assaultcube-/docs/performanceguide.xml

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  <head>
    <title>Performance guide</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>
      Performance guide
    </h1>
	<p>
	  Getting the best performance possible from your hardware while running AssaultCube, without sacrificing 
	  too much quality is important to most players. A lot of newer hardware will run AssaultCube very well, 
	  with no changes neccesary, but some older hardware may need some optimisation to get a good result.
	  This guide details some ways on how to do this.<br />
	  <b>Note:</b> Although many settings can be changed in-game, for ease of explanation and understanding, this guide only 
	  details the way to change the settings through configuration files <b>outside</b> of the game. 
	  <ul>
	    <li>
	      <a href="#drivers">Graphics drivers</a>
	    </li>
	    <li>
	      <a href="#gengraphics">General graphics</a>
	    </li>
		<li>
		  <a href="#acgraphics">AssaultCube graphics</a>
		</li>
	    <li>
	      <a href="#sounds">Sounds</a>
	    </li>
		<li>
		  <a href="#mouse">Mouse</a>
		</li>
	    <li>
	      <a href="#general">General</a>
	    </li>
	  </ul>
	</p>
	
	<h2 id="drivers">
	  Graphics drivers
	</h2>
	<p>
	  The best way to get the best performance out of any 3D application is using the latest and correct drivers, with the 
	  correct settings. AssaultCube is no exception to this rule. If you have any problems running AssaultCube, always check 
	  your drivers first!
	</p>
	<p>
	  To download and install the latest and correct drivers, follow these steps...
	  <ol>
	    <li>
		  Find out the correct name/make/model of your video card.
		</li>
		<li>
		  Go to the driver/support section of your video card manufacturers website (e.g. 
		  <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/page/drivers.html">nVidia</a>, <a href="http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html">ATi</a>,
		  <a href="http://downloadcenter.intel.com/">Intel</a>, 
		  <a href="http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/support/drivers/">Matrox</a>, etc) 
		  and download the latest and correct drivers for your model and operating system.
		</li>
		<li>
		   Install and configure the drivers as per the instructions given to you by the manufacturer (make sure previous
		   versions of the drivers are uninstalled).
		</li>
	  </ol>
	</p>
	<p>
	  Some operating systems and graphics cards have other special drivers and methods that you can explore for your drivers.  
	  Microsoft Windows users may benefit from <a href="http://www.omegadrivers.net/omega_drivers.php">Omega Drivers</a>, 
	  some nVidia Microsoft Windows users can try using <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html">nTune</a>. 
	  Linux users might like <a href="http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html">EnvyNG</a>.
	</p>
	<p>
	  <b>Warning:</b> If you're using a laptop, you may need to consult your laptop manufacturer for drivers, as laptop graphic
	  drivers are heavily customised.
	</p>
	<p>
	  <b>Note:</b> None of these links or drivers are endorsed, maintained or supported by the AssaultCube team.<br /> 
	  Use these links at your own risk. We highly advise it to be best searching the forums and support pages for 
	  your operating system supplier or graphics card manufacturer if you are having problems with 3D graphics rendering.
	</p>
	
