RO2 Performance Thread

[Hendrich]

Alright, so you get the RO2 Beta, played around with the settings for awhile, yet the game still runs pretty badly on your system.

You are hoping the developers might find a way to optimize their game, but lets assume that won't happen because since when did that honestly happen effectively?

You are now desperate to find more ways to tweak the graphical aspect of Red Orchestra 2, and this is what this thread intends to do.

Before we start, here is an exceprt for Yoshiro's Performance Thief Thread:

1 - Grab the latest drivers for your video card.

Via http://www.geforce.com/Drivers or www.amd.com. We recommend a clean install of the latest drivers!

2 - Install the latest build of DirectX 9.0C

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35

3 - Are you attempting to run RO 2 with ANY ultra settings?

Beware, these settings can have DRASTIC EFFECTS on your performance. Ultra Shadows alone will drop me 20 FPS vs High. When you first launch the game, it looks at your hardware and picks what we feel are good settings for your particular hardware. Change it at your own risk to performance.

Also to be taken into account is the FoV settings. The game was designed with the default FoV in mind. By changing to that to 90 on a widescreen monitor, your video card will have to render 40% MORE than the default. This will eat frames.

For example, one near minimum spec machine I have here at my desk currently is a core 2 duo 2.4 ghz with a Nvidia 8800 and 4 gigs of ram. Both XP and Windows 7 installed. It runs the game on Windows 7 between 45 and 55 FPS on low settings depending on the map, and can drop down near 30 on large servers (over 32)

On XP this same machine runs a few FPS less due to horrible memory management in XP and the machine having to work more to do the same.

4 - Now the following is NOT recommended, but we have seen several people ask about it. The unreal engine tries to smooth out your frame rate for a more consistent experience. You can change those settings. In ROEngine.ini you can change up the following settings:

MinSmoothedFrameRate=22

MaxSmoothedFrameRate=62

5 - Do you run security software?

Be it a firewall or antivirus or some combination, it can RUIN your game experience if it is interfering with the game while it is running. We strongly recommend adding RO 2 binaries and folder structure to any allowed/ignore lists respectively. Especially if you have active real time security on. This is known to kill performance as it will be trying to check every packet and every file the game uses in real time.

6 - Are you an AMD Crossfire user?

If so, we believe there is a problem occurring here and we have reached out to AMD on the issue. For now we recommend disabling crossfire to play RO 2.

Finished now? Made sure that there isn't any other software running in the background that eats up resources? Good, because we will start now.

First, we will need to find a config that is the basis of this thread: ROEngine.ini. Red Orchestra 2 runs off of UE3, which stores it's main system settings into a custom configuration for each UE3 game. You can find this at:

C:\Users\Hendrich\Documents\My Games\UnrealEngine3\ROGame\Config

Atleast for Win7 users. For WinXP users, I believe its somewhere in:

Blahblahblah:\Documents & Settings\My Games\UnrealEngine3\ROGame\Config

Inside these folders is your ROEngine.ini. Open it up with a text editor (I highly recommend using Notepad++) and lets get started.

The first thing you notice is a bunch of text which makes no sense, just ignore that and scroll down and use a magnifying to look for a heading called:

[SystemSettings]

Yes, I know it seems like its impossible to find it, but its there, keep looking. It should be somewhere after the halfway point of the scrollbar.

If you are using Notepad++, you can make your life easier by scrolling down until you get to Line #729 on the page.

Once you found it, you should see an entire section looking like this:

