Masakari and I have each been playing video games for over 35 years now. Especially in the FPS genre, an entire ecosystem of tools develops immediately after releasing a game to provide optimal support for competitive players.
Some aim for more performance, others for more information with stats to help the player develop more specifically.
This post will gradually introduce all relevant tools for FPS gaming in general and selected games in particular.
With this guide, you won’t have to look far if you’re new to the game or want to evolve from a casual gamer to a competitive gamer.
Of course, there are plenty of other tools on the internet, but these are the ones we have used ourselves as part of various competitive communities.
We start with tools that every FPS player can and partly must use to participate in competitions or communicate in a team.
Disclaimer: All tools listed here are guaranteed not to be cheats. Tools that are executed at the runtime of a game are 100% supported. A ban, e.g., by VAC or Vanguard or similar Technologies, is not to be feared. With all mentioned tools, a player can not get a direct advantage in the game.
Note: This article was written in English. Translations into other languages may not provide the same linguistic quality. We apologize for grammatical and semantic errors.
General Tools & Apps for FPS Games
Gaming VPN
A gaming VPN has a lot of advantages for many gamers. First, the secure connection is not even a great thing, but the direct connection to a network of well-distributed and quickly connected proxy servers.
Depending on where you access the Internet from and the connection quality of your Internet Service Provider (ISP), a gaming VPN can bring you:
- More stability, less packet loss
- More stability, less jitter (latency fluctuations)
- A faster connection, lower ping
In addition, you can decide in which country you want to come out with your connection. Finally, you can change your game region with a gaming VPN. This makes sense, for example, if you have to wait a miserably long time for a match to start at certain times of the day or night because there are hardly any players active in your region. With a gaming VPN, you simply switch to a region with a well-filled player queue and can get started right away.
The costs for a gaming VPN are not very high.
Based on our own experience, we recommend ExpressVPN as a gaming VPN. Reliable, simple, fast, cheap. We haven’t had any problems with it since we first used it a few years ago.
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Mouse Acceleration Software
The topic of mouse acceleration is a no-go for most gamers. For these gamers, the Windows setting comes to mind, which should, of course, be turned off.
In fast FPS games like Overwatch or Quake, mouse acceleration is often used (even by the pros) because 180° flicks are the order of the day.
Personally, I play a relatively low eDPI game and can’t imagine the wide turns without mouse acceleration.
If you are interested in using this tool, please jump over to this post, where we dug a little deeper into the topic:
And if you want to dive deeper into the world of DPI, eDPI, and Sensitivity, start here:
Audio-Tuning
With the free tool Voicemeeter Banana, you can add an equalizer between your game and your headset using a virtual cable driver. This way, you can amplify specific frequency ranges and, for example, make your opponent’s footsteps louder and your weapon sound quieter. Especially the sound of poor quality headsets can be raised to a higher level this way.
Direct Communication is the Key
Whoever is still debating Teamspeak vs. Discord, please, we’ve addressed it here:
Teamspeak is the gold standard. Server slots are cheap to rent. Either you know someone whose server you can share, or you rent with your team yourself.
Please do not rely on the in-game voice chat!
Indirect Communication is also the Key
It would be best if you still had Discord installed. On Discord servers of the respective gaming community, you can find fellow players, information or organize yourself in a team. However, you should turn Discord off when playing games because it eats up processor power.
Better Competition
If you are more ambitious and looking for your luck in the competitive scene, then the Faceit client with the appropriate anti-cheat protection is a must. Many competitions run on this platform, and there are weekly leagues with prizes.
Unlock CPUs
It may be that not all your processors want to play along by default. The small free program ParkControl helps you to unlock them. Very simple.
Process Priority
Give your game priority at the operating system level. Simply set the processes of your game to a higher priority (but not real-time!). The free program Prio makes sure that Windows remembers the setting.
Overclocking and More
MSI Afterburner is a small suite to monitor many parameters of your system. You can also measure your FPS in the game and much more. With this tool, you can also overclock your graphics card (caution: overclocking can damage your hardware – use at your own risk).
FPS Measurement
You can measure your frames per second (FPS) in the game with the lightweight program NZXT Cam. Then, turn on the overlay, and you’re done.
Why more FPS is essential, we like to remind you again in these posts:
Specific Tools & Apps for PUBG
Statistics for All Weapon vs. Armor
If you seriously want to get better at PUBG, you need to know the damage values of the individual weapons. How much damage is done per shot or second by a weapon? How do the values change when the opponent wears a level 2 vest instead of a level 1 vest?
You can try out every conceivable combination for free at http://battlegrounds.party.
But that’s not all. You’ll also get all the info about the maps, vehicles, and the values of the Circles.
Match-Replay and Analysis
There is hardly anything more important than analyzing your own game or that of the team after a match. Mistakes can sometimes only be discovered if you take a bird’s eye view and transparently see how the opponents acted.
In PUBG, there is the free 2D replay tool at https://pubg.sh for this. IGLs, in particular, can’t do without this analysis option to evaluate tactics, strategy, and individual team members.
Of course, the tool also helps you in solo play.
View Deathcam of the Your Opponents
If you meet streaming opponents, then you can watch either your hits or your death at https://pubg.report. Furthermore, suppose the streams (VoD) on Twitch are not deleted or only accessible to subscribers. In that case, you can watch the decisive scenes from the opponent’s perspective and perhaps draw conclusions about your mistakes.
Quickly Access Player Statistics
You want to know how good the opponent is. Who has just pushed you around the corner? No problem. On https://pubg.op.gg/, you can find all statistics about you and your opponents for free. For example, you can see how a player has performed in the last seasons, what KD he has, etc.
Build Map Knowledge
In Battle Royale games, it can be crucial to know where to find cars or the best loot. The free website https://pubgmap.io/de/ helps you with interactive maps that you can manipulate with filters.
Final Thoughts
If you want to get better at your game, you have to improve and stabilize the technique you use and measure, analyze, and compare yourself again and again.
The tools mentioned here are valuable additions, mostly free of charge, and help you enjoy gaming more.
We are constantly updating and adding to this list, so we recommend you bookmark the link.
If you have a question about the post or pro gaming in general, write us: contact@raiseyourskillz.com.
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GL & HF! Flashback out.
