Batman™: Arkham Knight Optimisation Guide

This Steam Community guide aims to help users improve their experience with the PC version of Batman™: Arkham Knight by providing information regarding options and workarounds so that the user can configure their game for their PC.

Please note this guide is not updated anymore and is regarded as complete. This guide's end goal was about offering more information on settings so that people could tailor the game's graphical settings for optimal play on their systems - it has always been a given that simply lowering quality will likely improve performance and as such I hope the take away from this guide is not "lower settings = higher framerate" and that the take away is a guide that offers more information.

If you have not done so already, take look at the minimum and recommended specifications and compare them to your system. These can also be found within the Steam guide. If you are still not satisfied with your experience, you can request a refund of the game and your money may be refunded to you. Steam refund policies can be found here.

You may find that having 12 GB RAM or higher while using Windows 10 has been known to fix many problems with this game and having less than this may lead to some issues being unresolved.

Introduction

Revisions to the guide have taken place and now the guide should be readable via the Steam Mobile application! Images may appear smaller or larger than they are supposed to due to conflicts with image resolution and phone screen resolution. Viewing on up-to-date web browsers should be perfectly fine.

Batman™: Arkham Knight on Steam / PC released in a poor state on the 23rd June, 2015 and was withheld from the Steam Store on June 24th, 2015, so that the developers could re-think their strategy and fix many of the issues that the game had for Steam / PC users.

Today, Batman™: Arkham Knight performance has become acceptable for users that have a PC powerful enough to run the game. However, some players may still find that general performance is not on par with what should be expected.

Some players may find that NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs perform better than AMD-based hardware due to the developers choice to optimise more for NVIDIA GPUs than AMD GPUs. Playing the game on AMD hardware is still possible, so long as the requirements are met or surpassed.

Latest Update of Batman: Arkham Knight - March 8th 2016

System Requirements

For reference, included below is a list of the minimum, recommended and ultra hardware requirements so that you may compare your system to these. Again, should your system specifications not be on par with that of the minimum hardware requirements, you may not find performance reach acceptable framerates no matter what adjustments are made to the game or your system.

Game System Requirements

Minimum Hardware Specs:

OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2 GB Memory Minimum) | AMD Radeon HD 7950 (3 GB Memory Minimum)
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection required
Hard Drive: 45 GB available space

Recommended Hardware Specs:

OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 - 3 GB Memory Recommended
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 55 GB available space

Ultra System Hardware Requirements:

OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Graphics Memory: 4 GB or higher
DirectX: Version 11 or higher
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 55 GB available space

Information regarding system requirements and optimal suggestions can be found here: "Update on PC Performance" WBPlay Thread.[community.wbgames.com]

Quick-Fixes

PC players may run into some issues that cannot be helped too much by game developers or issues that can be resolved quickly. If you're affected by a certain small issue, refer to below and you may find your issue and solution.

The list will be updated if there are more issues that have a 'quick-fix' solution to them.

Introduction Videos

Players upon start-up will see a few icons and introduction videos so that you know who created the game and what support has been included, etc.

Players can disable these by right-clicking on the Batman™: Arkham Knight text in their Steam Library and then clicking 'Properties'. Once you've done that, you can click on the 'Set Launch Options...' box and you will be shown a box for input of certain launch options.

In the said box, input this parameter and click 'OK' and it will apply straight away.



This will disable the introduction videos and skip straight to the game start menu. To remove this effect, remove the "-nologo" parameter.

Slow Start-up

Players may have encountered a small bug that causes the game to have a slow start-up. Users who want to fix this can refer to the possible solution below.

1) Go to Update & Security > Windows Defender and find 'exclusions'. Click add an exclusion once you find 'exclusions'.
2) Click "exclude an .exe, .com or .scr process and add the batmanAK.exe application from the game folder. You can alternatively exclude the entire folder, though this hasn't been tested and may cause alternative issues to the slow start-up.

Graphics Card Drivers

One of the most common reasons why users experience issues with many games on PC is because PC users often forget to update their GPU Drivers. New GPU Drivers are typically released when popular new games are about to be or have been released, so that users can get an optimised experience with the new game.

Below are the respective GPU driver download links for AMD and NVIDIA GPU users:

AMD GPUs

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

NVIDIA GPUs

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Intel GPUs

Intel GPUs are not typically made with 3D gaming applications in mind, and may even struggle with 2D gaming. Therefore, there is no support for such GPUs in the game or in this guide.

