Me and my shadows

Wrath of the Lich King is awful purty, but I'm hating the framerates I'm getting.
Riplash Ruins (with the ocean, drifting fog, northern lights, distant crumbling buildings) = 12 fps
Rivenwood, Howling Fjord ("Scare the guano out of them!" quest) = 9fps

SLI... doh!
Okay, I didn't check out the requirements for the expansion, I just figured my 'good when I built it' system would handle it since I hadn't heard any outcry that we'd all need to upgrade our graphics cards. Now that I've seen painful framerates, I guess I need to appease the hardware gods and buy that second video card my SLI-capable system has been waiting for. Before I clicked the 'buy' button, I figured I should check that WoW supports SLI (and that those folks are getting great video performance). But wait, most recent posts I find confirm the opposite: WoW ignores the second card in SLI (or Crossfire) setups. D'oh! There's an inkling rattling around in my head that dual vid card solutions are independent of the application, but the blue posts say 'that's not how we roll.' Glad I found that out before adding a merely decorative second graphics card.

If fulfilling SLI potential isn't going to be my route to smooth game play, what then do I need to buy? a better/newer/faster video card? Sure, I can turn down all the graphics in the game, but I -like- that it's pretty. I want to be able to experience the game in all its loveliness. Besides, with settings cranked down, you can nearly run into mobs as they appear from the clip plane. Other friends started asking for recommendations on what CPU upgrade they need to buy to improve their frame rates, or what new gaming set-up would handle the new graphics. I googled for reviews of WoW performance on burlier graphics cards, but found forums full of "I have the best rig out there and my fps still sucks!" That made me hold off. What else might be the issue?

Well, what's the system recommendations from blizz?
Recommended: Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2.
Blizzard recommends 1 GB of RAM for XP and 2 GB for Vista...
With a dual-core CPU and well over a gig of RAM (3gb, on XP), I'm sailing through those parts, so onward to graphics.
Video Card: Minimum required is 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or better.
For smooth play, developers recommend: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better.
GeForce 2? That's so old I have to check wikipedia to refresh my memory. Those came out in 2000 (eight years ago, the equivalent of eons of geologic time in the world of video processors).
GeForce 7600 GT -- Hey, that's exactly the card I have. If that's what the devs recommend for smooth play, what the heck?

Before I and my friends start draining our bank accounts for computer upgrades that may or may not make much difference, I decided to get sorta serious about tracking down fps numbers so that I could judge how well the 'performance improvement' tips & tricks work.

How I tested
One toon in Stormwind, one in Shattrath, one in Northrend (roving reporter)

1. Staring straight up into the sky
2. Indoors, inside an uncrowded building
3. Outdoors, viewing a small crowd (~10 players, mailbox or flight points)
4. Forest + sky (camera angled up, as if gazing at stars without craning neck)
5. Forest/fog (camera angled down or straight, so not including much of the sky)

From my starting spot (a random mix of high/low/medium video settings, not much maxed out, 1280x1024, 24 bit color depth, 1x multisampling). The list is in order of decreasing performance. Indoors and sky got 60-70fps in most places except Dalaran - that place got 20-30. The small crowd shots dipped down to ~40. I expected the clouds and glimmering Northern Light-effect to be a significant hit, but that turned out not to be the case. The most painful view ended up just looking at/thru fog or trees.
Stormwind (Elwynn) = 32 fps
Shattrath (Terrokar) = 17 fps
Borean Tundra (Riplash Ruins) = 16 fps
Having found my worst case spots, I then cranked everything up to max detail (just to get a good masochistic view). Ouch. 6.5 fps. Mind you, this is on the video card recommended for smooth play.

So, onward with various adjustments that have been suggested to help.

• Transparency Antialiasing was already off
• Disabled Vertical Sync - didn't do much, 1.3 fps (might be because I'm still on a CRT)
• "SET timingMethod" is no longer in the config file for 3.0, so wasn't able to test
• updated video drivers - did that over the weekend, before starting these tests

Hmm, okay, thanks for the suggestions. (I haven't yet tried the "run a media player in the background" -- will try that in the future.) So I'm left with twiddling settings in the video interface.