[SystemSettings]
bUseMaxQualityMode=False
StaticDecals=True
DynamicDecals=False
UnbatchedDecals=True
DecalCullDistanceScale=0.150000
DynamicLights=True
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=True
SHSecondaryLighting=True
DirectionalLightmaps=True
MotionBlur=True
MotionBlurPause=False
DepthOfField=False
AmbientOcclusion=False
Bloom=True
UseHighQualityBloom=False
bAllowLightShafts=False
Distortion=False
FilteredDistortion=False
DropParticleDistortion=False
bAllowDownsampledTranslucency=False
SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True
OnlyStreamInTextures=False
LensFlares=True
FogVolumes=True
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
OneFrameThreadLag=False
UseVsync=False
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=False
AllowRadialBlur=False
SkeletalMeshLODBias=3
ParticleLODBias=1
DetailMode=1
ShadowFilterQualityBias=0
MaxAnisotropy=16
MaxMultisamples=1
MinShadowResolution=64
MinPreShadowResolution=8
MaxShadowResolution=800
MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution=1344
ShadowFadeResolution=60
PreShadowFadeResolution=16
ShadowFadeExponent=0.200000
ResX=1600
ResY=900
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=0.500000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=4.000000
PreShadowResolutionFactor=0.200000
bEnableVSMShadows=False
bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=False
bAllowHardwareShadowFiltering=False
bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=False
bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=False
bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=False
bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=True
ShadowFilterRadius=0.250000
ShadowDepthBias=0.012000
CSMSplitPenumbraScale=0.500000
CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=4.000000
CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=0.700000
UnbuiltWholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=20000.000000
UnbuiltNumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=3
WholeSceneShadowUnbuiltInteractionThreshold=50
bAllowFracturedDamage=True
NumFracturedPartsScale=1.000000
FractureDirectSpawnChanceScale=1.000000
FractureRadialSpawnChanceScale=1.000000
FractureCullDistanceScale=1.000000
bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=false
bDisableSkeletalInstanceWeights=false
TEXTUREGROUP_World=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Weapon=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Vehicle=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Cinematic=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Effects=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_EffectsNotFiltered=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Skybox=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_UI=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Lightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Shadowmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,NumStreamedMips=3,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_RenderTarget=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_MobileFlattened=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_Face=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_LightMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Heightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Weightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
AdaptiveBloom=False
SceneBrightness=1.000000
LightFunctions=False
MotionBlurNonGameplay=True
GraphicsQualitySetting=5
CharacterQualityDetail=1
TextureQualityDetail=4
ShadowQualityDetail=1
LightQualityDetail=1
PostProcessQualityDetail=1
SLSNativeResX=1600
SLSNativeResY=900
NumHorizontalDisplayArray=0
NumVerticalDisplayArray=0
BezelCorrectionX=0
BezelCorrectionY=0
SingleVoiceVariation=false
AllowMLAA=False
AllowFXAA=True
FXAAPresetLevel=1
AllowHumanIK=True
UseUE3StaggeredWait=False
UseOneWayRelevancyChecks=True
DoFacingRelevancyChecks=False
NotFacingNotRelevant=True
SimpleRelevancyCheckDistance=5000.000000
SimpleTeamRelevancyChecks=True
ROPawnAlwaysRelevantDistanceOverride=0.000000
EnableSteamStats=True
WholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=1500.000000
NumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=2
CascadeDistributionExponent=3.000000
DOFBlurValResolutionFactor=0.500000
ForceUpdateAnimationRadius=500.000000
ROSystemSettingsVer=3
TEXTUREGROUP_ColorLookupTable=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)

These are the main line of code we will be modifying for game performance. I know its alot of lines and might look intimidating at first, but don't worry. Allow me to hold your hand and go over each and every line on what they do and whether they are useful or not.

First thing tho, is that we have to visualize this batch of code into 3 separate parts for convenience. Don't actually break up the code in the config, I'm just doing this so it'll be easier to digest.

First, there is the Top-half:

[SystemSettings]
bUseMaxQualityMode=False
StaticDecals=True
DynamicDecals=False
UnbatchedDecals=True
DecalCullDistanceScale=0.150000
DynamicLights=True
DynamicShadows=True
LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=True
SHSecondaryLighting=True
DirectionalLightmaps=True
MotionBlur=True
MotionBlurPause=False
DepthOfField=False
AmbientOcclusion=False
Bloom=True
UseHighQualityBloom=False
bAllowLightShafts=False
Distortion=False
FilteredDistortion=False
DropParticleDistortion=False
bAllowDownsampledTranslucency=False
SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True
OnlyStreamInTextures=False
LensFlares=True
FogVolumes=True
FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
OneFrameThreadLag=False
UseVsync=False
UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
Fullscreen=True
AllowD3D10=False
AllowRadialBlur=False
SkeletalMeshLODBias=3
ParticleLODBias=1
DetailMode=1
ShadowFilterQualityBias=0
MaxAnisotropy=16
MaxMultisamples=1
MinShadowResolution=64
MinPreShadowResolution=8
MaxShadowResolution=800
MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution=1344
ShadowFadeResolution=60
PreShadowFadeResolution=16
ShadowFadeExponent=0.200000
ResX=1600
ResY=900
ScreenPercentage=100.000000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=0.500000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=4.000000
PreShadowResolutionFactor=0.200000
bEnableVSMShadows=False
bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=False
bAllowHardwareShadowFiltering=False
bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=False
bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=False
bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=False
bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=True
ShadowFilterRadius=0.250000
ShadowDepthBias=0.012000
CSMSplitPenumbraScale=0.500000
CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=4.000000
CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=0.700000
UnbuiltWholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=20000.000000
UnbuiltNumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=3
WholeSceneShadowUnbuiltInteractionThreshold=50
bAllowFracturedDamage=True
NumFracturedPartsScale=1.000000
FractureDirectSpawnChanceScale=1.000000
FractureRadialSpawnChanceScale=1.000000
FractureCullDistanceScale=1.000000
bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=false
bDisableSkeletalInstanceWeights=false