Intel GPUs are simply too weak to play modern games compared to the standard NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. Example:

More modern/recent NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards support 2-12 GB VRAM in which an Intel graphics card would not support this level of VRAM. This game requires a 2 GB card minimum.

AMD Graphics Card Adjustments

Players of Batman™: Arkham Knight on AMD GPU based hardware will generally tend to have a similar experience to those on NVIDIA GPU based hardware as of 2019, although this can largely depend on the graphics settings choices made by those on AMD GPU based hardware. The following section aims to detail actions that can be done for those sporting AMD graphics cards if needed, however does not guarantee improved performance on such hardware.

AMD Radeon Settings Setup

Anti-aliasing Mode: Use application settings (prevent game using in-game Anti-aliasing and AMD Radeon Anti-aliasing settings at the same time, stick to in-game settings)
Anti-aliasing Method: Multisampling (will be ignored if previous setting is set to Use application settings, which is preferable to let it used in-game Anti-aliasing settings)
Morphological Filtering: Off
Anisotropic Filtering Mode Use application settings (if Override application settings is used, will not use in-game Anisotropic Filtering setting)
Anisotropic Filtering Level: 16x (setting only appears if previous setting is using Override application settings, 16x is not demanding on most systems. Change previous setting if you want in-game settings.
Texture Filtering Quality: Standard (set to High if using 16x in above setting)
Surface Format Optimization: On/Off (doesn't do much in modern games, On will slightly help performance at a very small image quality loss if it works)
Wait for Vertical Refresh: Off, unless application specifies / Enhanced Sync*
OpenGL Triple Buffering: On/Off (only works in OpenGL applications)
Shader Cache: AMD Optimized / On
Tessellation Mode: AMD Optimized
Radeon FreeSync: Off (if you don't have a FreeSync monitor \ On if you have a FreeSync monitor)
Display Scaling: Off/Preference
Frame Rate Target Control: Disabled/Preference

*You can also check what each setting does for clarification in the AMD Radeon Settings by clicking "more..."

Graphics Options

Batman™: Arkham Knight's Graphics Options include a list of different things. Included are typical options such as Texture Resolution and Shadow Quality. Alongside this, Batman™: Arkham Knight provides a Video Memory Usage Monitor (VRAM Monitor) so that you can keep an eye on your VRAM usage and remove VRAM over-commitment from your reasons behind performance issues. Please note, you may find that the Windows Task Manager displays a higher VRAM usage than that of what Batman™: Arkham Knight displays. You should not have performance issues relating to VRAM (i.e. Texture Resolution being too high, which would cause stuttering) if your VRAM is in the green using the in-game VRAM monitor.

Here is the complete list of graphics options available to you:

 Display Mode
 Resolution
 V-Sync
 Max FPS
 Texture Resolution
 Shadow Quality
 Level of Detail
 Motion Blur
 Anti-Aliasing
 Chromatic Aberration
 Film Grain
 Texture Filtering
 NVIDIA Interactive Smoke / Fog
 NVIDIA Interactive Paper Debris
 NVIDIA Enhanced Rain
 NVIDIA Enhanced Light Shafts

Video Settings: Monitor Adjustment

Display Mode

Display Mode is the setting that decides whether the game runs in Fullscreen, Borderless Fullscreen or Windowed mode. It is suggested you follow the in-game setting and select Fullscreen mode for maximum performance.

Resolution

Resolution decides how many pixels are visible on the screen display, and higher is more often than not better than lower in most any circumstance for image quality. You will find a fair amount of resolution options between 320x300 up to your native monitor resolution or beyond if you're capable of NVIDIA Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) or have GPU scaling enabled on AMD hardware.

On the minimum hardware specifications, the suggested resolution setting is 1280x720. On the recommended hardware specifications, the suggested resolution setting is 1920x1080. On the ultra hardware specifications, users may be able to experience the game with resolutions above 1920x1080 if their hardware is good enough.

V-Sync

V-Sync stands for Vertical Synchronisation. This setting limits your framerate to your monitors refresh rate, which is more often than not around 60Hz which equals 60 FPS is the maximum your monitor can display for a more stable experience and to reduce screen tearing. Users in search of performance should disable this setting and users in search of reduced screen tearing should enable this setting.

You may find the Adaptive setting works well if you're wanting performance and want to reduce screen tearing. Adaptive V-Sync is an NVIDIA only feature and can only be enabled if your NVIDIA PhysX renderer is set to your GPU. More information on the subject can be found here.[www.geforce.co.uk]

Max FPS

You will find that this setting sets a framerate limit for the game, depending on your option. You may find that setting the FPS cap to 30 FPS can improve stability. Setting this setting to 60 is useful for those who use 60 Hz monitors and you will want to set this to 90 if you want the highest framrate possible.

