Of course we all know that reducing the screen resolution helps a ton. 1024 x 768 is much easier on the video card than 1280 x 1024, for example. However, if you want the better resolution but are still lagging, there is a compromise --
/viewport. This command leaves your screen in its current resolution, but "squeezes" or reduces the amount drawn onscreen which makes it easier on your video card. I use it to give a widescreen DVD-like view, with the chat boxes all in the black area. It will take some time to customize to exact needs, and if you mess up while experimenting, you can always simply type "/viewport reset" to get back to the original "square" fullscreen.
The viewport command format is
/viewport a b x y (no commas) where x y is the size of the picture you see. My x y part is 1280 x 880. This means I see the same width as in fullscreen (1280), but that I've chopped off some of the height (1024-880 = 144) .... this leaves a black area 144 pixels high of no EQ video, and this is where I moved my chat windows.
The "a b" part is a bit trickier to understand. What the viewport command does is make a smaller rectangle in which to show the EQ game. This smaller rectangle's dimensions are given in the "x y" part as stated in the last paragraph. However, EQ needs to know where on your computer screen you want to put that smaller EQ rectangle.
Pretend you made a tiny EQ window for laughs, a sort of picture-in-picture size window.... now where do you want to put that little EQ box? In the lower right corner of your computer screen, upper left, or maybe smack in the center? In order to tell EQ where to put that smaller viewport you've made, you give it 2 coordinates to say where you want it put. This is what the "a b" part is. Depending on what you put for the "a b" part, it will pick up that little EQ box by the "ear" (upper left corner of the EQ window) and put it at the a b spot you tell it.
The "a" part is the left-right or horizontal component; zero means all the way to the left of the screen, and higher numbers move it close and closer to the right side. The "b" part is the up-down or vertical component, with zero being the top of the screen, and larger values moving it closer to the bottom of the screen. This was tricky for me to get right, and I had to write down the combos I was trying to get the placement just right. I didn't want my EQ window/viewport to move left or right, so the "a" part stayed at zero for me. I wanted the black area to be the same size as my chat windows, and it turned out that was 144 pixels high, hence the 880 size for the "y" part.
So, /viewport 0 144 1280 880 did the trick for me (my chat windows are at the top of my screen).
As a final note, using /viewport doesn't actually "chop off" or reduce the amount of EQ world you see, since it makes a smaller box but then "squeezes" the EQ view onto it. Actually, with my pseudo-widescreen size, I see
more of the EQ world on the left and right sides, as this is extra video information that a more square view doesn't afford. And if you really wanted to see more, being a shaman, you can always use the buffs Vision or Assiduous Vision on yourself, and you get a fish-eye lens effect, which means you see
even more of the EQ world.