Xah Lee (aka Xah Toll), 2007-11
This article shows you how to increase the Frames Per Second (FPS) in the virtual world Second Life, important for first-person shooter games.
A HTML version of this note is available at: http://xahlee.org/sl/increase_fps.html
Having a faster screen update is one of the most important aspect in winning a shooting game.
To find out what is your screen update (called Frames Per Second (fps)), press Ctrl+Shift+1. Below 15 is considered low. The number also depends on how busy is a sim. If your enemy's fps is 10 more than you, you are likely to lose one-on-one dual, unless your enemy's shooting skill is far below you.
Besides getting a new computer with cutting edge graphics card and fast internet connection, here are some things you can do that can increase your fps by 5 to 10.
• Reduce your draw distance to 64. (this is the minimum possible) This is under Preference (Ctrl+p), Graphics tab.
• Reduce your Grapics Detail. Go to Preference, Graphics Detail tab, then drag all sliders to the left. Also, disable Vertex Shader, Bumpmapping, Ripple Water. Also, disable local lighting and others.
• Increase Network bandwidth. Go to Preference, Network tab. Increase it to 600 if you have a DSL connection. (the optimal setting depends on the ratio of “internet speed”/“CPU speed”.)
• Turn off Flexible Objects. Turn on Client menu (Ctrl+Alt+d), then go to “Client:Rendering:Features”. Turn off Flexible Objects (Ctrl+Alt+f9). You might also want to turn off Foot Shadows (Ctrl+Alt+f5) and Fog (Ctrl+Alt+f6). These setting will not stick after relog. You need to do it for each time you log in.
• Turn off Animated Texture. This is under menu “Client:Rendering:Animate Textures”. This setting will not stick after relog.
• Turn Off unnecessary rendering. Go to menu “Client:Rendering:Types”, and turn off Tree, Grass, Clouds, Bump. You need to do it for each time you log in.
• Turn off streaming video, streaming music. This is under Preference, Audio & Video tap.
• Turn off Voice Chat. Even if you are not using voice chat, having the feature on sucks your CPU because it runs a background process. To turn Voice Chat feature off, go to Preference, Voice Chat tab.
• Turn off other applications. Close your web browser, your PhotoShop, your Microsoft Word, your music player.
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