Rocksteady have suggested that you do not edit the .ini files. Should you do so however, you can set this setting to what you like under the setting "MaxFPS=90.000000" or whatever you have set your game too. If the value is above 90, you will get a warning stating that the game isn't designed for framerates above 90 FPS and therefore may not work correctly.

Video Settings: Texture Settings

Texture Resolution

Adjusts the quality and clarity of the textures applied to every surface, character, enemy and object. - GeForce Experience description.

Texture Resolution is the setting that adjusts the resolution of said textures, which also adjusts the quality and clarity of these textures. Players should find that if VRAM usage is not exceeded, Texture Resolution should have a minimal impact on performance.

Typical Video Memory Usage (1080p)

Low Texture Resolution

- [1979 MB VRAM] 

Normal Texture Resolution

- [2976 MB VRAM] 

High Texture Resolution

- [3074 MB VRAM] 

Typical Video Memory Usage (1080p + Shadow VRAM usage)

Low Texture Resolution + Low Shadow Quality + GameWorks OFF

- [1979 MB VRAM]

Normal Texture Resolution + Normal Shadow Quality + GameWorks OFF

- [2981 MB VRAM]

High Texture Resolution + High Shadow Quality + GameWorks OFF

- [3180 MB VRAM]

You will find that at lower resolutions, VRAM usage is lower than the stated values above. You will also find that at higher resolutions, VRAM usage is higher than the stated values above.

Texture Filtering

Improves the sharpness of textures, especially those viewed at a distance or on an low viewing angle. - GeForce Experience description

Texture Filtering can be used to improve the quality of distant textures to that of the same of textures around your area with a minor performance cost. You may find setting this option to 8x Anisotropic Filtering will help you improve performance slightly over 16x Anisotropic Filtering, with a minimal decrease in texture filtering quality.

If you're in the search for maximum performance, set this to Trilinear.

Note: Texture filtering does not use any VRAM.

Video Settings: Shadow Quality

Adjusts the quality of shadows applied to all game elements. - GeForce Experience description

Shadow quality affects the quality and accuracy of shadows drawn in the world. Shadows can be a major performance hit at higher quality values due to further rendering distances, higher resolution shadow rendering, increase VRAM requirements and increased GPU workload.

You may find that at lower resolutions, higher quality shadow quality has an imperceptible change in quality over Low.

Typical Video Memory Usage (1080p + Shadow VRAM usage)

Low Texture Resolution + Low Shadow Quality + GameWorks OFF

- [1979 MB VRAM]

Normal Texture Resolution + Normal Shadow Quality + GameWorks OFF

- [2981 MB VRAM]

High Texture Resolution + High Shadow Quality + GameWorks OFF

- [3180 MB VRAM]

You will find that at lower resolutions, VRAM usage will be lower than the values stated above. You will also find that at higher resolutions, VRAM usage will be higher than the values stated above.

Video Settings: Level of Detail

Adjusts the quality of various effects, enables additional effects and adjusts the quality of numerous game elements as the setting is raised. - GeForce Experience description

Level of Detail affects the quality everything based on your distance between you and the object. If you're playing on the Low quality setting, you'll notice that lower quality buildings are rendered closer to you, while on the High quality setting, you'll notice that lower quality buildings are rendered further away from you, meaning more higher-quality buildings are rendered at a time.

As suggested by the GeForce Experience description, this setting will increase more than just one element (i.e. more than just quality of buildings).

You may also find that there is an imperceptible framerate difference or a small impact on framerate upon increasing the setting, though you shouldn't try a setting without testing first.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [0 MB VRAM]

This setting doesn't use GPU VRAM!

Video Settings: Motion Blur

Motion Blur is the blurring of things when you move at speed, and this occurs in real life if you move or shake your head. Motion Blur in Batman™: Arkham Knight has been known to be the source behind some framerate stuttering and as such you should only enable this if you have a powerful system.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [0 MB VRAM]

This setting doesn't use GPU VRAM!

Video Settings: Anti-Aliasing

Post-process anti-aliasing that removes jagged edges from game elements. - GeForce Experience description

Anti-aliasing is a solution used in Batman™: Arkham Knight to remove jagged edges from game elements using a custom SMAA implementation. Users may want to disable this setting to accelerate performance by around 5 FPS on mid-range systems.

