Tips for peeps with lower-end computers!

[RobotLucca]

I made a guide that goes over things in greater detail, check it out:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=688160552

Some things may already be obvious:
- Turn graphics quality to low
- Use low-quality lighting: retro(white)/trippy(color)
- See if using multi-core lighting helps or hinders performance
- Enable autopause to increase performance on inventory screen

There's some interesting other things you can do, however:

If you are using a lower-end computer, then you will almost certainly notice frame skipping. This can be toggled using the Frame Skip option. Here's where things get interesting: enabling Frame Skip sacrifices smoothness for speed (highly recommended) whereas disabling it sacrifices speed for smoothness (does not affect sound, which is nice). For lower-end computers, disabling Frame Skip often induces a "slow-motion" effect where the game runs half (or more) as slow as before! This can be useful for bosses where every second counts (beware using this on multiplayer, however - I hypothesize weirdness).

If you are experiencing LAG SPIKES every few seconds, there is a VERY SIMPLE FIX that I didn't notice ANYWHERE ELSE I looked: DISABLE THE MAP. The lag spikes are because the game is periodically scanning every tile on the screen to update the map! So, enter the options from the title screen and turn that map off. Other "solutions" I saw out there mostly included the general options or even changing CPU priority - forget all that and just disable that darn map. Chances are, if the map is causing you to lag, you can't properly use the fullscreen map anyway.

I hope this helps some people or was a bit interesting. :-)

[\\ThatOneLamia]

If you lag on terraria... You need a new computer.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

I'd also like to say that turning down the resolution (& running in windowed) makes a very appreciable difference. I actually like to play Terraria on 800x600 window, crazy dingbat I am. :P


(Also, please write this up as a guide or it will get buried in the flood of PLS JOIN / IM BORED / WANNA KILL MOONLORD / I HAS LOOT COME GET, and this is actually quite useful - I have an extremely low-end laptop & might want to dig this up).

[SamiSha]

Create a guide than spamming the discussion.

[Yamaraja666]

Even the worst smartphones play Terraria without much lag. If your computer cannot run Terraria it is time for a new computer.

[RobotLucca]

Thank you @aidenpons for providing a reasonable and polite response with actual constructive criticism.

To the others who apparently either don't understand or love being rude:

There are people in this world who don't have the money for a new computer.
There are people in this world with laptops you can't customize.
There are people in this world with 128mb video cards.
There are people in this world who still use an old 2007 macbook pro (me).
Smartphones are optimized in different ways than desktops/laptops are, and have worse resolution than 800x600 (as well as being generally newer), so this is an invalid comparison IMHO.
-----------------------
Suggestions to make this a guide: Good idea, but don't be rude about it and calling this post "spam."
Suggestion about resolution: Good thing to mention, I've begun to adopt this, too.

[SamiSha]

Originally posted by thegamemaster1234:

Thank you @aidenpons for providing a reasonable and polite response with actual constructive criticism.

To the others who apparently either don't understand or love being rude:

There are people in this world who don't have the money for a new computer.
There are people in this world with laptops you can't customize.
There are people in this world with 128mb video cards.
There are people in this world who still use an old 2007 macbook pro (me).
Smartphones are optimized in different ways than desktops/laptops are, and have worse resolution than 800x600 (as well as being generally newer), so this is an invalid comparison IMHO.
-----------------------
Suggestions to make this a guide: Good idea, but don't be rude about it and calling this post "spam."
Suggestion about resolution: Good thing to mention, I've begun to adopt this, too.

Originally posted by SamiSha #Awayfor1MonthsRN:

Create a guide than spamming the discussion.

[\\ThatOneLamia]

Let me put it like this
If you dont have money for a new computer, Dont waist it on a game that could run on a rusty potato.
Like really... Steam tells you if you can run it or not ignoiring that is pure stupid.

[RobotLucca]

@SamiSha: I'm not quite so sure what your goal in reposting your post is. I saw it, and I found it to be rather rude. aidenpons said the same thing in a much nicer tone/wording.

