FPS BOOST TUTORIAL

This is a guide to help ETS2 players get the most out of their computer when dealing with this game's significant performance problems and issues.

It was created and improved over many months on the ETS2 forums.

If you find it useful, please hit the thumbs up button to help other people find it.

Introduction

This guide is meant to be simple and clean so I would love to get some feedback.

ETS2 is a demanding game for various reasons. I hope that the following guide will get you the best performance out of the game so that we can all focus on enjoying our trips around the Europe.

1) Validate your game files

First things first. You're reading this guide because you want to play ETS2, so let's make sure none of your game files are corrupted or missing.

1. Open your Steam games library
   
   
2. Right-click on Euro Truck Simulator 2
   
   
3. Select Properties
   
   
4. Click on the LOCAL FILES tab
   
   
5. Click on VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME CACHE
   
   
6. Press CLOSE once the validation process is finished. You will be told whether any files had to be reacquired or not.

2) Optimizing Windows perfomance

Here are some tips to help you optimize Windows for faster performance:

--2.1) Update Graphics Driver

Let's start this guide off by updating our drivers.

NVidia users: Nvidia Drivers[www.geforce.com]

AMD users: AMD Drivers[support.amd.com]

Intel HD users: Intel Drivers[www.intel.com]

--2.2) Delete programs you never use

Many PC manufacturers pack new computers with programs you didn't order and might not want. These often include trial editions and limited-edition versions of programs that software companies hope you'll try, find useful, and then pay to upgrade to full versions or newer versions. If you decide you don't want them, keeping the software on your computer might slow it down by using precious memory, disk space, and processing power.

It's a good idea to uninstall all the programs you don't plan to use. This should include both manufacturer-installed software and software you installed yourself but don't want any more—especially utility programs designed to help manage and tune your computer's hardware and software. Utility programs such as virus scanners, disk cleaners, and backup tools often run automatically at startup, quietly chugging along in the background where you can't see them. Many people have no idea they're even running.

Even if your PC is older, it might contain manufacturer-installed programs that you never noticed or have since forgotten about. It's never too late to remove these and get rid of the clutter and wasted system resources. Maybe you thought you might use the software someday, but never did. Uninstall it and see if your PC runs faster.

--2.3) Disabling startup programs and services

Many programs are designed to start automatically when Windows starts. Software manufacturers often set their programs to open in the background, where you can't see them running, so they'll open right away when you click their icons. That's helpful for programs you use a lot, but for programs you rarely or never use, this wastes precious memory and slows down the time it takes Windows to finish starting up.

Decide for yourself if you want a program to run at startup.

But how can you tell what programs run automatically at startup? Sometimes this is obvious, because the program adds an icon to the notification area on the taskbar, where you can see it running. Look there to see if there are any programs running that you don’t want to start automatically. Point to each icon to see the program name. Be sure to click the Show hidden icons button so you don't miss any icons.

Even after you check the notification area, you might still miss some programs that run automatically at startup.

To see which programs you have on startup, follow these steps:

For Windows 8 and later:

1. Right-click on your taskbar
   
   
2. Select Task Manager
   
   
3. Click on Start-up tab
   
   
4. Check what programs are listed. Windows will rate their Start-up impact for you
   
   
5. Right-click to disable unnecessary programs

Windows 7 and earlier:

1. Go to Start
   
   
2. Type msconfig and press Enter
   
   
3. Go to Startup tab
   
   
4. Check what programs are listed and disable as required

Also, disable unnecessary services in services tab which is in msconfig. I advise you to hide all microsoft services so you don't disable something important for your PC.



Note: Avoid disabling important stuff like graphic or audio drivers. Programs such as Apple and Adobe products can typically be disabled. If in doubt, Google is your friend :).

--2.4) Defragment your hard disk

Defragmenting sorts your files into a more intuitive order for mechanical hard drives so that the needle doesn’t have to jump around as much, which can reduce loading speeds.
You should only do this if you are running Windows and your game off of traditional mechanical hard drives. If you are using an SSD, do not attempt to defragment it. Your loading performance will already be excellent and defragmenting will only reduce your drives lifespan to no benefit.

Steps may vary slightly between different versions of Windows, but should be obvious.

1. Go to Computer/This PC
   
   
2. Right-click on C:
   
   
3. Select Properties
   
   
4. Click on the Tools tab
   
   
5. Under Optimise and defragment drive press Optimise (Windows 8 and later)
   
   
6. Select the appropriate drive and click on Optimise. This may take a while but can be stopped and resumed freely.

--2.5) Power options

Open Windows start menu, search "Power Options" and press enter. Select "High Performance" power plan in the window that just opened.



