Unlock max FPS: Best graphic settings for ARK Ascended guide

[@oicislv2939]

you NEED to have Global Illumination setting at Medium or above - OR you wont get light beams for Drops - BEST source of quality gear in game...

[@MLMariss]

You are right! I didn't had any drop at the time of testing, but now later on I see a point of medium (but NOT high) setting for illumination! Thank you for the comment! Pinned.

[@LuluGamingDK]

Yup this is true I discovered that about a week ago. 😅 The sad part is you do take about a 10 FPS hit. Depending on the region and the type of drop have noticed that red and yellow drops will lower your FPS. But unfortunately if you wanna be Able to see them it has to be on.

[@MLMariss]

Yeah, it's really a shame to have to take that FPS hit! I think I have figured out another set of settings to custom tune xD Working on another video - that will make this one absolete 😢

[@nubbyboah]

Yeah, his settings with medium global illumination are perfect for me. Smooth 60 with a few hiccups (which is expected) Definitely will play around to see what settings I can bump up to get some more quality without losing my FPS.

[@tgung5696]

I'm having issues with the drops beams on xbox is there any fixes as we don't had global illumination

[@Onionmademecry]

hey man this video is epic its really not click bait and works but ive noticed that if turn my camera fov lower then 100 it makes it crash idk which setting is turned onn or off that makes it crash do you know ?

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help where I can! Lower than 100? Hmm it should be opposite, as the higher means GPU have to draw even more surroundings! This is weird, but I have no clue about this - I usually tend to find middle of the FOV slider and leave at that, so had no idea how that impacts it :/

[@CYPH3R-0]

stat fps | r.VolumetricCloud 0 | grass.enable 0 | r.Fog 0 | grass.sizeScale 0.5 | grass.densityScale 1 | r.grass.DensityQualityLevel low | r.contactshadows 0 | r.VolumetricFog 0 |r.Water.SingleLayer.Reflection 0 |sg.FoliageQuality 0 |r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades 0 |r.DistanceFieldShadowing 0 |r.Shadow.Virtual.Enable 0 |r.Lumen.DiffuseIndirect.Allow 0 |r.MaterialQualityLevel 1 |r.Lumen.Reflections.Allow 0 |wp.Runtime.HLOD 0 |r.Nanite.MaxPixelsPerEdge 4 |r.SkylightIntensityMultiplier 3

[@MLMariss]

My concern writing this down here is if others will add it or overwrite different properties :D But if this helps for others - I'm all good! Thanks ;)

[@CYPH3R-0]

@@MLMariss these settings I've found online and I use them everyday. 10/10. By all means mate. 😎🤘🏻

[@dirtdasty1655]

I followed these settings with my new 4060 ti and when I hit save it black screened and shut down my pc then I had no display on reboot. Coincidence or not it killed a stick of my ram

[@MLMariss]

Wait what just happened? o.O that must be the worst possible coincidence as these settings change only for graphics, so anything GPU related could in theory be related (with overload and such), but RAM? Bad luck/RAM stick, but I hope you got a warranty/replacement soon and be back in the gaming!

[@IallenIallenI]

It really blows that Xbox Game pass games don't have DLSS on PC, this game runs like complete shit on PC gamepass

[@MLMariss]

Wait what? o.O didn't knew that (I don't have a game pass)! Oh, that is wild - for a while already DLSS is a MUST for games to run with good/stable fps :/

[@michaelwoods9669]

Not seeing the same settings as you here, I have video and graphics. Yet have a 4090

[@MLMariss]

It suppose to be like that - these settings are populated with extra instructions! In video description I have uploaded my *.ini file on Goolge Drive, you can download and read it with any notepad program - so you can see and compare mine settings with yours and copy over to your *.ini file

[@loumu7176]

This game is whack. I lowered all of my settings as prescribed and then played around with each one a bit to see the impact. It made my game look like absolute garbage for a nominal FPS increase or in some cases, made it look AND perform worse. I ended up resetting to default, removing clouds and fog and am not getting 50-60 fps most of the time. It could be so much better. Shame that this game is so poorly optimized. As much as I love the gameplay, it just kills me how this game can be so damn buggy and have so many issues!

