Ultra High Settings 720p stream

[Sardus]

For a while now I've been trying to increase my frame rate and quality of my Planetside 2 twitch stream.

Recently I've been messing around with my overclock, in-game settings, and x-split settings and I discovered some things I wanted to share with people. I think I hit the jackpot.

Currently I am able to run textures on ultra settings with 720p definition on my stream with almost no compression and VERY solid frames. This is VASTLY different to the crappy 480p and slow frames I was getting on LOW settings before! Here is what I did:

First off, if you are able to overclock, or know someone who is good at overclocking, I recommend you overclock your CPU. I have an I7-960 which isn't particularly good for overclocking because the multipliers are locked but I managed to do a 33% overclock bringing it from 3.2 ghz to 4.25 ghz. Because I had to mess with the baseclock, I also ended up overclocking my ram in the process.

Here's the thing..... the CPU is the bottleneck for PS2 as many of you know. But the textures are mostly handled by the GPU. So even if you're getting decent frames on low settings, you can actually up your textures and see no decrease in frames. If you have a good GPU you can run ultra settings EASY. Some of them anyway. Even if what I post below doesn't work for you, mess with the GraphicsQuality settings and try to up them from what you're using.

Here are the settings that are key. Go into your Planetside2 directory and look for the useroptions.ini file and open it in word.

RenderDistance= 1000 or 2000 (try both, see how you like it. 2000 is better for aircraft users)
GraphicsQuality=4 (Ultra - this is the key thing. Use 3 or 2 if you're GPU doesn't like it)
TextureQuality=0
ShadowQuality=0 (IMPORTANT! shadows are really bad right now on CPU)
OverallQuality=-1 (sets the in-game graphics to "custom" so you can make all these changes without it resetting when you log in)
LightingQuality=5 or 2(Try either one, seems to make a difference for some people)
TerrainQuality=4
ModelQuality=4
VSync=0
GpuPhysics=0 (currently disabled due to bugs, but once its enabled, Nvidia cards can get better fps with it on)

Now if you want to stream, the HUGE thing that made a difference for me was to REDUCE YOUR COMPRESSION. But this only works if your upload can handle it. Reducing compression places a huge burden on your upload bandwidth. But by reducing your compression you put far less stress on your CPU, there is less blurring on your stream, and I saw a 30 frame rate boost automatically. Additionally, I wasn't getting anymore random lock ups or slow downs like I was before.

Note: the in-game streaming tool does use compression. A lot of compression. You can't turn that off or reduce it as far as I'm aware.

The result, this is my stream from last night, I never went below 50 frames:
http://www.twitch.tv/trg_gaming/b/385857256

My key computer stats (not exactly the newest thing on the market, but solid parts from about 3 years ago):
2TB SATA III 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB CACHE
CORSAIR 6GB 1866 MHZ DDR3 DOMINATOR
THERMALTAKE CLP0575 FRIO OCK CPU COO
THERMALTAKE LEVEL 10GT FULL TOWER CAS
MSI X58A-GD45 USB3 SLI/CROSSFIRE USB
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX V2 POWER SUPPLY
MISC ONBOARD 7.1 SOUND
SUPERCLOCK EVGA NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB
INTEL i7-960 3.20GHZ 8M 1366

I also have an intel 200gb SSD for my OS

[Sardus]

Sometime in the near future I'm going to try to see if I can get this to run at 1080p HD quality without killing my frame rate or upload.

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Sardus

Sometime in the near future I'm going to try to see if I can get this to run at 1080p HD quality without killing my frame rate or upload.

I have an i7 960, any chance you can tell me what to do to get to 4+ ghz!?
I know nothing about overclocking other than it has to be done in bios(or use a mobo program) and it requires changing voltages. I'm currently running at 3.5 ghz and it's the only thing really holding me back I think.

I guess I could OC my ram as well, i have no idea I'd have to be told how to as well! This is my ram, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148522

I've a 1000w Corsair PSU, CoolerMaster HAF 932 case, CM Hyper 212 heatsink and a gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 (i think). Also running 2x 128gb SSDs and GTX 680
I can give you all the spec's if it'll make it easy to give me numbers to put in for the OC!

[Sardus]

Originally Posted by Assist

I have an i7 960, any chance you can tell me what to do to get to 4+ ghz!?
I know nothing about overclocking other than it has to be done in bios(or use a mobo program) and it requires changing voltages. I'm currently running at 3.5 ghz and it's the only thing really holding me back I think.

I guess I could OC my ram as well, i have no idea I'd have to be told how to as well! This is my ram, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148522

I've a 1000w Corsair PSU, CoolerMaster HAF 932 case, CM Hyper 212 heatsink and a gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 (i think). Also running 2x 128gb SSDs and GTX 680
I can give you all the spec's if it'll make it easy to give me numbers to put in for the OC!

