Ee.cfg, Settings Editable?

[DarkShadow6]

I really have no idea where I should be posting this, as the only technical subforums are for bug reporting and other feedback. It seems there are a few techy posts here, though, and thus:

 

I like that Warframe has a lot of settings to tweak, but I'm on a lower-spec rig and I need to lower them even farther than the menus will allow. Inb4 "buy a better computer", but that is not an option right now. What I really need is a method to edit the userid/settings and/or EE.cfg files to completely lower and/or disable all unneeded graphical shinies.

I'd like to:

 * Lower the Texture Memory setting to super low: When the textures/model data is being loaded, it's very low-res and my game doesn't suffer much, but then it immediately starts to slow down again when they finish their loading process. Forcing the game to load really small textures would significantly speed up the game, hopefully. I also read somewhere that the Evolution engine uses multiple smaller copies of textures (as in, each texture has smaller variants saved in other files). Is this true? I've glanced at the file structure of the game data and I can't honestly tell.

 * Disable other unlisted shaders: I know there are shaders at work that are not listed in the settings menu; I managed to break most of the HLSL shaders by modifying their referenced file names in the generated .toc (table of contents?) files on-load. Doing this, I can still see most textures fine and are able to get a good ten FPS out of it in most areas, but there are some walls that are flat black because of the broken shader information; this means that there are unlisted shaders that I could disable without really any downsides.

 * Disable bumpmapping: Not really a requirement, but the constant bumpmaps on nearly all textures just destroys what framerate I could have. If this were possible, it'd probably speed the game up enough to the point that I wouldn't have to do anything to the texture memory setting.

 * Replacing the DirectX rendering DLL: I've seen DLL replacement packs like SweetFX that enhance the graphical settings/features of compatible DirectX games. Has this ever been done in reverse, I.E. a DLL that disables/doesn't render certain things? I'm not sure if that'd be considered malicious, though, and I don't want to get a ban for doing anything like that.

I can't really think of any more at the time, but any other methods to improve FPS are appreciated in advance, settings files related or not. Just no application installation, please.

 

I am running Windows 7, 32-bit. It's not my computer itself that's at fault here, it's my graphics card. I can run Warframe on High, two Source servers (with people on them!) on Realtime, Winamp, Firefox, a FTP server, avast! scans, TeamViewer, and tons of other background processes with ~80% CPU usage (I have a dual-core Intel processor; not that impressive by today's standards, but it was when I bought the thing). If it matters, I'm running the game through Steam. Downloading the standalone variant is no problem if it means getting Warframe into a more playable state.

 

The lag affects my ability to shootan boolets, my general mobility, and the overall functionality of the game. I don't enjoy playing Warframe because of the bad FPS I get, and I try to avoid it as much as I can (the only reason I started playing was because a group I affiliate myself with started playing it and everyone yelled at me to join them). In conclusion, I hope I'm posting this in an acceptable place and/or a place that will actually get me answers to this. If I'm able to boost my FPS, I may just not feel despair when opening Warframe.

 

Off-topic gripe: Not being able to directly edit the (assumed) BB-code in posts annoys me. Yes, I'm that kind of guy.

 

Edit: Another off-topic gripe: Why can't I select any of the Email checkboxes for notifications in the User CP? (CP -> Settings -> Notification Options). I don't want to have to log in to check if anyone has said anything to me (I have a desktop application to alert me to new Emails). Edit: Uh, the checkboxes for the Email field don't have any associated information. Is this just not a supported feature? Because, if so, that's just silly.

Edited June 3, 2013 by DarkShadow6

[skillabstinenz]

On 13.5.2014 at 11:21 PM, ZeroSbr_Prime said:

Seriously this. If you're willing to try so hard to make the game work, why not just use that effort and make some dough? You only need a $50 card to play the game on low/medium settings.

 

Haha, ever heard of „challenge accepted?“

 

Maybe he likes configuring games way more than flipping burgers.

[Makoret]

On 3/22/2014 at 9:43 PM, MeintooL said:

Honestly, there is a very very simple solution to this problem, get off your &#! and get a job?? i never understood people like you, even without a job coming up with 60 bucks for a craptastic video card is extremely simple. These kinds of threads and comments boggle my mind

what do u care?

