Wow, I am blown away by how much of a difference 1 setting can make in the game.
That setting my friends is:
q_renderer=3 (and its accompanying setting which usually gets set by default: r_colorgrading=1)
With the aforementioned setting, you can have Crysis Very High looks at nearly High performance.
That is to say, with q_renderer=3 compared to the default q_renderer=2 (default for High) , I am getting VERY HIGH looks with an average ~2 FPS hit in performance. Yes, you read that correctly, only about a 2 FPS hit in performance.
This setting can provide a HUGE facelift for an otherwise already gorgeous game (at HIGH settings), and it comes with only a nominal performance hit.
This is how I achieve it. (Edit: *NOTE* Make sure you are playing it in DX9 mode. Do NOT try this under DX10, it sort of defeats the purpose In fact, do not try DX10 mode at all!
I have also disabled AA from my Control Panel, forced AF to 16x, and disabled VSync)
1) Everything in my Crysis graphics menu is set to High, with the exception of Shadows (which I will elaborate on in a moment) and Post-Processing, they are both set to Medium.
I have also disabled motion blur simply because I don't really care much for the effect.
This is up to you the user though, of course.
Everything else once more is set to high.
2) If you haven't already done so, create a system.cfg file in your Crysis root directory.
Here is what mine looks like.
(yes, I am aware that my SSAO is set to off, but I just like to keep it in my cfg file in the event that I want to enable it from time to time during the game).
3. Now going back to the shadows.
The reason I keep my shadows at Medium is well,
a) for the performance hit at High and Very High,
b) because you can make the shadows look even better than their default medium and more like High/Very High at times (most people ive polled seem to think so) by actually using a simple command,
q_shadershadow=1
(*Edit* You will need at least patch 1.1 for this command to work from within your system.cfg file)
Yes, it may seem counter-intuitive that by lowering the shadow shader (from my default of 2, your mileage may vary) that it will look better, but it truly makes the shadows and lighting look better than the default medium, and on par with HIGH/Very High depending on the scenario.
Oh, and the best part of that setting is, that it will give you a 1-2 FPS performance BOOST.
Enjoy
Edit:
Some examples can be found here of how the r_colorgrading=1 setting (tied to the q_renderer=3 var) can make for a noticably improved change in appearance.
http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=266462
Once again, im only averaging a 2 FPS hit in performance.
VERY HIGH (effectively) looks at HIGH performance levels, lovin it
I'll also update this post with some pics of my own for comparison sakes.
But I urge you all to give this a shot if you haven't already done so.
That setting my friends is:
q_renderer=3 (and its accompanying setting which usually gets set by default: r_colorgrading=1)
With the aforementioned setting, you can have Crysis Very High looks at nearly High performance.
That is to say, with q_renderer=3 compared to the default q_renderer=2 (default for High) , I am getting VERY HIGH looks with an average ~2 FPS hit in performance. Yes, you read that correctly, only about a 2 FPS hit in performance.
This setting can provide a HUGE facelift for an otherwise already gorgeous game (at HIGH settings), and it comes with only a nominal performance hit.
This is how I achieve it. (Edit: *NOTE* Make sure you are playing it in DX9 mode. Do NOT try this under DX10, it sort of defeats the purpose In fact, do not try DX10 mode at all!
I have also disabled AA from my Control Panel, forced AF to 16x, and disabled VSync)
1) Everything in my Crysis graphics menu is set to High, with the exception of Shadows (which I will elaborate on in a moment) and Post-Processing, they are both set to Medium.
I have also disabled motion blur simply because I don't really care much for the effect.
This is up to you the user though, of course.
Everything else once more is set to high.
2) If you haven't already done so, create a system.cfg file in your Crysis root directory.
Here is what mine looks like.
Code:
con_restricted=0
r_useedgeaa=2
r_sunshafts=1
e_detail_materials_view_dist_xy=4096
e_water_ocean_fft = 1
e_water_tesselation_amount = 10
sys_spec_Water = 3
q_ShaderWater = 3
r_WaterReflectionsQuality = 3
r_WaterUpdateDistance = 0.2
r_SSAO=0
r_SSAO_quality = 2
r_SSAO_radius = 2
q_renderer=3
r_colorgrading=1
q_shadershadow=1
r_TexturesStreaming=0
(yes, I am aware that my SSAO is set to off, but I just like to keep it in my cfg file in the event that I want to enable it from time to time during the game).
3. Now going back to the shadows.
The reason I keep my shadows at Medium is well,
a) for the performance hit at High and Very High,
b) because you can make the shadows look even better than their default medium and more like High/Very High at times (most people ive polled seem to think so) by actually using a simple command,
q_shadershadow=1
(*Edit* You will need at least patch 1.1 for this command to work from within your system.cfg file)
Yes, it may seem counter-intuitive that by lowering the shadow shader (from my default of 2, your mileage may vary) that it will look better, but it truly makes the shadows and lighting look better than the default medium, and on par with HIGH/Very High depending on the scenario.
Oh, and the best part of that setting is, that it will give you a 1-2 FPS performance BOOST.
Enjoy
Edit:
Some examples can be found here of how the r_colorgrading=1 setting (tied to the q_renderer=3 var) can make for a noticably improved change in appearance.
http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=266462
Once again, im only averaging a 2 FPS hit in performance.
VERY HIGH (effectively) looks at HIGH performance levels, lovin it
I'll also update this post with some pics of my own for comparison sakes.
But I urge you all to give this a shot if you haven't already done so.