Performance Tweaks: Difference between revisions

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This article relates to performance issues ''for players''. For performance information ''for mappers'', see [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows]]
{{important|headline=For Players|text=This article relates to performance issues ''for players''. For performance information ''for mappers'', see [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows]] }}


== Show FPS ==
== '''Minimum Specifications''' ==


* CPU: 1.5Ghz with x64 instructions (64-bit) and SSE2 SIMD support
* GPU: OpenGL 3.2 compatible with at least 512MB of VRAM ( roughly the performance of a Geforce GT 8800 )
* RAM: 2GB
* Storage: 30GB free space ( depending amount of missions you download )


First, you can check how many {{abbr|FPS|frames per second}} are achieved by opening the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:
You may be able to play on weaker hardware using config tips in this wiki but you will likely encounter many missions that are too taxing.
<br><br>The Dark Mod 1.0 was originally released in 2009. The average mission designer and player of that time had a Geforce 6600GT and AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHZ.
<br>While some missions were playable all the way down to a Pentium 4 2.8GHZ with an Geforce FX 5200, this is well below the expected audience for this project.
<br>Current Intel integrated GPU's have better performance than the Geforce 8800 that was a very high-end card in 2009.
<br>See [[Performance_Tweaks#Hardware_Considerations|Hardware Considerations]] for additional details.
<br><br>Note: Low-power mobile chips are known to throttle under heavy load, especially when using integrated graphics.
<br><br>
 
{{clear}}


com_showFPS 1
<font size="4">


==Show Position==
== '''Conventions''' ==
</font>


To identify the locations where problems are found, use these two cvars to render the positions as an overlay display while playing.
Most of the changes demonstrated in this article are via "Console variables" [[Cvars_in_The_Dark_Mod|CVARS]].


Open the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:
The "seta" prefix is intended to save these settings permanently so that they are retained on restart and that
is what is used by Darkmod.cfg.


<pre>
<pre>


g_showviewpos 1
seta r_softShadowsRadius "2"
 
con_noPrint 0 


</pre>
</pre>


== Stop Time ==
=== OBSOLETE Suggestions ===


Moving and Thinking can impact performance in unexpected ways.
Some configuration suggestions in this wiki are no longer applicable in the latest TDM versions and are only
<br>When comparing graphical settings it might be best to "Stop Time" so that the entire scene is frozen
<br>preserved for players running old versions. Where applicable these are labelled OBSOLETE so you can ignore them.
<br>and the FPS changes due to '''graphics options''' can be more easily compared.
<br>Open the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:


<pre>
=== Temporary Testing ===


g_stopTime 1
To temporarily test any settings, you can drop the "seta" and simply invoke the cvar and it's value (without double quotes) in
the console.


</pre>
Example:


Open the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:


<font size="5">
<pre>


== '''Optimizing the OS performance'''==
r_softShadowsRadius 2
</font>


=== Linux UEFI Secure Boot ===
</pre>


With Secure Boot enabled in the BIOS, most Linux distros will fallback to (slow) open drivers
<s>Note: Some CVAR changes in the console, such as vid_mode (resolution), r_multisamples (AA), r_swapInterval (V-Synch), image_anisotropy (AF)
<br>and wont have access to most hardware acceleration. Disable Secure Boot for the best performance.
cannot be changed without also invoking vid_restart.</s>


=== Stop running programs in the background ===
NEW: As of TDM 2.07, almost all conventional settings can be altered without restarting the engine!


Programs running in the background might either eat up memory that is needed for <s>Doom 3</s> The Dark Mod, and thus cause swapping to the hard disk, or they might consume CPU time or other resources.
{{clear}}


This can cause either general slowdowns or ''hickups'' during game play.
=== Toggle settings in realtime ===


{{clear}}
With the exception of Resolution ( [[Performance_Tweaks#Lower_your_Render_Scale_(New_2.07)|"Render Scale"]] can be changed realtime), most of the above settings can be changed in realtime
in the console or via a bind in Darkmod.cfg.


=== Ensure that Programs are the main priority in the OS ===
For example, you could bind both post-processing and enhanced interaction to the Z key to enable and disable them both by pressing that key


To begin the process, type sysdm.cpl in Run box ({{key|Windows}} + {{key|R}}) and hit {{key|Enter}} to open the System Properties.
<pre>


Select the Advanced tab and under Performance, {{LMB}} click on Settings.
bind "z" "toggle r_postprocess 0 1; toggle tdm_interaction_vfp_type 0 1"


In the Performance Options box, select the Advanced Tab again.
</pre>


You will see a section Processor Scheduling
in Darkmod.cfg
 
Choose "Programs" then {{LMB}} click Apply.


{{clear}}
{{clear}}


<font size="3">
=== Mission.cfg (New in 2.12) ===
=== White-list TheDarkMod.exe in Security Software ===
</font>


Make sure that Windows Defender or Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, etc aren't constantly scanning or interacting
When TDM was a Doom 3 mod, you could add a DoomConfig.cfg file to specific missions under doom3/darkmod/fms/mission_name
<br>This allowed you customize settings on a per mission basis
<br>TDM introduces a new config file called mission.cfg that is meant to allow mission authors to make fleeting setting changes to dynamic settings
<br>You can use this file to replicate the old per mission concept


with TheDarkMod.exe. Add it to your security white-list.
* Make a mission.cfg file and place it under your darkmod folder. This is your global setting file.
* Make another mission.cfg file and place it under darkmod/fms/<mission_name>. This is your per mission setting file
* Add cvars to the per mission file in the format of seta r_something "0"
* For each cvar added to the per mission file, add the preferred default version to the global setting file


==== Windows 10 Granular Security Options ====
To ensure the global setting gets re-applied, uninstall the current mission before installing a new one


With new attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, Windows 10 has added CPU architecture specific security fixes.
<br>Many of these have performance impacts. The impact is mostly on Storage access so loading times would
<br>normally be the only casualty of these changes. Still, it's possible that these protections might interfere
<br>with The Dark Mod in other ways.


Please review:
=== Launch Options ===


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-defender-exploit-guard/customize-exploit-protection
You can also add the value as part of your target in your shortcut:


and disable the security options you feel are excessive.
Example with two cvars:


<font size="4">
*  {{RMB}} Right click your Desktop shortcut to TheDarkMod and select Properties
*  On the Shortcut Tab enter the following into the "Target:" field


=== '''Priority and Affinity''' ===
<pre>
</font>


==== Set TheDarkMod to High Priority ====
"C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe" +set r_softShadowsRadius 2 1 +r_useEntityCulling 1


* Launch TheDarkMod
</pre>


''(Note: Do not start a mission or test map yet. If the 3D render is initialized it will take a long time to exit fullscreen and return to it.)''
(Assuming you installed into C:\darkmod)


* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to exit fullscreen
* Then {{LMB}} click the Change Icon button and browse for the Darkmod.ico icon in your darkmod install path
* {{key|Ctrl}} + {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Del}} to open your Task Manager
* {{LMB}} Click Apply
* {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe the choose "Go to Details"
* (On the details\processes pane) {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe and mouse-over Set Priority and choose High
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to return to fullscreen


You can also edit your Desktop shortcut to start in High priority:
See also [[#Set_TheDarkMod_to_High_Priority|Set TheDarkMod to High Priority]]


* {{RMB}} Right-click your Desktop shortcut to TheDarkMod and select Properties
{{Clear}}
* On the Shortcut Tab enter the following into the "Target:" field
<br>


<pre>
== '''Evaluation and Diagnostics''' ==


cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /High "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe"
=== Show FPS ===


</pre>


(Assuming you installed into C:\darkmod)
First, you can check how many {{abbr|FPS|frames per second}} are achieved by opening the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:


* Then {{LMB}} click the Change Icon button and browse for the Darkmod.ico icon in your darkmod install path
com_showFPS 1
* {{LMB}} Click Apply


==== Set TheDarkMod Affinity ====
=== Show Position ===


If you have a limited number of cores or heavy background tasks are always consuming the
To identify the locations where problems are found, use these two cvars to render the positions as an overlay display while playing.
default cores, you can set The Dark Mod to run on a specific core via "affinity"


* Launch TheDarkMod
Open the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to exit fullscreen


''(Note: Do not start a mission or test map yet. If the 3D render is initialized it will take a long time to exit fullscreen and return to it.)''
<pre>


* {{key|Ctrl}} + {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Del}} to open your Task Manager
g_showviewpos 1
* Click the Performance Tab and look at the CPU display to see which cores are the least busy
 
* (On Windows 10, click the "Open Resource Monitor" link and then click the CPU tab and expand the right pane)
con_noPrint 0
* Close the Resource Monitor and click the Processes Tab in Task Manager
 
* {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe the choose "Go to Details"
</pre>
* (On the details\processes pane) {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe
* Mouse-over then click "Set Affinity" and uncheck cores you want to prevent TDM from using
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to return to fullscreen


As with Priority you can set Affinity in your shortcut.
====TDM Show Viewpos ( New 2.12 )====


Example Target:
To accomplish the basically the same thing ( a little more refined ) the new tdm_show_viewpos cvar is now available


<pre>
<pre>


cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /affinity 1 "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe"
tdm_show_viewpos 1


</pre>
</pre>


The affinity number is not matched to the number in your performance screen.
=== Stop Time ===
For example "Core 0" in Task Manager is affinity 1. The values are in Hex but
are converted from binary where 1 represents an active core and 0 is disabled
in a descending order.


For example: Binary 1110 means Core 3, 2, and 1 are enabled while Core 0 is disabled.
Moving and Thinking can impact performance in unexpected ways.  
Converting from Binary to Hex gives you /affinty E. This is a useful config if the majority
<br>When comparing graphical settings it might be best to "Stop Time" so that the entire scene is frozen
of your processes are running on Core 0. FE for an 8 core chip would accomplish the same result.
<br>and the FPS changes due to '''graphics options''' can be more easily compared.
<br>Open the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde is {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:


Another useful option is 0101 /affinity 5 which will select core 0 and 2 which are "real"
<pre>
cores in a Hyperthreading environment.


* Core 0 is 1
g_stopTime 1
* Core 1 is 2
* Core 2 is 4
* Core 3 is 8
* Core 4 is 10
* Core 5 is 20
* Core 6 is 40
* Core 7 is 80
* Core 8 is 100
* Core 9 is 200
* Core 10 is 400
* Core 11 is 800


Again, the core number does not exclude hyperthread cores so if you have an 8 Core \ 16 thread CPU
</pre>
you must count all real and hyperthread virtual cores when setting affinity.


==== Combined Example ====
<font size="4">


You can include both priority and affinity switches in your shortcut
== '''Delete Darkmod.cfg after upgrade''' ==
</font>


<pre>
If you run tdm_installer to upgrade TDM, it offers you the option to Restore Darkmod.cfg.
<br>When you do this, you may be reverting newer configuration defaults that have been changed in the latest release.
<br>While it may be inconvenient to reconfigure all your preferred settings from scratch, it may be best to start with this step ( deleting Darkmod.cfg )
<br>before tinkering with any other setting changes. ( Especially if you haven't done this for a few upgrade cycles. )
<br><br>Newer TDM versions keep your keybindings and controller settings in a separate file
<br>so you will just need to change resolution, brightness \ gamma, and other graphic quality settings
<br>in addition to game-play difficulty settings.


C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /High /affinity 5 "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe" +r_softShadowsRadius 2.5 +r_useEntityCulling 1
<font size="4">
== '''Mission Updates''' ==
</font>


</pre>
Mission authors often discover performance problems after they release their missions.
<br>They will occasionally issue new mission versions that have improved performance.
<br>Also, the TDM team will sometimes apply fixes to missions that can improve performance and stability in new release versions.
<br>We recommend checking the Mission Downloader for updates to your existing missions ( denoted with an asterisk )
<br>Note: '''Savegames''' do not work between different mission versions.


Start TheDarkMod with high priority on Cores 0 and 2 (real cores) and add two '''launch cvars''' ( See [[#Conventions|Conventions]]).
=== Known Taxing Missions ===


As you can see, you can make a huge launch string but once you go past 2 or 3 cvars it's best to
TDM performance can vary wildly depending on what any specific mission author has done to design their mission.
<br>Before deciding that TDM is unplayable on your hardware, please try less demanding missions
<br>The following are a few missions that are known to challenge low-end hardware configurations
<br><br>


use Darkmod.cfg unless you wish to make multiple launchers for testing (etc).
* Scroll of Remembrance
* Briarwood Manor
* The Rats Triumphant
* Rightful Property


==== Process Management Note ====
<br>Conversely, here are a few missions that should run well on low-end hardware ( in addition to the included "official" missions )
<br><br>


''You can also either "End Task" on processes that you know you don't need or set them to "below normal" or "low" priority.''
* Closemouthed Shadows
* The Outpost
* The Parcel
* Special Delivery
* The Thieves
* Thief's Den 1
* The Golden Skull
* Coercion
* Sir Talbot's Collatoral


''Moving these low priority processes to a different core via affinity is also an option.''
<br>Also, some very large missions will not load when running 32-bit TDM versions on Windows ( or may have anomalies on 32-bit Linux )
<br>They simply cause TDM to exceed the limit of 32-bit mission loading.
<br><br>


''Some processes, such as OneDrive.exe (which is integrated into the OS) will keep restarting so it's best to set these to "low priority"''
* The Painter's Wife
* Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail


''If you are unsure what a process does, do not change it until you've researched the process.''
<br>( Note: You may be able to use [[#Image_downsizing|image_downSize cvars]] to lower VRAM resources and load these missions on 32-bit Windows. )


{{clear}}
<br><br>


=== Disable Desktop Effects ===
<font size="5">


(If you are willing to sacrifice you desktop visual behavior and effects for better TDM performance. Note: This can be reverted.)
== '''Hardware Considerations''' ==
 
</font>
To begin the process, type sysdm.cpl in Run box ({{key|Windows}} + {{key|R}}) and hit {{key|Enter}} to open the System Properties.
 
Select the Advanced tab and under Performance, {{LMB}} click on Settings.
 
In the Performance Options box, select the Visual Effects tab.


Check "Adjust for Best Performance" then click Apply.
If you can correct hardware deficiencies you may not need to perform as many tweaks or setting changes.
<br>Sometimes it is as simple as a Driver or BIOS update. Other times, you may need to consider updating hardware.


{{clear}}


<font size="4">
<font size="4">
Line 225: Line 236:
=== '''Driver Considerations''' ===
=== '''Driver Considerations''' ===
</font>
</font>
----
''(IdTech4) The Dark Mod was originally based on OpenGL 2.0. (the same as Doom 3)''


''(IdTech4) The Dark Mod is based on OpenGL 2.0. GPU manufacturers have largely ignored''
''GPU manufacturers have largely ignored issues with this older specification so a number of workarounds have been''  


''issues with this older specification so a number of workarounds have been compiled''
''compiled by the community to attend to erroneous behaviors or poor performance.''


''by the community to attend to erroneous behaviors or poor performance.''
''As of TDM 2.06 and newer The Dark Mod uses OpenGL 3.x so many of these suggestions are no longer applicable.''
 
''That said, even OpenGL 3.2 (current requirement) is an old standard so some newer workarounds may be needed.''




{{clear}}
{{clear}}


==== (AMD\ATI) Disable Catalyst AI ====
==== Intel ( new 2.09 ) ====


2018: The latest Radeon Crimson and Adrenalin Drivers:
Some Intel drivers do not perform well with persistent mapping enabled.
<br>In 2.09 there is a special persistent mapping mode that works better for this hardware.
<br>You must disable standard persistent mapping to use this mode.


Surface Format Optimization = OFF
<pre>


[[FAQ#Disable_Catalyst_AI_in_recent_AMD_ATI_drivers|Disable Catalyst AI in recent AMD Drivers]]
r_gpuBufferNonpersistentUpdateMode "1"


==== (AMD\ATI) Rename the executable ====
r_usePersistentMapping 0


Most modern drivers have built-in profiles for the executable names of commercial games.
</pre>
 
 
==== (AMD\ATI) Disable Catalyst AI ====
 
2018: The latest Radeon Crimson and Adrenalin Drivers:
 
Surface Format Optimization = OFF
 
[[FAQ#Disable_Catalyst_AI_in_recent_AMD_ATI_drivers|Disable Catalyst AI in recent AMD Drivers]]
 
==== (AMD\ATI) Rename the executable ====
 
Most modern drivers have built-in profiles for the executable names of commercial games.


Renaming TheDarkMod.exe to the name of a commercial OpenGL game may gain you some optimizations
Renaming TheDarkMod.exe to the name of a commercial OpenGL game may gain you some optimizations
Line 254: Line 284:


DarkAthena.exe (thus far the most consistent improvement)
DarkAthena.exe (thus far the most consistent improvement)
Doom3BFG.exe


Wolf2MP.exe
Wolf2MP.exe
Line 281: Line 313:
[[Image:Nvidia_Profiles.jpg|600px]]
[[Image:Nvidia_Profiles.jpg|600px]]
<br><br><br><br>
<br><br><br><br>
{{clear}}
==== (Nvidia) Disable Index Buffers ====
<pre>
seta r_useIndexBuffers "0"
</pre>
in Darkmod.cfg
(Notes: This tweak is the default in v2.05 and newer)


{{clear}}
{{clear}}
Line 369: Line 387:


See also [[#Upgrade_your_BIOS|Upgrade your BIOS]]
See also [[#Upgrade_your_BIOS|Upgrade your BIOS]]


{{clear}}
{{clear}}


<font size="5">


== '''Optimizing Dark Mod settings''' ==
=== Upgrade your BIOS ===
</font>
 
Sometimes bugs or unintended specification limits in the BIOS on an older motherboard will prevent it from
allowing the CPU or GPU to meet their potential.


''The settings changes below generally can be changed independently of one another.''
If your manufacturer has an updated motherboard BIOS available, consider applying it.


''This means that if your want better settings in one aspect (such as AA) you can''
=== Compile Darkmod for your own Hardware ===


''try reducing quality or disabling another aspect (such as post-processing, image_downsize, v-sync, etc)''
The Dark Mod already contains many hardware specific optimizations and can detect when your system has the needed hardware so that it can accelerate parts of the engine.
<br>Though unlikely, it is possible that MSVC++ or GCC compilers can improve the performance of the executable further when told what hardware you have.
<br>You can try compiling The Dark Mod yourself and add any compiler configurations that are specific to your hardware.<br><br>
[[The_Dark_Mod_-_Compilation_Guide|Darkmod Compiling Guide]]
<br><br>For Windows \ MSVC++ you may wish to add an AVX flag:
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/arch-x64?view=msvc-170
<br><br>For Linux you can add -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-march=native to your cmake string.
<br><br>Example:
  cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" .. -DGAME_DIR=/home/user/darkmod -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc-11 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++-11 -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-march=native


<font size="4">
{{clear}}
=== '''Conventions''' ===
</font>


Most of the changes demonstrated in this article are via "Console variables" [[Cvars_in_The_Dark_Mod|CVARS]].
=== OBSOLETE Configure Video RAM ===


The "seta" prefix is intended to save these settings permanently so that they are retained on restart and that
Change:
is what is used by Darkmod.cfg.


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_softShadowsRadius "2"
seta com_videoRam "128"  


</pre>
</pre>


==== Temporary Testing ====
to the appropriate value (in MB) for your GPU in Darkmod.cfg


To temporarily test any settings, you can drop the "seta" and simply invoke the cvar and it's value (without double quotes) in
Eg. A 2GB video card would have 2048 there.
the console.


