[Optimization Guide] Optimize your framerate and gameplay on Blue Reflection

[Vanosea]

To start, the game is design to work out your GPU far more than your CPU because of a poor Shader implementation according to a programmer. So, unless you have an incredibly weak CPU, you should be fine playing the game.

For starters, I have a 4790k @4.5GHZ, 2.4GHZ DDR3 RAM, Asus Strix GTX980+150mhz OC. And I will reference performance based on this spec.

Now, the game has no graphic settings whatsoever. Just a launcher with limited resolution options with it (720p, 768p, 900p, 1080p). Ignore that. Don't start the game from the steam library and instead, through the game exe in the game directory. The exe name should be "BLUE_REFLECTION.exe"

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's actually start messing with some real settings. The only graphical options you can change is DoF (Depth of Field). To turn this off, go to (C:\Users\USER_NAME\Documents\KoeiTecmo\BLUE REFLECTION) Inside this folder, edit a file named BRsetting.ini. Now the real magic begin. (If you launch through Steam (AKA through the launcher) the resolution you set on the .ini will be reset.)

If you see "DepthOfField=1" and want to turn DoF off, change the value number to "0". It should look like this "DepthOfField=0"

You can also input arbitrary resolution in the same file by changing the "ScreenWidth=1920
ScreenHeight=1080". You can input any resolution you wanted and have some weird aspect ratio on top off it. the game doesn't seem to lock your aspect ratio, so you can have a 2560x1080 on your ultra-wide monitor. They look like this. Keep in mind that UI doesn't scale well so any 2D/UI will look like this.

The game only has fullscreen and windowed mode which you can change in this "FullScreen=1"
value of "1" means fullscreen on and value of "0" means windowed.

Okay, now onto texture filtering. If you noticed, the ground texture is heavily blurred. This is because the game has a 4xAF (yes, even on the PS4 they are like this). To get some good filtering on, you need to do some bit more work on it.

The easy way to do this is by opening your Nvidia Control Panel. Click here if you don't know how to get to the settings. Now, after adding the game executable file to the list, you change the anisotropic filtering like this

The hard way (AKA, my recommended way of doing it) is by using Nvidia Profile Inspector. Just google it if you do not have it. Make a custom profile like this and name it whatever you want(I suggest naming it Blue Reflection for quick access later). Now, pick "Add application to current profile" to bind your exe to your profile by going to your game directory and pick the BLUE_REFLECTION.exe. With all that done, now you have control over framerate limiter and texture filtering. To change the texture filtering to 16xAF, do this. Don't forget to hit apply or the setting will reset if you leave it be.

Now, let's compare no AF with 16x AF just for show.

• Default AF
  
• 16xAF
  
• No AF

See the tiles if you have a hard time seeing the differences.

Let's talk about framerate. Some users apparently report of a low framerate behavior similar to something a double buffer v-sync may have caused. A double buffer v-sync makes your framerate locks to half your refresh rate every time it struggles to keep it at that level. So, for example, the framerate dips below 60, it will lock itself to 30 (and can lock to 15 if framerate goes below 30) and then go back to 60 so quickly, it feels like the whole game just stroke out. Now, to alleviate this, we need to change the type of v-sync the game uses. Let's go back to the Nvidia Profile Inspector. Under the "2. Sync and Refresh" settings, the vertical sync tab. Now, if you want to force the game to get a triple buffer v-sync, we will need to go to the v-sync tab and select "Fast Sync". Fast Sync behaves like a triple buffer v-sync, but it doesn't cap itself to your monitor refresh rate. So, you get the benefit of a higher framerate without a framerate cap. Or if you want to, you can disable v-sync in the same tab. Be careful of playing in windowed mode as it would lock the framerate to 60fps whichever v-sync type you chose.

This is how you lock the framerate to 60 and combine it with Fast-Sync.

Now, onto my favorite part of this thread/guide; framerate optimization. Now, the only graphical settings we can change are either DoF and Texture Filtering (AKA AF or no AF). Even if small, they do give a boost in framerate. But before we touch on that, let's level with you guys on how this works. in most cases, how a graphic setting impact framerate works in percentage reduction of your current framerate. So, for example; let's take a hypotetical situation where the game runs at 120fps without AF. Now, let's enable AF to 16x. The framerate is now at 110. We can observe that the 10 fps hit meant that from 120 to 110, it loses 9% of the performance. So, we can conclude that at any framerate, from No AF to 16xAF, the performance will take a 9% hit.

