Tera Nexus Times

The current nexus times are:

Saturday, Sunday—2 a.m., noon, 7 p.m. pst
Monday, Friday—noon, 7 p.m. pst
Tuesday, Thursday—6 p.m. pst


Saturday, May 18, 2013

Full break down of S1Engine.ini

So I've done a few graphical guides to improve how Tera Online's performance works and also explained why the client is so terable. I figured it would be a good idea to provide a full break down for people that are looking for more ways to modify performance or for the players that want to try and mess with max quality and max out the game even more on current computers.

If you've used other settings from the other guides your S1Engine.ini file will be read only you need to take that off to modify it further and also keep in mind that each person's card and the effect that some of the settings will have on your computer might differ person to person. But this will at least educate you to what each of the confusing settings do.

MaxParticleResize=0

While set to 0 this allows an unlimited number of particles to be displayed for medium performance this number would range between 1000 and 10000 depending on your video cards abilities. Setting the value to below 100 effects will disappear all together.


If you notice the size of the effect is shrunk while setting it to 3 setting this to 1 will crash the game.





MaxParticleResizeWarn=0

Adds a log if particle's go higher then this number.

bCheckParticleRenderSize=True

When set to true it will perform particle checks for size.

bDisablePhysXHardwareSupport=False

This setting is related to enabling / disabling  PhysX Hardware on video cards not sure what this will do for older cards which have no PhysX support but if it is set to True with a newer card this will cause issues.

bInitializeShadersOnDemand=False

Change if you experience crashes using a nvidia video card leave it to false for performance otherwise.

DisableATITextureFilterOptimizationChecks=True

This is an ATI troubleshooting option and should be set to false only if you are having issues.

UseMinimalNVIDIADriverShaderOptimization=False

When set to true this can reduce stuttering on geforce 6 and 7.

PumpWindowMessagesWhenRenderThreadStalled=False

This is related to cut scenes and how they are rendered not sure whether this will do anything
and I have no cut scene problems so I have no reason to change this. But if you're having issues
this might be an answer.

bSmoothFrameRate=True
MinSmoothedFrameRate=22
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=62

The max frame rate for tera online is capped and the value gets determined by the MaxSmoothedFrameRate which is by default is set to 62FPS. Developers have done this to prevent FPS spikes. If you set this to false you would remove the FPS cap. If your FPS jerks often you would be best setting it back to True. By uncapping your FPS you will not increase overall performance. While set to True the settings MaxSmoothedFrameRate and MinSmoothedFrameRate will be enforced this allows you to smooth how the FPS will look usually it is best to set the cap to match
your computers refresh rate even with Vsync disabled frame rates above your refresh rate for the monitor will be partial frames. You can experiment with this setting to see if using a higher frame rate cap is better over smoothness and performance but keep in mind a low performing video card will most likely prefer smoothness and performance because that card will not hit much higher FPS in that case. Also keep in mind the engine itself has a cap of 90FPS regardless of settings and cannot be uncapped.

bClearAnimSetLinkupCachesOnLoadMap=True

This while set to true this will clear all animation set linkup caches while a map is loaded this needs to be set to true otherwise skeletal meshes will not load properly.

[System Settings]
StaticDecals=True

Static decals are posters markings in game that are decorations by the map designer these are not created by players. Setting this to false will make these not noticeable and can improve performance but it may not be that noticeable of a change.

DynamicDecals=True

These decals are the marks left by players using weapons on surrounding when set to false weapons will show impact but will not leave marks on scenery. Turning this to false can improve performance mostly in combat.

DynamicLights=True

This effects how realistic lighting is shown if you want a noticeable increase in performance especially during combat you can set this to false.  This will increase FPS 2x but the game looks darker.




My FPS in ZF is normally 15-25 but turning off dynamic lighting brings FPS to 50 to 62 FPS but makes it darker as you can see. This is with the 9000 series graphics card Nvidia 9800GT.


DynamicShadows=True

Controls interactive objects in the game and casts shadows on them disabling this can improve performance at the cost of realism. 