Example:
<pre>


Open the console with {{key|Ctrl}}+{{key|Alt}}+{{key|~}} (tilde, {{key|^}} on German keyboards) and type:
seta com_videoRam "2048"


<pre>
</pre>


r_softShadowsRadius 2
{{clear}}


</pre>
=== Last resort: Upgrade your hardware ===


<s>Note: Some CVAR changes in the console, such as vid_mode (resolution), r_multisamples (AA), r_swapInterval (V-Synch), image_anisotropy (AF)
<br>This whole wiki is meant to assist players with making TDM run as best as possible on their current hardware.
cannot be changed without also invoking vid_restart.</s>
<br><br>That said, you may find that the needed compromises are too harsh or that some missions still do not perform
<br>well enough even with an optimized configuration. As such, it may be time to consider hardware upgrades.
<br><br>Before upgrading it may still be advised to open a support thread in the forums, especially if your hardware is above the minimum specifications


NEW: As of TDM 2.07, almost all conventional settings can be altered without restarting the engine!
<br>Modern games need a lot of computing power, and while you don't need the absolutely newest hardware to play them,  
<br>upgrading single components of your machine can help tremendously:


See also: [[#Toggle_settings_in_realtime|Toggle settings in realtime]]
* If you got '''less than 2 GByte''' main memory, consider upgrading your memory. This really helps to reduce swapping, which introduces quite noticeable slowdowns.
* If you got a graphic card from NVidia older than the Geforce 8x00 series, consider upgrading it.
* Upgrading the (spinning) hard disk to SSD / NVME "Solid State" storage should improved loading times, especially on 2.10 and newer.
* For comparison, see '''[[Known_System_Configurations|Known System Configurations]]''' to see the weakest hardware known to run current TDM versions.


<br>Upgrading your CPU is possible in most cases but can be quite complicated and the cost might be so high that upgrading your whole PC might be a better value.
{{clear}}
{{clear}}
<br><br>


==== Launch Options ====
<font size="5">


You can also add the value as part of your of your target in your shortcut:
== '''Optimizing the OS performance'''==
</font>


Example with two cvars:
Historically, TDM had significantly better performance on Windows because Doom 3 had no SIMD optimizations under Linux.
<br>As of 2.06 and newer Linux TDM has both SSE SIMD and AVX optimizations so it can run faster under Linux due to less OS overhead.
<br>Unfortunately, the default "capped FPS mode" has never worked well under Linux so out-of-box Linux still performs worse.
<br>'''Hence we advise switching to [[Performance_Tweaks#Uncap_FPS_(New_in_v2.06) | uncapped mode]] under Linux.'''
<br>If you have a weaker CPU and can install Linux ( dual boot, etc ) you may see 5 to 10% performance uplift when configured properly


*  {{RMB}} Right click your Desktop shortcut to TheDarkMod and select Properties
*  On the Shortcut Tab enter the following into the "Target:" field


<pre>
=== All OS Variants: File Permissions ===


"C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe" +r_softShadowsRadius 2 1 +r_useEntityCulling 1
Make sure your darkmod folder is located in a non-protected location.


</pre>
On Windows, "Program Files" is protected and will cause problems saving any settings or installing Fan Missions.


(Assuming you installed into C:\darkmod)
On Linux, you should consider creating your darkmod directory under your /home/<username>/ folder to avoid permission issues.


* Then {{LMB}} click the Change Icon button and browse for the Darkmod.ico icon in your darkmod install path
=== Linux UEFI Secure Boot ===
* {{LMB}} Click Apply


See also [[#Set_TheDarkMod_to_High_Priority|Set TheDarkMod to High Priority]]
With Secure Boot enabled in the BIOS, some Linux distros will fallback to (slow) open drivers and wont have access to most hardware features.
<br>If your Linux distro doesn't offer "Signed Kernels" and "Signed Drivers" disabling UEFI may be the only way to have acceptable performance
<br>We recommend that you consider using a Linux distro that offers Signed Kernels such as the latest Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Debian, Linux Mint versions


=== '''Enable Multi-Core (new in v2.06)''' ===
=== Stop running programs in the background ===


In 2.06 the engine splits the Frontend and Backend into separate threads if you
Programs running in the background might either eat up memory that is needed for <s>Doom 3</s> The Dark Mod, and thus cause swapping to the hard disk, or they might consume CPU time or other resources.  
enable the Experimental "Multi-Core" setting in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.


<pre>
This can cause either general slowdowns or ''hickups'' during game play.


seta com_smp "1"
{{clear}}


</pre>
=== Ensure that Programs are the main priority in the OS ===


in Darkmod.cfg
To begin the process, type sysdm.cpl in Run box ({{key|Windows}} + {{key|R}}) and hit {{key|Enter}} to open the System Properties.  


=== '''Uncap FPS (New in v2.06)'''===
Select the Advanced tab and under Performance, {{LMB}} click on Settings.  
Run one game tick per graphics frame, rather than fixed 60 ticks per second.
(Limited to 166hz)
In 2.06 this is now a GUI option "Uncap FPS" in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.


<pre>
In the Performance Options box, select the Advanced Tab again.


seta com_fixedTic "1"
You will see a section Processor Scheduling


</pre>
Choose "Programs" then {{LMB}} click Apply.


in Darkmod.cfg
{{clear}}


<font size="4">
<font size="3">
 
=== White-list TheDarkMod.exe in Security Software ===
=== '''Lower or Disable Soft Shadows (New in v2.06)''' ===
</font>
</font>


In the advanced videos settings menu set the Soft Shadows quality slider to low or off
Make sure that Windows Defender or Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, etc aren't constantly scanning or interacting


<pre>
with TheDarkMod.exe. Add it to your security white-list.


seta r_softShadowsQuality = 0
==== Windows 10 Granular Security Options ====


</pre>
With new attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, Windows 10 has added CPU architecture specific security fixes.
<br>Many of these have performance impacts. The impact is mostly on Storage access so loading times would
<br>normally be the only casualty of these changes. Still, it's possible that these protections might interfere
<br>with The Dark Mod in other ways.


in Darkmod.cfg
Please review:


<font size="3">'''Note 1:'''
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/exploit-protection-reference?view=o365-worldwide


(OBSOLETE)
and disable the security options you feel are excessive.
<s>In game Anti-aliasing should be disabled when using Soft Shadows on Nvidia hardware.
<br>Use FXAA in your driver settings instead.</s>


NEW:
==== Disable TDM Connectivity ====


TDM 2.07 allow Nvidia user to use real MSAA with FBO mode
If you decide to bypass / safelist TDM in security software, you can mitigate risks posed by TDM's network connection by setting:
 
See [[#Lower_Anti-aliasing | Lower Anti-aliasing]]
 
'''Note 2:'''
 
(OBSOLETE)
 
<s>For many players the only way to achieve substantial shadow softness in the GUI is to
<br>set quality to High or better. This causes the misleading perception that soft shadows
<br>are too expensive for most hardware.</s>
 
To improve shadow softness without increasing the quality setting, set:


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_softShadowsRadius 2.0
seta tdm_allow_http_access "0"


</pre>
</pre>


You can experiment with values between 1.5 and 3.5 or more.
in Darkmod.cfg to block connectivity.
 
This comes with the caveat that the in-game mission downloader won't work, you'll need to download missions from https://www.thedarkmod.com/missions
<br>and copying them to your darkmod/fms folder


<font size="4">


=== '''Disable Desktop Effects''' ===
</font>
</font>
(The "softness" slider is now included in 2.07 GUI)


<font size="3">
(If you are willing to sacrifice you desktop visual behavior and effects for better TDM performance. Note: This can be reverted.)


=== '''Change Shadow Mode (New 2.07)''' ===
To begin the process, type sysdm.cpl in Run box ({{key|Windows}} + {{key|R}}) and hit {{key|Enter}} to open the System Properties.  
</font>


<br>In TDM 2.07 we offer two different "Shadow Implementation" options in the GUI.
Select the Advanced tab and under Performance, {{LMB}} click on Settings.  


* Maps (Shadow Maps)
In the Performance Options box, select the Visual Effects tab.


* Stencil (Stencil Shadow Volumes)
Check "Adjust for Best Performance" then click Apply.


<br>Shadow Maps can perform better in scenes with fewer but larger light sources<br>
{{clear}}
and less small shadow casters. Big areas + Big Lights + Shadow Maps = HIGH FPS
<br>


<pre>
<font size="5">


seta r_shadows "2"
=== '''Priority and Affinity (Advanced)''' ===
</font>
----


</pre>
<br>The following sub-section is a deep dive into forcing your Operating System to treat TDM as the '''most important application'''.
<br><br>A well behaved and maintained OS generally will not need to be configured like this so please consider these options
<br>to be an extreme last resort to ensure that no OS performance factors are slowing down TDM
<br><br>


<font size="4">
==== Windows Priority and Affinity ====
</font>


==== '''Shadow Map Size''' ====
Note: As of The Dark Mod 2.08 Frontend Acceleration, defaults to 2 threads. When configuring affinity you should
<br>ensure that at least 2 cores ( preferably 3 ) are allocated to TDM. If you increase the jobs_numThreads value
<br>you should correspondingly increase the number of cores available in process affinity.


The larger the Shadow Map texture, the more detail and less artifacts you have further away<br>
===== Set TheDarkMod to High Priority =====
from the light center or for small objects. Conversely, smaller Shadow Map textures perform better.


<pre>
* Launch TheDarkMod


seta r_shadowMapSize "384"
''(Note: Do not start a mission or test map yet. If the 3D render is initialized it will take a long time to exit fullscreen and return to it.)''


</pre>
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to exit fullscreen
 
* {{key|Ctrl}} + {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Del}} to open your Task Manager
==== '''Max Light Size''' ====
* {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe the choose "Go to Details"
* (On the details\processes pane) {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe and mouse-over Set Priority and choose High
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to return to fullscreen


The larger the light, the more Shadow Map resolution you need (see Shadow Map Size).
You can also edit your Desktop shortcut to start in High priority:
<br>There are some lights so large that Shadows will never look good without insane texture sizes.
 
You can set a threshold to say if lights are bigger than X, use Stencil Shadows.
* {{RMB}} Right-click your Desktop shortcut to TheDarkMod and select Properties
* On the Shortcut Tab enter the following into the "Target:" field


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_maxShadowMapLight "1500"
cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /High "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe"


</pre>
</pre>


<font size="3">
(Assuming you installed into C:\darkmod)
=== '''Disable Post-Processing''' ===
</font>


In the advanced video settings menu make sure post-processing is disabled
* Then {{LMB}} click the Change Icon button and browse for the Darkmod.ico icon in your darkmod install path
* {{LMB}} Click Apply


<pre>
===== Set TheDarkMod Affinity =====


seta r_postprocess "0"
If you have a limited number of cores or heavy background tasks are always consuming the
default cores, you can set The Dark Mod to run on a specific core via "affinity"


</pre>
* Launch TheDarkMod
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to exit fullscreen


in Darkmod.cfg
''(Note: Do not start a mission or test map yet. If the 3D render is initialized it will take a long time to exit fullscreen and return to it.)''


<font size="4">
* {{key|Ctrl}} + {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Del}} to open your Task Manager
* Click the Performance Tab and look at the CPU display to see which cores are the least busy
* (On Windows 10, click the "Open Resource Monitor" link and then click the CPU tab and expand the right pane)
* Close the Resource Monitor and click the Processes Tab in Task Manager
* {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe the choose "Go to Details"
* (On the details\processes pane) {{RMB}} Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe
* Mouse-over then click "Set Affinity" and uncheck cores you want to prevent TDM from using
* {{key|Alt}} + {{key|Enter}} to return to fullscreen


=== '''Lower Anti-aliasing''' ===
As with Priority you can set Affinity in your shortcut.
</font>


In the standard video settings, set AA to a lower value or 0
Example Target:


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_multiSamples "0"  
cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /affinity 1 "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe"


</pre>
</pre>
in Darkmod.cfg


The affinity number is not matched to the number in your performance screen.
For example "Core 0" in Task Manager is affinity 1. The values are in Hex but
are converted from binary where 1 represents an active core and 0 is disabled
in a descending order.


(Note: Nvidia's in driver FXAA anti-aliasing setting is substantially faster than the multi-samples settings
For example: Binary 1110 means Core 3, 2, and 1 are enabled while Core 0 is disabled.
in game.  
Converting from Binary to Hex gives you /affinty E. This is a useful config if the majority
of your processes are running on Core 0. FE for an 8 core chip would accomplish the same result.


Doom 3 is far less susceptible to AA artifacts so this may be an acceptable alternative especially
Another useful option is 0101 /affinity 5 which will select core 0 and 2 which are "real"
if you are are running the game at native resolution (or nearly native).  
cores in a Hyperthreading environment.


AMD has MLAA which may also work well in the same way.)
* Core 0 is 1
* Core 1 is 2
* Core 2 is 4
* Core 3 is 8
* Core 4 is 10
* Core 5 is 20
* Core 6 is 40
* Core 7 is 80
* Core 8 is 100
* Core 9 is 200
* Core 10 is 400
* Core 11 is 800


Again, the core number does not exclude hyperthread cores so if you have an 8 Core \ 16 thread CPU
you must count all real and hyperthread virtual cores when setting affinity.


'''LATEST DEVELOPMENT:'''
===== Windows Combined Example =====


2.07 allows Nvidia users to use real MSAA with FBO mode
You can include both priority and affinity switches in your shortcut


<pre>


'''(OBSOLETE)'''
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /High /affinity 5 "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe" +set r_softShadowsRadius 2.5 +r_useEntityCulling 1


<font size="3"><s>When Nvidia hardware owners enable Soft Shadows in 2.06, this forces "Frame Buffer Objects" (r_useFBO 1) to be active.
</pre>
FBO does not work with MSAA in 2.06 so as a workaround MSAA settings are converted to Resolution Scaling factors (r_fboResolution x.x).
Resolution scaling is MUCH more expensive than MSAA.


We recommend the following options:
Start TheDarkMod with high priority on Cores 0 and 2 (real cores) and add two '''launch cvars''' ( See [[#Conventions|Conventions]]).


* 1) Disable MSAA when using Soft Shadows and use FXAA, MLAA, or SMAA in your driver instead
As you can see, you can make a huge launch string but once you go past 2 or 3 cvars it's best to
* 2) Disable FBO using the follwing switches


    r_nvidiaOverride 0
use Darkmod.cfg unless you wish to make multiple launchers for testing (etc).
    r_useFBO 0


    Note: Disabling FBO will result in flickering shadows on some "noSelfShadows" objects.</s>
===== Process Management Note =====


</font>
''You can also either "End Task" on processes that you know you don't need or set them to "below normal" or "low" priority.''


=== '''Run The Dark Mod in fullscreen''' ===
''Moving these low priority processes to a different core via affinity is also an option.''


Running Darkmod in windowed mode might be quite a bit slower than fullscreen mode.
''Some processes, such as OneDrive.exe (which is integrated into the OS) will keep restarting so it's best to set these to "low priority"''


One reason for this is that windowed mode is forced to V-sync. ( See [[#Disable V-sync | Disable V-sync]] )
''If you are unsure what a process does, do not change it until you've researched the process.''


<font size="4">
==== Linux Priority and Affinity ====
</font>


<pre>
Note: Linux generally does a good job of ensuring that other applications or processes are not impacting
seta r_fullscreen "1"
<br>game performance ( or really any foreground application performance ).
</pre>
<br>Managing affinity and\or priority usually has little to no effect in Linux unless you knowingly have lots of other heavy applications running.
 
===== Linux Priority =====


in Darkmod.cfg
NOTE: Some modern Linux distros that use pipewire audio will not render audio if
<br>the initial command that invokes the application is run as root or sudo. I am currently investigating a workaround.


{{clear}}
You can launch TDM with a very high priority via the "nice" command:


<pre>
sudo nice --18 su -c /home/user/darkmod/thedarkmod.x64 username
</pre>


<font size="3">
There are two dashes in the above command. The first dash just tells the command that we are passing a parameter,
<br>the second dash indicates a "negative priority number". Confusingly, the larger the negative number the higher
<br>the priority with a maximum value of -20. Conversely the higher the positive integer, the lower the program priority!
<br>For the sake of responsiveness, it is probably best to avoid the top or bottom if the priority range.
<br>Also, note that the command must run as sudo to use negative priority and it's best to use "su -c program username"
<br>so that it is run as "you" (replace username with your username) rather than root so you don't end up with root owned files.
<br>See the visudo change in [[Performance_Tweaks#Linux_Combined_Example|Linux Combined Example]] for details on how to run as sudo without a password
 
Example to launch with lower priority ( lowest possible value 19 ):


=== '''Disable V-sync''' ===
<pre>
</font>
nice -10 /home/user/darkmod/thedarkmod.x64
</pre>


<br>In the standard video settings, disable vsync
You can also change the priority of TDM while it is running via "renice" and "pidof"


<pre>
<pre>
seta r_swapInterval "0"
renice -n --18 -p $(pidof thedarkmod.x64)
</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg<br><br><br>
===== Linux Affinity =====


<font size="3">'''NEW INFO!!!!'''
Modern Linux operating systems will list cores with a list starting with 0, so ( for example ) the top core number in an 8 core CPU will be 7.


Setting '''r_swapInterval "-1"''' enables "Adaptive Vsync" which only performs the sync action when you are at or above refresh rate.
You can identify cores and whether the cores are hyperthread ( HT ) cores via:
<br>This has much less performance impact.</font><br><br><br>


The Dark Mod has extremely variable FPS compared to modern titles due to it's substantial
lscpu -e
CPU heavy renderer.


We strongly recommend disabling V-Sync altogether or forcing variable V-sync tech such as
Example:
G-Sync, Freesync, Fast-Sync or Enhanced Sync (new) in your driver settings.<br><br>


==== Force Refresh Timing ====
    CPU NODE SOCKET CORE L1d:L1i:L2:L3 ONLINE MAXMHZ    MINMHZ
    0  0    0      0    0:0:0:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    1  0    0      1    1:1:1:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    2  0    0      2    2:2:2:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    3  0    0      3    3:3:3:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    4  0    0      0    0:0:0:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    5  0    0      1    1:1:1:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    6  0    0      2    2:2:2:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    7  0    0      3    3:3:3:0      yes    4100.0000 400.0000


(Related to vsync)
The CPU number above is what the OS recognizes when using affinity commands, the core number is actual core number.
So in the above results, CPU's 4 to 7 are hyperthreading cores whereas cores 0 to 3 are real cores.


Some newer video cards may not properly report the refresh rate to this engine (typically digital output like DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort)
To pin TDM to specific cores, you can change the launch options to:
This can cause lag, stutter, and uneven frame pacing.
 
create an autoexec.cfg in your darkmod directory and set:


<pre>
<pre>
 
taskset -c 1,2,3 /path/to/thedarkmod.x64
seta r_displayRefresh "60"
 
</pre>
</pre>


(Obviously increase to match your available mode.)
The above example forces TDM to run on real cores 1, 2, and 3. You may use a dash to specify a range of cores (1-3) or even
 
mix both syntax forms ( 1-3,6 ).
=== '''Set Object Detail to Low''' ===


In the advanced video settings menu lower the Object detail slider below normal
You can also change the core of a running TDM instance by using pidof to auto-locate the PID of the running process:


<pre>
<pre>
seta tdm_lod_bias "0.5"
taskset -cp 1,2,3 $(pidof thedarkmod.x64)
</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg (see also [[Object_detail]] )
More advanced users may wish to "cpuset" to create a new logical group of cores and caches (etc) then assign TDM to run under
<br>the new CPU Set
 
And (of course) you can instead use taskset to move other non-critical processes to other cores or HT cores.
 
===== Linux Combined Example =====


=== '''Set the ambient shading to "Faster"''' ===
NOTE: Some modern Linux distros that use pipewire audio will not render audio if
the initial command that invokes the application is run as root or sudo. I am currently investigating a workaround.


