Changing Resolution in ISBoxer

[kalos72]

In several threads I have seen people mention changing the resolution in the minion windows, not Slot 1, but I cant find any setting in ISBoxer to change it. I use the Wizard most of the time to create my sets, is that why I dont see the setting?

I am assuming, which is always dangerous, that if I lower the resolution of my minions windows, there will be a performance improvement without effecting my broadcasting ability?

If there is a guide or Wiki to reference I can use or someone able to walk me through it?

[kalos72]

Well, from the lack of response maybe I need to add some detail here... :)

I am having performance issues, my laptop anyways, when running 5 man teams through the Invasions and looking for some performance improving tips. In other threads people have talked about two things I have questions on:
1. "Renderscale" - Not sure I understand this concept honestly.
2. Lowering window resolution to improve performance - I assume we aren't talking about my desktop resolution so are we talking the way the windows are sized in IS Boxer, meaning smaller the better performance?

I do use broadcasting a fair bit so I wouldn't want to effect I believe...

Tonight I messed with the Windows layout and reduced the size of all 5 windows but I dont think thats the same thing people were talking about here, I am not sure. Am I completely off track here?

[mbox_bob]

Performance per window is tricky.


Render Scale usually refers to an in game setting in WoW, which render your game image at a higher resolution than the game is set to, this is then scaled back down for display. Assuming a 200% render scale on a 1920x1080 resolution your game may be rendering internally at 4k. If you already have 4k, then it would be rendering internally at 16k. Idk if you can set a render scale < 100% to improve performance (/e appears you can) , but if you did, it would increase blockiness (i.e. look more like minecraft - although not bad).
Lowering window resolution to increase performance is fine, but usually the game UI doesn't scale down with the resolution change, so at lower resolutions the game UI is taking up a larger proportion of the game screen relative to the resolution. e.g. say you change from 1920x1080 to 960x540, this is a 50% drop, but the game UI elements, like the actions bars, may only have a drop from 32 pixels high to 24pixels high, so only a 25% reduction. This can effect your broadcasting ability because all of a sudden UI elements are not necessarily the same size, nor in the same place as they get shuffled around. This tends to be one of those options to avoid if possible. Resolution shifting also causes delays on switching characters as the game resets itself to the new resolution (and may shuffle the UI elements around to fit). This one only applies if the games are in individual resolutions
In ISBoxer, the Window Layout Wizard also has an option for this called 3D Render Size (on the right hand side at the bottom). The effect of this is you can set a Render size less that the display size (or active region size). Again it will come out a bit blocky and minecraftish, but, as the preference is for all windows to render internally at the same resolution to keep the broadcasting lined up and the game UI the same scale, this works for that option. On WoW, with the renderscale option, it is better to avoid this one too.
With WoW, you can set certain render quality and LOD rendering properties via the CVars, which MiRai covers in this post (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/52701-Console-Variables-for-Video-Settings-(Legion)), and a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK3M2viW4-Y) (thanks Wubsie, couldn't find that). In this setup you use a couple of macros, and have these switch your main toon to look nice, while the backgrounders don't get a high LOD, or all the fancy trimmings. The idea is to stick to settings which can change almost instantly, so this rules out texture quality changes and such like as they require a full reload from disk.
Another option is to just turn off/lower the rendering settings on your slave toons via the in game options. They wont change to look nicer when you switch toons, but it should lower the requirements for presumably the toons you mostly don't drive from.

[Wubsie]

1. "Renderscale" - Not sure I understand this concept honestly.

This is a new-ish option that allows you to basically change the resolution at which the game environment is rendered, either going above or below your monitor's resolution, and then scaling the image to fit again. This is different to dropping the resolution of the actual game client, as this has 0 impact on how your UI is rendered, meaning you can drop it down to non-existant levels, making the game a blurry mess, but your frames, bars, menus, etc will remain the exact same.

Changing this setting can have a decent sized impact on your performance and since we often have a bunch of scaled down game windows, dropping it to something like 0.5 (50% renderscale) doesn't have such a big impact on how those windows look.

Another great thing about this setting is that it can be changed instantly, unlike client resolution. This means that you can make a slot-swap macro system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK3M2viW4-Y), and automatically have your focused client be rendered at your normal resolution, while non-focused ones will use a lower one, saving performance.

**NOTE**
The video was made before Legion came around. As such a lot of those variables are now different. You can find an up-to-date list here: http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/52701-Console-Variables-for-Video-Settings-(Legion)

*edit*
Damn, Bob beat me to it.

[kalos72]

Thanks guys!

I already run all my clients on the lowest in game settings, would either lowering resolution or render scale still help performance?

[mbox_bob]

Yes. Lowering the Render Scale is like lowering the resolution, but without lowering the resolution. If you set Render Scale of 0.5 or 50% on a 1920x1080 window, then it would be the same as rendering at 960x540 (or pretty damn close to it).

[kalos72]

So after watching the 2-3 of the videos in that series, here is what I get from it that might effect my performance:

/console renderscale 0.50
/console farclip 200
/console groundeffectdist 50

These APPEAR to be settings lower then the in-game ones and might improve my performance, correct?

[mbox_bob]

A new hamster, sorry, GPU might improve your performance too. If you are trying to reduce settings like this, then you maybe just trying to run too many clients for your hardware. It might only get worse tomorrow with the Legion release.

That said, yes, those settings would reduce the GPU processing requirements.

[kalos72]

/agreed

I am working on a new box now, just wont be able to aford all the Legion account upgrades and the new box right now. I am a few weeks out from having the next pc ready so...I have to do everything I can now. I suppose I could just run 3 accounts for now but if I can make it happen it would be nice.

Thanks!

[MiRai]

So after watching the 2-3 of the videos in that series, here is what I get from it that might effect my performance:

/console farclip 200
/console groundeffectdist 50

These APPEAR to be settings lower then the in-game ones and might improve my performance, correct?
The videos you're referring to are old and outdated, which is why most of the values from the updated forum thread don't match anything found in those videos. With Legion, farclip now has a range of 1,000 - 10,000, and groundEffectDist has a range of 40 - 500. For what you're trying to achieve, these values are unimportant because simply moving the in-game slider to the lowest setting will set the lowest possible values.

[kalos72]

So render scale is my only option then if I am just trying to squeeze out a little better performance correct?

[MiRai]

So render scale is my only option then if I am just trying to squeeze out a little better performance correct?
Either that, or dropping your resolution as bob outlined earlier in the thread.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Give renderscale a try. It's stupid easy to integrate into your /follow macros and I suspect you will be amazed at the performance impact it has. As I stated in an earlier thread, that has been the single largest performance improvement (aside from not setting ludicrously-high clutter options on my main) of any of the settings I use. It are superb and as others have stated is an instant change that leaves your UI intact for those lovely dxNothing healthbar/hotbar repeaters.

[kalos72]

And with changing the resolution we are talking about simply going into the Windows Layout and changing the size of the regions with the click/drag adjustments?

[moosejaw]

You don't have to use the click/drag. Look to the right of the screen layout and you can adjust the resolutions manually for each game slot. When I setup a DxNothing for viewers on a second monitor I can manually tweak each region with the actual numbers.