Guide to maximizing FPS and performance without hideous graphics!

[obitus]

No need to cap your framerate at 60. Instead, cap your framerate at 123 (not 120), that way, if your vidcard can churn out more frames, it will.

Your vidcard can churn out more frames, but your monitor can't.  Everyone's monitor is between 60hz and 120hz (I personally have 120hz LG W2363D).  I just don't see the point in giving a monitor more FPS than its refresh rate, but I'm open to reasoning.

[Patoson]

I've been playing many games (L4D, COD4, L4D2, etc.) with, at least, double of my monitor's refresh rate for the last couple of years. For L4D and L4D2, anything under 150 is stuttering for me. COD4 was nice at 125 fps. It's just a matter of taste. But anything under 100 fps is slow for me.

And I don't know what that "image tearing" thing you're talking about means, because, even if it occured, I don't really see it, whereas I do notice the framerate drops, which hurt a lot more. The only games I can play with VSync ON are strategy games or Heroes of Newerth, for example.

You will notice the difference between 60 and more especially when looking around with your mouse. The higher the framerate, the smoother your camera will move. Also, it helps a lot for melee in cRPG.

TL|DR: my favourite framerate for cRPG is 120. If I increase it, it's never stable. Less is painful.

[obitus]

I'd like to hear some others discuss possible merits of running higher FPS than a monitor's refresh rate.  As far as physics and electronics are concerned it doesn't make sense to do it...the only argument I could see is if a game's programming (hit detection, physics, calculations) is tied to the video frame rate.  If this is the case it makes sense to have a higher frame rate than your monitor, since you will have a programmatic advantage of rendering more frames than an opponent.

Physically though those extra frames sent to your monitor are useless.  I'll have to go google around and see what others have to say.

[Patoson]

It's not about physics, it's about what my eyes see. If I play at 120 fps and then at 60 fps, I see the game stutter, it's slow, and the mouse is less responsive.

[Christo]

It's not about physics, it's about what my eyes see. If I play at 120 fps and then at 60 fps, I see the game stutter, it's slow, and the mouse is less responsive.

This.

[Xant]

Yep. Anything under 100 fps will feel and look slower/stutter-y compared to above 100 fps.

[_Tak_]

(click to show/hide)

Render Method: for older systems, choose DirectX 7. If you have a modern graphics card (designed with proper support for DirectX 9 or higher) you can use DirectX 9 rendering. DirectX 7 rendering eliminates some of the graphical effects the game can produce but requires far less processing power. If you see unnaturally-bright textures when using DirectX 9 rendering this indicates that your card is unable to process graphics correctly in this mode, and you should therefore switch to DirectX 7 rendering to experience the game correctly.
Use Pixel Shaders: if you have a graphics card which supports it, enabling pixel shaders will give some surfaces a more impressive appearance. This can reduce game performance somewhat. If you do not have a card that supports pixel shading, enabling this will result in unwanted visual oddities.
Start Windowed: by default, Mount&Blade runs fullscreen. This setting makes it run in a window instead.
Show Framerate: this enables a large frame rate counter in the top-left corner.
Force Vertical Sync.: enabling vertical sync helps reduce or eliminate tearing, but on slower systems it will also result in some loss of performance.
Texture Detail: this determines the detail used for textures. Using the Auto Adjust button will attempt to recommend a texture level suited for your card. The lower the setting the worse the graphics will look but the better the game will perform.
Max. Frame Rate: a frame rate higher than your monitor's refresh rate (generally in the region of 50-85 Hz) can result in unwanted effects. This box lets you limit it. As a general rule you should set this to the exact value you have the monitor's refresh rate set to, as anything above this number is just a waste of system resources.
Screen Resolution: by default, Mount&Blade inherits the resolution and bit depth specified for Windows itself. If you want a different setting, select it here. Using a 16-bit mode will result in more washed-out visuals but can significantly improve performance.
Antialiasing: You can turn antialiasing on or off here. Note that if you have forced an antialiasing in your graphics card's configuration this setting will be ignored.
Shadow Quality: how precisely game shadows will be drawn. Higher detail results in more lifelike shadows but also results in a performance hit on older systems.
Auto Adjust: click this button to automatically configure all settings to settings based on an analysis of your system. This process is not perfect, but it provides a basic indication of what your system can handle.
Audio