If you are using laptop make sure it is plugged into power outlet, don't play on laptop's battery.

--2.6) Check for viruses and spyware

If your PC is running slowly, it's possible that it's infected with a virus or spyware. This is not as common as the other problems, but it's something to consider. Before you worry too much, check your PC using antispyware and antivirus programs.

A common symptom of a virus is a much slower-than-normal computer performance. Other signs include unexpected messages that pop up on your PC, programs that start automatically, or the sound of your hard disk constantly working.

Spyware is a type of program that's installed, usually without your knowledge, to watch your activity on the Internet. You can check for spyware with Windows Defender or other antispyware programs.

There is a great tool for this called Malwarebytes[www.malwarebytes.com]. Just click on FREE VERSION DOWNLOAD.

Personally, I don't use any antivirus because I don't download stuff from suspicious web pages and because antivirus eats lots of your RAM and CPU, making your PC slower. Btw, you have Windows Defender built-in so it's not really necessary to have 2 antivirus programs.

Also make sure you download CCleaner[www.ccleaner.com] to clean all your junk files and unnecessary registry files.

--2.7) Turn off visual effects

If Windows is running slowly, you can speed it up by disabling some of its visual effects. It comes down to appearance versus performance. Would you rather have Windows run faster or look prettier? If your PC is fast enough, you don't have to make this tradeoff, but if your computer is just barely powerful enough, it can be useful to scale back on the visual bells and whistles.

To disable visual effects, follow these steps:

Open Windows start menu, search "Advanced system settings" and press enter. Click on Settings button under "Performance" and choose "Adjust for best performance" in the window that just opened.

3) Tweaking graphic cards

Since I'm not some expert in tweaking graphic cards settings, I'm sharing here sources that I found helpful, and sources based on other people's recommendation.

--3.1) NVidia

Huge thanks to BenganJ. He helped many of NVidia users to boost fps, including me, so this tutorial right here is perfect for us NVidia owners

https://roextended.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1000

--3.2) AMD

Since I don't have an AMD gpu, I think this video is great for AMD owners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1N4vV5BSoI&ab_channel=Panjno

--3.3) IntelHD

I think this video is great for IntelHD owners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6URglI6mi1k&ab_channel=Trimors

4) Launch options

Before we start gaming, we need to set our launch options.

1. Go to your Library and right click Euro Truck Simulator 2.
   
   
2. Click on Properties and you should have a new window like this:
   
   
   
   
3. Click on Set launch options and write following lines:
   
   

   -nointro -homedir "D:\ETS2" -unlimitedlog -mm_pool_size 4000 -mm_max_resource_size 32 -mm_max_tmp_buffers_size 1000

   Make sure you put a space between them.
   
   

   So what do they do?

   
   -nointro
   
   -homedir "D:\ETS2"
   
   

   If the game and the save file locations are on different hard drives, like mine were. Saves were in Documents folder on my C Drive and my game was installed on my D drive. If the saves are located on the same hard drive, things just run smoother. There are a lot of files being written to that folder in Documents besides saves (eg. mods) , so it's best if everything is on the same hard drive.

   A folder "Euro Truck Simulator 2" will be created inside the folder named by the -homedir command, that folder will contain everything that would have been in a standard ETS2 folder (in the Documents folder) on the C drive. The standard folder on the C drive can be copied to your new location (to replace any files that may be there) to copy over your current profile and savegames and the original standard folder on the C drive can be deleted.

   Put the -homedir command in the launch options.
   Run the game, this starts a new game, create a (dummy) profile and so on.
   Quit the game.
   Find the new ETS2 folder. From the example above:
   D:\ETS2\Euro Truck Simulator 2
   Copy your standard ETS2 folder from C drive and all its contents to the new ETS2 folder overwriting existing files.
   Run the game again, you should now see your current savegames.
   
   It might be best to make a backup of the original standard ETS2 folder. If you were to remove the -homedir command the game would automatically recreate the standard folder on the C drive but of course it would have none of your current progress in it.

   
   -unlimitedlog
   
   -mm_pool_size 4000 => Size of the general pool of resources memory area. Max. 1/2 of total memory.
   
   -mm_max_resource_size 32 => Resource loading buffer size. Default = 22MB, max. 100MB.
   
