WoW Forever ships the modern client's Options: a graphics quality slider from 1 to 10, a second set of settings for raids and battlegrounds, a frame rate cap and a camera distance slider. We read every setting below in the game's own files (client 1.60.1.70938), with what Blizzard's tooltips say each one costs; what we could not check in the game is marked as such.
Where the settings are
Press Esc, then Options. The graphics settings are under Graphics; the camera's are under Controls, in the Camera section.
The 1 to 10 slider, and a second set for raids
Graphics Quality moves every line of the panel at once, from 1 to 10, and each line can then be changed by hand. The panel holds two sets: Base Game Quality, and Raid Graphics Quality, which the game uses only once Enable Raid and Battleground Settings is ticked. Blizzard calls it "an alternate graphic setting for Raids and Battlegrounds": the open world can stay high while raids and battlegrounds, where many players' spells fill the screen, get a lighter set.
In each list, the game marks one level Recommended: the level it uses by default.
What each setting costs, in Blizzard's words
| Setting |
Levels |
What Blizzard's tooltip says |
Console variable |
| Shadow Quality |
Low to Ultra High |
controls "both the method and quality of shadows"; lowering it "may greatly improve performance" |
graphicsShadowQuality, 0 to 5 |
| SSAO |
Disabled to Ultra |
the advanced lighting effects; lowering it "may greatly improve performance" |
graphicsSSAO, 0 to 4 |
| Liquid Detail |
Low to High |
how water is drawn; lowering it may improve performance |
graphicsLiquidDetail, 0 to 3 |
| Particle Density |
Low to Ultra |
the particles of spells, fires and other effects; lower it to improve performance |
graphicsParticleDensity |
| Depth Effects |
Disabled to High |
depth-based particle effects; lowering it may improve performance |
graphicsDepthEffects, 0 to 3 |
| Compute Effects |
Low to Ultra |
volumetric fog and some particle effects, which "may be more expensive for older graphics cards" |
graphicsComputeEffects, 0 to 4 |
| Texture Resolution |
Low, Fair, High |
the detail of every texture; lowering it "may slightly improve performance" |
graphicsTextureResolution, 0 to 2 |
| Projected Textures |
Disabled, Enabled |
textures projected onto the world; turning it off may improve performance |
graphicsProjectedTextures, 0 or 1 |
| View Distance |
1 to 10 |
how far you can see; "larger view distances require more memory and a faster processor" |
graphicsViewDistance, 0 to 9 |
| Environment Detail |
1 to 10 |
how far you can see objects; lower it to improve performance |
graphicsEnvironmentDetail, 0 to 9 |
| Ground Clutter |
1 to 10 |
how dense grass and foliage are, and how far they reach; lower it to improve performance |
graphicsGroundClutter, 0 to 9 |
On the 1 to 10 sliders, the console counts from 0: /console graphicsViewDistance 9 is the slider's 10. The game shows a few more lines only on clients that support them: Spell Density (Essential, Reduced or Everything), Outline Mode, Lighting Mode and a second water setting.
More frames per second: where to start
Blizzard's own tooltips rank what each setting costs:
- Shadow Quality and SSAO: lowering them "may greatly improve performance".
- Render Scale below 100%: it "reduces the GPU workload and can greatly improve frame rate in some cases". Above 100% is supersampling, "very expensive for the GPU".
- View Distance: a long one needs more memory and a faster processor.
- Particle Density, Ground Clutter, Environment Detail, Liquid Detail, Depth Effects and Projected Textures: lowering each may improve performance.
- Texture Resolution last: lowering it "may slightly improve performance".
Two warnings come from the game itself. If your Particle Density list offers Disabled, Blizzard warns that it "may cause you to miss important visual cues during combat". And Spell Density at Essential hides other players' non-essential spells, never yours: "your own spells are always shown".
Frame rate cap and vertical sync
Max Foreground FPS caps the game between 8 and 200 frames per second, once its box is ticked; Max Background FPS does the same, from 8 to 200, while the game's window is not the active one. Vertical Sync "synchronizes your framerate to some fraction of your monitor's refresh rate": on a 60 Hz screen, it holds you at 60 or below.
Camera: max distance and field of view
Max Camera Distance (Options, Controls, Camera) runs from 1.0 to 2.0, by steps of 0.1. Its console variable is cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor: /console cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor 2 is the slider's maximum.
Blizzard has given no higher limit for Forever. We could not check a value above 2 in Forever. After typing one, /dump GetCVar("cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor") shows what the game kept, and if the camera still stops at the same distance, the game caps it there.
The same Camera section has Follow Terrain (the camera tilts as you climb or go down a slope), Head Bob (in first person) and Smart Pivot. Under Graphics, Camera FOV changes the field of view by steps of 5; its limits come from the game engine, not from the interface's files.
Nameplate distance has no slider in Forever's Options. The variable nameplateMaxDistance, "the max distance to show nameplates", is in the client; which values the game accepts, we have not checked.
Console commands that work in the client
Type them in the chat box: /console, the variable, then its value. In a macro, /run SetCVar("variable", value) does the same. /dump GetCVar("variable") shows a variable's value, and /console cvar_default variable puts back the game's default.
| Command |
What it does, by Blizzard's description in the client |
/console cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor 2 |
the max camera distance, at the Options' highest |
/console maxFPS 144 |
the frame rate cap, 8 to 200 in the Options |
/console SpellQueueWindow 200 |
"how early you can pre-activate/queue a spell/ability", in milliseconds |
/console autoLootDefault 1 |
"automatically loot items when the loot window opens" |
/console lootUnderMouse 1 |
the loot window opens under the mouse |
/console ActionButtonUseKeyDown 1 |
action buttons fire when the key goes down |
/console scriptErrors 1 |
the interface shows Lua errors, to see which addon breaks |
/console ffxGlow 0 |
turns off the "full screen glow effect" |
/console ffxDeath 0 |
turns off the "full screen death desat effect", the grey screen when you die |
/console screenshotQuality 10 |
"the quality of screenshots (1 - 10)" |
/console screenshotFormat png |
the screenshots' format: jpg, png or tga |
Two variables of the client set the grass, groundEffectDensity and groundEffectDist ("ground effect density", "ground effect dist"); the highest value the game accepts, Blizzard has not given. For the addons that change what these menus cannot, see our guide to WoW Forever's addons, and for the hardware, the system requirements.
