Difference between revisions of "MWLL Performance Guide"

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While [[MWLL]] is built off of a relatively dated engine, intense teamfights ingame can even bog down modern computers, if unoptimized. However, with the gamut of customization options available, its no difficult task getting your game running just the way you want. <br>
+
Since [[MWLL]] is built off of the original Crysis engine, massive intense battles may occasionally slow your FPS on an older low to mid range computer or laptop as Crysis doesn't take advantage of using multiple CPU cores. However, by using the preset performance optimized user.cfg available below and then optionally toggling shadow rendering to low with the F4 key, you can enjoy a relatively smooth MWLL experience.
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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 30+ frames on minimum settings. <br>
+
<br>
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== The Settings Menu ==
 
−
It is strongly suggested that you allow CryEngine itself to establish baseline settings for you, based on your system's hardware. The AUTODETECT feature in the settings menu is a one-click solution for many players, that auto-calibrates the settings to find a mix of good performance while sacrificing as little detail as possible. This alone is sufficient for most players, however, may be inadequate in the cases of extremely dated, or extremely powerful machines.
 
−
 
 
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The AUTODETECT feature can be found under OPTIONS / SYSTEM SETTINGS / GRAPHICS. Click it once, press apply, and you're good to go!
 
−
 
 
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=== Sound ===
 
−
It is advised that on your first launch, that you reduce the ingame sound to a minimum and bring it up to a comfortable level afterwards, MWLL is notorious for having an uncomfortably high default volume. Performance wise, there is functionally no gains to be made by playing with settings in the Sound menu. Similarly, Contrast, Gamma and Brightness in the following Graphics menu seem to have little effect.  
 
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=== Graphics ===
 
−
The quickest way to reclaim FPS is to reduce your in-game resolution and disabling any multi-GPU setups (Nvidia SLI, AMD CrossFire, or Nvidia Optimus). After finding your monitors 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.
 
−
While some players enjoy pumping their graphics to the max, others find the reduced resolution gives the game a retro, nostalgic feel, similar to older ''Mechwarrior'' titles. <br>
 
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Anti-Aliasing is a setting to make straight lines appear more crisp when at an angle ingame. Leaving Anti-Aliasing disabled will net you some FPS, while enabling it will make the game look less pixelated. The effect can be seen most clearly at an extremely reduced resolution.
 
  
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While some may be struggling to reach higher graphics, for those who can routinely pump out more than 60+ FPS at their preferred ingame settings; consider opening your graphics card settings to add a frame limit to match your screens refresh rate. This may serve to reduce stuttering, fan noise, and a more consistent experience by telling your machine not to waste time rendering frames that won't be seen.
+
A modern Ryzen 5000+ or Intel 12000+ series non-mobile CPU will be able to deliver 60+ FPS most of the time with the default MWLL settings.
 +
<br>
  
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=== Advanced Settings ===
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TL;DR: For best stability and performance while keeping high visual fidelity, run at 1080p (1920x1080) or lower resolution and select one of the three (HQ/Balanced/Performance) user.cfg files mentioned below.<br>
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<div style="width:502px; background-color:#4c4c4c; border: 1px solid #6c6c6c; border-radius:2px; padding:3px 3px 8px 3px; float:right; margin-left:10px; margin-top:5px;">
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If you're crashing to desktop (CTD) after a while, use the memory optimized versions [https://wiki.mechlivinglegends.net/index.php?title=MWLL_Performance_Guide#User.cfg_-_Memory_Optimized here].
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[[File:Ingamesettings.png|center|border|500px]]
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<br>
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</div>
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<br>
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Obviously, the first place to start will be the ingame settings menu. This option requires a little bit of trial and error, but should be sufficient for most users. <br>
 
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Some settings hold more 'weight' against your computers performance. While each system will vary depending on Graphics card and CPU, reducing the following settings will increase your FPS, in general. <br>
 
−
* ''POSTPROCESSING QUALITY''
 
−
* ''VOLUMETRIC EFFECTS QUALITY''
 
−
* ''PARTICLES QUALITY''
 
−
* ''SHADERS QUALITY''
 
−
* ''WATER QUALITY''
 
−
If you've already reduced each setting to ''Low'' you're still struggling to get the FPS you want during intense teamfights, or if you're interested in a more fine tuned approach to meeting your performance goals, while choosing which visual features to sacrifice, you'll need to utilize the ''user.cfg.''
 
