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Optimization Tips & Tricks
By kumadeji
Tired of having low FPS? This guide will help you to increase it.

upd. (11 March 2017): initial release.
upd. (20 March 2017): more info added.
upd. (16 September 2017): added mirror download links.
upd. (18 January 2018): added screenshots for comparasion as it was highly requested.
upd. (23 January 2018): added the official Steam discussion link.
upd. (21 April 2019): updated mirror download links
upd. (13 March 2021): removed the second mirror download link that was unavailable
   
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Created by
kumadeji
Offline
Category: Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
11 Mar, 2017 @ 7:42am
12 Mar, 2021 @ 10:27pm
2,000 Unique Visitors
55 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction 
Video Settings 
Config Tweaks (pt. 1) 
Config Tweaks (pt. 2) 
Steam Settings and Launch Options 
Summary. Still not enough? 
Comments
Introduction
That's what inspired me to make this guide. Developers are doing their best on making the game
more lag-free and stable, but sometimes it's not enough, so you have to use other methods instead of being a developers headache :)

There are a few ways to make the game run smoother, some of them are efficient and some aren't.
Let's get down to business. First of all, let's set your video settings correctly.

This guide isn't finished yet.
Feel free to report anything you find wrong.

Also, there is a new sticked discussion in the Lambda Wars hub dedicated to this guide explaining why lags happen, take a look ;)
Video Settings
Option
Values*
Description
RESOLUTION
Lower is better for performance
The higher the resolution, the more detailed the image due to the larger number of pixels used. Aspect Ratio setting affects the resolutions shown in this box
DISPLAY MODE
Full screen / Run in a window / Windowed (No Border)
Windowed mode means that the game will run in a window on your Desktop; may lead to reduced performance due to desktop memory management. Full Screen mode is recommended for the most optimal, trouble-free display.
ANTI-ALIASING MODE
None / 2x MSAA / 4x MSAA / 8x MSAA
Essentially the higher the sample rate of Antialiasing used, the smoother jagged lines in the game will appear, but the greater the performance hit.
FILTERING MODE
Bilinear / Trilinear / Anisotropic 2X / Anisotropic 4X / Anisotropic 8X
Texture filtering determines how clear textures remain as they fade into the distance - the higher the texture filtering mode used, the clearer distant textures will appear. Bilinear and Trilinear texture filtering are pretty similar. Anisotropic Filtering is more advanced, providing clearer textures.
WAIT FOR VERTICAL SYNC
Enabled (Triple Buffered) / Enabled (Double Buffered) / Disabled
Vertical Sync takes care of most of the stutter and input lag; makes your maximum FPS locked at your monitor's refresh rate, and more importantly your overall FPS can be reduced by 50% or more.
MULTICORE RENDERING
Enabled / Disabled
Multicore rendering allows Lambda Wars to use multiple CPU cores present in your system.
SHADER DETAIL
Very High / High / Medium / Low
Shader detail controls the level of the special effects drawn by shaders. The performance difference between Low and High is noticeable in some moments, however the image quality difference is usually not very noticeable.
EFFECT DETAIL
High / Medium / Low
Effect detail controls the amount of details to be displayed during advanced physic effects such as explosions. This option is a major performance hog.
MODEL / TEXTURE DETAIL
High / Medium / Low
This setting does exactly what it says. It controls the amount of texture and model detail on game models, such as the unit models like Strider.
PAGED POOL MEMORY AVAILABLE
High / Medium / Low
This setting sets the amount of RAM that the games allowed to use. It's useful for if your running resourceful applications in the background as it stops the game from using so much that it stops programs from working.
LIGHTING
Simple Lighting / Differed Lighting
Differed lighting is a screen-space shading technique which provides more realistic dynamic lighting and provides a lower framerate in comparasion with the simple one.
* - BOLD VALUES ARE FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE
Config Tweaks (pt. 1)
There is a list of console commands related to video settings: most of them are client-sided, others are executable only if you're hosting your own Sandbox-mode lobby with sv_cheats 1 enabled. They aren't presented in the menu, being useful for us :)

The following list of commands is compiled having the lowest graphics settings set. Go to the previous article if you want to get the best out of performance.

