Graphics Settings tips!

[Gekko]

For anyone new to this game, I have a few tips about the graphics settings. My brother picked up this game a bit ago, and after some trial and error, we figured out a few things that might help people who aren't running the game quite as smoothly as they'd like to.

Let's start with the DO NOT TOUCH settings. I.e. settings I highly recommend you don't mess with. Starting with most important, to least important. (Though all are important)

V-Sync - Leave it ON. I genuinely do not recommend turning this off. This game has severe vertical tearing, and it becomes vomit inducing without V-Sync. You will receive a small FPS boost by turning it off, but it certainly wont feel like it, as the game looks very jerky without it.

Frame rate - Leave at 60 or Variable. This game is very choppy at 30 FPS. If you have no other option but to limit to 30, then so be it, but I genuinely do not recommend it, ever.

Depth of Field - This actually can improve the game running smoothly. If you for some odd reason need to, or want to turn it off, so be it, but it's really better to leave it on.

On to, what you SHOULD adjust, if you're having FPS dips.

Distance scaling - This should be turned to low, for everybody. Unless you have a super powered GPU, there is absolutely no sense turning this GPU hog up above the LOW setting. It's a graphics hog, and with Depth of Field on, adds absolutely NO noticeable difference in how the game looks. It's just useless, and you will receive a nice FPS boost by turning it down.

Anti Aliasing - I don't recommend turning this on above FXAA. The two higher settings add a negligible, nearly unnoticeable difference to the quality, and hogs the GPU unnecessarily.

On to, settings that you MIGHT want to turn down, if you're still having issues with frame rate.

Effects - This really doesn't add much difference, but you will notice it when you turn it down, as the particle effects will look visibly worse. If you have to however, go ahead and turn this down. Try medium first, then low.

Shadows - Not much of an FPS boost unless you have an older GPU that sucks at doing shadows. It will make shadows look noticeably worse however if you turn it down. Try medium first, then low.

Texture filtering - This makes almost no difference. But, you will get a couple FPS if you turn it down from x16 to say x4 or x2. The difference in appearance isn't much between x4 and x16, so don't fret too much if you have to turn it down.

Settings that don't really matter.

Textures - Turning this down will pretty much just make the game look worse, rather than providing any real benefit.

Grass - I've heard of some people getting a benefit, but most modern cards probably wont get much out of turning this down.

HDR - Again, this has almost no impact on the GPU.

Well, that's all. Hope everyone is enjoying this game as much as my brother and I are!

[Lokhe]

Turning off V-sync does not automatically mean you get a bunch of screen tearing! Bad advice. Try it off first and if you get tearing, turn it back on. (I turned mine off and haven't had a single torn frame. I am not using v-sync through the nVidia control panel either)

HDR should arguably be set to LOW simply because if you turn it up, you make the game too bright, ruining the areas that are supposed to be pitch black.

[Gekko]

Lol, this game has horrible tearing, what are you talking about?

As for the HDR, that is personal preference, and has nothing to do with framerates.

[Lokhe]

Originally posted by Vault Boy:

Lol, this game has horrible tearing, what are you talking about?

I'm saying it will be different for everyone. You shouldn't just turn a setting on because someone else had a problem. It's easy enough to try out for 2 minutes to see if you need it. I'm not saying no one will have screen tearing but I haven't had a single bad frame.

[Kaldaien]

You're probably running in borderless window mode then. The game has terrible frame pacing, I have analyzed it with my own tools and the standard deviation is much too high not to be getting tearing without VSYNC.

That's with or without their framerate limiter engaged.

[Lokhe]

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

You're probably running in borderless window mode then. The game has terrible frame pacing, I have analyzed it with my own tools and the standard deviation is much too high not to be getting tearing without VSYNC.

Nope, fullscreen.

[Gekko]

Originally posted by Lokhe:

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

You're probably running in borderless window mode then. The game has terrible frame pacing, I have analyzed it with my own tools and the standard deviation is much too high not to be getting tearing without VSYNC.

Nope, fullscreen.

Same, also running in fullscreen.

[Kaldaien]

VSYNC is probably forced on at the driver level in that case. std deviation in frame time is about 3 ms, which is much too high for tear free rendering. It'd need to be down around 0.1 ms. The good news is it generally doesn't stutter, but the limiter cannot replace VSYNC.

[Lokhe]

Originally posted by Kaldaien:

VSYNC is probably forced on at the driver level in that case. std deviation in frame time is about 3 ms, which is much too high for tear free rendering. It'd need to be down around 0.1 ms. The good news is it generally doesn't stutter, but the limiter cannot replace VSYNC.

You obviously know more about this than me. I haven't downloaded new graphics drivers since or close to the launch of this game and there are none specifically for it that I'm aware. I don't force v-sync through the gpu either (that I'm aware. global settings for v-sync is set to off). I also don't have a g-sync monitor.

[Nicholas Steel]

[GRAPHICS]
AltAntiAlias=NONE
HDR=FLOAT
TextureDetail=HIGH
ShadowQuality=MEDIUM
MaxFPS=60.000000
GrassQuality=HIGH
CameraFov=0.000000
TextureFiltering=ANISO_X16
EffectVolume=HIGH
Brightness=10.000000
ViewRange=FARTHEST
DofFilter=OFF
AntiAlias=NONE
SLI=OFF
Stereo=OFF
TextureMipLimite=2
[DISPLAY]
Resolution=1920x1080
RefreshRate=60.00Hz
VSYNC=ON
FullScreen=ON
Flush=OFF
[SOUNDS]
SeVoiceNum=64
[CPU]
JobThread=6
RenderingThread=ON

The game plays fine here with a nice consistent FPS at 50+ FPS (most often 60FPS). Only Witchwoods lagged the game notably and even then only when the fog is present. Outdoor areas have a very, very slight choppiness to them if it is daytime and you are pointlessly using a lantern.

Windows 10 x64
Intel i7 920 @ 2.66GHZ
Geforce 560Ti 2GB (361.60 beta drivers)
8GB DDR3 RAM
Integrated sound
Western Digital Black HDD

[Panic Fire]

Some of these tips sound quite stupid actually.

Distance Scaling effects pop in. Turning it up higher allows more objects to be seen from farther away. IMO a must for anyone playing the game.

[Arbadacarba]

Game looks better with HDR set low imo

[s4ndm4n2006]

You make a lot of global statements that seem to assume everything graphically and fps wise will affect everyone the same and/or not affect them. Considering this is steam and we are PC gamers, the first rule of thumb is to realize that there are countless fixes, and settings for different configurations of which there are far too many to count.

Nice to see a list of settings in one place, but just dont' assume everyone should have this or that on/off or untouched becuase it worked for you.. :)

[valkyriebonfire]

I think it time to go back into your vault OP. Horrible advice and and just plain wrong information lol.

[Slappy Butternuts]

Originally posted by Vault Boy:

Lol, this game has horrible tearing, what are you talking about?

As for the HDR, that is personal preference, and has nothing to do with framerates.

You have no idea how these things work. Stop posting, leave, and don't come back.

[Kaldaien]

Hahah, I didn't even see that initially.

HDR has everything to do with framerate.

Not only does it double, triple or quadruple the size of the color buffer in many cases, but there's extra post-processing such as histogram scatter/gather and tonemap application. It's both memory bandwidth and compute intensive.