The i7-960 has a 23x modifier (24 if you have the turbo boost on which most have on by default). My mobo had a bios that I could not tweak voltages. So I downloaded a mobo program to allow me to tweak my settings.

You need to realize that since your modifiers are locked, any change you make to your base clock will affect both your CPU and RAM. You have different RAM from me with a different frequency, so your results will be different. I ended up overclocking the shit out of my RAM as well, which most people don't recommend. I don't mind buying new parts. I just want to run these as hard as I can before I move on. But honestly, corsair can take a hell of a beating like a boxing champ.

There are 4 settings you mess with (in our case):

CPU voltage
QPI/VTT voltage
DRAM voltage
Base Clock

Base clock multiplied by 24 = your speed. I'll give you my voltages so you can reference, but if you fry something, don't blame me I'm not an expert.

The higher your CPU voltage, the hotter the CPU will run. The higher you crank this, the easier it is to clock higher, but it may be inefficient if you set it too high and get needlessly too hot.

I had +.4 V (1.55V) for this setting and during my stress tests I ran at about 90C, which 100C is the max recommended by intel. 90c is safe. This is under extreme loading. Normally I'm 50c when playing PS2. I used to be around 30c when playing.

The QPI/VTT voltage you have to fiddle with a lot as you increase baseclock. Took me several reboots. I ended up with 178 mhz for base clock. +.34V (1.49V) for QPI/VTT. This is where I plateaued. Increasing my CPU anymore ran too hot, and increasing my QPI or baseclock or both any further failed to run.

178 x 24 = 4.272 ghz

The DRAM is for your ram. It must be .5 within the QPI/VTT. 1.8V is considered plenty for most memory setups. Your RAM uses a lower frequency than mine. That's probably a good thing. But I really don't know how it will affect your RAM.

Here is a link to a VERY good guide:

http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/...nd-gulftown/3/

[Sardus]

Originally Posted by Assist

I have an i7 960, any chance you can tell me what to do to get to 4+ ghz!?
I know nothing about overclocking other than it has to be done in bios(or use a mobo program) and it requires changing voltages. I'm currently running at 3.5 ghz and it's the only thing really holding me back I think.

I guess I could OC my ram as well, i have no idea I'd have to be told how to as well! This is my ram, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148522

I've a 1000w Corsair PSU, CoolerMaster HAF 932 case, CM Hyper 212 heatsink and a gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 (i think). Also running 2x 128gb SSDs and GTX 680
I can give you all the spec's if it'll make it easy to give me numbers to put in for the OC!

Also, make sure you can cool the thing properly. I have a monster of a fan with a giganto heat sink on it.

[Assist]

I think I want to shoot for just 4.0 ghz

edit: Running at 4.0ghz now, hopefully it doesn't shit out on me! Guess if it does I'll just be forced to buy a new PC!

[Sardus]

Originally Posted by Assist

I think I want to shoot for just 4.0 ghz

edit: Running at 4.0ghz now, hopefully it doesn't shit out on me! Guess if it does I'll just be forced to buy a new PC!

In my opinion my system appears to be running more stable, faster, and more efficient than before. But time will tell LOL

[Sledgecrushr]

Ive tried watching your stream a handful of times. Ios twitch isnt the best app in the world.

[Sardus]

Originally Posted by Sledgecrushr

Ive tried watching your stream a handful of times. Ios twitch isnt the best app in the world.

I had problems in the past with the stream crashing a lot or locking up. It was hard for people to realize you had to refresh the browser.

Thankfully now I don't crash anymore with this setup. 4.5 hours last night, ultra settings, no loss at all.

[Sardus]

Stream from tonight:

Planetside2 Epic Moments #4: Crossroads Watchtower. Now with Ultra settings 720p HD

[Pella]

http://www.twitch.tv/pellauk/c/2111474

Been playing around with my settings. I found that Xsplit game source is terrible. It hammers my FPS.

I tried screen region / windows mode. And the game's FPS where back next to normal for me. And most of all didnt have a heavy aim which seems to be a big problem.

The difference is almost 30 FPS. Which is a huge deal.

[Hmr85]

I am going to have to try some of these setting adjustments out tonight. I would like to get better than 25-30 fps in major fights.

[Hamma]

Great tips Sardus!

1080 is where things start to get really hairy. I need to upgrade my streaming rig in order to stream 1080.

[Sardus]

My stream last night was 1280 x 900 which is not quite 1080p but ran pretty good.

[Dragonskin]

Pretty good stream. Nice to have something to watch at work... sadly I can only watch your recorded, but it's still good. Work PCs have a crapfest if you try to watch live streams anyway.