game_optimization.md

README | Русская версия

Optimizing Games using Process Governor

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Introduction

Enhancing performance and reducing response time for PC games, such as Starfield and Red Dead Redemption 2, is achieved through system resource management. Process Governor is a tool that gives users control over processes and resource distribution, which can significantly improve the gaming experience. In this guide, we will thoroughly examine the process of configuring Process Governor to optimize these popular games.

Preliminary Setup

Before starting the setup, familiarize yourself with the installation and initial configuration instructions for Process Governor, available in the sections:

• Getting Started
• Configuring Rules

To ensure Process Governor automatically starts with Windows, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Process Governor.
2. Click on the application icon in the system tray to open the menu.
3. Enable the Run on Startup option.

Example of the enabled Run on Startup option:

Creating Rules for Games

Let's look at setting up optimization for two popular games:

1. Starfield: To reduce freezes and lags, an optimal strategy would be to exclude the 0th CPU core from processing the game, thereby reducing competition with Windows system processes for resources.

2. Red Dead Redemption 2: To reduce the number of freezes, it is recommended to disable the use of Hyper-threading and limit the game process to working only on physical processor cores (even "core" numbers). It may also be helpful to limit CPU usage, for example, using the first 6 cores.

Let's proceed to set up the rules.

Opening the Rule Configurator

1. Launch Process Governor if it is not already running.
2. Click on the application icon in the system tray to open the menu.
3. Select the Configure Rules option to open the rule configurator.

Adding a Rule for Starfield

1. In the rule configurator interface, press the Add button to add a new rule.
2. Enter the corresponding values in the columns:
   • Process Selector: starfield.exe.
   • Priority: High.
   • I/O Priority: High.
   • Affinity: 1-N, meaning use all cores except the first one.

     Replace N with the number of the highest available core/thread on your processor, starting from 0.

Adding a Rule for RDR2

1. Press the Add button.
2. Enter the corresponding values in the columns:
   • Process Selector: rdr2.exe.
   • Priority: High.
   • I/O Priority: High.
   • Affinity: 0;2;4;6;8;10, meaning use 6 cores excluding multi-threading (odd cores).

Saving the Settings

Check the entered data to ensure that the rule settings match your system configuration and the parameters displayed on the screenshot. For a system with 12 cores and 24 threads, as in my example, the last available "core" is number 23 starting from 0. That's why for the game Starfield we set the range of cores as 1-23, excluding the first core from use.

Once all the rules are configured, save them by pressing the Save button. Then you can close the rule configurator.

Game Process Monitoring

• After starting the game, carefully monitor its performance as well as the load on the graphics and central processors.
• If you encounter performance issues, return to the Process Governor settings and make the necessary adjustments.
• If the game RDR2 requires more resources, consider distributing the game across more cores.

Alternative Setup Method

You can also configure Process Governor by manually editing the JSON configuration file, following the instructions here.

The correctly configured configuration file should look like this:

{
  "ruleApplyIntervalSeconds": 1,
  "logging": {
    "enable": true,
    "level": "INFO",
    "maxBytes": 1024,
    "backupCount": 1
  },
  "rules": [
    {
      "processSelector": "starfield.exe",
      "priority": "High",
      "ioPriority": "High",
      "affinity": "1-23"
    },
    {
      "processSelector": "rdr2.exe",
      "priority": "High",
      "ioPriority": "High",
      "affinity": "0;2;4;6;8;10"
    }
  ]
}