Visuals (Advanced)

Next, go into the Advanced options menu & select the Display options. NOTE – Some of the options you have selected in Video menu will be set here so there is no need to reset some of these options as a result.

ActorShadows. A setting of 0 for x disables shadows. 1 enables simple circular shadows. 2 will enable volumetric shadows. Enabling shadows will reduce performance, particularly setting it to 2, leave it on 0. Depending on your system you may be able to enable shadows without too much of a performance drop.

Brightness. Use this setting to adjust the brightness level in the game, setting it higher may well improve visibility, although can the game look washed out if you set it too high. It is better to set this in the game menu itself (mentioned earlier), where the effects can be seen immediately.

CaptureMouse. Set this to True if you use are using mouse (which most of you will be).

CurvedSurfaces. This should be set to False. This will improve performance & the difference to models is unnoticeable (only player models are affected & it seems to be a redundant setting). When set to True player model meshes are smoothed out (dynamically tesselated to up to 9X higher polygon counts) which will result in more aesthetically pleasing player models in the game.

Decals. Set this to False to improve performance, particularly with older graphics cards e.g. TNT 1. Decals are the blood splatters or explosion marks that get left on terrain during a game. Set this to True for improved visuals.

FogDistPercentage. Leave this at the default setting of 1.

LodPercentage. This setting sets the range of which detail textures are applied to the world. 1 is at the maximum range, while 0 would be never (Same as setting DetailTextures to False, i.e. Disabling it). If you wish to get a balance between performance & image quality then try setting this to a value between 1 & 0, e.g. .5. This can improve performance & offer the visual improvements of Detail textures, albeit at a closer viewing distance than default.

MinDesiredFrameRate. Set this to equal to whatever you feel is the minimum for a playable game. 30 should be the ideal minimum frame rate for most users. This specifies the frame rate threshold below which Rune will start dropping detail - reducing model detail and not drawing optional effects. If this is set higher than your normal frame rate, then you will never see reduced graphics almost always, but get the best possible performance. The ideal setting for this is about 10 frames below your average frame rate.

NoDynamicLights. Set this to False for better visuals. Set this to True to improve performance a little.

NoFractalAnim. This switch can be turned on for a performance improvement for cards that slowdown with pre-frame texture uploads, especially with OpenGL & to a lesser extent D3D. Glide, Metal & Software rendering will run perfectly with this set to False & gain nothing by setting it to True. Direct3d & OpenGL users may see a slight performance boost when set to True.

NoLighting. Set this to False. Otherwise the game will look quite ugly. The difference in performance between both is extreme, turn the lighting off if you are totally desperate for a frame rate boost.

PlayerShadows. A setting of 0 for x disables shadows. 1 enables simple circular shadows. 2 will enable volumetric shadows. Enabling shadows will reduce performance, particularly setting it to 2, leave it on 0. Depending on your system you may be able to enable shadows without too much of a performance drop.

ScreenFlashes. Set this to True, this is used to change the screen colour, e.g. when you get hit, or are underwater. Setting is to False may marginally improve performance.

SkinDetail. I’d recommend setting this to Medium, the difference between High & Medium is fairly small, added to the fact this will free up video memory & you generally won’t be too close to player models this gives quite a decent performance improvement.

SlowVideoBuffering. Ignore this setting, unless you are using Software rendering. Set it to True if you are.

StartupFullscreen. If using a 3d card then you'll have no choice other than running in full screen, it is faster than running windowed anyway.

TextureDetail. Set it to High if you can, although a lower setting is advised if you need the extra performance (specifically cards with low texture memory, e.g. TNT1), it will give a more blurred look to the game though. Setting TextureDetail to High will improve visuals more than setting SkinDetail to High (& also have a greater effect of frame rate).

UseDirectDraw. Set this to True. It will improve performance on most systems.

UseDirectInput. Set this to True. It'll performance/smoothness with Input devices, e.g. mouse. Although should you experience any problems with input devices try set this to False.

UseJoystick. Set this to False unless you intend to use a Joystick to play the game, however mouse & keyboard is the best way to play Rune. It will improve performance slightly if you set it to False as well. Useful if you're on a low spec machine.