LightEnvironmentShadows=True

This setting controls whether sunlight creates shadows when set to false this will disable shadows for many objects.

CompositeDynamicLights=False

When set to true this enables a less accurate form of dynamic lighting that might improve performance but at the cost of image quality.

DirectionalLightmaps=True

This setting allows improved image quality and makes it so surfaces have additional depth and detailing setting this to False can increase performance but reduces quality made by surfaces making them appear flatter.

MotionBlur=True

This effect uses motion blur which adds blurring when turning or moving quickly you can disable this by setting it to false and you will gain performance while moving.

DepthOfField=True

This is an effect that simulates how objects are focused and are sharper then objects outside of the direct field of focus. Setting this to false can be used to improve performance.

ParticleLODBias=0

This will set the particle detail -1 is for the max but this can be lowered from 0 to 10 as well.

SkeletalMeshLODBias=0

This determines the character quality 0 is the highest and 4 is the lowest.

AllowD3D10=False

This when changed to True would force the game to play in direct x 10 but this will not work in tera when tried it the game would not load.

DropParticleDistortion=False

When set to True the particles based on the world are dropped if this is allowed. The effects are reduced and game performance will be increased while it is on.

Distortion=True

Adds distortion effects when something explodes or smokes.

Bloom=True

Makes the game look more realistic adding extra lighting.

UseHighQualityBloom=True

When enabled uses a higher quality of bloom effect turning this to false can improve game performance without too much of a notiable difference in quality.

bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=False

Controls soft shadow rendering known as PCF when set to false it removes soft filtered smudged edges for shadows which may increase performance but makes the shadows look more block like.

bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=True

Increases the quality of shadows turning this off will decrease shadow quality and increase performance.

bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=True

This will allow fore ground shadows setting this to false will remove all of the shadows and increase performance.

bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=True

This enables fore ground self shadows for your character turning this to false will remove these shadows and increase performance.

FXAA=False

Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing When enabled it allows anti-aliasing, rendering high-performance visuals faster and more completely. Smooth's edges in all pixels on the screen, including those inside alpha-blended textures and those resulting from pixel shader effects.

MaxAnisotropy=4

This can be set between 2 or 4 and some newer cards can go as high as 16 setting this higher will make the game take more time to load textures but will improve the quality of the game and lower performance. This makes distant textures more clear.

MaxMultisamples=1

This setting controls multi-sampling which is used to reduce jaggedness.

MinShadowResolution=70
MaxShadowResolution=2048

Both of these determine minimum and maximum values for shadow resolution the higher the minimum is set to the more dark and rich shadows appear the lower the maximum value the more shadows will appear less noticeable and gray. Lowering and raising these resolutions will result in performance drops or rises and visual errors. The higher you raise it the more edges of shadows might seem jagged depending on other filter settings. Changing this lower will improve FPS you should change it to 512 if you plan on modifying this.

ResX=1440
ResY=900

Can be used to try out custom sizes for resolution if you cannot access the settings in game to change them or want a custom setting.

ScreenPercentage=100.000000

This setting effects how the game looks setting this below 50% will higher performance but the game will look block like or blurry.

FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=1.000000

Changing this to 0.000000 will remove grass from the game and increase performance.

ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.273240

This modifies smoothness of shadows setting this to 0 removes shadows while higher values will increase quality of shadows.

UseVsync=False

While disabled you get more performance when set to true vertical synchronization keeps FPS with respect to monitors refresh rate.

OneFrameThreadLag=True

When turned off greatly improves performance when turned on it effects screen tearing and partial frames.

FogVolumes=True

When set to false this would disable volumetric fog.

LensFlares=True

This causes a lens flare effect when set to false this would remove this effect of the look of bright sunlight.
OnlyStreamInTextures=False

When set to true this will avoid loading textures that are not in use increasing quality of how fast textures load.

SpeedTreeLeaves=True
SpeedTreeFronds=True

These control how foliage is rendered when set to false this will remove some of the foliage which can improve performance and increase visibility.

