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Friday, August 20, 2010

Global Agenda - Tweak Guide

# Tweak improves game performance
$ Tweak improves game appearance
@ Tweak does not affect appearance

Contents
1. Alternate login screen @ - Screenshot
2. Create an AV/FW exception for Global Agenda #@
3. Disable parts of your HUD #
4. Maximum textures and effects $ - Screenshot
5. Minimum textures and effects #
6. Minimize in-game settings #

Alternate login screen
1. Open TgEngine.ini.
Steam: X:\Steam\steamapps\common\global agenda live\tggame\config\
HiRez Launcher: X:\Users\USERNAME\My Documents\My Games\Global Agenda\TgGame\Config\

2. Under the [URL] section, change this:
Map=Login_Sandstorm_P.ut3
Login_Sandstorm_P.ut3

to this for the Elf Login Screen:
Map=LoginElvish_P.ut3
LocalMap=LoginElvish_P.ut3

or this for the Globe Login Screen:
Map=LoginAllCombined_P.ut3
LocalMap=LoginAllCombined_P.ut3

3. Save the file.

(Click image for full-size)



Create an AV/FW exception for Global Agenda
In your Anti-Virus/Firewall software's Real Time protection exception list, add an exception for Global Agenda. This tweak has a varying FPS boost.


Disable parts of your HUD
At this point in time, GA's Heads Up Display is fairly inefficient. Disabling parts of the HUD (namely the Beacon indicator and Compass) will give a decent FPS boost.



Maximum Textures and Effects
Many of you noticed that with the new version the settings entry for particle effect detail has vanished, as well as muddy textures on items and armor. Here is the fix. Remember that this is for PCs who can already handle GA extremely well, and want even better looks.

Before & After Picture by Locked (Click for full size)



NOTE: This tweak will not affect gameplay, only looks, but it will increase the load on your computer and possibly reduce performance (this is a High Resolution Setting after all).


To change the textures in the game to the "Ultra-High" setting
  1. Locate and open the file "TgEngine.ini"

    2. STEAM VERSION:
    X:\Steam\steamapps\common\global agenda live\tggame\config\

    NON-STEAM VERSION:
    USERNAME\My Documents\My Games\Global Agenda\TgGame\Config\

  2. Locate the entry "[SystemSettings]". A little below this you will find a lot of entries beginning with "TEXTUREGROUP". Replace them all with this:
    3. » Click to show Content - Click again to hide... «

  3. Save the file.

To change the effects in the game to the High setting:
  1. Locate the entry: "ParticleLODBias"
  2. Replace the number found here: ParticleLODBias=2147483647 with the following depending on what setting you want to use:
    3. High: 0
    Medium: 3
    Low: 2147483647
  3. Save the file.
Note for the Non-Steam Version
After you made the changes you want and saved the file, make it read-only (right-click, Properties - Read Only) so GA can´t overwrite the changes you made.


Minimum Textures and Effects
  1. Locate the file "TgEngine.ini"

    2. Hi-Rez Client:
    USERNAME\My Documents\My Games\Global Agenda\TgGame\Config\
    Steam:
    Steam\steamapps\common\global agenda live\tggame\Config\

  1. Under [SystemSettings] find:
    2. » Click to show Content - Click again to hide... «


  2. Replace with:
    3. » Click to show Content - Click again to hide... «

  3. Save the file.
These settings will alter the quality of the world textures. You can change the quality of characters, vehicle, weapons..etc. You can also do with with weapons, characters, and vehicles (just look for those texture settings under the [SystemSettings] section of TGEngine.ini

Apart from not being able to read the signs, the only issue I've encountered so far is the textures on the Minion Sentinels seem to be affected by these settings.


If you want even better performance (and worse appearance), replace the whole group of TextureGroup statements with this:
» Click to show Content - Click again to hide... «



Set ingame settings to minimum
Make sure you set your ingame video settings to minimum. Turn them on one at a time to see which ones hurt your performance most (that way you can find a balance between performance and visuals). Also, disable Vsync - I only have it on in the screenshot because I forgot.

You also get better performance running in fullscreen at lower resolutions. You can manually edit the resolution to 640x480 or something else via the TgEngine.ini file.



Contributors
• Alkasar
• AngryBoar
• Locked
• Pluberus
• Shobby
• SolusAU
• Sparra


Notes
This guide is a Work In Progress. I will edit and add more a little bit later.
Posted by Pluberus at 7:23 PM

9 comments:

  1. Mr SkyNovember 4, 2010 at 4:23 PM

    you forgot to lower resolution

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 20, 2010 at 8:58 PM

    These settings only seem to work in dome, soon as I load into a merc they revert back even with the ini set as read only.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 29, 2010 at 2:38 PM

    would be nice if you could also edit this post to include instructions on completely and selectivly disabling certain particle effects such as healing and buff effects

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownFebruary 4, 2011 at 4:28 PM

    I may think it is the fault of the engine. Games made for the Unreal 3 engine simply tend to play poorly. At least on my computer. Turning mouse smoothing and one frame thread lag helps a bit but I'm still getting unfortunate input issues. Perhaps I'm spoiled by I hate when my mouse movement is inconsistent or I have a quarter of a second of input lag.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousApril 16, 2011 at 3:00 AM

    Michael,do you realize that you are blaming an engine,while your pc isnt powerfull enough to run this engine on full graphics ?UPGRADE your pc,then talk.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 10, 2011 at 6:31 AM

    programming sucks on GA. I'm running better looking games on 60FPS on my pc and GA is sometimes 7 FPS terrible coding

    ReplyDelete
  7. sandrahJuly 27, 2011 at 5:42 AM

    Upgrading our PCs shouldn't be the only solution. Every game and engine can be somewhat scaled down to run - even on and for a Nintendo DS. Sega Allstar Racing is a excellent example of that. Looks awesome on the big screen (360, PC), runs good. Looks good on the tiny screen (DS) and runs good (60fps).

    So, you can always tweak and adjust. It's just a matter of how low you are willing to go.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousAugust 7, 2011 at 1:08 PM

    Excellent guide, really appreciated! Keep updating please :).

    Btw,
    To anyone having problems with it still changing (even after you make it read-only), you have to go to the security tab in properties and deny write access to all user groups.

    ReplyDelete
  9. siNAtikAugust 10, 2011 at 12:09 PM

    Im having trouble with the Minimum textures.. I changed everything to high today for some screenshots.. turned them back to low, now I edit the TgEngine file like before and lower the numbers.. but there's no difference in game.

    I'm using the new Hi-rez client, not sure if it could be another setting stopping my changes?

    ReplyDelete

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