[@MLMariss]

Very much you are summarizing my experience with the game as well! Even when it was playable and ok FPS, the constant random crashes where too much of a burden.

[@loumu7176]

@@MLMariss loaded into aberration this morning and was just so disappointed. I will say the FPS seems to have gotten better with this supposed unreal engine patch. But the flickering on the trees is so incredibly bad. It totally breaks immersion and enjoyment for me. Thankfully it goes away during nighttime but it’s just sad that this game is released in this state.

[@MLMariss]

True, and as far as I have read and heard - this developer has done it with previous titles the same :D

[@Judgenjurygaming]

How to do I fix flickering of lights and shadows in the foliage? I swear its so hard to play ASA when I am getting blasted with in-game strobe lights.

[@MLMariss]

Check and play around with Global Illumination Quality - change away from Medium to High, Epic or even Low! This might fix the flickering issue.

[@Judgenjurygaming]

@@MLMariss I actually noticed if I don't remove the fog/clouds via the commands it stops most of the light flickering.

[@MLMariss]

Yes, these properties are impacting the same. If I recall correctly later I found a setting combination where I left the clouds alone as well! It gave better lighting effect on the ground/foliage!

[@HopefulMars-kv5uc]

I got a i5 9400f ,16gb ram,1tb hdd,and a 1660oc 6gb and I run 60fps fine

[@HopefulMars-kv5uc]

Using these settings

[@MLMariss]

Oh, wow! Keeping in mind their minimal specification asks for GTX 1080 and you can play it on GTX 1660 is amazing! Just blunt 1 number benchmark scores for these cards are 15,533 and 11,692 respectively so getting 60 fps with a card 25% below minimum spec is nois!

[@cleepuscleepington788]

WHERE ARE THE GORLS

[@christianrobison1236]

Do you know what causes flickering shadows in foliage, especially while moving?

[@MLMariss]

This command should fix flickering thing: r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades 0 Or if you add it to the engine.ini file then writing changes a bit (equal sign between command and value): r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=0

[@milordas]

Advanced graphics im always put to high/epic, as it impact a big shadow circle when you fly, and if lower it feels, youre carrying shadow circle with you :)

[@MLMariss]

Depends on the game (how they call what and what's the impact) but yes, I don't like that shadow circle when/if it's even visible :D

[@Thylaco1722]

I’m on Xbox and I don’t have these settings???

[@MLMariss]

Hey, yes and no. Xbox don't have such *.ini file available to store them once and for all, but instead you have console commands available. I would advise to test and see some/main of the settings you want to use and game will show them for next sessions too, but you will need to enable them each time. I hope that helps! I don't have Xbox myself, but this guy in first few minutes show how to do it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYfdZJaOaNmcmbs

[@Thylaco1722]

@@MLMariss Thanks this was really helpful

[@EpicBongZilla]

i have a Ryzen 9 a Raden RX7800XT 32 GB ram and a 1 TB SSD the game still struggles with FPS in default settings. ill let you know how this impacts my performance and what i enhanced for higher end PCs after testing

[@MLMariss]

Please do so, yes! The default settings are disaster!

[@llsrrll6930]

Amazing vid, definitely bookmarking this. Every time windows and nvidia update I have to mess with my settings. Thx man!

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help! I'm thinking out loud..but editing ini file AND making it 'read only' should also do the trick :D

[@Grim327]

The button is called a tildé ~

[@MLMariss]

Yes, thank you!

[@theavpman4834]

Dude youre a legend this is an incredible video.

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help and thank you for your kind words!

