A Little Tech Savy From Derfel
Included in this article are a collected variety of tips, tricks, tweaks, and a couple of hacks (don’t worry, none for WoW itself) to help you wrest better frame rates and better ping rates out of your existing hardware. Being a hardware tech at heart, software really isn’t my forte. However, I have delved into the programming depths to uncover and expose several enemies to you and your beloved World of Warcraft. Please note, if you are having issues seeing the screen shots provided, simply click on them to enlarge the images to their original size so that you can read them better. It’s more for Visual Assistance, as I like to call it.
First and foremost, let’s discuss insane ping rates.
To my understanding, since open beta of the original WoW years ago, this problem has been present in all iterations of the game and has never been fully addressed by Blizzard or Microsoft. The following is a registry edit to help your ping out. Disclaimer: If you feel uncomfortable editing or changing your registry, then please, do not attempt this hack. To get low pings with 2 simple registry hacks do the following (you need to do both settings for the maximum effect).
1 – TcpAckFrequency - NOTE if you are running Windows Vista this setting may not have any effect – a hotfix is needed which I’m tracking down (can anyone point me the right way?). This works fine under Windows XP
Type “regedit” in windows “run..” dialog to bring up registry menu
Then find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpipParametersInterfaces
There will be multiple NIC interfaces listed in there, find the one you use to connect to the internet, there will be several interfaces listed (they have long names like {7DBA6DCA-FFE8-4002-A28F-4D2B57AE8383}. Click each one, the right one will have lots of settings in it and you will see your machines IP address listed there somewhere. Right-click in the right hand side of the window and add a new DWORD value, name it TcpAckFrequency. Next, right click the entry, click Modify, and assign the DWORD a value of 1. You can change it back to 2 (default) at a later stage if it affects your other TCP application performance. This tells windows how many TCP packets to wait before sending ACK. if the value is 1, windows will send ACK every time it receives a TCP package.
2 – TCPNoDelay
This one is pretty simple
Type “regedit” in windows “run..” dialog to bring up registry menu
Then find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQParameters
Right-click in the right hand side of the window and add a new DWORD value, name it TCPNoDelay, then right click the entry, click Modify, and assign the DWORD a value of 1. If for some reason, you do not see the MSMQ, it’s ok. Some people it seems don’t have a MSMQ entry in their registry. You will need to add it. To perform this action, the simplest way is to copy/paste the below code into a empty text file, and save it as a .reg file (just call it msmq.reg). Once done right click the file and select MERGE and click yes to the box that follows.
******snip below******
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQ] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQParamet ers] “TCPNoDelay”=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQParamet ersOCMsetup] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQParamet ersSecurity] “SecureDSCommunication”=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQParamet erssetup] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSMQSetup]******snip above******
Click Ok and close the registry editor, then reboot your PC.” Please note that some computers do not have and cannot add the MSMQ. If you cannot add it, then do not worry about it.
!~~ALSO~~!
I found this nifty little program on the Tankspot forums – it does just about everything you need without the need of you yourself editing the registry.
http://wowinterface.com/downloads/info13581-LeatrixLatencyFix.html
Second, lets discuss some power save features
With the advent of going green on everyone’s minds all around the world, the nice employees at Microsoft decided to add power save features to almost all unnecessary running devices. This power save feature can be edited by windows, but the options exist directly on each device. Im going to show you how to access these power saving options and how to disable them (its really easy). I am naturally going to assume that you have Windows Vista, as Windows 7 just came out and Windows XP is still pretty popular. I am sure that similar methods can be easily applied to either system, I just actually like Vista (dont ask or patronize me, please).
Click Start, then select the Control Panel
In Control Panel, Select Device Manager. If necessary, click Yes at the UAC screen to continue. (Ask me how to turn it off if it bugs you like it does me.)
In the Device Manager Window, expand the Network Adapters and select the one that you use the most (you know, wired for desktop, Wireless for laptop are the commonly used connections).
Now, when the screen pops up, select the Power Management Tab, and Un-check the power save feature.
Third, let’s make WoW run like it did in Windows XP (Vista Users)
OK, so you see WoW takes a rather long time to load when you make the transition to full screen mode from the launcher (assuming that you use the launcher). Well this little trick will help you whip it back into shape. Vista introduced the shiny and spiffy Aero themes to Windows. I know, most techies disable it (which is an option). However, WoW still renders the aero settings before you go into the game, even if Aero is turned off. Don’t worry, not all programs do this, just some games that are set to use it in Vista still perform the rendering. To alter how these settings affect your WoW loading times, simply make these changes.
First off, we have a general, unassuming World of Warcraft Shortcut on our desktop.
Next, right-click the World of Warcraft Icon and select properties.
Finally, click on the comparability tab, and check Disable Visual Themes and Desktop Composition.
On a side note, I have not seen any significant improvement in performance by running WoW in Windows XP SP2 Compatibility mode. In some rare instances, it might help, but in my testing, no real increase in performance. These fixes may or may not help you. They are not designed to show amazingly improved performance on their own, just a little faster on things here and there. The Ping fix also does not mean that you won’t DC.
I found this solution to fixing really bad lag in 25-mans. Bear in mind, I have tested it in 10-mans with great success as well. Basically anytime where multiple users are connecting to your client you can use this to greatly reduce the amount of Lag you experience.
SOLUTION: DC’ing in 25-mans (By Haphsize on the WoW forums here)
So i’ve had problems with 25 mans for ages. until today.
I tried changing graphics settings, net speed, isp, tunneling, latency fix scripts disabling all my addons, new routers, wired & wireless.
People told me to get everyone in my 25 man raids to disable addons like GearScore and Carbonite. I honestly didnt believe them.
Anyways, it works. But instead of getting everyone to do it. You can get this addon and then make a macro to toggle it before and after boss fights:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/ignore-addon-spam.aspx
make sure you toggle right after the boss is down, and use ventrillo. The addon works by /ignoring players with spammy addons. This /ignore is automatically reversed as soon as you toggle it.
enjoy your 25 mans
edit:
also install this addon for it to work properly:http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info10410-Spydon.html
edit 2:
There seems to still be a lot of confusion as to how this addon works. Here are two screen shots. (1st with notes, 2nd without). Look at the chat log and you will clearly see that you can still see raid warnings and messages from addons like DBM, and that this isn’t just about Gearscore.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/punkelaine/WoWScrnShot_033110_154642B.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/punkelaine/WoWScrnShot_040510_163904.jpgEdit 3 (June 24th 2010):
there are a lot of questions/comments that are being repeated. Here are some quick answers:
1. Nothing happens when I toggle my macro (/ias).
- Please make sure again that you have downloaded the addon Spydon ALONG with Ignore Addon Spam. IAS is dependant on Spydon.
2. How do I get rid of that annoying Spydon window?
- Type /spydon.
3. I still lag out when I hit the macro -OR- I still have really low fps.
- This “fix” seems to be helping some people but not all. I’m still not sure, but I think it’s a combination of connection strength, amount of spam, and possibly some hardware. If IAS has helped, but not completely, maybe it’s time to upgrade your internet/graphics card/memory.
4. It’s time for blizzard to band addons like Gearscore.
- Take these comments elsewhere. Post those comments in the Suggestions forum, since they aren’t helping with our Technical problems. (and frankly it’s getting annoying).Lastly. I’ve posted in this thread a few times about how this is only for 25 mans. However it seems that this addon has helped those in Arena and Battlegrounds as well. Please let us know if it has helped you in these areas.
Cheers,
1/2size
I need to update my guides.