Real GRAPHIC Settings in Dead by Daylight

This guide will help you configure DBD to make it look better and not eating your performance.
Make image better without any other software.

How to edit your settings

How to:

1. In the search bar type %appdata%
   
2. Go to AppData\Local\DeadByDaylight\Saved\Config\WindowsClient | For EGS same, but EGS instead WindowsClient
   
3. Find GameUserSettings.ini
   
4. Change your settings after reading a guide

If there's and instability in game keeping your settings then in properties of GameUserSettings make file read only after every change you do

All Settings description and impact

Okay so when we open the gameusersettings.ini we can see different settings whereas different numbers stand for:

0	Very low
1	Low
2	Mid
3	High

[ScalabilityGroups]
sg.ResolutionQuality=100.000000
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=0
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=0
sg.ShadowQuality=0
sg.PostProcessQuality=0
sg.TextureQuality=0
sg.EffectsQuality=0
sg.FoliageQuality=0
sg.ShadingQuality=0
sg.AnimationQuality=3

sg.ResolutionQuality	Better keep it 100 Lower for max performance, higher for max visual quality. Increasing this higher than 100 doesn't do anything.
sg.AntiAliasingQuality	This is a complicated setting make sure to check down below.
sg.ShadowQuality	That is related to how sharp and exact shadows are rendered from dynamic objects such as killers and survivors . Doesn't really benefits anything , you can set it to 1 to avoid pixelized shadows in the game.
sg.PostProcessQuality	Better keep it not higher than 1 , because it can bring blurriness depending on the map.
sg.TextureQuality	That is related to how good textures look. But now isn't working.
sg.EffectsQuality	Changes some effects and sometimes lightning from certain objects. ALSO MESSES UP HAIR if you use that higher than 0
sg.FoliageQuality	Changes quality and amount of grass and some bushes.
sg.ShadingQuality	Changes how exact shadows rendered from static objects .
sg.AnimationQuality	This setting is default and there is no point to change it

I am going to give recommended settings which make game look better, not darker and not overloading your pc. By giving you direct comparison of the game with different settings enabled.

Test Rig

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
Memory: 32GB DDR4 3600mhz
GPU: RTX 3060 TI
OS: Windows 11 PRO 22H2

View Distance Quality

Here's the difference:
0 - Very Low
1 - Low
2 - Mid
3 - High

---

There is almost no visual and performance difference regarding this setting. If you notice any please let me know

Shadow Quality

0 - Very Low
1 - Low
2 - Mid
3 - High

Performance:

0 - 1 -
2 - 3 -

---

We can definitely say that 3rd option is very demanding on PC. I prefer 1 so I don't see pixelized shadows.

Post Process Quality

sg.PostProcessQuality=0

sg.PostProcessQuality=1

sg.PostProcessQuality=2

sg.PostProcessQuality=3

Performance:

0 - 1 -
2 - 3 -

---

Performance-Wise enabling this setting increases load on your GPU. And it is very demanding on the highest setting.
Graphic-Wise enabling this setting makes game a little darker. It also makes some effects like campfire in the menu, wraith uncloak look better. But if the setting is higher than 1 (low) it adds either a film grain either some sort of blur into the game which is bad in my opinion.

Texture Quality

sg.TextureQuality=0

sg.TextureQuality=1

sg.TextureQuality=2

sg.TextureQuality=3

Performance comparison:

0 - 1 -
2 - 3 -

---

Guys I don't really know if there are any remarkable difference in graphics and performance. If you notice some - Let me know in the comments!

Effects Quality

sg.EffectsQuality=0

sg.EffectsQuality=1

sg.EffectsQuality=2

sg.EffectsQuality=3

Performance comparison:

0 - 1 -
2 - 3 -

---

As we can see, this setting is changing performance slightly, mostly relies on gpu.
As for the graphics i recommend to enable this setting at least on 1 because it makes game a little bit brighter.
It also changes blood when hitting the survivor and the way done gen shine. And the trees are swaying with this setting enabled.
Also, be careful, enabling this setting higher than 0 makes hair looks buggy and bad. That's really noticeable when playing as a Survivor

Foliage quality

sg.FoliageQuality=0

sg.FoliageQuality=1

sg.FoliageQuality=2

sg.FoliageQuality=3

Performance comparison:

0 - 1 -
2 - 3 -

---

Overall, this setting is highly dependend on the map. And not really affecting the performance. The difference graphic-wise almost the same. Here's a few more pictures. Enabling ultra foliage just made trees look more clear and that was it.
ultra - low -

Shading quality

sg.ShadingQuality=0

sg.ShadingQuality=1

]sg.ShadingQuality=2

sg.ShadingQuality=3

Performance comparison:

0 - 1 -
2 - 3 -

---

As you can see, this setting changes slight details focusing on how exact a shadows from the static objects fall on other textures. It also makes maps much darker. Performance-wise it is slightly increases your input lag if you put it higher than second option. So I'd personally choose first option because it is not as impactful on the performance as other options and also improving the little details of the picture. But I have concerns that this setting may result in unstable render latency causing so-called "laggy" feeling of the game.

