How to run vonBiomes (and Mechwarrior 5) well? Let's dive into some performance tips and advice! vonBiomes works well with medium and high-end systems, and can also be run on low-end systems with adjustments.
Low-end Systems
You can run vonBiomes on lower-end systems. It just needs to set up Mechwarrior 5's graphic quality open to low and also deactivate all performance related options of vonBiomes in Mod Options. You can also reduce your resolution. Short mod lists and running no high-impact mods also help!
- Set Mechwarrior 5's Graphic Options to Low or Medium, especially shadows
- Set your resolution lower, e.g. to 720p
- Reduce your Mod List to what you need. Do not run high-impact mods like War FX.
- Enable DLSS on Nvidia or FSR on AMD and use performance or high performance
- vonBiomes Mod Options:
Disable all Mod Options that impact performance, especially:
* Volumetric Fog
* Global Illumination
* Check disable Volumetric Fog
* Disable Ground Fogs/Smoke
Medium Systems
Medium systems are in the area of a 2070 GPU Graphics Card and more than 8 GB RAM. vonBiomes is tested to run with around 50–60 FPS rendering speed on these systems. Do not activate the additional performance options, but you can keep Volumetric Clouds on if your FPS is okay for you.
- You can set your Mechwarrior 5's graphic quality options to High
- Resolutions of 1080p or 4K should be no problem
- Optimize your Mod List! Less is more in terms of performance, especially mods like War FX cost 10 or more FPS
- Enable DLSS on Nvidia or FSR on AMD and use performance or quality settings
- vonBiomes Mod Options:
Enable only Volumetric Clouds if your FPS is in an okay range, but keep Volumetric Fog and Global Illumination disabled
High-end Systems
High-end systems can run all the quality options of vonBiomes with ease, from Volume Fog to Global Illumination (GI) and more. With all the advanced quality options enabled in Mod Options, you should get 60FPS+ and have a fantastic-looking Mechwarrior 5 game experience!
- Quality options in Mechwarrior 5 can be high or ultra
- Running the game in 4K resolution is easy in the range
- It is still recommended to avoid some high-impact mods like War FX, but they should run well along still
- Enable DLSS helps still with frame rates, even on high-end systems, it is advised to set it to quality or high quality
- vonBiomes Mod Options:
You can enable the advanced Mod Options for better quality, especially Volumetric Fog and Global Illumination and still not-to-high GPU loads.
Having bad FPS? First purge your game's INI files!
Over time, the game ini's files can get cluttered with mod being installed, uninstalled, settings changed, etc. If you have bad FPS rates, the first step is to delete the game's ini files.They get recreated by Mechwarrior 5 on the next start, but please: backup first!
This re-creates the default settings, you can also first double check if you have your values in Mod Options on the standard recommendations!
You can find the game files normally on your C: drive where your Windows is installed.
- Make sure you are able to see the hidden system folders. In your Windows file explorer, go to View > Options. In the second tab "Display", uncheck "Hide System Files" and under Hidden Files and Folders, check "Show hidden files and folders"
- In your Windows file explorer, go to:
C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\MW5Mercs\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor - Cut and paste (Ctrl X, Ctrl V) the INI files in a backup folder, e.g. on your desktop.
This cleans out the INI files. One note: you will lose custom key binds. If you have such, try first to keep the input.ini in the folder and not cut it away or delete it.
Still having bad FPS after that despite adjusting the Mechwarrior 5 setting and Mod Options? Try a Mod List with only vonBiomes, vonHUD and vonMissions active!
If running the game with only vonBiomes, vonHUD and vonMissions active gives you good performance in e.g. Instant Action, then you have probably a Mod active, that impacts your performance negatively. Make sure you do not run any Incompatible Mods, further reduce your Mod list and avoid high-impact mods like:
- War FX
- Volatile
- Weapons FX Mods
- Mods that increase texture resolutions
FPS issues can also result from wrongly set up Mod List load orders. In general, and if there is no other good and clear reason, always keep the original load order of mods. Also make sure nothing overrides or conflicts with vonBiomes.
Known Mod Load Order traps:
- MW5 Compatibility Pack: needs to be loaded first (lowest number) in mod list
Still having troubles? Get help on Discord or the vonHQ Forum!
Don't be afraid to ask! On the vonMods Discord, you can find the official #help channel. Share your problem with the community and we are happy to support! You can also create your vonHQ user account and use the new forum if you do not have Discord!