Enable Sound Variation: this randomly fluctuates the frequency of sound effects to produce a greater variety of sounds.
Disable Sound: if you want to disable all sounds, use this setting.
Disable Music: if you want to disable all sounds, use this setting. This can also be somewhat achieved by setting the volume slider to the minimum, but the music files will still be processed. Disabling music may result in a very minor performance increase.
Game


Hide Blood: by default, men and horses bleed when hit with weapons that deal piercing or cutting damage. Checking this box will disable all blood.
Enable Cheats: allows the use of cheats. Cheats will not function unless this option is enabled.
Advanced


Enable Edit Mode: Edit Mode lets you edit things while the game is running, but, as indicated, it results in a significant performance hit. Unless you are wanting to experiment with hidden features or create your own modules you should leave this disabled.
Force Single Threading: Mount&Blade supports multi-core processors. You can use this option if for some reason your multi-core processor is not handled correctly, or if your single-core processor is incorrectly recognised as a multi-core. If you have a multi-core processor you should always leave this option off unless you have problems, as turning it on will reduce performance.
[edit]In-game configuration
General Options


Music Volume: this controls the music volume level. It will not function if music has been disabled in the launcher configuration.
Sound Volume: this controls the sound volume level. It will not function if sound has been disabled in the launcher configuration.
Mouse Sensitivity: if your mouse does not respond as intended, experiment with this slider. Moving it to the left makes the mouse less responsive while moving it to the right makes it more responsive.
Invert Mouse Y axis: if you want the Y axis inverted (as in a flight sim), enable this.
Control block dir.: use this setting to alter how blocking is controlled (see Controls).
Control attack dir.: use this setting to alter how attacking is controlled (see Controls).
Video Options: view and alter the Video Options.
Controls: view and alter the Controls.
Damage to player: use this to reduce the damage enemies deal to your character.
Damage to friends: use this to reduce the damage enemies deal to your companions (regular troops are not affected).
Combat AI: determine how intelligent the combat AI is. This setting affects your troops as well as those of the enemy.
Combat Speed: use this to speed up or slow down battles.
Battle Size: use this to determine the maximum number of troops that can be in a battle scene at any one time. The slider normally goes between 25 and 100, but you can change these settings further using the Battle Size Changer.
Show attack direction: determine whether yellow arrows show up to aid attacks.
Show targeting reticle: determine whether ranged weapons will be aided by a crosshair.
Show names of friendly troops: this setting puts floating green names above friendly troops so you can tell them apart from enemies.
Report damage: determines whether damage is reported in the log.
Report shot difficulty: determines whether shot ratings are reported in the log.
Report Casualties: determines whether casualties are reported in the log.
Report Experience: determines whether experience gains are reported in the log.
Difficulty Rating: this gives an indication of how hard the game will be. The Damage to player, Battle size, and Combat AI settings are used to calculate this number.
Video Options


For all these settings, having them on will require additional system resources. If you have poor performance, try turning some of them off.

