Performance tweaks for hardcore potatoes.

**Disclaimer:** This isn't new, but as the engine itself evolves there might appear some new ways to boost performance of the game which I could as well discover by myself while also bringing up existing tweaks, stated earlier on this sub / steam community / other sites.

Please feel free to correct me and add your suggestions.
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So, I use a potato config laptop with Celeron N2920, 768mb integrated Intel GPU and 2GB DDR3L RAM. It is unable even to load in a matchmaking game without being immediately timed out, on the lowest settings in-game. To make it playable, I did next:

**1.** Go to Steam / steamapps / common / dota 2 beta / game / bin / win32. Find dota2.exe and make a shortcut for it.

**2.** Go to Properties of shortcut and write launch options after the file path.

(example: "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\game\bin\win32\dota2.exe" -high -dxlevel 80 -nod3d9ex -console -noaafonts -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd -useforcedmparms)

This is equivalent to setting launch options in-Steam to the point that Steam prefers to launch 64-bit version of dota which consumes more memory (I have tried -32bit option in Steam and it didn't help).

In case you don't know what are these options for:

- *-high* - high CPU usage priority for dota;

- *-dxlevel 80* - setting the game to be run in DirectX 8.0 mode (the best performance for low configs, you can also use *-dxlevel 81/90/95* or *-dx9 / -dx11* commands); **edit:** DX8 is obsolete according to comments, but I have checked it in comparison with *-dx9 / -dxlevel 90* and it didn't make any difference.

- *-nod3d9ex* - disables D3D9 external rendering (slight FPS boost);

- *-console* - enables console ingame;

- *-noaafonts* - disables font antialiasing;

- *-noforcemaccel* *-noforcemspd* *-useforcedmparms* - disables forced mouse acceleration (make sure to uncheck it in Windows as well in mouse settings)

**3.** create autoexec.cfg file in Steam / steamapps / common / dota 2 beta / game / dota / cfg. My config is following:

mat_queue_mode "2" // If u have processor with multi-core, set to 2, otherwise -1

cl_forcepreload "0" // Whether we should force preloading

fps_max "120" // Frame rate limiter. Set this to your monitor refresh rate

r_renderoverlayfragment "0"

cl_interp_ratio "0" // Sets the interpolation amount (final amount is cl_interp_ratio/ cl_updaterate)

cl_interp "0"

mem_level "0" // Lowest setting for max fps

gpu_level "0" // Lowest setting for max fps

gpu_mem_level "0" // Lowest setting for max fps

cpu_level "0" // Lowest setting for max fps

mat_vsync "0" // Stops screen refresh rate exceeding refresh rate of monitor

mat_triplebuffered "0"

dota_cheap_water "1"

dota_embers "0"

r_deferred_height_fog "0"

r_screenspace_aa "0"

r_deferred_simple_light "0"

r_rainparticledensity "0" // Density of Particle Rain (0 - 1)

r_flashlightdepthtexture "0"

r_shadowfromworldlights "0" // Enable shadowing from world lights

dota_screen_shake "0" // Disable/Enable screen shake

cl_detaildist "0" // Distance at which detail props are no longer visible

cl_detailfade "0" // Distance across which detail props fade in

r_drawmodeldecals "0"

r_decals "0"

r_decalstaticprops "0" // Decal static props test.

ragdoll_sleepaftertime "0" // After this many seconds of being basically stationary, the ragdoll will go to sleep

r_worldlightmin "0"

props_break_max_pieces "0" // Maximum prop breakable piece count (-1 = model default)

r_worldlights "0" // Number of world lights to use per vertex

r_decal_overlap_count "0"

mat_bumpmap "0"

mat_specular "0" // Enable/Disable specularity for perf testing

mat_phong "0"

mp_usehwmvcds "-1" // Enable the use of the hw morph vcd(s). (-1 = never, 1 = always, 0 = based upon GPU)

mp_usehwmmodels "-1" // Enable the use of the hw morph models. (-1 = never, 1 = always, 0 = based upon GPU)

dota_minimap_hero_size "900"

mat_clipz "0"

mat_disable_bloom "1"

mat_aaquality "0"

mat_software_aa_quality "0"

mat_software_aa_strength "0"

mat_colcorrection_disableentities "1"

mat_triplebuffered "0"

mat_specular "0"

mat_bumpmap "0"

mat_parallaxmap "0"

mat_detail_tex "0"

mat_dof_enabled "0"

mat_scope_fancy "0"

r_propsmaxdist "800"

r_shadowmaxrendered "5"

r_3dsky "0"

r_waterdrawreflection "0"

r_waterdrawrefraction "0"

r_waterforceexpensive "0"

r_waterforcereflectentities "0"

m_customaccel "0"

mat_autoexposure_max "0"

mat_compressedtextures "1"

mat_fastspecular "0"

mat_forceaniso "0"

mat_forcehardwaresync "0"

mat_managedtextures "0"

mat_mipmaptextures "0"

mat_parallaxmap "0"

mat_phong "0"

mat_shadowstate "0"

r_3dsky "0"

r_ambientboost "0"

r_deferred_simple_projections "0"

r_drawbatchdecals "0"

r_flex "0"

r_maxdlights "0"

r_occlusion "0"

r_shadow_shortenfactor "0"

snd_mute_losefocus "0"

engine_no_focus_sleep "0"

cl_threaded_bone_setup "0"

cl_threaded_init "0"

cl_use_simd_bones "0"

cl_timeout "60"

cl_smooth "0"

cl_showhelp "0"

cl_showpluginmessages "0"

cl_show_splashes "0"

cl_blobulator_freezing_max_metaball_radius "0"

cl_aggregate_particles "0"

**edit**: some of these commands don't work anymore in Reborn.

**Suggestions** **that** **may** **help:**

- after running dota, load into a bot game before going to matchmaking. First load is the longest and you may get freeze-timeout or don't load in at all. (*cl_forcepreload* command doesn't help)

- after picking your hero, press Alt+Enter to preload them (reduces the risk of being dropped out compared to as if all 10 heroes are loaded in simultaneously)

- Exclusive fullscreen is preferred to Borderless Window for the sake of additional 5-10 FPS.

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edit*: Just tested a -nosound launch option (disables sound in game) and it seems like slightly contributing to performance as well. Can anyone confirm?