My old nemesis, Terrain Distance, proved less formidable than I expected. I had a goofy experience when I went from 1gb to 3gb RAM: I'd had the terrain distance/clip plane turned way down to improve performance, so when I got more RAM, I figured I could crank up the distance -- and was flabbergasted that you could see islands off the coast of many continents. Changing the distance seeings in Riplash Ruins made some buildings disappear, but didn't have a huge impact on the fps. Moving each slider, checking the fps, logging in/out, rinse, repeat. Slight changes, but nothing earth-shattering... until I got to shadows. Going from 'medium' to 'low' (which is essentially 'off') made my fps shoot up, from ~15 to over 40. Re-checked that, set shadow detail to high: 10 fps; back to low: 46 fps. And this was with most settings higher than I normally have them -- the terrain, textures, effects, weather, etc. were all more lovely than I normally experience, and yet I was getting framerates better than I've seen in a long time. I did a little fine tuning, keeping lowered settings on things I couldn't tell a difference on: weather, down one notch, ditto ground clutter, terrain distance detail down two notches.

More running around, more testing. Shadows off means I (and other players) don't cast shadows, and it doesn't have a uniform effect on fps. Back in Valiance Keep, or on the grassy bluffs nearby, the shadow settings only had a ~5-10 fps difference (going from 35 to 41 isn't a huge boost). I'd seen what that one toggle could do in fog, but now to test it in the trees. Stars' Rest is full of lovely trees, a delicate haze hangs in the air, and those weird bits of light that float around night elves are everywhere. Previously, anything with trees was sending framerates into the teens, but I've got everything maxed (except shadows), and I'm getting 46fps. Woot! Test-time: set shadows to medium, 12 fps. Glutton for punishment: set shadows to high, 1.5 fps. Woah. Back to no shadows, fps zooms back to mid 40s. And double-checking the performance, how does this impact the numbers I was seeing outside Shattrath? 17 fps snaps to ~40 as well.

I like seeing my shadow when I ride along on my horse or bird, but honestly, I mostly only notice it then: when I'm in transit. If I have to give up that singular detail to regain painless framerates, well, okay. I've got more possibilities to try; last night I did everything with all my addons in place, so there might be room for improvements that could in turn let me switch shadows back on. But for the time being, this is my easy work-around.

0 to 400

Alchemy 377... poof! What better thing to do in the level-frenzy of WotLK, than head back to the old zones and pick flowers? I mean, seriously, it's not like anyone else would be farming the crap out of those little ole nodes.
Oy. I'd estimate 90% or more of the nodes were already picked. I'd run by a flower, one skill point from being able to pick it, click it so my addon would remember it, get the skillup, return less than 5 minutes later, and the last three goldthorn nodes would be empty. I recall back in the way, way, way olden days, hearing people take up herbalism and comment that it only took a few hours to skill all the way up. Now granted, back then, the top skill level was only 300... but switching my warlock to a flower picker so she could get back to Northrend and continue leveling, was a painful 12+ hour slog.
But, woot, back in the New Country, sending the voidwalker to distract the mean animals while I pick the sweet, luscious flowers. Glynnda, greenthumb warlock. :)

The rise and fall of the ginsu gardener

Me? A DPS warrior?

I was a little apprehensive about leaving the shield at home. I didn't start Pheefee to be DPS, I made her because (in the days before paid server transfers) my RL friends needed a tank in their itty-bitty guild. I came, I leveled, I got lots of comments about how good my night elf female looked in plate armor.

Wrath hits, people are doing 5-mans, the uber tanks in the guild are either MIA (*cough* Warhammer) or trying out new specs... I'm in the bank looking for DPS gear I can dust off to go with the impending respec, and guildies are asking for a tank to do Utgarde Keep. I offer to go with caveats that my gear isn't uber-leet (tanking purples dotted with blues and a couple impressive greens) and publicly announcing that I haven't tanked in many, many months. They say no problem, just a 5 man. We manage to down the first boss with a few wipes, but the mage has been complaining since the 3rd pull that he can't keep from pulling aggro, and finds an excuse to leave. Really? A firemage, in BT/Hyjal gear, is pulling aggro? -AND- giving me advice that I need to spam AoE threat? When I explained that my AoE threat was on an eight second cooldown, and that didn't seem particularly 'spammable' -- he consulted with a friend about how I should have specced differently. I bowed out after the mage bailed, firm in my decision to retire my shield.

I found a spec over at Incompetent Warrior that sounded worth trying. The slashing and hacking was beautiful (that spinny thing, like a pirouette of destruction!)... and bravely let my warrior go kick some ass as she went to pick flowers. My very own ginsu gardener.