Then there is the Middle-half:

TEXTUREGROUP_World=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Weapon=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Vehicle=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Cinematic=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Effects=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_EffectsNotFiltered=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Skybox=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_UI=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Lightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Shadowmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,NumStreamedMips=3,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_RenderTarget=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_MobileFlattened=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_Face=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_LightMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Heightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Weightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)

And lastly we have the Bottom-half:

AdaptiveBloom=False
SceneBrightness=1.000000
LightFunctions=False
MotionBlurNonGameplay=True
GraphicsQualitySetting=5
CharacterQualityDetail=1
TextureQualityDetail=4
ShadowQualityDetail=1
LightQualityDetail=1
PostProcessQualityDetail=1
SLSNativeResX=1600
SLSNativeResY=900
NumHorizontalDisplayArray=0
NumVerticalDisplayArray=0
BezelCorrectionX=0
BezelCorrectionY=0
SingleVoiceVariation=false
AllowMLAA=False
AllowFXAA=True
FXAAPresetLevel=1
AllowHumanIK=True
UseUE3StaggeredWait=False
UseOneWayRelevancyChecks=True
DoFacingRelevancyChecks=False
NotFacingNotRelevant=True
SimpleRelevancyCheckDistance=5000.000000
SimpleTeamRelevancyChecks=True
ROPawnAlwaysRelevantDistanceOverride=0.000000
EnableSteamStats=True
WholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=1500.000000
NumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=2
CascadeDistributionExponent=3.000000
DOFBlurValResolutionFactor=0.500000
ForceUpdateAnimationRadius=500.000000
ROSystemSettingsVer=3
TEXTUREGROUP_ColorLookupTable=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)

For the record, the Top-half is the most important part of the config we will modify. The Middle-half is totally useless and the Bottom-half is somewhat useful to us. So we will focus only on the Top and Bottom halfs of the config.

Okay, NOW we are ready to start. Finally, eh? Alright, scroll down to the next post because Steam is giving me character-limit issues.

[Hendrich]

**Note: If any of the following descriptions are wrong, please correct me! We want this guide to be as accurate as possible.

Allright, ready? Lets start:

[SystemSettings]

This is the header of the part of the config we will be modifying. The title is self-explanatory.

bUseMaxQualityMode=False

Forces maximum possible quality. Don't enable this unless your PC is beastly.

StaticDecals=True

Enables static decals, aka sprites on the map that don't move such as bullet-holes in walls that are placed there by the developers. Change it to False to disable it and improve performance.

DynamicDecals=False

Enables dynamic decals, aka bullet-holes caused by your gun or blood emitting out of an enemy. Change it to False to disable these effects and improve performance.

UnbatchedDecals=True

No idea, I assume these are still sprites and might improve performance was set to False, but I recommend not touching this one.

DecalCullDistanceScale=0.150000

DecalCullDistance is used to set the Level of Detail of a decal when you move far away from it. The lower the value, the amount of detail will be reduced when you go near said decal. Set a smaller number it to improve performance.

DynamicLights=True

Dynamic lighting is a system where the light entities out of any emitters can react to other objects on-the-fly, unlike static lighting which will always look the same no matter what is in-front of it. I would say set it to False to improve performance, but recent UE3 games makes full use of this type of lighting for their maps, and RO2 is no exception. I don't recommend you do this or you'll encounter ugly lighting errors in your maps.

DynamicShadows=True

Dynamic shadowing is a system where shadows react to the world unlike static shadows which always looks the same no matter what. Set it to False to improve performance by a great deal, since shadows take up alot of CPU. I personally set this to True because disabling this might make the game look much worse than it needs to be.

