Ok, I've been dinking around with custom .wtf files. Your mileage may vary. I have tested this on my dual G5 2ghz, and iBook 900mhz. I'm sure there is more that can be done to eek out some extra fps. I just strove for a balance of detail and performance. I have made a .wtf that gives me the following results:
- better FPS in graphic intensive areas such as StormWind or riding Gryphons/Hippogriffs
- better responsiveness when panning around
To achieve this, I turned off or decreased the following:
- Doodad alpha channels (grass, etc)
- Doodad Animation
- Map Shadows
- Land texture smoothing
- Doodad culling level
- Max lights
- Shadow mip level
- Alpha level
- Trilinear filtering
- Farclip
- Specular shading
- Pixel shading
- Water level-of-detail
- Antistropic filtering
- Texture level-of-detail distance
- Horizon farclip
- Show footprints
- Show footprint particles
- Show breath
- Sky cloud level-of-detail
- Other mojo I forgot
How to install- [1]Open /path-to-wow/WTF/. Copy 'Config.wtf' to somewhere totally different for safe keeping
[2]Duplicate 'Config.wtf' and name it something different, like 'Config-normal.wtf'
[3]Add these lines to the Config-normal.wtf if they are not already present Important for default detail settings retention!
SET violenceLevel "2"
SET SkyCloudLOD "1"
SET ShowBreath "1"
SET showfootprintparticles "1"
SET showGUIDs "1"
SET shadowLevel "1"
SET alphaLevel "1"
[4]Copy the 'Config-low.wtf' file below into a new text editor window save it to the folder from step 1
[5]Fire up WOW, log in.
[6]Hit the tilde key (`) to bring down the console
[7]Type in 'Config-low', the settings will be applied and the graphics engine restarted
[8]Type in 'Config-standard' to revert to your previous settings
EDIT:
I appended some default settings that need to be in the 'Config-standard.wtf' file in order to be reverted back to normal. If you already applied this and don't have your original 'Config.wtf' file, don't worry. I have one from a fresh install that hasn't been touched. Email me if you need me to bounce it to you.
Be Careful!
Be careful to follow these steps, so your default settings won't be overritten. I found out the hard way that the Config.wtf file is a temporary file. Here I was, thinking that it was the default out-of-the-box settings, and that the account specific prefs would be stored in the 'Account/USERNAME' folder. Boy was I wrong!
Notes
The last line of the Config-low.wtf is 'gxrestart'. If you don't call this function, some of changes will only be viewable upon game restart. (its good to append this to 'Config-standard' too.
Also! I noticed that WOW defaulted to 60hz for any resolution I selected. What an eyesore! So I manually changed mine to '100'. Please make sure that you change this to a setting your monitor plays well with.
Here are a few more keyboard commands that I found interesting:
Ctrl+Y - Displays/Hides current player statistics.
Ctrl+R - Displays/Hides current FPS.
Alt+Z - Displays/Hides UI
Alt+P - Displays/Hides graphic rendering statistics.
Alt+B - Displays/Hides player movement boundaries.
Hope this helps people. Please share your improvements and opinions for everyone to benefit!
-------------- save the lines below to a new file called Config-low.wtf --------
// I checked to see whether comments (ie //comment here) would muck up the system and apparently they don't.
