MWLL Performance Guide
Since MWLL is built off of the original Crysis engine, intense in-game teamfights may occasionally slow your FPS on a low to mid range computer as it doesn't take advantage of using multiple CPU cores. However, with the gamut of customization options available, it's no difficult task getting your game running just the way you want.
TL;DR: If you're looking for better FPS but want to keep high quality settings, go here: https://wiki.mechlivinglegends.net/index.php?title=MWLL_Performance_Guide#User.cfg
Here we go over some of the options available to you in meeting your performance needs. There are plenty of stories circulating the community about how users managed to get surprising FPS on hardware old enough to be your grandpa. If you're willing to make compromises to visual effects, you'd be hard pressed to find a machine that won't play at 60+ frames on minimum settings.
Contents
The Settings Menu
Sound
It is advised that on your first launch, that you reduce the in-game sound somewhat and bring it up to a comfortable level afterwards as the defaults may be too high. Performance wise, there is functionally no gains to be made by playing with settings in the Sound menu.
Graphics
We recommend to use 1080p (1920x1080) as the highest resolution for maximum game stability. Higher resolutions such as 1440p (2560x1440) or 4k (3840x2160) may increase the chance of the game crashing to desktop (CTD) and will require a faster, more modern CPU and GPU to achieve smooth FPS.
It is strongly suggested that you do NOT change the settings in OPTIONS / SYSTEM SETTINGS / GRAPHICS / ADVANCED from their defaults. MWLL ships with pre-configured optimal medium settings that have combined performance and visual tweaks to give you more FPS in intense graphics heavy battles. Do not use the "Autodetect - Optimal Settings" as they will remove the optimizations until the next restart.
The Crysis engine that MWLL is built on requires a CPU that has high single thread performance to deliver high FPS. Recent AMD Ryzen 3000/5000 and Intel CPUs Haswell and later series with 3 GHz base clock or faster are recommended while the best performance will be achieved on a Ryzen 5800 X3D, Ryzen 7000 series or Intel 13600+ series.
Crysis doesn't require a high-end GPU for smooth 1080p (1920x1080) gaming. Any AMD RX460 or GTX 1030 or newer GPU will be fine for the pre-configured optimal settings.
The quickest way to reclaim FPS on older hardware or if your machine lacks a discrete graphics card are:
- Setting in-game Anti-Aliasing Quality to OFF found in OPTIONS / SYSTEM SETTINGS / GRAPHICS. The MWLL pre-configured optimal settings already have Crysis's FPS friendly edge anti-aliasing enabled by default.
- Reducing your in-game resolution and disabling any multi-GPU setups (Nvidia SLI, AMD CrossFire, or Nvidia Optimus). After finding your monitor's native resolution, try to reduce your resolution to some lower setting of the same ratio. Anecdotally, some users find a performance spike by selecting a resolution that's a half multiple of their native resolution (for example; 1920 x 1080 -> 960 x 540). The FPS gains made by lowering your resolution will only be more pronounced if your machine lacks a discrete graphics card.
- Disabling FULLSCREEN found in OPTIONS / SYSTEM SETTINGS / GRAPHICS. Some combinations of GPUs and monitors using HDMI may select the lowest refresh rate (~24 Hz) when running in fullscreen mode effectively locking you to 24 FPS max. Running in Windowed mode (disabling fullscreen) will get around this problem. Use Borderless Windowed mode helper applications to remove the border around MWLL. Details here: https://wiki.mechlivinglegends.net/index.php?title=Troubleshooting#How_can_I_run_the_game_in_Fullscreen-Window_.2F_Borderless-Window_mode.3F
Advanced Settings
We strongly recommend that you don't alter these settings as they will possibly disable the MWLL pre-configured optimizations. If absolutely needed, reducing the following settings might increase your FPS.
- POSTPROCESSING QUALITY
- VOLUMETRIC EFFECTS QUALITY
- PARTICLES QUALITY
- SHADERS QUALITY
- WATER QUALITY
For higher FPS while keeping the MWLL optimizations, we highly recommend to utilize the user.cfg - specifically, the "Best performance optimized preset - Updated August 2023" preset mentioned below.
User.cfg
User.cfg is a file that provides configuration instructions to the game on how to run, such as the resolution of the game window, properties of various game graphical and performance settings. Many tweaks can be made to this file to either cut out unnecessary features for extra performance, or to unlock the best visuals possible within Cryengine 2.
It is placed in the C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client directory. (Replace username and/or drive name with your current Windows username / Windows installation drive.)
Alternatively, you can browse to the correct folder by cut/pasting this into your Explorer window: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client
NOTE: The three user.cfg files all disable Crysis's native full screen antialiasing and instead rely on the native edge antialiasing instead. Crysis's Full screen antialiasing (FSAA) can cause minor texture corruption, can cause issues while switching between full-screen and windowed modes and it can be FPS heavy. If you really want better antialiasing, consider using Reshade's SMAA.