Inside the settings, change the ambient rendering method to "Faster".
In Linux nice and taskset cannot be invoked at the same time to launch an application.
<br>You can launch TDM and use taskset to change the running process and likewise use renice to change priority
<br>To launch with both priority and affinity at once, you can use "schedtool"
<br>You will first need to use visudo to allow schedtool to run in sudo without a password
<br>visudo will open an editor where you may add the following to the bottom of the file


<pre>
<pre>
seta tdm_ambient_method "1"
</pre>
in Darkmod.cfg


(Note: Some preliminary tests in v2.05 show that the Enhanced Ambient is now faster than the "fast" texture based Ambient.)
%sudo ALL = ( ALL ) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/schedtool,/usr/bin/nice


=== '''Set the interaction.vfp to "Standard"''' ===
</pre>


In the video settings menu, change the interaction shader to Standard.  Lighting will not look as good, but you may gain a few frames per second.
Then simply edit the "command field" for the properties page of your Darkmod launcher icon as follows:


<pre>
<pre>


seta tdm_interaction_vfp_type "0"
sudo schedtool -R -p 50 -a 1,2,3,5,6,7 -e nice --17 su -c "/home/user/darkmod/thedarkmod.x64 +set r_shadows 1 +r_ssao 0" username


</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
In the above example, priority (-p ) is set to -50 ( highest is -99 aka realtime ) and affinity ( -a ) is set to use real cores 2 to 4 and corresponding HT cores ).
<br>Setting any application to -99 ( realtime ) priority is unsafe because it may be hard to exit or may lockup the OS trying to request resources.
<br>schedtool has a "-n" flag for the nice value but it only supports positive nice values so we added the nice invoke after the "-e" ( execute flag ) and
<br>made sure to su ( switch user ) to run thedarkmod.x64 as "username" ( eg whatever your username is ).
<br>Finally, for good measure we have set shadows to stencil ( 1 ) and SSAO off ( 0 ) using standard Doom 3 style launch options for example syntax
 
{{clear}}
 
<font size="5">
 
== '''Optimizing Dark Mod settings''' ==
</font>
 
''The settings changes below generally can be changed independently of one another.''
 
''This means that if your want better settings in one aspect (such as AA) you can''
 
''try reducing quality or disabling another aspect (such as post-processing, image_downsize, v-sync, etc)''
 


----


<font size="3">
<font size="4">


=== '''Reduce your resolution!''' ===
=== '''Reduce your resolution!''' ===
</font>
</font>


On older cards, <s>Doom 3's</s> TDM's render engine is very expensive for every per pixel drawn, and reducing the resolution will help the most. For instance, at 1600x1200 the game needs to draw '''four times''' as many pixels as when running 800x600. The result with 800x600 will not look as bad as one might think &ndash; but the frame rate improvements might make it much more playable.
On older cards (or integrated graphics), <s>Doom 3's</s> TDM's render engine is very expensive for every per pixel drawn, and reducing the resolution will help the most.  
<br>For instance, at 1600x1200 the game needs to draw '''four times''' as many pixels as when running 800x600.  
<br>The result with 800x600 will not look as bad as one might think &ndash; but the frame rate improvements might make it much more playable.
<br><br>


If you cannot set the resolution you want in the settings menu then enter it in Darkmod.cfg.
<font size="3">


To edit Darkmod.cfg:
==== Screen Resolution ====
</font>


* Uninstall any current mission in the New Mission menu.
On modern LCD, OLED, or MicroLED displays we advise against changing native resolution unless you know that your monitor
* Close Dark Mod
<br>has an excellent internal resolution scaler. You should instead change your [[Performance_Tweaks#Lower_your_Render_Scale_(New_2.07)|Render Scale]] as described in the next sub-section.
* Edit Darkmod.cfg in the darkmod folder
<br>This section is more applicable to players using CRT or Plasma displays which naturally support a wide range of resolutions.
* Re-install the mission.
<br>Even if you have a CRT or other legacy display tech, it may be better to change Render Scale to avoid legibility issues in Menus and HUD / GUI.
* Whenever you UNinstall and install another mission, these changes will migrate to those FMs as well.
<br><br>'''Note: While this section is mostly applicable to legacy displays, if TDM doesn't properly detect the native resolution of your modern display'''
<br>'''you will still need configure it ( as shown below ) before adjusting Render Scale'''


(Alternatively, edit both the Darkmod.cfg in the darkmod folder AND the one in the current FM game folder, eg, fms\chalice.)
<br>If you cannot set the resolution you want in the video settings menu then enter it in Darkmod.cfg.<br>
 
<br>For the lowest possible resolutions, search down for these cvars first and replace them with the values shown:
Search down for these cvars first and replace them with the values shown:


<pre>
<pre>
Line 756: Line 858:
</pre>
</pre>


'''See also: [[Resolutions]]'''
<font size="3">
'''See also: "[[Resolutions]]" (for a list of known configurations)'''
</font>
 


Note: The r_nvidiaOverride cvar forces Nvidia hardware with Soft Shadows to r_useFBO 1.
<font size="3">
<br>This will force resolution to native resolution.


==== Lower your Render Scale (New 2.07) ====
==== Lower your Render Scale (New 2.07) ====
</font>


The new "Render Scale" slider in 2.07 allows you to reduce the internal resolution that TDM
The new "Render Scale" slider in 2.07 allows you to reduce the internal resolution that TDM will render to.
<br>will render to. Lowering this has a similar performance impact as lowering your resolution
<br>Lowering this has a similar performance impact as lowering your resolution and is the '''preferred way to improve performance via resolution change'''
<br>but may have less visual degradation as the down-scaled pixels as bilinear filtered.
<br>One additional benefit is that lowering Render Scale does not impact Menu and HUD / GUI resolution
<br>(Below 65% of native resolution, the filtering makes the scene very blurry.)


<pre>
<pre>
Line 774: Line 878:
</pre>
</pre>


Note: With the r_fboResolution CVAR, you can also do the opposite...  
Note: With the r_fboResolution CVAR, you can also do the '''opposite'''...  
<br>You can '''ALSO''' render to a '''HIGHER THAN NATIVE''' resolution and the down-scaled output will look '''sorta like SSAA'''.  
<br>You can also render to a '''HIGHER THAN NATIVE''' resolution and the down-scaled output will look '''sorta like SSAA'''.  
<br>This is '''VERY''' expensive so we recommend going no higher than '''r_fboResolution 1.5'''.
<br>This is '''VERY''' expensive so we recommend going no higher than '''r_fboResolution 1.5'''.


==='''Field of View Decrease'''===
===== Image Sharpening (New 2.09) =====


'''Note''' that this setting might occasionally produce odd effects such as a grabbed object seems to move a little on release.
In 2.09 a new "Contrast Adaptive Sharpening" shader has been added and is enabled by default.
<br>At the default Render Scale this simply improves the quality of textures.
<br>When paired with lower Render Scale values it can substantially reduce the blur and make the screen look almost like full resolution!


You can get a performance improvement if you decrease the field of view. By default this is 90 degrees but you might try entering in the console:
<pre>


g_fov 85
seta r_postprocess_sharpen "1"
seta r_postprocess_sharpness "0.7"


or
</pre>


<pre>
seta g_fov "85"
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
<font size="3">


In addition, if you are playing a mission that is too good to miss and reach a very low performance area which is almost unplayable on your machine, you might consider setting the field of view extremely low temporarily to get you through then restore to 90 later...
==== Lower Anti-aliasing ====
</font>


g_fov 50
The Dark Mod ships with standard "Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing" ( MSAA ). This can reduce or eliminate jagged pixelization on geometry edges
<br>by sampling sub-pixels near those edges and blending based on the average color. In practice this means that every visible geometry edge will get rendered
<br>at a multiple of it's native resolution ( depending on your setting; eg. 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x ).
<br>While this is still lower than increasing your screen resolution by the same factor, it can still increase the render workload by 50% or more in dense scenes.
<br>If you needs the extra performance, you may need accept some aliasing ( jaggies ).
<br>Since AA approximates a higher resolution, you may prefer disabling it in favor of choosing a higher resolution ( eg 1080p with 8xAA verses 1440p with no AA )
<br>Incidentally, if you have GPU power to spare you can either use your GPU driver settings to force even higher quality modes such as SSAA that performs sub-sampling to every pixel
<br>or configure TDM [[Performance_Tweaks#Lower_your_Render_Scale_(New_2.07)|Render Scale]] ( r_fboResolution ) above native resolution for a similar effect (see previous sub-section ).


or bind a toggle
<br>In the standard video settings, set AA to a lower value or 0


<pre>
<pre>
bind "z" "toggle g_fov 50 90";
 
seta r_multiSamples "0"  
 
</pre>
</pre>
in Darkmod.cfg


in Darkmod.cfg so you can tap a key to go between FOV ranges.


See [[#Toggle_settings_in_realtime|Toggle Settings in Realtime]]
Note: Nvidia's in driver FXAA anti-aliasing setting is substantially faster than the multi-samples settings
in game.


Note from Fidcal: I have played comfortably on g_fov 75 and even think perhaps it makes nearby objects more realistically close so you can get right up to a table, etc. Not noticed any problem with restricted view.
Doom 3 is far less susceptible to AA artifacts so this may be an acceptable alternative especially
if you are are running the game at native resolution (or nearly native).  


=== '''Lower Anisotropic Filtering''' ===
AMD has MLAA which may also work well in the same way.


In the standard video settings, lower or disable AF
Depending on your graphics performance, it may be better to use a lower Render Scale and then use a higher AA value to retain clean edges.
<br>
{{clear}}
<br>


<pre>
<font size="4">


seta image_anisotropy "0"
=== '''Enable Multi-Core (new in v2.06)''' ===
</font>


</pre>
In 2.06 the engine splits the Frontend and Backend into separate threads if you
enable the Experimental "Multi-Core" setting in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.


in Darkmod.cfg<br>
<pre>


Note: This has '''very little''' performance benefit for most GPU hardware.
seta com_smp "1"
<br>This is also one of the few graphic settings that can be adjusted without requiring a
<br>vid_restart or restarting the engine.


{{clear}}
</pre>


<font size="5">
in Darkmod.cfg


== '''Slow loading times''' ==
'''In 2.09 this is enabled by default. The setting is no longer in the GUI.'''
</font>


''Loading times for The Dark Mod are known to be on the long side. The main culprit is that the engine encodes mip-maps''
==== Frontend Acceleration (new in v2.09+) ====


''when loading textures. In the future, we may be able to address this by [[#RGTC_Normal_Map_Compression|compressing the normal maps]] or encoding them''
In 2.09 the engine frontend can submit models to the render backend via parallel jobs on multiple CPU cores.
<br>This is similar to how Doom 3 BFG handles this.
<br> Enable "Frontend Accelleration" in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.


''in a format that includes mip-maps.''
<pre>


seta r_useParallelAddModels "1"


''Some users have reported modest benefits to loading time when upgrading to an SSD but given the bottle-neck above CPU''
</pre>


''and RAM upgrades would likely be more beneficial.''
'''In TDM 2.11 this is enabled by default.'''


Also, you can increase the number of assigned cores:


''Sometimes, beyond the normal expectation of slow loading, the load times are egregiously slow. In those cases it's''
<pre>


''best to review the tuning options and workarounds below.''
seta jobs_numThreads "3"


</pre>


'''( See the [[Performance_Tweaks#Priority_and_Affinity|Affinity section]] above regarding cpu core management in relation to these options. )'''
{{clear}}
<br>


If you find an FM is very slow to load it may be an ATI graphics card problem.
<font size="4">
One report says this was cured by turning off Catalyst AI. Also cures [[FAQ#HDR-Lite_Post-Processing_problems|HDR-Lite Post-Processing Problems]].


Changing the following settings to 0 will also reduce loading time, but be warned:
=== '''Uncap FPS (New in v2.06)'''===
if you have a lower-end system, poor graphics card, or low ram, you will likely notice a performance hit ingame since you will now be using uncompressed textures.
</font>
Run one game tick per graphics frame, rather than fixed 60 ticks per second.


<pre style="max-width:35em">
In 2.06 this is now a GUI option "Uncap FPS" in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.
seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
<br><br>This not only makes the player camera move more smoothly but can also improve performance
seta image_useCompression "0"
<br>since some drivers do not work well with the capped FPS design.
</pre>


<s>NEW INFO: The Dark Mod has never really used Normal Map compression because it is incompatible with heightmap images
<pre>
<br> and it produces nasty artifacts for the texture scales we use.
<br> The current builds have had the RXGB swizzle disabled as of at least 2.0 standalone. (Probably as of v1.08 when the GPL executable sources were released.)
<br> There is no benefit to enabling normal map compression currently so feel free to set this to 0.</s>


The above "NEW INFO" appears to be wrong and is under investigation. Enabling normal map compression seems to reduce VRAM usage even though
seta com_fixedTic "1"
we don't natively use it.


NEW INFO 2: v2.05 will have a new image_mipmapmode cvar. 0 = Software (original), 1 = Legacy GL, 2 Modern (default).
</pre>
<br> This will offload Mipmap generation to the video driver. Depending on the quality of your GPU driver this may improve or
<br> degrade texture loading performance. In my testing, mode 2 is a little slower than mode 0 on initial load but is substantially
<br> faster on reload or loading new FM's that use the same textures )


in Darkmod.cfg


Note: Disabling compression may lead to Malloc errors due to memory consumption.  
Note: '''Uncapping FPS is crucial to a smooth performance in most Linux environments'''.
<br>The default capped design appears to have some flaw for frame timing against the native Linux timer
<br>Uncapping FPS or running TDM capped under Wine will resolve this.
<br>Native Doom 3 builds are also impacted by this problem so it predates The Dark Mod.
<br>The Dark Mod cannot use com_preciseTic 0 as a workaround ( some users have used this to improve Linux Doom 3 frame timing )
<br>This mode has the additional benefit of making video playback properly sync to audio.
<br>The Dark Mod team has worked hard to ensure that the uncapped mode is bug free at high FPS values but if you wish to
<br>reduce the risk of high-FPS related bugs, set your Max FPS ( com_maxFPS, see below section ) to 75 or less.


You may be able to compensate by setting image_downsize options or use image_downsize instead of disabling compression. [[#Image downsizing|Image Downsizing]]
{{clear}}
<br>
==== Max FPS (New in 2.08 ) ====


See [[FAQ#Getting "Malloc Failure for #######" crash-to-desktop|Malloc Failure Errors]]
In 2.08 you can define the max FPS via the Max FPS setting in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.


<font size="3">
<pre>
See [[#RGTC_Normal_Map_Compression|RGTC Normal Map Compression]] (hint hint)
</font>


<font size="5">
seta com_maxFPS "90"


== The game is '''very''' slow! ==
</font>
If you get less than 10 FPS, or the game even stutters, please try this:
Look into your '''Darkmod.cfg''' inside your darkmod folder and check that the following settings are like shown below:
<pre style="max-width:35em">
seta r_fboResolution "1"
seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"
seta image_useNormalCompression "1"
seta image_useAllFormats "1"
seta image_useCompression "1"
seta image_preload "1"
seta r_useCachedDynamicModels "1"
seta r_useShadowVertexProgram "1"
seta r_useEntityCulling "1"
</pre>
</pre>


<s>NEW INFO: The Dark Mod has never really used Normal Map compression because it is incompatible with heightmap images
in Darkmod.cfg
<br> and it produces nasty artifacts for the texture scales we use.
<br>The current builds have had the RXGB swizzle disabled as of at least 2.0 standalone. (Probably as of v1.08 when the GPL executable sources were released.)
<br> There is no benefit to enabling normal map compression currently so feel free to set this to 0 as shown above. </s>


(The above "NEW INFO" must be wrong somehow as disabling Normal Compression leads to significant VRAM usage. To be determined.)
<font size="4">


Note: image_preload can increase the memory usage at load time, some lowend users have disabled this ( 0 ) to
=== '''Shadow Settings''' ===
get past [[FAQ#Getting_.22Malloc_Failure_for_.23.23.23.23.23.23.23.22_crash-to-desktop | malloc errors]] for going over your memory limits.


<font size="4">
===Lightgem Calculation Optimizations===
</font>
</font>


<font size="3">
<font size="3">
====Lightgem interleaved calculation====
 
==== '''Change Shadow Mode (New 2.07)''' ====
</font>
</font>


By default lightgem calculation occurs every frame. You can set lightgem calculation to happen only once
<br>In TDM 2.07 we offer two different "Shadow Implementation" options in the GUI.
<br> per several frames by setting tdm_lg_interleave console parameter to values higher than 1.  
<br> For example, typing:


tdm_lg_interleave 3
* Maps (Shadow Maps)
 
* Stencil (Stencil Shadow Volumes)


in console tells TDM to recalculate lightgem value every third frame.
<br>Shadow Maps can perform better in scenes with fewer but larger light sources and less small shadow casters.
<br>Shadow Map performance depends on the amount and speed of VRAM on you GPU
<br>Most of the calculations are done on the GPU in this mode so if you have a weak CPU and mid-range GPU ( usually old desktops ) this mode is preferred
<br>Stationary Lights + Big areas + Big Lights = Higher FPS with Maps
<br><br>Stencil can perform faster for systems with powerful CPU's and weak GPU's ( usually laptops ) because it mostly relies on fillrate.
<br>Stencil soft shadows sometimes run faster because they don't do calculations for "distance to blocker" ( contact hardening )
<br>Lots of small moving lights + confined spaces = Higher FPS with Stencil


This tweak can increase average FPS, but it often produces noticeable stuttering, especially on slow machines
Maps mode:
when your FPS is below 25 to 30FPS.
<pre>


{{clear}}
seta r_shadows "2"


=====Lightgem interleave minimum FPS=====
</pre>


In TDM 2.05 there is a new tdm_lg_interleave_min cvar that allows you to set a cutoff point
Stencil mode:
for FPS below which the Lightgem Interleave optimization takes effect. It is set to 40
by default. If your FPS goes below 40 then tdm_lg_interleave returns to the default value of 1
internally to prevent stutter. Depending on your sensitivity you may wish to increase this to 50 or more.


<pre>
<pre>


tdm_lg_interleave_min 40
seta r_shadows "1"


</pre>
</pre>


<br> As the cost of lightgem calculation is (also) substantially lower in v2.05 and newer, you may be able to set this to 1 for most missions.
in Darkmod.cfg
<br>
<br> In testing, the only mission I found that suffered from "tdm_lg_interleave ( > 1) stuttering" was "Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail".
<br> For that mission, I set tdm_lg_interleave_min to 50 to cure the stutter.
<br> This setting can also be used to boost already high FPS values for the new unbounded FPS options ( [[Performance_Tweaks#Disable_FPS_Lock | com_FixeTic 1]] ).
<br> (eg. If you have 90FPS set tdm_lg_interleave to 7 and tdm_lg_interleave_min to 75 to attempt a push towards 120FPS)
 
In 2.06 with the lightgem calculated on a different thread, this can likely stay at 1 regardless of how low the FPS gets.


<font size="3">
<font size="3">
==== Weak Lightgem (Not Recommended)====
==== '''Lower or Disable Soft Shadows (New in v2.06)''' ====
</font>
</font>
 
Shadow Quality determines how many gradients ( color bands) that soft shadows use.
Setting:
<br>In the advanced videos settings menu set the Soft Shadows quality slider to low or off


<pre>
<pre>


seta tdm_lg_weak "1"
seta r_softShadowsQuality = 0


</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg will disable the renderer based lightgem and use a simpler math-based solution.
in Darkmod.cfg
<br>It's a far less accurate lightgem but may allow weaker systems to play the game as a '''last resort'''.<br><br>


(Note: The cost of lightgem calculation has been substantially lowered in TDM v2.05 and newer.
<br>This may be an obsolete option in future releases.)


