Got FPS issues? Try this.

[Caz]

I'm seeing a lot of people with specs above the recommended that are having FPS issues. I was, too (still am, to a point). The game doesn't appear to be optimized properly yet. Another issue I was having, after extended play times (6+ hours), my physical memory usage was insanely high.

So I went into the settings and I turned a few things down.

Anti-Aiasing - I like smooth edges, too, but AA seems to be a common setting that devs don't optimize. Turning this down, or off, can smooth FPS at the cost of having jagged edges. To be honest, though, I don't really notice it all that much, which is rare for me.

Shadow Quality - As an experiment, I turned this all the way down to Low, hopped into my world with over 13k population and saw a respectable 5-7 FPS jump. And I'm still trying to figure out what's changed with the shadows because they look damn near the same.

Post-Processing - Another feature like AA that devs often poorly optimize. Turned this to low and saw my Physical Memory usage drop by over 1500MB. And I honestly don't see any significant difference in the visual quality.

Lighting Quality - I have no idea what this changed when I switched from Very High to Low. The lighting looks the same. And yet it dropped my PhysMem usage and boosted my FPS.

Feedback Quality - "Defines the amount of people shown on your streets". I want so badly to keep this at Ultra High, but all those people on the street kills both FPS and PhysMem. Turning this to Low was probably the biggest boost to both of those for me. And it's also the one setting that makes me cry when I turn it down. :(

I haven't played with the others yet, but based on experience over the years, anything dealing with Textures will result in some of your larger changes in FPS and PhysMem usage. But these are also the most noticeable in regards to visual quality. I always try to leave those as high as possible unless I absolutely must touch them.

I hope this helps some people.

[k4Qu]

good for you that you cant differentiate low to high settings :) for me i could tell the difference between all levels of detail. and yeah,.. guess what turning graphics to low will boost your fps, people dont wanna have a game looking worse than the previous 3 annos. you dont own a 2k $ pc to run a game on low settings to get tolerable fps.

[FredDie]

FYI textures do not really affect FPS if your gpu has enough VRAM...unlike shadows and AA that indeed affect FPS directly a lot.

[[lol] Jokurino]

And as you know, try this. https://steamcommunity.com/app/916440/discussions/1/1680315447966602770/

[morph113]

Originally posted by Caz:

Anti-Aiasing - I like smooth edges, too, but AA seems to be a common setting that devs don't optimize.

Has not much to do with optimization. The game uses MSAA which a type of supersampling and not to be confused with post-processing AA methods like FXAA or SMAA which have very little performance impact. I wish developers would give us the option to pick between different types of AA like you can in GTA V or some other games. MSAA is just so taxing on the hardware, it's often not worth it unless you have high end hardware, especially 8x MSAA often kills the fps.

By the way, I noticed that water quality also has a big impact on performance (at least on my system). On high it has all the reflections, but on low it only reflects some of the island but no ships or buildings. It does look worse but it can save 10-15 fps which is pretty big.

[Caz]

Originally posted by k4Qu:

good for you that you cant differentiate low to high settings :) for me i could tell the difference between all levels of detail. and yeah,.. guess what turning graphics to low will boost your fps, people dont wanna have a game looking worse than the previous 3 annos. you dont own a 2k $ pc to run a game on low settings to get tolerable fps.

Do you make it a habit to be negative and insulting whenever someone is trying to help others?

Originally posted by FredDie:

FYI textures do not really affect FPS if your gpu has enough VRAM...unlike shadows and AA that indeed affect FPS directly a lot.

Fair point. Probably less impactful in Anno 1800 than in a game like Metro Exodus.

Originally posted by Jokurino Poloski:

And as you know, try this. https://steamcommunity.com/app/916440/discussions/1/1680315447966602770/

Online versus Offline has never had any measurable impact on my FPS or PhysMem, in any game. I know that's personal experience, though. If this works for someone, absolutely do it.

[Caz]

Originally posted by morph113:

Originally posted by Caz:

Anti-Aiasing - I like smooth edges, too, but AA seems to be a common setting that devs don't optimize.

Has not much to do with optimization. The game uses MSAA which a type of supersampling and not to be confused with post-processing AA methods like FXAA or SMAA which have very little performance impact. I wish developers would give us the option to pick between different types of AA like you can in GTA V or some other games. MSAA is just so taxing on the hardware, it's often not worth it unless you have high end hardware, especially 8x MSAA often kills the fps.

By the way, I noticed that water quality also has a big impact on performance (at least on my system). On high it has all the reflections, but on low it only reflects some of the island but no ships or buildings. It does look worse but it can save 10-15 fps which is pretty big.

That explains why I saw such a significant change when I turned AA off. I didn't know they were using MSAA. I agree, they should let us choose which we want. Whenever I'm trying to tweak my FPS to get that last little bit, I always start by dropping MSAA if I have the choice.
Funny story, back in 2005, the AA Lineage 2 used bricked my GFX card. I hadn't used it for months and decided to try it out and ... 30 minutes later my GFX card fried. It was less than a year old. lol

I've been avoiding changing the texture settings. I always love the water in games like this.