If I missed any and your curious what they do feel free to post in the comments and ask and I'll add more to the article but this covers most of the effects which modify performance in game.

31 comments:

  1. Hi, 1st of all thx for guide, it helps me a lot. But i have a small issue, effect like fire breath from nexus dragon (these circles on land) are not visible. What should i change to make them visible ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For some reason some video cards can't render the circles at all but MaxParticleResize is the one which effects the size of effects and how they are displayed so if your using that most likely you might wanna change it back if your no longer able to see the fire. Otherwise it might be a loading problem with your video since all of the other modifications just effect lighting and textures and the way things are displayed. I was hoping tera would have a way to completely disable effects to stop the lag in the alliance patch but they don't have anything like that.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for the AMAZING guide and for taking the time to test all this Settings Great Job.

    My problem is this: I got the newest Nvidia Graphics card, 765M for notebook obviously, its 2gb and really good.

    But even tough i have that card, I experience 2 major problems:
    1. Cities are impossible to go to, even if I activate "low performance trimming" the FPS will increase but the game will have sudden FPS drops and will freeze ALL THE TIME, is there anything I can do to avoid this without losing too much graphics quality? I did reduce the max players to 10 but no change.

    2. Whenever i shot with my main archer skill (the one you have to charge alot), the skill itself when shot decreases my FPS from 40 to 20, is like that, release the arrow and get 20FPS Less, so imagine in parties when ALOT of people are using skills, my FPS will be 20 all the time, even tough putting "skill detais" to 1 on options...

    Any Ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The issue with towns or places with alot of players is that laptops lack the Over powered CPU which is the main cause for rendering problems even when set to a low amount of objects / players rendered on a screen you still have titles or the instance of these players since their mesh's still load some what. In the end theres really not much you can do about that. And there's no way to remove effects completely either which totally sucks. But make sure you run though the nvidia settings for your card too cause that will help a lot too if you have not checked it out search tera tweaking.

      Delete
    2. As it turns out, my video card was NOT updated (Even tough i went to nvidia webstite and did the automatic driver serach, which obviously sucks and didn't work, so I downloaded manually the correct driver.

      Updated and fixed it. Got 45-60 FPS anywhere, even in towns and parties =)

      Delete
    3. Hi, I also have a GTX 765M but only got like 30-40 FPS on tera.. I would like to know which driver version you have on your 765M and what's your settings on tera? I would like also to have 45-60 like you..Thanks a lot

      Delete
    4. You can run TERA on ultra if you tweak your res to 1600 x 900 i got the 720M and run it like a charm.
      The newest version is: 337.88 WHQL or use the driver checker of nvidia but make sure you got java else it will not work

      Delete
  3. Hello, really thanks for this guide, you helped me alot, but i did even more changes suggested on forum, and now dont know what is causing this, but my loading screen images are missing, there are just black screens and loading bar. Do you know what to change, to get these loading screens back?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What video card are you using? and is the drivers updated correctly for that video card. None of the S1engine.ini changes will effect the loading screen but if you copied some of the modifications from the forums chances are something within that took away the delay with the first animation movie and took away the option to view loading screens. But everything provided from this topic and the performance topic should not effect your ability to load the loading screens. Make sure your flash player is updated too.

      Delete
  4. Hi ummm, Sorry I'm not familiar with stuff like this but I use the Geforce GTS450 Graphics card my screen freezes every 5-10seconds in combat or while in town but while in town it freezes ever 1-3seconds. I have been trying to fix this issue and then one of the people in-game told me about this topic here on how to fix it. I can;t seem to find which File it is where I can change the Codex code of this. O_O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On a 64bit the folder is C:\Program Files (x86)\TERA\Client\S1Game\Config\S1engine.ini

      32bit: C:\Program Files\TERA\Client\S1Game\Config\S1engine.ini

      S1engine.ini needs to be set as read only for changes to not be replaced by the client. But if your having freezing problems with the card itself it could be a result of:
      1.video card overheating
      2. Bottleneck issues with the video (not having a powerful enough CPU to support the video card)
      3. Bad drivers for the video card
      4. Flash player isnt updated.

