The Ultimate No Man's Sky VR/PC 2021/2022/2023 Performance Guide

[Bilo]

After 80+ hours and a lot of research I've decided to compile together some performance tips that should help you squeeze performance out of No Man's Sky. I'm no expert, just somewhat computer literate.

*Quick Settings Too Long To Read..*

- WMR/Set HZ of Headset to 60hz/fps if you can.
- <Property name='NumHighThreads' value='0' /> (Users have reported putting this at 0)
<Property name='NumLowThreads' value='0' /> (Experiment around with this one.) Users have put both at 0 and saw their CPU stutters go away. (READ MORE BELOW)
- Ingame settings set to normal/enhanced with DLSS-Balanced.


Run a benchmark and test it yourself. See what is causing load on your CPU and GPU. I have an RTX 2060, Ryzen 2600. My issue is my CPU. So, I have to dial down CPU heavy settings. Assuming you're here, you've already messed with the Graphical Options to no avail and want more fps then this is what I've done to squeeze a few more frames/stability improvements that have eliminated my stuttering issue.

Check Updates notes for SteamVR. SteamVR just released a hotfix due to No Man's Sky crashing after latest update using SteamVR Beta. - I believe this is now fixed. If not try the experimental branch under the PIN Thread under General Discussion.

DLSS 2.1 just got released for No Man's Sky.
Depending on your system you should see a difference on GPU load. Please note that if you have a CPU bottleneck DLSS is not going to solve really any of your issues sadly. I do however, have this setting set to DLSS - Performance. This allows me to turn up my super sampling a little bit otherwise I couldn't play this game lol.

- WMR VR Headsets & Performance -
If you are stuttering and having fps issues still follow the guide but something that has helped me go from 45FPS to 60FPS consistently is setting your HZ mode in the Windows Mixed Reality Portal to 60HZ/60FPS instead of 90HZ. I now have 0.8% reprojection instead of 48%+.. Still get performance issues inside my base but instead of my being capped at 45FPS 24/7 even tho all vsync related options were off I now cap out at 60fps right outside my base and everywhere else besides the Anomaly! There may be a slight flicker when turning on 60hz mode. Once in game its not that noticeable.. However, it could bother some.

- Turn off in-game anti-aliasing. Costed me 10-15 frames with TAA and 5-8 with FXAA
- Turn off Windows game mode
- Turn off Windows GPU Scheduling
- Turn off 3rd party antivirus (keep windows defender on)
- Turn off Steam Overlay
- Verify Steam Cache
- Turn off Geforce Experience & Overlay
- Download game to SSD if possible
- Lowering/Raising Steam SS for VR users may help reduce load depending on your bottleneck.
- Set to High Performance under Windows Settings>Display>Graphics Settings>Add App
- Set Windows Power Plan to Highest Performance
- Turn off Advanced Supersample filtering in steamVR dev options

- Try turning off HPET (high performance event timer) in your UEFI(bios) which can help cpu bound applications like this one.

- Download Process Lasso and set the Power Plan to Bitsum Highest Performance (optional)

- Installing the OpenGL driver may help with FPS issues. It can be downloaded at https://developer.nvidia.com/opengl-driver.

- Get the latest Vulkin Runtime https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home#sdk/downloadConfirm/latest/windows/vulkan-runtime.exe

- Optional, if you're in VR try setting your display resolution down to 800x600 and go to File Explorer>Right Click ThisPC>Properties and scroll alllll the way down to Advanced System Settings>"Performance" Tab>Settings> Adjust for best performance.

- Use these options with caution they can cause instability-

Open Process Lasso after you've started the game.
- Priority class>Always>High
- I/O priority> Always>High
- More>Memory priority> Always> 5 - Normal

- Config File Settings -

<Property name='VsyncEx' value='Off' /> UNLESS USING TRIPLE BUFFERING
<Property name='AnisotropyLevel' value='1' />
<Property name='AmbientOcclusion' value='None' />
<Property name='MotionBlurStrength' value='00.000000' /> - I'm not sure if MotionBlur has any effect in VR but the code is there. I heard this can help with how reprojection looks? I am not certain on that.

Supposedly PATCHED but turning GSync = False

- Optional Settings but fixed my CPU Stuttering -

<Property name='NumHighThreads' value='0' /> (Users have reported putting this at 0)
<Property name='NumLowThreads' value='0' /> (Experiment around with this one.) Users have put both at 0 and saw their CPU stutters go away.

