Ultimate Tweak Guide by Caiobrz

A tweaking guide written by Caiobrz, rescued by me from the old Steam Forums, which will be shut down soon.

Editing the INI-files

First and foremost for new users: yes the so called DLC comes with the game, but you need to change a line in one .ini file to enable it. More on this thread.

So, tweaks to make the game run better if you don't own the latest ubber CPU/GPU (and please, ATI users stop complaining, if you read PhysX on ANY game, it means it runs better on an nVidia)

Most of these are STABLE (at least didn't crash or anything with me) unless otherwise stated. Also, needless to say, I recommend you backup all your .ini files before going too far.

Items on RED were extensively tested and didn't result on a single FPS improvement, which makes me believe they are totally ignored by Alice:MR. I leave them here just for reference though.

IMPORTANT: ATI/RADEON USERS with CPU core speeds below 3Ghz should FIRST reduce PhysX to MEDIUM. ATI cards do not support PhysX and said effects are thus run by the CPU. Try PhysX on low or medium and check for improvements BEFORE going into these tweaks.

IMPORTANT: If your nVidia card is not that new and your CPU is good (EACH CORE speed is ABOVE 2.9Ghz), try setting PhysX to CPU mode on nVidia Control Panel and test the game. You might get better FPS with the PhysX on CPU than an old GPU. My GT9600 lost for my Core 2 Duo 2.93, for instance!

ANOTHER NOTE: The game uses native 16:9 resolution, which means that on 16:10 monitor you WILL have a letterbox effect (black horizontal bars on top/bottom)

All changes are in the My Games\Alice Madness Returns\AliceGame\Config\

AliceEngine.ini

[Engine.Engine]

PhysXGpuHeapSize=64

Defines main memory allocated to PhysX, the more, the faster textures and data are stored and used by PhysX enfine. If you are using PhysX might consider increasing this. Suggested increase: 64 for 8x or 9x series, 128 for 512Mb recent videocards, 256 for 1Gb+ recent video cards. Important: Old 8x or 9x series nVidia might not handle larger values than 64. If you get artifacts and crashes after increasing this value, tone it down.

NOTE: if you increase this more than your GPU can handle, it might actually drop FPS compared to the default value. The trick is to find the biggest value where you get an FPS increase. Same with the option bellow.

PhysXMeshCacheSize=8

Defines cache for current PhysX effects. If you are using PhysX, you might consider increasing this. Suggested increase: to 16 on all accounts.

bSmoothFrameRate=True

Smooths (tries to prevent sudden changes) the FPS, and also caps it by MaxSmoothedFrameRate. I strongly suggest you leave this ON as this will keep the FPS smooth (I noticed this holds true even on low-end machines if you decrease MinSmoothedFrameRate) - meaning, will try not to sudden-change FPS when things go wrong. The side-effect might be input lag. You might want to set this to false to check the real FPS you can get. Suggestion: keep true but change the other variables as suggested bellow:

MinSmoothedFrameRate=22

Defines the minimum FPS the engine will try to keep changes smooth. Suggested value: decrease to a little more the minimum FPS you observe while playing. I get 14 FPS on PhysX intense sequences, so I set this to 16. This will make FPS changes less noticeable, while keeping some room for very-low FPS to release the smooth engine.

MaxSmoothedFrameRate=31

The maximum (and thus cap) FPS. Suggested value: your display device refresh rate (usually between 60 to 85). If your GPU can't handle that high FPS, I suggest leaving at 31.

[SystemSettings]

ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCount=150

When the APEX module of PhysX is used (this module allows the 'destruction' of objects without prior coding by the developers, used mostly on the Giant Alice sequences), how many pieces it can be destroyed into. The less, the faster. 150 is too much (you won't count 150 pieces will you?), so suggested value is to decrease to 50.

ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCountHigh=500

Same as above, but if PhysX is set to HIGH. Still suggest 50.

UseHighQualityBloom=True

Bloom is a special effect on lightning (more lightning, dependent on where you are facing. It will usually make things less bright when you are facing away from the light source). This setting tells the engine to use high quality (therefore a little slower) bloom. Set this to False if you don't care to a minimum decrease in lightning quality (might get more realistic!) to a minimum FPS increase. OR ...

Bloom=True

Set this to False to disable Bloom lightning altogether. NOTE: NOT VERIFIED AS STABLE.