After you guys understand how that mumbo jumbo works, let's finally touch on how to optimize your framerate. In this scene, I have a framerate of 95. After I did some 16xAF magic to it, now it drops to 88-89. Let's take the 89 value in this case. So, according to this number, a drop from 95 to 89 (6fps) is roughly 6,3%. Which means that, in most case, a No AF to 16xAF will hit you with a 6.3% lower performance.

"But what about DoF?" I hear you asking. Well, the thing is. At The school, DoF barely turns on, if any at all. And DoF only turns on in cutscenes and dungeons. So, I can't get a good read on how many percentage of performance loss by turning on DoF in these case. You need a static scene to test performance loss, you see. But if you do want to get as much performance as you want, just be safe and turn DoF off.

A little bit of Q&A:
"I have a maximum framerate off 72 with v-sync off and a lowest framerate of 35. What should I do?"
I can suggest you turning off AF entirely through Nvidia Profile Inspector. Though if the average framerate is around 45, turning off AF will only net you around 1-2 fps.

"Can I edit the resolution in "BRsetting.ini" to as low as 960x540?"
Yes, the game allows complete arbitrary resolution through editing the .ini file.

"What is this "AntiQuality=0" setting? Would it enable me AA with I change the value to "1"?"
No. There is no AA solution in the game. I don't even know why they bother leaving the setting intact in the .ini file.

"I have an AMD card and unable to apply most of your guide to my settings"
I unfortunately do not own an AMD card and am both unfamiliar with it.

"I have an Intel integrated chip and unable to apply most of your guide to my settings"
You can't change your v-sync type and your AF settings unfortunately. Although you can still lower your resolution and turn DoF off for best performance

"I can't progress past chapter 7! I always seem to crash at the exact same spot no matter what I change in the settings!"
It is a well-known crash for people who'd reached chapter 7. A patch is in the works but no information given if it will fix the crash or not at the moment.

"I have constant stutters even with a stable framerate. Help."
It may have something to do with Steam Overlay as some users reported. Try disabling Steam Overlay or changing V-Sync type as the guide above mentioned. Do it like this.

Additional Note:

• The PS4 version main game runs at a maximum framerate of 60fps in both gameplay and menu. Though this is more true in the menu and less frequent in gameplay. You can see the framerate going to 60 when the background of the scene is just the skybox. Which indicates that the PS4 is using a double buffer v-sync solution.
  
• The PS4 default AF is around 2-4x (PC's default is at x4).
  
• The Model Viewer mode on both PS4 (english ver.) and PC version of the game is in a dlc that hasn't come out yet.
  
• The Rumble(vibration) function on PC is nonexistent.
  
• There is no mouse input in the game.
  
• The AA settings in the .ini file is nonfunctional.
  
• Some object on PC does not cast shadows.
  
• Shadows on PC are dithered compared to PS4.
  
• Tutorial screenshot, background of shops/places when hanging out with friends.
  
• PC's video cutscenes are at a far lower bitrate.
  
• Steam Cloud is NOT supported, so remember to back up your save file.
  
• On my rig (see above for specs)In This Scene, I have 168fps @720p, 89 fps @1080p, 26fps @2160p both at 16xAF. It appears you need a beast of a GPU (due to poor pixel shaders implementation) to run this at a solid 60fps. I imagine a GTX1080 tier and up is needed to run with a solid framerate.

Additional Info:

Originally posted by Raúl DJ:

I completely forgot about that thing. Sadly I coudln't find much either, and I think it's because a lot of them are animated and stored in new ".kscl" files I've never seen before on these games.

Either way, I have no idea where the character pictures are, neither the very small icons of the objects, neither enemy portraits, etc.

By carefully watching all the menus in the game itself I conclude:

-Every single in-game capture is upscaled, there doesn't seem to be a single exception: https://my.mixtape.moe/iiynjf.png (Database->Help->Mission->4)
-Enemy pictures seem OK, this is similar to what happened with some items on Atelier.
-Text seems OK no matter how I look at it, texture here: https://my.mixtape.moe/prvswe.png Size seems right when the game is displaying text at its normal size, no idea where is the "bigger size" text texture but to me it looks OK too.
-Logos are 720, we already knew that: https://my.mixtape.moe/dvvpkw.png
-Tutorials use in-game screenshots, and the whole "page" is 720 as well: https://my.mixtape.moe/axupgl.png

Personal Note: The guide is pretty much complete. The only edits I'll do will be correction and or adding small stuff in. I hope you find your gameplay experience more enjoyable through this guide. If you have any question, feel free to add/ ask me in the comments. Cheers :3

[Ezodagrom]

I think this may be worth adding.
For laptop users with Nvidia GPUs, it may be needed to force the game to use Nvidia's GPU instead of Intel's integrated graphics through Nvidia's control panel (by creating a profile for the game and selecting the option to use Nvidia's high performance processor or something like that).

