Every Graphics Setting Explained in 16 Minutes

Summary

Resolution

Render Scale

The resolution the game renders before scaling up or down. (OG source data)

Upscaling:

Rendering at a lower resolution then upscaling to the desired resolution

DLSS (Nvidia): Deep Learning Super Sampling

FSR: FidelityFX Super Resolution

• Hardware Agnostic

XeSS

• Pronounced Excess
• Uses intel's XMX matrix
• Works on all hardware but best on intel's Arc GPUs
• Recently expanded to include frame generation
• Frame generation is best for slow cinematic due to introduced input delay

Sync

• Locks GPU frame output to monitor refresh rate

• Can cause input lag

• V-Sync (old)

• G-Sync (Nvidia): Adjusts monitor refresh to match GPU to reduce input lag

• FreeSync (AMD): Adjusts monitor refresh to match GPU to reduce input lag

Textures

• The wrapping paper of objects
• Heavily consume VRAM

Anisotropic filtering

• How textures are rendered at an angle. Helps with rendering objects that are slanted or far away.
• Has low impact on modern GPUs.

Anti Aliasing

FXAA: Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (fast & light)

• Smoothes edges
• Low performance cost
• Looks soft

MSAA: Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (precise but heavy)

• Focuses only on the edges of objects (especially on high contrast objects)
• Heavy cost on gpu

TAA: Temporal Anti-Aliasing (smart and smooth)

• Uses information from previous frames to smooth edges over time
• Eliminates Flickering and Shimmering
• Introduces Ghosting and Slight Blur

DLAA: Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (high-end prefection)

• Uses AI techniques similar to DLSS but at Native Resolution
• Uses tensor cores to clean up edges
• Demanding on the GPU but on RTX cards it works great

Shadows

• Very demanding on the GPU
• Makes the game look better regardless of resolution

Contact Shadows

• Where objects meet is where these shadows are rendered

Ambient Occlusion

• Adds subtle shadows in places where light naturally struggles to reach
• Eg: corners, gaps between rocks and under the table
• Makes objects feel grounded

SSAO: Screen Space Ambient Occlusion

• Estimates where shadows should appear based on on-screen information
• Lightweight & Compatible with most hardware
• Grainy and slightly Inaccurate

HBAO Plus: (Nvidia)

• 3x faster
• 2x Detail Level
• Better than SSAO without the Ray Tracing Hardware Demand

RTAO: Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion

• Simulates how light behaves
• Requires Ray Tracing Hardware (RTX or RDNA 2+)
• Extremely Realistic
• Heavy (10%-15% Performance hit)

Ray Tracing

Simulates how light actually behaves

• Tier 1 (Reflections) , Tier 2 (Shadows)

Path Tracing

Simulates how light bounces across the scene

• 30%-50% heavier than standard Ray Tracing

HDR: High Dynamic Range

• Expands the difference between brightest light and darkest shadow
• Requires both a monitor that can output it with at least 600 nits AND software that can output it to the monitor (source + software)

Motion Blur

• ads blur to moving objects
• Per-object is good
• Camera is bad

Depth of Field

• Blurs objects at a distance from the camera
• Adds compute to blur stuff

Post Processing

• Like filters applied to the image after it's rendered
• for cinematic and stylistic flair

Bloom

• Makes light glow and bleed into surrounding areas
• Good for water and wet surfaces
• Makes light sources blinding

Chromatic Aberration

• Simulates Lens Imperfection
• Adds red and blue fringes on edges
• Adds blur

Film Grain

• Ads visual noise mimicking analogue film style
• Adds Grit and Atmosphere

Lens flares

Color Grading

Vignette

• Subtle darkening of edges of the monitor

LOD: Level of Detail

• Objects further from the camera are drawn with less polygons to save on compute

Render Detail

• The distance at which objects are rendered or reduced in LOD

Takeaways:

• Higher Textures if you have the VRAM for it
• Increase the Render Scale first
• Use upscaling if it's too heavy
• Use FreeSync or Gsync if you can
• Maximize Anisotropic Rendering
• If you need Anti-Aliasing (prioritize in this order):
  • DLAA (high-end)
  • MSAA (precise but heavy)
  • FXAA (lightweight)
• Maximize Contact Shadows not all shadows
• Ambient Occlusion (prioritize in this order):
  • HBAO +
  • RTAO (demanding)
  • SSAO (lightweight)
• HDR: iff all support it (monitor, gpu, game)
• Motion Blur: Object based is good (immersion), camera based is bad (nauseating)
• DOF: Turn that off
• Post Processing: Turn it off
• LOD: choose polygons for quality or less for performance
• Render Detail: Maximize it to view more of the map