  
 
== User.cfg ==
 
== User.cfg ==
 
[[file:Usercfghome.png|right|600px]]
 
[[file:Usercfghome.png|right|600px]]
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'''User.cfg''' is a file that provides 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.
+
'''User.cfg''' is the file that provides fine-grained control over the graphical quality of MWLL. The three downloadable user.cfg files below contain settings that improve the visual quality of the game while also increasing performance over Crysis's stock graphics settings. The optimized balanced user.cfg increases FPS close to Crysis Medium settings but with quality of Crysis High settings while increasing shadow rendering distances. Performance optimized user.cfg slightly reduces object quality and shadow rendering distance while HQ user.cfg increases them.
  
 
It is placed in the <code>C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client</code> directory. (Replace username and/or drive name with your current Windows username / Windows installation drive.)
 
It is placed in the <code>C:\Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client</code> 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: <code>%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client</code>
+
To easily browse to the correct location, start the MWLL Launcher and towards the bottom left corner of the MWLL Launcher, click Open User Data Folder. In the Explorer window, double click <code>MWLL</code> and then double click <code>Client</code>.
  
 +
Alternatively, you can browse to the correct folder by copy/pasting this into your Explorer window: <code>%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client</code>
  
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NOTE: We highly recommend disabling Crysis's in-game anti-aliasing (set to 0x/disabled) in the graphics settings unless you have a powerful GPU as it can be quite a FPS drain. Instead, use Crysis's FPS friendly edge anti-aliasing which is enabled by default in the first 2 user configs listed below.
 
  
 +
NOTE: The 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) consumes more memory which may cause crashes on larger maps, 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.
  
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The following files are hosted on Discord. For more information on how to install, customize, or write your own User.cfg file, see the page on [[Console_Variables#The_User.cfg_File|Console Variables.]]
 
  
  
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The three updated 2021 user.cfg files below all feature mapped function keys that toggle a few key settings:
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The user.cfg files below all feature mapped function keys that toggle a few key settings:
  
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* F4 toggles HDR rendering (disabling HDR may help FPS at the cost of blown out / overbright colors on some maps)
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* F4 toggles shadow rendering distance between high quality and FPS improved low
−
* F9 toggles Shader post processing (slightly increases FPS but some maps look dull / desaturated with it disabled, removes depth of field effect while zooming)
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* F9 toggles Shader post processing (Very slightly increases FPS but some maps look dull / desaturated with it disabled, removes depth of field blur effect while zooming, removes god-rays and shimmering underwater effects)
−
* F10 toggles Crysis's FPS counter
+
* F10 toggles Crysis's FPS and memory counter
−
* F11 toggles net_channelstats - use to diagnose red-x/lossy connection to servers. Details how to use it are found here: [[Troubleshooting#Diagnosing_MWLL_network_server_connectivity_with_the_console|Net_channelstats]]
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* F11 toggles net_channelstats - use to diagnose red-x / lossy connection to servers. Details how to use it are found here: [[Troubleshooting#Diagnosing_MWLL_network_server_connectivity_with_the_console|Net_channelstats]]
 
* PAUSE toggles HUD - for screenshots
 
* 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.
  
−
*[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/737017293422460978/849707627957059604/user.cfg Recommended excellent visuals and performance Preset - Updated June 2021]
 
−
** Set for high visuals by default, easily adjustable for better performance and stability.
 
−
*** Features better FPS than stock Crysis High settings.
 
−
*** Longer shadow draw distances with more real-time shadows cast from terrain and objects.
 
−
*** Edge anti-aliasing enabled for less jaggies.
 
−
*** Screen Space Ambient Occlusion disabled as it can be a FPS drain. Consider using ReShade MXAO as an alternative.
 
−
*** Optimized particle and texture settings - balanced for visuals and FPS.
 