   -mm_max_tmp_buffers_size 1000 => Maximum temporary memory buffer area. Default = 112MB, max. 1000MB.
   
   After setting launch options we can start our game.
   When we start it, we get new window asking us how to launch the game.
   
   
   
   When your using Windows, it's recommend to run the game in DirectX. There's no reason to use OpenGL on Windows.
   
   OpenGL is there for MacOS and Linux users, since they can't use DirectX.
   Sure you can run OpenGL on Windows too, but DirectX mode is far more suitable for Windows.

5) FPS tweaks

I wont disable everything because we want to have nice graphics and nice perfomance at the same time .

Firstly, lets enable FPS counter. To do so, simpy go to Steam settings => In-Game => set FPS counter in top left corner or wherever you like it. Also, mark High contrast color box so that we can see our FPS more clearly.

OK, now we are ready for tweaking.

1. Go to advanced graphic settings and disable Antialiasing (MLAA). I got pretty good FPS boost when I disabled this and I don't even see any difference while it was turned on. It actually seems like better graphics without it.

2. Now disable Vegetation detail and Grass density because these two settings are the real FPS killers. Personally, I don't really care about some trees or grass quality as it affects my perfomance. I can enjoy in environment without them as long as it makes my driving smoother.

3. One of the biggest problems for me were the "Shadows", even when I had them set to minimum from the in-game settings.
If you don't really care about shadows my recommendation is:
Go to Documents, and then open config.cfg

Change following lines:

uset r_cloud_shadows "0"
uset r_fake_shadows "0"
uset r_sun_shadow_texture_size "0"
uset r_sun_shadow_quality "0"

4. Lowering Mirrors settings has major impact on FPS, so I recommend setting these on Low.

5. See which mods you use. Maybe graphics, weather and traffic mods are your problem. If the game runs much better without them, then you have a problem with the mods.
If you do not have a powerful computer, do not load too many mods. Test each mod, if you have FPS drops it means something is wrong with that mod.

Don't forget that you have to test each value.

6) Graphic settings

Fullscreen mode

=>Run your game in fullscreen or windowed. No impact on performance.

Brightness

=> Really?

Resolution

=> The bigger the number, the better the image quality is and vice-versa.

Refresh Rate

=> Default refresh

Vertical synchronization

=> DISABLED
Disabled for no FPS Limiting.
Enabled for locking your max FPS to your monitor refresh rate.
Economy for locking your max FPS to half of your monitor refresh rate.

Scaling

=> 100% the image is rendered at the Resolution you have chosen above. Under 100% will gain FPS but make the image very blurry and going above 100% will lose FPS.

Antialiasing (SMAA)

=> DISABLED

Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO)

=> DISABLED

High Dynamic range (HDR)

=> ON
Here you need to test, sometimes OFF is better, but you lose in quality, and game become too "dark" (less effects, all climates, days, ... seems to be the same, game become boring)

Depth of field (DOF)

=> ON
On is not that noticeable. OFF will gain a few FPS.

Sunshafts

=> ON
Does not really impact performance.

Color enhancement

=> ON
Does not impact performance.

Reflection detail

=> MEDIUM
Medium for a good balance between quality and performance. High if you can afford the FPS drop, Low is not really recommended.

Vegetation detail

=> LOW
Grass and trees quality. Medium for a good balance. Low for FPS.

Grass density

=> DISABLED
Biggest FPS killer

Shadow quality

=> DISABLED

Shadow texture size

=> CUSTOM
Is "Custom" because you set in config.cfg file to "0", with Low setting have "2048"

Weather quality

=> MEDIUM
In case you see your FPS drop too much while it is raining (IN-GAME) Lower this option.

Mirror quality

=> LOW

Mirror distance

=> LOW
These two mirror settings are with major impact on fps. Lower them for great boost.

Texture quality

=> HIGH
This kills FPS, but between High and Medium there is no real FPS gain. Low is just too much of a quality compromise.

Anistropic filtering

=> 100% as it does not affect performance.

Normal Maps

=> ON
Improves image quality.

Traffic headlights

=> ON
You need this ON to see other vehicles at night.

Secondary vehicle lights

=> ON
More lights for your truck

Light visibility ranges

=> MEDIUM
High to see further, Medium works too, but low is just too low.

Pedestrians

=> OFF for the FPS gain, you can't run them over anyway.

7) ETS2 Multiplayer FPS tweaks

Since I don't play MP, and many of you asked me for some MP tweaks, here are some I copied from ETS2 MP forums.