[@YTRYMATE]

Hey man I’m running Ryzen 9 3950x, RTX 3070, 32gb Ram ect ect I cannot get this game to the point where I’m happy with it, what are your specs my game looks garbage 😂

[@MLMariss]

Damn, you got some nice specs there! I have a Ryzen 5 5600X, RTX 3080, and 32 GB RAM ~ the same specs. Truth be told - there is a sacrifice you have to make in this game. Full Ultra looks amazing but runs like shit..anything meaningful you change WILL have an impact on how the game looks. It's literally your poison to pick - how good or bad the game looks and runs 😅 So that boils down to personal preference, but I can suggest checking my other video? After releasing this I found some other stuff that impacts it all - maybe that will give you better looks, and settings to play around. Copy over my settings, if you don't like how it looks, edit one of them out (changing back) and see if it's up to your liking ;) I think I've spent more time in this game tinkering with settings and restarting all the time than actually playing it xD

[@YTRYMATE]

@@MLMariss cheers for the response! I will have to check that video out thank you, I only just recently return to this game as couldn’t deal with the consistent server/game crashes, I started with all these setting an the commands but saw zero FPS gain, I was getting 25 ish.. an game looked horrific 😂nothing else seems to be hogging RSS I’ve check everything system side to my knowledge but just doesn’t make sense I must be missing something, have zero issues with anything I throw at this computer but this damn game 🤷🏽‍♂️ hmmmm 40 series 🤔😂

[@MLMariss]

Heh, no worries, you'll get there I hope! The biggest issue is the Lumen, but by disabling that you should see your FPS through the roof :D Something weird is happening there!

[@YTRYMATE]

@@MLMariss just strange that following this guide to the letter didn’t get anywhere near 90 fps, something has to up Currently watching the updated video 119 fps! Ooof that’s what I need!

[@MLMariss]

I hope that will work for you too!

[@itsme-gm9oi]

Im using an AMd card. Your suggestions have improved it. Im getting flickering grass and shadows... Have you come across these issues?

[@MLMariss]

Hmm, not great for performance, but try Global Illumination higher than medium and also just a guess, but the command r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=2 Changing value from 0 to 2 will use another/different light method, that might help (dunno, needs to be tested).

[@sainttropez6393]

Thank you very much!

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help!

[@twilightgirl1993]

Even though I have a RTX graphics card, I dont have the RTX menu - I use gamepass version of the game. But everything else helps thanks a lot!

[@MLMariss]

I'm gonna copy-paste from another similar comment with the same problem: There are a few things that might fix it for you (do them in order, as they are from easiest to more tricky fixes): 1. nVidia driver update, maybe try even a clean install (it will uninstall the existing and then install the clean latest version) 2. You have to switch to DX12 if you are not using it. It's the only way RTX and DLSS are available.

[@lesnige229]

Im just having a hard time with how dark the shadows look and how bright the game is in general, i have been trying to fix it for days, It is a game breaker for me

[@MLMariss]

Hmm that is the same Lumen that is doing that. I believe with these settings you will have it fixed/changed at least! And just a wild guess but you don't want to remove clouds then - they (all white) reflect on ground and make a pretty big impact on darkness, so removing them will give you the opposite effect that you are looking for!

[@nicwil90]

I have a RTX 3060ti and the RTX setting doesn't show up. HELP?

[@MLMariss]

I'm gonna copy paste from other similar comment with the same problem: Hmm..there are a few things that might fix it for you (do them in order, as they are from easiest to more tricky fixes): 1. nVidia driver update, maybe try even clean install (it will uninstall existing and then install clean latest version) 2. You have to switch to DX12 if you are not using it. Its the only way RTX and DLSS are available. 3. Then if none of these worked, then last but not least known bug is the game AND the windows language must be set to English. Any other language bugs out and doesn't show the settings :D I hope you manage to get them one or another way!

