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MUST READ!: All Mac Users, Boost Performence

Fizz Graves
Registered User
Join date: 4 Aug 2007
Posts: 4
03-03-2008 09:08
Hey everyone,

I have decided to release this information as I have finally worked out how to stop the viewer from acting up while exploring and building on the grid.

This has been tried and tested on a iMac Intel 2.16ghz G5 (White), Mac Book Pro Intel 2.0ghz (1st Gen) and a new Mac Mini Intel 1.83ghz.

I am currently running the follow hardware:

iMac 2.16ghz Intel Core Duo 2(White w/iSight Camera)
2.5gb DDR 2 RAM
x1600 ATI Readon Graphics w/ 128mb RAM

Leopard 1.5.2 w/graphics update.

Alter these settings but I don't know if these settings will help with the newer iMacs or Mac Book Pros but it may help.

Network Settings: 500kbs (if you show slow internet activity alter between 200kb and 500kb)

Graphics:
Draw Distance, 96. Alter this lower but no higher than 128.

Advanced Graphics:
Disable Vertex Shader ( On all Macs this causes sluggish issues)
Object Mesh Details: Slider Half Way
Flexible Mesh Details: In between the half way marker.
Tree Mesh Details: In between the half way marker.
Avatar Mesh Details: In between the half way marker.

Simple example:

|..........[]..........| (may need lowering on systems with less ram and Graphics ram)
|...[].................|
|...[].................|
|...[].................|

Advanced Graphics:

Graphics Card memory: 64mb
Fog Distance: 2.0
Max. Particle Count: 1024
Outfit Composite Limit: 3

Audio & Video settings:
Disabling voice and streaming music and video will also save on bandwidth. I have been able to alter some of these settings and leave them higher on windows but it's just not doable on mac. I have found these settings give the best performance without killing the graphics and experience to much.

You can bitch and moan all you want about my settings and saying how you won't do it because you want to see everything perfect but to be honest if it's running poorly you are just going to moan about that so before you post any pointless negative comments try it before you feel like bitching.

I hope this is helpful for some people out there, like I said I don't know what this will be like on the newer macs which are having issues, please post your feedback and results as I would like to hear back from all of you that have managed to change the way you play this.

One last thing press control shift and 1 to view your fps settings, normally i get around 15 - 20 which i normally get around 3 fps on a general default setting.

- Fizz ( Urban Nation )
AmiRyu Hosoi
Registered User
Join date: 1 Sep 2006
Posts: 103
Maxed out!
03-03-2008 09:56
Thanx for posting Fizz,

I am using the First Look Dazzle viewer.
The Windlightviewer crashes after 5 minutes...

I have Network Settings at 500kbs
and all the rest maxed out! And get 10/15 fps

Modelname: iMac
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processorspeed: 2.33 GHz
Cores: 2
L2-cache: 4 MB
Memory: 3 GB
Busspeed: 667 MHz

Visit me sometime,

Amiryu Hosoi,

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Missy Malaprop
♥Diaper Girl♥
Join date: 28 Oct 2005
Posts: 544
03-04-2008 22:42
I like the detail better than the distance....

If i am exploring or doing big big builds, i up the draw distance.. Most places I do not need to see far, and lowering the draw distance down to 64 really helps the FPS a lot. Its best to not have it set in a certain way and just leave it always... its best to change it depending on the circumstance. When I'm around one area... i up all the sliders max, draw distance 64.... exploring and looking far... i down sliders a lot and put the distance to 128, sometimes more.

I find no difference or performance on my machine when disabling the "Enable Vertex Shaders" ... same FPS, same performance... nothing noticable. Maybe it depends on the machine. Running a Macbook Pro original... Core Duo 2ghz, 2gb of ram, Radeon X1600 256mb