LightEnvironmentShadows=True
CompositeDynamicLights=True
SHSecondaryLighting=True
DirectionalLightmaps=True

I put all of these settings into one quote for a reason. They all change the way how lighting works in RO2 and I'd highly recommend that you don't touch these settings. If you decide to experiment anyways, please at all costs, do NOT touch DirectionalLightMaps. Without it, the shader effects on objects would become null and make your game 10x more ugly without much of a performance boost.

MotionBlur=True

Change this to False to disable Motion Blur. Motion blurring is a effect where the screen "blurs" as you move the camera for a smoother viewing experience and makes the game more cinematic, with the side-effect of making the framerate feel more smoother than it actually is. Disabling it won't necessarily improve performance alot, but I know a few users on these forums would rather have it set to False.

MotionBlurPause=False

I believe this setting is used to determine the pause between frames of motion blur, I'm probably wrong tho. I'd usually set this to False in case.

DepthOfField=False

Depth of Field effects, where the background of the world in your character's line of vision is blurred to improve realism/cinematic quality. Set it to False to improve performance, though on some systems this may actually improve performance when enabled. I don't know why, just experiment.

AmbientOcclusion=False

Enhances shadows around the game world, usually it is a performance killer. I'd recommend this stays set to False.

Bloom=True

Enables light-highlighting and image bloom in the world, making it bright and vivid. I'd recommend this stays at True, but it would probably put off less stress on the CPU if set to False.

UseHighQualityBloom=False

Increases the bloom quality and makes it look alot better. I'd set to to False to increase performance.

bAllowLightShafts=False

Light shafting is a lighting effect where when you are looking at an object obstructing the view of a dynamic light, shadows appear around the object, increasing cinematic quality. Set it to False to improve performance, but I personally have it on.

Distortion=False

Distortion is a shader put in front of the screen or an object to emphasize an effetc used in the game, like taking a hit from a bullet. These can improve game performance when set to False.

FilteredDistortion=False

Filters said shader effect for better quality. Set it to False to improve performance.

DropParticleDistortion=False

Effects where a sprite like a spark would make a distortion effect when animating. Set it to False to improve performance.

bAllowDownsampledTranslucency=False

Downsamples the translucency effect for performance. Set it to True if you wish.

SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True

"SpeedTree" is an external company that creates low-poly, good looking trees and/or natural assets for game engines when the developers themselves don't need to. I'm not sure if Tripwire themselves made the trees or another company did, but regardless, the commands work both ways. Set both to False to remove trees and potentially improve performance (I'd highly recommend that you don't).

OnlyStreamInTextures=False

This affects the way textures are streamed into the world as you move throughout the map. I'd say leave it alone.

LensFlares=True

Enables lensflares, a lighting effect where a flare is shown when looking at a light. I don't see how this will improve performance by any means, but disable it if you wish.

FogVolumes=True

Enables/Disables fog in the game, such as distance fog or smoke effects. I'd recommend that you don't touch this since setting it to False can both lower performance and create buggy distance fogging.

FloatingPointRenderTargets=True

Always set this to true. I'm not sure what it does, but usually setting it to False decreases performance.

OneFrameThreadLag=False

Created lag on your CPU thread. Set it to True to improve mouse accuracy (I wont' explain why this happens) or set it to False to generally improve performance.

UseVsync=False

Vertical Sync basically sync the refresh rate of your monitor with your framerate to remove "screen-tearing" when you run the game at framerates higher than your refresh rate. Enabling this usually creates mouse inaccuracy and lower performance, so I'd say set it to False.

UpscaleScreenPercentage=True

This upscales the "ScreenPercentage" command later on in the config to your screen-size, so it fits the entity of your monitor. Unless you like to have black borders around your screen when lowering "ScreenPercentage", keep it set to True. If you have no idea what I just said, just scroll down to the "ScreenPercentage" command and find out what is going on.

Fullscreen=True

Enables Fullscreen. Fullscreen operations usually puts more resources into the game and thus improves performance. Keep it at True to improve performance or set it to False if you want the game to run in Window mode.

AllowD3D10=False

Forces the game to run under the Direct X 10 API. Since Tripwire hasn't officially announced D3D10 suppourt, you'd probably won't gain anything by enabling it to True. NOTE: You NEED a DX10-capable card to enable this in the first place. If you have no idea what that is, don't bother changing it.

AllowRadialBlur=False

Enables a blur effect that surrounds either the screen or certain objects in a radial-fashion, such as when using a scope. Set it to False to enable performance.