[@o7hero114]

hmm i have a 7900xt on epic with clouds i still run 56 fps but i remove clouds and fog cuse its just nicer

[@MLMariss]

That sounds..more than reasonable! I cannot run ultra with o high FPS for sure! I'm wondering how AMD cards can pull such a high FPS without any FSR o.O

[@Raven777777777777777]

I have RX 6700 XT and im running most settings on High except for Post-Processing, Global Illumination Quality and Effects Quality and im running it mostly around 45 fps. Disabling Volumetric clouds doesnt really give me any fps at all but if i go low preset it runs fine on 70 fps. Biggest fps drop i've seen is my base with a lot of dinos in there where it sits around 30 fps most of the time. Its better outside so i think that cryopods could help with some performance but im not doing that yet since i've already experienced corrupted mods and missing modded items. From what i've read in the comments of other videos working on performance settings it seems to be mainly Nvidia issue when it comes to inventory crashes. I have yet to see that inventory crash on my AMD gpu.

[@MLMariss]

Yup, I think I have figured it you - Lumen causes a lot of problems for nVidia GPU gamers! Thank you for confirmation about AMD card and all the info!

[@brianlynn8007]

THANK YOU!!!! Wow

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome!

[@LittlePinchofGinger]

Aaaw, the shadows still look clunky and move in weird stutters on the ground. I had hoped there was a fix for that :(

[@MLMariss]

Honestly speaking this was and still is one of the most broken game I have ever played. It might be fixed, but the time it takes to tailor each of the issue is beyond my suggestion :D

[@LittlePinchofGinger]

@@MLMariss Thank you for the video! It helped with a lot of the other things :)

[@milordas]

ANY suggestion, how to 1. improve clouds quality? as they have grainy flickering randomly pixels in them...? 2. When you fly, you can see pixels changing where ptero wings is swinging on the foliage textures? thats annoying as hell...

[@MLMariss]

So far without any luck without tanking the FPS :/ This is heavy task on system and you will end up with non-playable framerate - basically back to games default settings.

[@purgehunter7481]

Hii Maybe something you can try, what i use is the command: r.VolumetricRenderTarget.Mode 3 [It removes the cloud flicker and stuff for me. but ark is ark, what works for me, doesn't work for 100 others. But give it a try.

[@BUY_YOUTUBE_VIEWS_m062]

Moral of the video: Stop watching a video and start doing something.

[@MLMariss]

The faster we all can get back to the gaming the better! Yes, that is my channel main aim! :D

[@Ghostxy84]

my game looks very fuzzy and distorted when i move my camera

[@MLMariss]

Hmm..fuzzy and blurry? That usually is because resolution issues with low DLSS settings or too low input resolution. But it's hard to know for sure - only option is turning/changing parameter by parameter to see which caused it.

[@robmcateer8437]

The light shafts option seems to make the game crash alot. I turned that off and crashes almost gone.

[@MLMariss]

Veeery dependent from case to case, but yes, this is one of the things people find helpful to fix crashes :D I had something else (went through at least 15+ 'fixes' when finally game runs at least a little bit stable :D

[@hoover2500]

my settings dont show rtx but i have an rtx 4060

[@MLMariss]

A random question - do you run your game and Windows in a non-English language maybe? Some time ago others reported the RTX missing if you are not using English for both :D Alternatively, you could put this in your launch options (right-click the game in Steam -> properties -> general -> you should see a line where you can put launch options at the bottom): -culture=en This will launch your game in English and the RTX tab should now be visible. And in this scenario you don't need to change any other language

[@bradtucker1989]

It sucks because I want to run global Illumination On medium but it makes grass flicker And it's a very irritating

[@MLMariss]

Yes, very much so - without it we cannot see the drops, with it - everything is flickering :@

[@allanspqr14]

I jave a 3060ti and i dont have a dlss menu or settings

[@MLMariss]

Hmm..there are a few things that might fix it for you (do them in order, as they are from easiest to more tricky fixes): 1. nVidia driver update, maybe try even clean install (it will uninstall existing and then install clean latest version) 2. You have to switch to DX12 if you are not using it. Its the only way RTX and DLSS are available. 3. Then if none of these worked, then last but not least known bug is the game AND the windows language must be set to English. Any other language bugs out and doesn't show the settings :D I hope you manage to get them one or another way!

