[Optimization Guide] Optimize your framerate and gameplay on Blue Reflection

[Vanosea]

To start, the game is design to work out your GPU far more than your CPU because of a poor Shader implementation according to a programmer. So, unless you have an incredibly weak CPU, you should be fine playing the game.

For starters, I have a 4790k @4.5GHZ, 2.4GHZ DDR3 RAM, Asus Strix GTX980+150mhz OC. And I will reference performance based on this spec.

Now, the game has no graphic settings whatsoever. Just a launcher with limited resolution options with it (720p, 768p, 900p, 1080p). Ignore that. Don't start the game from the steam library and instead, through the game exe in the game directory. The exe name should be "BLUE_REFLECTION.exe"

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's actually start messing with some real settings. The only graphical options you can change is DoF (Depth of Field). To turn this off, go to (C:\Users\USER_NAME\Documents\KoeiTecmo\BLUE REFLECTION) Inside this folder, edit a file named BRsetting.ini. Now the real magic begin. (If you launch through Steam (AKA through the launcher) the resolution you set on the .ini will be reset.)

If you see "DepthOfField=1" and want to turn DoF off, change the value number to "0". It should look like this "DepthOfField=0"

You can also input arbitrary resolution in the same file by changing the "ScreenWidth=1920
ScreenHeight=1080". You can input any resolution you wanted and have some weird aspect ratio on top off it. the game doesn't seem to lock your aspect ratio, so you can have a 2560x1080 on your ultra-wide monitor. They look like this. Keep in mind that UI doesn't scale well so any 2D/UI will look like this.

The game only has fullscreen and windowed mode which you can change in this "FullScreen=1"
value of "1" means fullscreen on and value of "0" means windowed.

Okay, now onto texture filtering. If you noticed, the ground texture is heavily blurred. This is because the game has a 4xAF (yes, even on the PS4 they are like this). To get some good filtering on, you need to do some bit more work on it.

The easy way to do this is by opening your Nvidia Control Panel. Click here if you don't know how to get to the settings. Now, after adding the game executable file to the list, you change the anisotropic filtering like this

The hard way (AKA, my recommended way of doing it) is by using Nvidia Profile Inspector. Just google it if you do not have it. Make a custom profile like this and name it whatever you want(I suggest naming it Blue Reflection for quick access later). Now, pick "Add application to current profile" to bind your exe to your profile by going to your game directory and pick the BLUE_REFLECTION.exe. With all that done, now you have control over framerate limiter and texture filtering. To change the texture filtering to 16xAF, do this. Don't forget to hit apply or the setting will reset if you leave it be.

Now, let's compare no AF with 16x AF just for show.

• Default AF
  
• 16xAF
  
• No AF

See the tiles if you have a hard time seeing the differences.

Let's talk about framerate. Some users apparently report of a low framerate behavior similar to something a double buffer v-sync may have caused. A double buffer v-sync makes your framerate locks to half your refresh rate every time it struggles to keep it at that level. So, for example, the framerate dips below 60, it will lock itself to 30 (and can lock to 15 if framerate goes below 30) and then go back to 60 so quickly, it feels like the whole game just stroke out. Now, to alleviate this, we need to change the type of v-sync the game uses. Let's go back to the Nvidia Profile Inspector. Under the "2. Sync and Refresh" settings, the vertical sync tab. Now, if you want to force the game to get a triple buffer v-sync, we will need to go to the v-sync tab and select "Fast Sync". Fast Sync behaves like a triple buffer v-sync, but it doesn't cap itself to your monitor refresh rate. So, you get the benefit of a higher framerate without a framerate cap. Or if you want to, you can disable v-sync in the same tab. Be careful of playing in windowed mode as it would lock the framerate to 60fps whichever v-sync type you chose.

This is how you lock the framerate to 60 and combine it with Fast-Sync.

Now, onto my favorite part of this thread/guide; framerate optimization. Now, the only graphical settings we can change are either DoF and Texture Filtering (AKA AF or no AF). Even if small, they do give a boost in framerate. But before we touch on that, let's level with you guys on how this works. in most cases, how a graphic setting impact framerate works in percentage reduction of your current framerate. So, for example; let's take a hypotetical situation where the game runs at 120fps without AF. Now, let's enable AF to 16x. The framerate is now at 110. We can observe that the 10 fps hit meant that from 120 to 110, it loses 9% of the performance. So, we can conclude that at any framerate, from No AF to 16xAF, the performance will take a 9% hit.

