Ini 101

[Nil]

I went through the vgclient.ini and messed with the settings. I'm hoping this information can be of use to you when trying to tweak Vanguard.

Before we get started, a quick tweaking note: a non-ini step that can really help many computers is to start Vanguard and wait for it to finish its file check (The start button turns green). Then, open your sysconfig.ini in your Sony/Vanguard/Bin folder and change "CacheSizeMegs=32" to "CacheSizeMegs=256".

Unfortunately, you have to make this change every time you load the game (the patcher overwrites your change). If you're feeling adventurous, you can copy this file, make the change, rename it, then make a .bat file that copies the new file over the old file. You still have to wait to run the .bat until the start button turns green (if you have a better way of doing this, please let us know!).

My two test computers were as follows

The Low-end (L) system:

Athlon XP2600+ Barton 2.0 ghz
1.5 gigs DDR ram
nVidia 6600GT 128 AGP
Ancient WD 7200 40 gig HD (IDE)
(gets 15-22 fps on High performance with no tweaks)

The Higher-end (H) system:

AMD Athlon64 Sempron 3000+ running at 2.24ghz
2 gigs DDR ram
HIS X1950 pro PCI-e (it is slighly overclocked, but nothing major)
Seagate Barracuda 7200 PRT 250gb HD (SATA 2)
(gets 25-40 fps on High Quality with no tweaks)

How-to:

You can find your vgclient.ini file by going to \\Program Files\Sony\Vanguard\Bin. If you have your window set to show large icons, the file you want will say vgclient and have a large yellow gear on it. If you double-click to open it, it'll open in notepad. You can make your changes here, then save it before you launch Vanguard.

Before you make any changes, I suggest you copy the original file and paste it somewhere else. That way, if you really jack it up, you can revert if you'd like to.

I made comments on many of the things in the .ini, but if I thought something was self-explainatory, I just left it alone. If you've got questions, please let me know.

In addition, if something has general performance indications, I didn't say anything about it. For example, increasing the amount of lights drawn decreases performance. You knew that already.

So, without further, ado, the .ini revealed...

[Version]
VanguardINIVersion=14

[FirstRun]
FirstRun=False
Setting this to true tells it to run the Sigil/SOE/nVidia logos before the game starts.

[General]
UseSound=True
Turns on sound. If you're desperate for some FPS, this will net you 5-10 fps. The music is so awesome, though...

UseJoystick=False
Sets Joystick input. The joystick input is pretty horrid. Turning this off equalled about 7 fps on the L system. The impact was not noticable on the H system.

ScreenshotFormat=JPG

The following are color corrections and have no performance impact:
Brightness=0.500000
Contrast=0.500000
Gamma=1.000000

ShowBloom=True
Turns on bloom. Small performance inpact for a relatively modern card. Generally, pick this or HDR. Both gives a washed-out look. In my opinion, at least.

GrassDensity=0.500000
Tells the game how much grass to render. Alot of grass can have a big impact on your system performance. Turning this to 0.0 has made the game playable for alot of folks.

GrassBlending=0
Enter 0-2 to change the way the grass looks. I like 0 best, but it's just preference. I didn't see a performance hit either way on either system.

bShowClouds=True
Shows clouds. Had some affect (2-3 fps) on the L rig. None on the H rig.

bUseHDR=True
Uses HDR lighting. Big performance hit. Looks pretty, though. If you turn this on, you probably also want to tell it to use shader model 3 below. Keep in mind that nVidia cards prior to the 8000 series won't do AA and SM3 HDR at the same time. To make ATI cards do both, you need to install the special Chuck patch.

bUseToneMapping=True
Changes the texture maps. True sets the textures to look more realistic. No noticable performance impact.

These are just cosmetic. Set them how you like:
bShowNames=True
bShowMyName=False
bShowTargetReticles=True
bShowMyReticle=True
FlashTargetsName=True

DetailMode=2
This tells the game to draw special objects. 1 is the default mode. I noticed 5 fps on both systems here vs. 3 (super high) in cities. There was no noticable FPS difference outside of cities.

The following set textures. The higher the number, the more detailed the textures. Turn these down to gain performance. The H system only gained 2-3fps with everyone at 1 vs. 5. The L system gained 5-7. This is likely due to the greater amount of GPU memory on the H system
TextureDetailWorld=3
TextureDetailPlayerSkin=3
TextureDetailNPCSkin=3
TextureDetailWeaponSkin=3
TextureDetailTerrain=3
TextureDetailTerrainDetail=3
TextureDetailInterface=0
TextureDetailRenderMap=3
TextureDetailLightmap=3
TextureDetailShadowMap=3
TextureDetailNormalMap=3
TextureDetailBillboard=3

RenderQuality=4
This is a general quality setting. Increasing it (up to 5) will increase your general settings. Lowering it will decrease your base settings. Mess with this inside of the client.

iShaderCacheSizeMB=256
Changes the amount of ram devoted to textures. FPS isn't really affected, but it has a big improvement in hard drive hitching on both of my systems. The L system saw a bigger boost here. I didn't see any improvement by going over 256. It is highly recommended that everyone who has a hitching problem give this a try.