[@mansstew2515]

thank you so much for this video now i can actually play the game this helped me alot

[@MLMariss]

Glad to hear and happy we can play and enjoy the games - that's all I ever want for my fellow gamers ;)

[@mansstew2515]

@@MLMariss ty so much :)

[@puddlefoot]

This worked great for me, helps with underwater graphics as well. Thanks for the video.

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome and happy to help!

[@Sinvyrae]

I followed all the steps and the game is great visually and FPS but when I run/turn camera.. I get tears in the graphics and now I can't click on toggles or scroll on menus. I have to restart the game over and over again to play. :(

[@1_dylz]

I can see the amount of work you put into your videos and for your audience. It helped me quite alot but for some reason my game keeps stuttering like every setting even with a 3060 ti idk what the problem is.

[@MLMariss]

I'm just a humble gamer who tries to help other gamers :) Thank you for your kind words, highly appreciated! I can suggest checking extra lines I found after I launched this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJu3hJmArpdppas here is a link, where you can skip most parts, but the golden found was these command lines in Engine.ini file: [SystemSettings] r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=0 r.Lumen.Reflections.Allow=0 It basically disables Lumen in all it shapes and forms :D There are some more lines to experiment with but this is the root cause of many if not all the problems we have with poor performance/stutters! Let me know if that solves your issues ;)

[@reecebrereton3622]

thanks for the help I'm not the best when it comes to graphics settings and this has made my game look a million times better!

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help and happy hunting ;)

[@TheMalkavianPrince]

I am in the boat of people who had only noticed a few FPS difference between most settings, but I can only guess that it takes a LOT longer than expected/it appears for some things to truly load in properly, so while initially tweaking some things might only seem to give some of us 2-3 fps, giving it a few minutes might make a much bigger difference. After getting some unplayable periods of sub 10fps earlier I took another poke around, and while initially playing around after making all these changes it looked like total utter cursed shit, after a couple of minutes textures popped in nicely, and 5~ minutes after I stopped fine tuning things to my tolerance it just suddenly jumped up from 20~ to 40~fps (I was landing next to a drop in a river, which seemed like the exact opposite of what should have happened).

[@MLMariss]

The game (and it's engine) works in mysterious ways! :D Happy to hear you got it at playable state (at least better) - that's what matters!

[@wildthorn2315]

this was amazing, I was ready to give up on the game for a bit but this saved it for me

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help and happy hunting ;)

[@eXtremeStreamers]

"`" Its call a tilde key

[@MLMariss]

Yes! Wasn't sure, thanks for confirming!

[@DeepThinkLabs]

Guess we gotta save up for that 5090

[@MLMariss]

Yes, 5090 Ti SUPER and even then in busy area you can expect frame drops :D

[@vxenon67]

What causes the gravel of rocks floating above ground? Is it settings or graphics card issue?

[@MLMariss]

AS far as I have read in the internet - that is 3 sliders below foliage interaction (right side in graphics settings) - happens if you have them below 1! So Low for example sets it 0.5 and the third even lower. Medium setting sets them all to 1. Try to fix with those ;)

[@gogrick4376]

Enable Foliage & Fluid Interaction seems to be the fix for me. It seems tied to Medium advanced settings though. I got rid of the floating rocks but my FPS is worse than ever, even with a new graphics card.

[@CapriSaber]

Highly underrated video, helped greatly

[@MLMariss]

I'm happy to hear I could be a help and thank you for your kind words!

[@bouncegenesisukbounce]

this is useless for a 4k monitor native. 3080ti. nah

[@MLMariss]

The higher the resolution the less effect you'll have for any optimization ;) Even if it is all simple and basic graphics there is just too much pixels to draw for a GPU. I can only recommend one step further - I released updated video (you can skip the watching part) but with even more config tuning options, where disabling Lumen seems to give even more FPS boost and stability. There is a link in description and also all the files provided. I'm curious if that moves the needle or still no difference for 4k?!

