(OLD/Probably Obsolete!) Flying With a Toaster - Running War Thunder on Terrible Computers.

(OLD/Probably Obsolete!) This guide explains how to run War Thunder on the absolute minimum graphics possible via modifying the config.blk file, for people who have horrible computers like myself, (or those who want a challenge when landing...) This pushes the graphics below what is normally possible in the Launcher Settings.

Introduction

Note: This guide is old and likely obsolete. Some things may still work, but most of these options were placed within the game as changeable as well, so the setting values may force back to what the game wants as 'minimum'. I also upgraded my PC and thus can't test this as I did before. With the CDK out, it may be possible to forcibly make some parts of the game lower resolution, but I have little experience with this.

So, I know that a lot of people (such as myself) don't have good computers.
I started playing War Thunder in March of 2013, and back then I could run the game decently on the minimum settings, but I took a break from it in the summer til about October the same year. Upon returning, I found that the game's performance on my computer had dropped to unplayable levels. I looked around for solutions, and discovered that War Thunder has a Configuration file that handles the graphics settings.

I started messing with it, and was able to get the game to a playable level for myself.

So, let me just list some of my system specs:

OS: Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0GHz Single-Core)
Ram: 2GB
Graphics Card: nVidea GeForce 7950 GT

My computer is from 2006 or so. If your computer is worse than this, I can't guarantee this will work for you - the game is playable for me, but it is NOT at a perfect FPS, and my graphics card was decent at the time.

So, all that considered, let's start.

Setting your launcher to minimum (should be enough for most people)

First, you'll want to open your launcher like normal.

Check the area in the red box at the top.
The resolution should be as low as you are comfortable playing at. Below that one the screen just got too cramped for me, up to you.

Vsync will vary whether it increases performance from person to person. On some computers it prevents the framerate from fluctuating widly, while on other it just slows the game.

Turning off the sound can be a last-ditch effort to improve performance. I don't reccomend it unless absolutely necessary, as the game has numerous sounds that are important (engine stalling, speed getting too high, people shooting at you with stealth ammo, etc.) This is moreso on Simulator Battles.

What you're really in this part for is that gear symbol. That opens the Graphics/Video options.



So, clicking that brings that pane up. You want to uncheck all the stuff on the right that's pointed out, and turn the indicated stuff on the left to Low and Off. Finally, check the "Old Videocards Support" box.

At this point, try running the game and playing a match. If it's still bad, continue to the next section.

Editing your config.blk file (advanced graphic tweaking)

Just so this is here off the bat:

MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR CONFIG FILE BEFORE EDITING IT

Right, now that that's out of the way, assuming you're using War Thunder installed through steam, and the previous section didn't work well enough for you, you need to go to your War Thunder installation directory. This is the "/steamapps/common/War Thunder" folder. The steamapps is usually in your Steam directory, if you don't know where that is:

Find the shortcut to launch steam (either on your desktop or start menu)
Right click on it
Select "Properties"
Click "Find Target"

It should lead you to the correct folder, navigate to the War Thunder folder from there.



First, I'd advise making a seperate folder and copy-pasting the config.blk file into there (such as the OLDCONFIGS folder in the screenshot.)

Next, right click on the config.blk file, and open it with Notepad (an editor made for programming such as Sublime Text or Notepad++ works better, but that's beyond the scope of this guide. If you have it, use it)

You'll see a bunch of code. What we're going to change are a few lines of it.
The first line should read:
forcedLauncher:i=0

If the i=0 in this line says i=1 then you need to change it to a 0.

Next, under the video block in line 16 (count if you are using notepad, the first line is line 1 and blank lines DO count) you should see:
disableFlipEx:b=no

Change that 'no' to a 'yes.'
EDITED: Disregard that, that actually slows it down. See below for a better option!

The last step is a large one.
The graphics block is what we're mostly going to change. These are the MINIMUM settings I was able to fille the game to get to, so if you want them a little higher, anything that has a setting of r= requires a decimal from 0.1 to 1, and anythign that says i= requires a whole number. For i= do note that lower numbers are not always 'worse' graphics.'