Antialiasing=0
Sets your AA. This is a big performance hit, but it sure can look nice with it on. See the note about HDR and SM3 above. Currently, VG is not supporting AA. (Thanks, Calren - I knew that, but forgot to write it.)

AnisotropicFiltering=0
AF is pretty much another type of AA. Also a big performance hit. Makes trees prettier.

[iThe following affect lighting. This has some performance hit, but no more than other graphical options. [/i]
MaxStaticLights=16
LightComplexity=1.000000
GlobalNormalMap=1.000000
GlobalSpecular=1.000000
GlobalExposure=1.000000
GlobalReflectiveDistance=100000.000000 (this is the biggest hit of these settings. Turn it down for better performance.)
GlobalRefractiveDistance=20000.000000

This changes the distance at which things are drawn. Decrease this for some performance gains.
GlobalSkeletalLOD=1.000000
GlobalShaderLOD=1.000000
GlobalTreeLODs=0.440000

GlobalShadows=0.750000
Shadows give a big hit to some systems. The H system took this in stride, but increasing this setting caused the L system to choke. If you have a lower-end system, consider lowering this.

These increase the amount of objects drawn. The higher the number, the more objects that are drawn. Obviously drawing more objects takes more power.
GlobalAtmosphere=0.150000 (Clarification from Calren - Does not affect the amount of objects drawn, it controls the amount of atmospheric distortion (depth of field)
GlobalEnvironment=0.500000
GlobalDecorations=1.000000

bUseOcclusionQuery=True
Turns on and off Occlusion, which attempts to tell the video card not to draw objects that you cannot see on screen. This can really help in some cities. Outside of cities, it doesn't appear to help, and may actually hurt some, but I can't tell for sure. You can change this in-game, so that's where it's best to do it.

FarClippingPlane=204800.000000
Determines draw distance. This is a big performance hit. Extending this all the way made both rigs choke when you could see far off. The lowest settings really helped the L rig, but it looks silly if you pull this too far down (pop-up goes crazy).

GlobalTreeLODBlend=True
This puts allows textures to blend for trees that are nearby and at differing distances. It's sort of an in-between for low-detail trees that are drawn far off, and high-detail trees that are drawn nearby. The hit is very nominal and it makes things look much better. Anyone without the very awesomest (TM) hardware should set this to true

GlobalSimpleTerrain=False
Changes the mapping on the terrain. Simple looks ugly and neither system gained performance on it.

GlobalHardwareSkinning=False
I couldn't figure out what this does.

GlobalAnimationLOD=0.440000
How far away certain animations are drawn. It's like the other distance sliders. Some help, but not much, unless you come upon alot of NPCs in the distance.

Completely cosmetic and funny, since they don't show in game anyway:
HideHood=False
HideHelm=False

[UI]
ShellName=DroxUI
The shellname tells VG what UI mod to use. I love this because you can have more than one UI installed and just change what shell it points to in the .ini file.

ValidateXML=False
Turn this off. It'll give you more errors than it's worth.

ChatAutojoin=regionsay,auction
Put channels you'd like to join automatically here.

LoadGameplayWindowsAtStartup=false
Both of the computers loaded the game after character select much faster with this set to true. I don't know why. Fyrestorm reports this setting having a detrimental affect on his UI windows, so be aware of this possible problem.

PresentLogin=True
No idea what this does.

Simply preference:
GuildNotifyOnline=False
LootFollowsMouse=True
FilterProfanity=True

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]

Sets resolution when you run the game in windowed mode.
WindowedViewportX=1440
WindowedViewportY=900

Sets resolution when you run the game in fullscreen. Unless you're Sigurd, then it has no affect.
FullscreenViewportX=1440
FullscreenViewportY=900

StartupFullscreen=True
Tells it to start in fullscreen. This can help performance. The L system lost 10-15 fps in windowed mode

These have to do with automatic settings detection. No affect after the first time you run the game.
ScreenFlashes=True
MinDesiredFrameRate=35.000000
MaxDesiredFrameRate=100.000000

Decals=True
Blood! How could you turn this off?

Coronas=True
Halo affects. These can look cool, but do drain fps when you're around alot of casters.

DecoLayers=True
I didn't notice a difference when I turned this off.

Projectors=True
I didn't notice a difference when I turned this off.

NoDynamicLights=False
Tells it not to have moving lights, like torches. Can have big performance impact, especially in caves, with older cards.

ReportDynamicUploads=False
I don't know what this does. Perhaps I had no dynamic uploads to report

NoFractalAnim=False
Turns off certain animations. No noticiable performance gains.

[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
DetailTextures=True
Changing to false lowered my framerate and made the game look worse. It may have an affect on some systems

UsePrecaching=True
Part of the ishadercache trick. If you do that, then turn this one on.

UseTrilinear=True
I like the way this looks, but it does have a small performance impact

AdapterNumber=-1
ReduceMouseLag=True

UseTripleBuffering=False
I didn't notice a difference with this on or off.