	
    <h2 id="gengraphics">
      General graphics
    </h2>
	<p>
	  <b>Note:</b> Where applicable, if there is a way to change the setting through the AssaultCube client, it has been
	  mentioned (note: in most situations, the drivers need to be enabled in such a way for AssaultCube to be able to change
	  these settings) but because graphics settings differ from card to card, there may be options mentioned which are
	  unavailable on your card and many options can't be changed through AssaultCube. 
	  For these situations, please consult your graphics card manufacturer to find out how to do this. There are also many
	  options for video card performance and eye-candy which are not covered due to the vast amount of them, in that case
	  we suggest you check with your video card manufacturer for what else you can do to improve performance as this
	  guide only covers some of the more common ones.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Resolution
	</h3>
	<p>
	  Your resolution in-game determines the amount of detail on the screen. The higher the resolution you use, the more the
	  graphics card has to work.  If you are having problems with low frame rates, lag or stuttering, then lowering the 
	  resolution will yield the biggest result.<br />
	  Note: LCD panels typically work best at their native resolution rather than a bigger/smaller one.
	</p>
	<p>
	  To change the resolution of your screen, add these parameters to your AssaultCube launcher:<br />
	  <span class="code">-h<b>X</b></span> - Replace <b>X</b> with your new resolution height.<br />
	  <span class="code">-w<b>Y</b></span> - Replace <b>Y</b> with your new resolution width.
	</p>
	<p>
	  (Instructions on editing the AssaultCube launcher can be found <a href="commandline.xml#launcher">here</a>).
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Refresh rate
	</h3>
	<p>
	  Making your refresh rate happen at a higher level can generally help increase FPS. Ways to do this differ depending on 
	  your system and setup (consult online documentation for your operating system to find out how).
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Colour quality
	</h3>
	<p>
	  In most systems, you are able to change the colour quality which may boost your performance. Normally you have a 
	  range of 16/24/32 bit. The ways to change this differ depending on OS, consult your OS manual.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  V-sync (AKA: Vertical refresh)
	</h3>
	<p>
	  Vsync is a method of synchronising the frame rate of games to the refresh rate of the monitor. Turning on Vsync prevents a 
	  graphic phenomenon called "tearing" from occurring.  Screen tearing can occur when the frame rate being output from the
	  video card is higher than the refresh rate of the monitor and can make the screen look torn into sections and moved 
	  with the high speed motion of the game. Turning this off can help increase performance for many players, but if you 
	  experience tearing, it may be best to turn it back on.
	</p>
	<p>
	  To turn Vsync off, add this line to <a href="../confg/autoexec.cfg">autoexec.cfg</a>.<br />
	  <span class="code">vsync 0</span><br />
	  (<span class="code">vsync 1</span> enables vsync).
	</p>
	<h4>
	  Triple buffering
	</h4>
	<p>
	  If you use V-sync, enabling this can help improve overall performance in OpenGL games such as AssaultCube. However, if you 
	  don't have enough video RAM, this may cause lag and problems.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Anti-aliasing
	</h3>
	<p>
	  Anti-aliasing is a process that attempts to smooth out the jaggedness of diagonal lines in a 3D game environment.
	  To turn anti-aliasing off, add this line to <a href="../confg/autoexec.cfg">autoexec.cfg</a>.<br />
	  <span class="code">fsaa 0</span><br />
	  (<span class="code">fsaa 1</span> enables anti-aliasing).
	</p>
	<h4>
	  Temporal antialiasing
	</h4>
	<p>
	  Some graphics cards support "temporal antialiasing". It's basically a driver trick that gives the effect of a 
	  antialiasing, but with less work needed by the graphics card. Try it out, as it is a faster method of 
	  antialiasing, but if you don't like it, or it's still too slow, don't use it.
	</p>
	<h4>
	  Adaptive Anti-Aliasing
	</h4>
	<p>
	  This is an antialiasing technique which improves the appearance of transparent textures. The performance impact
	  should not be significant over normal antialiasing, but if you don't like it, or it's still too slow, don't use it.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Catalyst A.I (ATi only)
	</h3>
	<p>
	  If this is enabled, it allows ATi graphics cards to make graphics "shortcuts", normally with no noticable reduction
	  in image quality. It is best to enable this to give yourself better performance.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Mipmap Detail Level
	</h3>
	<p>
	  This helps determine how good textures generally look, when combined with AssaultCube's own texture settings.
	  Changing this can help gain/loose some performance by making the textures appear duller or sharper.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Anisotropic filtering
	</h3>
	<p>
	  Anisotropic Filtering helps make textures (the 2D images covering the surface of all 3D objects) at a distance 
	  appear clearer. Setting this lower may help improve performance.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Useful links
	</h3>
	<ul>
	  <li>
	    <a href="http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html">Tweakguide: Gamer's Graphics and 
	    Display Settings Guide</a> - This link is extremely useful if you know nothing about optimising your hardware.
	  </li>
	  <li>
	    <a href="http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html">Tweakguide: Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide</a> - Information about
		optimising nVidia graphics cards.
	  </li>
	  <li>
	    <a href="http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html">Tweakguide: ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide</a> - Information about
		optimising ATi graphics cards.
	  </li> 
	</ul>
	