The setting you should set them to are such:
UPDATE: Some of the numbers have changed, as setting them below their minimum values causes them to behave strangely! Setting Anisotropy to 0 actually decreases performance! There was also another setting added, please update your config files! This actually improves performance so much that I can tweak mine a little bit above minimum now.
graphics{
advancedShore:b=no
cloudsTexDiv:i=8
enemiesQuality:t="low"
waterReflectionTexDiv:i=16
clipmapScale:r=0.1
highQualityModels:b=no
backgroundScale:r=0.1
rendinstDistMul:r=0.1
lenseFlares:b=no
grassRadiusMul:r=0.1
shadowQuality:t="low"
texquality:t="low"
anisotropy:i=1
numCloudLayers:i=2
fxTexScale:r=0.1
lastClipSize:i=4096
landquality:i=0
fxDensityMul:r=0.1
}

You can try to copy/paste this, just make sure that you overwrite what's already there by selecting the section above, and then paste while it's selected. Make sure that curly bracket at the end is there, as well as the blank lines both before and after.

EDITED: You want to now change Line 70, under directex{ (after the download{ block)
Change or make sure the following is as it is in yours:
d3d9ex:b=no

Once this is all done, save, then make a copy of the edited file, rename it, and put it somewhere safe.

Finally, run war thunder by opening it via aces.exe NOT the launcher. You can set up a custom shortcut to this. I'm uncertain if you can configure it so steam registers your 'hours played' when doing this, but at least you can play at all!

The End Result of All This

First, upon launching the game you'll get a popup asking if you want to run the launcher. Click 'no' (unless it's patch day, but you'll need to fix your settings and config.blk file again afterwards.)

Effects this has on the game:
Positive: Improved framerate and performance
Negative: Everything EXCEPT the planes will look terrible, and you won't be able to see trees and buildings unless you're VERY close.

Some screenshots from a test flight are below so you know what to expect.

2 shots demonstrating how the ground clutter just sort of ghosts into existance:


It also disappears behind you as you go to far away from it.

This is not horizontal only, if you're too high up, the world will look like empty hills and plains of dirt and grass, as demonstrated below:

Safe to land here?

NOPE

For Simulator Battles, or those who just like it, the pilot view is still readable, butyou may have to zoom in for some.

Final Words

I hope this guide has helped you out, if there's anything that's unclear or that you don't understand, please leave a comment below and I'll see if there's something I can do to address it.

Have fun in the sky! (And soon, on the ground!)

[Octoberfest]

you can change resolution to 978 x 648 its minimum resolution just on monitor with 16:9 I dont know what is minimum resolution on 4:3,16:10,... just find resolution:t= and change it it will look like this resolution:t="978 x 648"

[Tote]

just put it on minimum Buster

[| BusteR |]

I cant select old video card support please help

[Torção Testicular]

you should atualize this post is rly rly rly useful

[Ted Goonski]

You know you can just set the file to read only and run it by the steam launcher right?

[Buho]

Aces.exe =/= War Thunder.exe

Aces and saying no to check updates with launcher, if you want your changes.
If the game has been updated then you will have to open the launcher and change the file after that.
Launcher -> Update -> Close Launcher -> Change File -> Aces.exe

Profit.

[Aubreykun]

@Adramelech try setting the config file to "read only" after you edit it, before launching the game.

[Adramelech]

Big fan of this, I used it a lot. But I got a problem. Recently it seems that my config file can't be saved for some reason. I modify it, run the game with the exe, but the changes revert back.

[Buho]

For planes this guide is still very usefull. They added more ultra low settings but aren't the true lowest as they become using r = 0.1
At least my gpu can tell the diff.

Anyway for tanks this settings are more hard to control. Of course the performance is better but sometimes you can't see the other tanks (expecially far away) until is too late to react. This is because at far distances there is a huge fog and some crucial elements are invisible (in urban maps this happens even at close quarter distances).

[Roтary]

Thank you very much. Now I might actually be able to play with my friends.