====Split Lightgem (Obsolete)====
In the advanced videos settings menu set the Shadow Softness slider to make shadows softer
without increasing the quality level


* '''Obsolete info. In TDM 2.07 split lightgem is always enabled. The CVAR is gone.'''
<pre>


<s>You can also split the calculation across frames so that part is done in one frame and part is done in the next:
seta r_softShadowsRadius 2.0


tdm_lg_split 1
</pre>


Some folks have reported that this causes flicker but that was in older builds.  
in Darkmod.cfg


I haven't seen any problems with this in recent builds.  
You can experiment with values between 1.5 and 3.5 or more.


This will give a modest boost compared to interleave and both can be used together or independently.
===== Single Pass Shadow Maps =====


Eg:
Rather than calculating all shadows one-at-a-time, all shadow casting is calculated in one pass for every light.
'''THIS CAN OFFER SUBSTANTIAL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT'''
 
<pre>


Keep tdm_lg_interleave 1 for to prevent stutter at low FPS but set tdm_lg_split to gain a little boost.
seta "r_shadowMapSinglePass "1"


or
</pre>


Set tdm_lg_split to 1 to get you from 26 FPS to 28 FPS as a baseline, then set tdm_lg_interleave to 2 to
in Darkmod.cfg
gain a substantial boost (up to double FPS) but since the baseline is close to 30FPS the risk of stutter is
substantially reduced.


NEW INFO:
2.10 Issues:


In v2.05 and later tdm_lg_split is enabled (1) by default.</s>
* The old backend does not work with this mode ( r_useNewBackend 0 )
* For some users, screenshots will be missing shadows for func_static geometry if this is enabled
* The screen-shot issue is resolved in 2.11+
'''NEW - This is enabled by default in 2.12'''


====Lightgem Interleave vs MapBufferRange (Obsolete) ====
===== Shadow Map Size =====


{{clear}}
The larger the Shadow Map texture, the more detail and less artifacts you have further away from the light center or for small objects.
<br>Conversely, smaller Shadow Map textures perform much better (use less resources).
<br>Since stretching a low resolution shadow texture over a large area naturally causes bi-linear blurring,
<br>some players prefer lower resolution maps instead of increasing the quality and softening radius which produces less blur
<br>due to realistic contact hardening simulation in the light shaders.


<pre>


<s>In v2.06, the new r_useMapBufferRange cvar can conflict with LightGem interleave and split optimizations.
seta r_shadowMapSize "384"


Lightgem split and interleave options are best for helping systems that do not work well with Multi-Core (com_smp 1).
</pre>


If you have a system that runs well with Multi-Core optimization enabled, consider disabling split and interleave
You can also increase this to reduce light leaks from the r_shadowMapCullFront optimization.
<br>On balance enabling that optimization may offset the pitfalls of a bigger shadow map.
<br>You can experiment with shadow map sizes that are slightly larger than 1024 such as 1280 or 1440.
<br>This setting can also be used to reduce the impact of '''Volumetric Lights''' because they always use Shadow Maps regardless of Shadow Mode


in favor of r_useMapBufferRange and r_useBfgPortalCulling.</s>
===== Max Light Size =====


{{clear}}
The larger the light, the more Shadow Map resolution you need (see Shadow Map Size).
<br>There are some lights so large that Shadows will never look good without insane texture sizes.
You can set a threshold to say if lights are bigger than X, use Stencil Shadows.


<pre>


'''See also [[#Enable_MapBufferRange_.28Obsolete.29 | r_useMapBufferRange ]]'''
seta r_maxShadowMapLight "1500"


</pre>


<font size="4">
<font size="4">
 
=== '''Lower or Disable Ambient Occlusion (New in 2.08)''' ===
=== Disabling standard graphics features ===
</font>
</font>


At the cost of some pretty severe scene quality, you can disable a number of independent graphic features
In the advanced video settings menu make sure that Ambient Occlusion is set to low or off.


that are non-essential to play.
<pre>


==== Image downsizing ====
seta r_ssao "1"


TDM can automatically reduce texture resolution for all 3 supported texture types; diffuse,
</pre>
<br>normal (bump), and specular. Systems with very low quantities of VRAM or low memory bandwidth benefit from this change.


In Darkmod.cfg, set '''image_downSize''' to '''1''' and then set a limit with '''image_downSizeLimit''',
or
e.g., '''"image_downSizeLimit" "256"'''. 


<pre>
<pre>


seta image_downSize "1"
seta r_ssao "0"
seta image_downSizeLimit "256"


</pre>
</pre>


This reduces texture memory requirements and may completely alleviate hard drive thrashing.
in Darkmod.cfg
There are similar cvars for bump and specular maps as well.
 
==== SSAO Radius ====


Example: Downsize Normal Maps
You can widen the SSAO radius to improve the appearance or shrink it to improve performance


<pre>
<pre>


seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta r_ssao_radius "24"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "256"


</pre>
</pre>


Example: Downsize Specular maps
<font size="4">
 
=== '''Reduce Color Depth (New in 2.08)''' ===
</font>
 
In TDM 2.08 the default Frame Buffer was upgraded to use 64-bit color to reduce color banding.
<br>Some GPU's have poor support for this format or render much slower. Consider reverting to 32-bit.
<br>Change Color to 32-bit under the Advanced Video settings menu or:


<pre>
<pre>


seta image_downSizeSpecular "1"
seta r_fboColorBits "32"
seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "64"


</pre>
</pre>


'''Obsolete Info: As of TDM 2.06 you may use image_downSize with post-processing (bloom) enabled!'''
in Darkmod.cfg


<s>Note: We recommend that you disable post-processing before using image_downsize.


If you set image_downsizeLimit below 512, part or all of the screen wont render when post-processing enabled.
<font size="4">


If any image_downSizeLimit is set below your screen resolution, you will see visual errors when post-processing is enabled.</s>
=== '''Disable Bloom''' ===
 
</font>
 
==== Disable Soft Particles ====


The new Soft Particle effects in v2.03 and newer use a little more GPU than the previous particles.
In the advanced video settings menu make sure Bloom is disabled
 
This is offset by the fact that v2.03 and higher don't render particles during the lightgem calculation.
 
Still, if you want an extra boost then set:


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_useSoftParticles "0"
seta r_bloom "0"


</pre>
</pre>
Line 1,095: Line 1,204:
in Darkmod.cfg
in Darkmod.cfg


==== Disable Fog ====
'''TDM versions older than 2.08'''
 
Disable Postprocess in the GUI or set:
 
<pre>
<pre>


seta r_skipFogLights "1"  
seta r_postprocess "0"


</pre>
</pre>
Line 1,104: Line 1,216:
in Darkmod.cfg
in Darkmod.cfg


==== Disable BlendLights ====
<font size="4">
=== '''Run The Dark Mod in fullscreen''' ===
</font>
 
Running Darkmod in windowed mode might be quite a bit slower than fullscreen mode.


<pre>
One reason for this is that windowed mode is sometimes forced to V-sync. ( See [[#Disable V-sync | Disable V-sync]] )


seta r_skipBlendLights "1"


<pre>
seta r_fullscreen "1"
</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
in Darkmod.cfg


==== Disable Player Shadow====


The player shadow slightly reduces performance. It has no game effect at all (not seen by AI for instance) apart from atmospheric effect so if you want to disable it enter in the console:
In 2.08 you can choose between Windowed, Fullscreen, and Borderless Windowed.
Fullscreen is the lowest latency option.


g_showplayershadow 0
==== Fullscreen Windowed in Modern Windows Versions ====


Or, in Darkmod.cfg (see above) change the following line from "1" to "0":
It has become widely recognized that v-sync is a source of input delay and forcing it for both Windowed and Fullscreen Windowed modes
<br>is not optimal. The latest Windows versions no longer force v-sync on Fullscreen Windowed applications but if you encounter any issues
<br>or have an older Windows release you should be able to force it off via your driver application profile settings:


seta g_showplayershadow "0"
If you have a Nvidia card


==== Disable Player Lantern Shadow====
* Open de Windows start menu and type: Nvidia control panel
* Click Manage 3D settings, on the left pan
* Under "I would like to use the following 3D settings" scroll down until you see "Vertical sync."
* Select Vertical sync choose "Force off" or " disable" ... from the drop down.


You may notice a drop in performance while using the player lantern.
For AMD


Add "noshadows" "1" to entitydef light_lantern_moving in tdm_playertools_lantern.def and this stops the player lantern casting shadows.<br>This helps improve performance slightly when using the lantern.<br><br>
* Click the Start button or Windows icon.
* Type "Catalyst control center" in the search bar.
* Press Enter on your keyboard.
* Click Gaming.
* Under "3D Application Settings" scroll down to "Wait for vertical refresh."
* Move the slider down to the side that says "Performance" so the text beneath it says Always Off.


==== Disable Particles ====
The above won't be necessary for users with variable refresh displays and video cards with variable refresh support such as G-Sync or Freesync. 


This will '''<u>seriously mar your image quality</u>'''. Flames, glares, and smoke will all be gone.


<pre>
{{clear}}


seta r_skipParticles "1"
<font size="4">


</pre>
=== '''Disable V-sync''' ===
</font>


in Darkmod.cfg
<br>In the standard video settings, disable vsync
 
===== Disable all Ambient Surfaces =====
 
Related to skipping particles, r_skipAmbient will get rid of any non-lit* particles
<br>(*most particles are additive blends and don't react to light)
<br>along with any other surfaces that don't change based on illumination (most decals, additive glowing windows, etc.).


<pre>
<pre>
 
seta r_swapInterval "0"  
seta r_skipAmbient "1"
 
</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
in Darkmod.cfg<br><br><br>


==== Disable Specular Maps ====
<font size="3">'''NEW INFO!!!!'''


Specular gives materials their shine. This option will make all surfaces shine-free.
Setting '''r_swapInterval "-1"''' enables "Adaptive Vsync" which only performs the sync action when you are at or above refresh rate.
<br>This has much less performance impact.<br><br>
'''NEWER''' TDM 2.10 has an Adaptive Vsync option in the Video Settings GUI
</font><br><br><br>
The Dark Mod has extremely variable FPS compared to modern titles due to it's substantial
CPU heavy renderer.  


Note: This may not work with the Enhanced Ambient
We strongly recommend disabling V-Sync altogether or forcing variable V-sync tech such as
G-Sync, Freesync, Fast-Sync or Enhanced Sync (new) in your driver settings.<br><br>


<pre>
==== Force Refresh Timing ====


seta r_skipSpecular "1"
(Related to vsync)


</pre>
Some newer video cards may not properly report the refresh rate to this engine (typically digital output like DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort)
This can cause lag, stutter, and uneven frame pacing.


in Darkmod.cfg
create an autoexec.cfg in your darkmod directory and set:
 
 
==== Disable Normal Maps ====
 
The main detail attribute for textures in Doom 3 \ Darkmod is the Normal Map.
 
If you disable this your game will become really ugly.


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_skipBump "1"
seta r_displayRefresh "60"


</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
(Obviously increase to match your available mode.)


<font size="4">
=== '''Set Object Detail to Low''' ===
</font>


==== Disable Sky ====
In the advanced video settings menu lower the Object detail slider below normal


(New in v2.05) Pitch black sky with no clouds, Moon, or stars
<pre>
<pre>
 
seta tdm_lod_bias "0.5"
seta g_enablePortalSky "0"
 
</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
in Darkmod.cfg (see also [[Object_detail]] )


==== Disable Lip Sync ====


AI will not play lipsync animations
<font size="4">
<pre>


seta tdm_ai_opt_nolipsync "1"
==='''Field of View Decrease'''===


</pre>
</font>


in Darkmod.cfg
'''Note''' that this setting might occasionally produce odd effects such as a grabbed object seems to move a little on release.


You can get a performance improvement if you decrease the field of view. By default this is 90 degrees but you might try entering in the console:


=== Use BFG style Portal Culling (new in v2.06) ===
g_fov 85


If you have a system that works well with Multi-Core ( com_smp 1) then you may
or
consider enabling r_useBfgPortalCulling to reduce cache thrashing.


<pre>
<pre>
 
seta g_fov "85"
seta r_useBfgPortalCulling "1"  
 
</pre>
</pre>


in Darkmod.cfg
in Darkmod.cfg


=== Enable MapBufferRange (Obsolete) ===
In addition, if you are playing a mission that is too good to miss and reach a very low performance area which is almost unplayable on your machine,
<br>you might consider setting the field of view extremely low temporarily to get you through then restore to 90 later...


'''( Obsolete info. This is not optional in 2.07 )'''
g_fov 50
 
or bind a toggle


<s>If you have a system that works well with Multi-Core ( com_smp 1) then you may
consider enabling r_useMapBufferRange to optimize the way that Vertex cache is loaded.
<pre>
<pre>
bind "z" "toggle g_fov 50 90";
</pre>


seta r_useMapBufferRange "1"
in Darkmod.cfg so you can tap a key to go between FOV ranges.


</pre>
See [[#Toggle_settings_in_realtime|Toggle Settings in Realtime]]
in Darkmod.cfg


Note: Using this option with Split Lightgem (tdm_lg_split 1) or Lightgem interleave (tdm_lg_interleave > 1)
Note from Fidcal: I have played comfortably on g_fov 75 and even think perhaps it makes nearby objects more realistically close so you can get right up to a table, etc.  
can result in rendering bugs.</s>  
<br>Not noticed any problem with restricted view.


'''See [[#Lightgem_Calculation_Optimizations | Lightgem Calculation Optimizations]]'''
<font size="4">
 
=== '''Lower Anisotropic Filtering''' ===
<font size="3">
===Drop in Frame Rates when Viewing Water===
</font>
</font>


Some players have reported a drastic drop in performance when an agitated water surface is in view. (This on a Radeon card.)
In the standard video settings, lower or disable AF
<br>Try entering this in the console. It disables the water visible surface effects but at least it might let you play normally...


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_skipPostProcess "1"
seta image_anisotropy "0"  


</pre>
</pre>


or
in Darkmod.cfg<br>


<pre>
Note: This has '''very little''' performance benefit for most GPU hardware.


seta r_postprocess "0"
<br>This is also one of the few graphic settings that can be adjusted without requiring a vid_restart or restarting the engine.


</pre>
'''NEW''': In 2.09 if you change Anisotropic Filtering and have "r_useBindlessTextures 1" set (default) the game may stutter
<br>when you return from the menu because it must rebuild all the textures.
<br>To avoid this, set "r_useBindlessTextures 0" then restart the game and test your preferred AF mode then once you have found your
<br>performace-to-image quality sweet spot set "r_useBindlessTextures 1" and restart TDM


You can also set a key-bind to toggle this instead:
'''NEW 2''': In 2.11, bindless texture support was removed due to multiple issues with AMD drivers.
<br>You should be able to change anisotropic filtering settings in the GUI without encountering stutters.


<pre>


bind "z" "toggle r_postprocess 0 1"
=== Set the ambient shading to "Faster" '''( OBSOLETE in 2.09+)''' ===


Inside the settings, change the ambient rendering method to "Faster".
<s>
<pre>
seta tdm_ambient_method "1"
</pre>
</pre>
</s>
in Darkmod.cfg


See [[#Toggle_settings_in_realtime|Toggle Settings in Realtime]]
(Note: Some preliminary tests in v2.05 show that the Enhanced Ambient is now faster than the "fast" texture based Ambient.)
(Note: This setting has been removed in 2.09 )


See also [[FAQ#Underwater_performance_poor|Underwater performance poor]]
=== Set the interaction.vfp to "Standard" '''(OBSOLETE in 2.09+)''' ===


<font size="5">
In the video settings menu, change the interaction shader to Standard. Lighting will not look as good, but you may gain a few frames per second.
 
== '''2.07 Experimental Features''' ==
</font>
 
These settings may offer some performance benefits with caveats \ bugs.
 
=== Single Pass Shadow Maps ===
 
In attempt to mimic the Shadow tech in DOOM 2016, TDM 2.07 has a Shadow Map mode
where all shadow casting is gathered for a full scene in one pass:


<s>
<pre>
<pre>


seta r_shadowMapSinglePass "1"
seta tdm_interaction_vfp_type "0"


</pre>
</pre>
</s>


This mode does not seem to improve FPS for Nvidia hardware.
in Darkmod.cfg
<br>This is probably because of the Nvidia's tiling (deferred rendering) hardware optimizations.


=== Multi-light Shading ===
'''In 2.08 this setting is'''
 
Meant to be paired with single pass shadows (above), multi-light shading
gathers all the lights of the same type into one pass.


<pre>
<pre>


seta r_testARBProgram "2"
seta r_interactionProgram "0"


</pre>
</pre>


Note: This mode does not offer "Enhanced Ambient" rendering
This setting doesn't work in 2.09+ It is a stub cvar that does nothing.
<br>If you wish to test interaction shaders, create a glprogs folder in your mission folder with new shaders having the same name as the default ones.
<br>You can keep the default shaders in the same folder in renamed form then swap filenames and execute reloadGLSLprograms to compare changes.
<br>For a more clean comparison also set g_stopTime to prevent dynamic light changes
{{clear}}


This mode does not seem to improve FPS for Nvidia hardware.
<font size="5">
<br>This is probably because of the Nvidia's tiling (deferred rendering) hardware optimizations.


=== RGTC Normal Map Compression ===
== '''Slow loading times''' ==
</font>


Doom 3's original Normal Map compression RXGB was just a swizzled version of the S3TC compression
'''OBSOLETE! TDM 2.10 has very fast loading times!'''  
<br>used elsewhere in the game. The swizzle allowed allowed artists to store more detail
<br>The only setting that might improve loading times is "seta image_preload 0"
<br>as the alpha channel has more bits of storage than the red.
<br>In practice, RXGB still doesn't look so great and nobody has done much work on compression optimization
<br>to improve how encoders use this format.<br><br>
ATI introduced a new way of compressing Normal Maps in 2004 called 3Dc which only requires 2 colors
<br>This has morphed into a few variants (BC5 or DXN built into DirectX, and LATC or RGTC in OpenGL).
<br>We chose RGTC since Intel supports it on very old hardware. It's the most cross-compatible.
<br>When RGTC is fully working, missions will require far less VRAM and memory bandwidth.
<br><br>'''Currently, it's almost completely working with only some Glass and Water shaders having bugs'''


<pre>
<s>


seta image_useNormalMapCompression "2"
If you find an FM is very slow to load it may be an ATI graphics card problem.
One report says this was cured by turning off Catalyst AI. Also cures [[FAQ#HDR-Lite_Post-Processing_problems|HDR-Lite Post-Processing Problems]].
 
Changing the following settings to 0 will also reduce loading time, but be warned:
if you have a lower-end system, poor graphics card, or low ram, you will likely notice a performance hit in-game since you will now be using uncompressed textures.


<pre style="max-width:35em">
seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
seta image_useCompression "0"
seta image_preload "0"
</pre>
</pre>
</s>
New 2.10+ cvars ( defaults ) for fast loading times:


<br>The main benefit of compressed normal maps other than reduced memory footprint, is [[#Slow_loading_times|Loading Time]].
<pre style="max-width:35em">
<br>This will especially be true when the engine can use pre-compressed normal maps with mip-maps
seta image_levelLoadParallel "1"
<br>rather than encoding them on load.<br><br>
seta image_useTexStorage "1"
seta image_mipmapMode "0"
</pre>


=== Skip Dynamic Shadows ===
In 2.10 the RXGB normal map compression format has been replaced the higher quality RGTC format.


Only render shadows from Stationary lights.
Note: Disabling compression may lead to Malloc errors due to memory consumption.  
This will break missions where players might need to hide in a moving shadow.


