Posted by: S!TH!NAT0R First off, POSTAL.ini tweaks............ 1) [Engine.GameEngine] CacheSizeMegs=64 Increasing the cache size to 64 will improve overall performance for most systems, especially if you have high texture detail settings and 64MB of Video RAM or more. Try higher values such as 64 or 128 if you have a higher spec system. 2) [WinDrv.WindowsClient] MinDesiredFrameRate=35.000000 POSTAL2 will attempt to maintain a framerate approximately equalling this number as a minimum. That is, if your system starts to drop its fps below this number, perhaps due to the level of detail on the screen or complexity of textures, POSTAL2 will do what it can to reduce the less noticeable eye-candy to improve fps again. The higher this number, the more POSTAL2 will dynamically adjust details and complexity to maintain at least the framerate you indicate in this setting. If you don't want the game to do that (perhaps you have a fast machine), and want the eye-candy to stay at its absolute best, lower this number. 3) [D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] UseTripleBuffering=True Set this option to True to reduce screen "tearing" (when VSync is off) and improve overall graphics performance. Using Triple Buffering may cause problems and glitches for those with less graphics memory (32MB or less), so turn off if you’re experiencing problems and/or you have an older card. DesiredRefreshRate=85 If you have VSync enabled (See UseVsync setting below for more info) then your refresh rate will be limited to whatever this setting is. However, to reduce monitor flickering and eyestrain, you should set this value to the highest refresh rate supported by your monitor at the desired resolution. For example, your monitor may support a maximum refresh rate of 85Hz (85fps) at 1280x1024 resolution. This setting is at 60 by default, but you could set it to 85 to make full use of your monitor's capabilities and ease the strain on your eyes. UseCompressedLightmaps=True -NOTE: Only set to False if your video card is 128MB or more. Using compressed lightmaps can improve your graphics performance quite noticeably, however the colors and shadows in the game (based on these "lightmaps") will not be quite as nice or crisp. If you have a fast system with 128MB of VRAM or more, set this option to False for best image quality and slightly quicker loading times, but at the cost of a few fps. UseVSync=False Without going into too much detail, Video Synchronization (VSync) is the synchronization of your graphics card and monitors' abilities to redraw the screen a number of times each second. This is measured in Hz (which is the same as frames per second), and your monitor will have a maximum rating in Hz for each resolution – e.g 1280x1024 at 85Hz. When set to False, your fps will improve slightly, however, you may see some image "tearing" as your monitor and graphics card go slightly out of synchronization when the refresh rate exceeds the monitor's abilities. Turn off VSync (set to False) for best graphics performance, however if the image tearing is annoying then set to True. Setting TripleBuffering to True (See TripleBuffering above) will help reduce any tearing. LevelOfAnisotropy=0 This setting controls the amount of Anisotropic Filtering in POSTAL2. Basically Anisotropic Filtering improves texture and general image quality, however it comes at the cost of some performance, particularly on older (e.g. pre-GeForce4 and Radeon 9500) cards. Setting this to 0 will improve performance on most machines without a noticeable drop in image quality. Of course increasing the value will improve image quality at a variable rate of performance loss based on your hardware. It is best to set this to 0 since there is hardly any noticable difference with it enabled and you save yourself a very unnecessary performance hit. AvoidHitches=False Setting this to True might help those with graphics cards which have 64MB of VRAM and who have chosen high detail settings. It significantly reduces the occurrence of substantial hitches, but can reduce average framerate, so leave this option at default unless you have problems with hitches playing POSTAL2. DecompressTextures=False -NOTE: Only set to True if your video card is 128MB or more and you have a fast rig. Just as with compressed lightmaps, compressed textures reduce image quality slightly, however they improve graphics performance dramatically (especially with Precaching set to True) as more textures can be loaded into video memory when compressed. Set this option to True only if you have a very fast machine and a graphics card with 128MB of VRAM or more, and you want the absolute highest quality of textures showing. Setting this option to True will cripple most machines' performance. --To increase Performance even more and substantially cut loading-times try the NV Properties tweaks as follows: -NOTE: Though these are purely optional, some get results and some don't. :P 1) Go to Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>GF3 or GF4 Tab: -a)Performance & Quality Settings>>Performance Settings: Set the slider all the way to the right. For some people it is called Agressive Driver Settings and for others it is called Performance Driver Settings. It depends on what Det. drivers your using. -b)Make sure FSAA and Anisitropic Filtering are OFF, especially if you run in a higher resolution like 1280x1024. -c) Go to Direct3D Settings (under Performance & Quality Settings) and set Mipmap Detail Level to: Blend. -I usually run all my games with the Performace Slider in the middle (Conservative Driver Settings) and Mipmap Detail Level at Best Quality but I've found with Postal2 the above settings actually improved my loading times and in-game performance with almost no noticable graphics quality loss. ;) 1) [Postal2Game.P2GameInfo] bPreloadAllSkins=False This section and setting do not exist by default, so add the section title and setting to the end of your POSTAL2.ini file. This setting is False by default, but if set to True, all character skins and character models will be preloaded. This can resolve any stuttering or pauses during multiplayer matches when new players (with new skins/models) join. However only set this to true if you have a lot of system RAM (512 MB or more). 2) Background: Apparently you get a performance boost by running games with a higher than normal priority level ( This only works on NT and up) NOTE: Be aware though that you need to have a pretty high-end sys (1.8ghz/512mb ram & above) in order to do this without problems. -When you do this your making your pc dedicate all it's sys resources to run P2 at 100% tasked priority above anything else and if you try to run any other tasks while running P2 your system will respond quite slowly.....this applies to even answering a icq/IM. Do this at your own risk! How to: Create a batch file in your Postal2/System folder with the line "start /AboveNormal Postal2.exe" minus the quotes, then make a shortcut and put it in your startup folder and viola. You can change the icon by right clicking on the shortcut, clicking on "Change Icon" then browsing to POSTAL2.exe. --Also an alternative to the above, After you start the game press windows key then right clic task bar then clic task manager, then clic processes, then look for the Postal2.exe, right clic that, you will see set priority and in there you can make 6 different priority settings changes. At least for my XP anyway I can. Ive tinkered around with it in Postal2 but my performance is allready quite good so I just leave it at normal! I believe this might come into play more for someone who may be having memory usage troubles related to the number of tasks running at any given time. You can set lower priorities on some tasks and higher on others and manage you memory use this way. -This is a fix for any ATI cards users experiencing POSTAL2 crashes............ [b][D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice] UseStencil=True <----Change to False [Engine.NullRenderDevice] UseStencil=False <----Leave to False