Render Method: for older systems, choose DirectX 7. If you have a modern graphics card (designed with proper support for DirectX 9 or higher) you can use DirectX 9 rendering. DirectX 7 rendering eliminates some of the graphical effects the game can produce but requires far less processing power. If you see unnaturally-bright textures when using DirectX 9 rendering this indicates that your card is unable to process graphics correctly in this mode, and you should therefore switch to DirectX 7 rendering to experience the game correctly.
Screen Resolution: by default, Mount&Blade inherits the resolution and bit depth specified for Windows itself. If you want a different setting, select it here. Using a 16-bit mode will result in more washed-out visuals but can significantly improve performance.
Monitor Gamma: determines the gamma correction used for displaying the visuals. If your monitor has been configured correctly you should not need to change this. Note that this is not a brightness slider; while adjusting it will make some things show up better it will not affect all colors evenly.
Shadow Quality: how precisely game shadows will be drawn. Higher detail results in more lifelike shadows but also results in a performance hit on older systems.
Texture Detail: this determines the detail used for textures. The lower the setting the worse the graphics will look but the better the game will perform.
Grass Density: determine the volume of 3D grass used. Setting it to 0% will effectively disable all grass.
Character Detail: determine how detailed the character models are.
Character Shadow Detail: determine how detailed characters' shadows are.
Number of Corpses: determine how many corpses can be in the battle map at any one time. Corpses that exceed the maximum specified here will disappear, but their weapons will not.
Number of Rag Dolls: Mount&Blade uses the Newton Game Dynamics physics engine to create dynamic death animations. This setting determines how many characters can simultaneously have ragdoll deaths. Once characters have finished their ragdoll death animations they are no longer counted by the limit set here, so even with a low setting you can experience some ragdoll deaths for the duration of the battle.
Blood Stains: set when blood is shown, if at all. Showing blood at all times means enemies look bloodied even when far away, but this comes with a performance hit. This setting will have no effect if you have already disabled blood in the pre-game configuration.
Dynamic Lighting: determines whether lighting sources will affect the game world.
Character Shadows: toggles character shadows.
Environment Shadows: toggles environment shadows.
Realistic Shadows on Plants: determine what level of shadows plants will have.
Particle Systems: determines whether particle systems are used for some effects.
Anisotropic Filtering: determines whether anisotropic filtering is used to improve the appearance of textures seen in the distance.
Fast Water Reflections: by default, water reflections are handled in a simplified manner. Disabling this will result in more impressive water effects, but there may be a noticeable decrease in performance.
Estimated Performance: a rough estimate of the performance you will get with your chosen settings. The number adjusts as you change settings, so you can see the sort of performance hit each involves. This is only an estimate; your actual performance may vary.

[zagibu]

It's not about physics, it's about what my eyes see. If I play at 120 fps and then at 60 fps, I see the game stutter, it's slow, and the mouse is less responsive.

The problem is, that you don't see 120 fps, unless you have a monitor that has 120 Hz refresh rate. If you send 120 fps to a monitor with 60 Hz, you still only see 60 frames per second.

Now what has to be kept in mind is that fps is never constant (unless you play an older game on a top notch videocard, so that the videocard churns frames out so fast that the game becomes cpu-bound). But if you play at graphical settings, which yield 60 fps, this means that there will be situations where it will drop much below that. This is probably when you feel that the game stutters and when you feel the mouse is less responsive. Of course, if you have 120 fps at average, this means it has more room to go down and still be fluid.

[The_Bloody_Nine]

The problem is, that you don't see 120 fps, unless you have a monitor that has 120 Hz refresh rate. If you send 120 fps to a monitor with 60 Hz, you still only see 60 frames per second.

Now what has to be kept in mind is that fps is never constant (unless you play an older game on a top notch videocard, so that the videocard churns frames out so fast that the game becomes cpu-bound). But if you play at graphical settings, which yield 60 fps, this means that there will be situations where it will drop much below that. This is probably when you feel that the game stutters and when you feel the mouse is less responsive. Of course, if you have 120 fps at average, this means it has more room to go down and still be fluid.

vaguely right, but when I turn vsync on the reaction is constantly much slower and sluggish, its nothing happening at certain times. Without I have fps from around 120-300 depending on map and players (my CPU or even hard drive is probably the bottle neck, not Graphics Card).

My guess would be (I have no knowledge about these things) that despite the name v-sync it doesn't really synchronize the moment the monitor refreshes and frames are rendered, so both is happening 60 times per second but not at the same time. So when your monitor refreshes you get the image rendered a few miliseconds before. Sounds logical, eh? could be bullshit of course.

oh, and in my case forcing single threading drastically worsens performance, so this seems really depend on the used CPU.