<pre>
You may be able to compensate by setting image_downsize options or use image_downsize instead of disabling compression. [[#Image downsizing|Image Downsizing]]


seta r_skipDynamicShadows "1"
See [[FAQ#Getting "Malloc Failure for #######" crash-to-desktop|Malloc Failure Errors]]


</pre>


<font size="5">
<font size="5">


== '''Lower Sound Quality''' ==
== The game is '''very''' slow! ==
</font>
</font>


=== Force 22khz ===
Note: The advised performance defaults below should mostly already be set by default on upgrade.
<br>Please consider [[Performance_Tweaks#Delete_Darkmod.cfg_after_upgrade|deleting darkmod.cfg]] after upgrading to restore these defaults.
<br><br>
If you get less than 10 FPS, or the game even stutters, please try this:


'''<s>2.06: Do not use this optimization. It is known to cause issues with loading missions on some OpenAL hardware:<br>
Look into your '''Darkmod.cfg''' inside your darkmod folder and check that the following settings are like shown below:
http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4814</s>
'''


'''(This is fixed in 2.07)'''
<pre style="max-width:35em">
seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"
seta image_useNormalCompression "1"
seta image_useAllFormats "1"
seta image_useCompression "1"
seta image_preload "1"
seta r_useCachedDynamicModels "1"
seta r_useShadowVertexProgram "1"
seta r_useEntityCulling "1"
</pre>


You can force 22khz audio processing to reduce the CPU overhead of audio processing.
Note: r_useShadowVertexProgram no longer exists in TDM. All shadow modes use GPU vertex operations.<br><br>


Obviously, EAX effects will increase CPU load for audio so you should consider disabling
'''OBSOLETE''' 2.09 performance defaults
<pre style="max-width:35em">
seta r_useMultiDrawIndirect "1"
seta r_useBindlessTextures "1"
</pre>


those before lowering audio quality. If normal audio plays fine but EAX causes performace,
2.11 new performance defaults ( in addition to the standard performance defaults above )


this change might give you a boost while EAX is enabled.
<pre style="max-width:35em">
seta r_useNewBackend "1"
seta r_modelBvhBuild "1"
seta com_smp "1"
seta r_useParallelAddModels "1"
seta r_usePersistentMapping "1"
seta com_useMinorTics "1"
seta com_fixedTic "1"
seta com_maxFPS "166"
</pre>


<pre>
2.12 new performance defaults ( in addition to the standard performance defaults above )
 
seta s_force22kHz "1"


<pre style="max-width:35em">
seta r_useLightPortalFlow "2"
seta r_useLightPortalFlowCulling "1"
seta r_softShadowsMipmaps "1"
seta r_useEntityScissors "1"
seta r_animationBounds "1"
seta r_useNewRenderPasses "1"
seta r_shadowMapSinglePass "1"
</pre>
</pre>


=== Disable EFX reverb (new 2.06) ===


The new EFX audio option (equivalent to EAX) has some impact on mission performance due to additional reverb calculation.
Note: 2.12 r_useNewRenderPasses replaces r_useNewBackend
<br>Disable this option for extra performance. Especially if you get big stutter or lockup events opening doors from indoor
<br>In 2.10 and newer you can control both the standard resolution and the "renderscale" whereas
to outdoor areas
<br>2.09 required you to change renderscale for lower the resolution. It is still preferable to lower renderscale unless you have a CRT monitor


<font size="5">
<font size="4">


=='''Gameplay Performance Tips'''==
=== '''Frame Memory''' ===
</font>
</font>


If you have done everything else you can and performance is still poor then one or two things you might do in game to help:<br><br>
'''New in TDM 2.08'''
 
<pre>
r_frameIndexMemory
</pre>


* '''Revert to 2.03 Search behavior'''<br>
and


<pre>  
<pre>
seta tdm_ai_search_type "1"
r_frameVertexMemory
</pre>
</pre>
'''The new AI "hiding spot" routines in 2.04 (and newer) are more CPU intensive that 2.03's search method'''<br><br>


* Close all doors after you have passed through. Generally the game has to process both areas until you close the door if the doorway is still in sight.
Increasing frame memory may help avoid crashing or slow-down when a scene suddenly requires more resources.
* Kill or KO every AI you can. You might not like to play that way but generally, AI still hog resources even out of sight (depending on how set up in the game.)
<br>If you are VRAM limited, consider lowering texture quality ( [[#Image_downsizing|image_downsize]] ) or [[#Lower_your_Render_Scale_.28New_2.07.29|resolution scale]]
* Avoid alerts. A dozen guards searching for you will really slow things down on a low-end machine.
before increasing these.
* Try to look down at the ground when moving along. Gazing up at a grand vista will slow you down. Best to do your gazing while standing still.


<font size="5">
<font size="4">


== '''Hardware Considerations''' ==
==='''Lightgem Calculation Optimizations'''===
</font>
</font>


The Dark Mod 1.0 was released in 2009. The average mission designer and player of that time had a Geforce 6600GT and AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHZ.
<br>The Lightgem used to be a very taxing calculation because it required the entire scene to be rendered to an off-screen
<br>image that was then slowly passed to parser code to comb all pixels for the brightest value.
<br><br>As of '''TDM 2.05''' and newer, only shadow casting geometry is rendered during the Lightgem calculation and the
<br>pixels are read directly from an "OpenGL Buffer Object" at high speed.
<br><br>Further optimizations after 2.05 include:
* Moving the calculation to it's own Thread and utilizing SMP
* Making the calculation part of the native Doom 3 sub-view system
* Excluding Lightgem calculations from many phases of the render system that are not applicable
* Inheriting optimizations from the overall renderer ( Improving TDM render speeds, improves the Lightgem render speed )


While some missions were playable all the way down to a P4 2.8GHZ with an FX5200, this is well below the expected audience for this project.
<br>This means that the old configurations to reduce the impact of Lightgem calculation are mostly irrelevant
<br>except for niche scenarios (such as 120FPS+ gaming), very old hardware ( Single Core CPU's ), or very old TDM versions ( older than 2.07).
<br><br>


Current Intel integrated GPU's have better performance than the Geforce 8800 that was a high-end card in 2009.
<font size="3">
Low-power mobile chips are known to throttle under heavy load, especially when using integrated graphics.
====Lightgem interleaved calculation====
</font>


=== Configure Video RAM ===
By default lightgem calculation occurs every frame. You can set lightgem calculation to happen only once
<br> per several frames by setting tdm_lg_interleave console parameter to values higher than 1.
<br> For example, typing:


Change:
tdm_lg_interleave 3


<pre>
in console tells TDM to recalculate lightgem value every third frame.
 
This tweak can increase average FPS, but it often produces noticeable stuttering, especially on slow machines
when your FPS is below 25 to 30FPS.


seta com_videoRam "128"
<br>


</pre>
{{clear}}


to the appropriate value (in MB) for your GPU in Darkmod.cfg
=====Lightgem interleave minimum FPS ( New in 2.05)=====


Eg. A 2GB video card would have 2048 there.
In TDM 2.05 there is a new tdm_lg_interleave_min cvar that allows you to set a cutoff point
for FPS below which the Lightgem Interleave optimization takes effect.
<br>It is set to 40 by default. If your FPS goes below 40 then tdm_lg_interleave returns to the default value of 1 internally to prevent stutter.
<br>Depending on your sensitivity you may wish to increase this to 50 or more.


<pre>
<pre>


seta com_videoRam "2048"
tdm_lg_interleave_min 40


</pre>
</pre>


{{clear}}
<br> As the cost of lightgem calculation is (also) substantially lower in v2.05 and newer, you may be able to set this to 1 for most missions.
<br>
<br> In testing, the only mission I found that suffered from "tdm_lg_interleave ( > 1) stuttering" was "Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail".
<br> For that mission, I set tdm_lg_interleave_min to 50 to cure the stutter.
<br> This setting can also be used to boost already high FPS values for the new unbounded FPS options ( [[Performance_Tweaks#Disable_FPS_Lock | com_FixeTic 1]] ).
<br> (eg. If you have 90FPS set tdm_lg_interleave to 7 and tdm_lg_interleave_min to 75 to attempt a push towards 120FPS)


=== Upgrade your BIOS ===
In 2.06 with the lightgem calculated on a different thread, this can likely stay at 1 regardless of how low the FPS gets.


Sometimes bugs or unintended specification limits in the BIOS on an older motherboard will prevent it from
<font size="3">
allowing the CPU or GPU to meet their potential.


If your manufacturer has an updated motherboard BIOS available, consider applying it.
==== Weak Lightgem (Not Recommended)====
</font>
 
Setting:
 
<pre>
 
seta tdm_lg_weak "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg will disable the renderer based lightgem and use a simpler math-based solution.
<br>It's a far less accurate lightgem but may allow weaker systems to play the game as a '''last resort'''.<br><br>
 
----
 
<font size="5">
 
=== '''Disabling standard graphics features''' ===
</font>
 
At the cost of some pretty severe scene quality, you can disable a number of independent graphic features
 
that are non-essential to play.
 
<font size="4">
==== Texture Based Tweaks ====
</font>
 
These changes reduce or remove texture data to improve performance on GPU's with low VRAM or low memory bandwidth


=== Last resort: Upgrade your hardware ===
===== Image downsizing =====
 
 
Modern games need a lot of computing power, and while you don't need the absolutely newest hardware to play them, upgrading single components of your machine can help tremendously:
TDM can automatically reduce texture resolution for all 3 supported texture types; diffuse,
 
<br>normal (bump), and specular. Systems with very low quantities of VRAM or low memory bandwidth benefit from this change.
* If you got '''less than 2 GByte''' main memory, consider upgrading your memory. This really helps to reduce swapping, which introduces quite noticeable slowdowns.
 
* If you got a graphic card from NVidia older than the GF 7x00 series, consider upgrading it.
In Darkmod.cfg, set '''image_downSize''' to '''1''' and then set a limit with '''image_downSizeLimit''',
* For comparison, see '''[[Known_System_Configurations|Known System Configurations]]''' to see the weakest hardware known to run current TDM versions.
e.g., '''"image_downSizeLimit" "256"'''. 
 
<pre>
 
seta image_downSize "1"
seta image_downSizeLimit "256"
 
</pre>
 
This reduces texture memory requirements and may completely alleviate hard drive thrashing. 
There are similar cvars for bump and specular maps as well.
 
Example: Downsize Normal Maps
 
<pre>
 
seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "256"
 
</pre>
 
Example: Downsize Specular maps
 
<pre>
 
seta image_downSizeSpecular "1"
seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "64"
 
</pre>
 
====== Image Downsizing verses Lower Resolution ======
 
<br>Higher resolutions require larger frame buffers thus more VRAM, likewise higher resolution textures also consume VRAM
<br>This leads to the an interesting decision on visual tradeoffs.
<br><br>When you lower the resolution substantially, the overall visuals of the scene are roughly preserved in general way
<br>but the scene becomes sort of impressionistic, filled with artifacts, and somewhat hard to read
<br><br>When you instead lower texture resolution to the extreme, the scene remains sharp but takes on a more stylized \ cartoon aspect
<br>because all these high fidelity 3D objects are coated in blurry images. It makes TDM look like a beefed-up Nintendo 64 game.
<br>If you set image filtering to Nearest mode, TDM instead looks like a strange offset of Minecraft
<br><br>In this case, there is no objective winner.
<br><br>Some people actually prefer the low-texture options to the native presentation due to the interesting style or nostalgic appearance.
<br>Whereas others will consider the extreme style variance to violate the immersion of the scene and would prefer to suffer with less
<br>scene fidelity for the sake of cohesion.
 
<br>Thread:
 
https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/19498-image_downsize-in-206/
{{clear}}
<br><br>
 
===== Disable Specular Maps =====
 
Specular gives materials their shine. This option will make all surfaces shine-free.
 
Note: This may not work with the Enhanced Ambient
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipSpecular "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
===== Disable Normal Maps =====
 
The main detail attribute for textures in Doom 3 \ Darkmod is the Normal Map.
 
If you disable this your game will become really ugly.
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipBump "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
===== Disable all Ambient Surfaces =====
 
Related to skipping particles, r_skipAmbient will get rid of any non-lit* particles
<br>(*most particles are additive blends and don't react to light)
<br>along with any other surfaces that don't change based on illumination (most decals, additive glowing windows, etc.).
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipAmbient "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<font size="4">
 
==== Light and Fog tweaks ====
</font>
 
These tweaks reduce or eliminate the impact of fogs and volumetric light effects which are often heavier than normal lights.
 
<font size="3">
 
===== Disable Volumetric Lights (New in v2.11) =====
</font>
 
Volumetric lights force shadow map rendering for their light radius ( per light ).
<br>If you have a GPU with low VRAM or poor VRAM bandwidth ( less than 128-bit bus, integrated graphics, etc),
<br>it may be worthwhile to disable them or reduce your default [[Performance_Tweaks#Shadow_Map_Size |shadow map resolution]] ( r_shadowMapSize ).
 
To disable volumetrics entirely, set:
 
<pre>
 
seta r_volumetricEnable "0"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
====== Disable Volumetric Shadows ======
 
Volumetric Lights force expensive Shadow Maps in Stencil Mode. You can disable that via
 
<pre>
 
seta r_volumetricForceShadowMaps "0"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
====== Lower Volumetric Samples ======
 
The more samples the smoother the volumetric lights at the cost of lots of performance.
<br>Try lowering the samples. Also try changing the r_volumetricBlur and r_volumetricDither values.
 
<pre>
 
seta r_volumetricSamples "16"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<font size="3">
 
===== Disable BlendLights =====
</font>
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipBlendLights "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<font size="3">
 
===== Disable Fog =====
</font>
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipFogLights "2"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
As of 2.08 and newer there are several modes of fog disable behavior. Mode 1 only disables it for opaque objects (etc)
 
<font size="4">
 
==== Particle Tweaks ====
</font>
 
Particles mostly impact CPU performance but can impact the GPU due to lots of alpha operations and overdraw
 
===== Disable Soft Particles ( New in 2.03 )=====
 
The new Soft Particle effects in v2.03 and newer use a little more GPU than the previous particles.
 
This is offset by the fact that v2.03 and higher don't render particles during the lightgem calculation.
 
Still, if you want an extra boost then set:
 
<pre>
 
seta r_useSoftParticles "0"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
===== Disable Particles =====
 
This will '''<u>seriously mar your image quality</u>'''. Flames, glares, and smoke will all be gone.
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipParticles "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
.
<font size="4">
 
==== Entity Shadow Tweaks ====
</font>
 
===== Disable Player Shadow=====
 
The player shadow slightly reduces performance. It has no game effect at all (not seen by AI for instance) apart from atmospheric effect so if you want to disable it enter in the console:
 
g_showplayershadow 0
 
Or, in Darkmod.cfg (see above) change the following line from "1" to "0":
 
seta g_showplayershadow "0"
 
This is the default setting as of TDM 1.02 and newer.
 
===== Disable Player Lantern Shadow=====
 
You may notice a drop in performance while using the player lantern.
 
Add "noshadows" "1" to entitydef light_lantern_moving in tdm_playertools_lantern.def and this stops the player lantern casting shadows.<br>This helps improve performance slightly when using the lantern.<br><br>
 
<font size="4">
 
==== Disable Sky ====
</font>
 
(New in v2.05) Pitch black sky with no clouds, Moon, or stars
<pre>
 
seta g_enablePortalSky "0"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<font size="4">
 
==== Disable Lip Sync ====
</font>
 
AI will not play lipsync animations
<pre>
 
seta tdm_ai_opt_nolipsync "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<font size="3">
 
===OBSOLETE Drop in Frame Rates when Viewing Water===
</font>
 
Some players have reported a drastic drop in performance when an agitated water surface is in view. (This on a Radeon card.)
<br>Try entering this in the console. It disables the water visible surface effects but at least it might let you play normally...
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipPostProcess "1"
 
</pre>
 
or
 
<s>
<pre>
 
seta r_postprocess "0"
 
</pre>
</s>
 
<pre>
 
seta r_bloom "0"
 
</pre>
 
You can also set a key-bind to toggle this instead:
 
<pre>
 
bind "z" "toggle r_bloom 0 1"
 
</pre>
 
See [[#Toggle_settings_in_realtime|Toggle Settings in Realtime]]
 
See also [[FAQ#(OBSOLETE_in_2.12)_Underwater_performance_poor|Underwater performance poor]]
 
TDM 2.12 has improved underwater performance. It no longer uses the postprocess pipeline.
 
<font size="5">
 
== '''Experimental Features''' ==
</font>
 
These settings may offer some performance benefits with caveats \ bugs.
 
=== Shadow Map Cull Front ===
 
The default shadow map mode calculates shadows for both polygons that are on the side facing
<br>the light (front) and the side facing away from the light (back).
<br>This mode improves performance by only calculating the back side shadows.
<br>This mode is almost production ready. It actually fixes or improves some visuals that the default mode produces
<br>but it has some glaring artifacts such as light leaks where surfaces meet in corner areas.
<br>In most missions, you will not be able to tell the difference other than the '''improved performance'''
 
<pre>
 
seta r_shadowMapCullFront "1"
 
</pre>
 
=== Alpha Tested Shadow Maps ( New 2.12 ) ===
 
Shadow Maps can cast shadows through transparent parts of textures. This is not currently possible with stencil shadows.
<br>To enable this feature:
 
<pre>
 
seta r_shadowMapsAlphaTested "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<br>Note: Be advised that this consumes more performance so if this is enabled then consider disabling it if you are struggling with performance
<br>
 
=== OBSOLETE Single Pass Light Rendering ( 2.09 ) ===
<br>
'''THIS OPTION DOES NOT WORK IN 2.11'''
<br><br>
Similar to modern "Forward+" rendering, all '''lights''' and shadows are calculated beforehand and rendered in one pass.
 
<pre>
 
seta r_shadowMapSinglePass "2"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
<br><br>
 
You have probably noticed that this uses the same CVAR that single pass shadows uses.
<br>Single Pass lighting requires Single Pass shadows.
 
This mode (2) does not seem to improve FPS for some Nvidia hardware.
<br>This is probably because of the Nvidia's tiling (deferred rendering) hardware optimizations.
 
=== Use BFG style Portal Culling (new in v2.06) ===
 
If you have a system that works well with Multi-Core ( com_smp 1) then you may
consider enabling r_useAnonReclaimer to reduce cache thrashing.
 
2.07 and newer
 
<pre>
 
seta r_useAnonReclaimer "1"
 
</pre>
 
2.06
 
<pre>
 
seta r_useBfgPortalCulling "1"
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
 
 
 
=== Skip Dynamic Shadows ===
 
Only render shadows from Stationary lights.
This will break missions where players might need to hide in a moving shadow.
 
<pre>
 
seta r_skipDynamicShadows "1"
 
</pre>
 
<font size="5">
 
== '''Lower Sound Quality''' ==
</font>
 
=== Force 22khz ===
 
'''<s>2.06: Do not use this optimization. It is known to cause issues with loading missions on some OpenAL hardware:<br>
http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4814</s>
'''
 
'''(This is fixed in 2.07)'''
 
You can force 22khz audio processing to reduce the CPU overhead of audio processing.
 
Obviously, EAX effects will increase CPU load for audio so you should consider disabling
 
those before lowering audio quality. If normal audio plays fine but EAX causes performace,
 
this change might give you a boost while EAX is enabled.
 
<pre>
 
seta s_force22kHz "1"
 
</pre>
 
=== Disable EFX reverb (new 2.06) ===
 
The new EFX audio option (equivalent to EAX) has some impact on mission performance, due to additional reverb calculation by the CPU.
<br>Disable this option for extra performance. Especially if you get big stutter or lockup events opening doors from indoor
to outdoor areas.
<br>This option, disabled by default, is toggled with the main menu's "Audio/OpenAL EFX".
 
Turning on this option makes no performance or audio difference if the mapper didn't include an EFX file. For more about that, see [[Setting Reverb Data of Rooms (EAX)]].
 