      You might want to look into idenfitying what the exact problem is cause while these changes can improve framerate if there's a hardware or software issue outside of the game effecting your play changing S1engine will not resolve it.

      Delete
  5. Do you have any ideas on how to enable the hitbox and collision walls via the engine.ini?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Collision is server side so we cant effect that by changing settings within the client unfortantly. And when people desync really bad it's because of lack of internet, Lag switching ect this is one downfall that tera has.

      Delete
  6. Hey. I changed a few things such as dynamic lighting, bloom and a few other related to lighting and shading. Anyways now everything in the background looks really weird. Like flashing rainbows. What caused this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When you remove the bloom it basically changes the way that lighting hits models some of the changes aren't very pleasant to look at but they do change fps sticking to changing dynamic lighting is a decent change which will have a good effect on fps and the game will still look good (better in my opinion) Another change you can consider making is:

      MinShadowResolution=70
      MaxShadowResolution=2048
      Change max resolution and lower it cause 2048 is as if your using 2048 resolution and shadows will always cover more space then what your monitor is set to so lowering this will give shadow's reach less limits and make your game not load 2048 bits worth of shadow for a monitor which might only be 1280x800 or less.

      Delete
    2. Hi there got the same problem, textures are colored like rainbows now.
      Performance is pretty much better now but the looks make me get eyecancer :D.
      Im trying to fix that issue now and how performance stays good.

      Delete
    3. Changed these 2 and now its not rainbowstile anymore, hope it helps:

      DirectionalLightmaps=True
      DropParticleDistortion=False

      Delete
  7. Hi,

    I like Your blog very much and when I can I try to read it to get myself updated with every information provided.

    I found this guide very useful to me, I've read also other related posts of Your blog about tweaking core settings for improving game experience.

    I tried to modify almost every settings and I can say lag experience especially at Nexus is not a problem now, while I can still play TERA with a good graphical "rendering" in general (apart some bad colors/lighting on backgrounds, walls etc., when in dungeons).

    My main issue is that when in Wonderholme or Nexus Traverse I can't notice anymore the colors of effects on the ground when monsters/bosses cast their AoE attacks: these colored circles are an important signal, a sort of warning, to be prepared to avoid/dodge their attacks, for not being caught in their area (usually these attacks are the worst with lethal debuffs/stuns/immobilize 'til death).
    So during last days I had problems when runnign e.g. Nexus Traverse, but especially Wonderholme's instances: I tried to change and put back some of these settings to their original values, but still I've not solved the problem and cannot understand what are the voices inside the INI file effecting the disappearing of colors of effects on the ground when an important boss/bam attack is casted.

    Sorry for long question, here You can read how it is at this time my actual S1Engine.ini file, related only to the part to be modified You explained in Your guide:


    [SystemSettings]
    StaticDecals=False
    DynamicDecals=False
    DynamicLights=False
    DynamicShadows=False
    LightEnvironmentShadows=False
    CompositeDynamicLights=False
    DirectionalLightmaps=True
    MotionBlur=False
    DepthOfField=False
    AmbientOcclusion=True
    Bloom=False
    UseHighQualityBloom=False
    Distortion=False
    DropParticleDistortion=True
    SpeedTreeLeaves=False
    SpeedTreeFronds=False
    OnlyStreamInTextures=True
    LensFlares=False
    FogVolumes=False
    FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
    OneFrameThreadLag=False
    UseVsync=False
    UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
    Fullscreen=False
    AllowD3D10=False
    SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
    ParticleLODBias=0
    DetailMode=2
    ShadowFilterQualityBias=0
    MaxAnisotropy=4
    MaxMultisamples=1
    MinShadowResolution=70
    MaxShadowResolution=2048
    ShadowFadeResolution=128
    ShadowFadeExponent=2.200000
    ResX=1360
    ResY=768
    ScreenPercentage=100.000000
    SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
    FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=0.000000
    ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.273240
    bEnableVSMShadows=False
    bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=False
    bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=False
    bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=False
    bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=False