Except that several days after the release of the expansion, I've got three level 70s stumbling around in Northrend. Yep, all still 70, and the level curve in my guild is like a wave pulling away from me. To get the flowers my warlock needs, I have to be on my warrior; the mobs that patrol the flowery goodness don't understand that I'm there for another toon, and that they should overlook the 'no plans to grind levels on my warrior.' I don't want to be on my warrior; I'd rather be on either of my other toons.

Well, phooey. This is a fine mess I've gotten myself into.

Queues! Oh noes!

Queues are like, so retro... People who haven't been playing as long won't remember how they used to be a daily part of the game (come home, fire up game, wait in queue while preparing dinner, get to dine and play... eventually). My server is rarely beyond "Medium" traffic in the server list, but around prime time tonight had a 236 slot waiting list. I cringe to think how bad it must be on the permanently high volume servers... GL out there.

Plucked from the dust bin

12:17am - returned from local game store (who did a crappy job of managing the "slowly let people into the store, two at a time"), began installation, listening to guildies in earlier time zones run around, hunt for trainers, find new and interesting mobs to run away/die from.

Take warlock to Brave New World, squeal with delight at seeing penguins from the boat. Train new tradeskills, take advantage of underwater breathing to visit deep underwater quest giver. Realize that the toon I hadn't planned to take to Northrend any time soon is the herbalist who needs to pick flowers for my alchemy/inscription warlock...

I'm tired of my warrior. No, maybe not tired of her, but she makes me sad. In the days before dailies, I wandered thru battlegrounds as a prot tank, eventually earning the rank of Knight, all as a protection spec tank (painful & agonizing, but eventually I embraced whatever chaos I could inject into flag capture/defense, took my purples, and went home). I'd always accepted that, as a prot warrior, my DPS was lackluster at best, but I was the uber-tank. I used to love playing the class, but when BC moved hybrids into the most desirable tank slot, I refocused my efforts on returning to my healer.

So I've had my level 70, geared well enough to tank Kara (with a good group, better as an off-tank if the DPS was lacking) in semi-retirement for a long while now. She picks flowers from time to time. Facing WotLK, I had no intention of leveling her to 80 (and still don't). But I'd brain-farted on the fact that she needs to be in Northrend, picking the damn flowers. So I logged her in, emptied her bags, and put her on the boat.

After training to Grand Master in herbalism, I took her straight out of town. Tiger lilies began showing up on my minimap, but require 400 skill level. Buh? Trusting Blizzard to not make a gaff that enormous, I kept exploring and found Goldclover (?-- at 2am, my brain wasn't at its best) that allowed me to continue leveling herbalism. But then I had to kill a random animal (who took offense at my flower picking), and was keenly reminded just how painfully slow it is to kill things as a prot warrior.

Weed-need is going to continue, so I guess I'll be spending more time with my florist in plate... but likely with a respec to something a little more DPS-friendly.

The discarded children

Not altogether unlike Nebraska, my character selection screen is getting a little crowded with older toons these days. Sure, I know folks with 6, 7, even 8 level 70s in our guild, but a full time job, part time school, and other hobbies + non-gaming friends are my excuses for my obvious slackerdom.

Roll call from the orphanage:
Svetmira, 43 shadow priest. Prior to (recently) hearing about the new dual-spec options, this toon had been next in line for leveling. Now that dual-spec-ness is headed for the game, the only reason to level her would be to (effectively) replace the Dwarven skin of my healer main. And with the barber shop offering permanent hair color changes and various plastic surgeries, how far behind can soul transfers be?

Zaramina, 53 frost mage. The toon that taught me two important lessons:
1. Leveling up together rarely works like you think it should.
2. Pretty spell effects don't make a class fun to play. (Note to self: remember this every time you see a druid make the room go all sparkly.)

Garnêt, 63 arms/fury warrior. Ah, my first toon. She used to be named Ziya, back when she was a prot warrior on another server, for a now-disbanded guild. I moved her to my main server because it seemed a waste of tradeskill opportunities to leave her languishing back on Proudmoore. My heart has never been in playing a DPS warrior, so I don't see much of a future for this toon beyond her gathering mats.

I'm noticing there's a consistent *3 level to these characters. Push to make it to a particular hurdle (a mount when that happened at 40, tradeskill threshold at 50), coast a little bit farther, then on to something less onerous.

Third wheel

Got my 'lock to 70 before WotLK with -hours- to spare, like 96 or so. Technically, days, but that doesn't sound as dramatic.

As a friend commented, I now have the trinity: tank, healer, and now a dps toon. I am legion. Whatever you need, I'm there for you, man. Three toons to get to 80, so what better time to start a new alt?