<font size="5">
 
=='''Gameplay Performance Tips'''==
</font>
 
If you have done everything else you can and performance is still poor then one or two things you might do in game to help:<br><br>
 
* '''Revert to 2.03 Search behavior'''<br>
 
<pre>
seta tdm_ai_search_type "1"
</pre>
'''The new AI "hiding spot" routines in 2.04 (and newer) are more CPU intensive that 2.03's search method'''<br><br>
 
* Close all doors after you have passed through. Generally the game has to process both areas until you close the door if the doorway is still in sight.
* Kill or KO every AI you can. You might not like to play that way but generally, AI still hog resources even out of sight (depending on how set up in the game.)
* Avoid alerts. A dozen guards searching for you will really slow things down on a low-end machine.
* Try to look down at the ground when moving along. Gazing up at a grand vista will slow you down. Best to do your gazing while standing still.
 
{{clear}}
 
<font size="5">


Upgrading your CPU is possible in most cases but can be quite complicated
== '''Configuration Based Issues''' ==


and the cost might be so high that upgrading your whole PC might be a better value.
Upgrading the hard disk will usually not help much with gaming, unless you are running out of free space.
Some users have reported that SSD has improved loading times but the bigger problem with load times
is Mip-Map generation which is CPU \ Memory bandwidth limited.
<font size="5">
== '''Toggle settings in realtime''' ==
</font>
</font>


With the exception of Resolution, AA, and AF settings; most of the above settings can be changed in realtime
A few configuration changes that players apply for performance benefit can cause unexpected problems.
in the console or via a bind in Darkmod.cfg.
 
For example, you could bind both post-processing and enhanced interaction to the Z key to enable and disable them both by pressing that key
 
<pre>


bind "z" "toggle r_postprocess 0 1; toggle tdm_interaction_vfp_type 0 1"
=== A Warning about cm_backFaceCull ===
 
</pre>
 
in Darkmod.cfg
 
<font size="5">
 
== '''A Warning about cm_backFaceCull''' ==
</font>


Some users have reported AI pathfinding and tread-milling issues with this enabled.
Some users have reported AI pathfinding and tread-milling issues with this enabled.
Line 1,491: Line 2,121:
<br>We recommend disabling it (cm_backFaceCull "0" ) unless you know the mission you're playing has been tested with it enabled.
<br>We recommend disabling it (cm_backFaceCull "0" ) unless you know the mission you're playing has been tested with it enabled.


<font size="5">
=== Blurry Briefing and Menu Screens===


=='''Blurry Briefing and Menu Screens'''==
</font>


* Obsolete info. This is fixed in TDM 2.05 (and later.)
* Obsolete info. This is fixed in TDM 2.05 (and later.)
Line 1,504: Line 2,132:
image_downsize without making menus blurry.</s>
image_downsize without making menus blurry.</s>


=== Related FXAA ===
==== Related FXAA ====


(2.07)
( 2.07+ )


If you disable in-game AA in favor of FXAA in your driver settings, text will be a little blurrier.
If you disable in-game AA in favor of FXAA in your driver settings, text will be a little blurrier.
Line 1,513: Line 2,141:
== See also ==
== See also ==


[http://www.tweakguides.com/Doom3_8.html | Tweakguides Doom 3]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160420002142/http://www.tweakguides.com/Doom3_8.html | Tweakguides Doom 3]


See also the [[FAQ]].
See also the [[FAQ]].


{{installation}}
{{installation}}

Latest revision as of 06:19, 19 April 2024

For Players

This article relates to performance issues for players. For performance information for mappers, see Performance: Essential Must-Knows

Minimum Specifications

  • CPU: 1.5Ghz with x64 instructions (64-bit) and SSE2 SIMD support
  • GPU: OpenGL 3.2 compatible with at least 512MB of VRAM ( roughly the performance of a Geforce GT 8800 )
  • RAM: 2GB
  • Storage: 30GB free space ( depending amount of missions you download )

You may be able to play on weaker hardware using config tips in this wiki but you will likely encounter many missions that are too taxing.

The Dark Mod 1.0 was originally released in 2009. The average mission designer and player of that time had a Geforce 6600GT and AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHZ.
While some missions were playable all the way down to a Pentium 4 2.8GHZ with an Geforce FX 5200, this is well below the expected audience for this project.
Current Intel integrated GPU's have better performance than the Geforce 8800 that was a very high-end card in 2009.
See Hardware Considerations for additional details.

Note: Low-power mobile chips are known to throttle under heavy load, especially when using integrated graphics.

Conventions

Most of the changes demonstrated in this article are via "Console variables" CVARS.

The "seta" prefix is intended to save these settings permanently so that they are retained on restart and that is what is used by Darkmod.cfg. 


seta r_softShadowsRadius "2"

OBSOLETE Suggestions

Some configuration suggestions in this wiki are no longer applicable in the latest TDM versions and are only
preserved for players running old versions. Where applicable these are labelled OBSOLETE so you can ignore them.

Temporary Testing

To temporarily test any settings, you can drop the "seta" and simply invoke the cvar and it's value (without double quotes) in the console.

Example:

Open the console with Ctrl+Alt+~ (tilde, ^ on German keyboards) and type: 


r_softShadowsRadius 2

Note: Some CVAR changes in the console, such as vid_mode (resolution), r_multisamples (AA), r_swapInterval (V-Synch), image_anisotropy (AF) cannot be changed without also invoking vid_restart.

NEW: As of TDM 2.07, almost all conventional settings can be altered without restarting the engine!

Toggle settings in realtime

With the exception of Resolution ( "Render Scale" can be changed realtime), most of the above settings can be changed in realtime in the console or via a bind in Darkmod.cfg.

For example, you could bind both post-processing and enhanced interaction to the Z key to enable and disable them both by pressing that key 


bind "z" "toggle r_postprocess 0 1; toggle tdm_interaction_vfp_type 0 1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Mission.cfg (New in 2.12)

When TDM was a Doom 3 mod, you could add a DoomConfig.cfg file to specific missions under doom3/darkmod/fms/mission_name
This allowed you customize settings on a per mission basis
TDM introduces a new config file called mission.cfg that is meant to allow mission authors to make fleeting setting changes to dynamic settings
You can use this file to replicate the old per mission concept

  • Make a mission.cfg file and place it under your darkmod folder. This is your global setting file.
  • Make another mission.cfg file and place it under darkmod/fms/<mission_name>. This is your per mission setting file
  • Add cvars to the per mission file in the format of seta r_something "0"
  • For each cvar added to the per mission file, add the preferred default version to the global setting file

To ensure the global setting gets re-applied, uninstall the current mission before installing a new one


Launch Options

You can also add the value as part of your target in your shortcut:

Example with two cvars:

  • Click the right mouse button Right click your Desktop shortcut to TheDarkMod and select Properties
  • On the Shortcut Tab enter the following into the "Target:" field

"C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe" +set r_softShadowsRadius 2 1 +r_useEntityCulling 1

(Assuming you installed into C:\darkmod)

  • Then Click the left mouse button click the Change Icon button and browse for the Darkmod.ico icon in your darkmod install path
  • Click the left mouse button Click Apply

See also Set TheDarkMod to High Priority


Evaluation and Diagnostics

Show FPS

First, you can check how many FPS are achieved by opening the console with Ctrl+Alt+~ (tilde, ^ on German keyboards) and type: 

com_showFPS 1

Show Position

To identify the locations where problems are found, use these two cvars to render the positions as an overlay display while playing.

Open the console with Ctrl+Alt+~ (tilde, ^ on German keyboards) and type: 


g_showviewpos 1

con_noPrint 0

TDM Show Viewpos ( New 2.12 )

To accomplish the basically the same thing ( a little more refined ) the new tdm_show_viewpos cvar is now available 


tdm_show_viewpos 1

Stop Time

Moving and Thinking can impact performance in unexpected ways.
When comparing graphical settings it might be best to "Stop Time" so that the entire scene is frozen
and the FPS changes due to graphics options can be more easily compared.
Open the console with Ctrl+Alt+~ (tilde is ^ on German keyboards) and type: 


g_stopTime 1

Delete Darkmod.cfg after upgrade

If you run tdm_installer to upgrade TDM, it offers you the option to Restore Darkmod.cfg.
When you do this, you may be reverting newer configuration defaults that have been changed in the latest release.
While it may be inconvenient to reconfigure all your preferred settings from scratch, it may be best to start with this step ( deleting Darkmod.cfg )
before tinkering with any other setting changes. ( Especially if you haven't done this for a few upgrade cycles. )

Newer TDM versions keep your keybindings and controller settings in a separate file
so you will just need to change resolution, brightness \ gamma, and other graphic quality settings
in addition to game-play difficulty settings.

Mission Updates

Mission authors often discover performance problems after they release their missions.
They will occasionally issue new mission versions that have improved performance.
Also, the TDM team will sometimes apply fixes to missions that can improve performance and stability in new release versions.
We recommend checking the Mission Downloader for updates to your existing missions ( denoted with an asterisk )
Note: Savegames do not work between different mission versions.

Known Taxing Missions

TDM performance can vary wildly depending on what any specific mission author has done to design their mission.
Before deciding that TDM is unplayable on your hardware, please try less demanding missions
The following are a few missions that are known to challenge low-end hardware configurations

  • Scroll of Remembrance
  • Briarwood Manor
  • The Rats Triumphant
  • Rightful Property


Conversely, here are a few missions that should run well on low-end hardware ( in addition to the included "official" missions )

  • Closemouthed Shadows
  • The Outpost
  • The Parcel
  • Special Delivery
  • The Thieves
  • Thief's Den 1
  • The Golden Skull
  • Coercion
  • Sir Talbot's Collatoral


Also, some very large missions will not load when running 32-bit TDM versions on Windows ( or may have anomalies on 32-bit Linux )
They simply cause TDM to exceed the limit of 32-bit mission loading.

  • The Painter's Wife
  • Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail


( Note: You may be able to use image_downSize cvars to lower VRAM resources and load these missions on 32-bit Windows. )



Hardware Considerations

If you can correct hardware deficiencies you may not need to perform as many tweaks or setting changes.
Sometimes it is as simple as a Driver or BIOS update. Other times, you may need to consider updating hardware.


Driver Considerations

(IdTech4) The Dark Mod was originally based on OpenGL 2.0. (the same as Doom 3)

GPU manufacturers have largely ignored issues with this older specification so a number of workarounds have been

compiled by the community to attend to erroneous behaviors or poor performance.

As of TDM 2.06 and newer The Dark Mod uses OpenGL 3.x so many of these suggestions are no longer applicable.

That said, even OpenGL 3.2 (current requirement) is an old standard so some newer workarounds may be needed.


Intel ( new 2.09 )

Some Intel drivers do not perform well with persistent mapping enabled.
In 2.09 there is a special persistent mapping mode that works better for this hardware.
You must disable standard persistent mapping to use this mode. 


r_gpuBufferNonpersistentUpdateMode "1"

r_usePersistentMapping 0


(AMD\ATI) Disable Catalyst AI

2018: The latest Radeon Crimson and Adrenalin Drivers:

Surface Format Optimization = OFF

Disable Catalyst AI in recent AMD Drivers

(AMD\ATI) Rename the executable

Most modern drivers have built-in profiles for the executable names of commercial games.

Renaming TheDarkMod.exe to the name of a commercial OpenGL game may gain you some optimizations

or even a Crossfire profile (I believe DarkAthena.exe had one.)

Known working renames:

DarkAthena.exe (thus far the most consistent improvement)

Doom3BFG.exe

Wolf2MP.exe

Amnesia.exe

Brink.exe

Prey.exe

(Nvidia) Optimus Laptop wont use your Nvidia GPU

See also: [1]

Many Laptops now have the ability to use the GPU that is built into the CPU when not "gaming".
Unfortunately, sometimes the drivers for these Laptops don't detect TDM as a "game".

The easiest solution is to create a Driver Profile for TheDarkMod.exe or TheDarkModx64.exe in your driver settings.

  • Right click Click the right mouse button anywhere on your desktop where no icon is shown
  • Left Click Click the left mouse button Nvidia Control Panel
  • Then Click on the Programs Tab
  • Click "Add" and browse for TheDarkMod.exe or TheDarkModx64.exe
  • Then scroll down the settings list and find "OpenGL Rendering GPU"
  • Then select your Nvidia GPU from the list of options

Nvidia Profiles.jpg



(Nvidia) Disable the Streamer Service

Open your run dialog (Windows + R) or command prompt and type services.msc

On the Extended Tab locate "Nvidia Streamer Network Service"

Click the right mouse button Right-click it and choose "Stop"

Once the service is stopped, Click the right mouse button right click it again and choose Properties

On the General Tab set Startup Type = Disabled then Click the left mouse button click Apply.

Do the same for "Nvidia Streamer Service"

Do the same for "Nvidia Telemetry" service(s).

Note: There is a GUI option to disable streaming in the newest Geforce Experience settings page.

You would still be advised to disable the Telemetry service for extra performance.


You can also perform these steps for any services that you know can be manually started

or are not needed for your daily usage. (Obviously) Do not disable any service that you don't

recognize or know is safe to disable.


NEW INFO:

The Nvidia Streamer Service is now tied to the "Geforce Experience" "In-Game Overlay" setting.
Disabling that feature in Geforce Experience should accomplish the same as the above.



(Nvidia) Disable Threaded Optimizations

Open Nvidia Control Panel ->

Manage 3D Settings ->

Bottom half of list locate "Threaded Optimization" <-- Set to NO / Off

Also set "Multi-display/Mixed GPU acceleration" to "Single display performance mode"

This can also reduce or eliminate driver crashes or rendering anomalies.

  • Note: This might be obsolete information.
    With the latest Nvidia drivers, some users have reported that disabling Threaded Optimizations
    has significantly reduced performance. (Down from 60 to 25FPS in one case.)


Lower in-driver quality settings

AMD, Nvidia, and Intel all give users the option to lower texture quality and

also have various quality "optimization" levels for texture LOD Bias and Anisotropy (Filtering).

Try different driver versions

Sometimes updating to the latest driver version or reverting to an older version

will improve performance. Try a few revisions or ask about known good driver versions.

This applies to both GPU drivers and "Motherboard Chipset Drivers".

See also Upgrade your BIOS


Upgrade your BIOS

Sometimes bugs or unintended specification limits in the BIOS on an older motherboard will prevent it from allowing the CPU or GPU to meet their potential.

If your manufacturer has an updated motherboard BIOS available, consider applying it.

Compile Darkmod for your own Hardware

The Dark Mod already contains many hardware specific optimizations and can detect when your system has the needed hardware so that it can accelerate parts of the engine.
Though unlikely, it is possible that MSVC++ or GCC compilers can improve the performance of the executable further when told what hardware you have.
You can try compiling The Dark Mod yourself and add any compiler configurations that are specific to your hardware.

Darkmod Compiling Guide

For Windows \ MSVC++ you may wish to add an AVX flag: 

 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/arch-x64?view=msvc-170



For Linux you can add -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-march=native to your cmake string.

Example: 

 cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release" .. -DGAME_DIR=/home/user/darkmod -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc-11 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++-11 -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-march=native

OBSOLETE Configure Video RAM

Change: 


seta com_videoRam "128"

to the appropriate value (in MB) for your GPU in Darkmod.cfg

Eg. A 2GB video card would have 2048 there. 


seta com_videoRam "2048"

Last resort: Upgrade your hardware


This whole wiki is meant to assist players with making TDM run as best as possible on their current hardware.

That said, you may find that the needed compromises are too harsh or that some missions still do not perform
well enough even with an optimized configuration. As such, it may be time to consider hardware upgrades.

Before upgrading it may still be advised to open a support thread in the forums, especially if your hardware is above the minimum specifications


Modern games need a lot of computing power, and while you don't need the absolutely newest hardware to play them,
upgrading single components of your machine can help tremendously:

  • If you got less than 2 GByte main memory, consider upgrading your memory. This really helps to reduce swapping, which introduces quite noticeable slowdowns.
  • If you got a graphic card from NVidia older than the Geforce 8x00 series, consider upgrading it.
  • Upgrading the (spinning) hard disk to SSD / NVME "Solid State" storage should improved loading times, especially on 2.10 and newer.
  • For comparison, see Known System Configurations to see the weakest hardware known to run current TDM versions.


Upgrading your CPU is possible in most cases but can be quite complicated and the cost might be so high that upgrading your whole PC might be a better value.



Optimizing the OS performance

Historically, TDM had significantly better performance on Windows because Doom 3 had no SIMD optimizations under Linux.
As of 2.06 and newer Linux TDM has both SSE SIMD and AVX optimizations so it can run faster under Linux due to less OS overhead.
Unfortunately, the default "capped FPS mode" has never worked well under Linux so out-of-box Linux still performs worse.
Hence we advise switching to uncapped mode under Linux.
If you have a weaker CPU and can install Linux ( dual boot, etc ) you may see 5 to 10% performance uplift when configured properly


All OS Variants: File Permissions

Make sure your darkmod folder is located in a non-protected location.

On Windows, "Program Files" is protected and will cause problems saving any settings or installing Fan Missions.

On Linux, you should consider creating your darkmod directory under your /home/<username>/ folder to avoid permission issues.

Linux UEFI Secure Boot

With Secure Boot enabled in the BIOS, some Linux distros will fallback to (slow) open drivers and wont have access to most hardware features.
If your Linux distro doesn't offer "Signed Kernels" and "Signed Drivers" disabling UEFI may be the only way to have acceptable performance
We recommend that you consider using a Linux distro that offers Signed Kernels such as the latest Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Debian, Linux Mint versions

Stop running programs in the background

Programs running in the background might either eat up memory that is needed for Doom 3 The Dark Mod, and thus cause swapping to the hard disk, or they might consume CPU time or other resources.

This can cause either general slowdowns or hickups during game play.

Ensure that Programs are the main priority in the OS

To begin the process, type sysdm.cpl in Run box (Windows + R) and hit Enter to open the System Properties.

Select the Advanced tab and under Performance, Click the left mouse button click on Settings.

In the Performance Options box, select the Advanced Tab again.

You will see a section Processor Scheduling

Choose "Programs" then Click the left mouse button click Apply.

White-list TheDarkMod.exe in Security Software

Make sure that Windows Defender or Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, etc aren't constantly scanning or interacting

with TheDarkMod.exe. Add it to your security white-list.

Windows 10 Granular Security Options

With new attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, Windows 10 has added CPU architecture specific security fixes.
Many of these have performance impacts. The impact is mostly on Storage access so loading times would
normally be the only casualty of these changes. Still, it's possible that these protections might interfere
with The Dark Mod in other ways.

Please review:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/exploit-protection-reference?view=o365-worldwide

and disable the security options you feel are excessive.

Disable TDM Connectivity

If you decide to bypass / safelist TDM in security software, you can mitigate risks posed by TDM's network connection by setting: 


seta tdm_allow_http_access "0"

in Darkmod.cfg to block connectivity.

This comes with the caveat that the in-game mission downloader won't work, you'll need to download missions from https://www.thedarkmod.com/missions
and copying them to your darkmod/fms folder

Disable Desktop Effects

(If you are willing to sacrifice you desktop visual behavior and effects for better TDM performance. Note: This can be reverted.)

To begin the process, type sysdm.cpl in Run box (Windows + R) and hit Enter to open the System Properties.

Select the Advanced tab and under Performance, Click the left mouse button click on Settings.

In the Performance Options box, select the Visual Effects tab.

Check "Adjust for Best Performance" then click Apply.


Priority and Affinity (Advanced)


The following sub-section is a deep dive into forcing your Operating System to treat TDM as the most important application.