Keep these on: (I'm surprised it will even run without HardwareT&L)
UseHardwareTL=True
UseHardwareVS=True

UseCubemaps=False
Turning this to false had no performance impact on the H system, but I thought it looked better. It cost the L system 2-3 FPS

DesiredRefreshRate=60
This should match the refresh rate on your monitor.

UseCompressedLightmaps=True
Helps performance some, but no more than 1 fps. This might help alot in certain dungeons, but I couldn't test there.

Don't mess with these.
UseStencil=True
MaxPixelShaderVersion=255
UseVSync=False
DetailTexMipBias=0.8
DefaultTexMipBias=-0.5
UseNPatches=False
TesselationFactor=1.0
CheckForOverflow=False

This has an affect on performance, especially with spells going off. Also, it changes the way HDR works. If you have an nvidia card and want to use HDR and AA, leave this off.
DisableShaderModel3=False

DisableMultiGPUOpt=True
For whatever reason, both comps gained a few FPS with this set to true. I don't use multiple GPUs, though. I'm curious to see what affect this has on other systems

DisableHighDetailShaders=False
Setting this to true will turn off some of the pretty torch and spell effects. Obviously, that saves some performance, but this probably not the best place to do it.

Use16BitNormalMaps=false

[Engine.NullRenderDevice]
DetailTextures=True

UsePrecaching=True
Part of the ishadercache trick.

Leave these alone.
UseCompressedLightmaps=True
UseStencil=True
NoFractalAnim=False

[ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem]
My sound stinks. If someone else wants to test these, feel free. Turning the sound off gains some FPS on both systems, but I didn't notice a difference by playing with these settings (except I get an error when trying to use EAX- mostly because my onboard doesn't support it).

UseEAX=False
Use3DSound=False
UseDefaultDriver=True
CompatibilityMode=False
UsePrecache=True
ReverseStereo=false
Channels=32
MusicVolume=1.000000
AmbientVolume=1.000000
SoundVolume=1.000000
DopplerFactor=1.000000
Rolloff=0.500000
TimeBetweenHWUpdates=15.000000
DisablePitch=False
LowQualitySound=False
IsactStreamPacketLength=250
StreamIsactAudio=True
IsactMusicStreamPacketLength=250
StreamIsactMusic=True
OpenALDeviceName=Generic Software
MasterVolume=1.000000
Diplomacy=0.700000
UI=0.700000
Creatures=0.500000
Speech=0.700000
Footsteps=0.600000
Spells=0.700000
Combat=0.500000
Environment=0.800000
CombatMusic=0.400000
AmbientMusic=0.400000
UseSpatializedVoice=False
EnhancedDenoiser=False
UseVAD=False
SpatializedVoiceRadius=0.000000
LocalZOffset=0.000000
MaxEAXVersion=0
UseVoIP=False
VolumeScaleRec=0.000000
VoiceVolume=1.000000

[ExceptionHandling]
I'd leave these alone - they only kick in when you crash and send information to Sigil about it. Hopefully they can use it to improve the game's performance.
SendWatson=True
KeepMiniDump=False
SendEmail=True
emailAddress=vanguardcrash@sigilgames.com
emailName=Crash Support
emailSubject=VG Client Crash
miniDumpFile=vgcrash.mdmp
exceptionInfoFile=vgcrashlog.txt

[Snowman]

Excelent!

[Chudz]

thanks, that fixed my some problems for me.

[Fyrestrom]

SendWatson=True

I set this to false. Makes my crashes take less time...and not sure that MSFT cares that much that Vanguard crashed again.

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Fyrestrom

I set this to false. Makes my crashes take less time...and not sure that MSFT cares that much that Vanguard crashed again.

Load down the server, man!

I'm not crashing, though, so it wasn't a concern for me. It can't hurt to false it.

[Calren]

One thing I noticed.

GlobalAtmosphere=0.000000
Does not affect the amount of objects drawn, it controls the amount of atmospheric distortion (depth of field)

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Calren

One thing I noticed.

Updated. Thanks, Calren.

I welcome other edits as well. This software stuff isn't my strongest point.

[tehgeek]

Nice job Nil, thanks for taking the time. I will check this out as soon as I'm done reading all the new posts (or maybe before as are over a hundred new each day now).

[zed1138]

Antialiasing=0
Sets your AA. This is a big performance hit, but it sure can look nice with it on. See the note about HDR and SM3 above.

AnisotropicFiltering=0
AF is pretty much another type of AA. Also a big performance hit. Makes trees prettier.

A tiny bit misleading but otherwise sound. AF is not another type of AA.

AA reduces "jaggies" on lines by smoothing the edges.
AF improves the appearance of textures.

Setting both to 0 should certainly improve performance at the expense of image quality, although I would expect a very small performance hit for a decent visual improvement running both of these on minimal.

[Nil]

Originally Posted by zed1138

Setting both to 0 should certainly improve performance at the expense of image quality, although I would expect a very small performance hit for a decent visual improvement running both of these on minimal.

Test system L nearly died when I turned on AA or AF (even at 2x), so I think it's a valid concern. Of course, it's near the bottom of the required specs.