Rev Date:  06-07-2009

Note:  This is a restored "incomplete" copy from the old web site.  I did not have the most recent version backed up.  I will eventually rewrite the lost information and add information to include optimizations made with my BattleTweak program.

Here are some tips on how to squeeze some more performance out of that tired old PC or fine tune that killer gaming rig that you dumped enough cash into to buy a small country with.   This topic is only referring to tweaking Battlefield Vietnam.
First, I will cover a little information about the things that affect speed in the overall system of Network gaming.   If you don’t wanna know this stuff you can skip straight to the tweaking section but I would advise checking it out because every little thing helps…
Overall game speed and performance is affected by several main catagories….
1. The speed of your PC’s Hardware and What Software is running on your computer while playing the game.
2. The type of Internet service provider you have (DSL or Cable).   Quality of service can also be different from provider to provider by Geographic location.
3. Internet traffic at the time of gameplay and which network you are routed through at the time.
4. Distance that you are from the Server along with #3 will almost always affect your ping
5. And finally, The speed of the Server that you are playing the game on.
I must note that if your PC is just too old and slow, no amount of tweaking is going to make it run really fast or even run with so-so performance.   If you can get at least 60 FPS out of your system this will be decent performance but any less and your game will usually feel laggy, especially below 30 FPS.


Speed Of Your PC Hardware and Software

1st, Windows, System Files and Hardware
You can do the most to affect game performance by properly configuring and maintaining your Operating System(Windows XP, etc.), your own computer.  
1. Standard maintenance would include keeping your hard drive clean and defragmented.   I recommend using cCleaner, a freeware program to clean out your temp files, temporary internet files, etc.   cCleaner can be downloaded at: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
2. Make sure no spyware or viruses are on your computer.
3. When running the game, reduce the amount of background programs running on your computer while the game is playing…this frees up extra memory and dedicates more CPU time to the game…a freeware program called EndItAll can be used to temporarily kill unnecessary background applications.   It is advisable to restart your computer after your done playing the game so your background apps will be restored.   This program can be downloaded at: http://www.docsdownloads.com/Tier1/enditall.htm Always be careful not to kill any process that will make windows stop working (like svchost.exe, Isass.exe, explorer.exe, winlogon.exe, services.exe, alg.exe).   Also, don’t kill pnkbstra.exe or pnkbstrb.exe or else punkbuster will kick you or ban you for one hour because the punkbuster files are not running.   Less processes running is better.   My goal is to try to reduce my processes to under 30 processes in Windows XP(with no apps running like TS, xFire, etc.).   Vista is another story.   Vista usually has at least 50 processes running in the background with no apps running on the system.   Gee, I wonder why Vista gaming performance sucks?!?!?   I get 300-325 frames per second in XP and around 200 FPS in Vista 64-bit on the same exact hardware!   200 FPS still isn’t bad but I feel a little ripped off anyway and I feel sorry for other people with slower systems.
4. Disable your Antivirus/Spyware Scanners while playing the game but turn it back on before surfing the internet.
5. Turn off any installed 3rd Party Firewall that you may have and turn on the Windows Firewall…It doesn’t create any new processes running in the background and you still have a software Firewall running.
6. And last but not least, try to have the latest drivers for your motherboard, video, sound , and network hardware as well as the latest version of Directx for your OS(XP, Vista, etc).   Sometimes, unfortunately, updating drivers can also cause lag or other problems but this is usually a rare occurrence.   Troubleshooting driver and Directx problems is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

I will continue to add to this topic until it is complete.   The topic is just too big to write all at once.   I may also expand or modify information on already written material to add more clarity or to make those topics more complete.

2nd Battlefield Vietnam Game Configuration
There are two places where tweaks in game performance can be made: 1 The in-game menu under options and 2. game files- Video.con and VideoDefault.con where other game hidden game settings are stored.   Based on your system hardware capabilities, you can tweak the game in one of two directions.   For slower computers you can tweak the game to get more speed with less quality video and sound or, for faster systems, tweak the game for the highest quality game play possible with the best performance.  You will have to experiment with these settings to get the best performance vs quality.  Finding the best balance of speed vs quality requires experimenting with the settings.


#1 - In-Game Settings (defined)
Listed below are some basic definitions for the in-game settings menu and some recommendations.  For people with fast systems, I would say to crank everything up to the Max settings except the resolution, leave it at 800x600x32.

Video (in the Options menu)
Display Mode – The list of all supported resolutions for BFV on your system.  I recommend the default resolution, 800x600.  Why?  The game was designed to run at this resolution which means that the game will run at a higher frame rate than any other resolution, even 640x480, and the on-screen text(chat, announcements, etc) will be the least distorted and easiest to read.   32-bit color will give you the best picture/color quality(color blending from one color to another  more smoothly)  with lower performance.  16-bit color will give better performance with reduced color quality and some noticable color “banding” which appears as color strips(less-smooth blending between colors or color shades).

Graphics Quality (biggest affect on performance & quality)
Highest – Best Quality/Lowest Performance on slower systems.  Enables Bump Mapping(makes 2D textures appear 3D), uses advanced lighting methods to enhance the sheen of metallic objects.
High – Performance is improved slightly.  Some advanced lighting is removed.
Medium – Provides a major performance improvement for most people but realism is noticably reduced.  Bump Mapping is disabled, making textures appear more flat and dull.
Low – Performance is slightly better than Medium but image quality is not noticebly worse than Medium.  Almost all advanced effects are disabled.

Geometry Quality
Performance difference on this is not major since all critical geometries(buildings, vehicles, etc.) are shown at all settings to maintain fairness. 
High – All optional geometry(tree branches, details on windows, etc.) is shown up to the maximum view distance.
Medium – Some optional geometry is removed.
Low – All optional geometry is removed.

Texture Quality
Note:  Grass and fences are transparent textures.   Game performance on Video cards with a low amount of on-board RAM benefit most by lowering this setting.
High – Highest level of texture detail (use on video cards with 128MB or more on-board RAM)
Low – Grass appears as blurry clumps (64MB video cards)

Lightmaps
Provides added shadows on buildings and fixed structures.  Visual quality difference is not highly noticeable with this setting unchecked.

Shadows
Provides dynamic shadows for animated objects(players, vehicles, etc.).  Better performance during heavy battle scenes with lots of moving players & vehicles when this is unchecked.

Be sure to click the Save option before exiting the Video Options screen.

Broadband Performance
The type of Provider you have, the speed of the providers infrastructure, and system load can all affect game performance differently at any given time of the day.
In my area, DSL can have:
Download Speed = 256Kbps to 5Mbps (comparable)
Upload speed   = 768Kbps (faster)
while Cable Internet has;
Download Speed = 256Kbps to 4Mbps (comparable)
Upload speed   = 300kbps (slower)
If you share the connection with others on a home network with Cable Broadband(in my area) your ping may go thru the roof when there’s connection sharing of any kind while you’re playing BFV.   On my DSL connection, others can surf the net and a performance difference is hardly noticed(unless they are streaming music, surfing YouTube, etc.)
If you plan to create a home-based server, a connection with a high upload speed is recommended.  This will limit how many players your server can handle and still perform well.

Internet Traffic
Coming Soon (how the network traffic affects game play by time-of-day and connection routing)

Distance from the Server
Coming Soon (this is a no duh, but it should be included to make the subject complete)

Speed of the Game Server
Coming Soon (speed affected by how the game provider runs his/her setup and what else is running with your game)