Thought this might be helpful to some people looking to reduce lag in Tower of Rot raid, and also to improve EQ performance in general. This is a post from my old guild's forums.
Many of these modifications don't sacrifice how EQ looks, but help it run faster. I know it's a pain to go through - it took me a long time to actually do it but in the end you'll be really pleased with the performance increase you can get out of modifying your system.
-
WinEQ 2.0 (
download link) I love WinEQ! There's really no reason not to use it. It's exactly like regular EQ, just a little bit faster. WinEQ provides custom ini settings, and improvements for PCs with hyperthreading/multiple cores. If you use WinEQ 2.0, make sure you disable EQPlayNice as the latest few EQ clients do a better job of managing CPU usage.
Disabling EQPlayNice in WinEQ:
Tweaking Files: *** Make a copy of these files before you edit them, just in case something goes wrong! ***
Make these changes when you're not running EQ or WinEQ to ensure they're saved properly.
Finding these files depends on where your EverQuest directory is located. In my case -
C:\Users\Public\Sony Online Entertainment\Installed Games\EverQuest
-
eqclient.ini - located in the EverQuest directory
If you do not have any of these lines, just add to the file below [Defaults] (anywhere near the beginning of eqclient.ini)
set the following variables:
CPUAffinity0=-1
ServerFilter=1
MultiPassLighting=FALSE
ShowGrass=FALSE
AllLuclinPcModelsOff=TRUE
LoadVeliousArmorsWithLuclin=FALSE
Sound=FALSE
Music=0
EnvSounds=0
CombatMusic=FALSE
WaterSwap=0
Note: - For CPUAffinity0, as far as I know any nonzero number works. This is just what I read on EQlive.
- Only set AllLuclinPcModelsOff=TRUE if you are ok with 100% old models.
- Only set Sound=FALSE if you are ok with disabling audio triggers / EQ sound. This does not effect GTT/GINA.
-
airplane_chr.txt - located in EverQuest
hohonora_chr.txt
illsalin_chr.txt
postorms_chr.txt Erase all contents of these files and replace with the following:
1
dke,dke
This adjusts which NPC models are loaded into these zones (rather hefty for EQ to load). This should work for any EQ zone file (i.e. worth trying on Tower of Rot). (Check
this thread if you want to know what this does)
-
dbg.txt - located in EverQuest\Logs
Right click dbg.txt > click Properties > check Read-only
-
NOSOUND.TXT Open notepad, leave this new file completely empty and save as NOSOUND.TXT - place this file in your EverQuest directory.
Running EQ with no sound can improve its performance, even if you have music/sounds turned off in game, the client still loads a lot of sound files. This does not impact GINA or GamTextTriggers.
-
eqgame.exe - located in EverQuest
(This change is only helpful to Windows 7 & 8 users, and maybe Vista)
If you don't want to use WinEQ (but you should!) and instead use a desktop shortcut to eqgame.exe, you'll need to modify the shortcut.
Right click eqgame.exe > click Properties > Compatability tab > check "Run this program as an administrator" and "Run this program in compatability mode for: Windows XP (Service Pack 3)"
-
WinEQ2.exe Same modification as above - auto enable administrator access and run as Windows XP compatabile.
-
Manually Set Affinity The CPUAffinity variable in eqclient.ini selects the next available CPU upon loading an EQ client. (i.e. My first eqgame.exe is running on Processor 0, then 1, 2 etc). You can manually do this in Windows 7 via the following:
Start > Search for taskmgr.exe (run as administrator) > Processes tab > right click eqgame.exe > Set Affinity... > All Processors
-
OptionsEditor.exe - located in EverQuest
Run OptionsEditor.exe, unchecking Luclin models helps if you don't mind the old models. Disable sound, social animations, mip mapping, and dynamic lighting.
-
Exclude EQ in Anti-Virus Software If you're uncomfortable with this one, don't do it! You can add an exception/exclusion for EverQuest to your anti-virus. How to do this depends on which software you use. In general, you want any real-time scanning to
exclude the EverQuest directory and WinEQ. If you need help setting this up in avast!or MSE I can help you.
-
ReadyBoost! (for Windows Vista, 7, 8 )
(disregard if you use an SSD)
If you have a spare flash drive, use it for ReadyBoost! It is a really easy way to speed up your PC. Plug in the flash drive and remove any files from it. Right click the drive in My Computer, go to Properties > ReadyBoost tab > configure as you please. You can use multiple USB drives for this - up to 8 drives and 128 GB. As many USB drives as you have laying around, slots you have available in your PC, and as much speed as you crave out of your machine.
-
Windows Page File Ever get the message "Windows' virtual memory is running low..."? if so, you should definitely modify the size of your page file - its really quite easy, so do it! See the Windows guide
here. The size of your page file depends on how much RAM you have - generally it should be set to 2x your system RAM.
-
EQ Options In game, hit ALT O > Display tab.
I recommend enabling Level of Detail. This reduces the detail of distant PC & NPCs.
Enabling vertex shaders takes load off your CPU and puts it on your video card instead - a good idea. You'll see a performance boost from disabling Post Effects, but I really like them for raiding so I leave them on.
