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From Plebeian to Patrician, Performance Guide

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2022-03-17 04:01:02
From Plebeian to Patrician, Performance Guide

Introductions

Before I created this guide, I had my visuals set to the default recommended options. This was a mix of high/medium options in all the wrong places. I was getting an average of 41 frames. After creating this guide and adjusting my settings through trial and error, I am getting an average of 74 fps. Total War: Attila has been the target for many Total War player's problems with performance. This is due to a number of issues—issues that can be fixed. Follow every step in this guide, try it out for yourself, and adjust accordingly; everyone’s computer is different.

Getting Started

The visual options in Total War: Attila are good looking at most levels, considering how little the player will be looking at all assets in great detail while playing regularly—screenshots are a different story, however. The game is CPU intensive, so this may be something to consider immediately, it may be the source of your problems.

Another important factor is your cards available VRAM. This is shown when adjusting your graphics settings, so try to be aware of how much you have, and use my upcoming reference. My graphics card is an NVIDIA 780ti 3gb, and I play the game at a mix of medium/high settings. As my screenshot shows above, my settings are mixed in a specific way because the in-game options vary greatly in how they alter your performance.

Unlocking Your True Potential

According to users on reddit and the Total War forums, Attila does not support 4GB+ of VRAM without a minor fix. This is reflected in my screenshot, with the in-game settings only displaying 3GB of VRAM, instead of the 4GB total I have.

To fix this issue (if you have more than 3GB of VRAM, and it is not showing.) is through a quick text file edit. This fix also works for other Total War games, like Rome II, for example. The steps are listed below:

First you need to navigate to the folder where the preferences for Attila (or other Total War game) are stored. To easily navigate to this folder you should open the Start menu, type %appdata%, and press enter. The folder you need to navigate to specifically is as follows:

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming/The Creative Assembly/Attila/scripts

Open the preferences.script file in a text editor of your choice.

Scroll down until about line 10, the line you are looking for is:

gfx_video_memory 0;.

Change the "0" value to "-2000," the line should now be:

gfx_video_memory -2000;

Congratulations, the next time you launch your game you should see an increase in available VRAM. Have fun with that newfound power.

Settings


From Plebeian to Patrician, Performance Guide image 17

For reference, my settings are shown below.

Note: The max performance setting in Attila shifts processing from your GPU to your CPU to save memory, so you can end up with severe performance issues. I recommend avoiding much use of max performance, it will (for the most part) only give a couple extra frames.

Anti-aliasing. Do you even notice the benefits? Turn it off because it deletes half your performance and replaces it with slightly less jagged lines. Another option I’ve tried (and use) is to force the anti-aliasing in the video card controls.

Regarding textures, I would set your texture resolution based on how high you have the filtering set. For example, I have ultra texture resolution, and anisotropic 8x instead of 16x. These two options pair with each other, and should be set accordingly, with priority on resolution.

Texture filtering should be set to somewhere in the middle, either anisotropic 8x or 4x, depending on your own setup. The performance costs associated with texture filtering directly correlate to how high your texture resolution is set.

Shadows should be set to performance. I thought this was obvious, until I realized that I, myself, had my shadows set to quality. There are a lot of moving assets that will be utilizing shadows, so setting it to performance will lower the massive costs associated with it.

Reduce water quality to performance. This is because the maps in Attila have a layer of water—even on land-only battles.

Set your trees and sky to performance. You probably won’t notice this one too much.

Depth of field has some impact on the cities and lush regions. Turn it off if you experience performance drops.

Particle effects can have a significant impact on performance. I recommend performance, especially because the particle effects are not significant.

Screen space reflections have greater impact the higher the game resolution. Set it to quality in most cases, max quality if you have frames to spare.

Grass can be a performance destroyer. Set it to performance and your fps will thank you.

Terrain. Do you notice the individual leaves and curves of the earth when fighting off the Hunnic invasion? I know I do not. The maps are sprawling expanses, and can cost you tens of frames. Set it to performance.

Unit details, honestly this setting is the most deceitful. Initially it sounds like the texture quality of units, but that is not at all the case. Unit quality refers to how far the camera can travel before the individual soldiers begin to be replaced by their low-poly substitutes. Performance is your best bet, though quality is an option if your graphics card can handle it.

Building details. This one can be set to quality because it is not as performance-intensive, due to the smallish number of buildings.

Set unit size to large. This is most beneficial to users with weaker CPUs, or users who may want to use their better GPU more.

Porthole quality is just the small characters that appear throughout the game, either as advisors or in the character menus. This is not usually a performance issue, though if you really want to get extra frames, setting it to 2D can help.

V-Sync locks your max fps to your monitor’s max fps. This prevents screen tearing and makes it look better. This is personal preference, I have it enabled.

SSAO is screen space ambient occlusion. This creates shadows around objects in crevices and around edges, in an attempt to add depth to the scene. I have it enabled, though disabling it can increase performance.

Distortion effects are small, like rain drops blurring the screen. This has minimal impact, and is only personal preference. I have it disabled.

Vignette adds a dark border to the screen, for cinematic effect. Again, personal preference. I have it enabled.

Proximity fading is fading units when the camera gets close, to prevent clipping. This has no performance impact and is personal preference. I have it enabled for screenshots.

Golden Advice

Most importantly: remember to adjust your settings according to your computer’s capabilities as well as your personal preference. Sometimes I max out my settings to take pretty pictures, sometimes I lower it to have maximum frames in huge battles. This guide should be for reference, not for a strict ruleset. Feel free to ask any questions you may have in a comment, or send me a friend request. Remember: ROMA INVICTA.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1256826398

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