SkeletalMeshLODBias=3

Sets the model quality of the characters in-game. This has a value of 0-4. Setting it at a lower number like 0 increases the model quality or setting it to a higher number like 4 makes all the characters look like box men. Set it to 2 or 3 for better performance.

ParticleLODBias=1

Sets the particle detail. This usually defaults to "1" even if you change it, so just leave it alone.

DetailMode=1

Sets the detail mode from 0-4. Setting a lower number like 0 increases game quality whereas setting it to a higher number like 4 decreases game quality. I'd usually set it to 2 to increase performance.

ShadowFilterQualityBias=0

No idea what this does, I assume this effects the range of Shadow filtering in a area, but i say leave it alone.

MaxAnisotropy=16

Sets the maximum amount of AF the game uses. I'd say put it a 4 to be safe, as it will increase texture quality with minimum performance threat.

MaxMultisamples=1

Sets the maximum amount of AA the game uses. I'd say leave it alone.

MinShadowResolution=64

Sets minimum shadow resolution on any given shadow in the game. Raise to to values like 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, etc to increase base shadow quality. That creases performance tho.

MinPreShadowResolution=8

Sets the shadow resolution of a low-quality shadow, usually when you are far away. Leave it at 8.

MaxShadowResolution=800

Sets maximum shadow resolution the game can use. Lower it to said previous values above to either improve performance or raise it to make shadows look better.

MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution=1344

Sets the max shadow resolution of a scene. Leave it alone.

ShadowFadeResolution=60

Sets the resolution of a shadow during "Fading" out. Leave it alone.

PreShadowFadeResolution=16

Same as above, but for pre-fading. Leave it alone.

ShadowFadeExponent=0.200000

This is probably one of the more useful commands. Lower the value to decrease the range of when higher quality shadows are streamed onto the map and thus improve performance without necessarily decreasing shadow quality.

ResX=1600
ResY=900

These two values sets the game resolution that you would be running at. "ResX" changes the "Width" whereas "ResY" sets the "Height".

ScreenPercentage=100.000000

Possibly the most useful commands in this entire config. Tripwire, if you are reading this, ADD IT IN-GAME!

What this command does is that it lowers the in-game resolution of everything 3D without lowering the UI/2D resolution of things like menus, HUD, etc. So you don't need to set a lower resolution for performance and suffer stretched 2D images, just set Screen percentage from a minimum of 50 to a maximum of 100 to increase performance drastically. However, it WILL make the game blurrier and more pixelated, so beware. Also, if you set the previous command "UpScaleScreenPercentage" to False, lowering this value will cause black borders around the game screen. I'd say set it to 90 for best compensation of quality and performance-gain.

SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000

No idea what this does, sorry.

FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=0.500000

Lower values will reduce the distance of when "foliage" (aka Grass, leaves, etc) will pop up on the ground. Lower the value to increase performance.

ShadowTexelsPerPixel=4.000000

Higher values increases the tessellation of shadow pixels and thus drastically increase shadow resolution. Lower it for better performance, I recommend setting it to 1.

PreShadowResolutionFactor=0.200000

This affects shadows being streamed into the world as you move around. Leave it alone.

bEnableVSMShadows=False
bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=False

No idea what these two commands do either.

bAllowHardwareShadowFiltering=False

Setting this to True forces your CPU/GPU to filter shadows for increased shadow quality. I'd say leave it at False.

bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=False

Set it to True for better transitioning pre-shadows. I'd say leave it alone.

bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=False

Setting it to True enables shadows on various areas of the map. I'd say set it to False to increase performance.

bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=False

Setting it to true enables your character's shadows. Leave it as False.

bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=True

Setting this to True enables high-quality shadows. Leave it at false.

ShadowFilterRadius=0.250000
ShadowDepthBias=0.012000
CSMSplitPenumbraScale=0.500000
CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=4.000000
CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=0.700000
UnbuiltWholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=20000.000000
UnbuiltNumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=3
WholeSceneShadowUnbuiltInteractionThreshold=50
bAllowFracturedDamage=True
NumFracturedPartsScale=1.000000
FractureDirectSpawnChanceScale=1.000000
FractureRadialSpawnChanceScale=1.000000
FractureCullDistanceScale=1.000000
bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=false
bDisableSkeletalInstanceWeights=false

No idea what the rest of these commands do. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate the heads-up.

