World of Warcraft: Shadowlands should now run more smoothly on your PC

Thanks to freshly introduced Spell Density and Target FPS graphics options

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World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis getting some nifty options to help maintain a smooth frame-rate, and they could (rather handily) come alongside thepurported addition of ray tracing to the MMO which we previously reported on.

The new graphics options for Shadowlands (introduced in the alpha of the eighth expansion for WoW) were highlighted by a mod on theIcy Veins forums, and they consist of a Target FPS setting, and another setting for Spell Density.

The Target FPS option allows you to specify just that: a target frame-rate which if your performance drops below, the game will intelligently lower the visual quality to get it back above that number (or at least try to).

This happens dynamically, on-the-fly, and when there’s less action on the screen, and things are running smoother, the WoW engine will automatically up the graphics quality back to where it should be.

Smoothness and clarity

This is coupled with the Spell Density setting that can adjust the amount of spells displayed on-screen – which can be problematic in, say, a massive raid where loads of spell effects are flying all around – to combat any performance slowdown.

Spell Density will have a raft of options, including a dynamic setting which will get rid of any ‘non-essential’ spell effects intelligently based on the frame-rate, much like Target FPS. The full range of options with Spell Density are:

As mentioned, this could be a big help in huge brawls and raids, not just for a smoother frame-rate, but in terms of removing all that visual clutter, and being able to see what’s going on with more clarity.

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Another fresh introduction is a revamped and improved character selection screen, which doesn’t hurt either. Fresh references to gamepad controls have also been spotted via data mining – not for the first time, mind – but this is again another hint that maybeBlizzard’s MMO could be coming to consoles at some point, perhaps even the Xbox Series X or PS5.

ViaWccftech

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

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