[Guide] Better performance on ShellShock Live

Hey ShellShockers!

As we already know, this game is not optimized at all. I run other games that have very chaotic game play with hundreds of things going on at once and I get the same FPS as SSLS. This is quite pathetic and if you're having trouble running this game, it's not your fault, don't worry. This guide will help you to get a better performance in-game for a pleasing gaming experience.

Also, most of these options can be applied or used for any other games on Steam, so you're welcome!

For each tip, I will put an Imgur link so you can see what I'm talking about. I haven't put any pictures here as it takes up way too much space. My computer is not in English but you should be able to see what I'm trying to do in the pictures.

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Basic Adjustments

These are basic altering that mostly have to do with altering the game itself. Nothing complicated and quite straightforward options that many people have probably already tried.

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Go to the local file folder of the game. It is usually located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ShellShock Live for Windows users. If you can't find it there, right click the ShellShock Live icon in your Steam library, click properties, go to the local files tab and then click browse local files.

Once you get there, right click on the ShellShock Live app. Go to properties, compatibility tab, and put a check on disable screen scaling on high DPI settings. Also put a check on run as administrator. This didn't work for me personally but if you want you can play around with different compatibility modes
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When you are in the launch settings, make sure you set the graphics quality to low. Play on the lowest resolution possible as well. This gave me a significant boost in performance. Too small to see anything? Launch it in full screen. You will sacrifice a lot of the graphics quality but constant 100FPS is worth it
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⒊

After you launch the game, open the task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), right click on the SSLS process, click more information, right click the SSLS process in the new tab again, click set priority, and finally click high.

Do not set it on realtime! It will make the computer very unstable. Nice little stuff for a few extra FPS.​

⒋

When you're playing the game, close any programs that are running in the background especially your internet browser. Browsers such as Google Chrome are very CPU hungry so make sure you close it. You can also download Razer Cortex which does this for you; it pauses all the background processes until the game has been closed.

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Advanced Adjustments

These adjustments will be a little more complicated and will often directly deal with your PC itself and/or involve third party software. None of these will destroy your CPU from overheating or anything and all of the links I've put here are completely safe and legit so you should be fine. You can expect a lot from some of these options in my opinion.

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Use the CPU Core Unparking Utility and unpark your CPU. Click Here and download the tool. Once you've downloaded it, open it and click check status. After that it should show you a list of your processors so click unpark all and unpark them. This will basically force your processors to perform the best of their capabilities.

If you are using a laptop or desktop without a cooling fan however, I won't do it unless you know what you're doing.
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Go to My Computer, right click anywhere and click properties. You should get a control panel window popping up. Go click advanced settings, click settings for performance and put a check on prioritize performance or simply click custom an uncheck everything.
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Again, go to My Computer but this time right click your C: drive, click properties, go to the tools tab and click optimize/defrag. You should now get a new window. Go a head and highlight all of your drives on the list and click optimize.

C: drive is almost always where the operating system is installed in, so if your OS is in other drive like D: then you should optimize that drive instead.
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If your desktop has a lot of apps - I would say more than 10 - then you should hide all of those icons by right clicking the desktop. This gives a few extra FPS.
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⒌

Clean your computer by using CCleaner. CCleaner is an excellent software for cleaning and solving registry issues. Once downloaded, analyze in the registry and cleaner tabs and delete everything you see on the list shown. Analyze multiple times to make sure you fixed all the junk in your PC. There are tutorials out there for this program so look it up if you're confused.

You should also scan for malware that may be lagging out your PC by using your own personal anti-malware programs. I personally recommend Malwarebytes, it's definitely the best anti-malware software out there. It saved my PC few times from Trojan!
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⒍

Try using the Process Explorer app. What it does is essentially constrains your operating system and forces it to focus solely on the game that is running. Not the best choice, but you can always try for perhaps a few extra FPS.
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⒎

Update all of your drivers. Yes, I mean all, both graphic drivers and audio drivers. Update everything! If you have a Realtek sound driver then you must manually update that driver since it doesn't have the auto update function. Click Here and click high definition video codecs to download the updated versions.

For graphic drivers, if you have an Nvidia graphics card, Click Here to get the update installer. If you have an AMD GPU, Click Here.
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Hopefully this thread helped you with performance issues for SSLS. I said this already, but these tips will be able to be applied on other games on Steam so if you have that one game that you love but can't run it, go ahead and play it now!

If you know any ways to boost FPS, comment below and I will add it to this list for people to check it out. Thanks and happy gaming.

 

Please, please, PLEASE remove CPUCores from this list. It is snake oil that benefits almost no one, produced by a shady developer, and can be done FOR FREE with other programs anyways!

 

I will look into that more later and think about it. Mind giving me some of the names of the programs you mentioned?

 

IIRC it's Process Explorer. It's worth noting that messing around with process affinity is generally not going to help with either program because Windows isn't stupid in terms of allocating resources. Additionally, this game is very light on CPU to begin with - GPU is typically the bottleneck.

 

Nice guide, many people probably have no idea of those things.

And for heaven's sake, that signature. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

 

Is it normal that Rocket League doesn't have this? It's the only game I have that doesn't have a corresponding app, making me think something got deleted somehow.

 

The .exe file of the game doesn't have to be called by its own name. For example, PAYDAY 2's .file is called "payday2_win32_release". Just look for an application file with a distinct game icon, it shouldn't be too deep within the folders. Also, since Rocket League is a pretty modern game, I don't think compatibility modes will work that well, but you could always try.

Thanks for the link. Seems like you're probably right, since I run CS:GO - which is CPU intensive - slightly better than SSLS, and I have integrated graphics. I will put it on the list anyways, doesn't hurt to have more options.