  
 +
DOWNLOAD LINKS:
  
−
*[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/737017293422460978/849707782910509107/user.cfg Best performance oriented preset with good visuals - Updated June 2021]
+
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/high-quality/user.cfg Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
−
** Set for med-high visuals by default, easily adjustable for better performance and stability.
+
* Set for highest quality visuals. Better FPS than stock Crysis High settings yet comparable high quality effects.
−
*** Features similar FPS as stock Crysis Medium settings but with improved visuals.
+
** Longer shadow draw distances with more real-time shadows cast from terrain and objects.
−
*** Medium shadow draw distances.
+
** Screen Space Ambient Occlusion enabled for more realistic lighting effects.
−
*** Edge anti-aliasing enabled for less jaggies.
+
** Optimized particle and texture settings - balanced for visuals and FPS.
−
*** Screen Space Ambient Occlusion disabled as it can be a FPS drain.
 
−
*** Optimized particle and texture settings - leans towards better performance.
 
  
  
−
*[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/737017293422460978/849709475513761812/user.cfg Best performance optimized preset with decent visuals - Updated June 2021]
+
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/balanced/user.cfg Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
−
** Set for med visuals by default, easily adjustable for better performance and stability.
+
* Set for balanced quality visuals. FPS almost as fast as stock Crysis Medium settings but with considerably improved visuals.
−
*** Features better FPS as stock Crysis Medium settings.
+
** Medium shadow draw distances and keeps shadows cast from terrains on.
−
*** Very low shadow draw distances.
+
** Screen Space Ambient Occlusion enabled for more realistic lighting effects.
−
*** Edge anti-aliasing disabled.
+
** Optimized particle and texture settings - leans towards better performance.
−
*** Screen Space Ambient Occlusion disabled.
+
** Increased FPS by reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.
−
*** Performance optimized particle, decal and texture settings.
 
  
  
−
Here's some slightly older screenshots showing the differences between the configs and how they compare to the stock Crysis settings:
+
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/performance-optimized/user.cfg Best performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
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[https://discord.com/channels/737008557878411294/737017293422460978/746136342785949726 Screenshots Comparison]
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* 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 enabled - faster, less accurate version.
 +
** Performance optimized light, particle, decal and texture settings.
 +
** Increased FPS by further reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.
 +
 
 +
== User.cfg - Memory Optimized ==
 +
 
 +
New for April 2024 - Low memory usage versions of the above for players that have CTD (crash to desktop) problems! <br>
 +
They enable Crysis's texture streaming mode which skips caching textures into memory and loads them as they are needed. <br>
 +
This uses less memory initially and gives more game time before Crysis becomes unstable.
 +
 
 +
*Will reduce crash-to-desktop (CTDs) for some players that go over 3200 MB memory in-game (check with F10 toggle).
 +
*Very minor stuttering during the first minutes of a map might occur as textures are loaded.
 +
*Some static textures will initially be in lower resolution for a few moments until they load their highest level of detail.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
DOWNLOAD LINKS - Memory Optimized texture streaming enabled:
 +
 
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/high-quality-lowmem/user.cfg Low memory & Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
 
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/balanced-lowmem/user.cfg Low memory & Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
 
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/performance-optimized-lowmem/user.cfg Low memory & Best performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
DOWNLOAD LINKS - Memory Optimized texture streaming and Crysis low resolution texture pack enabled (even more memory saving):
 +
* Uses Crysis's low resolution texture pack which saves even more memory. Texture quality on some static objects such as rock formations will be noticeably lower.
 +
* Asset textures (mechs, tanks, MWLL specific objects, etc) will still have their original high resolution textures.
 +
 
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/high-quality-extralowmem/user.cfg Lowest memory & Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
 
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/balanced-extralowmem/user.cfg Lowest memory & Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
 
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/performance-optimized-extralowmem/user.cfg Lowest memory & Best performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
New preset for low end systems:<br>
 +
[https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/ultra-performance-extralowmem/user.cfg Lowest memory & Ultra performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024] (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)
 +
* Set for ultra performance oriented visuals. FPS faster than stock Crysis Medium graphics settings while still looking better (avoids opaque water bug).
 +
** Very low shadow draw distances.
 +
** Screen Space Ambient Occlusion disabled.
 +
** Best performance optimized light, particle, decal, shadow and texture settings.
 +
** Increased FPS by further reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
To easily browse to the correct location to place the user.cfg, start the MWLL Launcher and towards the bottom left corner of the MWLL Launcher, click Open User Data Folder. In the Explorer window, double click MWLL and then double click Client.
 +
 
