Way to fix/improve global illumination?

[UnreasonablySaucyConcrete]

I noticed whenever I'm in a dark place that the global illumination acts strangely, kinda like it just splotches the area around the light source every few seconds rather than staying still. I've noticed this in another UE5 game too so I assume it's an Unreal Engine thing or Lumen thing.

In that other game it was possible to edit an engine.ini to sort of improve the GI and reduce the splotchiness, but considering Easy Anticheat is in this game I doubt I could do that. Are there any settings combinations or a Reshade shader (that doesn't need depth buffer access) that I could use to help?

[PotionShop]

I think you can change the engein.ini without being banned, but never know for sure because its developer discretion.

Easy Anti-Cheat in my experience
- closes the game if it detects a unexpected disconnect from the server
- monitors and logs all programs being ran on your pc
- reports potential bad actors to the community manager team
- auto bans people using known hacking software
- can prevent the game from launching if modding software is running

All the above settings, I believe, can be customized by the developer team. OFF/ON/CUSTOM

For the record. I thought the in-game graphics looked bad. So I updated my engine.ini file to reduce TAA in-game. No ban yet, but obviously changed your file is done at your own risk.

[UnreasonablySaucyConcrete]

I see, thanks for the info. I'll give editing the .ini a try and hope for the best. I always thought part of Easy Anticheat's process was checking the files for tampering but I'm guessing that, even if it did, it wouldn't check Engine.ini because it's a settings file and not any asset files.

I'm not too deep into the game so I'm not too worried about getting banned either.

[-TRP-]

Did you found a way to fix it?

[TemplarGFX]

Heres the settings Im using. beware if your computer ain't good this will kill your frames

r.DFShadowQuality=3
r.PathTracing.MaxSSSBounces=512
r.SSS.Scale=5
r.Reflections.Denoiser.PreConvolution=2
r.Lumen.Reflections.ScreenSpaceReconstruction=1
r.Lumen.Reflections.TraceMeshSDFs=1
r.Lumen.Reflections.RoughnessFadeLength=0.1
r.Lumen.Reflections.ScreenSpaceReconstruction.NumSamples=4012
r.Lumen.Reflections.Temporal.DistanceThreshold=0.05
r.Lumen.Reflections.HierarchicalScreenTraces.MaxIterations=50
r.Lumen.Reflections.RadianceCache=0
r.Lumen.HardwareRayTracing.LightingMode=3
r.Lumen.IrradianceFieldGather=0
r.Lumen.SkylightLeaking.Roughness=0
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.Heightfield.ShadowRayBias=0.003
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.MeshSDF.ShadowRayBias=0.003
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.ShadowMap.SamplingBias=0.01
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.OffscreenShadowing.TraceMeshSDFs=1
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.HardwareRayTracing=1
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.HardwareRayTracing.HeightfieldProjectionBiasSearchRadius=1024
r.LumenScene.DirectLighting.MaxLightsPerTile=32
r.LumenScene.FastCameraMode=0
r.LumenScene.Radiosity.DistanceFieldSurfaceBias=0.0
r.Lumen.DiffuseIndirect.Allow=1
r.Lumen.ScreenProbeGather.ScreenSpaceBentNormal=1
r.Lumen.ProbeHierarchy.SamplePerPixel=8
r.Lumen.Reflections.Allow=1
r.Lumen.TraceDistanceScale=4
r.Lumen.DiffuseIndirect.MinSampleRadius=0.002
r.Lumen.IrradianceFieldGather.ProbeOcclusionNormalBias=0.003
r.Lumen.ProbeHierarchy.AdditionalSpecularRayThreshold=100
r.Lumen.RadianceCache.SpatialFilterMaxRadianceHitAngle=30
r.LumenScene.DistantScene.NaniteLODBias=0
r.LumenScene.Radiosity=1
r.Lumen.Reflections.MaxRoughnessToTrace=100000
r.Lumen.ScreenProbeGather.ScreenTraces.HZBTraversal=1
r.Lumen.Reflections.BilateralFilter.NumSamples=512
r.AOGlobalDistanceField.FastCameraMode=0
r.AOGlobalDistanceField.MinMeshSDFRadius=0.0001
r.AOGlobalDistanceField.MinMeshSDFRadiusInVoxels=0.0001
r.AOGlobalDistanceFieldForceFullUpdate=1
r.AOGlobalDistanceFieldRepresentHeightfields=1
r.AOMaxViewDistance=300
r.Lumen.ProbeHierarchy.MaxProbeResolution=32
r.Lumen.Reflections.DownsampleFactor=0
r.Lumen.Reflections.ScreenSpaceReconstruction.RoughnessScale=0.75
r.Lumen.TraceMeshSDFs.Allow=1
r.LumenScene.Radiosity.MinTraceDistanceToSampleSurface=0.003
r.ContactShadows=1
r.Shadow.EnableModulatedSelfShadow=1
r.Shadow.CSMDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.CSMSlopeScaleDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.PerObjectDirectionalDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.PerObjectDirectionalSlopeDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.PerObjectSpotLightDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.PerObjectSpotLightSlopeDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.SpotLightDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.SpotLightSlopeDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.PointLightDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.PointLightSlopeScaleDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.RectLightDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.RectLightSlopeScaleDepthBias=0.006
r.Shadow.ShadowMaxSlopeScaleDepthBias=2
r.CapsuleShadows=1
r.Lumen.Reflections.SmoothBias=0.25

