High Performance Mode

[ocean pollen]

Copied entirely from this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/4im9q2/how_i_improved_my_framerate_by_40_fps/

Hi

I have a terrible computer (below the minimum requirements I believe), running at 18 fps in galaxy mode at the very beginning of the game, with 600 stars and 17 AI , so I was looking for ways to improve the performances.

My specs are: Arch Linux, Intel Core i3-5005U CPU @ 2.00GHz (2 core), Intel HD Graphics 5500

There's a console in-game that allows you to use commands, they can be used for debugging, cheating, or tweaking graphics. To open it, press ~ on a QWERTY keyboard (the key on the left of 1), or ² on AZERTY. You can press up and down to scroll through the console's history, and tab to autocomplete

You can't use the console in ironman or multiplayer, so you need to open the console in the main menu and input the commands there, before starting the game.

So anyway, here's a list of commands I found useful to improve my framerate. Open the console, type them and press enter:

help : show available commands and variables. Commands are followed by [], variables aren't
info : show debug info

bloom : turn on/off bloom. I gain around 15 fps with it off in the galaxy map

tweakergui [variable_name] : opens a window with a checkbox that allows you to switch a variable on and off. You can open multiple windows with different variables and move them around, and have a single window with multiple variables (like tweakergui variable_name1 variable_name2 variable_name3 etc.)

tweakergui draw.dust : display a checkbox that allows you to turn off all dust, by doing this I gained 40 FPS (!) in galaxy mode, going from 18 fps to 58 fps. After disabling the dust you need to enable the borders mesh with tweakergui borders.usemesh to be able to see the countries borders. The galaxy map looks like this after these commands

tweakergui draw.objects : turns off the drawing of all 3d objects in star system mode, this could be useful in large battles if your computer can't keep up

If you find yourself having to type the same commands in the console every time you launch Stellaris, you can make a script and run it instead:

Create a text file in the game's folder (Steam/steamapps/common/Stellaris/), I call it "fix.txt". It'll contain all the commands you want, like this
From Stellaris, open the console and type run fix.txt

I hope this is useful for other players with potato computer. If you find other ways to improve framerate, please share them :)

More from that thread: This doesn't interfere with achievements, and the modifications go away when you leave the game. The console is documented (well, there's a lot of TODO atm.) at the wiki: http://www.stellariswiki.com/Console_commands

Even if you can play the game fine, you might appreciate this as a way to cool your laptop off a bit.

EDIT: of course this is about graphical performance, only. If you're getting 'stuttering' this isn't going to help. just wait for the patch.

[Satoru]

I'll be interesting to try out on my ultrabook and see how it performs.

Edit: wow just those 2 tweaks really do make a 2-3x difference in the galaxy map

[Schoolboy]

Also try this:

C:\Users\YOURNAME\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\settings.txt


shadowSize=2048 <<set this as low as you want
maxanisotropy=16 <<set this as low as you want

I change both mines to 0 and i get 15-20fps (normal speed) in epic battle with 100k ships and 50-60 fps in galaxy map mode

[Hurodrik]

OP, apparently the autor of the reddit post already placed a copy of it in the guides section.

[Arukoru]

Wow someone is using a more fossiled PC/Laptop than me, and mine is melting xD

*Salutes the Poster* Good Luck!

[Hugh]

Why didn't they put bloom, dust and shadow controls in the normal video settings? I hate simplified graphics menus. I often need them to make games run well.

[scott.rossi]

just FYI this is out of date. the borders.usemesh command is no longer working in console.