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A performance guide for Low End PCs

By gen.

A quick guide on how to boost performance on older/weaker systems that struggle to achieve playable fps.

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Created by

gen.
In-Game
STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™

Category: Modding or Configuration, Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

2 Apr, 2019 @ 12:10am

12 Apr, 2019 @ 2:40am

10,295	Unique Visitors
223	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

In-game Settings

Display Settings

Launch Options

Autoexec

Performance

Final words

Comments

Introduction

Before we get on with the guide, I would like to apologise for the quality of the pictures.

The game is still new so there aren't many tweaks to help improve performance. However with the few that we do have, they can greatly improve your fps.

In-game Settings

General rule of thumb for low end users - ALWAYS start at the lowest. That means using the lowest settings the game allows.
Most of the settings are turned down to their absolute lowest other than a select few. Some options such as Bloom and VFX Culling Bias currently aren't toggleable or just resets themselves.

Display Settings

If you are still struggling for performance, you can try changing your display resolution.
I advise you to experiment with this but for the sake of MAXIMUM performance, we'll be using both 1366x768 and 800x600. The smaller the resolution, the lesser the load put on your computer. This allows it to direct more of its resources towards running the game.

Launch Options

Most of the well-known launch options such as -high don't work. The only launch command that works as of right now is -window-mode exclusive which essentially puts your game into TRUE fullscreen.

What's true fullscreen and why do I need it?
Well, the game was made on the Unity engine and Unity games don't have a fullscreen mode, The given 'fullscreen' option is actually Windowed Borderless Fullscreen.
How is that different from true fullscreen?
Windowed Borderless Fullscreen imitates fullscreen but is actually a window without borders (hence, windowed borderless). That means your desktop is still running in the background so the resources of your computer are being directed to BOTH the game and your desktop. While this is useful for those who alt+tab frequently, it consumes performance alot.
So how do I actually enable true fullscreen?
It's simple. Launch the game and once you're in the main menu, press alt+enter twice. The first 'alt+enter' should put your game in windowed mode and the second 'alt-enter' puts your game into true fullscreen mode.
(Note: You will have to do this manually everytime you launch the game.)

By enabling true fullscreen, your computer is focusing ALL of its resources towards running the game. This allows you to achieve higher and perhaps, stabler fps. The downside is that when you alt+tab, you'll have a second or two of blackscreen as it transitions between the game and your desktop. But hey, we just want to play the game, right?

Autoexec

Thank you to Xepra for providing the console commands used in the autoexec.

There are a couple of console commands that can be used to change the settings. To avoid the hassle of needing to input the commands manually everytime, we can utilise an autoexec.

What's an autoexec and what does it do?

An autoexec is a config file that is automatically executed, typically on launch. The use of an autoexec usually adds and overwrites the existing config file.
How do I make an autoexec?

Using the "Executable for dummies" guide, it's quite easy.
Navigate to your config folder located at [E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Risk of Rain 2\Risk of Rain 2_Data\Config]
(Note: It may be located in a different drive for you so make sure you go to where you have your games installed.)

There should be a config.cfg file in that folder and nothing else.
Create a text file and paste in the following lines of text.

resolution 800x600x60;
pp_motionblur 0;
pp_bloom Disable;
anisotropic_flitering=Disable;
pp_ao 0;
pp_sobel_outline 1;
r_foliagewind 0;
r_shadows 0;
r_softparticles 1;
Afterwards, save it by going to File > Save As...
Name the file "autoexec.cfg" and set the file type to "All Files".
You should now have an autoexec.cfg along with your config.cfg in your folder. The text file can be deleted since we don't need it anymore.

Performance

So, you just followed the words of a stranger on the internet who claims that he can help you get better fps. Are his claims bogus? Well...

Display resolution: 1366x768 / In-game resolution: 1366x768
Display resolution: 1366x768 / In-game resolution: 800x600
Display resolution: 800x600 / In-game resolution: 800x600
Display resolution: 800x600 / In-game resolution: 800x600 in True Fullscreen

Display resolution

In-game resolution

Average FPS

1366x768

1366x768

10 - 12

1366x768

800x600

13 - 14

800x600

800x600

19 - 21

800x600

800x600 (True Fullscreen)

30 - 34

(Tested using Intel i7-3517U 1.90GHz and AMD Radeon HD 7570M)

Final words

Hopefully these tweaks helped you in improving your performance, even if a little bit.

If you have any tweaks that weren't listed in this guide, feel free to leave a comment letting me know and I'll try to add it to the guide whenever I can.

Until then, keep on stacking those syringes and teddy bears.

18 Comments

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Sagely_One 30 Dec, 2023 @ 12:09pm

If you're running on Linux, you can install Gamescope (on Arch, sudo pacman -S gamescope) and add this to your launch parameters: gamescope -w 960 -h 540 -W 1920 -H 1080 -F fsr -f -r 60 -- %command%

This will run the game full-screen 1080p but render at half-resolution and upscale with FSR.

76561199364996193 29 Jan, 2023 @ 3:52am

great guide, now i do get 15 FPS in late-game

MyHouseDeath 1 Jul, 2022 @ 5:31am

Игра потребляет очень мало ОЗУ... и часто играешь по 2 фпс

Spaicrab 15 Jun, 2022 @ 10:20pm

Great guide, because of it I made a simple batch file changing the display resolution specifically for the game. Perhaps I could use this method for other games too.

rufiooh 10 Aug, 2020 @ 1:51am

you can actually make exe's start on a set priority in regedit, i don't want to explain it, so search it up.

MaximEnglish 24 Apr, 2020 @ 2:25am

Yes it is, but most of the time Task Manager won't save your application priority which is a bit of a work to alt+tabbing out your game and try to open TM (which will increase the data usage) and set the game priority. Some games will suffer fps lost or crash when alt+tabbing on a toaster pc.

cate 23 Apr, 2020 @ 11:11am

Below sounds like a bad idea. Task manager works fantastic as is

MaximEnglish 23 Apr, 2020 @ 6:11am

You can actually boost the game fps even more by downloading Process Hacker [processhacker.sourceforge.io] to replace your Task Manager so that you can permanently set your game Priority to High.

After you done the installation, open Task Manager(Process hacker) and follow these steps:
-Find Steam.exe and set it's Priority to Below Normal and I/O Priority to Low and make sure you Click Save for Steam . By doing so will make steam less memory consuming which can spare you a wee amount of memory to improve your game performance.
-Launch Risk of Rain 2, tab out, and then find and set Risk Of Rain 2.exe to high and save it. You can also mess with the I/O Priority for ROR2 but I recommend you to set to it Normal instead of High to avoid system or memory instability on your PC which could lead to crash.

I hope this will work for most for you guys out there. Be safe and cheers back.

cryptidiot 31 Aug, 2019 @ 4:17pm

Went from 38 to 40 FPS with just the alt-enter trick. Thanks!

cate 25 May, 2019 @ 2:25pm

+1, very helpful. Thanks!

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