    Where am I wrong?
    Hope You could help me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try this instead:

      StaticDecals=False
      DynamicDecals=False
      DynamicLights=False
      DynamicShadows=False
      LightEnvironmentShadows=False
      CompositeDynamicLights=False
      DirectionalLightmaps=True
      MotionBlur=False
      DepthOfField=False
      AmbientOcclusion=True
      Bloom=False
      UseHighQualityBloom=False
      Distortion=False
      DropParticleDistortion=False
      SpeedTreeLeaves=False
      SpeedTreeFronds=False
      OnlyStreamInTextures=False
      LensFlares=True
      FogVolumes=True
      FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
      OneFrameThreadLag=True
      UseVsync=False
      UpscaleScreenPercentage=True
      Fullscreen=True
      AllowD3D10=False
      SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
      ParticleLODBias=0
      DetailMode=0
      ShadowFilterQualityBias=0
      MaxAnisotropy=2
      MaxMultisamples=1
      MinShadowResolution=70
      MaxShadowResolution=512
      ShadowFadeResolution=128
      ShadowFadeExponent=2.200000
      ResX=1440
      ResY=900
      ScreenPercentage=100.000000
      SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000000
      FoliageDrawRadiusMultiplier=1.000000
      ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.273240
      bEnableVSMShadows=False
      bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=False
      bAllowBetterModulatedShadows=False
      bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=True
      bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=True

      And see if you can see the effects in game once again. This is what my friend skoll used during KN20's you can always use more then one file for certain dungeons just by switching between them as well.

      Delete
    2. Hi, thank You for detailed explanation and sorry if my comment is so late.
      I've tried to set back again to their original values (True), the 2 voices: StaticDecals
      DynamicDecals

      Now I can notice again the effects on the ground of Bosses' and BAMS' AoEs (Nexus Traverse, Wonderhome).

      To say the truth, I let also the recent applied patch modify my game folder files, plus I updated my graphic cards drivers (AMD Radeon HD 7700M Series and Intel (R) HD Graphics 4000).
      But I think, even if not sure at all, the edit of static and dynamic decals settings were, at least in my case, the issue.
      I would start to work on Your solution of preparing and using different S1Engine.ini only readable files, depending from situation (never tried KN20 'til now, not ready for it atm).

      Delete
    3. It's no problem I hope that it helps it does seem like Radeon graphics cards don't allow you to access all the changes which nividia allows you to change as well which also puts you into limitations as well.

      Delete
  8. I have a question. What is a good setting for the MaxParticleResize setting? I don't want my effects to be too small, but I don't want it to drop my FPS if it's to big. What do you recommend?

    Also, abit confused since you say setting it to below 100 makes the effects disappear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'd have to test cause I didn't do that much messing with it to be honest.

      Delete
  9. hey... how can I improve the graphics in the distance ?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Absolutely amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks.
    Mow my fps are 50-80, currently 60.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I no longer have the spell indicators for when a boss is about to attack? what do i change back to get them back?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. dynamic decals needs to be true

      Delete
    2. If you mean the indicators on the floor for AoE attacks, then it should be DynamicDecals=True

      Delete
  13. Hai! I got a question cause i have really NO ideas how to set it up >.> and i barelly understand a thing here -.-

    Everything works just fine (i playing on laptop with AMD GC)just when i set lightning at 2 game slows like hell..

    So could someone help me set it out somehow?

    I don't care about blrus,water,shadows,(mayby bloom )i just wanna enjoy the game on max settings without involving too much in ini file . When i turn on light on 2 i got barelly 15-20 fps while without 30-50 idk if FPS is that important? Soz as a girl i just don't understand half if these options halp.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Laptops usually have more issues playing the game because the game is very CPU intensive. So you might not really see much effects from the settings. Also I haven't played the game for atleast a year so I'm not too sure whether the settings for most of these have changed.

      Delete

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