WoW Performance - slowdown in cities

Jimbo Mahoney · 11 Aug 2008 at 11:15

PC Spec in sig.

When I'm in Stormwind and it's busy, I get around 30 fps. I find this pretty shocking given the hardware I'm running.

WoW is set to 1600 x 1200, everything maxed, 16x AF, no AA.

I'll test to see if 800 x 600 speeds it up, in which case it's graphics related, otherwise it's CPU-related.

I'm sure I've noticed a performance hit since installing ATI CCC....

Strife212 · 11 Aug 2008 at 11:18

Wow is bizzare, same thing happens to me, specs in sig!

It's normal for the game I think. CPU limited as far as I know. Whack some AA on, it shouldn't reduce the FPS at all.

ttreaders · 11 Aug 2008 at 12:19

I lose fps in cities also but it doesn't effect the game in anyway for me.

If you want improved graphics by the way, make a macro of the below text and put it on your quickbar and press it then quit and log back on and it will take effect. The most noticable change is viewing distance.

/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient 0

fastwunz · 11 Aug 2008 at 12:53

ttreaders said:
I lose fps in cities also but it doesn't effect the game in anyway for me.

If you want improved graphics by the way, make a macro of the below text and put it on your quickbar and press it then quit and log back on and it will take effect. The most noticable change is viewing distance.

/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient 0

Thats the first i have heard of this - does it really work? screen shots?

Zefan · 11 Aug 2008 at 12:55

It does really work. Just google "Improved wow graphics" to find youtube videos.

The best thing about it is the character lighting, instead of simply changing the brightness of your entire character environmental lighting will now light only the side/part of your character that is exposed. Made a big difference to me.

Adsta · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:00

wow il have to try this when i get home.
Do you have to do it every time you log in ?

Zefan · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:01

Nope.

FrenchTart · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:06

This kind of thing has always happened in MMOs. When you're in a city usually there's far more player characters around you and much denser terrain, meaning more strain is placed on your system. Simple as.

Jimbo Mahoney · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:11

Aekeron said:
This kind of thing has always happened in MMOs. When you're in a city usually there's far more player characters around you and much denser terrain, meaning more strain is placed on your system. Simple as.

Yes that is obvious, but the hit is huge and given that our systems can shunt pixels around like no tomorrow in modern games, I wondered why the pain in an old game like WoW. i.e. is it system or game-related.

Sounds like it's game / engine-related.

FrenchTart · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:16

It's probably something to do with the system being optimised to deal with a certain number of players/objects being around at once. If this object count exponentially increases then the system will have to compensate for it by doing things like degrading the rate at which the movement of such objects updates, manifesting as lag or jerkiness.

If it's just an FPS drop rather than lag then it's probably just the strain of having to load up some huge number of textures for each person's equipment/character/pet/whatever and then keep track of everyone's movements and animations.

NeoReloaded · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:23

I never drop below the capped 60fps except in Shattrah where my fps sky dives to 40-45 :confused:

Adsta · 11 Aug 2008 at 13:24

NeoReloaded said:
I never drop below the capped 60fps except in Shattrah where my fps sky dives to 40-45

ditto

Gaman · 11 Aug 2008 at 14:54

ttreaders said:
I lose fps in cities also but it doesn't effect the game in anyway for me.

If you want improved graphics by the way, make a macro of the below text and put it on your quickbar and press it then quit and log back on and it will take effect. The most noticable change is viewing distance.

/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient 0

Thanks for this, really improved things for me

Tute · 11 Aug 2008 at 14:59

NeoReloaded said:
I never drop below the capped 60fps except in Shattrah where my fps sky dives to 40-45

Same.

Skyboat · 11 Aug 2008 at 15:36

NeoReloaded said:
I never drop below the capped 60fps except in Shattrah where my fps sky dives to 40-45

That happens on any spec, it's just poor coding on Blizzard's part.

KNiVES · 11 Aug 2008 at 16:13

Yea same for me. I did'nt actually gain any FPS in Shattrath City when I went from a 8800GTS to a 4870. It's CPU limited in the cities.

Hedge · 11 Aug 2008 at 16:42

Would the number of character skins that have to download and pop up not be part of the cause of the framerate hit?

Jimbo Mahoney · 11 Aug 2008 at 16:49

KNiVES said:
Yea same for me. I did'nt actually gain any FPS in Shattrath City when I went from a 8800GTS to a 4870. It's CPU limited in the cities.

I'm beginning to think it isn't even CPU-limited but engine-limited.

utajoker · 11 Aug 2008 at 18:03

its prob because you have 2gb of ram, i also get slow down with an e6600 stock and an 8800gtx xxx, im also on 2gb of ram, mine normals slows a bit then after a few seconds all it fine

FrenchTart · 11 Aug 2008 at 18:50

Hedge said:
Would the number of character skins that have to download and pop up not be part of the cause of the framerate hit?

Indeed. Something people seem to miss quite often.