In the upcoming 3.0.0 expansion, we have been working a lot on performance. Today we can show you some changes that are coming in Wave 3 of the Beta, which we expect to release late next week. We've created a video to showcase some of these performance improvements.



Unlike when we usually record video, we recorded this on a normal computer in order to demonstrate the difference that a regular user might be able to expect. Here are the specs:

• Intel i5-6500
• GeForce 1050 Ti
• 8 GB of RAM

Please note that since this machine is not really designed for recording, the frame rate in the video is actually worse than we got when not recording.

3.0.0 Performance Goals

Over the last few expansions, we have significantly improved general Path of Exile performance. The game runs a lot faster now, but one of the major areas that was still not improved in 2.6.2 was worst-case performance.

Worst-case refers to the longest amount of time it takes to render a frame, as opposed to the average frame rate. Slow frames are known as "spikes".

The major goal for 3.0.0 was to reduce the number of spikes so that the game always runs smoothly, even when there are a lot of skills being used.

In the first version of the Beta, we had already addressed quite a few places that CPU spikes were coming from.

One example of this is pathfinding. If there were a lot of enemies on screen, you would get a fast average frame rate, but would also get a lot of CPU spikes if many monsters chose to pathfind simultaneously. This is one of the many reasons why 3.0.0 Beta performance is better than 2.6.2.

3.0.0 Beta Wave 3 CPU Improvements

In Wave 3 of the Beta, we have significantly improved the speed of creating and destroying objects. This was the primary cause of spikes when using a lot of skills. We can now create thousands of skill effects per second without significantly slowing down the frame rate. Traditionally "laggy" builds should no longer be an issue.

3.0.0 Beta Wave 3 GPU Improvements

In Wave 3 we have also added a new feature called Dynamic Resolution. This is a feature that allows us to maintain high frame rates even as the amount of particles increase by decreasing the resolution of the 3d scene temporarily.

Because scenes that have a lot of particles on-screen are typically very fast-moving anyway, we have found that in practice it is fairly hard to tell that the resolution was lowered.

This solution solves any issues that players have around number of on-screen particles in intense situations without sacrificing quality in normal situations.

You can try these changes out next week when Wave 3 is released! If you're looking to grab a key to enter the Beta, please consider checking out our supporter packs from The Fall of Oriath!