On the login screen at the start of booting up the multiplayer mod there is a wrench icon at the top left, click on that.
You will then be presented with the window below, if you click on Graphics you will be able to disable things that can cause performance loss.
The main ones (indicated by arrows) are the shadows and the draw distance, you can edit these here to your liking.
The bottom image, (the first tab) General, has some more things that you can disable to increase performance, as you can see the ones that increase performance are circled in red.



Note: Disabling Seasonal effects can also increase performance.
Note: When in high population areas your fps will drop but when in low population areas you should have a normal FPS.

8) Laptop users with overheating problems

Since I'm laptop user, I experienced crazy overheating while gaming. I decided to track my CPU and GPU temperature by MSI Afterburner[www.msi.com]. Here is video on how to set Afterburner to capture CPU and GPU temperatures as well as framerates of the game.

https://youtu.be/u9WGjdtkYls

If you are having same problems, watch this tutorial and you will be relieved. It reduced my laptops CPU temperature from 95°C to 75°C.

https://youtu.be/vfIxf73RGEg

Also undervolt your GPU if your GPUs temperature is high. I'm using GTX1050ti and my temperature is same as CPUs thanks to this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO50uMU7L-E&t=442s

Note: Please do some bigger research about undervolting your GPU because there are many GPU versions and they all use different settings. Don't do anything without understanding what each setting does since doing something wrong may harm your graphic card.

The end

Well, thats it guys. I hope I helped you to get the best perfomance out of this beautiful game so that we can enjoy even more our long trips on European roads.

It took me a lot of time to collect and write all of these informations so if you have any information that I didn't mention and you find helpful, please write down in comments.

Don't forget to rate and share this guide so more people can see it and maybe it helps in solving their problems.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any difficulties with this guide.

[KoJesko]

Great i messed up formatting

[KoJesko]

<b>READ THIS COMMENT IF YOU HAVE GOOD COOLING OR A STOCK UNDERCLOCKED CPU MADE WITHIN THE LAST 5 GENERATIONS (Basically every CPU in that timeframe)</b>

Intel and AMD have released new technologies to help us work and play efficiently as time has gone on. These technologies, however, are hidden from the user, and some save battery over maximum performancee. An easy way to access them is with a technicians tool called QuickCPU by CoderBag. It can be downloaded at this link [coderbag.com]

Before you download the program, read everything on the homepage. It has very important info for what you will do.

You will need to access the Ultimate Performance Power Plan. It is only accessible with this program. High Performance is a legacy plan. It uses fixed settings.

If you have an intel processor, you can also make it run at <b>HIGHEST CLOCK</b> nonstop. Change your speedstep settings if you can. Look up how to do this as it may vary by your CPU.

[tonesnaps]

THIS!

actually, help me get into the 100s. I put the mirrors to medium as well as grass and vegetation. the scaling to 200 and the anti-aliasing and SSAO disabled. game some how looks better and I'm getting better frames.

[nextest]

Useless, unhelpful guide.

[Joko_P]

Additional tips, you can use "g_mode <width> <height> <refresh rate> <fullscreen mode>" to get custom resolution

For example, if I type "g_mode 640 360 60 1" this will set the game resolution to 640x360, 60hz refresh rate, and fullscreen on. If you wanna windowed, just change from 1 to 0.

Keep in mind, you need to do this in pause screen, don't do it while driving. If you do it while driving, you can't unpause the game (you have to force quit by typing "quit" in console)

You also need to be careful with what you input as the resolution. Because I once accidentally set it to "g_mode 128 720 60 1", notice I put 128 in width. This makes the game stretches and I can't see shit. I just retyped the command again with correct resolution. But if you close the console or failed to reset the resolution, you can try change it back in config.cfg in Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2 folder

[The Spartan]

Completely useless guide.

[GeChan]

iirc, fullscreen is always better than windowed, because its focusing on the game, rather than other apps, so you get a huge peformance boost, based on my experience. cmiiw

[Flashqa]

tl;dr set everything to low and enjoy playing on your potato. useless "guide". if your pc can't handle a decade old game, something's wrong xD

[AmbassadorLaZer]

BleachBit is a pretty good cleaning app too, maybe better than Glary Utilities 5 imo.

[V1rusX]

I recommend instead of using CCleaner which was exposed a long time ago for bad things and also it is very limited if you use free version.
Instead use Glary Utilities 5, its the best software out there