Make sure all ingame settings are at Ultra otherwise half of this wont do anything

[A Suspicious Crayon]

Originally posted by PotionShop:

I think you can change the engein.ini without being banned, but never know for sure because its developer discretion.

Easy Anti-Cheat in my experience
- closes the game if it detects a unexpected disconnect from the server
- monitors and logs all programs being ran on your pc
- reports potential bad actors to the community manager team
- auto bans people using known hacking software
- can prevent the game from launching if modding software is running

All the above settings, I believe, can be customized by the developer team. OFF/ON/CUSTOM

For the record. I thought the in-game graphics looked bad. So I updated my engine.ini file to reduce TAA in-game. No ban yet, but obviously changed your file is done at your own risk.

I wish we wouldn't be forced to use the attrocious TAA, the ghosting almost makes me vomit.

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by A Suspicious Crayon:

Originally posted by PotionShop:

I think you can change the engein.ini without being banned, but never know for sure because its developer discretion.

Easy Anti-Cheat in my experience
- closes the game if it detects a unexpected disconnect from the server
- monitors and logs all programs being ran on your pc
- reports potential bad actors to the community manager team
- auto bans people using known hacking software
- can prevent the game from launching if modding software is running

All the above settings, I believe, can be customized by the developer team. OFF/ON/CUSTOM

For the record. I thought the in-game graphics looked bad. So I updated my engine.ini file to reduce TAA in-game. No ban yet, but obviously changed your file is done at your own risk.

I wish we wouldn't be forced to use the attrocious TAA, the ghosting almost makes me vomit.

Add this to your engine.ini

r.TemporalAA.HistoryScreenpercentage=200
r.BasePassForceOutputsVelocity=1
r.TemporalAAPauseCorrect=1
r.TemporalAA.Upsampling=1
r.TemporalAACatmullRom=1
r.TemporalAA.Algorithm=0
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6
r.TemporalAA.Quality=2
foliage.DitheredLOD=1
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.40
r.TemporalAAFilterSize=0.45
r.TemporalAASamples=3

[-TRP-]

https://streamable.com/bvksxp
I have this problem with GI in this game, i believe it's the same problem as OP.
It's the only game that does this weird artifacting light, splotches, the only UE5 game i'm playing. Really in need of a solution

[UnreasonablySaucyConcrete]

No idea how I didn't get the notifications from everyone posting here.

Originally posted by -TRP-:

https://streamable.com/bvksxp
I have this problem with GI in this game, i believe it's the same problem as OP.
It's the only game that does this weird artifacting light, splotches, the only UE5 game i'm playing. Really in need of a solution

Yep, pretty much the same issue. Abiotic Factor, another UE5 game using Lumen by default for it's lighting and GI, also does that weird splotching from light sources in darker areas. I've yet to find a solution, but I'll be trying TemplarGFX's solutions to TAA and Lumen soon.