 +
Alternatively, you can browse to the correct folder by copy/pasting this into your Explorer window: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client
 +
 
 +
==Screenshots user.cfg - TC_LostHope==
 +
<gallery mode="slideshow" showthumbnails heights=100px style="display: block; margin-top:3px; margin-left:2%; margin-right:2%; text-align: center; font-size:16px; padding:0px;">
 +
file:LostHope-high-1900.png|thumb|600px|alt=Crysis High setting|Crysis High setting
 +
file:LostHope-wikihigh-1900.png|thumb|600px|alt=Optimized High Quality user.cfg|High Quality user.cfg
 +
file:LostHope-wikibalanced-1900.png|thumb|600px|alt=Optimized Balanced Quality user.cfg|Balanced Quality user.cfg
 +
file:LostHope-wikiperf-1900.png|thumb|600px|alt=Optimized Performance user.cfg|Performance user.cfg
 +
file:LostHope-med-1900.png|thumb|600px|alt=Crysis Medium setting|Crysis Medium setting
 +
</gallery>
 +
 
 +
View all of the [https://mwll.12vr.org/wiki/screenshots/ Screenshots Comparison] showing the differences between the user.cfg configurations and how they compare to the stock Crysis settings.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
== The Settings 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:
 +
 
 +
* 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.
 +
 
 +
* 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. Crysis's Full screen antialiasing (FSAA) consumes more memory which may cause crashes on larger maps.
 +
 
 +
* Disabling FULLSCREEN mode 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. Solutions:
 +
** 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
 +
** Replace your bin64\crysis.exe with the 64 bit Crysis.exe file from https://github.com/ccomrade/c1-launcher/releases/download/v6/c1-launcher-v6-build-wars.zip that fixes the 24 Hz FPS HDMI issue.
 +
 
 +
=== Advanced Settings ===
 +
<div style="width:502px; background-color:#4c4c4c; border: 1px solid #6c6c6c; border-radius:2px; padding:3px 3px 8px 3px; float:right; margin-left:10px; margin-top:5px;">
 +
[[File:Ingamesettings.png|center|border|500px]]
 +
</div>
 +
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. <br>
 +
* ''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 above.
 +
 
 +
=== 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.
 +
 
 +
==Help==
 +
Consider joining the MWLL Discord community [https://discord.me/mwll here] to meet up with other MWLL players and ask for help with user.cfg config files.<br>
 +
For more information on how to install, customize, or write your own User.cfg file, see the page on [[Console_Variables#The_User.cfg_File|Console Variables.]]
  
  
  
 +
==Outdated CFGs==
  
−
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.
+
WARNING! 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:
 
There are multiple bugs in the following user.cfgs! DO NOT USE THEM WITHOUT CAREFULLY ANALYZING THEM! At the minimum, change the following:
Line 108: Line 193:
  
 
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.
 
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, 10 mode from the launcher
+
* Running the game in DX9 instead of DX10 mode from the launcher
−
* Running the game in fullscreen, or windowed mode
 
 
* Running the game in Windows Compatibility mode for Windows 8, Windows 7.1 (Can be found by right-clicking the launcher, and opening 'Properties')
 
* 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|Troubleshooting Guide]]
 
These, and a few more steps can be found in the [[Troubleshooting|Troubleshooting Guide]]

Latest revision as of 22:02, 27 April 2024

Since MWLL is built off of the original Crysis engine, massive intense battles may occasionally slow your FPS on an older low to mid range computer or laptop as Crysis doesn't take advantage of using multiple CPU cores. However, by using the preset performance optimized user.cfg available below and then optionally toggling shadow rendering to low with the F4 key, you can enjoy a relatively smooth MWLL experience.

A modern Ryzen 5000+ or Intel 12000+ series non-mobile CPU will be able to deliver 60+ FPS most of the time with the default MWLL settings.

TL;DR: For best stability and performance while keeping high visual fidelity, run at 1080p (1920x1080) or lower resolution and select one of the three (HQ/Balanced/Performance) user.cfg files mentioned below.
If you're crashing to desktop (CTD) after a while, use the memory optimized versions here.

