A single topic for this
An attempt to help people with performance, after seeing numerous post about this I decided to make a single topic for this.If you have a laptop with both Intel and Nvidia graphics, try below:
QUOTE (ScardyBob @ Oct 31 2012, 09:03 PM) »
Basically, you'll want to do this except for Natural Selection 2:
![image]()
Start NS2 with high priority - source
Open notepath, put in below line:
Start /high NS2.exe
Save it as "NS2.bat" next to the NS2.exe file in your steam folder, default location: C:\program files x86\Steam\<accountname>\common files\Natural Selection 2\
Make sure Steam is running and then run the NS2.bat file.
Use r_stats to see if your GPU or CPU is the bottleneck
If it says "waiting for GPU" then the cause is the videocard, try lowering settings or if possible, upgrading.
Is above not the case?
Help UWE with below:
Performance log
QUOTE (ironhorse @ Nov 6 2012, 08:14 PM) »
For those wishing simply to contribute to performance in ns2 , possibly helping the cause of your slow downs for everyone down the road yet without an immediate fix for you personally... Please submit a performance log of the most polarizing instance of fps drop by typing p_logall to create a round long log of your performance. The log is saved in your %appdata% folder (Ctrl+R, fill in %appdata%, hit enter, browse to Natural Selection 2, find client-<number>-<number>.plog) at the end of a round or exit and you can zip it up and link it
So in short:
- press ~ to open the console
- Type p_logall and hit enter
- Join a server, play a round (until marines or kharaa win)
- Exit NS2, browse to %appdata%\Natural Selection 2%: press Windows key + R, copy paste the following: "%appdata%\Natural Selection 2" and hit enter.
- Find the logfile, it will be named similar to "client-1225-103821.plog", upload the contents of this file to pastebin.com and post the link or attach it using the forum attach feature.
Profiler
Or send a screenshot with the profiler open, instructions from here:
QUOTE (xtal @ Dec 12 2012, 04:51 PM) »
I'm not from support but maybe you should post screenshots from in-game profiler. Maybe we will figure out something from them. Open console (key ~), type profile, now space key freeze profiler and you can expand/contract tree. Post screenshots showing expanded tree in places where violet bars are biggest - where engine is working most intensive.
Example screenshot from profiler:
![image]()
Example screenshot from profiler:
Game on SSD
QUOTE (Savant @ Dec 15 2012, 05:26 AM) »
In what wasn't given much publicity, Valve changed the Steam client so that you can now install games to different hard drives at the same time. While you used to have to have all your games in the same directory; now you can specify a new directory on another drive. You can only have ONE directory with games per drive though.
How does this help?
If you're like many people you have an SSD drive running your OS. You also don't have Steam on the SSD since your games takes up a ton of space. So if you delete and reinstall NS2, you could install it into a directory on your SSD. While that won't fix any internal game performance issues, it will take out any possible chance that the hard drive will bottleneck your performance.
To do this, first create a directory on your SSD. I just called it Steam off the root. Once done, when you install there will be an option that says "Choose drive to install to". If this is your first time installing to a new drive you will get a chance to pick the directory. After that you can only pick the drive and they all go in the same directory on that drive.
I know it's not much, but every bit helps.
How does this help?
If you're like many people you have an SSD drive running your OS. You also don't have Steam on the SSD since your games takes up a ton of space. So if you delete and reinstall NS2, you could install it into a directory on your SSD. While that won't fix any internal game performance issues, it will take out any possible chance that the hard drive will bottleneck your performance.
To do this, first create a directory on your SSD. I just called it Steam off the root. Once done, when you install there will be an option that says "Choose drive to install to". If this is your first time installing to a new drive you will get a chance to pick the directory. After that you can only pick the drive and they all go in the same directory on that drive.
I know it's not much, but every bit helps.
Below information might be outdated:
To open the console, press ~
FPS performance
To show fps and other details: r_stats 1
Ripped from this person's post:
To improve performance:
r_atmospherics false
r_bloom false
r_shadows false
r_instancing true
r_fog false
r_aa false
Note: these will be reset the next map change!
To make these settings permanent:
Menu Mod is currently broken and forbidden in competitive play.
Install this NS2 mod for a more efficient menu:
http://unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?...=113246&hl=
Edit the file in the fsmod folder "menumod/autoexec/" and add this:
CODE
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_bloom false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_aa false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_atmospherics false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_shadows false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_fog false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_shadowsfade true")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_instancing false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_flash false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_aa false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_atmospherics false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_shadows false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_fog false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_shadowsfade true")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_instancing false")
Shared.ConsoleCommand("r_flash false")
You can run above commands in the console manually. (Example: press ~, enter: "r_fog false", hit enter)
Having a high spec machine will improve performance to some extend.
Keep in mind, NS2 is still in beta at the time of writing, improvements to FPS and network performance will be made slowly over time.
Type profiler in console to get detailed information as to what is going on. As per advice of playtester Kouji_San
Screenshots of this can be posted to this topic.
Network performance
Assuming the following things:
- You're not downloading or uploading anything at the moment nor is anyone at your LAN
- Your connection is stable
This will show a number of things including tickrate.
If the tickrate is getting below 20, consider trying another server, as the server is not up to the task.
The menumod mentioned above will also show tickrate!
If anyone has suggestions or corrections for the topic start, please let me know!
Thanks to ScardyBob and dux for the corrections and improvements.
Edit: menu mod information was outdated, updated.