After you guys understand how that mumbo jumbo works, let's finally touch on how to optimize your framerate. In this scene, I have a framerate of 95. After I did some 16xAF magic to it, now it drops to 88-89. Let's take the 89 value in this case. So, according to this number, a drop from 95 to 89 (6fps) is roughly 6,3%. Which means that, in most case, a No AF to 16xAF will hit you with a 6.3% lower performance.

"But what about DoF?" I hear you asking. Well, the thing is. At The school, DoF barely turns on, if any at all. And DoF only turns on in cutscenes and dungeons. So, I can't get a good read on how many percentage of performance loss by turning on DoF in these case. You need a static scene to test performance loss, you see. But if you do want to get as much performance as you want, just be safe and turn DoF off.

A little bit of Q&A:
"I have a maximum framerate off 72 with v-sync off and a lowest framerate of 35. What should I do?"
I can suggest you turning off AF entirely through Nvidia Profile Inspector. Though if the average framerate is around 45, turning off AF will only net you around 1-2 fps.

"Can I edit the resolution in "BRsetting.ini" to as low as 960x540?"
Yes, the game allows complete arbitrary resolution through editing the .ini file.

"What is this "AntiQuality=0" setting? Would it enable me AA with I change the value to "1"?"
No. There is no AA solution in the game. I don't even know why they bother leaving the setting intact in the .ini file.

"I have an AMD card and unable to apply most of your guide to my settings"
I unfortunately do not own an AMD card and am both unfamiliar with it.

"I have an Intel integrated chip and unable to apply most of your guide to my settings"
You can't change your v-sync type and your AF settings unfortunately. Although you can still lower your resolution and turn DoF off for best performance

"I can't progress past chapter 7! I always seem to crash at the exact same spot no matter what I change in the settings!"
It is a well-known crash for people who'd reached chapter 7. A patch is in the works but no information given if it will fix the crash or not at the moment.

"I have constant stutters even with a stable framerate. Help."
It may have something to do with Steam Overlay as some users reported. Try disabling Steam Overlay or changing V-Sync type as the guide above mentioned. Do it like this.

Additional Note:

• The PS4 version main game runs at a maximum framerate of 60fps in both gameplay and menu. Though this is more true in the menu and less frequent in gameplay. You can see the framerate going to 60 when the background of the scene is just the skybox. Which indicates that the PS4 is using a double buffer v-sync solution.
  
• The PS4 default AF is around 2-4x (PC's default is at x4).
  
• The Model Viewer mode on both PS4 (english ver.) and PC version of the game is in a dlc that hasn't come out yet.
  
• The Rumble(vibration) function on PC is nonexistent.
  
• There is no mouse input in the game.
  
• The AA settings in the .ini file is nonfunctional.
  
• Some object on PC does not cast shadows.
  
• Shadows on PC are dithered compared to PS4.
  
• Tutorial screenshot, background of shops/places when hanging out with friends.
  
• PC's video cutscenes are at a far lower bitrate.
  
• Steam Cloud is NOT supported, so remember to back up your save file.
  
• On my rig (see above for specs)In This Scene, I have 168fps @720p, 89 fps @1080p, 26fps @2160p both at 16xAF. It appears you need a beast of a GPU (due to poor pixel shaders implementation) to run this at a solid 60fps. I imagine a GTX1080 tier and up is needed to run with a solid framerate.

Additional Info:

Originally posted by Raúl DJ:

I completely forgot about that thing. Sadly I coudln't find much either, and I think it's because a lot of them are animated and stored in new ".kscl" files I've never seen before on these games.

Either way, I have no idea where the character pictures are, neither the very small icons of the objects, neither enemy portraits, etc.

