Next Generation Graphics Guide

An Unreal Engine 4 tweaking guide to achieve next generation graphics and improved performance in Deep Rock Galactic; global illumination, screen space reflections, and more all included and tested.

Introduction

This guide will go over editing the INI file to achieve next generation graphical effects (such as screen space reflections, global illumination, and more), as well as much improved performance with very little to no change graphically. There will also be tested pre-configured INI files available for download (see below).

Comparison Screenshots

Left = On
Right = Off

Comparison 1 - https://imgsli.com/ODk5NTY

Comparison 2 - https://imgsli.com/ODk5NjA

Comparison 3 - https://imgsli.com/ODk5NjI

(Side note: ignore some of the distortion artifacts, it's a side effect of getting the images aligned)

Pre-Configured INI File Download

So, have I convinced you through the screenshots? The download link is just below, as well as a quick Q&A for common questions.

Pre-download Q&A:

Q: Can I use this mod online?
A: Yes! It's totally safe online, and in non-modded lobbies.

Q: What's the performance impact of this mod?
A: It's quite well optimized, but may have 5 - 15 percent performance impact with the non-performance version. However, the performance version can even gain FPS over the base game!

Q: Is it easy to uninstall?
A: Yes! To uninstall, just delete the INI file. A fresh INI will be generated on startup.

Download:

https://www.nexusmods.com/deeprockgalactic/mods/27

Still not convinced, or want to tweak it yourself? I explain each of the tweaks and their effects below.

Tweak Explanations

Screen Space Global Illumination

r.SSGI.Enable=1 - Enables the global illumination effect.
r.SSGI.HalfRes=1 - Lowers the rendering resolution of the global illumination by half the screen resolution. Saves a lot of performance at the cost of very slight graphical quality.
r.SSGI.LeakFreeReprojection=0 - Combats color leakage at the cost of performance, negligible impact.
r.SSGI.Quality=3 - How many rays are used in the calculation of the global illumination.

Screen Space Reflections

r.SSR.Quality=3 - Whether to use screen space reflections and at what quality setting. 1-4, low, medium, high, very high. High enables glossy reflections, very high has non-noticeable graphical improvement for a heavy performance impact.
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=1 - What resolution to use for the SSR rendering. Heavily improves performance at the cost of slight visual quality impact.
r.SSR.MaxRoughness=1 - The cutoff point for SSR. Higher means more objects are affected by SSR, but lower performance. In this case, setting it to 1 means there should be no cutoff, and every object should be slightly affected by SSR.
r.SSR.Temporal=1 - Whether or not to use TAA for the SSR. Can cause a bit of ghosting, but the alternative is a lot of aliasing.

TAA Tweaks

r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=2 - What type of AA to use. 0 = none, 1 = FXAA, 2 = TAA
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.03 - Blending between the current frame and previous frame, lower = more ghosting but less aliasing, and vice versa.
r.TemporalAASamples=8 - Sample count of the TAA, higher = more jittering but less aliasing.
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6 - Quality of the AA.
r.TemporalAACatmullRom=1 - Uses a higher quality filter instead of blurrier gaussian filter.
r.TemporalAAPauseCorrect=1 - Holds onto render targets longer preventing reuse. Negligible.
r.TemporalAAFilterSize=1 - The size of the TAA filter. Higher = more blurriness, less aliasing. Setting it too low may cause artifacting.
r.TemporalAA.R11G11B10History=1 - Uses more lighting data to enable higher quality TAA.

Performance Tweaks

r.ScreenPercentage=80 - Render resolution scale. In this case, it will render at 80% resolution.
r.TemporalAA.Upsampling=1 - Enables a much higher quality TAA upsampling technique, enabling near-native image quality at much lower render resolutions.
r.TemporalAA.Algorithm=1 Algorithm to use for TAAU, 0 = Gen 4 TAAU, 1 = Gen 5 TAAU (an experimental algorithm that can have upscaling quality improvements).
r.TemporalAAUpsampleFiltered=1 - Use filtering to fetch color history during TAAU. Disabling this makes TAAU faster, but lower quality.

Note that this will override the in-game resolution slider.