It has been said by a few users that Batman™: Arkham Knight looks better without the anti-aliasing solution in use because the SMAA only blurs game element edges. In doing so, I can confirm that the in-game SMAA does blur the rain drops and does nullify the effect of NVIDIA GameWorks Enhanced Rain slightly.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [0 MB VRAM]

This setting doesn't use GPU VRAM!

Video Settings: Filter Effects

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic aberration is an effect used to simulate a camera lens. This setting is entirely up to preference and has no effect on your performance.

Film Grain

Film grain is an effect used to simulate film grain. This setting is entirely up to preference and has no effect on your performance.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [0 MB VRAM]

These settings doesn't use any GPU VRAM!

NVIDIA GameWorks

NVIDIA GameWorks settings are all settings available to NVIDIA graphics cards users and mostly the GTX class cards. I do not know if AMD-based hardware users can enable these settings, however I do believe that if AMD-based hardware users want to enable these settings, they will be able to enable NVIDIA Enhanced Rain and no other GameWorks setting.

You should note that all of the NVIDIA GameWorks settings are used in the PC Performance Benchmark if they are enabled so their performance impact will affect your PC Performance Benchmark score if enabled and will improve your score if disabled.

You may find the table below useful:



Notice: VRAM usage may be a couple of hundered megabytes above the total values stated here. Further tests indicated that Batman™: Arkham Knight will show you your VRAM usage at these levels below while the Windows Task Manager displayed my VRAM usage as being a couple of hundered megabytes above what Batman™: Arkham Knight showed me.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p - All GameWorks settings enabled, everything else on LOW

- [2675 MB]

All GameWorks settings enabled, everything else on NORMAL

- [3677 MB]

All GameWorks settings enabled, everything else on HIGH

- [3976 MB]

Note: If you wish to utilise NVIDIA GameWorks, it is suggested that you have a 4 GB VRAM GPU minimum so that you also have available VRAM for other settings that will use VRAM, such as texture and shadow quality.

For a good video demonstration of every NVIDIA GameWorks included effect excluding Enhanced Light Shafts, refer to the video below. The video is best viewed in 1080p60 quality, or the highest your monitor supports. 

NVIDIA GameWorks: Interactive Smoke / Fog

Interactive Smoke / Fog

NVIDIA Interactive Smoke and Fog utilises the many CUDA Cores on your GeForce GTX GPU to render high-quality interactive particle effects that would be impossible to generate on a CPU. Each effect can be manipulated by character movement, environmental conditions and external forces, and can move realistically around and across surfaces. - GeForce Experience description

NVIDIA GameWorks: Interactive Smoke / Fog requires a strong NVIDIA PhysX processor if you're on a single-GPU setup. If you're on an dual-GPU setup or higher, you should be able to have one GPU handling the other game data and the other one handling NVIDIA GameWorks and NVIDIA PhysX data on its own for improved performance.

If you use your CPU to handle NVIDIA PhysX, you will not be able to enable this setting because this setting introduces effects that are impossible to generate on the CPU.

It should also be noted that Batman™: Arkham Knight needs to be restarted in order for you to toggle this setting On or Off, though you will get a notification about that in-game if you decide to change the setting.

The recommended NVIDIA GPU for people hoping to use this setting and attain a good framerate is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or higher. If you're on a dual-GPU setup, you should be able to handle this setting among others with any 'mid-range' GPU handling the NVIDIA data, because that GPU doesn't have to handle the game data as well.

Many users, though not all, have actually stated that Batman™: Arkham Knight looks a little bit better when this setting is disabled. This is because some users believe the NVIDIA GameWorks implementation of smoke just simply doesn't fit the game art-style, though that is up to you and your view on that view. Therefore, if you do agree with the many users that have this opinion, you should keep this setting disabled for 'improved' image quality and improved graphics performance.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [500 MB VRAM]

Note: If you're wanting more information on what this setting looks like while you're using the Batmobile, toggled on or off, you should refer to the Batman™: Arkham Knight NVIDIA GameWorks Batmobile Video that is below. The video is best viewed in 1080p60 quality, or the highest your monitor supports.

