Better graphics anyone?

[Deadpool]

For the past years ive had to tweak the ini files lots of times with UE4 games to have a sharper image and better working AA so i wouldnt get dizzy and dissorientated after only a few minutes of playing.
Ive done and needed it so many times it has now become one of the first thing i do when i buy a new UE4 game and this game was no different.
Over these years ive ended up with a small list of tweaks which i use in almost any UE4 game and after some testing i now have a preset made for this game and thought i would share it here to see if anybody want to improve their graphics.
Many of these ini tweaks are commonly used and also discussed many times and so i was somewhat suprised when i didnt seem to find any threads on this topic.

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Copy and paste everything below and place it in the engine.ini file located here:
C:\Users\**YOURUSERNAME**\AppData\Local\GroundBranch\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

*note: if you cant see the folder make sure hidden folders and files are visible
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[ConsoleVariables]
r.ViewDistanceScale=10.0
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6
r.ShadowQuality=5
r.LensFlareQuality=2
r.MaxAnisotropy=16
r.RefractionQuality=1
r.DetailMode=2
r.BloomQuality=0

[Systemsettings]
r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=2
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.1
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen=2
r.TemporalAASamples=4
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.3
foliage.LODDistanceScale=4
r.ScreenPercentage=100
r.MaterialQualityLevel=1
r.SSR.Quality=2
r.Color.Max=1.4
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Everything listed below [ConsoleVariables] is how you had your game setup already and you could leave this part unchanged if you are happy with your own settings.
These settings however can still be changed ingame after this is pasted in as there is no need to lock the file so setting them to low/high now is not an issue.

Everything listed below [SystemSettings] are the actual tweaks and only 2 should be changed if needed or if you want to adjust the sharpness of the final image.

* r.Tonemapper.Sharpen could be changed to adjust the sharpness or clearity if needed and anyting between 0.5 and 3 should enough to make everybody happy.
* r.ScreenPercentage is by far the most demanding and i assume most players will know what this does, it renders the game at a higher resolution resulting in a much sharper and better looking image.
*note: Leave it at 100% for the first try and if your pc can handle it increase it to 110-150%
The remaining and actual AA tweaks hardly impact the performance and should therefore just be copy'd and pasted in and used as is.

[KrisRedbeard]

r.ScreenPercentage controls the number of pixels rendered by the GPU.
By turning this to 200%, you're sending twice as much data then you need to the GPU.
This is fine if you're rendering the result out to a screenshot or movie, where the resolution can be higher then your monitor, but otherwise is a waste.

[Shai`tan]

I just use nVidia DSR, and run my DSR res at 3413X1440. Game looks awesome! All graphics vis settings maxed.

[Deadpool]

Originally posted by KrisRedbeard:

r.ScreenPercentage controls the number of pixels rendered by the GPU.
By turning this to 200%, you're sending twice as much data then you need to the GPU.
This is fine if you're rendering the result out to a screenshot or movie, where the resolution can be higher then your monitor, but otherwise is a waste.

Why do you think its a waste?. Lots of people use DSR or multisampling to render in a higher resolution.
If you have power to spare its a very good way to up te graphics in a game.

edit: also i didnt said use 200% anywhere?, i personally use 150% but i mentioned in the OP to set it to 100% if anybody wants to try the tweaks, upscaling is an extra, the tweaks are actually meant for players who run at 1080 maxed out on the ingame settings.

[Deadpool]

Originally posted by Shai`tan:

I just use nVidia DSR, and run my DSR res at 3413X1440. Game looks awesome! All graphics vis settings maxed.

Max settings in the game dont make the AA as crisp as with these settings, you should try them.

[Rick James Bish]

Originally posted by Deadpool:

Originally posted by KrisRedbeard:

r.ScreenPercentage controls the number of pixels rendered by the GPU.
By turning this to 200%, you're sending twice as much data then you need to the GPU.
This is fine if you're rendering the result out to a screenshot or movie, where the resolution can be higher then your monitor, but otherwise is a waste.

Why do you think its a waste?. Lots of people use DSR or multisampling to render in a higher resolution.
If you have power to spare its a very good way to up te graphics in a game.

Where would these improvements best be viewed? I really don't have an issue with the quality. My display is 3440x1440 native and I run all settings maxed including advanced but if I can get even better graphics, I am all for that. I took screenshots of my maxed settings, your tweaks, and then DSR at 6880x2880. I did not see a difference to speak of between the 3. Maybe the location I am using to compare is not optimal to see the difference.

[Deadpool]

Originally posted by Rick James Bish:

Originally posted by Deadpool:

Why do you think its a waste?. Lots of people use DSR or multisampling to render in a higher resolution.
If you have power to spare its a very good way to up te graphics in a game.

Where would these improvements best be viewed? I really don't have an issue with the quality. My display is 3440x1440 native and I run all settings maxed including advanced but if I can get even better graphics, I am all for that. I took screenshots of my maxed settings, your tweaks, and then DSR at 6880x2880. I did not see a difference to speak of between the 3. Maybe the location I am using to compare is not optimal to see the difference.