By carefully watching all the menus in the game itself I conclude:

-Every single in-game capture is upscaled, there doesn't seem to be a single exception: https://my.mixtape.moe/iiynjf.png (Database->Help->Mission->4)
-Enemy pictures seem OK, this is similar to what happened with some items on Atelier.
-Text seems OK no matter how I look at it, texture here: https://my.mixtape.moe/prvswe.png Size seems right when the game is displaying text at its normal size, no idea where is the "bigger size" text texture but to me it looks OK too.
-Logos are 720, we already knew that: https://my.mixtape.moe/dvvpkw.png
-Tutorials use in-game screenshots, and the whole "page" is 720 as well: https://my.mixtape.moe/axupgl.png

Personal Note: The guide is pretty much complete. The only edits I'll do will be correction and or adding small stuff in. I hope you find your gameplay experience more enjoyable through this guide. If you have any question, feel free to add/ ask me in the comments. Cheers :3

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Xaelath:

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Apparently its only available as option by default if you have a 1060+ card.

What option?

Originally posted by Raúl DJ:

Are you saying that this version doesn't let you do at least this?: https://youtu.be/s21BD3F2iNo?t=3m35s 3 minutes 35 seconds

It seems localization limit the option to doing perverted stuff?

Fast Sync, sorry should of clarified.

[marionettethree]

Speaking of perverted stuff, can we do like this in PC version by renaming and replacing clothes file? Person in this video (PS4 version) seems to replace normal cloth with underwear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWfLIaZOjog

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Reidlos:

Good info, shame people think this amount of effort is ok, to the point of praising it with good reviews

Ah well, so far the game itself looks very interesting. Character animation for example is pretty amazing. After I'm done testing I'll be buying it as my next game to play. (would even do it now, but just started a different game, sigh)

Just some issues with the optimization itself.

[百合 姫]

Originally posted by Vanosea:

A double buffer v-sync makes your framerate locks to half your refresh rate every time it struggles to keep it at that level. So, for example, the framerate dips below 60, it will lock itself to 30 (and can lock to 15 if framerate goes below 30) and then go back to 60 so quickly, it feels like the whole game just stroke out.

Small nitpick, vsync doesn't work like that. It's [refresh rate]/[integer] - so, for a refresh rate of 60, you have 30 for n=2, 20 for n=3, and 15 for n=4, etc.

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by 百合 姫:

Small nitpick, vsync doesn't work like that. It's [refresh rate]/[integer] - so, for a refresh rate of 60, you have 30 for n=2, 20 for n=3, and 15 for n=4, etc.

I see. Nice to see a real programmer correct me on this. I only familiar with how it works through sheer observation and experience.

[Ezodagrom]

Originally posted by Vanosea:

• Tutorial screenshot, background of shops when hanging out with friends and 2D UI icons are at a lower 720p and full with artifact.

Tutorial screenshots look low resolution, yeah, but other UI icons I'm not so sure.
Based on screenshots posted here in the community hub they look fine at 1080p.

The screenshot linked to show artifacts was taken at 4K, right? If the UI assets were made for 1080p, it's normal that there could be artifacts at 4K, since 4K is 4x the resolution of 1080p (there's a bigger jump in pixel count from 1080p to 4K than there is from 720p to 1080p).
I think art assets made for 720p would look much worse at 4K than the screenshot linked there, but I could be wrong.

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Ezodagrom:

The screenshot linked to show artifacts was taken at 4K, right? If the UI assets were made for 1080p, it's normal that there could be artifacts at 4K, since 4K is 4x the resolution of 1080p (there's a bigger jump from 1080p to 4K than there is from 720p to 1080p).

Well, it's fine if it's just that. The problem is the icon itself is full of compression artifact. It's a sign that it was downscaled from a higher res. it is just an assumption, but the icons in Atelier PC port's do show the same kind of artifact enough to warrant it.

PS: it would really help me if someone who owns a PS4 contact me. I would like to do some testing. The price of the PS4 game in my region is double of that on PC (PC: Rp 350,999 PS4: Rp 793,000) and for the life of me, I don't have that much money to spare on.

[Ezodagrom]

Originally posted by Vanosea:

Well, it's fine if it's just that. The problem is the icon itself is full of compression artifact. It's a sign that it was downscaled from a higher res. it is just assumption, but the icons in Atelier PC port's show the same kind of artifact.

PS: it would really help me if someone who owns a PS4 contact me. I would like to do some testing. The price of the PS4 game in my region is double of that on PC (PC: Rp 350,999 PS4: Rp 793,000) and for the life of me, I don't have that much money to spare on.