On 5/13/2014 at 4:21 PM, ZeroSbr_Prime said:

Seriously this. If you're willing to try so hard to make the game work, why not just use that effort and make some dough? You only need a $50 card to play the game on low/medium settings.

wtf do u care too

Everything was going so good... till these @(*()$ retards come in with their work S#&$, how about get the F*** out of here and go to work instead of wasting ur @(*()$ time @(*()$ around here? gosh there r so many thing to do but all u do is just picking on someone who is trying to tweak some game wtf is wrong with u guys gtfo and stop wasting ur time! (i know this is from almost 3 years ago xD)

is there anyone with something to support this thread?

[shut]

3 hours ago, Makoret said:

what do u care?

wtf do u care too

Everything was going so good... till these @(*()$ retards come in with their work S#&$, how about get the F*** out of here and go to work instead of wasting ur @(*()$ time @(*()$ around here? gosh there r so many thing to do but all u do is just picking on someone who is trying to tweak some game wtf is wrong with u guys gtfo and stop wasting ur time! (i know this is from almost 3 years ago xD)

is there anyone with something to support this thread?

You revived a three-years-dead thread to post this?

If you want to answer questions in the PHP forums, it's probably best to check the dates of the posts in the thread first. And, you know, actually answer some questions instead of jumping into an argument with randoms.

Edited February 24, 2017 by SortaRandom

[DarkShadow6]

Bump apparently stands for the recursive acronym "bump up my post".

[BrattyMesugaki]

Your idea sounds good.
I also have low specs, but really low(Sempron 145 >_>), at 720 it always runs at 25-30 FPS, but has some lag times and it runs at 10 FPS or less.
I would really like to feel a change into the performance of the game.

[Ground.Zero]

Started to do some research into the matter myself, except I'm into furthering the graphics as well, but I'm looking into both ways.

 

Installed both versions, steam and standalone. Noticed that the standalone used the same settings as my steam version, therefore the config isn't stored in the game folder.

 

Searched %appdata% and found Warframe data and configs in AppData\Local\Warframe.

 

I'll edit as I find more.

 

Edit: The Config file (EE.cfg) seems to only insert the values when they're modified to anything but default.

 

HUD.HudVisible=0
Graphics.AutoDetectGraphicsSettings=0
Graphics.Borderless=1
Graphics.Brightness=0.78712451
Graphics.Contrast=1.1164761
Graphics.DisplayAspectRatio=WideScreen16x10
Graphics.EnableBloom=0
Graphics.EnableColorCorrection=0
Graphics.EnableDOFMotion=0
Graphics.EnableFXAA=0
Graphics.EnableHDR=0
Graphics.FullScreenSizeX=1920
Graphics.FullScreenSizeY=1080
Graphics.HybridShadows=0
Graphics.LocalReflections=0
Graphics.ShadowQuality=SQ_HIGH
Graphics.TextureQuality=TQ_LOW

If those settings are put to default, they'll be removed from the config file, so you may alter them via the config file when the game is closed for them to be loaded, however most appear to be boolean only and don't offer any range input.

 

Edit: It would be interesting to find a full list of variables which can be entered in the config file, such as manual adjustments to the graphics other than just boolean variables.

 

Edit: May have found a way to open a console? I'll report back with findings, various info in the log files about certain files which are only handled when the game is running...

Edited June 8, 2013 by Ground.Zero

[Morcant]

I am running Windows 7, 32-bit. It's not my computer itself that's at fault here, it's my graphics card. I can run Warframe on High, two Source servers (with people on them!) on Realtime, Winamp, Firefox, a FTP server, avast! scans, TeamViewer, and tons of other background processes with ~80% CPU usage (I have a dual-core Intel processor; not that impressive by today's standards, but it was when I bought the thing).

 

I would be very surprised if your graphics card is hampering performance. Warframe is very, very sensitive to CPU speed, and to a lesser extent network latency. GPU performance is practically irrelevant if you have a GPU released in the last 5-6 years.

[DarkShadow6]

you have a GPU released in the last 5-6 years.

I don't.

[tantananan]

This is a great idea. Warframe was running smooth for me until a few updates ako. When they placed the Grineer Galleon, orokin void and upgraded a few other maps with more detail (all of those by the way looks awesome), I experienced a huge FPS drop in those maps. It would be great if we could turn down the graphics more.

[DarkShadow6]

No further discussion?

Any word from admins?

Nothing?

[DarkShadow6]

Bump.

[Letter13]

You're really out of luck.

 

The lowest settings in the game are the lowest they can possibly go. The game engine cannot lower texture resolution further, or reduce any more effects because there's nothing left to reduce.