NVIDIA Gameworks: Interactive Paper Debris

Interactive Paper Debris

NVIDIA Interactive Paper Debris uses the power of modern NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs to render pieces of paper and other pieces of debris that react realistically to character movement, environmental conditions and external forces, heightening immersion as Batman and friends battle thugs - GeForce Experience description

This setting cannot be enabled if your PhysX renderer is set to your CPU and also requires a restart if you turn this setting on or off. This setting once enabled will use a fairly sizeable amount of VRAM, however this setting doesn't typically cause any framerate loss on modern GPUs, as movable objects are a common thing in games. Although, if you do see a framerate drop you can simply turn the setting off.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [180 MB VRAM]

NVIDIA GameWorks: Enhanced Rain

NVIDIA Enhanced Rain

NVIDIA Enhanced Rain displays additional rain particles with simulated velocity when Batman's cape opens for flight, improving image quality and immersion. For a real world comparison, quickly close and re-open a wet umbrella and observe how the droplets of water shoot off with some force. - GeForce Experience description

NVIDIA Enhanced Rain is a setting that is run off your CPU processor. Due to that, this setting typically doesn't cause framerate losses when enabled for most systems, including lower-end GPU setups.

This setting doesn't require a restart and therefore you should definitely try turning this setting on if you can. If you want to enable this setting, you should disable Anti-Aliasing because the SMAA effect in this game blurs the effect of rain, making this setting harder to see when enabled.

Note: I understand the representative image above may be unclear and you may be hard pressed to tell what Enhanced Rain adds, however it is a particle effect that's difficult to capture and as such you're best off reading the GeForce Experience description for a better idea on NVIDIA's Enhanced Rain effect.

 Typical VRAM Usage @ 1080p

- [0 MB VRAM]

This setting doesn't use GPU VRAM!

NVIDIA GameWorks: Enhanced Light Shafts

Enhanced Light Shafts

NVIDIA Enhanced Light Shafts enables DirectX 11 Tessellated God Rays to helicopter and drone search lights. - GeForce Experience description

This setting enhances the game experience a fair amount due to the large amount of helicopters and drones in this game. When this effect is disabled, lights will still appear on helicopter and drone search lights however the volumetric lighting aspect has a shorter range. This setting tends to utilise a minuscule amount of VRAM and the highest I've seen it use is 16 MB of VRAM at 1920x1080. However, this setting isn't optimised very well and doesn't offer the best image quality improvements for the performance cost.

 Typical VRAM usage @ 1080p

- [16 MB VRAM]

Note: When I had enabled the setting during testing, the only light sources affected were helicoptors visible on the other side of the game map. In turn, this had also caused a 7 FPS framerate drop. If you want to enable this setting, I suggest having a high-end PC and nothing lower.

NVIDIA PhysX Processor / SLI-users

- NVIDIA PhysX Information[www.nvidia.com]

In the NVIDIA Control Panel, you're able to select your NVIDIA PhysX Processor between your CPU and your GPU or one of your GPUs. If you're struggling for performance on a single GPU, try setting this to your CPU and see if you get any improvements as some people here and there have reported improved performance. Using your CPU will disable the "Interactive" NVIDIA GameWorks settings, however the chances are you aren't using those.

If you notice a decrease in performance, this is because your CPU is not capable of handling the PhysX destruction element that has been implemented into Batman™: Arkham Knight. You should simply switchback to your NVIDIA GPU because NVIDIA PhysX is optimised for NVIDIA GPU usage.



If you're an NVIDIA GPU user and have an SLI-built system, you'll by now have heard that you can't use SLI with this game as there isn't any support for it, despite the developers trying to support it at first.

However, you can get a "Semi-SLI mode" going on:

Disable the SLI option in the NVIDIA Control Panel as one GPU will give better performance over multiple because the scaling is horrid, then assign one GPU to your PhysX so that you have one handling all the game data and the other handling all of the NVIDIA GameWorks effects.

.ini File Configuration

The .ini configuration files are files that the game uses in order to run many things. Alongside this, are some graphics options that aren't changeable via the normal game graphics options.

However, people should take note that Rocksteady have suggested leaving the .ini files alone for maximum performance. It is suggested that you only try using .ini File Configuration if you are not achieving a stable framerate while using default settings. Make sure to backup these files.

If you lose any files, right-click on Batman™: Arkham Knight in your Steam Library, click on properties and then click on LOCAL FILES. From there, click VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES. This can take a few minutes and sometimes a little longer.

Path to .ini Files

Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > Batman Arkham Knight > BmGame > Config

One of the files users editing for this purpose is known as BmSystemSettings. Another thing to note is that anything here is case sensitive, so double check everything beforehand.

Once you have opened that file, scroll down to "[SystemSettings]", this may be visible for you as soon as you open it. Underneath that section, there is a plethora of settings to chose from and change. Some settings won't make a difference, while others will, like reflections rendering.

