Difference between revisions of "World of Warcraft"

Revision as of 16:12, 25 February 2012

World of Warcraft is a game that is very well supported by Blizzard Entertainment. Even in its release in 2004, it had relatively simple graphics that ran on low hardware requirements for the time. Total game size has just been optimized, and a fresh install is just under 25GB. However, there are some very simple graphical tweaks that can make the game load much faster.

Graphical Tweaks

Multimonitor Support

On a multi-monitor display, depending on which monitor the window is initially launched in before setting Windowed (Fullscreen) mode, it is possible to run two or more windowed fullscreen instances of World of Warcraft (or other compatible games, like Starcraft II) on the other monitor(s).

Force DirectX 11 Mode

Making World of Warcraft run in DirectX 11 mode will increase performance on compatible cards around 20-30%. This can avoid some graphical problems as well.

Edit the target of your WoW shortcut to the Launcher.exe with the parameter:
```
-d3d11
```

Edit the Config.wtf located:
```
\World of Warcraft\WTF\
```
Add the line:
```
SET gxApi "d3d11"
```

Performance Improvements

SSD

If World of Warcraft is installed on an SSD, this will dramatically decrease the load times for zoning.

Move SSD Cache

The World of Warcraft cache folder is required to hold uncompressed files and hotfix data. To save space on the SSD, it is possible to mklink the cache folder to a different drive. This should save approximately 10gb of space on the SSD.

mklink /j "C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Data\Cache" "D:\Games\Blizzard Stuff\World of Warcraft\Data\Cache\"

Save Game Data

Config Location

\World of Warcraft\WTF\[ACCOUNTNAME]\

Config Cloud Sync

Dropbox: yes Live Mesh 2011: yes, but Dropbox is faster and more reliable in this instance

World of Warcraft config cloud sync guide available on Shiny Hacks.

Improvements

Borderless Windowed Fullscreen

This is natively supported as Windowed (Fullscreen).

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 |publisher      = Blizzard Entertainment
 |release dates  = 23 November 2004
-|Current Patch  = 4.3
 }}
@@ Line 11: / Line 10: @@
 ==Graphical Tweaks==
-===Borderless Windowed Fullscreen===
+===Multimonitor Support===
-Native: yes - this is an option under Display -> Display Mode -> Windowed (Fullscreen).
 On a multi-monitor display, depending on which monitor the window is initially launched in before setting Windowed (Fullscreen) mode, it is possible to run two or more windowed fullscreen instances of World of Warcraft (or other compatible games, like Starcraft II) on the other monitor(s).
@@ Line 43: / Line 40: @@
 [http://www.shinyhacks.com/2010/09/auto-sync-backup-wow-interface-cloud.html World of Warcraft config cloud sync guide] available on [http://www.shinyhacks.com Shiny Hacks].
-==Where To Buy==
+==Improvements==
-World of Warcraft is available through Blizzard's Battle.net service. World of Warcraft is subscription can be paid through subscription time cards.
+===Borderless Windowed Fullscreen===
+This is natively supported as ''Windowed (Fullscreen)''.
-===Expansions===
-'Vanilla' World of Warcraft now includes The Burning Crusade expansion, taking the player form level 1-70 and including the Draenei and Blood Elf races.
-Wrath of the Lich King expansion is required for level 70-80 and the Death Knight class.
-The Cataclysm is required for level 80-85 and the Worgen and Goblin races.
-===Serial Keys===
-Various online stores sell cd-key only versions of the game and expansions for discounted prices. Bear in mind these are a 'grey' market and may not be reliable in being able to provide a legitimate key.
 [[Category:Game]]