Wow, that is the end of the top-half of the config. That was quite the journey, no? Anyways, scroll down to the next post for the remaining half of the config because of character limit.

[Hendrich]

AdaptiveBloom=False
SceneBrightness=1.000000
LightFunctions=False
MotionBlurNonGameplay=True
GraphicsQualitySetting=5
CharacterQualityDetail=1
TextureQualityDetail=4
ShadowQualityDetail=1
LightQualityDetail=1
PostProcessQualityDetail=1
SLSNativeResX=1600
SLSNativeResY=900
NumHorizontalDisplayArray=0
NumVerticalDisplayArray=0
BezelCorrectionX=0
BezelCorrectionY=0
SingleVoiceVariation=false
AllowMLAA=False
AllowFXAA=True
FXAAPresetLevel=1
AllowHumanIK=True
UseUE3StaggeredWait=False
UseOneWayRelevancyChecks=True
DoFacingRelevancyChecks=False
NotFacingNotRelevant=True
SimpleRelevancyCheckDistance=5000.000000
SimpleTeamRelevancyChecks=True
ROPawnAlwaysRelevantDistanceOverride=0.000000
EnableSteamStats=True
WholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=1500.000000
NumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=2
CascadeDistributionExponent=3.000000
DOFBlurValResolutionFactor=0.500000
ForceUpdateAnimationRadius=500.000000
ROSystemSettingsVer=3
TEXTUREGROUP_ColorLookupTable=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)

Alright, I'll be honest. See all those commands above? Yeah, I have no idea what most of them do.

Except I will add in the ones below that I *do* know of. Feel free to pitch in anything about these other commands.

Lets start:

AdaptiveBloom=False

Setting it to True changes the bloom so that it increases the highlight detail depending on where you are. Leave it at False.

GraphicsQualitySetting=5
CharacterQualityDetail=1
TextureQualityDetail=4
ShadowQualityDetail=1
LightQualityDetail=1

These are the in-game menu settings you can tweak in the config. From 1-4 (I think) lower values decrease quality whereas higher values increase quality.

AllowMLAA=False

Forces Multi-Level Agent Adaptation. This is very experimental and produces Anti-Aliasing levels better than 16x MSAA. However, this is usually reserved for hardware like the PS3's cell processor or a badass PC which can do this efficiently, do I'd highly recommend that you don't touch this. Ever.

AllowFXAA=True

Allows Full-Screen Anti-Aliasing. Disable it by setting it to False.

FXAAPresetLevel=1

Sets the level of AA. Setting it to 0 disables it and improves performance while setting it to a level like 4 increases AA level and reduces visible "jaggies" at the edges of 3D models. Set it to 0 to improve performance.

EnableSteamStats=True

Setting this to False disables the game from reaching SteamCloud. I'd recommend not to touch this.

WholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=1000.000000

Lower values decrease the radius of dynamic shadows. Lower for better performance.

NumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=1

Value for number of cascaded shadows. Lower value for better performance.

CascadeDistributionExponent=2.000000

Value that determines the distribution of cascaded shadows. Leave it alone.

DOFBlurValResolutionFactor=0.240000

Value that affects the Depth of Field blur resoloution. Lower it for better performance.

ForceUpdateAnimationRadius=500.000000

Forces your game to update the radius of when character animations take place. Potentially lowering it will increase performance since your PC wont have to render as many animation cycles, but I'd say leave it alone in case.


Well guys, thats it so far. This is quite the thread, if I do say so myself. Hopefully it'll help you tweak Red Orchestra 2 to a suitable level until Tripwire actually finds a way to get the game running better for alot more systems.

Cheers.

[ZelosXT]

+ Rep

Good tutorial, you actually taught me something I didn't know. +rep

Sticky please, this is really good info

[PsYcHo126]

Thanks dude! Some dev please Sticky this!
Really crazy how much work you put into this! +rep!

[John408]

Originally Posted by buzzcut91

Sticky please, this is really good info

This.

[ZelosXT]

This really needs a sticky. Now that I know shadows are huge strain on the CPU (i have a core 2 duo) its helped me boost my FPS by 10.

[Captain Chirac]

This is pretty useful. More people need to see this.

[Desi]

Daaamn. My performance is great, but have some +rep for the effort of helping others out.

[Vince_Offer]

uesfull

[McGlomp]

Thank you so much, Hendrich.

[FreeMayk]

+Rep

[Nordoyle]

Very nice going to give this a go later. Thanks Hendrich.