If the game is running too slowly, try reducing some of the graphics and audio quality. To do this, press ESC to bring up the main menu in game, then click Options.

The latest patch has a number of performance enhancements - you should download and install that first if you have not already done so.

One of the biggest CPU drains in game occurs through the use of Realtime sound effects. In Sound Options, try disabling Realtime Effects and Hardware3D. If that doesn’t improve things enough, try reducing the number of channels and the mix frequency.

If you have only 128Mb of memory, try reducing the Memory Usage of the sound system. (you can do this from the Sound Options panel)

In Graphics Options, try disabling the Pixel Effect as this can run very slowly on certain hardware. Reduce each of the graphics sliders to Low until you find a comfortable frame rate.

In Screen Options, try reducing the Screen Resolution.

Ensure there are no other tasks running in Windows that are not required.

Ensure full-screen Anti-Aliasing is disabled. You will find the option for this in your Graphics Options panel (right click on the desktop, click Properties, then click Advanced).

Installing the latest drivers for your graphics card can provide a big speed increase.

Landscape Render Modes

Darwinia has three different methods of rendering the landscape. The method used can be set with the preferences variable "RenderLandscapeMode". (open the file preferences.txt in your Darwinia directory and add the variable manually.) These methods are as follows:

RenderLandscapeMode = 0 (uses Vertex Arrays)
RenderLandscapeMode = 1 (uses Display Lists, default in v1.0)
RenderLandscapeMode = 2 (uses Vertex Buffer Objects, default in v1.2 onwards)

Mode 2 is fastest on a wide variety of hardware, and is the default if you have the latest patch installed. However we have found instances where Mode 1 or Mode 0 were faster. Try them out and see which works best for you.