User.cfg

Usercfghome.png

User.cfg is the file that provides fine-grained control over the graphical quality of MWLL. The three downloadable user.cfg files below contain settings that improve the visual quality of the game while also increasing performance over Crysis's stock graphics settings. The optimized balanced user.cfg increases FPS close to Crysis Medium settings but with quality of Crysis High settings while increasing shadow rendering distances. Performance optimized user.cfg slightly reduces object quality and shadow rendering distance while HQ user.cfg increases them.

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.)

To easily browse to the correct location, start the MWLL Launcher and towards the bottom left corner of the MWLL Launcher, click Open User Data Folder. In the Explorer window, double click MWLL and then double click Client.

Alternatively, you can browse to the correct folder by copy/pasting this into your Explorer window: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client


NOTE: The 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) consumes more memory which may cause crashes on larger maps, 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 user.cfg files below all feature mapped function keys that toggle a few key settings:

  • F4 toggles shadow rendering distance between high quality and FPS improved low
  • F9 toggles Shader post processing (Very slightly increases FPS but some maps look dull / desaturated with it disabled, removes depth of field blur effect while zooming, removes god-rays and shimmering underwater effects)
  • F10 toggles Crysis's FPS and memory 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.


DOWNLOAD LINKS:

Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

  • 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.


Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

  • 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.


Best performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

  • 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 enabled - faster, less accurate version.
    • Performance optimized light, particle, decal and texture settings.
    • Increased FPS by further reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.

User.cfg - Memory Optimized

New for April 2024 - Low memory usage versions of the above for players that have CTD (crash to desktop) problems!
They enable Crysis's texture streaming mode which skips caching textures into memory and loads them as they are needed.
This uses less memory initially and gives more game time before Crysis becomes unstable.

  • Will reduce crash-to-desktop (CTDs) for some players that go over 3200 MB memory in-game (check with F10 toggle).
  • Very minor stuttering during the first minutes of a map might occur as textures are loaded.
  • Some static textures will initially be in lower resolution for a few moments until they load their highest level of detail.


DOWNLOAD LINKS - Memory Optimized texture streaming enabled:

Low memory & Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

Low memory & Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

Low memory & Best performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)


DOWNLOAD LINKS - Memory Optimized texture streaming and Crysis low resolution texture pack enabled (even more memory saving):

  • Uses Crysis's low resolution texture pack which saves even more memory. Texture quality on some static objects such as rock formations will be noticeably lower.
  • Asset textures (mechs, tanks, MWLL specific objects, etc) will still have their original high resolution textures.

Lowest memory & Highest quality visuals and good performance Preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

Lowest memory & Balanced quality vs performance preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

Lowest memory & Best performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)


New preset for low end systems:
Lowest memory & Ultra performance optimized preset - Updated April 2024 (right-click > Save link/file and place into My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client)

  • Set for ultra performance oriented visuals. FPS faster than stock Crysis Medium graphics settings while still looking better (avoids opaque water bug).
    • Very low shadow draw distances.
    • Screen Space Ambient Occlusion disabled.
    • Best performance optimized light, particle, decal, shadow and texture settings.
    • Increased FPS by further reducing distant level of detail rendering for static objects.


To easily browse to the correct location to place the user.cfg, start the MWLL Launcher and towards the bottom left corner of the MWLL Launcher, click Open User Data Folder. In the Explorer window, double click MWLL and then double click Client.

Alternatively, you can browse to the correct folder by copy/pasting this into your Explorer window: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Crysis Wars\MWLL\Client

Screenshots user.cfg - TC_LostHope

  • Crysis High setting

    Crysis High setting

  • Optimized High Quality user.cfg

    High Quality user.cfg

  • Optimized Balanced Quality user.cfg

    Balanced Quality user.cfg

  • Optimized Performance user.cfg

    Performance user.cfg

  • Crysis Medium setting

    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.


The Settings 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:

  • 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.
  • 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. Crysis's Full screen antialiasing (FSAA) consumes more memory which may cause crashes on larger maps.

Advanced Settings

Ingamesettings.png

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 above.

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.

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

WARNING! 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

(OLD) High Visuals 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


Getting Started
Gameplay & Combat
Software
Misc.
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