Planetside 2: Increase your FPS

  Several of us gamers who still use older PCs struggle to get decent FPS(frames per second) in newer games, in my case I just don't have the finance to get a new CPU since it would also require me to buy a motherboard and because of that I'm stuck with my old dual core.

  Don't get me wrong I have no problems what so ever playing most games, as long as they are not  CPU intensive, the problem is that MMOs tend to require more CPU than GPU since its the CPU who deals with the number of players on the screen and what they are doing... unfortunately MMOs is most of what I play now a days so I had to find something that would improve my Planetside 2 frame rate without impacting my financial situation.

  Open your UserOptions.ini located in the game folder and change these values:
(for steam users: ...\Steam\steamapps\common\PlanetSide 2\)

[Rendering]
GraphicsQuality=2
TextureQuality=3
ShadowQuality=0
RenderDistance=-1.000000
Gamma=0.000000
MaximumFPS=40
UseLod0a=1
VSync=0
OverallQuality=-1
LightingQuality=0
FogShadowsEnable=0
EffectsQuality=0
TerrainQuality=0
FloraQuality=0
ModelQuality=0
ParticleLOD=0
MotionBlur=0

  This will give you the lowest settings possible(even lower then the one you can choose in-game), with the exception of the "graphicsquality=2" which is needed to be able to see stealthed infiltrators, otherwise they would just be completely invisible.


  The "RenderDistance" is -1 by default which means the game will select an appropriate range depending on its performance, if you change this value(I've read people talking about setting it to 10000) its should also increase your performance, the problem is that if you set it too low you may end up being shot from players who are not showing on your screen(mainly snipers and vehicles).

  Windows has the habit of parking some CPU cores and not always unparking them very effectively, this may(or may not) influence performance while gaming, this feature however can be disabled allowing your CPU to be ready for maximum performance all the time with the following program:

 instructions and download link

Warning:
  Unparking your CPU cores may(or may not) increase its heat generation, while not a problem for desktop PCs(unless you are having heat problem to begin with), notebooks/laptops usually suffer from airflow problems by design making them very susceptible to heat problems which may lead to reduced life expectancy of the overheated parts, so use it at your own risk.

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Planetside 2: Aircraft vs Anti-Air balance

  The balance between aircraft and anti-air has always been a problem during the beta. It has gone back and forward from aircraft being utterly useless because they were easily shot down by the anti-air to being completely overpowered with each major patch.

  In the latest pre-launch patch it felt it was close to the right soft spot, however there is a small oversight which most do not seem to realize. The balance was made based on the state of the game at that point:

• the developers gave a couple of thousands certificates due to rollbacks or other problems on 2-3 occasions.
• when we could still use auraxium(which was giving every 5 min based on the territory your faction controlled) to unlock stuff it was fairly easy to stay afk, come back from college and have enough to unlock a weapon.
• it was much easier to get certificates before the xp/cert ratio was severely reduced to 500:1. 

...meaning everyone had a huge number of unlocks and upgrades, and it was very common to see heavy assaults with AA lock-on missiles, MAXs with dual AA flacks, lighting-tanks with skyguard and other aircraft with AA guns and/or missiles.

  Now imagine how it will be on launch, the only AA you have by default is a MAX with a single flack or another aircraft, small-arms fire does so little dmg its not worth the ammo and it can even be further reduced by defense upgrades.

  You can say that "the ESFs(Empire Specific Fighters) wont have the air-2-ground rockets yet so it will be fine", sure but that only means you will be safer inside a tank even so the default main gunner weapon on the Liberator airship was buffed and it will shred through infantry and tanks alike.

  My advice to you is that you spend your first certificates on AA because the skies will be a major concern until there is enough AA to reach a balance, I for one plan to be up there on a Scythe or a Liberator wrecking havoc.

  What are your predictions about it?

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Planetside 2: beta keys

The last few weeks I've been playing Planetside 2 which is a large scale FPS game that's going to be released on the 20th of this month. Last weekend they added a large patch with lots of changes and content, so I received a few keys in the mail which want to share with the readers:

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One small step for gamers... one giant leap for me

Welcome to my blog, I'm a enthusiastic gamer who hops from game to game and who's experience taught that when people are hyped its hard to see the problems beyond the all the shininess, but once the hype is gone the game becomes black and white and we start to see things clearly.

After every game I play I begun looking back to the dozens of hours(possibly more) spent researching a game even before it launched now feels like a waste of time, which I'm sure every seasoned gamer has felt more than once.

No game is perfect nor do I expect them to be, however I like to talk about the flaws I find in games, from specific gameplay issues or bugs to design flaws. I may also do some tutorials/tips and some PROS and CONS of some in-game stuff that depending on the game can include things like skills, professions, weapons, etc.

Hope you enjoy reading my future posts.

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