There are a few steps you can take to optimize the performance of Alchemy on your device. Many of these steps are general purpose, but a few are specific to the operating system running on your device.

In-App Performance Settings

Open your profile screen
1. From the home page of the Alchemy web or desktop app, click on your user avatar in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Click on the Gameplay tab
Adjust gameplay settings to improve performance

⚡️ Out of these settings, disabling antialiasing and high resolution tactical mode are likely to have the largest positive impact on performance, but feel free to experiment with what works for your machine. You can toggle an FPS counter in tactical mode by pressing alt+shift+f (or alt+shift+d for a full debug screen with more details).

GM Tips

This section contains a few tips specifically for the GM of a game to help improve performance for everyone at the table.

Asset Size

Alchemy has strict asset size limits in many places to help prevent the use of large assets that will degrade performance. However, performance is highly dependent on the particulars of the device running Alchemy.

If you find that a particular scene is slower than others, consider whether the scene is using custom assets or not. If the assets were uploaded by the GM, the GM should ensure that they're as small (in file size) as possible without negatively impacting the experience.

🗜️ Consider using modern compression for uploaded files. File formats such as WebP and WebM tend to give great results. In addition, consider whether the audio assets used in the scene are reasonably sized and of a reasonable bitrate (no more than 192 Kbps). Generally, the smaller the file, the better performance will be in that scene.

Journal Messages

Over time, the journal fills with stuff. Sometimes this stuff can slow down the game after a few hours. It is definitely on our list to fix this, but in the meantime there are a few steps you can take if nothing else is working for your game.

First, try reloading the page (or the desktop app--press ctrl+r or cmd+r). This will unload all but the most recent journal messages if the Save Journal Messages setting is enabled, or clear all of the messages if it is not enabled.

If the Save Journal Messages setting is enabled and reloading the page doesn't help, as a last resort you can try clearing the journal history. This will delete all of the journal messages for your game, so only do this if you are okay with that. In the Edit Game modal, at the very bottom of the Game tab, there is a Danger Zone with a button to Delete Journal History. In some cases clearing the journal can have a big impact on how responsive your game experience is.

Windows 11 - High Performance Mode

To enable “High Performance” mode for Alchemy on Windows 11, you can adjust power settings and graphics preferences.

💡 If you aren't using the Alchemy desktop app, these same settings may be helpful for your web browser of choice (e.g. Google Chrome).

Method 1: Adjust Power Mode Settings

Open Settings
1. Press Windows + I to open the Settings app.
Go to Power Settings
1. Navigate to System > Power & battery
Change Power Mode
1. Under the Power mode section (found in the “Power” or “Battery” section), select Best performance.

This setting ensures that your system prioritizes performance over energy savings, which can help Alchemy run more efficiently.

Method 2: Set Graphics Preferences for Alchemy

Manually set Alchemy to use the high-performance GPU in Windows.

Open Settings
1. Press Windows + I to open the Settings app.
Go to Graphics Settings
1. Navigate to System > Display > Graphics.
Select Alchemy
1. Under Custom options for apps, click Browse and navigate to the default installation location for Alchemy:
  1. C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\AppData\Local\Programs\Alchemy
2. Select the Alchemy executable file (e.g., Alchemy.exe).
Set High Performance
1. After selecting the app, click Options and choose High performance.
2. Click Save to confirm.

By doing this, Alchemy will use the dedicated GPU for maximum performance when it’s running.

Method 3: Use a Custom Power Plan

If you want to set your entire system to prioritize high performance (which can benefit Alchemy and other apps):

Open Control Panel
1. Press Windows + R, type control, and press Enter.
Go to Power Options
1. Select Hardware and Sound > Power Options.
Choose or Create a High Performance Plan
1. If the High performance plan is visible, select it.
2. If not, click Create a power plan on the left sidebar, choose High performance, and customize the settings.

These steps will help optimize Alchemy for high performance on your Windows 11 system, ensuring it gets the resources it needs to run efficiently.