Hidden graphics settings

If you have enough power available and find the current graphics somehow weak, you can use this easy but effective trick to tease out the maximum of the graphics.

Maximum graphics power

If you have enough power available and find the current graphics somehow weak, you can use this easy but effective trick to tease out the maximum of the graphics.
The changes specified here work without any problems.

Currently only conditionally or no longer usable with the current version.

Tested on:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX3090
Memory: 64GB DDR
(At this point without hardware accelerated GPU scheduling)

To enlarge the screenshots click on the image and then on the link above the opened image.

FPS Drop Default settings via the Hunt menu "all high"
e_lods = 0 off / +sys_spec = 4 off ~ 160fps

(Depending on the system / hardware, the performance / graphics will be different, so be sure that you have enough power to master these settings)

Step 1 and 2 are not bound, you can also accept only one of the changes.

FPS Drop Setting via hidden menu "all very high"
e_lods = 0 off / +sys_spec = 4 on ~ 140fps

FPS Drop Setting via hidden menu "all very high and max. LOD"
e_lods = 0 on / +sys_spec = 4 on ~ 80fps

FPS Drop Setting via hidden menu "max. LOD and adjusted graphics settings up to very high"
e_lods = 0 on / +sys_spec = 4 on but not in all areas ~ 100fps
My preferred setting

(The FPS is not static, so it varies in the game depending on the situation.)

1. Set all setting options to "very high".

Normally, High is the highest setting that you can currently choose, but there is also very high, which brings out a bit more.
To activate this hidden setting, you have to enter +sys_spec = 4 in the startup option via Steam (gear / properties / startup options).

Very High
If everything worked, you will see the words "Custom" in all the graphics settings.

Now all graphics settings are automatically set to very high, but you can also turn them down again individually.
As long as the startup option remains set, the maximum graphics setting will always be selected after each start of Hunt Showdown.

(Changing the game.cfg file can not fix the values, without the start option you can not get to very high)

1.1 Selective graphics adjustment

The selective fixing of the graphics setting via cfg file is not possible, no matter which setting you want to set there to very high, remains without change in the game!

According to Jay's test results, there is a possibility to selectively adjust the graphics, which also works. This is unfortunately not possible via the cfg file, but is still done via the startup option.

In order like Hunt menu

+sys_spec_object = 4
+sys_spec_texture = 4
+sys_spec_light = 4
+sys_spec_shadow = 4
+sys_spec_effects = 4
+sys_spec_postprocess = 4
+sys_spec_particle = 4

Example: +sys_spec_object = 4 +sys_spec_shadow = 4 +sys_spec_particle = 4
for object quality, shadow quality and particle quality in very high

Everything you want to have set to "very high", you simply enter into the start option separated by a space. If you still want to activate LOD, which requires a write protection, you should set all other graphics settings to the desired setting before the write protection - but more about that in the next chapter.

2. Level of Detail (LOD) on full blast

Unfortunately, you can still see render errors when zooming in and out in very high mode, bushes and especially trees that constantly change shape, generally a lot of details that always change.
This doesn't look nice and kind of ruins the game.
Here comes the workaround to make everything look a bit more realistic.

Go to the installation directory
Example: Harddisk (C:)/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Hunt Showdown/user/
and open the file game.cfg with the editor.
This file is currently not write-protected, so you should make a backup copy of it in advance!
Better safe than sorry!
Just add the command e_lods = 0, save the file, but now you have to make it read-only, otherwise everything will be overwritten and will have no effect.

Level of Detail
e_lods = 0 on / +sys_spec = 4 on The entire viewing area looks very clear and sharp, no texture glitches when zooming in and out.

Level of Detail
e_lods = 0 on / +sys_spec = 4 on Even distant textures are sharp and rendered.


Addition (03/16/2022): If you enable e_lods = 0, it can lead to graphic flickering, but this looks more like a scanning process, because some objects in waveform disappear for a short time. However, it is not with everyone and / or not always. I haven't figured out yet if it's due to the graphics drivers, graphics card settings or the Cryengine.
All settings via Hunt itself do not change anything.

3. Enjoy

Start the game and enjoy the graphics but don't be surprised, the FPS will now partly drop far.

This is sort of a return to the graphics from the Early Access version, which I personally think is better - power hungry, but better!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me here.

Extra: Disable reality filter (currently out of order)

In cooperation with Renaissance, disabling the reality filter also works with the hidden graphics settings given here.
More about this under: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2756071614
ColorGrading
Without color adjustment, everything seems to be as it was created raw.

ColorGrading Darksight
The darksight now looks a bit like thermal.

And as you can see, Rachta Z seems to play with this attitude as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PIQnNiJWRE&t=97s

Note to thanks

Thank you to Renaissance, Jay and a special thank you to those who support me.

[вредитель]

work in 2023 ?

[[BRE] Léonard "le Fol"]

I have very high FPS, so that is all right. But that is not the point at all: the trees musk hanging has strongly been degraded, some light effect\ color is inferior, some other stuff is superior and generall all is optimized. I sincerely don't know, if it's worth improving manually, better waiting, even if everyone has very negative opinion as this has been "console ported" and PC has been just exploited, especially those that helped them in the first months of this project...
I sincerely am tired to be negative, I hope they will take care of this, if not in this in a HS II project.

[ᚱᚢᚾᛖ]

Crytek seems to only support degradations of the graphics, so real improvements like e_lods = 0 and co. don't work anymore! However, they seem to have tightened one part a bit and toned down the other, so some graphics errors remain and others are again barely visible.

[[BRE] Léonard "le Fol"]

Does this really still work? I really feel there has been a downgrade, and yes I found a balance, but I have been trying with Nvidia control panel and medium settings with a few to high to evade the shimmering, flickering, aliasing of the game and also the horrible rendering\LOD thing that when I zoom does pop stuff, not considering that the game will actually load stuff infront of you at 20 meters like NPC giving out your presence (sometimes\often)...

Anyone can offer solutions to quality of graphics?
With 32 gb ram and 3080 12 gb I think I can run this in part with better view or aim at not having these rendering issue or the shimmering and so on.
I posted a solution in the forum 3 days ago.. in case anyone can comment in there. Please
this game needs more love from devs.
I run the game with Steam Launch option off so I don't think I can run any other commandline, I don't know.

[mægnificant]

now we only need a decent AA method (DLSS maybe, even though DLDSR helps too) and a complete overhaul of the awful reflections! Thank you this is great !

[Reb Militia]

So reality filter no longer works?

[denisis82]

Команда e_lods = 0 больше не работает ?

[SAARussian]

Может быть кто-нибудь знает как отключить Ambient Occlusion в этой игре? А это эти шлейфы - "теневые ореолы" в округ всех объектов раздражают.

[ᚱᚢᚾᛖ]

Renaissance: Спасибо. Тогда как сейчас находчивые люди просто используют внешний фильтр, который в этом случае дает действительно значительные преимущества.

[HUNT]

Способ с отключением фильтра больше не актуален, разработчики пофиксили эту команду.