[@bouncegenesisukbounce]

@@MLMariss well my native is 4k 2k I can run both as natives anything less just bad. Currently running in 2k everything but a few on high.. would see 80fps. But prefer atleast 100 don't know what else to do

[@MLMariss]

@@bouncegenesisukbounce Well..4k is (in my opinion only) way too much for gaming. I mean - I would love to get that quality, but in reality there is few to none games that actually can pull it of without AI server level GPU :D I mean 4k goes together with 4090 and at the moment - nothing else. I'm playing on 3080 on 2k and I know how that is borderline with graphics settings, but you push your system to draw 4k! Without DLSS 3.5 on Performance mode I don't see how any game can be ran reliably :)

[@bouncegenesisukbounce]

@@MLMariss i did what you did in recent vid only get 80s 90s on 2k. what settings are u running for the 100 stable?

[@Yolo_Swagins]

Thank you!

[@MLMariss]

Happy to help!

[@Lil__Crazy]

Legend!

[@MLMariss]

Thank you! Happy to help!

[@Vashiro]

Big thank you!

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome!

[@finish2849]

What gpu are you using here?

[@MLMariss]

This is with pretty beefy 10GB RTX 3080 GPU.

[@TSPxEclipse]

@@MLMariss Can confirm that a normal 2070 with your settings (plus medium global illumination and a few commands) can get upwards of 70 fps.

[@lillerosin2915]

@@MLMariss a 3080 is not "pretty beefy ..." ...🤣😂😂😂🤣

[@MLMariss]

Well, now when we have 40 series GPUs - yes! But when the comment was written, that is 4th(?) best nvidia consumer GPU available out there and I believe pretty high end at the moment as well ;)

[@samboy923]

Thank you so much! This helped tremendously

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome!

[@brandib2968]

Thank you so much.

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome!

[@tinaz78camaro]

Thank u🎉

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome 😊

[@melvinfeenstra7037]

terrible remake, i refunded it asap. with a 4070ti not even above 30 fps all on low and did console commands. than the unreal engine crashes. this is evenw orse trhan the old ark in early acces.

[@melvinfeenstra7037]

@@FATMAC2 laughin about your own jokes.... go work and buy one ;)

[@msylcatac]

​@melvinfeenstra7037 maybe cut the pr0n/torrents. I have a 4070ti and I get 60fps on 5120x1440

[@melvinfeenstra7037]

@@msylcatac sure. Ripoff remake. They need to stop ripping people off. It is even worse than the first early acces. Glad i refund that snail game scam

[@Colt45MD]

3080 here and high settings 4k 40 fps with no drops. Glad you refunded...@@melvinfeenstra7037

[@MLMariss]

Guys, don't be so mean - we are here to help out each other (at least I am :D ) @melvinfeenstra7037 game is not that bad, but the settings are the worst - there are too many settings you cannot actually change in the game! Yesterday went back in and found 2 more pesky things that are always on (no matter low or ultra) and I think that might be a huge difference..for everyone! You are right about not supporting bad/poorly made games - that is true to the core, otherwise too many developers get away with shipping half backed products!

[@starburger2099]

THX 4 your help

[@MLMariss]

You're most welcome!

[@pascalv7635]

nice but my rtx not showing up in the menu

[@MLMariss]

First thing to check is game origin: "The PC Game Pass version does not support DLSS or Frame Gen. Only Steam does." If you are playing Steam version then there must be the same problem where game AND windows have to be set in English, otherwise it's not showing up. Alternatively you could put this in your launch options (right click game in steam -> properties -> general -> you should see a line where you can put launch options at the bottom): -culture=en . This will launch your game in English and the RTX tab should now be visible. I hope this helps!

[@pascalv7635]

done all still no rtx showing up in the menu i have rtx 4080 super and the game on steam all put to english even the pc its a new pc

[@MLMariss]

Damn, I'm running out of options. Only other fixes I can find is to go with older drivers, but I don't like that option. I'm wondering if it might be directX issue? Some games allow to chose to launch it under DirectX 11 or 12, but I don't recall if there was such choice for this game (I have it uninstalled long time ago).