// So here is the low res config, with annotations (default is noted with 'def=value'):
SET gxColorBits "24" // Sets the color bits to be used <16, 24, or 30>
SET gxDepthBits "24" // Sets the color depth to be used <16, 24, or 32>
SET gxResolution "1024x768" // Sets the color depth to be used
SET gxRefresh "100" // def=60 Sets the refresh rate <60, 70, 72, 75, 85, 90, 100, 120, 160, 180, 200>
SET gxApi "direct3d" // Sets the 3d api to render <Direct3d, OpenGL> *Disabled* uses OpenGL
SET gxVSync "1" // Toggles vertical sync on/off <0, 1>
SET gxWindow "0" // Toggles windowed mode on/off <0, 1>
SET hwDetect "0" // Toggles hardware detection on/off <0, 1>
SET lod "0" // def=1 Toggles land smoothing on/off <0, 1>
SET fullAlpha "0" // def=1 Toggles full alpha on doodads on/off <0, 1>
SET doodadAnim "0" // def=1 Toggles doodad animation on/off <0, 1>
SET mapShadows "0" // def=1 Toggles terrain shadows on/off <0, 1>
SET lightMaps "(null)" // Always returns (null)
SET lodDist "50.000000" // def=100.000000 Sets the land smoothing maximum distance from player in feet <50-250>
SET SmallCull "0.005000" // def=0.040000 Sets the doodad culling level <0.001-2.0>
SET DistCull "250.000000" // def=500.000000 Sets the doodad culling level <1.0-888.888916>
SET MaxLights "3" // def=4 Sets the maximum number of simultaenous light sources <0-8>
SET shadowLevel "0" // Toggles the shadow mip level on/off <0, 1>
SET alphaLevel "0" // Toggles the alpha mip level on/off <0, 1>
SET texLodBias "0.700000" // Unknown
SET trilinear "0" //def=1 Toggles trilinear filtering on/off <0, 1>
SET frillDensity "24" // Sets doodad density levels <1-128>
SET farclip "300.000000" // Sets the maximum distance you can see <177-777>
SET nearclip "0.1" // Sets the minimum distance you can see <177-777>
SET specular "0" // def=1 Toggles specular shading on/off <0, 1>
SET mapObjOverbright "0" // Unknown
SET pixelShaders "0" // def=1 Toggles pixel shading shading on/off <0, 1>
SET particleDensity "0.500000" // def=1.000000 Sets particle density level <0.3-1>
SET unitDrawDist "100.000000" // def=120.000000 Sets the unit draw maximum distance <20-150>
SET waterLOD "0" // def=1 Toggles water smoothing effects on/off <0, 1>
SET baseMip "0" // <0, 1>
SET anisotropic "1" // Sets anisotropic filtering level <1-16>
SET textureLodDist "450.0" // def=777.0 Sets the maximum distance for the game to texture <80-777>
SET horizonfarclip "1061" // def=2112 Unknown. Assuming distance in feet when the map textures drop off
SET ErrorFileLog "0" // Toggles logging of errors on/off <0, 1>
SET Errors "0" // Toggles error display on/off <0, 1>
SET ShowErrors "1" // Unknown if this is the same as above config
SET ErrorLevelMin "1" // Unknown
SET ErrorLevelMax "3" // Unknown
SET ErrorFilter "all" // Sets type of errors shown. <general / world / ui / animation / models / objects / all> Note: Use 'except' to invert mask.
SET debugTargetInfo "0" // Toggles displaying target debugging information tooltips on/off <0, 1>
SET showGUIDs "0" // Toggles displaying GUID tooltips on/off <0, 1>
SET DesktopGamma "0" // Toggles use of desktop gamma on/off <0, 1>
SET Gamma "0.600000" // def=1.0 Unknown as to range of values accepted.
SET realmName "Beta Server"
SET realmAddress "172.16.9.12"
SET profanityFilter "1" // Toggles profanity filter on/off <0, 1>
SET SoundBufferSize "50" // Unknown
SET SoundOutputSystem "-1" // Unknown
SET SoundDriver "-1" // Unknown
SET SoundMixer "-1" // Unknown
SET SoundMinHardwareChannels "-1" // Unknown
SET SoundMaxHardwareChannels "12" // Unknown
SET SoundMixRate "44100" // Unknown
SET SoundSoftwareChannels "12" // Unknown
SET SoundInitFlags "4224" // Unknown
SET SoundMemoryCache "4" // Unknown
SET SoundRolloffFactor "4" // Unknown
SET MusicVolume "0.30000001192093" // Unknown
SET SoundVolume "1" // Unknown
SET MasterVolume "1" // Unknown
SET MasterSoundEffects "1" // Unknown
SET EnableMusic "1" // Toggles music on/off <0, 1>
SET realmList "wowlogon.battle.net" // Shows list of current realms
SET Joystick "0" // Toggles use of joystick on/off <0, 1>
SET mouseInvertYaw "0" // Toggles mouse inversion on/off <0, 1>
SET mouseInvertPitch "0" // Sets mouse inversion pitch level <0-100> (Isnt it inverted or NOT inverted? WTH?)