	
	<!--
	agp speed
	colour quality 8/16/24/32 bit
	
	agp apreture

Step 10
Some users have reported that adjusting the AGP aperture of the video card (if available) has fixed this problem. A general rule of thumb is to set the aperture to twice (x2) the amount of built in video memory on the video card. Therefore, if you have a 64MB video card, set the AGP aperture to 128. You can adjust this amount further as needed.
Note: This is a more advanced step. Blizzard Entertainment is unable to provide instructions for setting the AGP aperture of a video card. Please contact your computer or video card manufacturer for assistance.



Also mention gamma.


mention WQD/FPS/hidestats 0
light error



 OpenAL

There are known problems for some people with using OpenAL. These people should try OpenAL-Soft (see below).
OpenAL-Soft

OpenAL may seem buggy for some users, especially those on unix based platforms. You can download OpenAL-Soft here. However, you will need to compile it from source.

There are some pre-compiled binaries, including .deb packages for ubuntu/debian that can be found here if you need it. 






Performance Tip: This step firstly highlights the effect of adding more RAM to your system: it won't increase FPS as such, but it will smooth out your FPS as the more data can be held in RAM, the less often your CPU has to wait for it to load from your hard drive. Note that by removing unnecessary background programs and processes from RAM you can also help increase the possibility of more information being loaded into RAM (See the Startup Programs and Services chapters of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion). This step also highlights the importance of the Hard Drive, something which is often ignored: the higher your graphics settings and the faster your system, the greater the demand this places on your hard drive to supply new information to keep up this performance. The slower your hard drive - especially when combined with less RAM - the more loading pauses you will get as the CPU waits for data to load from the hard drive into RAM before it can use it. These pauses are commonly referred to as 'stuttering'. Once again defragmenting your hard drive can help reduce stuttering during games, but you may have to consider upgrading your hard drive to a faster model, or pair them up in a RAID 0 configuration to truly reduce stuttering in more complex games.






AGP Speed (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x): This setting determines the data transfer rate (speed) of the AGP Bus - the pipeline along which video information flows. As logic suggests, the higher the speed setting, the higher the potential performance of your graphics card. However what is counter-intuitive is the actual performance difference between the various AGP modes. AGP 8x is not twice as fast as AGP 4x, which is not twice as fast as AGP 2x - and so on. The reason for this is that the higher modes provide more bandwidth - that is, the size of the pipeline effectively gets bigger. But if at AGP 4x the pipe is already bigger than the size of the information flowing through it, increasing the pipeline by going to AGP 8x will clearly not make a large difference to speed. Importantly, lowering the AGP speed (e.g. from 8x to 4x) can help improve stability for some systems (especially overclocked ones), and can also resolve some graphics problems. Generally I recommend setting this to the highest available speed in the BIOS, as long as your graphics card also supports that AGP speed. Note that to adjust the AGP Speed (AGP Rate) setting in the Forceware Control Panel, you will need to follow the instructions under the Advanced Tweaking section. For most systems the performance difference between AGP 4x and AGP 8x is at most around 5-10%.

AGP Aperture Size: This setting determines the allocation of physical RAM for use by an AGP graphics card, should it become necessary. A better description can be found in this AGP Aperture Size FAQ. To decide how big it should be keep in mind the following: (1) keep it above 32MB, as an Aperture Size below 32MB will disable AGP texturing - reducing your performance greatly in games; (2) the greater the amount of Video RAM on your graphics card, the smaller this setting should be; (3) Values between 64MB and 256MB show no real performance difference; and (4) Using larger values can result in more crashes such as General Protection Faults and potential texture corruption. So with all of these in mind, I recommend an Aperture Size of 128MB for most AGP graphics cards. If you have an older 32MB graphics card, set the Aperture to 256MB. If you experience a large number of crashes or texture glitches, try lowering the Aperture to 64MB regardless of your Video RAM amount.