A well behaved and maintained OS generally will not need to be configured like this so please consider these options
to be an extreme last resort to ensure that no OS performance factors are slowing down TDM

Windows Priority and Affinity

Note: As of The Dark Mod 2.08 Frontend Acceleration, defaults to 2 threads. When configuring affinity you should
ensure that at least 2 cores ( preferably 3 ) are allocated to TDM. If you increase the jobs_numThreads value
you should correspondingly increase the number of cores available in process affinity.

Set TheDarkMod to High Priority
  • Launch TheDarkMod

(Note: Do not start a mission or test map yet. If the 3D render is initialized it will take a long time to exit fullscreen and return to it.)

  • Alt + Enter to exit fullscreen
  • Ctrl + Alt + Del to open your Task Manager
  • Click the right mouse button Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe the choose "Go to Details"
  • (On the details\processes pane) Click the right mouse button Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe and mouse-over Set Priority and choose High
  • Alt + Enter to return to fullscreen

You can also edit your Desktop shortcut to start in High priority:

  • Click the right mouse button Right-click your Desktop shortcut to TheDarkMod and select Properties
  • On the Shortcut Tab enter the following into the "Target:" field

cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /High "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe"

(Assuming you installed into C:\darkmod)

  • Then Click the left mouse button click the Change Icon button and browse for the Darkmod.ico icon in your darkmod install path
  • Click the left mouse button Click Apply
Set TheDarkMod Affinity

If you have a limited number of cores or heavy background tasks are always consuming the default cores, you can set The Dark Mod to run on a specific core via "affinity"

  • Launch TheDarkMod
  • Alt + Enter to exit fullscreen

(Note: Do not start a mission or test map yet. If the 3D render is initialized it will take a long time to exit fullscreen and return to it.)

  • Ctrl + Alt + Del to open your Task Manager
  • Click the Performance Tab and look at the CPU display to see which cores are the least busy
  • (On Windows 10, click the "Open Resource Monitor" link and then click the CPU tab and expand the right pane)
  • Close the Resource Monitor and click the Processes Tab in Task Manager
  • Click the right mouse button Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe the choose "Go to Details"
  • (On the details\processes pane) Click the right mouse button Right-click on TheDarkMod.exe
  • Mouse-over then click "Set Affinity" and uncheck cores you want to prevent TDM from using
  • Alt + Enter to return to fullscreen

As with Priority you can set Affinity in your shortcut.

Example Target: 


cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /affinity 1 "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe"

The affinity number is not matched to the number in your performance screen. For example "Core 0" in Task Manager is affinity 1. The values are in Hex but are converted from binary where 1 represents an active core and 0 is disabled in a descending order.

For example: Binary 1110 means Core 3, 2, and 1 are enabled while Core 0 is disabled. Converting from Binary to Hex gives you /affinty E. This is a useful config if the majority of your processes are running on Core 0. FE for an 8 core chip would accomplish the same result.

Another useful option is 0101 /affinity 5 which will select core 0 and 2 which are "real" cores in a Hyperthreading environment.

  • Core 0 is 1
  • Core 1 is 2
  • Core 2 is 4
  • Core 3 is 8
  • Core 4 is 10
  • Core 5 is 20
  • Core 6 is 40
  • Core 7 is 80
  • Core 8 is 100
  • Core 9 is 200
  • Core 10 is 400
  • Core 11 is 800

Again, the core number does not exclude hyperthread cores so if you have an 8 Core \ 16 thread CPU you must count all real and hyperthread virtual cores when setting affinity.

Windows Combined Example

You can include both priority and affinity switches in your shortcut 


C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "TheDarkMod" /High /affinity 5 "C:\darkmod\TheDarkMod.exe" +set r_softShadowsRadius 2.5 +r_useEntityCulling 1

Start TheDarkMod with high priority on Cores 0 and 2 (real cores) and add two launch cvars ( See Conventions).

As you can see, you can make a huge launch string but once you go past 2 or 3 cvars it's best to

use Darkmod.cfg unless you wish to make multiple launchers for testing (etc).

Process Management Note

You can also either "End Task" on processes that you know you don't need or set them to "below normal" or "low" priority.

Moving these low priority processes to a different core via affinity is also an option.

Some processes, such as OneDrive.exe (which is integrated into the OS) will keep restarting so it's best to set these to "low priority"

If you are unsure what a process does, do not change it until you've researched the process.

Linux Priority and Affinity

Note: Linux generally does a good job of ensuring that other applications or processes are not impacting
game performance ( or really any foreground application performance ).
Managing affinity and\or priority usually has little to no effect in Linux unless you knowingly have lots of other heavy applications running.

Linux Priority

NOTE: Some modern Linux distros that use pipewire audio will not render audio if
the initial command that invokes the application is run as root or sudo. I am currently investigating a workaround.

You can launch TDM with a very high priority via the "nice" command: 

sudo nice --18 su -c /home/user/darkmod/thedarkmod.x64 username

There are two dashes in the above command. The first dash just tells the command that we are passing a parameter,
the second dash indicates a "negative priority number". Confusingly, the larger the negative number the higher
the priority with a maximum value of -20. Conversely the higher the positive integer, the lower the program priority!
For the sake of responsiveness, it is probably best to avoid the top or bottom if the priority range.
Also, note that the command must run as sudo to use negative priority and it's best to use "su -c program username"
so that it is run as "you" (replace username with your username) rather than root so you don't end up with root owned files.
See the visudo change in Linux Combined Example for details on how to run as sudo without a password

Example to launch with lower priority ( lowest possible value 19 ): 

nice -10 /home/user/darkmod/thedarkmod.x64

You can also change the priority of TDM while it is running via "renice" and "pidof" 

renice -n --18 -p $(pidof thedarkmod.x64)
Linux Affinity

Modern Linux operating systems will list cores with a list starting with 0, so ( for example ) the top core number in an 8 core CPU will be 7.

You can identify cores and whether the cores are hyperthread ( HT ) cores via:

lscpu -e

Example: 

    CPU NODE SOCKET CORE L1d:L1i:L2:L3 ONLINE MAXMHZ    MINMHZ
    0   0    0      0    0:0:0:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    1   0    0      1    1:1:1:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    2   0    0      2    2:2:2:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    3   0    0      3    3:3:3:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    4   0    0      0    0:0:0:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    5   0    0      1    1:1:1:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    6   0    0      2    2:2:2:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000
    7   0    0      3    3:3:3:0       yes    4100.0000 400.0000

The CPU number above is what the OS recognizes when using affinity commands, the core number is actual core number. So in the above results, CPU's 4 to 7 are hyperthreading cores whereas cores 0 to 3 are real cores.

To pin TDM to specific cores, you can change the launch options to: 

taskset -c 1,2,3 /path/to/thedarkmod.x64

The above example forces TDM to run on real cores 1, 2, and 3. You may use a dash to specify a range of cores (1-3) or even mix both syntax forms ( 1-3,6 ).

You can also change the core of a running TDM instance by using pidof to auto-locate the PID of the running process: 

taskset -cp 1,2,3 $(pidof thedarkmod.x64)

More advanced users may wish to "cpuset" to create a new logical group of cores and caches (etc) then assign TDM to run under
the new CPU Set

And (of course) you can instead use taskset to move other non-critical processes to other cores or HT cores.

Linux Combined Example

NOTE: Some modern Linux distros that use pipewire audio will not render audio if the initial command that invokes the application is run as root or sudo. I am currently investigating a workaround.

In Linux nice and taskset cannot be invoked at the same time to launch an application.
You can launch TDM and use taskset to change the running process and likewise use renice to change priority
To launch with both priority and affinity at once, you can use "schedtool"
You will first need to use visudo to allow schedtool to run in sudo without a password
visudo will open an editor where you may add the following to the bottom of the file 


%sudo ALL = ( ALL ) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/schedtool,/usr/bin/nice

Then simply edit the "command field" for the properties page of your Darkmod launcher icon as follows: 


sudo schedtool -R -p 50 -a 1,2,3,5,6,7 -e nice --17 su -c "/home/user/darkmod/thedarkmod.x64 +set r_shadows 1 +r_ssao 0" username

In the above example, priority (-p ) is set to -50 ( highest is -99 aka realtime ) and affinity ( -a ) is set to use real cores 2 to 4 and corresponding HT cores ).
Setting any application to -99 ( realtime ) priority is unsafe because it may be hard to exit or may lockup the OS trying to request resources.
schedtool has a "-n" flag for the nice value but it only supports positive nice values so we added the nice invoke after the "-e" ( execute flag ) and
made sure to su ( switch user ) to run thedarkmod.x64 as "username" ( eg whatever your username is ).
Finally, for good measure we have set shadows to stencil ( 1 ) and SSAO off ( 0 ) using standard Doom 3 style launch options for example syntax

Optimizing Dark Mod settings

The settings changes below generally can be changed independently of one another.

This means that if your want better settings in one aspect (such as AA) you can

try reducing quality or disabling another aspect (such as post-processing, image_downsize, v-sync, etc)


Reduce your resolution!

On older cards (or integrated graphics), Doom 3's TDM's render engine is very expensive for every per pixel drawn, and reducing the resolution will help the most.
For instance, at 1600x1200 the game needs to draw four times as many pixels as when running 800x600.
The result with 800x600 will not look as bad as one might think – but the frame rate improvements might make it much more playable.

Screen Resolution

On modern LCD, OLED, or MicroLED displays we advise against changing native resolution unless you know that your monitor
has an excellent internal resolution scaler. You should instead change your Render Scale as described in the next sub-section.
This section is more applicable to players using CRT or Plasma displays which naturally support a wide range of resolutions.
Even if you have a CRT or other legacy display tech, it may be better to change Render Scale to avoid legibility issues in Menus and HUD / GUI.

Note: While this section is mostly applicable to legacy displays, if TDM doesn't properly detect the native resolution of your modern display
you will still need configure it ( as shown below ) before adjusting Render Scale


If you cannot set the resolution you want in the video settings menu then enter it in Darkmod.cfg.

For the lowest possible resolutions, search down for these cvars first and replace them with the values shown: 


 seta r_mode "-1"
 seta r_customHeight "640"
 seta r_customWidth "480"

alternate for wide screen monitors:

16:9 ratio 

seta r_mode "-1"
seta r_customwidth "1280"
seta r_customheight "720"
seta r_aspectratio "1"

See also: "Resolutions" (for a list of known configurations)


Lower your Render Scale (New 2.07)

The new "Render Scale" slider in 2.07 allows you to reduce the internal resolution that TDM will render to.
Lowering this has a similar performance impact as lowering your resolution and is the preferred way to improve performance via resolution change
One additional benefit is that lowering Render Scale does not impact Menu and HUD / GUI resolution 


seta r_fboResolution "0.85"

Note: With the r_fboResolution CVAR, you can also do the opposite...
You can also render to a HIGHER THAN NATIVE resolution and the down-scaled output will look sorta like SSAA.
This is VERY expensive so we recommend going no higher than r_fboResolution 1.5.

Image Sharpening (New 2.09)

In 2.09 a new "Contrast Adaptive Sharpening" shader has been added and is enabled by default.
At the default Render Scale this simply improves the quality of textures.
When paired with lower Render Scale values it can substantially reduce the blur and make the screen look almost like full resolution! 


seta r_postprocess_sharpen "1"
seta r_postprocess_sharpness "0.7"


Lower Anti-aliasing

The Dark Mod ships with standard "Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing" ( MSAA ). This can reduce or eliminate jagged pixelization on geometry edges
by sampling sub-pixels near those edges and blending based on the average color. In practice this means that every visible geometry edge will get rendered
at a multiple of it's native resolution ( depending on your setting; eg. 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x ).
While this is still lower than increasing your screen resolution by the same factor, it can still increase the render workload by 50% or more in dense scenes.
If you needs the extra performance, you may need accept some aliasing ( jaggies ).
Since AA approximates a higher resolution, you may prefer disabling it in favor of choosing a higher resolution ( eg 1080p with 8xAA verses 1440p with no AA )
Incidentally, if you have GPU power to spare you can either use your GPU driver settings to force even higher quality modes such as SSAA that performs sub-sampling to every pixel
or configure TDM Render Scale ( r_fboResolution ) above native resolution for a similar effect (see previous sub-section ).


In the standard video settings, set AA to a lower value or 0 


seta r_multiSamples "0"

in Darkmod.cfg


Note: Nvidia's in driver FXAA anti-aliasing setting is substantially faster than the multi-samples settings in game.

Doom 3 is far less susceptible to AA artifacts so this may be an acceptable alternative especially if you are are running the game at native resolution (or nearly native).

AMD has MLAA which may also work well in the same way.

Depending on your graphics performance, it may be better to use a lower Render Scale and then use a higher AA value to retain clean edges.


Enable Multi-Core (new in v2.06)

In 2.06 the engine splits the Frontend and Backend into separate threads if you enable the Experimental "Multi-Core" setting in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu. 


seta com_smp "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

In 2.09 this is enabled by default. The setting is no longer in the GUI.

Frontend Acceleration (new in v2.09+)

In 2.09 the engine frontend can submit models to the render backend via parallel jobs on multiple CPU cores.
This is similar to how Doom 3 BFG handles this.
Enable "Frontend Accelleration" in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu. 


seta r_useParallelAddModels "1"

In TDM 2.11 this is enabled by default.

Also, you can increase the number of assigned cores: 


seta jobs_numThreads "3"

( See the Affinity section above regarding cpu core management in relation to these options. )


Uncap FPS (New in v2.06)

Run one game tick per graphics frame, rather than fixed 60 ticks per second.

In 2.06 this is now a GUI option "Uncap FPS" in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu.

This not only makes the player camera move more smoothly but can also improve performance
since some drivers do not work well with the capped FPS design. 


seta com_fixedTic "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Note: Uncapping FPS is crucial to a smooth performance in most Linux environments.
The default capped design appears to have some flaw for frame timing against the native Linux timer
Uncapping FPS or running TDM capped under Wine will resolve this.
Native Doom 3 builds are also impacted by this problem so it predates The Dark Mod.
The Dark Mod cannot use com_preciseTic 0 as a workaround ( some users have used this to improve Linux Doom 3 frame timing )
This mode has the additional benefit of making video playback properly sync to audio.
The Dark Mod team has worked hard to ensure that the uncapped mode is bug free at high FPS values but if you wish to
reduce the risk of high-FPS related bugs, set your Max FPS ( com_maxFPS, see below section ) to 75 or less.


Max FPS (New in 2.08 )

In 2.08 you can define the max FPS via the Max FPS setting in the Advanced Video settings GUI menu. 


seta com_maxFPS "90"

in Darkmod.cfg

Shadow Settings

Change Shadow Mode (New 2.07)


In TDM 2.07 we offer two different "Shadow Implementation" options in the GUI.

  • Maps (Shadow Maps)
  • Stencil (Stencil Shadow Volumes)


Shadow Maps can perform better in scenes with fewer but larger light sources and less small shadow casters.
Shadow Map performance depends on the amount and speed of VRAM on you GPU
Most of the calculations are done on the GPU in this mode so if you have a weak CPU and mid-range GPU ( usually old desktops ) this mode is preferred
Stationary Lights + Big areas + Big Lights = Higher FPS with Maps

Stencil can perform faster for systems with powerful CPU's and weak GPU's ( usually laptops ) because it mostly relies on fillrate.
Stencil soft shadows sometimes run faster because they don't do calculations for "distance to blocker" ( contact hardening )
Lots of small moving lights + confined spaces = Higher FPS with Stencil

Maps mode: 


seta r_shadows "2"

Stencil mode: 


seta r_shadows "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Lower or Disable Soft Shadows (New in v2.06)

Shadow Quality determines how many gradients ( color bands) that soft shadows use.
In the advanced videos settings menu set the Soft Shadows quality slider to low or off 


seta r_softShadowsQuality = 0

in Darkmod.cfg


In the advanced videos settings menu set the Shadow Softness slider to make shadows softer without increasing the quality level 


seta r_softShadowsRadius 2.0

in Darkmod.cfg

You can experiment with values between 1.5 and 3.5 or more.

Single Pass Shadow Maps

Rather than calculating all shadows one-at-a-time, all shadow casting is calculated in one pass for every light. THIS CAN OFFER SUBSTANTIAL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT 


seta "r_shadowMapSinglePass "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

2.10 Issues:

  • The old backend does not work with this mode ( r_useNewBackend 0 )
  • For some users, screenshots will be missing shadows for func_static geometry if this is enabled
  • The screen-shot issue is resolved in 2.11+

NEW - This is enabled by default in 2.12

Shadow Map Size

The larger the Shadow Map texture, the more detail and less artifacts you have further away from the light center or for small objects.
Conversely, smaller Shadow Map textures perform much better (use less resources).
Since stretching a low resolution shadow texture over a large area naturally causes bi-linear blurring,
some players prefer lower resolution maps instead of increasing the quality and softening radius which produces less blur
due to realistic contact hardening simulation in the light shaders. 


seta r_shadowMapSize "384"

You can also increase this to reduce light leaks from the r_shadowMapCullFront optimization.
On balance enabling that optimization may offset the pitfalls of a bigger shadow map.
You can experiment with shadow map sizes that are slightly larger than 1024 such as 1280 or 1440.
This setting can also be used to reduce the impact of Volumetric Lights because they always use Shadow Maps regardless of Shadow Mode

Max Light Size

The larger the light, the more Shadow Map resolution you need (see Shadow Map Size).
There are some lights so large that Shadows will never look good without insane texture sizes. You can set a threshold to say if lights are bigger than X, use Stencil Shadows. 


seta r_maxShadowMapLight "1500"

Lower or Disable Ambient Occlusion (New in 2.08)

In the advanced video settings menu make sure that Ambient Occlusion is set to low or off. 


seta r_ssao "1"

or 


seta r_ssao "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

SSAO Radius

You can widen the SSAO radius to improve the appearance or shrink it to improve performance 


seta r_ssao_radius "24"

Reduce Color Depth (New in 2.08)

In TDM 2.08 the default Frame Buffer was upgraded to use 64-bit color to reduce color banding.
Some GPU's have poor support for this format or render much slower. Consider reverting to 32-bit.
Change Color to 32-bit under the Advanced Video settings menu or: 


seta r_fboColorBits "32"

in Darkmod.cfg


Disable Bloom

In the advanced video settings menu make sure Bloom is disabled 


seta r_bloom "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

TDM versions older than 2.08

Disable Postprocess in the GUI or set: 


seta r_postprocess "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

Run The Dark Mod in fullscreen

Running Darkmod in windowed mode might be quite a bit slower than fullscreen mode.

One reason for this is that windowed mode is sometimes forced to V-sync. ( See Disable V-sync ) 


seta r_fullscreen "1"

in Darkmod.cfg


In 2.08 you can choose between Windowed, Fullscreen, and Borderless Windowed. Fullscreen is the lowest latency option.

Fullscreen Windowed in Modern Windows Versions

It has become widely recognized that v-sync is a source of input delay and forcing it for both Windowed and Fullscreen Windowed modes
is not optimal. The latest Windows versions no longer force v-sync on Fullscreen Windowed applications but if you encounter any issues
or have an older Windows release you should be able to force it off via your driver application profile settings:

If you have a Nvidia card

  • Open de Windows start menu and type: Nvidia control panel
  • Click Manage 3D settings, on the left pan
  • Under "I would like to use the following 3D settings" scroll down until you see "Vertical sync."
  • Select Vertical sync choose "Force off" or " disable" ... from the drop down.

For AMD

  • Click the Start button or Windows icon.
  • Type "Catalyst control center" in the search bar.
  • Press Enter on your keyboard.
  • Click Gaming.
  • Under "3D Application Settings" scroll down to "Wait for vertical refresh."
  • Move the slider down to the side that says "Performance" so the text beneath it says Always Off.

The above won't be necessary for users with variable refresh displays and video cards with variable refresh support such as G-Sync or Freesync.


Disable V-sync


In the standard video settings, disable vsync 

seta r_swapInterval "0"

in Darkmod.cfg


NEW INFO!!!!