@\\ThatOneLamia: That is not the point of this post. The point of this post is to help those whose computers fall nearer to the minimum specs than the optimal specs. Just because you have to turn down the settings to play the game at a reasonable speed does not mean it is unplayable.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by thegamemaster1234:

There are people in this world who still use an old 2007 macbook pro (me).

HAH, I beat you - I have a 2006 Vista.

(Why am I proud of this? :P)



(That's my laptop & I use my desktop for anything that needs any grunt. I'm not deprived. :P)

Oh, and can you link me the guide if/when it's completed?

[RobotLucca]

Originally posted by Sir Buttershoes:

>2008, quadcore premade with 4 gigs, runs with no frame drops.

You use mac, that's why you have lag.

No, my computer has a DUAL CORE. Yours has a QUAD CORE, and possibly a better video card, which makes it much better. I doubt that the operating system matters here.

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Originally posted by thegamemaster1234:

There are people in this world who still use an old 2007 macbook pro (me).

HAH, I beat you - I have a 2006 Vista.

(Why am I proud of this? :P)



(That's my laptop & I use my desktop for anything that needs any grunt. I'm not deprived. :P)

Oh, and can you link me the guide if/when it's completed?

Old computer users unite! Mine doesn't even have a battery anymore and I'm still trucking!
Sure, I can give you a link if/when I make the guide :P

Also, I found another interesting tip:
After playing a while in singleplayer, I find that the world slowly gets laggier and laggier, possibly due to all the items lying about that the game is keeping track of. Exiting and re-entering the world clears those and improves framerate yet again ;-)

[DragomirKingsman]

Originally posted by Sir Buttershoes:

Who would have lag on Terraria, somebody with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ room-sized circa 1970 computer? It's a pixellated 2d game, ffs.

I do sometimes.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by thegamemaster1234:

Old computer users unite! Mine doesn't even have a battery anymore and I'm still trucking!
Sure, I can give you a link if/when I make the guide :P

Also, I found another interesting tip:
After playing a while in singleplayer, I find that the world slowly gets laggier and laggier, possibly due to all the items lying about that the game is keeping track of. Exiting and re-entering the world clears those and improves framerate yet again ;-)

Hmm. I noticed in 1.2.4.1 with the terrible water physics keeping a world loaded & playing for... about five hours... would cause the water physics to bug REALLY badly.



If you don't mind, I might write this up as a guide on the Terraria wiki: http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Terraria_Wiki:Projects/Guides That way it'll never be buried, as this is some seriously useful information.

[just.nuke.em]

Originally posted by thegamemaster1234:

Thank you @aidenpons for providing a reasonable and polite response with actual constructive criticism.

To the others who apparently either don't understand or love being rude:

There are people in this world who don't have the money for a new computer.
There are people in this world with laptops you can't customize.
There are people in this world with 128mb video cards.
There are people in this world who still use an old 2007 macbook pro (me).
Smartphones are optimized in different ways than desktops/laptops are, and have worse resolution than 800x600 (as well as being generally newer), so this is an invalid comparison IMHO.
-----------------------
Suggestions to make this a guide: Good idea, but don't be rude about it and calling this post "spam."
Suggestion about resolution: Good thing to mention, I've begun to adopt this, too.

Maybe you should focus on improving your status that playing games.

[sega dreamcast]

In singleplayer I run terraria fine 60fps with max
But on multiplayer my frames drop to about 10frames , I tried to turn down settings , still the same frames , been having this issue since 1.3 , hope they fix it in 1.3.1

[NIKFS]

There may be other Things hindering Performance, i got a Intel core2duo and no dedicated gfx card (using the intel Gma x4500 on the chip) and the game runs with 60 fps in 1280x720... and i played it somewhere already on an netbook with an INtel atom with 2x 1.6 ghz and an intel gma something and only1gb of ram and it worked fine...