Antialiasing

Antialiasing depends on two settings:
sg.AntiAliasingQuality in scalabilitygroups
and
AntiAliasingMode which you may find down below in a gameusersettings file
Now I'm going to show you combination of antialiasing mode setting with AntiAliasingQuality:

AntiAliasingMode=0

AntiAliasingQuality=0 -
AntiAliasingQuality=1 -
AntiAliasingQuality=2 -
AntiAliasingQuality=3 -

AntiAliasingMode=1

AntiAliasingQuality=0 -
AntiAliasingQuality=1 -
AntiAliasingQuality=2 -
AntiAliasingQuality=3 -

AntiAliasingMode=2

AntiAliasingQuality=0 -
AntiAliasingQuality=1 -
AntiAliasingQuality=2 -
AntiAliasingQuality=3 -

---

Overall, I'd say that antialiasing mode 2 looks like fxaa to me and therefore very bad looking, but not as demanding on pc. If you want to have antialiasing and not hurt the performance then go to AntiAliasingMode=0 and AntiAliasingQuality=1. That combo paired with fsr sharpness makes the game look much better. If you have a powerful pc you may stick to AntiAliasingMode=2 and AntiAliasingQuality=3 because it is far the best looking antialiasing in the game.

My beloved presets

Good look & Performance

 
sg.ResolutionQuality=100.000000
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=0
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=1
sg.ShadowQuality=1
sg.PostProcessQuality=1
sg.TextureQuality=0
sg.EffectsQuality=0
sg.FoliageQuality=0
sg.ShadingQuality=1
sg.AnimationQuality=3
-
AntiAliasingMode=0
-
EnableFSR=True
SharpnessValue=0.690000

---

---

---

Best look

 
sg.ResolutionQuality=100.000000
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=0
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=3
sg.ShadowQuality=1
sg.PostProcessQuality=1
sg.TextureQuality=0
sg.EffectsQuality=0
sg.FoliageQuality=0
sg.ShadingQuality=1
sg.AnimationQuality=3
-
AntiAliasingMode=2
-
EnableFSR=True
SharpnessValue=0.690000

---

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Cool stuff

Thank you for your attention <3

If you have any questions, suggestions leave a comment down below.
Don't forget to like, subscribe and give a reward if you feel like it

See you in the fog!

[Kiliyin]

can u update the guide for the new graphics settings? 👍

[Zero(the number)]

when the devs are so bad that some random guy does a better job than them
thank you antitied

[Kitsana]

This is so awesome, but have you considering testing the new settings? I’m sorry to ask, just want to know if you had any plans. Thank you so much!

[Emir]

New settings have arrived for cfg

[（嗜杀本性）狼队 女 梅]

If you dont like blurryness and 1 to 1 visuals, dont use EnableFSR, FSR smeers the pixels out to make visual.

[Antitied [2025 HOARD SETS]]

Guys I won't update the guide but I think it still works

[STORMIE]

W guide, hope you keep it updated in the future if needed :)

[Antitied [2025 HOARD SETS]]

aloan there's a myth about 4th setting. There's no extreme quality. You can even put like 9999 wherever you want but it will look just like third option so 3 is max you can go

[aloan]

(Also if you actually want to measure an FPS difference since the game is capped)

Extremely underclock your GPU or use DSR to play the game at 4k/2k and underscale it

[aloan]

I've seen this post after finding your profile in the discussions, I was always tempted to make such thing but I was too lazy.. I'm glad you bothered to work on this!

I thought that UE4 scalability go like this tho? 0low 1med 2high 3ultra 4extreme
(since when u put game on ultra it sets everything to 3)

I remember i once saw in a certain post that you can use "4" as extreme but I never really confirmed it for distance & texture quality. I'd really love to test it on a long map with the offering that lessens the fog.

Deserves an award as well