D2Accelerator v 1.1 by FoxBat
for Diablo II: Lord of Destruction 1.10

Diablo II often slows or stutters on machines well above Blizzard's "recommended" system specifications.
High-level characters can quickly re-cast spells over and over bringing your computer to a grinding halt,
or a huge army of monsters and minions can make the game unplayable.  In many places the programmers
could have been more efficicent with CPU usage but it was simply not a priority.

This mod was created to adress these issues.  It should improve your framerate with lower-detail graphics
in some cases without looking bad, and is client-only and thus fully compatible with standard D2:LoD singleplayer
and multiplayer.  It will NOT improve your "network lag" online, servers that respond and update slowly will be
the same as ever.


Whats included:
- This ReadMe file
- LagReduce.mpq , what you need to use the mod
- ModNotes.txt, which tells modmakers how to implement the changes I made in their own mods

How to Install on PC:

- Go into your Diablo II folder and move the file patch_d2.mpq to somewhere safe
- Rename D2Accel.mpq to patch_d2.mpq and put it in your DiabloII folder
- Play the game!
- If you want to go back to standard graphics, copy your backup patch_d2.mpq back into the DiabloII folder
- NOTE: if you are going to patch D2:LoD to another version, be sure to restore your backup patch_d2.mpq first!

To install on Mac OS9, follow the above instructions, but use the name "Diablo II Patch" in place of "patch_d2.mpq".
For OSX, instead use "Diablo II Patch (carbon)".

Features:

- Simplifies the laggier spell effects to greatly improve framerate.
- Fire effects "of doom" are much faster now.
- Removed blood splatters, these can be a problem when they pile up.
- Removes shadow drawing from monsters and objects.
- Remove light radius from most monsters.
- Remove light from auras and curse type effects.
- Disabled lava animations.
- Removes weather effects.


This mod affects the client only.  It is totally compatible with Standard D2 characters.  It can be used in
Single player, or when hosting Open Multiplayer games.  It can also be used when joining Standard Open Multiplayer
Games or creating/joining Battle.net Realm games. You can use it to interact with other people who do not have the
mod.  Differences between this and standard D2 are merely cosmetic.

I do not consider using it cheating anymore than owning a top-of-the-line computer.  Still, some may be worried
about Blizzard's recent "Agressive Stance against Hacks and Cheats".  Peter Hu, former Blizzard programmer and the
main man behind 1.10, unoficially posted on the Lurker Lounge boards that Blizzard did not consider D2Accelerator
to be a cheat.  Additionally, their new anti-cheat scanning code would not detect D2Accelerator.  Unlike programs
such as maphack, d2hackit, or d2loader, D2Accelerator does not alter the executable code nor the memory at runtime.
It merely changes data settings in tab-delimited text spreadsheets inside the MPQ.  Now Peter Hu no longer works at
Blizzard and who knows what the future will bring, but if any mod/hack would be both undetectable and unimportant to
Blizzard, this one would be it.  However, You still take your own responsibility if Blizzard decides to be an @$$
about it.  Use at your own risk!



type "/fps" and ENTER to see what your frames per second are like.  Know that it is capped at a max of 25 no matter
what the display says.


Other things that may improve system performance:


- Defragment your hard drive.
- Set all the .mpq's in your DiabloII directory to read-only, except for patch_d2.mpq.
- Copy D2XMusic.mpq from your LoD CD to your Diablo II directory.
- Make sure you have no programs running in the background.
- Set your windows paging file to be a fixed size of at least 300 megs large. (Min 300 Max 300)
- Use DirectDraw or Glide instead of Direct3D.
- Use 640x480 resolution instead of 800x600.  For some computers 800x600 may not lag too bad in most areas, but
  it does bog down in places with many translucent walls, such as the catacombs, kurast, etc.
- Changing lighting options and turning off music will make a minor improvement.
- On some systems, turning off sound completely will make a noticable difference.  If you like sound and are using
  enviornmental/3d audio, turning those off can improve performance.  Make sure that it is turned off both in
  Diablo II and in your general sound card settings.
- If you are running Win 95/98/ME, you may want to check this out:
  go to http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/cb.htm
  Download CacheBooster, install it, then run the program.  Choose the preset "gaming", apply changes, and reboot your computer.


I'm out of the D2 buisness now, so you will have to ask around elsewhere for help if you need it.  Good places are

Seven Lances: 		http://www.sevenlances.com
Phrozenkeep: 		http://www.d2mods.com
Amazon Basin:		http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2
Lurker Lounge:		http://www.lurkerlounge.com


If you want to modify this mod or take parts of it for you own, feel free.  But please give credit if you do so.


Thanks to:

Usyr Illus for more recent hosting and webpage/forum work at SevenLances.com.
Rana Loreus for initially giving this mod a home
.

The Phrozenkeep for general modmaking advice.
Tontus314 for his SpeedEnhance mod, Tossy for his SunnyWeather mod, Ka'Shel for his LowCPU mod,
and Wc3promet's Lag Reduce/Graphics Reduction Patch
.

The Lurker Lounge and Bolty for advice and encouragmenet
.

Peter Hu for 1.10.
Blizzard for making an incredibly fun, but incredibly laggy, game.