Sharpening Tweaks

r.ToneMapper.Sharpen=0.9 - Lower quality sharpening filter. Setting too high can cause artifacts.
r.TemporalAASharpness=1.4 - Sharpens the image before TAA.
r.TemporalAADynamicSharpen=1.8 - Dynamic modern sharpening.

Note that while this is compatible with the in-game sharpening, it may cause over sharpening. Experiment with different settings and see what you like.

Updates, support, and other information

I will provide limited support for any incompatibilities or issues, but to prevent cluttering up the comment section, please post support requests over in Nexus Mods.

Feel free to comment here and ask questions that aren't necessarily about support; simple questions and the like.

As for updates, assuming Deep Rock Galactic keeps getting updated with the latest of UE4 (and potentially 5) updates, i'll do my best to update with any new features that might be available.

To-Do:

• Add RTX support such as raytracing lighting and reflections (currently don't have an RTX GPU, so this may take awhile)
  
• Further tweak the TAA to get better image quality.

[Dionysus 🐭]

@Twichigo

Yes, going into decimal for the tweakable values can have extreme visual impact. Usually for binary settings it wouldn't do anything, though.

@elire01
This guide is three years old and I have not been keeping up with any potentially graphical updates with the game. Though, it doesn't exactly look like there have been any.

I don't actually use this INI config anymore, but if I decide to tweak the game again I will likely post my findings as an update. Otherwise, you are free to configure these options yourself to what you think looks good.

[elire01]

Tried it, either it's outdated or we got the term of quality backwards. Tried all of presets and even went through the effort of playing around with the settings myself but in all cases it makes the game look significantly worse.

[Twichigo]

It would help to have more info on the range of some of the settings. It's simple with 0 is for off and 1 is for on, but other options can vary a lot more than that, even going for decimals.
Other than that, thanks for helping!

[FadingArchangel]

i think this honestly looked worse, but hey props to anyone that actually does like it

[Purromi]

Thankie. Works great. You are the best

[Dionysus 🐭]

I don't believe so. I tried the config for RTX and it said the game is missing some required plugins. If the game ever gets those plugins or for some reason starts working with the RTX flags, I would definitely appreciate the offer since there is no way I could optimize RTX without an RTX GPU.

[Mekk]

I have an rtx gpu, can I help you do ray tracing?

[Q I | I X]

No worries I got you and your readers covered. No need to redirect anyone to Nexus Mods.
Add this to your Engine.ini
From left to right = "Perf/Quality/Max" *select one value between the slashes.

[SystemSettings]
r.SSGI.Enable=1
r.SSGI.HalfRes=1/1/0
r.SSGI.LeakFreeReprojection=0/0/1
r.SSGI.Quality=3/3/4
r.SSR.Quality=3/2/4
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=0/1/1
r.SSR.MaxRoughness=1
r.SSR.Temporal=1
r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=2
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.03
r.TemporalAASamples=8
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6
r.TemporalAACatmullRom=1
r.TemporalAAPauseCorrect=1
r.TemporalAAFilterSize=1
r.TemporalAA.R11G11B10History=1
r.ToneMapper.Sharpen=0.9/0.6/0.4
r.TemporalAASharpness=/1./1.2/1.0
r.TemporalAADynamicSharpen=1.4/1.8/1.0
r.ScreenPercentage=80/-/-
r.TemporalAA.Upsampling=1/-/-
r.TemporalAA.Algorithm=1/-/-
r.TemporalAAUpsampleFiltered=1/-/-

[Dionysus 🐭]

Sure, because writing a 5 minute comment takes as much time as redoing the entire comparison screenshot section. If that's your belief then so be it.

Anyways, I don't believe it's me who looks "illegitimate". You are the one cherry picking some points, ignoring other points, and for what? What's even the purpose of this "discussion" any more? I have already responded to your arguments/"issues", while you have not responded to many of mine. I have nothing more to say.

[Q I | I X]

You've realized the time spend writing this whole sermon of yours could have simply been put to good use editing your comparision? I kept the conversation where it was. At this guide and at the comments made about it. I dunno why you are this eager to make yourself look more illegitimate at this point when you could've just recieved an edited review after addressing the issues finally.
The way you dealt with the previews valid complaintant GreaseGoblin, Oberst Schulz goes to show that when confronted with facts you trie to brush it of and try to change the subject in a favorable way w/o addressing anything or even the slightest hint of selfreflection.