Users who want to change one setting that may make a big difference should edit the default texture streaming setting(s). Open the folder directory for the game and find "BmEngine.ini" inside:

BmGame\Config\BmEngine.ini

Once the file has been opened, search for the "[TextureStreaming]" setting and change the "PoolSize" setting. Try to change this to how much VRAM your graphics card has for optimal results, or if this causes further issues simply revert to default. Suggested settings:

- 1024 (DEFAULT)
- 2048
- 3072
- 4096
- etc.

You should attempt to increase the value in increments of 128 each time until you reach a good value for image quality and performance. Do not set this value to be higher than your GPU VRAM, try to give your GPU at least 1024 MB VRAM to use for other settings such as Shadows, PhysX, etc.

Suggested settings to adjust are:

- AllowImageReflectionShadowing=True > AllowImageReflectionShadowing=False
- AllowImageReflections=True > AllowImageReflections=False
- AmbientOcclusion=True > AmbientOcclusion=False
- Bloom=True > Bloom=False
- Reflections=True > Reflections=False

Depth of Field has not been included here because Detective Vision uses Depth of Field and when disabled, Detective Vision does not function correctly.

These settings may improve FPS if disabled for some users. Please do NOT change any settings found in sections beyond [SystemSettings], this includes leaving along the other [SystemSettings] sections such as [SystemSettingsBucket1].

Master Fixes Thread

This Master Fixes thread contains information that you may also find useful.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/208650/discussions/0/405691491106183904/

2020 Update

The 2020 update is here to ensure the guide just works for 2020. However there have been no significant changes to the guide and you may notice some sections removed to reduce the guide size while removing unnecessary information. More adjustments may occur in the future to further improve this guide for 2020, however is unlikely.

Updates

• [Updates Log] section has been removed
• [Windows 10 Game Mode] section has been removed
• [Laptop Users] section removed. This section may re-appear with a proper re-write in a small update in the future
• [.ini File Configuration] section has been edited.

[Lindon]

Editing the .ini files is something that can mess up a lot of things if you're not careful at times. You may have accidentally edited a value to be one that the game doesn't work well with or removed a value.

If you only edited the BmSystemSetting .ini file, you should be safe to delete the file and launch the game, it should just make a new file on its own, with the default settings. If it makes a new file but doesn't help, try doing this but with Steam Cloud enabled temporarily

[icon.flareflame]

I tried changing some of the stuff in the BmSystemSettings and now my game won't launch properly. I forgot to make a back up of the BmSystemSettings file before changing some of the configurations in it and now I can't remember all the stuff that I made some changes to, I wanted to revert things back to the way it used to be but since I forgot I don't know how to fix the issue.. Most of the time the game doesn't launch properly and when it does it only shows me a black screen with some of the options in the game. So all in all can some one please paste a BmSystemSettings files here because I think I need that to revert things back to normal.

[Киллджой]

Очень сложно!!!

[Lindon]

You can't miss the achievement. Keep playing and you'll get it eventually.

[RustyNail]

please answer

[RustyNail]

how do you get creature of the night acheivement?

[Gaboou]

(Had to split my comment because of a 1000 character limit...)

Even though I am already getting good performance with everything maxed out I was interested if I could somehow fix the Level of Detail glitches I am sometimes experiencing, where objects that should have higher detail look all ugly because something didn't load / stream properly...
Im going to play around with the "[TextureStreaming]" section and see if this improves something, as VRAM usage shown by MSI Afterburner is only around 4500-5000 MB out of the 6 GB on my 980 Ti... :-/

One suggestion for the guide: maybe put all the changelogs at the end of it. ;-)

[Gaboou]

Thank you for putting in the time to make this very thorough and well written guide! 8-)

I recently discovered (after ~2,5 years of playing the game, lol!) that when the game starts up it doesn't seem to be using Triple Buffering, which is crucial so that small dips below 60 FPS don't get halfed to 30 FPS, which results in massive stuttering. So either do what TalosPCR suggested or Alt + Tab out of the game and back in, so that Triple Buffering activates... Such a lame and unfixed bug, I know... -_-

[TalosPCR]

I loved this analysis and although it was kind of off the subject, I wanted to share two small things that helped me a lot. Always enable Vsync through the GPU panel (NVIDIA Control panel or AMD Control Center) and use RTSS for lock framerate due to the very poor Vsync implementation of this game.
After that even with drops to 40FPS the game seemed to me much more fluid than when I activated vsync ini game.

[mika]

Awsome guide thank you.