Performance and Optimization
MERC is an extremely part-heavy game, clocking in at over 140000 parts. We want to be transparent on the current state of performance so you can run the game as well as possible - Here’s how to raise your FPS:
Lower your ROBLOX Graphics Quality
- Whilst this may seem obvious for most people, this is the first step to get better performance.
Here’s a video determining the fps for each graphics level -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-st6521Y5aY
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The largest impact is between graphics level 4 to level 6. There was a significant 30fps increase if you go from graphics level 6 down to 4.
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There was minimal performance impact going above graphics level 6.
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Whilst performance was extraordinarily smooth, with over 100fps in graphics level 1 and 2 - the game did not look very good.
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Graphics level 5 offered a significant increase in graphics without having a significant performance hit.
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Obviously everyone’s PC is different, so it is best to test out what works best for you. Be aware that low FPS can cause unintended issues and bugs to occur.
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Each PC is different and there may be significant FPS differences on the same specs.
Disable Shadows
MERC Offers an option for you to disable GlobalShadows. This will significantly increase FPS, especially at higher graphics levels.
Go to settings → Performance → Disable Shadows, and turn the setting on.
Disabling GlobalShadows will not have an impact if your graphics quality is already below 6-7.
With GlobalShadows:
Without GlobalShadows:
Turning off GlobalShadows brought a ~20fps increase in performance inside the control room. Turning off Shadows is a great way to optimize without lowering your render distance or texture and material quality.
Disable Textures
This last option makes all materials in MERC the “SmoothPlastic” material.
This is also a setting found in the same section as the “Disable Shadows” option.
This option does not significantly increase FPS, and also dosen’t significantly decrease graphics quality. It’s an option that can be used as a “last-resort” option to increase performance.
This option pairs well with lower graphics quality levels as it has a barely noticable impact on graphics, whilst still slightly increasing FPS.
Conclusion
Theres still more to come.
Keep in mind that this is still an early build of MERC.
We’ve shifted a large amount of focus towards performance, and we’ve already seen a notable improvement in performance, with the current build bringing in ~35% better performance than previous versions (Even with more parts!)
And we’re still not done. We have identified a major root cause for performance issues and we are working hard on optimizing and fixing the issues, without compromising your graphics quality.
There’s more we can do. We are finding issues with certain areas - that are having worse impact on performance than other areas. We are working towards lowering part counts and general optimization of areas we have identified as problematic.
There is still no release date in MERC, and we want to bring you a stable and finished game.
Your experience may differ.
Like previously stated, everyone’s PC is different. You’re lower end PC may perform better than mine.
We’re bringing in so much more in V1.0.
One reason why MERC is currently seeing performance and optimization struggles is because of the new concepts it introduces, especially after the alpha test release.
You didn’t see much there - So much more has been introduced recently and so much more is being planned and built and made right as I speak, that it’s difficult to say the scale of this update.
We chose the control room as the benchmark area for this test. The control room is centrally located and in the area with most parts and most things going on - and the area with by far, the worst performance rates. All other areas of the facility have better performance than the control room - and the game is designed so you don’t need to spend all of your time in the control room.