[@adequate673]

Devs need to fix their game

[@MLMariss]

They overdid a 'bit' yes, that' s true :D

[@LuluGamingDK]

Compare to the performance that it had 2 weeks ago. The game is leaps and Bounds better but you can't specs changes overnight. If they push out things before making sure that will help it could just make the situation worse.

[@adequate673]

@@LuluGamingDK skill issue on the devs part just not gunna play this game.

[@ChancioGames]

I can't remember the command off the top of my head but there is one that will remove most of the excess rocks and foliage that you aren't able to interact with, and that seems to help a bit with frames, and just general clarity when running through forests and such

[@MLMariss]

Guys, you are amazing! In a good and a bad way :D Your high-quality demand pushed me back to the research - I legitimately have more time in-game tweaking settings than playing xD Found the command for grass (that can be added in *.ini file so you don't have to re-enter it. Although then the world looks..naked :D And the shadow line, yea - found two of them that drastically impact FPS, but also quite a lot visual fidelity :/ In the Engine.ini file you can add (removing brackets): [SystemSettings] grass.Enable=0 [disables grass AND all ground clutter] r.ContactShadows=0 (removes active shadows, meaning - world will have shadows but not you nor dinos) r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=0 (this is how many times light rays are allowed to be traced (kind of) where 0 is off, 1 is bad, 2-3 is reasonable shadows, but I hate how they jiggle so I went with 0)

[@stakrawls8432]

Why does it take 17min to explain 2 tabs of settings

[@MLMariss]

Because it's not about the settings in the game. They are limited and only *.ini file edit truly opens up all the possibilities. So there is much explanation to give, sorry for that - my videos almost every time have a timestamps so you can skip the explanation parts and get right to the point if you know where and what to do!

[@49lives]

thank you

[@MLMariss]

You're welcome!

[@pacozalky721]

I'm still waiting for some video where somebody shows the exact settings difference side by side with the impact on fps and not just talk about it. Foliage & Fluid Intersection is very performance heavy on my PC. Resolution Scale is good for making compromise between qaulity and performance if you don't use DLSS. Volumtric Clouds and Fog are kinda cheap and I don't understant why everyone turns them off by command. It makes the game look terrible.

[@pacozalky721]

@@FATMAC2I play on GTX 1080 and clouds On/Off give me a 1-2 frame difference

[@MLMariss]

Clouds are..let's say personal preference (aside +20FPS you can easily get), but I hear you! Yesterday went back hacking the damn *.ini files to find better looking graphics and I can tell you right away - 2nd round might be for you as I found a way how Clouds can stay :D (I still managed around 90 FPS on my system). But to answer the side by side comparison - there you need 2 GPU system so one can deal with recording part and other can run the game with real FPS. I'm an average gamer/person (daamn that sounds bad :D) with no such tools or access to such fancy gear :/ For myself I have a TON images taken for reference and to capture average FPS so then I can compare FPS hit and if there noticeable difference in graphics fidelity.

[@michaelpatrick6984]

I don't get any benefit at all by turning off fog and clouds. My framerate stays exactly the same... I'm really confused. I also cannot get the framerate cap to work.

[@pacozalky721]

@@MLMariss You don't need a system with two GPUs, just show screenshots of what the different On/Off settings look like and how many FPS you get.

[@MLMariss]

@michaelpatrick6984 do you have by any chance the AMD graphics card? I have a theory I need to check :D @pacozalky721 Yeah, but there is a problem - a lot of issues cannot be seen in the still image - for example, this game especially suffers from jittery shadows AND clouds! I got the images and will figure something out but yea - that seems to be the only option for me :D

[@ranrock9494]

its called asterias

[@MLMariss]

I had to google it to see what it is! :D Thank you!

[@retajansevanvuuren5173]

​@@MLMarissthe button to press for command window is called a Tilda key.