You can download a ready-to-use config file with all the listed commands below, excluding the unstable ones:

DOWNLOAD - MIRROR 1[files.catbox.moe]
- rename to "autoexec.cfg" and put into 'Lambda Wars/lambdawars/cfg/'

VirusTotal[www.virustotal.com]

Client-side command
Value (def.)
Value (new)
Description
BlendBonesMode
2
0
High-quality bones blending mode.
anim_3wayblend
1
0
3-way animation blending mode.
blackbox
1
0
--- (soundfiles data collecting for developers?)
blink_duration
0.2
0
Amount of seconds an eye blink will last.
cl_aggregate_particles
1
0
--- (drawing aggregated particles?)
cl_ambient_light_disableentities
0
1
Map ambient light entities.
cl_detail_max_sway
5
0
Amplitude of the detail prop sway.
cl_detaildist
400
0
Distance at which detail props are no longer visible.
cl_detailfade
150
0
Distance across which detail props fade in.
cl_disable_water_render_targets
0
1
Extra effects for objects while in water.
cl_dklight_enable
1
0
--- (additional lightsources if deferred lighting is enabled?)
cl_drawmonitors
1
0
In-game screens with rendered 3D scenes.
cl_ejectbrass
1
0
Weapons brass ejection.
cl_flora_disable
0
1
Extra flora objects.
cl_show_splashes
1
0
Extra water splash effects.
cl_wars_flora_animate
1
0
Extra flora objects animations.
cl_wars_flora_sway_speed
10
0
Extra flora objects sway speed.
dsp_enhance_stereo
1
0
High-quality sound mode
dsp_slow_cpu
0
1
Sound mode for slow CPUs.
flex_rules
1
0
Flex animations rules.
flex_smooth
1
0
Smoothing/decay curve for flex animations.
func_break_max_pieces
15
0
Amount of breakable surfaces pieces
g_ragdoll_fadespeed
600
10000
Speed of ragdolls disappearing.
g_ragdoll_important_maxcount
2
0
Maximum amount of storyline important ragdolls.
g_ragdoll_lvfadespeed
600
10000
Speed of ragdolls disappearing. (low violence?)
g_ragdoll_maxcount
8
0
Maximum amount of ragdolls.
glow_outline_effect_enable
1
0
Units/buildings outline glow effects.
mat_antialias
1
0
Anti-aliasing quality.
mat_bloom_scalefactor_scalar
1
0
---
mat_bloomscale
1
0
Scale of bloom effect.
mat_colcorrection_disableentities
0
1
Color-correction for map objects.
mat_deferred_blendlightmap
0.5
0
---
mat_depthbias_shadowmap
0.0005
0
---
mat_diffuse
1
0
Diffuse textures rendering.
(UNSTABLE - RANDOM BLACK SCREENS)
mat_disable_bloom
0
1
Extra bloom effect.
mat_disable_fancy_blending
0
1
Extra fancy blending effect.
mat_disable_lightwarp
0
1
Extra lightwarp effect.
mat_dof_enabled
1
0
Depth of field effect.
mat_envmapsize
128
0
Environment maps size.
mat_envmaptgasize
32
0
Environment .tga maps size.
mat_fastspecular
1
0
Specularity.
mat_filterlightmaps
1
0
Filtering lightmaps.
mat_filtertextures
1
0
Filtering textures.
(BAD IMAGE QUALITY - LOOKS TOO SHARP)
mat_fow_blur
1
0
Fog of war blur effect.
mat_hdr_level
2
0
Quality of HDR/LDR. (required to be entered in the main menu only)
mat_mipmaptextures
1
0
Filtering textures with mipmaps.
(BAD IMAGE QUALITY - LOOKS TOO SHARP)
mat_picmip
1
4
Textures quality. (even lower than low, but playable)
mat_showlowresimage
0
1
Using the lowest possible resolution of textures.