SET camerasmooth "1" // Unknown
SET cameraSmoothingRate "0.5" // Unknown
SET cameraLinearSpeed "8.33" // Unknown
SET cameraAngularSpeed "180.0" // Unknown
SET cameraAngleA "0" // Unknown
SET cameraDistanceA "5.55" // Unknown
SET cameraAngleB "20" // Unknown
SET cameraDistanceB "5.55" // Unknown
SET cameraAngleC "30" // Unknown
SET cameraDistanceC "13.88" // Unknown
SET cameraAngleD "0" // Unknown
SET cameraDistanceD "13.88" // Unknown
SET EnableGroupSpeech "1" // Toggles enabling hearing group speech on/off <0, 1>
SET EnableErrorSpeech "1" // Toggles enabling error sounds on/off <0, 1>
SET AmbienceVolume "1" // Unknown as to the range of values accepted
SET EnableAmbience "1" // Toggles enabling ambience sounds on/off
SET MapWaterSounds "1" // Toggles enabling water sounds on/off <0, 1>
SET statusBarText "1" // Toggles status bar text on/off <0, 1>
SET assistAttack "0" // Unknown
SET minimapZoom "3" // Sets default zoom level for HUD map. (Assuming 1-3)
SET minimapInsideZoom "0" // Unknown
SET combatLogOn "1" // Toggles combat logging on/off <0, 1>
SET UnitNameRenderMode "2" // Unknown
SET PlayerFadeMouseOver "0" // Unknown
SET PlayerFadeInRate "4096" // Unknown
SET PlayerFadeOutRate "4096" // Unknown
SET PlayerFadeOutAlpha "128" // Unknown
SET DamageFontHeight "0.035" // Unknown
SET DamageFontOutline "1" // Unknown
SET DamageFontFadeInTime "200" // Unknown
SET DamageFontTotalTime "1200" // Unknown
SET DamageFontAscendDistance "7" // Unknown
SET DamageFontCharSpacing "-0.001" // Unknown
SET DamageFontConeAngle "0" // Unknown
SET showsmartrects "0" // Toggles showing "smart" rectangles on/off <0, 1>
SET AdvancedChat "0" // Toggles advanced chat mode on/off <0, 1>
SET UnitNamePlayerName "1" // Unknown
SET UnitNamePlayerGuild "1" // Unknown
SET UnitNamePlayerTitle "1" // Unknown
SET UnitNameUnitName "1" // Unknown
SET UnitNameUnitGuild "1" // Unknown
SET UnitNameUnitTitle "1" // Unknown
SET UnitNameUnitSummonedBy "1" // Unknown
SET weapontrails "0" // def=1 Toggles weapon trails on/off <0, 1>
SET ObjectSelectionCircle "1" // Toggles the object selection circle or not. Turning it off will be confusing <0, 1>
SET DebugTargetPath "0" // Unknown
SET FootstepSounds "1" // Toggles playing footstep sounds on/off <0, 1>
SET showEffectsStandalone "1" // Unknown
SET CombatLogPartyRange "0" // Unknown
SET CombatLogRange "40" // Unknown
SET CombatDeathLogRange "60" // Unknown
SET CombatLogPeriodicSpells "0" // Unknown
SET showfootprints "0" // def=1 Toggles showing footprints on/off <0, 1>
SET showfootprintparticles "0" // def=1 Toggles showing footprints particulates on/off <0, 1>
SET ShowBreath "0" // def=1Toggles showing characters breath on/off <0, 1>
SET CombatModeMaxDistance "30.0f" // Unknown
SET UnitNameRenderOwn "0" // Unknown. Toggles your own name on/off? <0, 1>
SET violenceLevel "5" // def=2 Sets the violence level <0-5>
SET SkyCloudLOD "0" // def=1 Toggles sky texture effects/smoothing on/off <0, 1>
gxrestart
------------- end Config-low.wtf---------------
(NOTE: colors may vary in shade.)
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