UseVsync=True

This is the engine Vsync setting. If you don't know what VSync is, keep it true. If you know, then you know if you want it on or off. Note: kind of pointless to change this and keep bSmoothFrameRate on.

MaxAnisotropy=16

Defines the Anisotropy filter quality. This is applied to far-away textures to reduce blurring. Usually it's not that visually bad, and 16x is too much for too little improvement and some FPS drop. Suggested value: 4 if you have a high-end GPU, 2 otherwise.

MaxMultisamples=4

Defined multisample on transparent anti-alias texture. Also somewhat little visual effect, can get you an extra FPS. Suggested value: 2

[Engine.PhysicsLODVerticalDestructible]

MaxDynamicChunkCount=1000

Tells PhysX how many dynamic particles can exist at any given time. Decrease this if you are using PhysX and want some extra FPS on PhysX intense sequences. Suggested value: 500 for little to no change and some improvement on FPS

DebrisLifetime=60.0

When something is destroyed, how long the small debris will stay on screen. If they last less, you will have less chunks without having to drop the MaxDynamicChunkCount. Suggested value: 30

[AliceGame.AliceGameEngine]

GIsSpecialPCEdition=False

Set this to True to unlock Weapons and dress DLC (equipment)

[TextureStreaming]

PoolSize=140

The engine loads textures in the background. However, sometimes there is simply too much to load and the game might stutter or simply freeze for a second. If you are experiencing either, try to increase this value. As a matter of fact, increase it anyway. Suggested value: 560 on high-end GPU, 280 on others. Defragmenting your drive might also help with stuttering/small freezes.

AliceGame.ini

[Engine.WorldInfo]

MaxPhysicsSubsteps=10

Everytime something happens on PhysX, the engine will do multiple steps to guarantee realism. Needless to say, the more steps, more GPU used. For some reasons Alice uses 10 steps while UE default is 5, so I suggest to decrease this to 5 on any system to minimal change. If you are on a low-end GPU, decrease this even further. I suggest not getting lower than 3 though.

[Engine.DecalManager]

MaxActiveDecals=100

Decals are blood stains, explosion or bullet holes/dirt, etc... which are painted on top of the texture. I seriously doubt you will get 100 blood stains, and this game features no bullet holes. Anyway, decrease this to get a small FPS increase on intense battles. Suggested value: 50

AliceInput.ini

[Engine.PlayerInput]

bEnableMouseSmoothing=true

If the aiming with ranged weapons was not bad enough, this setting totally mess with all mouse input. You WANT this to be false at all times.

-- that's it --

Just to mention again as this is a common low-FPS issue with this game: If you are an ATI user, avoid using PhysX on HIGH unless your CPU core power is above 2.9Ghz. Might as well set this to low and try the game for a while, then medium and see if it can handle.

[Gustavozxd]

Just here to say the guide works perfectly in 2022 now that the game's back on steam. Thank you very much!

[uddipan1000]

Don't be sorry, I was just putting info for other AMD users, @Virake . The mouse smoothing works well from this guide, but I thought it would be nice to play with Physx on, but it is really broken for AMD PC so I have to play it with off, this one didn't work.

[Virake]

well, I'm very sorry if these tweaks don't work for you. the most important ones (framerate and mouse input-related) definitely worked back when I posted this guide in 2017. I can't troubleshoot the rest for you, as I'm not the developer of the game, nor am I the author of the guide.

[uddipan1000]

for me, none of the settings really worked, I use AMD rx470, fx6300

[TheDeeGee]

But neither do the others like "ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCount" and "ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCountHigh".

Setting those at 1 and 2 for example still causes hundreds of little particles when destroying Bolterfly Hives.

But maybe i'm actually confused with Borderlands 2, where you can limit the amount of Physx Particle pieces. I guess that's not possible in Alice.

[Virake]

it's known that ChunkCount setting doesn't work, that's why it's crossed out in the guide.

[TheDeeGee]

Seems none of these tweaks apply, even when setting the ChunkCount at 1, it still creates loads of pieces when kill a bolterfly for example.

[SolivaN]

thanks for this guide, i can't valorate, steam tells me that i need to have this game on my inventory. is weird

[Smoker]

I'm amazed how the decals can even bring my 8GB OC Ryzen system to it's knees in big battles

[squeeb]

This is great, just reinstalled this game and was having terrible mouse lag in game, and in menu. Silky smooth now, and was also able to uncap the framerate - still looks pretty damn good in 2017 on a 144hz monitor - thanks!