(BAD IMAGE AND MINIMAP QUALITY - UNPLAYABLE)
mat_slopescaledepthbias_shadowmap
4
0
---
mat_wateroverlaysize
128
0
Water overlay texture size.
muzzleflash_light
1
0
Muzzleflash light effect.
props_break_max_pieces
2
0
Maximum breakable props piece count
props_break_max_pieces_perframe
-1
0
Maximum breakable props piece count per frame
r_3dsky
1
0
3D skyboxes drawing.
r_DrawDetailProps
1
0
Extra map objects such as grass, bushes, etc.
r_FlashlightDetailProps
1
0
Flashlight illumination for detailed props.
r_PhysPropStaticLighting
1
0
Static lighting for physical props.
r_WaterDrawReflection
1
0
Water reflection.
r_WaterDrawRefraction
1
0
Water refraction.
r_ambientboost
1
0
---
r_decals
512
0
Maximum amount of decals.
r_drawbatchdecals
1
0
Render decals batched.
r_drawflecks
1
0
Extra dust and sparks effects.
r_drawtracers_firstperson
1
0
Shooting tracers while in first person mode.
r_dynamic
1
0
Dynamic lighting.
Config Tweaks (pt. 2)
Client-side command
Value (def.)
Value (new)
Description
r_eyegloss
1
0
Eyes gloss.
r_eyemove
1
0
Eyes moving.
r_eyes
1
0
Eyes rendering.
r_flashlightmodels
1
0
Flashlight illumination for models.
r_flashlightrender
1
0
Flashlight illumination rendering.
r_flashlightrendermodels
1
0
Flashlight illuminated models rendering.
r_flashlightrenderworld
1
0
Flashlight illuminated world rendering.
r_jiggle_bones
1
0
Jigglebones. (realistically moving bones)
r_lightaverage
1
0
Light averaging.
r_maxdlights
32
0
Maximum amount of dynamic light sources.
r_maxmodeldecal
50
0
Maximum amount of decals on models.
r_maxnewsamples
6
0
Maximum amount of new samples.
r_maxsampledist
128
0
Maximum showing distance of samples.
r_minnewsamples
3
0
Minimum amount of new samples.
r_occlusion
1
0
Occlusion shading system.
r_propsmaxdist
1200
0
Maximum showing distance of props.
r_ropetranslucent
1
0
Translucent effect applied to ropes.
r_shadows
1
0
Shadows.
r_staticlight_streams
1
0
Streaming static lightsources.
r_teeth
1
0
Teeth rendering.
r_worldlights
2
0
Amount of world lightsources to use per vertex.
rope_averagelight
1
0
Makes ropes use average of cubemap lighting instead of max intensity.
rope_collide
1
0
Collide ropes with the world.
rope_rendersolid
1
0
Rendering power line wires/ropes/tracers.
rope_smooth
1
0
Ropes antialiasing effect.
rope_subdiv
2
0
Ropes subdivision (smoothing) amount.
rope_wind_dist
1000
0
Applying small wind gusts to ropes when they're past this distance.
sv_skyname
---
0
Current name of the skybox texture.
tracer_extra
1
0
Extra shooting tracer effects.
violence_ablood
1
0
Alien blood.
violence_agibs
1
0
Alien gib entities.
violence_hblood
1
0
Human blood.
violence_hgibs
1
0
Human gib entities.
wars_explosion_light_duration
0.3
0
Explosion effect duration.
wars_explosion_light_radius
1024
0
Explosion effect radius.
wars_muzzleflash_intensity
0.8
0
Muzzleflash effect intensity.
wars_muzzleflash_max_lights
0
0
Maximum amount of muzzleflash effects shown at the time.
wars_muzzleflash_radius
320
0
Muzzleflash effect radius.
wars_muzzleflash_shadow
1
0
Muzzleflash effect shadow.

