Hello everyone,
I wanted to post some instructions on how to improve your FPS during sieges. Under default settings, Aion logs everything regarding combat into a file in real time - the more players around, the more information is entered into a notepad in real time. This is what causes the game to freeze regardless of your pc specs, due to the fact that Aion is also relying on a single processor core to handle everything (the game doesn't know how to work with multiple cores). In order to make this bearable and make sieges playable (fps will be 15-30, but smooth, with no freezes, making it 100% playable) you have to change a certain setting to make the game stop collecting every single information received.
All you have to do is apply these settings to the system.cfg config:
e_hw_occlusion_culling_water = "0"
g_showFPS = "1"
r_MultiThreaded = "1"
r_MultiGPU = "2"
sys_physics_CPU = "0"
ca_UseFacialAnimation = "0"
ca_UsePhysics = "0"
g_chatlog = "0"
g_save_preset = "1"
g_maxfps = "300"
gpu_particle_physics = "1"
r_TextureStreaming = "0"
e_vegetation_wind = "0"
e_stencil_shadows = "0"
g_ui_stillview = "1"
g_uiFX = "0"
g_NoWarFog ="1"
g_blade_fx = "0"
g_blade_time = "0.0"
Note that most important setting is g_chatlog (also you can scroll up in the existing settings to make sure it's not already there, if you find it delete it or change the value to 0)
In order to modify system config file you have to get a config editor. You can go to http://rainy.ws/download/ and get the config editor from there. Run the file as admin and modify the config with the lines above. After that, make sure to make the file system.cfg READ ONLY, otherwise the game will revert many of the settings to default when you first load in (including the chatlog setting). Also, whatever graphical settings you change after making the file read only won't save (so next time you launch the game it will have the settings you had when you first made system.cfg read only), so make sure you set them to whatever you usually use under normal conditions. During sieges it's of course recommended to have everything as low as possible besides view distance and disable character animations in order to improve FPS as much as possible.
Additional info: To modify the config you would have to start the config editor, load the config (go to where you have aionempire located, go to Aionempire-> Aion -> system.cfg), make the changes you wish and then click "Save". Make sure the file is NOT on read only yet, as it won't save if it is. Make it read only AFTER you saved your settings.
Once you applied the settings you can start the game and you'll definitely notice the improvement in the next siege (it can actually be noticed even in pandemonium / sanctum, when there are many people around the game won't freeze as it usually does anymore)
P.S: With these settings you can't use DPS meter. Any DPS meter makes use of the chatlog file to record the dps of people, which is how it can tell you what damage / heal you did and others did. As I mentioned before, the log file records EVERYTHING (even buffs applied to self / others applied to themselves, I think it even records the targets which are in stealth and you cannot see, but I'm not sure 100% on that as it could be exploited). Basically , you have 2 choices. 1 - freeze free siege with no log file logging everything or 2 - DPS meter which will record everything and will be able to display information to you. It's up to you to make your choice, arguably you could change the settings every time before a siege and make dps meter obsolete and then change them back to the default to use dps meter (mainly the chatlog command, 0 = no freeze in siege and no dps meter, 1 = freezes in siege but you get dps meter) but personally I find that too much of a hassle.