 

I mean you might be able to use a third party program to force the GPU to have a Negative LOD Bias of like, -30; but most of those GPU hacks don't work in Warframe (if at all) because of the way Warframe's shaders/graphics engine runs. Not to mention programs that edit memory to force the GPU to run with certain parameters may be interpreted by the game's anti-cheat detection as an attempt to hack the game.

 

If your hardware cannot run warframe at a tolerable framerate, you really do need to get better hardware if you want the game to run better. Modifying the Ee.cfg file to try to 'reduce' quality even more won't work. When things are low/off, that's the lowest possible settings that you can have in the game.

 

Sorry to say OP, but you're SOL. You need to get better hardware, period.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Letter13

[DarkShadow6]

The lowest settings in the game are the lowest they can possibly go. The game engine cannot lower texture resolution further, or reduce any more effects because there's nothing left to reduce.

When you switch texture settings, everything reloads. The textures have very low level of detail for a few seconds while higher quality versions are cached/fetched/etc.

So, no, they can go farther down.

 

I mean you might be able to use a third party program to force the GPU to have a Negative LOD Bias of like, -30; but most of those GPU hacks don't work in Warframe (if at all) because of the way Warframe's shaders/graphics engine runs. Not to mention programs that edit memory to force the GPU to run with certain parameters may be interpreted by the game's anti-cheat detection as an attempt to hack the game.

I was thinking about trying that. If I knew enough about rendering engines and graphics cards (and I enjoyed using C/++ and asm) I'd do it myself.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I could ask some of my bytecode-modifying acquaintances (nice way of saying hacker friends) to give this a shot.

 

If your hardware cannot run warframe at a tolerable framerate, you really do need to get better hardware if you want the game to run better. Modifying the Ee.cfg file to try to 'reduce' quality even more won't work. When things are low/off, that's the lowest possible settings that you can have in the game.

 

Sorry to say OP, but you're SOL. You need to get better hardware, period.

Sorry to say Letter13, but I refuse to accept that.

By breaking various shaders I was able to get better FPS, as well as downsizing the game window (now that that is allowed). I can play it at ~30-60 in a small room with most shaders broken running at ~800x600.

The problem is this terrible integrated graphics card that I really wish I could replace.

Edited August 18, 2013 by DarkShadow6

[tantananan]

By breaking various shaders I was able to get better FPS, as well as downsizing the game window (now that that is allowed). I can play it at ~30-60 in a small room with most shaders broken running at ~800x600.

 

 With all of the changes that happened in the game since you posted this, does it still work?

[DarkShadow6]

 With all of the changes that happened in the game since you posted this, does it still work?

Breaking shaders? Yes.

In fact, with all the changes, some of the newer/changed shaders just fail to work at all on my machine, which is good.

[Babalenong]

im still using hd 4650 and game is so very buttery smooth on my machine, maybe you should invest in a cheapo card OP

[tantananan]

Breaking shaders? Yes.

In fact, with all the changes, some of the newer/changed shaders just fail to work at all on my machine, which is good.

Thanks for responding. I'll try doing it too.

[Gilahatau]

Guys I dont find in app data warframe nothing !

[DarkShadow6]

im still using hd 4650 and game is so very buttery smooth on my machine, maybe you should invest in a cheapo card OP

ihavenomoney

 

Guys I dont find in app data warframe nothing !

Check AppData/Roaming, Local, etc.

[Lazer]

Edit: Another off-topic gripe: Why can't I select any of the Email checkboxes for notifications in the User CP? (CP -> Settings -> Notification Options). I don't want to have to log in to check if anyone has said anything to me (I have a desktop application to alert me to new Emails). Edit: Uh, the checkboxes for the Email field don't have any associated information. Is this just not a supported feature? Because, if so, that's just silly.

 

It should be but DE probably doesn't utilize it.

[MeintooL]

ihavenomoney

 

Honestly, there is a very very simple solution to this problem, get off your &#! and get a job?? i never understood people like you, even without a job coming up with 60 bucks for a craptastic video card is extremely simple. These kinds of threads and comments boggle my mind

[ZeroSbr_Prime]

Honestly, there is a very very simple solution to this problem, get off your &#! and get a job?? i never understood people like you, even without a job coming up with 60 bucks for a craptastic video card is extremely simple. These kinds of threads and comments boggle my mind

Seriously this. If you're willing to try so hard to make the game work, why not just use that effort and make some dough? You only need a $50 card to play the game on low/medium settings.