Help/Optimizing Performance

Are you ever in Middle-Earth and find that your FPS is falling down to near zero? Or are you busy fighting the Mountain Troll Chieftain, only to watch helplessly as a lagspike of death comes upon you, resulting in your death? Well, with a few tweaks, you can help increase the FPS you're getting in this mod, and this will probably help you survive.

What FPS do I need?
In general, any FPS of 30 or higher will be sufficient to fully enjoy this mod, although if your PC will do 50+ FPS, that's even better. Any FPS of 30 or lower could result in you dying excessively often, especially in PvP.

Know where the lag is coming from
Sometimes, when the game lags badly, the problem is not your FPS at all. If you're playing on a multiplayer server, the source of the lag could be due to the server being overloaded. Signs of this include blocks not breaking properly, and NPC's taking damage seconds after your hit them. In that case, try reconnecting when the server is less busy, and avoid riding Horses when the server is busy. Horses force the server to generate chunks faster than normal, which can cause lots of lag for everyone.

If your server is laggy
If you own your own server and players are constantly complaining about the lag, there are a few things that you can do in order to reduce server lag:
 * Tell players to not ride horses. This doesn't solve your problem, but it can at least help other players get better FPS while you're working on one of the solutions that follow.
 * Avoid running MCPC+ and Bukkit plugins. This mod doesn't always work properly with MCPC+, and using excessive Bukkit plugins can really slow your server down.
 * Run your server on Linux instead of Windows or OSX. Linux tends to use fewer resources and is much more customizable, helping your server run faster.
 * Allocate more RAM to your server.
 * Always host your server on a desktop, because they tend to be faster and have better cooling.
 * Make sure your server is running 64-bit Java, if not, it'll not be able to use more than 2GB of RAM, and it won't use multiple cores very well.
 * Do not use your server for anything other than hosting Lord of the Rings. Using the same computer to host LoTR and to watch a YouTube video will make for block lag and unhappy players.
 * Connect your server to the Internet via Ethernet if possible, because WiFi can get overloaded if there are too many people online.
 * Go for professional hosting, if you want to host a server for more that about 40 people. Also, buy a server that's a little bigger than you think you'll need; it will mean smoother gameplay.
 * Apply one of the solutions marked with an * that can help Singleplayer run faster (see below)

Increasing FPS in singleplayer

 * Install Fastcraft. Fastcraft is a small mod that greatly helps increase your framerate. Unlike Optifine (see below) it runs on Forge, and is completely compatible with pretty much all Forge mods (including this one). Mevans himself stated that Fastcraft can virtually double your FPS in places such as Fangorn and Lothlorien You can download it here: http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=10820 *
 * Install Optifine. Optifine is probably the best known mod for increasing FPS, however it sometimes runs into issues when using the LoTR mod (for example, heads don't display properly on the Middle-Earth map).
 * Allocate more RAM to Minecraft. See this thread for how to do it in Singleplayer: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/support/unmodified-minecraft-client/tutorials-and-faqs/1871637-tutorial-allocate-more-memory-for-minecraft
 * Stay out of biomes with many large trees, e.g. Fangorn, Dense Woodlands, Mirkwood, because they force Minecraft to generate more chunks, and if your PC can't handle it, you could turn Middle-Earth into a slideshow, or crash Minecraft or -- possibly -- your computer.
 * Turn down your render distance. However, if you find yourself being forced to go below 8 chunks to get decent FPS, then you'll probably need to try some other method.
 * Set graphics from Fancy to Fast -- please don't use Fast graphics when taking Wiki screenshots, however.
 * Turn off smooth lighting and clouds -- again, please leave smooth lighting on when taking screenshots for the Wiki.
 * Set particles to minimal.
 * Make sure no other programs are running while Minecraft is, including any Internet browsers. *
 * Looking at the sky has also been known to briefly increase FPS. However if you are deep underground, looking down toward The Void (please don't ask Melkor to be added, however) may also have the same effect.
 * Go to your task manager and set javaw.exe to High priority (NOT Realtime as that will crash your system) *
 * Put the .minecraft folder (or whatever directory you're using for Lord of the Rings) on a solid-state drive, so that the world and game itself can be loaded faster (you'll notice this especially when first starting the game). If you have enough RAM, put it on a RAM drive, which is even faster than either a SSD or hard drive. Make sure to back-up frequently, however, because a power outage could cause you to lose all your progress (and lead to unhappy players if you're hosting a server). *
 * Make sure that you're using RAM to run the game, and not your hard-drive or SSD. If Minecraft runs low on RAM, it will sometimes start using the hard drive/SSD as if it were RAM, making the program slow down by a lot. *
 * Turn of Aero in Windows Vista/7 *
 * Keep your computer cool. Make sure that there's no dust clogging fans and that the room your computer is in is kept cool. Temperatures over 80C will cause the compute's CPU to throttle to avoid overheating, slowing the game down by a lot. It could also shorten the life of your processor. *
 * Make sure your graphics card drivers are up-to-date. *
 * Get a faster processor. *
 * Get more RAM if, despite allocating most of the usable RAM your computer has, Minecraft is still using your hard-drive like RAM. *