JamesGecko

Alien Swarm low-end config

On my Intel X3100 GMA, it’s still unplayable. I hit peaks of 20 FPS. The fog and particle systems really seem to bog things down, dropping the FPS to 3 areas like on the first level. Unfortunately, you can’t disable them; Valve has them marked as “cheats.” Never mind completely disabling the lighting system would be much more of a cheat in this game, and you can already do that.

Launch options: -dxlevel 90 -w 480 -h320

Paste these options into a file. Save it as autoexec.cfg in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\alien swarm\swarm\cfg

//Alien Swarm
//Integrated graphics card config.
//http://jamesgecko.com/alienswarm

// Vastly improves performance of Alien Swarm on integrated graphics cards
// Unfortunately, that's not saying much. Expect 20 FPS, tops. Maybe 5 FPS in areas
// with lots of fog.

//Misc
cl_showfps 2 //0 off, 1 fps, 2 smoothed fps.
asw_spinning_stim_cam 0 //disables "picture in picture"
ai_expression_optimization 1 //People don't make faces when you aren't looking at them.
mat_disable_ps_patch 1
mat_vignette_enable 1
r_dopixelvisibility 0
r_drawbatchdecals 0
r_drawdetailprops 0
r_fastzreject -1


//Filtering
mat_disable_bloom 1 //Disables bloom
mat_hdr_level 0 //Disables HDR
mat_grain_enable 0 //Disable film grain
mat_grain_scale_override 1 //Disables film grain. Again.
mat_aaquality 0
mat_antialias 0
mat_bloom 0
mat_bloomscale 0
mat_disable_bloom 1
mat_disable_fancy_blending 1
mat_forceaniso 0

//Models
r_modellodscale 0.10 //reduce quality of models
r_lod 8 //Level of detail. -8 is best, 8 is worst.
mat_max_worldmesh_vertices 0

//Lighting
r_maxdlights 0 //maximum dynamic lights
r_dynamic 0 //No dynamic lighting
r_shadows 0 //No dynamic shadows
r_lightinterp 0
mat_filterlightmaps 0
mat_softwarelighting 1 //1 uses CPU over gfx card.
mat_disable_lightwarp 1
r_shadowrendertotexture 0

//Textures
mat_compressedtextures 1 //Integrated cards are too slow for uncompressed textures
mat_specular 0 //Reduce shiny
mat_showlowresimage 0 //very low quality textures.
mat_mipmaptextures 0 //makes textures look even worse. Character selection screen unusable.
mat_fastnobump 1
mat_picmip 4 //texture detail setting
mat_parallaxmap 0


//Water
r_water_drawreflection 0 //Disables some water effects
r_waterdrawrefraction 0 //Ditto

//datacachesize 128

//Disabling fog/particles
fod_enable 0 //cheat. This would really help with performance
r_drawflecks 0
r_drawrain 0
r_drawparticles 0 //cheat This would really help with performance
r_particle_timescale 0 //Particles aren't animated
r_particle_sim_spike_threshold_ms 0

r_decals 5 //number of visible blood, bullet holes, etc.
r_3dsky 0 //We never see the sky

//Ragdolls
g_ragdoll_maxcount 0
ragdoll_sleepaftertime 0
cl_disable_ragdolls 1 //cheat
cl_ragdoll_collide 0

//Glibs from boxes and such
props_break_max_pieces 0
prop_active_gib_max_fade_time 0
prop_active_gib_limit 0

//Multicore
r_threaded_particles 1 //I've got a core 2 duo. Disable this stuff on a netbook.
r_threaded_renderables 1 
snd_mix_async 1
mat_queue_mode 2