Minion Masters is a great game that most people can run fine. However even high-end computers notice issues with this game’s poor optimisation which can cause lag, crashes, graphical anomalies and slow performance. This guide won’t fix all those issues but aims to minimise them.
Contents
Guide to Optimize Settings
All credit goes to Randy Marsh!
Introduction
This guide exists to minimise any performance issue players face in Minion Masters. I try to achieve a balance between pleasant graphics and stable performance while also showing my reasoning and give you some flexibility with your settings.
There are some optimisation issues present in Minion Masters and this guide won’t solve all those problems, but hopefully have a positive impact in boosting performance while still appearing pleasant to the eye.
Settings -> Visual
In this first section we’ll go over the initial menu for the visual settings before we dive deeper. It doesn’t matter what your Quality Preset is set to as we’ll be modifying it ourselves. Ensure your resolution is also correctly set to your monitor with the appropriate refresh rate. This may be something like “1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz.”
Now, for the rest of the settings I will list them below with my reasoning.
FullScreen
Enable fullscreen mode for better performance, however disable if you want faster and more stable alt-tabbing.
V-Sync
I recommend disabling this setting in-game, but enabling it via your operating system. V-Sync is important for smoother graphical performance however it’s best enabled manually by your graphics card rather than the game itself. Games tend to have poor implementations of V-Sync and introduce input lag.
Ragdolls
I prefer to keep ragdolls enabled because it may help in gameplay. If it’s disabled minions simply disappear when they die and it’s a little off-putting to witness. The ragdolling effect itself isn’t necessary but I only keep it enabled to easily keep track of minion deaths. You can disable this if you want more performance and don’t mind the disappearing minions.
Screenshake
Disable this setting as it isn’t necessary. It’s only worth enabling if you really enjoy the screen shaking after a fireball hits the ground.
Camera Movement
Disable this too. It’s not necessary and adds a tiny amount of processing power when enabled. I like the feeling of having this enabled but we don’t need it, especially important if this game gives you motion sickness.
Split Versus Screen
This setting is irrelevant for this guide. I personally keep it enabled because I like to see my opponents masters and it doesn’t require any more resources.
Blood & Gore
I keep this enabled because this it helps with keeping track of minions and looks nice. It may require a tiny amount of resources but it’s negligible for most and adds to the game.
Streamer Battle UI
This setting is irrelevant for this guide but I keep it enabled because I stream. Come watch me at twitch.tv/efstratios4652 whenever you have the chance!. You can try the UI if you like the style too!
Settings -> Visual -> Advanced
In this next section we’re getting deeper into the graphics settings. In the advance tab we can go even deeper still, but for now let’s only focus on this menu.
Texture Quality
I keep this on High. The textures are way too ugly for me on low and look so much better on high. However, Medium is a fine compromise.
Shadows
Only Directional Light Shadows. I like shadows but this setting is a fine compromise, especially when paired with the next setting…
Shadow Resolution
High. The shadows just look like blobs on low while Very High isn’t much beneficial. Medium can be a fine compromise too.
Particle Quality
Low. I don’t notice much of a difference in graphics when set to High.
Extra Lights
Off. It just adds extra lighting to certain areas of the arena such as more lighting around the decals of the master towers. It’s not too important.
Rendering Mode
Diffuse Textures Only. This may slightly improve performance with very little loss to graphics. I flip flop between whether I notice the graphical difference so YMMV.
Settings -> Visual -> Advanced -> Image Effects
And now we head to the Image Effects tab after going from Visual -> Advanced settings.
Depth of Field
Disabled. I don’t notice any graphical improvements with this so I disabled it. The only effect I’ve seen is when the Versus Screen comes up this adds a little blur to it which isn’t necessary hence I’ve disabled it.
SSAO
Disabled. This setting adds a few little blurry shadows to the ground/environment but isn’t high quality hence I’ve disabled it.
AntiAliasing
Disabled. Unfortunately we can’t select the type of Anti-Aliasing we want to use but I don’t notice much of a graphical improvement with Anti-Aliasing so I disabled it. Keeping this disabled should also improve frame rate issues. Anti-Aliasing basically smooths out or blurs jagged pixels, not necessary unless you notice a lot of jagged pixels.
Heat distortion
Disabled. I don’t really notice a graphical difference, I think it might affect the details of fire-related effects but they still look decent when this is disabled.
Bloom
Any. This is really dependent on what style you like. Usually bloom is over-used and adds an annoying amount of brightness to images. I don’t particularly like it but I have it enabled for two reasons. Firstly, because it helps cover up some lower quality details e.g. it can help cover up the lower quality textures on Morellia’s hair so it looks better and shinier, however it can be annoying and make her hair glow too much. It also adds some brightness to the bridges making it easier to see who controls it and add brightness to highlight certain aspects of each arena.
Vignetting
Disabled. Vignetting basically reduces the brightness or saturation around the edges of the screen, so you if you enable this you’ll notice the edges of the screen are a little darker and softer. Not necessary unless you want that effect.
Chromatic Aberration
Disabled. This effect is useless and just appears to “stretch” the screen if you enable it and theoretically adds some different colours to the edge of pixels to appear smooth, similar to the depth of field setting. Basically it’s an effect game developers borrowed from the photography world and it’s a mystery why they would because many photographers usually don’t want it. Games use it in a quick and cheap attempt at realism which is terrible method in my opinion and is more suited towards horror games or where mood/emotion are important.
Motion Blur
Disabled, especially if you get motion sickness from playing. I despise most uses of motion blur since barely anyone utilises it correctly and isn’t necessary in many games.
Screenspace Reflections
Disabled. Screenspace Reflections are a quick and light way of adding reflections similar to SSAO occlusions. Although this barely consumes any resources, it may add issues like graphical artefacts, especially since most game developers use partial screen resolution which can cause flickering. I barely notice a difference with this anyway, so it’s not worth it.
Settings -> Visual -> Advanced -> World Detail
And finally we arrive at the last section, the World Detail menu, where I found the settings weren’t worth disabling for most people. But let’s get into it…
Decals
On. This isn’t hugely necessary but adds some nice little details such as cloth on the top outer ring of your master tower. It doesn’t require hefty resources and adds some nice details. Also, disabling it might look weird if you don’t fiddle around with the lighting settings as those decals do have light around them.
Environment Effects
On. I found this setting really adds a lot of personality to various arenas. You can disable it depending on the arena you like, but even in the default arena it adds more oomph to the little water towers on the edges.
Misc. Objects
On. Similar to the above, this adds more personality to various arenas. If you disable it the water towers on the default arena just because blank blocks which don’t look as pretty. Other arenas have different results.
Dynamic Coverage
On. This doesn’t affect the graphics at all but adds…you guessed it – more personality to the game by having the announcer react to certain events. Killing a bunch of minions all at once is all the more satisfying when the announcer rejoices at your actions, and the price is very little, if any performance degradation.
Spectators
On. This isn’t important and can be disabled if a lot of spectators make you lag, however I like to keep it enabled so you know if you’re playing with a streamer and how many are watching.
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