Server-side command
Value (def.)
Value (new)
Description
breakable_multiplayer
1
0
Breakable items on server such as boxes, etc.
prop_active_gib_limit
64
0
Maximum amount of active props gib entities.
prop_active_gib_max_fade_time
12
0
Amount of seconds active props gib entities will last.

Server-side command (sv_cheats 1)
Value (def.)
Value (new)
Description
circle_paintsplat_enabled
1
0
Rendering of paint splat circles in paintmap.
circle_paintsplat_noise_enabled
1
0
Noise effect of paint splat circles in paintmap.
cl_detail_multiplier
1
0
Extra details to create.
cl_disable_ragdolls
0
1
Ragdolls.
cl_fastdetailsprites
1
0
New detail sprites system.
cl_shadowtextureoverlaysize
1
0
Shadow texture overlay size.
fish_dormant
0
1
Interactive AI behavior for fishes, etc.
fog_enable
1
0
Fog effect.
fog_enable_water_fog
1
0
Water fog effect.
fog_enableskybox
1
0
Fog effect in skyboxes.
mat_camerarendertargetoverlaysize
128
0
Camera render target overlay size.
mat_displacementmap
1
0
Displacement maps.
mat_drawwater
1
0
Water rendering.
mat_dynamic_tonemapping
1
0
Dynamic tonemapping.
mat_frame_sync_enable
1
0
Frame-sync.
mat_fullbright
0
1
Fullbright mode. (disables everything related to lighting, shading, etc.)
mat_postprocess_enable
1
0
Post-processing effects.
mat_tessellationlevel
6
1
Tessellation level.
paint_sample_size
4
0
Paint sample size.
paintmap_scale
1
0
Paintmap scale.
r_avglight
1
0
Averaged lighting.
r_DrawBeams
1
0
Beams effects.
r_drawbrushmodels
1
0
Brush models rendering.
r_drawdecals
1
0
Decals rendering.
r_drawparticles
1
0
Particles rendering.
r_DrawRain
1
0
Rain rendering.
r_drawropes
1
0
Ropes, wires and lines rendering.
r_drawskybox
1
0
Skyboxes rendering. (makes water look strange)
r_drawsprites
1
0
Sprites rendering such as wall graffities, etc.
r_drawtracers
1
0
Shooting tracers rendering.
r_drawviewmodel
1
0
Rendering of weapons while in first person mode.
r_dynamiclighting
1
0
Dynamic lighting.
r_radiosity
4
0
Radiosity effect.
r_RainSimulate
1
0
Rain simulation rendering.
r_rimlight
1
0
Extra rim light effect.
r_skybox
1
0
Skyboxes rendering. (yep, again)
r_swingflashlight
1
0
Flashlight swinging effect.
r_updaterefracttexture
1
0
Updating of refract textures.
Steam Settings and Launch Options
There are only two useful launch options which makes this game run better :)

To set launch options: Go to your Steam Library > Right click on Lambda Wars Beta > Click Properties > Under the General tab, click Set Launch Options... > Input the Launch Options Code:
-high -dxlevel 81

Launch Option
Description
-dxlevel 81
Officially, DirectX 8.1 isn't supported by Alien Swarm on which Lambda Wars is based on, but it works and helps to get some extra FPS. No visual bugs were found.
-high
Sets the game's priority to High, so Windows focuses on the game. Usually if this increases performance it means that you have either a lot of processes running in the background taking up resources.
Summary. Still not enough?
http://ad.gamersky.info/@steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1273473210 http://ad.gamersky.info/@steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1273473251 http://ad.gamersky.info/@steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1273473311
There are a plenty of other getting more performance methods which are related to Windows tweaking and configuring drivers software, not all of them are safe, but if you know what you're doing before you do it, it's totally not dangerous; and even if you are careless, it's really hard to kill today's soft/hardware, with all the protection gimmicks they come with. A guy out of millions might tell you otherwise. S*it happens. :)
52 Comments
< >
☦Allurskiy☦ 14 Dec, 2023 @ 8:08am 
cool
:steamthumbsup:
kumadeji  [author] 7 Jun, 2023 @ 9:30am 
I dunno, mate
Works like a charm
AgaasGaming 7 Jun, 2023 @ 7:40am 
keeps crashing?
AgaasGaming 6 Jun, 2023 @ 7:43pm 
keeps crashing
срать до заката 13 Aug, 2021 @ 1:51pm 
даунгрейд хл2)
DemonicStalker 29 May, 2021 @ 1:40pm 
Спасибо:Stalker:
kumadeji  [author] 6 Apr, 2021 @ 11:22pm 
К слову, при запуске игры в консоли, если она активирована, отображается, был ли конфиг-файл автоматически прогружен.

Ещё важно упомянуть, что он почти не затрагивает видеонастройки, доступные из обычного меню игры (глава "Video Settings"). Это сделано специально во избежание конфликта, поэтому сперва настраиваем графику в меню на свой вкус, а затем кладем конфиг-файл (хотя можно и в обратной последовательности) — вуаля.
kumadeji  [author] 6 Apr, 2021 @ 11:22pm 
Да, кстати, важно было бы упомянуть, что консоль активируется в настройках управления (если не ошибаюсь, именно там спрятана галочка для ее активации).

Активировать любо конфиг-файл можно и вручную через консоль: "exec название_файла.cfg" (в нашем случае — "exec autoexec.cfg").

По идее, игра всегда автоматически обрабатывает любой "autoexec.cfg" файл (на то он так и называется), но если почему-то это не происходит, то в параметры запуска игры (в свойствах игры в библиотеке) можно прописать следующее: "+exec autoexec.cfg".
993 21 Mar, 2021 @ 10:43am 
Это понятно, но он не применяется, в этой игре нет консоли?
kumadeji  [author] 20 Mar, 2021 @ 9:06pm 
В описании сверху указано, но продублирую:
Переименовать файл в "autoexec.cfg" и поместить в папку "Lambda Wars/lambdawars/cfg/"