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How to fight & defeat lag
This post will give you many tips and tricks, and even tools and programs to make sure your AnthemRO is lagging as little as possible!
IMPORTANT!: Many of the changes and tools outlined in this post will change important values in your computer. Any of these changes may negatively affect your computer and or your performance. Neither myself nor the staff can be held responsible for any problems that may arise from following this guide.
That being said, we have tested all these solutions successfully on our own systems without encountering adverse effects. Every computer and ISP is different however, and just because we didn't run into any problems does not mean you won't.
If the tool gives you the choice to make a backup - use it! You will never know in advance whether you will need it or not!
There are 2 parts to lag;
1 - Computer Performance; If your computer is slow, outdated and sluggish, then even a game as old as RO might chug or lag at times. If your computer is hopelessly outdated, these tips might not make that big of a difference, but every bit helps - right ?
2 - Network Performance;There are several tweaks available to reduce transmitting delay. If you are on a really slow connection, these might not work out for you, but for people with fast connections you might be able to get more performance out of it by removing some windows introduced delays. These changes might raise your total bandwidth consumption and might cause problems with other programs. If you are on a bandwidth limited connection, exercise caution.
Section 1.0 - Computer Performance related
1.1: Windows Updates
Windows update often introduces hot fixes that not only address security issues but also performance! There are a vast amount of windows patches which deal with improving the communication of windows to your hardware. Such as the multithreading hotfix to name a example. Most of the important ones are already contained in the latest Service Packs, but if you have the option you should definitely keep your computer up to date.
1.2: Video Card Driver Update
Your video card manufacturer is always hard at work to improve the performance gain from their cards. They optimize them for specific games and often raise general performance as well. You are recommended to always keep your graphic card drivers up to date. The two main manufacturers are nVidia and ATI.
ATI Driver Page)
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspxnVidia Driver Page)
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us1.3: Direct X
If you still run Windows XP you might have to update your Direct X. The latest version iirc is 9.0c
MS Website of DirectX Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en1.4: Spybot S&D
Spybot Search & Destroy is a tool designed to remove Spyware, harmful browser addons and other things. Its always a great tool to have and of course may help performance if your computer has something harmful installed.
Spybot S&D Website:
http://www.safer-networking.org/1.5: CCleaner
CCleaner removes old files that are not in use anymore, and can also remove useless entries from your registry which may slow your computers performance down. Use with caution and make sure to have it save backups.
CCleaner website:
http://www.ccleaner.com/1.6: Starter
Starter scans your computers Auto Start entries. The auto start entries are the programs that start together with your computer when you turn it on or restart it.
A lot of those are NOT neccessary. A cluttered auto start is probably the #1 reason for slow computer performance. A lot of programs start "little helpers" when you start your computer, which usually give you some meaningless benefit ( such as starting the host program 1 nanosecond faster ), while constantly sucking on your computers performance. One of the most prominent examples is the Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher; after installing adobe acrobat reader, it runs always in the background, consuming valuable ressources, just to make acrobat reader start a second faster when you need it. Considering that 99% of your computers runtime you DONT use adobe acrobat reader, its a really horrible trade off.
Note, you don't need to delete entries in this program, just uncheck them ! That way you can easily re-enable them if you do want them! As said before , most of these can be disabled without worries. There are a few exceptions:
1) Don't remove programs which could be related to your laptops manufacturer, or its peripherals, such as your webcam
2) Don't remove sound card related things ( RealTek for example )
Starter Download:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Starter.shtml1.7: Adjust your RO settings down!
You can get more performance out of RO by:
1) starting Setup.exe in the RO directory ( right click it and run it with administrative rights !! ) and then lowering the sound quality, color depth and resolution. Judge for yourself between performance and looks !
2) disabling fog by typing /fog ingame.
3) disabling effects by typing /effect ingame.
4) disabling the lightmap by typing /lightmap ingame.
Section 2.0 - Network Performance related
2.1: TCP Optimizer
This program automatically changes several settings in your registry to reduce internet delays and in general makes your connection more aggressive. Recommended. Load it up and click on the Optimal Settings and press the Apply Changes button. Fast, Free and surprisingly effective! ( If you use DSL make sure you check the "PPPoE" checkbox after clicking on Optimal Settings )
TCP Optimizer download page:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/TCP-Optimizer.shtml2.2: KillLag
A lot of people know of this lag fix:
http://forums.irowiki.org/showthread.php?t=19534&page=8However, this is too complicated for most average joe players that don't know a lot about computers. Hence we had our very own GM-Fidelis program a small tool which essentially does this lag-killing change quickly and completely hassle-free! Highly recommended !
Please note: It will not install the MSMQ service if its not already installed, as it turns out that there is no benefit to installing it. If it is installed however, it changes the values for it to make sure MSMQ does not slow down your traffic.
Make sure you run it with Admin Rights, else it will not be able to make the required changes to the registry!!
KillLag download link:
http://www.anthemro.com/download/aRO_KillLag.exe