I could be wrong, but I really think Atelier Sophie's interface assets looked considerably blurrier than this at 1080p:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/images/1506433900_3627410598.png
http://screenshotcomparison.com/images/1506433986_8471960523.png

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Ezodagrom:

I could be wrong, but I really think Atelier Sophie's interface assets looked considerably blurrier than this at 1080p:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/images/1506433900_3627410598.png
http://screenshotcomparison.com/images/1506433986_8471960523.png

The reason compression artifact isn't as obtuse as it is in Blue Reflection is due to the use of few colors in the icon itself. The artifact in the Tutorial screenshot looks far worse because of the more variety in colors in the picture. Thus the more apparent artifact.

[Ezodagrom]

Originally posted by Vanosea:

The reason compression artifact isn't as obtuse as it is in Blue Reflection is due to the use of few colors in the icon itself. The artifact in the Tutorial screenshot looks far worse because of the more variety in colors in the picture. Thus the more apparent artifact.

What about character portraits such as the one in the title screen?
http://screenshotcomparison.com/images/1506431915_5742319608.png

From what I've seen posted so far, only the startup logos and the tutorial screenshots look bad when it comes to user interface.

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Ezodagrom:

What about character portraits such as the one in the title screen?
http://screenshotcomparison.com/images/1506431915_5742319608.png

From what I've seen posted so far, only the startup logos and the tutorial screenshots look bad when it comes to user interface.

I honestly thought the same too. "Why did they leave the title screen portrait intact, and downscale others?"

If I have to take a wild guess, they'd cherry picked which 2D artwork to downscale as to not alert buyers and hide the fact that they had reduced the non obvious 2D artwork. You see, I'm not making assumption on baseless fact. It is based on their port history, their attitude towards the PC market, their inability to cohesively communicate with their PC player base and their continued failings in their port quality. It is always best to assume they would downgrade the PC version according to these track records. If you let wrong facts get out, they might start thinking on fooling us even more because we'd stop questioning them.

[Ezodagrom]

Originally posted by Vanosea:

I honestly thought the same too. "Why did they leave the title screen portrait intact, and downscale others?"

If I have to take a wild guess, they'd cherry picked which 2D artwork to downscale as to not alert buyers and hide the fact that they had reduced the non obvious 2D artwork. You see, I'm not making assumption on baseless fact. It is based on their port history, their attitude towards the PC market, their inability to cohesively communicate with their PC player base and their continued failings in their port quality. It is always best to assume they would downgrade the PC version according to these track records. If you let wrong facts get out, they might start thinking on fooling us even more because we'd stop questioning them.

I can only make assumptions based on what I see, and all I can see is that only the tutorial and startup logos are noticeably blurrier than the other UI assets (so far).

So claiming that all 2D UI icons are lower resolution is jumping to conclusions, I would at least wait for definitive proof before claiming that, and only mention that the tutorial screenshots are noticeably lower resolution than other UI assets.

[korsobar]

Not sure if this will help anyone, but when I played the game windowed yet set to 3840 x 2160 it was doing some kind of upscaling that made things look crappy. Setting it to fullscreen mode and 3840 x 2160 got rid of the upscaling. I don't think the game handles windowed mode well so it might be best to avoid it.

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Ezodagrom:

[I can only make assumptions based on what I see, and all I can see is that only the tutorial and startup logos are noticeably blurrier than the other UI assets (so far).

So claiming that all 2D UI icons are lower resolution is jumping to conclusions, I would at least wait for definitive proof before claiming that, and only mention that the tutorial screenshots are noticeably lower resolution than other UI assets.

It is for now, just an assumption. As you have said. That is why I'm in need of someone who owns the game on PS4 to confirm this.

[Vanosea]

Originally posted by Korsobar:

Not sure if this will help anyone, but when I played the game windowed yet set to 3840 x 2160 it was doing some kind of upscaling that made things look crappy. Setting it to fullscreen mode and 3840 x 2160 got rid of the upscaling. I don't think the game handles windowed mode well so it might be best to avoid it.

Well if you have a 4k monitor (or a 2k monitor set to 4k res) and play it in windowed mode, the top tab of the game will have to share pixels with the game's pixel too. The game's pixels probably squished by the pixel taken over by the tab.