Performance Guide for Low-End PCs

This guide is to help others with low end PCs and maybe even those with higher end PCs who experience garbage performance and just want to Hunt smoothly. Getting Hunt to perform properly on my 9y/o laptop was a hurdle but I now sit at a stable framerate, without heat issues, or stuttering, or any other problem.

Intro

Whether you just bought the game or been playing for a while, you might be one of the many who experienced bad performance for one reason or another. Maybe you followed a youtube guide that shot your NVIDIA settings in the back of the head, maybe you just want to check off the boxes, and maybe your computer far exceeds the recommended requirements yet you have some CPU or GPU bottleneck thing going on, or maybe you're a laptop user with overheating issues. Whatever it is, this guide will serve to show you how I got Hunt to work seamlessly on my trash laptop with a GTX980M and an i7-M4810Q. If it worked for me it'll probably work for you.

Things you'll need for this guide to apply to you:
- An NVIDIA GPU. I don't know ♥♥♥♥ about AMD.
- Download Intelligent Standby List Cleaner.
- The willingness to sit through a good YouTube video.

Out of Game Settings: Power, Game Mode, Overlays, Properties, Launch Options

Simple things here. Power settings and other stuff.

Your power settings are best left on Balanced (recommended). A lot of guides out there will tell you to opt for HIGH PERFORMANCE, or will show you how to unlock ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE using some console command to BOOST FPS BY 400% but the reality is that all those settings do is force your clock speed to work hard regardless of other factors, even when computing tasks don't demand it. If you enjoy pumping heat and abusing your hardware, a desktop can likely handle it but I would never use it on a laptop.

Under "Gaming" settings in Windows 10, turn off the Xbox Game Bar, it's a useless overlay that drains resources. There is also "Game Mode" which you want to turn on because it's actually good.

Sidebar, you're also better off disabling Steam Overlay, Discord Overlay, and any and all overlays that are just going to needlessly hog resources. If you're sure your PC can handle it, go ahead and keep the ones you want. Keep in mind disabling Steam Overlay prevents you from inviting people to your Duo or Trio using Steam Friends, so that one is likely worth keeping on. I can't afford it personally because of my trash hardware so I harass my friends for invites which I have muted and complain about not seeing when they pop up.

Moving on, you should locate HuntGame.exe and, under compatibility, check the box for "Disable fullscreen optimizations." Afterwards, hit "Change high DPI settings" and override the high DPI scaling behavior to Application, as this screenshot shows.



Next is launch settings in your Steam Hunt, properties, which require you to know the values for your RAM, VRAM, your CPU count. If you search for "dxdiag" in your windows search bar, you can acquire all said values under the System tab. Then, when you input the following launch options, you just slot in the appropriate values as I have in the following screenshot. Ignore the "-high" option, as to force Hunt to run on high priority, you need to finagle with the registry. There's a guide out there to do it, but I've no idea if it provides any significant result.

NVIDIA Control Panel

Watch this video by Shogoz. It goes through NVIDIA control panel settings one by one and helps you cherry pick and figure out what settings are good for you and those that suck, or serve you no purpose. It's responsible for most of my relief, especially capping my huntgame.exe frames at 2 under 60 (due to my 60hz monitor) getting rid of all screen tearing issues. If you deal with GSync and what not, the video touches on it but you'll probably want to do your own research because I can't help you there.

Intelligent Standby List Cleaner

Intelligent Standby List Cleaner is a program that frees up memory when it reaches a certain threshold. It also lets you maximize timer resolution which is useful in competitive, time-sensitive games like Hunt. You can acquire this here, set it up, and leave it be forever as it launches on startup and runs lean in the background to help you.

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/content/Intelligent-standby-list-cleaner-ISLC-v1028-Released

To set it up, you need to set up the conditions for the purging of the standby list. The following screenshot shows how I set mine up by setting the minimum list size to 1024 MB and the free memory lower than to half my total memory. Set wanted timer resolution to 0.5, polling rate to 500, check the boxes and you're good to go. Just minimize it and carry on.

In-Game Settings

The screenshots show my In-Game settings, which pretty much speak for themselves save for a few elements. One, Window Mode is set to Borderless because I needed to be in Borderless to use Snipping Tool to take the screenshot at all, but ideally you want to play on Fullscreen, especially if the performance impact of Borderless is noticeable. With my hardware, it's night and day, so I don't have a choice. Two, my Object Quality is Low because Medium or High impact my sacred and stable 58fps, but if your PC can handle Medium or High, you're better off with those. Three, the second screenshot doesn't show the full extent of the Advanced Settings, but the short of it is you want Surface Format Optimization on, and all the other boxes checked off.

Conclusion

At this point you should play a round and see how it feels. I still have frame issues in Lower Desalle, I suspect due to my CPU bottleneck, but I can't do anything about that. You should generally be good to go especially if your specs are better than mine. If vegetation still tanks your performance, it might be a GPU bottleneck. If your performance worsens over a play session, it might be a heat issue. But for now, I hope all this helped you stabilize your game to a playable state.

Before you venture into the Bayou, have some poetry.