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Beyond Low Graphics (Potato Mode) [+FPS]

By [ DS ] GRISS0N

Are you running into performance issues running the game? In this tutorial I will teach you how to get to the crazy lowest graphics to run the game on your Potato HD Graphics without a hassle.

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[ DS ] GRISS0N
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Category: Modding or Configuration

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

10 Jan, 2018 @ 9:12pm

11 Apr, 2023 @ 12:53pm

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Guide Index

Overview

Before you Start

System Optimization

System Optimization (LINUX ONLY)

Graphical Elements Configuration (Win10/11 Only)

Task Manager - Process on HIGH

Steam - Config and Startup Commands

Internal Game Configurations

External Game Configuration

Advices and Extra Tips

Comments

Before you Start

These are some advice before you start following this guide.

1- Backup your data, the system data and your game data, in any case you need to go back.

2- This is mostly something to help people that want to play the game and don't care that much about fancy graphics, but care a lot about performance.

3- Make sure you have started the game at least once before you do this.

4- This is made thinking on Windows, but I will make sure to add options for other systems too (whenever possible).

5- Existe uma versão em português deste guia bem aqui e você pode acompanhar por lá caso não entenda bem inglês.

System Optimization

The system optimization is one of the most important part for this guide so, before you start, take a good look on these other tutorials to get going with the system stuff.

- Tutorial for Windows 7 and 8[ultimatewindows7gamingoptimization.blogspot.com.br]

- Tutorial for Windows 10[forums.redacted.tv]

Remember to backup before you do any of these, this may hurt your pc, and consequently, your wallet...

System Optimization (LINUX ONLY)

Linux users might have something else to do in order to setup the PC for a better performance. You can switch to a performance-oriented desktop environment, such as LXDE/LXQT or XFCE... This will give you a huge performance boost.

Another thing Linux users can do to improve performance is to install lighter versions of certain apps that come with the system (like notepad, app store and terminal), and remove the ones that are not needed. This will go easy on your RAM and Processor while playing as well. In the case you are using Lubuntu or Xubuntu, there's no need for changes, because they're already very light.

Something else you can do is to install the latest updates and driver updates for your computer (normally there's something in the settings to help you to do that), this will improve performance quite a bit. Also, installing Stacer or BleachBit to keep your PC clean.

Graphical Elements Configuration (Win10/11 Only)

If you're on Windows 10 or 11, you have an special option to increase your performance, it's on your display settings. Right click your Desktop an go to the option specified below:

Inside the panel there's a lot of options, you must find one called "Graphical Elements Configuration", or something like that...

Into that option, you can add an app executable (also named as Classic App) or an UWP app and change it's graphical power plan, you can favor Performance or Battery. In any case, you'd better choose performance.

Click the search button and find the .exe file for the game... It's probably located at Program Files(x86) > steam > steamapps > common > Ballistic. After selecting, it will show a new entry with the app icon on a list below the button, click the entry and click the "Options" button.

Just select the High Performance option and the game will run with the best possible performance plan of your video card, this can give you some extra frames too.

Task Manager - Process on HIGH

Whenever you start the game, open your task manager (ctrl+shift+esc) and find the game process (must be BallisticOverkillx86.exe or something like that) and set it to the HIGH processing level. Real Time is not a good thing since this can make the game start lagging, and this is what we are trying to avoid here...

You can also get this to be automatic for this and other games using PRIO. It's a Win7 program that runs flawlessly if you put it on compatibility mode (in case your system is win8 or above).

You can download it here: http://www.prnwatch.com/prio/

And then, just remember to go to the details tab and set your stuff to be like this:

Steam - Config and Startup Commands

First, we have to disable the Steam overlay for the game, we can do this by clicking the game on the games list of Steam, and selecting properties. On the General tab, de-select the two checkboxes, one for steam panel (overlay) and the other for SteamVR, we're not gonna need that.

Now, click on "Define startup Commands". You have to set some commands in order to begin the optimization, in some cases, just these will make the game run a lot better.

-no-throttle-updates -window-mode exclusive

As Unity 2018 do not support DX9, this was removed from the startup commands as well... Probably DX10 will be the one used as the minimum from now on...

To understand what is this:

-no-throttle-updates: As far as I know (and it can be completely wrong), this will change the processing behavior to a softer one, that will make you gain some performance.

-window-mode exclusive: Will affect the video processing behavior by only drawing the game frames, this can increase performance (when the game is on fullscreen mode).

-force-d3d11: This will force the use of DirectX11 on Windows. This is how the game comes by default.

-force-d3d12: This will force the use of DirectX12 on Windows. This is the latest version of DirectX, might increase performance in some cases.

-force-vulkan: This will force the use of Vulkan API. This is quite helpful on Linux systems as it's as powerful as DirectX12.