Setting r_swapInterval "-1" enables "Adaptive Vsync" which only performs the sync action when you are at or above refresh rate.
This has much less performance impact.

NEWER TDM 2.10 has an Adaptive Vsync option in the Video Settings GUI


The Dark Mod has extremely variable FPS compared to modern titles due to it's substantial CPU heavy renderer.

We strongly recommend disabling V-Sync altogether or forcing variable V-sync tech such as G-Sync, Freesync, Fast-Sync or Enhanced Sync (new) in your driver settings.

Force Refresh Timing

(Related to vsync)

Some newer video cards may not properly report the refresh rate to this engine (typically digital output like DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort) This can cause lag, stutter, and uneven frame pacing.

create an autoexec.cfg in your darkmod directory and set: 


seta r_displayRefresh "60"

(Obviously increase to match your available mode.)

Set Object Detail to Low

In the advanced video settings menu lower the Object detail slider below normal 

seta tdm_lod_bias "0.5"

in Darkmod.cfg (see also Object_detail )


Field of View Decrease

Note that this setting might occasionally produce odd effects such as a grabbed object seems to move a little on release.

You can get a performance improvement if you decrease the field of view. By default this is 90 degrees but you might try entering in the console: 

g_fov 85

or 

seta g_fov "85"

in Darkmod.cfg

In addition, if you are playing a mission that is too good to miss and reach a very low performance area which is almost unplayable on your machine,
you might consider setting the field of view extremely low temporarily to get you through then restore to 90 later... 

g_fov 50

or bind a toggle 

bind "z" "toggle g_fov 50 90";

in Darkmod.cfg so you can tap a key to go between FOV ranges.

See Toggle Settings in Realtime

Note from Fidcal: I have played comfortably on g_fov 75 and even think perhaps it makes nearby objects more realistically close so you can get right up to a table, etc.
Not noticed any problem with restricted view.

Lower Anisotropic Filtering

In the standard video settings, lower or disable AF 


seta image_anisotropy "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

Note: This has very little performance benefit for most GPU hardware.


This is also one of the few graphic settings that can be adjusted without requiring a vid_restart or restarting the engine.

NEW: In 2.09 if you change Anisotropic Filtering and have "r_useBindlessTextures 1" set (default) the game may stutter
when you return from the menu because it must rebuild all the textures.
To avoid this, set "r_useBindlessTextures 0" then restart the game and test your preferred AF mode then once you have found your
performace-to-image quality sweet spot set "r_useBindlessTextures 1" and restart TDM

NEW 2: In 2.11, bindless texture support was removed due to multiple issues with AMD drivers.
You should be able to change anisotropic filtering settings in the GUI without encountering stutters.


Set the ambient shading to "Faster" ( OBSOLETE in 2.09+)

Inside the settings, change the ambient rendering method to "Faster". 

seta tdm_ambient_method "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

(Note: Some preliminary tests in v2.05 show that the Enhanced Ambient is now faster than the "fast" texture based Ambient.) (Note: This setting has been removed in 2.09 )

Set the interaction.vfp to "Standard" (OBSOLETE in 2.09+)

In the video settings menu, change the interaction shader to Standard. Lighting will not look as good, but you may gain a few frames per second. 


seta tdm_interaction_vfp_type "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

In 2.08 this setting is 


seta r_interactionProgram "0"

This setting doesn't work in 2.09+ It is a stub cvar that does nothing.
If you wish to test interaction shaders, create a glprogs folder in your mission folder with new shaders having the same name as the default ones.
You can keep the default shaders in the same folder in renamed form then swap filenames and execute reloadGLSLprograms to compare changes.
For a more clean comparison also set g_stopTime to prevent dynamic light changes

Slow loading times

OBSOLETE! TDM 2.10 has very fast loading times!
The only setting that might improve loading times is "seta image_preload 0"

If you find an FM is very slow to load it may be an ATI graphics card problem. One report says this was cured by turning off Catalyst AI. Also cures HDR-Lite Post-Processing Problems.

Changing the following settings to 0 will also reduce loading time, but be warned: if you have a lower-end system, poor graphics card, or low ram, you will likely notice a performance hit in-game since you will now be using uncompressed textures. 

 seta image_useNormalCompression "0"
 seta image_useCompression "0"
 seta image_preload "0"

New 2.10+ cvars ( defaults ) for fast loading times: 

 seta image_levelLoadParallel "1"
 seta image_useTexStorage "1"
 seta image_mipmapMode "0"

In 2.10 the RXGB normal map compression format has been replaced the higher quality RGTC format.

Note: Disabling compression may lead to Malloc errors due to memory consumption.

You may be able to compensate by setting image_downsize options or use image_downsize instead of disabling compression. Image Downsizing

See Malloc Failure Errors


The game is very slow!

Note: The advised performance defaults below should mostly already be set by default on upgrade.
Please consider deleting darkmod.cfg after upgrading to restore these defaults.

If you get less than 10 FPS, or the game even stutters, please try this:

Look into your Darkmod.cfg inside your darkmod folder and check that the following settings are like shown below: 

 seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "1"
 seta image_useNormalCompression "1"
 seta image_useAllFormats "1"
 seta image_useCompression "1"
 seta image_preload "1"
 seta r_useCachedDynamicModels "1"
 seta r_useShadowVertexProgram "1"
 seta r_useEntityCulling "1"

Note: r_useShadowVertexProgram no longer exists in TDM. All shadow modes use GPU vertex operations.

OBSOLETE 2.09 performance defaults 

 seta r_useMultiDrawIndirect "1"
 seta r_useBindlessTextures "1"

2.11 new performance defaults ( in addition to the standard performance defaults above ) 

 seta r_useNewBackend "1"
 seta r_modelBvhBuild "1"
 seta com_smp "1"
 seta r_useParallelAddModels "1"
 seta r_usePersistentMapping "1"
 seta com_useMinorTics "1"
 seta com_fixedTic "1"
 seta com_maxFPS "166"

2.12 new performance defaults ( in addition to the standard performance defaults above ) 

 seta r_useLightPortalFlow "2"
 seta r_useLightPortalFlowCulling "1"
 seta r_softShadowsMipmaps "1"
 seta r_useEntityScissors "1" 
 seta r_animationBounds "1"
 seta r_useNewRenderPasses "1"
 seta r_shadowMapSinglePass "1"


Note: 2.12 r_useNewRenderPasses replaces r_useNewBackend
In 2.10 and newer you can control both the standard resolution and the "renderscale" whereas
2.09 required you to change renderscale for lower the resolution. It is still preferable to lower renderscale unless you have a CRT monitor

Frame Memory

New in TDM 2.08 

r_frameIndexMemory

and 

r_frameVertexMemory

Increasing frame memory may help avoid crashing or slow-down when a scene suddenly requires more resources.
If you are VRAM limited, consider lowering texture quality ( image_downsize ) or resolution scale before increasing these.

Lightgem Calculation Optimizations


The Lightgem used to be a very taxing calculation because it required the entire scene to be rendered to an off-screen
image that was then slowly passed to parser code to comb all pixels for the brightest value.

As of TDM 2.05 and newer, only shadow casting geometry is rendered during the Lightgem calculation and the
pixels are read directly from an "OpenGL Buffer Object" at high speed.

Further optimizations after 2.05 include:

  • Moving the calculation to it's own Thread and utilizing SMP
  • Making the calculation part of the native Doom 3 sub-view system
  • Excluding Lightgem calculations from many phases of the render system that are not applicable
  • Inheriting optimizations from the overall renderer ( Improving TDM render speeds, improves the Lightgem render speed )


This means that the old configurations to reduce the impact of Lightgem calculation are mostly irrelevant
except for niche scenarios (such as 120FPS+ gaming), very old hardware ( Single Core CPU's ), or very old TDM versions ( older than 2.07).

Lightgem interleaved calculation

By default lightgem calculation occurs every frame. You can set lightgem calculation to happen only once
per several frames by setting tdm_lg_interleave console parameter to values higher than 1.
For example, typing: 

tdm_lg_interleave 3

in console tells TDM to recalculate lightgem value every third frame.

This tweak can increase average FPS, but it often produces noticeable stuttering, especially on slow machines when your FPS is below 25 to 30FPS.


Lightgem interleave minimum FPS ( New in 2.05)

In TDM 2.05 there is a new tdm_lg_interleave_min cvar that allows you to set a cutoff point for FPS below which the Lightgem Interleave optimization takes effect.
It is set to 40 by default. If your FPS goes below 40 then tdm_lg_interleave returns to the default value of 1 internally to prevent stutter.
Depending on your sensitivity you may wish to increase this to 50 or more. 


tdm_lg_interleave_min 40


As the cost of lightgem calculation is (also) substantially lower in v2.05 and newer, you may be able to set this to 1 for most missions.

In testing, the only mission I found that suffered from "tdm_lg_interleave ( > 1) stuttering" was "Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail".
For that mission, I set tdm_lg_interleave_min to 50 to cure the stutter.
This setting can also be used to boost already high FPS values for the new unbounded FPS options ( com_FixeTic 1 ).
(eg. If you have 90FPS set tdm_lg_interleave to 7 and tdm_lg_interleave_min to 75 to attempt a push towards 120FPS)

In 2.06 with the lightgem calculated on a different thread, this can likely stay at 1 regardless of how low the FPS gets.

Weak Lightgem (Not Recommended)

Setting: 


seta tdm_lg_weak "1"

in Darkmod.cfg will disable the renderer based lightgem and use a simpler math-based solution.
It's a far less accurate lightgem but may allow weaker systems to play the game as a last resort.

Disabling standard graphics features

At the cost of some pretty severe scene quality, you can disable a number of independent graphic features

that are non-essential to play.

Texture Based Tweaks

These changes reduce or remove texture data to improve performance on GPU's with low VRAM or low memory bandwidth

Image downsizing

TDM can automatically reduce texture resolution for all 3 supported texture types; diffuse,
normal (bump), and specular. Systems with very low quantities of VRAM or low memory bandwidth benefit from this change.

In Darkmod.cfg, set image_downSize to 1 and then set a limit with image_downSizeLimit, e.g., "image_downSizeLimit" "256". 


seta image_downSize "1"
seta image_downSizeLimit "256"

This reduces texture memory requirements and may completely alleviate hard drive thrashing. There are similar cvars for bump and specular maps as well.

Example: Downsize Normal Maps 


seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "256"

Example: Downsize Specular maps 


seta image_downSizeSpecular "1"
seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "64"
Image Downsizing verses Lower Resolution


Higher resolutions require larger frame buffers thus more VRAM, likewise higher resolution textures also consume VRAM
This leads to the an interesting decision on visual tradeoffs.

When you lower the resolution substantially, the overall visuals of the scene are roughly preserved in general way
but the scene becomes sort of impressionistic, filled with artifacts, and somewhat hard to read

When you instead lower texture resolution to the extreme, the scene remains sharp but takes on a more stylized \ cartoon aspect
because all these high fidelity 3D objects are coated in blurry images. It makes TDM look like a beefed-up Nintendo 64 game.
If you set image filtering to Nearest mode, TDM instead looks like a strange offset of Minecraft

In this case, there is no objective winner.

Some people actually prefer the low-texture options to the native presentation due to the interesting style or nostalgic appearance.
Whereas others will consider the extreme style variance to violate the immersion of the scene and would prefer to suffer with less
scene fidelity for the sake of cohesion.


Thread:

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/19498-image_downsize-in-206/



Disable Specular Maps

Specular gives materials their shine. This option will make all surfaces shine-free.

Note: This may not work with the Enhanced Ambient 


seta r_skipSpecular "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable Normal Maps

The main detail attribute for textures in Doom 3 \ Darkmod is the Normal Map.

If you disable this your game will become really ugly. 


seta r_skipBump "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable all Ambient Surfaces

Related to skipping particles, r_skipAmbient will get rid of any non-lit* particles
(*most particles are additive blends and don't react to light)
along with any other surfaces that don't change based on illumination (most decals, additive glowing windows, etc.). 


seta r_skipAmbient "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Light and Fog tweaks

These tweaks reduce or eliminate the impact of fogs and volumetric light effects which are often heavier than normal lights.

Disable Volumetric Lights (New in v2.11)

Volumetric lights force shadow map rendering for their light radius ( per light ).
If you have a GPU with low VRAM or poor VRAM bandwidth ( less than 128-bit bus, integrated graphics, etc),
it may be worthwhile to disable them or reduce your default shadow map resolution ( r_shadowMapSize ).

To disable volumetrics entirely, set: 


seta r_volumetricEnable "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable Volumetric Shadows

Volumetric Lights force expensive Shadow Maps in Stencil Mode. You can disable that via 


seta r_volumetricForceShadowMaps "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

Lower Volumetric Samples

The more samples the smoother the volumetric lights at the cost of lots of performance.
Try lowering the samples. Also try changing the r_volumetricBlur and r_volumetricDither values. 


seta r_volumetricSamples "16"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable BlendLights


seta r_skipBlendLights "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable Fog


seta r_skipFogLights "2"

in Darkmod.cfg

As of 2.08 and newer there are several modes of fog disable behavior. Mode 1 only disables it for opaque objects (etc)

Particle Tweaks

Particles mostly impact CPU performance but can impact the GPU due to lots of alpha operations and overdraw

Disable Soft Particles ( New in 2.03 )

The new Soft Particle effects in v2.03 and newer use a little more GPU than the previous particles.

This is offset by the fact that v2.03 and higher don't render particles during the lightgem calculation.

Still, if you want an extra boost then set: 


seta r_useSoftParticles "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable Particles

This will seriously mar your image quality. Flames, glares, and smoke will all be gone. 


seta r_skipParticles "1"

in Darkmod.cfg .

Entity Shadow Tweaks

Disable Player Shadow

The player shadow slightly reduces performance. It has no game effect at all (not seen by AI for instance) apart from atmospheric effect so if you want to disable it enter in the console: 

g_showplayershadow 0

Or, in Darkmod.cfg (see above) change the following line from "1" to "0": 

seta g_showplayershadow "0"

This is the default setting as of TDM 1.02 and newer.

Disable Player Lantern Shadow

You may notice a drop in performance while using the player lantern.

Add "noshadows" "1" to entitydef light_lantern_moving in tdm_playertools_lantern.def and this stops the player lantern casting shadows.
This helps improve performance slightly when using the lantern.

Disable Sky

(New in v2.05) Pitch black sky with no clouds, Moon, or stars 


seta g_enablePortalSky "0"

in Darkmod.cfg

Disable Lip Sync

AI will not play lipsync animations 


seta tdm_ai_opt_nolipsync "1"

in Darkmod.cfg

OBSOLETE Drop in Frame Rates when Viewing Water

Some players have reported a drastic drop in performance when an agitated water surface is in view. (This on a Radeon card.)
Try entering this in the console. It disables the water visible surface effects but at least it might let you play normally... 


 seta r_skipPostProcess "1"

or 


seta r_postprocess "0"




seta r_bloom "0"

You can also set a key-bind to toggle this instead: 


bind "z" "toggle r_bloom 0 1"

See Toggle Settings in Realtime

See also Underwater performance poor

TDM 2.12 has improved underwater performance. It no longer uses the postprocess pipeline.

Experimental Features

These settings may offer some performance benefits with caveats \ bugs.

Shadow Map Cull Front

The default shadow map mode calculates shadows for both polygons that are on the side facing
the light (front) and the side facing away from the light (back).
This mode improves performance by only calculating the back side shadows.
This mode is almost production ready. It actually fixes or improves some visuals that the default mode produces
but it has some glaring artifacts such as light leaks where surfaces meet in corner areas.
In most missions, you will not be able to tell the difference other than the improved performance 


seta r_shadowMapCullFront "1"

Alpha Tested Shadow Maps ( New 2.12 )

Shadow Maps can cast shadows through transparent parts of textures. This is not currently possible with stencil shadows.
To enable this feature: 


seta r_shadowMapsAlphaTested "1"

in Darkmod.cfg


Note: Be advised that this consumes more performance so if this is enabled then consider disabling it if you are struggling with performance

OBSOLETE Single Pass Light Rendering ( 2.09 )


THIS OPTION DOES NOT WORK IN 2.11

Similar to modern "Forward+" rendering, all lights and shadows are calculated beforehand and rendered in one pass. 


seta r_shadowMapSinglePass "2"

in Darkmod.cfg

You have probably noticed that this uses the same CVAR that single pass shadows uses.
Single Pass lighting requires Single Pass shadows.

This mode (2) does not seem to improve FPS for some Nvidia hardware.
This is probably because of the Nvidia's tiling (deferred rendering) hardware optimizations.

Use BFG style Portal Culling (new in v2.06)

If you have a system that works well with Multi-Core ( com_smp 1) then you may consider enabling r_useAnonReclaimer to reduce cache thrashing.

2.07 and newer 


seta r_useAnonReclaimer "1"

2.06 


seta r_useBfgPortalCulling "1"

in Darkmod.cfg



Skip Dynamic Shadows

Only render shadows from Stationary lights. This will break missions where players might need to hide in a moving shadow. 


seta r_skipDynamicShadows "1"

Lower Sound Quality

Force 22khz

2.06: Do not use this optimization. It is known to cause issues with loading missions on some OpenAL hardware:
 http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4814

(This is fixed in 2.07)

You can force 22khz audio processing to reduce the CPU overhead of audio processing.

Obviously, EAX effects will increase CPU load for audio so you should consider disabling

those before lowering audio quality. If normal audio plays fine but EAX causes performace,

this change might give you a boost while EAX is enabled. 


seta s_force22kHz "1"

Disable EFX reverb (new 2.06)

The new EFX audio option (equivalent to EAX) has some impact on mission performance, due to additional reverb calculation by the CPU.
Disable this option for extra performance. Especially if you get big stutter or lockup events opening doors from indoor to outdoor areas.
This option, disabled by default, is toggled with the main menu's "Audio/OpenAL EFX".

Turning on this option makes no performance or audio difference if the mapper didn't include an EFX file. For more about that, see Setting Reverb Data of Rooms (EAX).

Gameplay Performance Tips

If you have done everything else you can and performance is still poor then one or two things you might do in game to help:

  • Revert to 2.03 Search behavior
 
seta tdm_ai_search_type "1"

The new AI "hiding spot" routines in 2.04 (and newer) are more CPU intensive that 2.03's search method
  • Close all doors after you have passed through. Generally the game has to process both areas until you close the door if the doorway is still in sight.
  • Kill or KO every AI you can. You might not like to play that way but generally, AI still hog resources even out of sight (depending on how set up in the game.)
  • Avoid alerts. A dozen guards searching for you will really slow things down on a low-end machine.
  • Try to look down at the ground when moving along. Gazing up at a grand vista will slow you down. Best to do your gazing while standing still.

Configuration Based Issues

A few configuration changes that players apply for performance benefit can cause unexpected problems.

A Warning about cm_backFaceCull

Some users have reported AI pathfinding and tread-milling issues with this enabled. While this can be the fault of poor map design or monsterclip placement,
one thing that can cause this is the performance cvar: 


seta cm_backFaceCull "1"

This cvar does improve performance but it is not worth the hassle in most cases.
We recommend disabling it (cm_backFaceCull "0" ) unless you know the mission you're playing has been tested with it enabled.

Blurry Briefing and Menu Screens

  • Obsolete info. This is fixed in TDM 2.05 (and later.)

If you get blurry briefing and menu screens then in Darkmod.cfg make sure you do NOT have image_downSize 0.

Instead set it to 1. But see also Image Downsizing as there is a patch available to allow

image_downsize without making menus blurry.

Related FXAA

( 2.07+ )

If you disable in-game AA in favor of FXAA in your driver settings, text will be a little blurrier. This is a known problem with FXAA in general.

See also

| Tweakguides Doom 3

See also the FAQ.

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