The three user.cfg files below all feature mapped function keys that toggle a few key settings:
- F4 toggles shadow rendering (disabling all shadows will increase FPS)
- F9 toggles Shader post processing (slightly increases FPS but some maps look dull / desaturated with it disabled, removes depth of field effect while zooming, removes god-rays and shimmering underwater effects)
- F10 toggles Crysis's FPS counter
- F11 toggles net_channelstats - use to diagnose red-x / lossy connection to servers. Details how to use it are found here: Net_channelstats
- PAUSE toggles HUD - for screenshots
The user.cfg config files have been changed significantly. If you're running the previous versions, please update to these for increased FPS overall.
They all include these tweaks:
- Allow all lighting effects (dynamic and static) on all maps.
- HDR rendering is enabled for proper lighting/brightness on all maps - avoids over-bright rendering.
- Edge anti-aliasing enabled for less jaggies.
- Increased FPS by reducing the water effect quality a bit.
- Increased FPS by shortening the decal effects lifetime - laser burn effects disappear more quickly.
- Increased FPS by disabling distant static object dissolve render effect.
- Full screen antialiasing (FSAA) disabled - can cause minor texture corruption.
- Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated August 2023 (right-click > Save link/file)
- Set for highest quality visuals. Better FPS than stock Crysis High settings yet comparable high quality effects.
- Longer shadow draw distances with more real-time shadows cast from terrain and objects.
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion enabled for more realistic lighting effects.
- Optimized particle and texture settings - balanced for visuals and FPS.
- Set for highest quality visuals. Better FPS than stock Crysis High settings yet comparable high quality effects.
- Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated August 2023 (right-click > Save link/file)
- Set for balanced quality visuals. FPS almost as fast as stock Crysis Medium settings but with considerably improved visuals.
- Medium shadow draw distances and keeps shadows cast from terrains on.
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion enabled for more realistic lighting effects.
- Optimized particle and texture settings - leans towards better performance.
- Increased FPS by reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.
- Set for balanced quality visuals. FPS almost as fast as stock Crysis Medium settings but with considerably improved visuals.
- Best performance optimized preset - Updated August 2023 (right-click > Save link/file)
- Set for performance oriented visuals. FPS around stock Crysis Medium graphics settings while looking a lot better (avoids opaque water bug).
- Low shadow draw distances.
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion disabled.
- Performance optimized light, particle, decal and texture settings.
- Increased FPS by further reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.
- Set for performance oriented visuals. FPS around stock Crysis Medium graphics settings while looking a lot better (avoids opaque water bug).
Screenshots user.cfg - TC_LostHope
Crysis High setting
Optimized Balanced Quality user.cfg
Crysis Medium setting
View all of the Screenshots Comparison showing the differences between the user.cfg configurations and how they compare to the stock Crysis settings.
Help
Consider joining the MWLL Discord community here to meet up with other MWLL players and ask for help with user.cfg config files.
For more information on how to install, customize, or write your own User.cfg file, see the page on Console Variables.
OUTDATED CFGS BELOW:
The following user.cfg files are out of date and have a bunch of bugs that causes some settings to be set to the highest possible setting (ie sys_spec_Shadows = 0 sets *all* shadows to the max and killing performance). Only use them if you are willing to edit the file yourself to fix the bugs and change/experiment with the necessary config settings at your discretion to meet your preferences.
There are multiple bugs in the following user.cfgs! DO NOT USE THEM WITHOUT CAREFULLY ANALYZING THEM! At the minimum, change the following:
- sys_spec_Shadows = 0 should be sys_spec_Shadows = 1 .
- Deleting the line e_particles_quality = 9 or ingame projectiles will become invisible.
- Deleting the line d3d9_forcesoftware = 1, or the ingame Console and Cbill Transfer Menu will be unusable due to invisible text
- Deleting the line e_particles_max_emitter_draw_screen = 0, or too many particles will be shown on certain maps and perf will tank.
(Outdated/Buggy) Low Visuals/High Performance Preset
(Outdated/Buggy) Alternate Low Visuals/High Performance Preset
Shader Cache cleanup
If you normally have adequate performance, but lose it seemingly out of the blue: use the Clear Shaders option from the MWLL Launcher. MWLL Shaders have a gamut of interesting bugs tied to them, from hidden performance sinks to rainbow clouds and pink hovercraft dust- but it's easily fixed in the click of a button.
Other Options
If you are still having trouble getting the performance you're looking for, consider joining the MWLL Discord and inquiring in the #tech_support channel for more assistance.
Besides that, the following are a few more options that can increase stability and performance, but have to be approached with a trial-and-error mindset, considering each player's mix and match of these settings may not work for another player's system.
- Running the game in DX9 instead of DX10 mode from the launcher
- Running the game in Windows Compatibility mode for Windows 8, Windows 7.1 (Can be found by right-clicking the launcher, and opening 'Properties')
These, and a few more steps can be found in the Troubleshooting Guide
| ||||||||||||||||||