Since starting this discussion I've scoured the internet and have only found ways to disable TAA and severely worsen the GI. Hopefully Templar's settings work, and if they don't at least they'll point in the right direction probably.

[UnreasonablySaucyConcrete]

Tested Templar's settings. It helped, but my PC is screaming. It also didn't totally fix the blur from TAA and the splotching from the GI (made them both barely noticeable though). I'll keep looking into it but it already feels impossible to fix.

[-TRP-]

Originally posted by UnreasonablySaucyConcrete:

No idea how I didn't get the notifications from everyone posting here.

Originally posted by -TRP-:

https://streamable.com/bvksxp
I have this problem with GI in this game, i believe it's the same problem as OP.
It's the only game that does this weird artifacting light, splotches, the only UE5 game i'm playing. Really in need of a solution

Yep, pretty much the same issue. Abiotic Factor, another UE5 game using Lumen by default for it's lighting and GI, also does that weird splotching from light sources in darker areas. I've yet to find a solution, but I'll be trying TemplarGFX's solutions to TAA and Lumen soon.

Since starting this discussion I've scoured the internet and have only found ways to disable TAA and severely worsen the GI. Hopefully Templar's settings work, and if they don't at least they'll point in the right direction probably.

Omg thank you. I thought my gpu was artifacting as i have one happened to me a long time ago and i've ran some test, stress test and i've checked all the game it has no problem, i've try to lower graphic option one by one and found out that GI is the problem and that's lead me to your post.
I hope the devs noticing this as well, it's not game breaking but it's really bugging me

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by UnreasonablySaucyConcrete:

Yep, pretty much the same issue. Abiotic Factor, another UE5 game using Lumen by default for it's lighting and GI, also does that weird splotching from light sources in darker areas. I've yet to find a solution, but I'll be trying TemplarGFX's solutions to TAA and Lumen soon.

Since starting this discussion I've scoured the internet and have only found ways to disable TAA and severely worsen the GI. Hopefully Templar's settings work, and if they don't at least they'll point in the right direction probably.

There is no perfect solution. So far (Im still trying and testing values) I have found no way to flat increase the number of rays cast by lumen when light bounces off of a surface.
The main thing my settings change is the quality of the light reflection and the length of the rays cast as well as various roughness features that usually prevent rays being cast to cause rays to still get cast. This does do a pretty good job of filling in most of the blotches but no matter what values I change, if light hits a rounded surface and its bright the reflected light creates the splotchy effect on surfaces that are far away from the reflection point. Theres just not enough rays cast.

My TAA settings almost disable it, so its alot more subtle but not totally off. Hair has a bit of dithering to it but its not noticable in gameplay

[UnreasonablySaucyConcrete]

Originally posted by TemplarGFX:

There is no perfect solution. So far (Im still trying and testing values) I have found no way to flat increase the number of rays cast by lumen when light bounces off of a surface.
The main thing my settings change is the quality of the light reflection and the length of the rays cast as well as various roughness features that usually prevent rays being cast to cause rays to still get cast. This does do a pretty good job of filling in most of the blotches but no matter what values I change, if light hits a rounded surface and its bright the reflected light creates the splotchy effect on surfaces that are far away from the reflection point. Theres just not enough rays cast.

My TAA settings almost disable it, so its alot more subtle but not totally off. Hair has a bit of dithering to it but its not noticable in gameplay

You're definitely right, there is no perfect solution. I did a little more scouring and everything I found that can help increases the performance cost significantly or requires work on the game dev's end. It seems Lumen just needs a little more work before it's somewhat less noisy/splotchy.

Those TAA settings did help though, thank you for those.

[UnreasonablySaucyConcrete]

Also, for anyone considering it, I wouldn't recommend turning on Screen Space Global Illumination in the Engine ini. SSGI is significantly noisier in a different way. Instead of splotches it's just super grainy.

[-TRP-]

Anyway to contact the devs directly and let them know about this? I've posted on Discord but no one seems to care

[Claude Van Dong]

Unfortunately without access to in-game console there isn't much that can be done. You can't test things out live and see what's changing and what's the performance impact.