The Immortal Empires map suffers from “VRAM Bloat.” Because the map is so vast, the engine often struggles to clear old textures from the cache as you pan from Cathay to Lustria. By modifying the preferences.script, we can force the engine to handle texture streaming more aggressively and disable the heavy “3D UI” elements that contribute to campaign map lag.
File Path
The script is located in your hidden AppData folder. Ensure the game and the Creative Assembly launcher are fully closed before editing.
%APPDATA%\The Creative Assembly\Warhammer3\scripts\preferences.script.txt
Technical Note: Unlike previous Total War titles, Warhammer III utilizes DirectX 12 natively. If you find your game crashing after edits, check the gfx_device_type line and ensure it is set to 1 (DX12).
Optimized IE Campaign Configuration Block
Search for these specific lines in your script. These settings focus on map fluidity and turn-time stability.
| Parameter | Recommended Value | Technical Purpose |
gfx_video_memory | 0 | Forces the game to use your system’s actual VRAM report rather than a “Safe” limit. |
gfx_texture_filtering | 2 | Sets Anisotropic Filtering to 4x or 8x; 16x causes map stuttering on IE. |
gfx_shaman_lighting | false | Disables complex campaign lighting that adds “glow” but tanks FPS. |
gfx_blood_effects | false | (On Map) Disables blood stains on the campaign map which accumulate and cause lag. |
gfx_depth_of_field | false | Removes the blur on the horizon, improving visibility and performance. |
gfx_video_memory 0; # Use unlimited video memory
gfx_texture_filtering 2; # Balanced AF for campaign map
gfx_shaman_lighting false; # Reduces shader overhead
gfx_depth_of_field false; # Increases horizon clarity
gfx_ui_scale 1; # Native UI scaling to prevent blur
gfx_ssao false; # Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (Heavy on IE Map)HowTo: Engineering a Stutter-Free Immortal Empires
Follow these steps on GameEngineer.net to maximize your campaign efficiency:
- Corruption Visuals: In the in-game settings, set “Environment Detail” to Medium. This reduces the complexity of the “Corruption” overlays (Skaven, Chaos, Vampire), which are the leading cause of FPS drops when looking at corrupted territory.
- The “Porthole” Fix: Change Portholes to 2D. In IE, 3D portholes render a miniature version of the character model every time you select an army, causing a $5–10 \text{ FPS}$ hit.
- V-Sync & Window Mode: Run the game in “Windowed Borderless.” Warhammer III’s DX12 implementation handles task-switching better in borderless mode, reducing the chance of a crash during long AI turns.
- Tree Detail: Set Trees to Low or Medium. The IE map is covered in forests; rendering individual leaves at “Ultra” provides almost no visual benefit from the campaign camera height but heavily taxes the CPU.
- Fog of War: If you have high GPU usage while stationary, disable “Cloth Simulation.” Believe it or not, the “shimmering” effect of the fog of war uses the same physics engine as unit capes.
Technical Explanation: VRAM Paging and Turn-Time Lag
The Immortal Empires map uses a Global Texture Atlas. When you pan the camera, the engine “pages” in new textures for the specific climate (Desert, Tundra, Jungle). Setting gfx_video_memory 0 prevents the game from “throttling” these textures. If the game thinks you are low on VRAM, it will constantly swap textures in and out, leading to the “hitching” you feel when moving the camera.
During AI turns, the bottleneck shifts to the CPU. However, the GPU is still rendering the map. By disabling SSAO and Shaman Lighting in the script, you reduce the GPU’s “idle” workload. This lowers the overall system power draw and thermal output, allowing your CPU to maintain higher Turbo Boost frequencies, which directly speeds up the calculation of AI faction moves.