Someone had this to say about these 2 config options above "I've tested while trying to find any downsides, mainly pop-ins, slower generation, longer time of loading higher quality textures, longer delays before things start being generated, etc.
I wasn't able to find any single downside, and only thing that changes is that while things get generated, the game doesn't stutter/freeze/lockup/rubberband."

<Property name="UseTerrainTextureCache" value="true" />
<Property name="UseArbSparseTexture" value="true" />
Users reported this helping but change it back if it doesn't help.

After editing TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS make sure you right click on the file and set it to READ ONLY. That way when you load into your game, your settings will stay unaffected.

Everything else in TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS is set to Low/In game settings set to Low besides Texture Quality and Planetary Quality set to enhanced

- Download Nvidia Inspector -

Top left corner click the drop down and select No Man's Sky.
Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (DX) +0.2500 | (+Positive) numbers for performance.
Texture Filtering - Quality - High Performance
Power Management Mode - Prefer Maximum Performance
I've personally changed my Virtual Reality Pre-Rendered Frames to 4 which can also be changed in the Nvidia Control Panel. Apply and exit.

- Nvidia Control Panel -

*Adjust Image Setting with Preview* - Performance

*Manage 3D Settings*
FXAA - Off
AA Mode - Off
AA Transparency - Off
MFAA - Off
Shader Cache - Off
Texture ASO - Off
Texture LOD bias - Clamp
Virtual Reality Pre-Rendered Frames - 1 for less input lag, 4 for more input lag and possible fps improvement at the cost of latency. Doesn't bother me whatsoever.
Texture Trilinear Optimization - On
Threaded Optimization - On
Triple Buffering - Off UNLESS USING VSYNC. (Both set to ON for them to work)
VSync/VerticleSync - Off UNLESS USING TRIPLE BUFFERING. (Both set to ON or Adaptive Half Refresh Rate for them to work) <-------- Adaptive Half Refresh Rate helps!
Shadercache - Off

Optional - In the "3D Settings", set "Triple buffering" to "enable". This is a setting that only applies to OpenGL games and only when using vsync. This adds one additional frame in the output buffer but vync must be enabled. For example someone said
What this will do is add one additional frame in the output buffer. Although this will increase input lag by one frame, it will also prevent the game from rendering at a locked 30FPS in some instances when it can't maintain 60. This happens especially when you use 4K as your resolution (either DSR downsampling or when you're on a 4K monitor.)

If you have the issue where NMS is locked at 30FPS in 4K with vsync enabled, even though you've set the in-game frame limiter to 90 or max, then enabling triple buffering has a good chance of increasing your frame rate.

Check and make sure your drivers are up to date. This is a no brainer as always. Check patch notes and user comments before updating. Especially if you have a card that doesn't have the best driver support..



*NOT RECOMMENDED* - Overclocking - *NOT RECOMMENDED*
I wen't ahead and overclocked my Ryzen 2600 as its easily overclockable however I advise against this as it shouldn't be needed if you're just trying to run one game.. I wen't ahead to see if it would help and it did. However, the improvements are not enough for me to want to keep on sadly.


- FidelityFX SuperResolution for SteamVR -

A user has pointed out some software that takes AMD's Version of DLSS and applies it to VR Games that have an OpenVRApi. "allows you to apply FidelityFX SuperResolution upscaling to many SteamVR games, as long as they use D3D11. (FSR for short) is an upscaling technique developed by AMD, but it works on pretty much any graphics card, including NVIDIA cards. The idea is that the game internally renders to a lower resolution, thus saving GPU time and reaching higher FPS, as long as it is not bottlenecked by the CPU. The resulting lower resolution render is then upscaled to the target resolution by FSR, with the aim of restoring some of the lost detail due to the lower resolution rendering. It does so in two steps - the first being the actual upscaling to the target resolution, where particular attention is paid to edges in the lower resolution picture. The second step is a sharpening step to counter some of the blur introduced by the upscaling. unlike DLSS, FSR is not an anti-aliasing solution. Any aliasing and shimmering edges present in the original image will not be fixed by FSR. As such, the final image quality of FSR depends a lot on the particular game you are using it with. AMD specifically advises that FSR should be used in conjunction with the highest-quality anti-aliasing setting a game has to offer." FSR can be mitigated by using a sort of "fixed foveated" optimization where only the center of the image is upscaled by the more expensive FSR algorithm, while the edges are upscaled by cheaper bilinear sampling." I've actually used this before with Skyrim VR but only as a Sharpener. It still did an amazing jobs and I wasn't even taking advantage of its full potential. - https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr

