My useroptions is a little different to what I've seen in guides and stuff. The main thing that got me most fps is to lower the number of "ParticleDistanceScale" which in my Useroptions file is set to "0.000010". This means that tracers and explosions and all particles will only be rendered if they are very close to you. Your cpu has less work to do. I never go under 60fps. [Rendering] GraphicsQuality=5 TextureQuality=0 ShadowQuality=0 RenderDistance=987.000000 Gamma=0.500000 MaximumFPS=59 UseLod0a=1 OverallQuality=-1 LightingQuality=1 EffectsQuality=1 TerrainQuality=1 FloraQuality=4 ModelQuality=1 VerticalFOV=74 ParticleLOD=0 ParticleDistanceScale=0.000010 FogShadowsEnable=0 MotionBlur=0 VSync=0 AO=0 BloomEnabled=0 Smoothing=0 UseAspectFOV=0 [Terrain] RenderFlora=Off [Sound] Master=0.400000 Music=0.000000 Game=0.300000 Dialog=0.300000 UI=1.000000 UseFloat32Output=0 ExclusiveMode=0 HitIndicator=0 LowAmmoIndicator=0 VehicleChatter=1 IdleMusic=0 UseHighQualityReverb=0 MaxVoices=48 SampleRate=44100 OutputDeviceName=Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Just out of curiosity, doesn't the ability to do this allow people a gameplay advantage? I always just play on ultra because I enjoy the eye candy more than I do the few extra fps I'd potentially get on a lower setting. But if people who turn off certain graphics options actually have a gameplay advantage in addition to a framerate advantage and wall-climbing advantage, that's really pretty ridiculous.
Obviously not SOE anymore but SOE said that you can't get banned or anything like that by editing useroptions.ini. It does give an advantage but it's just a means of getting more fps. However, everyone has the opportunity to turn off/down graphics options so it's not like it's cheating.
Well what I meant is that if a player turns off fog/smoke but I don't, there will be scenarios where they can see me but I can't see them. Same goes for explosions and other particles. I'm just surprised SOE/DBG allows changing these things in the useroptions file.
This has always been the case and the reason there are graphic settings that allow you to adjust the parameters. This is due to the fact that not all computers have the same capabilities (lower end PCs vs. higher end PCs). If you computer can handle the graphics being at a higher setting without degrading the performance of the game then you should use those settings. Otherwise you should adjust your setting to allow the game to perform better on hardware that has problems using higher settings.
Grass thingy setting for example work against his user. Not all the grass is rendered by default. If you turn off your setting you will see how some of the bushes and big grass disappear which means you THINK you hide in the grass but the same grass is not rendering for the guy who have turned it off.