Maybe if you play at 4k the difference isnt that big idk. I assume AA isnt even needed anymore at those resolutions.
At 1080 the difference is night and day and so i use these tweaks in every ue4 game.

I will post some screens tonight to show how much better it looks.

[Deadpool]

I did a few tests and took some screens, the difference is noticable but not so much on a screenshot, there is a lot of noise in trees when you move your character or just the wind moving the leaves, it flickers and looks a bit rough at max ingame settings.
This effect get less when you use start scaling up but its there and these tweaks almost eleminate that effect and makes for a far calmer image so to speak.
Also, i tried the ingame setting maxed versus the tweaks for the LOD's only and you should stil see an improvement in foliage at distances, the screens i took show the trees in the background still being rendered in a higher quality mode, (like if you were standing closer to them),

Screen1:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2455287547
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2455287391

Screen2:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2455287153
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2455286938

Things just looks a little bit sharper but again its really noticable when moving aka playing the game.

The devs also did a really good job with this game and the graphics options available so there is not much to gain but if you are like many players who just use the 100% scaling ingame and have their settings on high will see a improvement with these settings.

[WhiteKnight77]

It may be me, but I am not seeing it. The differences I see are most likely due to the time of day in game when the screens were taken and the shadows, or lack thereof on the items in view.

[KrisRedbeard]

Originally posted by Deadpool:

Why do you think its a waste?. Lots of people use DSR or multisampling to render in a higher resolution.
If you have power to spare its a very good way to up te graphics in a game.

edit: also i didnt said use 200% anywhere?, i personally use 150% but i mentioned in the OP to set it to 100% if anybody wants to try the tweaks, upscaling is an extra, the tweaks are actually meant for players who run at 1080 maxed out on the ingame settings.

200 was just a value I picked :P
Regardless, anything over 100% is a waste.
At 150%, you are asking the GPU to render 2880x1620 pixels.
If you monitor is only capable of displaying 1920x1080, all the extra effort is going to waste.

[CalicoJack]

Originally posted by KrisRedbeard:

At 150%, you are asking the GPU to render 2880x1620 pixels.
If you monitor is only capable of displaying 1920x1080, all the extra effort is going to waste.

if his pc can handle it...
why would it be a waste?
the picture quality gets better, everything is less jaggy, the results act similar to SSAA.


im doing something similar in many games.
having a 1080p tv, im using DSR @4k and internal resolution around 70-85% 50-100% actually... depending on the game.

[Deadpool]

Originally posted by WhiteKnight77:

It may be me, but I am not seeing it. The differences I see are most likely due to the time of day in game when the screens were taken and the shadows, or lack thereof on the items in view.

No its not the time of day, trees are rendered in a lower quality after a certain distance.
The game has 3 options for it in the video section but none of these options enlarge that radius enough to have all the trees being rendered in high quality.

Edit: the screens from "depot" are actually at the same timeframe.

[Deadpool]

Originally posted by CalicoJack:

Originally posted by KrisRedbeard:

At 150%, you are asking the GPU to render 2880x1620 pixels.
If you monitor is only capable of displaying 1920x1080, all the extra effort is going to waste.

if his pc can handle it...
why would it be a waste?
the picture quality gets better, everything is less jaggy, the results act similar to SSAA.


im doing something similar in many games.
having a 1080p tv, im using DSR @4k and internal resolution around 70-85%
:winter2019happybulb:

Yes thank you, i was really suprised to hear a dev say upscaling is a waste.
Its probably the best way to get rid of jaggy edges and i use it in every game that supports it.

[Riusma]

The rendering might not be to everyone's liking, but if you can afford to lose a few fps (around 5%) Contrast Adaptive Sharpening also works well with Ground Branch and will give you a "sharper" picture. :)

[Thomas]

I tried upscaling the resolution the other day (you can simply use a console command: r.ScreenPercentage 100 and then changing the number, obviously) and it wasn't worth it for me. You definitely see a difference when you are moving around, but it came at a huge performance cost for me around the values where the changes became the most noticable.

Still an interesting thing to test though, especially for people with very good PCs. I think John already said he would add a slider in the game for changing your resolution scale from the settings. That would make this kind of tweaking a bit easier. Maybe for low spec gamers too.

[Rick James Bish]

Originally posted by Deadpool:

Originally posted by WhiteKnight77:

It may be me, but I am not seeing it. The differences I see are most likely due to the time of day in game when the screens were taken and the shadows, or lack thereof on the items in view.

No its not the time of day, trees are rendered in a lower quality after a certain distance.
The game has 3 options for it in the video section but none of these options enlarge that radius enough to have all the trees being rendered in high quality.

Anyways. This thread can be locked or removed as there dont seem to be any interest for it.

No, there is interest. That is why I tried it. I am sure it makes a noticeable difference to some. It also brought up DSR, which until yesterday I thought was title specific. I think it is like you said, it may not be so apparent if you are already running a higher resolution. I played with DSR set to 6880x2880 for a couple hours yesterday and felt like I was seeing a difference in quality but could not pinpoint it. Maybe something that is seen during motion like you said, so I decided to leave it that way.