is synchronising the framerate to what your monitor is actually capable of outputting.
Usually 60fps, so while having a figure higher than that may look good, your monitor isn't actually showing it.

[TikiThorsen]

Soz for necro'ing this thread but;
I was wondering if someone can update this post for Cataclysm. Thanks in advance.