The big Max Payne tuning guide

from Sandro Villinger

Max Payne 1 and 2 are among my favorite games. The story and atmosphere haunted me, the graphics were extremely advanced for their time, and there was, of course, bullet time. I recently replayed the series on my iPad and was amazed by how well it still holds up.
Now, more than 10 years later, Max Payne 3 has come out and is one of the most beautiful games of the year. Yet again a third-person shooter, it runs on the new Rockstar Advanced Gaming Engine (RAGE). The game requires at least a 2.4 GHz dual core CPU, 2 GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 8600 GT graphics card-and with that, you'll just be able to play at low or medium resolutions and detail levels.
What a shame! No wonder, Max Payne 3 requires a whopping 35 GB of your hard disk which, as Rockstar explains, is due to the fact that the game textures are four times the size of its console pendants. Plus, DirectX 11 offers some effects that can't be found on the console counterpart of Max Payne 3, including "Tesselation", which enhances model details, provides more depth of field and offers advanced shadowing.
 

1. clean your PC gaming system

To play this game at higher resolutions and detail levels, you'll first need a fully optimized PC and the right compromise of settings and tweaks . Like we've said time and time again, it's important to make sure that you don't have too many applications running and blocking memory and sucking up CPU cycles-this can significantly decrease FPS. Instead, consider using a special start-stop system like TuneUp Program Deactivator and routinely optimizing your hard disk, so that you enjoy uninterrupted gameplay. And these are just two of the many ways you can get a faster PC.

2. adjust Max Payne 3's graphics settings

Max Payne 3 supports DX9, DX10 and DX11 and various level details. DX9 (1920×1080): All settings should be on "Normal" or "Off". Click for a full-screen image to see that while the game looks good, there are a lot of jagged edges visible and the view out of the window and the floor are not nearly as detailed. On our test bed, the Alienware X51 with its Core i7 3.4 GHz and GeForce GTX 555, we got a steady 81 FPS.
 

3. fix Max Payne's launch issues

Max Payne 3 won't run? While that's not a performance tweak, it happens to a lot of users, and I think I should mention it here. First, make sure you have the latest graphics driver. If that doesn't help correct the situation, you need to move the Max Payne folder to a new location.
1. open up your Max Payne folder located under "C:Program Files (x86)Rockstar Games" or "C: Program Files (x86)steamsteamsteamappscommonmax payne 3". You should see a folder called "Max Payne 3″ here. (If you're running a 32-bit version of Windows, the first folder is just named "Programs").
2. fire up "regedit" by hitting WINKEY+R at the same time and typing in regedit. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeRockstar GamesMax Payne 3. Double-click on the "InstallFolder" and change the directory reference to "C:maxpayne3″.
On a 32-bit machine, the appropriate registry key is "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE Rockstar
 

5. turn off mouse acceleration

Is your aiming not as precise as you would like it to be? Are mouse movements too fast or too slow? Try turning off mouse acceleration. To do that, right-click on the game's shortcut on your desktop, and select "Properties". Go to the "Target" input field and add the "-nomouseaccel" parameter. It should read as follows:
"C:Program Files (x86)Rockstar GamesMax Payne 3PlayMaxPayne3.exe" -nomouseaccel
Steam users, right-click on the Max Payne 3 entry and select "Properties". Click on "Set launch options", type in "-nomouseaccel" and hit "OK".
That's it! Your game should be fully optimized after you take these four quick steps. In addition to Crysis 2 , Skyrim and Max Payne 3, what other games would you like to see covered in our "Perfect Gamer" series? Let us know!