Fast Writes: This setting, whether in the BIOS or in the Forceware Control Panel, is meant to speed up AGP read performance. In practice however it is known in almost all cases to have no noticeable performance impact, and indeed often causes many problems such as crashes and general system instability, especially on overclocked graphics cards. My personal testing has shown it to have literally 0% impact on performance on several different setups. Therefore if you are experiencing problems, I strongly recommend disabling Fast Writes in the BIOS (if available) and also disabling it under the AGP Settings section of the Forceware Control Panel for optimal stability with little or no performance loss. Note that for the AGP Settings screen to become available, you will need to follow the instructions under the Advanced Tweaking section.

Sidebanding: This setting controls a method whereby additional new video requests are sent along with the main video information, in effect working alongside the main data channel. This increases bandwidth, which can improve performance, although not by much. In practice Sidebanding can cause instability, particularly on overclocked graphics cards. Sidebanding is usually enabled on most Nvidia graphics cards, and shouldn't be causing any problems. To check whether Sidebanding is enabled on your system, check the AGP Settings section of the Forceware Control Panel (Under the AGP Settings tab - see the Advanced Tweaking section). To disable Sidebanding, if there is a Sidebanding option in your BIOS you can try disabling it there, and you can also use RivaTuner to check and disable/enable Sidebanding. Once again see the Advanced Tweaking section.




AGP Read, AGP Write, PCI Read, PCI Write: -> Set to "on" for optimal performance.
-->
    <h2 id="acgraphics">
	  AssaultCube Graphics
	</h2>
	
    <h2 id="sounds">
      Sounds
    </h2>
	
	<h2 id="mouse">
	  Mouse
	</h2>
    <h3>
	  The mouse input is delayed when trying to rapidly fire in linux
	</h3>
	<p>
      This is a common problem on Linux and is not specific to AssaultCube. 
	  Edit your xorg.conf and set the value of <i>Emulate3Buttons</i> to off.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Aiming is difficult
	</h3>
	<p>
	  If you're using Microsoft Windows, deactivate mouse acceleration.<br />
	  If you're using a cheap optical mouse, you may find at quick movements it may stop moving.
	</p>
	<h3>
	  Jitters and choppy images after upgrading to Microsoft Windows SP3
	</h3>
	<p>
	  After upgrading to SP3, mice with overclocked USB ports get their polling rates stuck at 125hz. This can be fixed:
	</p>
	<p>
	  Download the <a href="http://files.filefront.com/mouseraterar/;10969699;/fileinfo.html">mouserate checker</a>.
	  Then download the new <a href="http://files.filefront.com/hidusbfzip/;10969768;/fileinfo.html">USB port overclocker</a>. 
	  Unrar them both. Go to the driver folder and then install executing "setup".
	</p>
	<p>
	  Then, open the USB port overclocker. Tick 'Filter On Device'. Choose the polling rate you want. Keep "Mouses only" ticked
	  to save yourself from confusion. Make sure you've clicked/highlighted your mouse. <b>Install service</b>. Then restart.
	</p>
	<p>
	  Then check your hertz with the mouserate checker. If it doesn't read out that its been altered you'll probably have 
	  to restart. Also if you change what port you plug your mouse into you'll have to repeat the process.
	</p>
	
    <h2 id="general">
      General
    </h2>
	<p>
	  Physical ways to increase your computers performance for AssaultCube are: Upgrading RAM, CPU power, Graphics cards,
      use a more powerful power supply, overclocking, use PCI express instead of AGP, etc, etc.<br />
	  If you wish to upgrade your systems hardware, please seek advice elsewhere. There are plenty of resources available online!
	</p>
	<p>
	  When running AssaultCube, it would be wise to turn off any un-needed applications, especially those that suck down CPU 
	  performance and graphics rendering. For example: Turn off compiz, music players, windows defender, etc. Also try turning 
	  down the graphics settings used by your operating system for everyday tasks.
	</p>
	<p>
	  Turning off power saving features (for example: on laptops) may help improve performance.
	</p>
	<p>
	  If using Microsoft Windows, defragmenting your hard drive may speed up loading, as the data will be arranged on your 
	  hard drive in a way that will make it easier to find and read by your OS. Also, ensuring that viruses and spyware are 
	  absent from your machine will ensure they aren't taking up any extra resources.
	</p>
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