- OPENXR -

If HG could possibly implement OpenXR there would be performance gains across all VR Headsets and specifically WMR Headsets. WMR has go through SteamVR and If I'm not mistaken Revive to work with No Man's Sky. At least revive always opens up when I launch the game. WMR has to work with either or and it takes up a lot of system resources. A fix for this would be OpenXR. Someone had this to say "SteamVR's OpenVR API, which despite its name is pretty much bound to Valve hardware and implementation, with support for other HMDs bolted on by plugins.

The only structural way to prevent problems like this is OpenXR, which all VR manufacturers including Valve are pushing.

Each manufacturer there has complete control over their implementation of the API. No more fitting square pegs through round holes.

The difference in performance can already be seen when comparing games like MSFS and Revive with SteamVR vs OpenXR WMR native support. People having stutters when going through SteamVR -> WMR for SteamVR run butters tooth under OpenXR alone."

I am not sure if this has been patched/updated but the user one to offer a temporary solution to this.

"For now we need to wait for the fix, and the only things we can do to minimize impact of this problem is lower the amount of screen buffer copies on the GPU, and keep those buffers small by reducing superfluous supersampling (RR auto).

Disable WMR 4 virtual desktop default in Registry

Start WMR

Set desktop res to 1080p 60 Hz when WMR is on

Move your steamvr.vrsettings file from the Steam program dir (only needed once) to a backup directory. This resets SteamVR settings to default, including hidden GPU profiling info. This is never cleared any other way, like reinstalling SteamVR. Also resets custom bindings, but if you can edit JSON you can merge app specific settings back into the new file which is created at start

Start SteamVR

Set Rendering Resolution to Custom:100% instead of Auto to disable dynamic supersampling.

Always leave OpenXR implementation on WMR, never set it to Steam's implementation.

Restart SteamVR."

- IMPORTANT INFORMATION RELATING TO OPENXR -

First, you can set a “custom render scale.” This really important. This is the “render res” above, except in pixels, instead of % in the tool. I set mine all the way to 50%. The recommendations from CptLucky are probably smarter.

Regardless, it is important to understand that you’re not really cutting your resolution in half when you do this. Instead, some magic happens. It upscales the 50% to 100% using some magic algorithms. Personally I then set in game scaling to 100%, and that looked really good to me, believe it or not. Like, magically good. The suggestions above are probably even better.

There is a second reason to use development tools. If you allow it to use the pre release version, then you can force motion smoothing/reprojection. This is more magic. If your GPU can only hit 45 fps even with reduced render scaling (like my 3080), it magically inserts every other frame by drawing and “average” image to bring you up to 90 fps. It’s good, but not perfect. Some people don’t like it, maybe because the base frame rates are too low, but for me it brings that silky smooth 90 FPS experience, especially in the cockpit where any lower FPS breaks immersion and makes me queasy. And it smooths out the world too. The only visible distortions for me are right around the edges of the propeller, which I can live with.

Before I figured this out, I did the same thing through Steam. That involves switching to the Steam open XR, instead of the WMR one. (SteamVR->Settings->Developer->Use SteamXR). Now the Steam VR settings will actually do something! (If you open the WMR application after doing it, it will suggest you switch it back. Or you can do it through the registry. There are instructions out there on how to do this.)

Having now compared the two at identical settings, that is with reduced resolution, and motion smoothing/reprojection, Steam OpenXR does a better job than the default WMR OpenXR.

But the preview version of development tools OpenXR does an even better job. It’s brilliant. I went from being very frustrated over VR in the morning yesterday, to being absolutely astounded. I flew around my home state of Colorado last night until my eyes bled. - https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/wmr-scaling-and-dev-tools-some-explanations/339477/6

- Conclusion -

I can run this game at 45FPS (AFTER NEWEST UPDATE) inside my base which does have over 3000 pieces to it.. 60fps everywhere else without base pieces and using my settings. Looking at my base causing the CPU to OVERLOAD even having Base Complexity down all the way where there doesn't even show half my base still lags me like crazy. Smaller bases are actually playable. Very little to no drop. Upon looking away from my base I get 55+ fps and outside my base its hovering around 60+.
Space goes up to 70fps and space stations are around the same. The Anomaly goes to 45-55 fps. CPU stuttering is gone EXCEPT for when loading into planets, leaving planets, landing in the anomaly. Exiting my base as it has to now load in a bunch of things..

