PERFORMANCE TIPS
Video Test and Performance
The Diablo II Installer screen provides the Video Test option. You may choose from the
available video modes to improve performance on your computer.
This option allows you to select hardware 3D acceleration modes, or to run in DirectDraw (2D)
software mode. To offer 3D accelerated modes your video card must have at least 8 MB of
texture RAM installed on it. Choosing Glide or Direct3D acceleration generally improves
performance greatly.
Music and Performance
Disabling music in Diablo II reduces the amount of work your processor has to do. This may improve
performance on older or slower computers.
- To disable music in Diablo II, press the Esc key.
- Then, click on the Sound Options item in the menu that appears.
- Next, click on the Music Volume slider and drag it all the way to the left.
- Press Esc again to return to the game.
Video Options and Performance
Various graphics options may be adjusted to improve performance.
- To adjust the video options, press the Esc key.
- Next, click on the Video Options item in the menu that appears.
Lighting Quality
This option adjusts the smoothness of the lighting. There are three quality
settings: LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH. Setting this option to LOW increases performance.
Blended Shadows
This option blends the shadows on the screen. Turning this option OFF increases performance.
Perspective Mode (not available in DirectDraw)
This option dynamically scales parts of the world to simulate the visual effect of
perspective view. Turning this option OFF makes the game look less 3-Dimensional
and increases performance.
CD Cache Performance
You can change the cache size of your CD-ROM to increase performance
and decrease CD load times. To do this:
- Opening the Start Menu
- Select Settings
- Choose the Control Panel folder
- Open the System control panel
- Select the Performance tab
- Click on the File Systems button
- Select the CD-ROM tab
CD-ROMs use different cache sizes and access patterns. So, you may need to
experiment with these to find the optimum setting for your CD-ROM. If you
have 32MB of RAM, you should set your cache size as small as possible.
Background Applications and Performance
Programs that run in the background while on the Internet, such as ICQ, web
browsers, voice communication applications, Pointcast, or Netcast cut into
the speed at which Diablo II plays. Turning off these Internet-specific
applications can also increase your game speed.
System RAM and Performance
Another method of increasing performance in Diablo II is to add RAM to your
computer if you are playing on a 32MB system. Windows 95/98 uses about 5 MB
of your available RAM, and this causes Diablo II to use virtual memory. This
process is slower than using RAM directly, and while the speed of your
processor is a factor in the performance of the game, additional memory can
greatly enhance your game speed on baseline systems.
3D Accelerators and Performance
To increase performance over DirectDraw (2D) install a 3D accelerator video
card with at least 8 MB of texture RAM which supports the Glide or Direct3D
API. |
Diablo II Demo 