Internal Game Configurations

Now we can start to configure the game from inside, in the case you don't want to mess with code. Go to the game settings and do the following:

Set your graphics to LOW
Set your game to FullScreen
Set your resolution to one between 800x600 to 1024x768 (Windows will only show these two on this range, but Linux show at least 4 between these, probably because of the OpenGL).
Turn OFF Motion Blur
Turn OFF Antialising
Turn OFF Vsync

External Game Configuration

This is the moment to get the game uglier in order to make it run better. Is good to point that messing with these will also overwrite any prior configuration done inside the game, so if you did the step before this one and did not achieve good results, this is probably your salvation.

Open your file explorer and type the following on the adress bar:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ballistic

You will be now on a folder with some files, find the file BallisticConfiguration.settings and open it with Notepad.exe or some good code editor pls don't use dreamweaver or eclipse....

Delete anything that's inside there and add the following:

{ "CommentResolution": "Resolution type: Width = integer, Height = integer, RefreshRate = integer", "Width": 1024, "Height": 576, "RefreshRate": 60, "CommentQuality": "Quality types: 0(LOW), 1(MEDIUM), 2(HIGH)", "Quality": 0, "CommentAntiAliasing": "AntiAliasing types: 0(OFF), 1(FXAA), 2(MSAAx2), 3(MSAAx4), 4(MSAAx8), 5(MSAAx2+FXAA), 6(MSAAx4+FXAA), 7(MSAAx8+FXAA)", "AntiAliasing": 0, "CommentBuffering": "Buffering types: 1(OFF), 2(DEFAULT), 3(TRIPLE_BUFFER), 4(QUADRA_BUFFER), 5(PENTA_BUFFER)", "Buffering": 1, "CommentTextureMipmap": "TextureMipmap types: 0(MAXIMUM), 1(HALF), 2(QUARTER), 3(EIGHTH)", "TextureMipmap": 3, "CommentAnisotropicFiltering": "AnisotropicFiltering types: 0(FROM_QUALITY), 1(PER_TEXTURE), 2(FORCED)", "AnisotropicFiltering": 0, "CommentMotionBlur": "MotionBlur types: false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "MotionBlur": false, "CommentFullScreen": "FullScreen types: false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "FullScreen": true, "CommentVSync": "VSync types: false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "VSync": false, "CommentInGameChat": "InGameChat types: false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "InGameChat": true, "Language": "en_US", "CommentVersion": "Change Version cause GameSettings to Reset the file.", "Version": 8, "CommentVoiceVolume": "VoiceVolume types: range from 0.0 to 1.0", "VoiceVolume": 0.7, "CommentSoundVolume": "SoundVolume types: range from 0.0 to 1.0", "SoundVolume": 1.0, "CommentMusicVolume": "MusicVolume types: range from 0.0 to 1.0", "MusicVolume": 0.5, "CommentNetworkNorthAmericaEast": "QuickMatch 'North America East': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkNorthAmericaEast": true, "CommentNetworkNorthAmericaWest": "QuickMatch 'North America West': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkNorthAmericaWest": true, "CommentNetworkSouthAmerica": "QuickMatch 'South America': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkSouthAmerica": true, "CommentNetworkEurope": "QuickMatch 'Europe': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkEurope": true, "CommentNetworkAsia": "QuickMatch 'Asia': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkAsia": true, "CommentNetworkChina": "QuickMatch 'Asia': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkChina": true, "CommentNetworkDedicated": "QuickMatch 'Custom Dedicated Servers': false(DISABLED), true(ENABLED)", "QNetworkDedicated": true }

This will surely make the game run faster, but will cost a lot of it's quality. Hope this helps.

Advices and Extra Tips

- The lightest version of windows for gaming nowadays is Windows 7. Some games still support it and the system is quite solid, even now that Microsoft is not supporting it. There's some security concerns when you decide to use an outdated version of a system but, if your thing is just play games, basically, install Win7 instead of any other version.

- Antivirus Software usually take up some of your resources to scan your PC while you use it, but this cause some framedrop on weak PCs. You can turn this off by finding the "Real Time/Background Verification" option of your antivirus. Just remember that you will need to verify manually every time you want to remove any virus or turn it back on when you stop playing your games.

- As the Steam Overlay will not be available on the game, you will not be able to make instant screenshots or see your FPS in-game. This cost a bit of performance in weak PCs, but if it's useful for you, turn it back on.

- Try not to use any stream service, voice chat or torrent program while playing, since this will consume a lot of your internet and of your PC. If you really need that for some specific reason, try using a smartphone to handle that instead of the PC.

- NEVER put your game on windowed mode... Seriously... Unless you are using Linux, using LXDE/LXQT.

- If you're on Windows 10/11, make sure you have the latest updates, because this can bring new patches to the system in order to improve gaming and overall performances.

- Download the extension "The Great Suspender" for Chromium/Google Chrome/Opera in case you let your browser open while you play, this will suspend unused tabs after a while and increase the performance. If you use Microsoft Edge, there's a native funcionality for that, try enabling it.

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