[Xaelath]

Make a guide for it.

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Xaelath:

Make a guide for it.

Yeah, I'll probably just copasta this to the guide section. For now, the more visibility (in the forums) the better.

[Harvestasya]

Underrated post.

[marionettethree]

Questions, if you can help me.

In dressing room............

1. Is there a way to remove the limit on how much you can rotate camara angle up and down in dressing room? PC version seems to lock player from trying to do...ahem..."indecent" thing with camera angle.

2. The speed of camera rotation in dressing room is too fast. Is there anyway to slow it down. Whenever I want to rotate character in left or right direction they spin like a top.

........................................................

Control

1. Is there anyway to bind "OK" and "Cancel" button into left mouse and right mouse button?

[Apriarcy]

I appreciate you taking the time to create this post. Honestly I hope it gets stickied.

[Ezodagrom]

Originally posted by Xaelath:

Make a guide for it.

I neither have the game or a laptop with an Nvidia's GPU, so there could be mistakes, but I guess I'll try.

For laptop users with Nvidia GPUs, it may be needed to force the game to use Nvidia's GPU instead of Intel's integrated graphics through Nvidia's control panel.

In the Manage 3D settings section of Nvidia's Control Panel, go to Program Settings, add the game's executable to the list (BLUE_REFLECTION.exe), and in the "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program" setting, select the "High-performance NVIDIA processor" option.
http://i.imgur.com/nRwP9.png

I don't know if this picture is up to date though, since on a desktop (at least mine which doesn't have an integrated GPU), this option doesn't exist. ^^;

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Apriarcy:

I appreciate you taking the time to create this post. Honestly I hope it gets stickied.

Thanks. I hope it get's stickied too, since I just want everyone to have a more optimize gameplay.

[Tiasmoon]

Apparently its only available as option by default if you have a 1060+ card.

[Harvestasya]

Originally posted by marionettethree:

PC version seems to lock player from trying to do...ahem..."indecent" thing with camera angle.

Are you saying that this version doesn't let you do at least this?: https://youtu.be/s21BD3F2iNo?t=3m35s 3 minutes 35 seconds

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by marionettethree:

Questions, if you can help me.

In dressing room............

1. Is there a way to remove the limit on how much you can rotate camara angle up and down in dressing room? PC version seems to lock player from trying to do...ahem..."indecent" thing with camera angle.

2. The speed of camera rotation in dressing room is too fast. Is there anyway to slow it down. Whenever I want to rotate character in left or right direction they spin like a top.

........................................................

Control

1. Is there anyway to bind "OK" and "Cancel" button into left mouse and right mouse button?

No, unfortunately. All of Koei Tecmo's port has never used the mouse for anything.

[Xaelath]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Apparently its only available as option by default if you have a 1060+ card.

What option?

Originally posted by Raúl DJ:

Originally posted by marionettethree:

PC version seems to lock player from trying to do...ahem..."indecent" thing with camera angle.

Are you saying that this version doesn't let you do at least this?: https://youtu.be/s21BD3F2iNo?t=3m35s 3 minutes 35 seconds

It seems localization limit the option to doing perverted stuff?

[Xaelath]

Originally posted by Vanosea:

Originally posted by marionettethree:

Questions, if you can help me.

In dressing room............

1. Is there a way to remove the limit on how much you can rotate camara angle up and down in dressing room? PC version seems to lock player from trying to do...ahem..."indecent" thing with camera angle.

2. The speed of camera rotation in dressing room is too fast. Is there anyway to slow it down. Whenever I want to rotate character in left or right direction they spin like a top.

........................................................

Control

1. Is there anyway to bind "OK" and "Cancel" button into left mouse and right mouse button?

No, unfortunately. All of Koei Tecmo's port has never used the mouse for anything.

Ah well that really explain most of the koei tecmo port.

[Harvestasya]

Originally posted by Xaelath:

It seems localization limit the option to doing perverted stuff?

I don't remember any Gust game being censored before, this has to be a first if it's really true.

EDIT: Oh my god, either I'm too r*tarded or it REALLY is censored, pressing "Y" does jacksh*t instead of hiding the interface and of course you can't change the orientation of the model. Is there anyone with the PS4 version to confirm this?

[Reidlos]

Good info, shame people think this amount of effort is ok, to the point of praising it with good reviews