Hopefully this helps someone.. Great game that suffers with poor optimization. Please add to this and I'll update this guide if anything new comes around.

[Dan_The_Noob]

honestly, just turn down the reflections to enhanced and you're gonna get a decent increase in performance.

[Chrono_Hood]

Jesus bro - This was very well documented and I've been down at least half of this road thinking it was the whole road. I'll be applying these fixes to not only this game but a few others I have in mind with stutter problems , such as blade & sorcery if applicable. Well done , thanks!

[Lindy Bomber]

Following.

[zilramyamette]

I'll try this asap. Thanks!

[Kiets]

Thanks for the detailed guide! Hopefully some of this will help with my VR frames.

[Kobs]

Nice I will try a few of those ;)

[Jasagna]

Follow

[Paprika]

i use num highthread thing, and getting extended draw distance mod on nexus. it was working great but not sure about patches. fps was high, also no texture pop ins.

[ReadyPlayer0815]

Originally posted by Paprika:

i use num highthread thing, and getting extended draw distance mod on nexus. it was working great but not sure about patches. fps was high, also no texture pop ins.

Damn I wish I knew what you are talking about ;-)
Num Hightread thing?
Nexus distance mod?

[kawaknaller]

Lol...or just set all to high DLSS on balanced and off you go.....realy no need for all these things you are writing. Only remark is that I noticed that a lot of complaints coem from player with an AMD CPU. Perhaps the devs need to tweak there a bit more for you guyz.

[Bilo]

Do you have any knowledge surrounding computers, gpu's, cpu's & game development? This game is CPU heavy. Nothing like just setting to DLSS Balanced is going to fix all of your problems depending on your system.. AMD have amazing CPU's this game has issues with it's engine and CPU's in general.. DLSS is not a one stop fix all problems. DLSS brings down GPU load. You didn't even bother to read it "lol".. A lot of my methods here explain ways to minimize resources and like I said to "squeeze" fps and it adds stability. My game runs miles better so I'll stick to my post.

If you aren't suffering from performance issues than this post is no help to you. No big bad boi heavy duty computer is going to run this game without hickups.. Optimization goes way further than whatever hardware will do in the mean time. If this game had better performance on CPU's I'd be able to crank this sucker up just like all the other VR players bragging about their specs. Now, without VR I wouldn't of even made this post. As it wouldn't be relevant to me. Most people don't have 12 core cpu's. I'd imagine most in VR might, I do not know..

[ReadyPlayer0815]

Originally posted by Dyortos:

... A lot of my methods here explain ways to minimize resources and like I said to "squeeze" fps and it adds stability. My game runs miles better so I'll stick to my post...

I can absolutly confirm that these settings do help!

I run a R9 5950 and an 2070 Super on a Valve Index.

80 Frames with all set to standard were possible with about 20% repo rate in a hour long sessin. (Mostly base interaction drives the rate up)
Now with a bit of optimizing I can set the textures and base comblexeblity to enhanced and get about 10% repo rate in a session.

Much smoother!

And DLSS sucks. Makes the picture blurry.
If you always playd with TxAA or FxAA on, then its an improvment, ok.
But I get sharper textures without it.

[Invidit]

0 / 0 in Num hight/low threads makes wonders in my PPC (potato pc). Finally i can play acceptably fluent with the planet in ultra.
Thanks.

[Bowi]

keep windows defender on

?!

According to AV-Comparatives' latest Performance Test[www.av-comparatives.org], Windows Defender is the most performance-impacting antivirus solution. I dare to disagree with this suggestion.

[Bilo]

Originally posted by DD:

keep windows defender on

?!

According to AV-Comparatives' latest Performance Test[www.av-comparatives.org], Windows Defender is the most performance-impacting antivirus solution. I dare to disagree with this suggestion.

I figured those without 3rd party anti-virus would want some form of protection..
I use Kasperky but found it to be a cpu hog. If that's the case with defender than I'll have to look into safe alternatives.