Archeage Game Performance Tweaking

Archeage uses cryengine 3 one of the more amazing graphics engines for a game and this topic will be dedicated to information based on how to tweak archeage and make the graphics play better and explain how to get the most out of the graphics. While it is possible to modify graphics using ingame system control panels editing graphics via the configuration files always allow you to change more then what is normally listed and allow you to add extra tweaks into the system. Always keep in mind you should back up settings before making modifications of them this way if something breaks you can replace the settings file and revert it when something doesn't work properly.

Full list of client commands cryengine 3:
http://docs.cryengine.com/display/CRYAUTOGEN/Home

To modify settings for Archeage you will need to find the following location:
C:\Users\(Your User Name)\Documents\ArcheAge\system.cfg

Keep in mind some of the settings are used for tweaking max graphics and might not apply to the video cards you are using so you might need to play with some of these settings to set them for your specific system. But these will give you an idea about what each of the settings will do for you and what exactly it will effect on the system.


sys_spec_full = 4
r_driver = "DX9"  --DX10 or DX11 settings work as well depending on graphics card
r_multithreaded = 0 --0=disabled 1=enabling rendering in separate thread 2(default)=automatic
option_sound = 4
r_windowx = -1
r_windowy = -1
r_width = 3840  --width of screen size
r_height = 2160 -- height of screen size
r_fullscreen = 1  --fullscreen or not
r_vsync = 0 --disable for performace  enable for increase in graphics
login_first_movie = 1 --to disable login movie
ucc_ver = 2
auto_disconnect_timer = 30



-- Tests
 r_Scissor = 1
 r_SilhouettePOM = 1 --Enables or disables the Pixel Accurate Displacement Mapping (VERY GPU intensive).

--FoV
cl_fov = 60  --Field of view calculator to make it easy  http://www.wsgf.org/fovcalc.php

 -- Render Sharpening
 r_Sharpening = 0.25

 -- Color Grading
 r_ColorGrading = 1 --Enables or disables the artist controlled color grading post-processing effect

 -- Global Illumination
 e_GI = 1

 -- Lighting
 r_FullDeferredShading = 2 -- Set me to 1 if you have a weaker system
 r_DeferredShadingSSS = 1 --Toggles deferred subsurface scattering (requires full deferred shading)

 -- Screen Space Reflections
 r_SSReflections = 4 --Glossy screen space reflections
 -- Fog
 r_FogShadows = 1 --Enables deferred volumetric fog shadows 0: off  1: standard resolution 2: reduced resolution

 r_fogShadowsWater = 1 --Enables volumetric fog shadows for watervolumes

 -- Shadows
 e_ShadowsMaxTexRes = 4096 --Set maximum resolution of shadow map 256(faster), 512(medium), 1024(better quality)
 e_ShadowsResScale = 40 --Shadows slope bias for shadowgen
 e_ShadowsPoolSize = 4096 --Set size of shadow pool (e_ShadowsPoolSize*e_ShadowsPoolSize)
 r_ShadowsPCFiltering = 1 --1=use PCF for shadows
 e_ShadowsOnWater = 1 --Enable/disable shadows on water
 e_ShadowsSlopeBiasHQ = 1 --Shadows slope bias for shadowgen (for high quality mode)
 e_ShadowsConstBiasHQ = 1 --Shadows slope bias for shadowgen (high quality mode)
 e_ShadowsCastViewDistRatio = 800 --View distance ratio for shadow maps casting from objects
 e_ShadowsCastViewDistRatioLights = 800 --View dist ratio for shadow maps casting for light sources
e_ShadowsClouds = 1 --Cloud shadows
e_ShadowsTessellateCascades = 2 --Maximum cascade number to render tessellated shadows (0 = no tessellation for sun shadows)
 r_ShadowGenGS = 1 -- DX11 only geometry shader for shadow map generation
 e_VolObjShadowStrength = 1 --Self shadow intensity of volume objects
r_TerrainAO_FadeDist=1 --Controls sky light fading in tree canopy in Z direction


--Water
 r_WaterVolumeCaustics = 1 --Toggles advanced water caustics for watervolumes.
 r_WaterCausticsDeferred = 2 --Toggles under water caustics deferred pass. Default is 0 (disabled). 1 - enables. 2 - enables with stencil pre-pass
e_WaterOcean = 2 --Activates drawing of ocean. 1: use usual rendering path 2: use fast rendering path with merged fog
e_WaterOceanBottom = 1 --Activates drawing bottom of ocean
e_WaterOceanFFT = 1 --Activates fft based ocean
e_WaterTessellationAmount = 10 --Set tessellation amount
e_WaterTessellationAmountX = 85 --Set tessellation on x axis - 0 means not used
e_WaterTessellationAmountY = 85 --Set tessellation on y axis - 0 means not used
r_WaterReflectionsQuality = 3 --Activates water reflections quality setting. Default is 0 (terrain only), 1 (terrain + particles), 2 (terrain + particles + brushes), 3 (everything)
r_WaterTessellationHW = 1 --Enables hw water tessellation.
sys_spec_Quality=4 --Console variable group to apply settings to multiple variables
--sys_spec_quality [1/2/3/4/default] [current]:
-- ... q_Renderer = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderFX = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderGeneral = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderGlass = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderIce = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderMetal = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderShadow = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderSky = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderTerrain = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
-- ... q_ShaderVegetation = 1/1/2/3/2 [3]
r_ssreflections = 3 --Glossy screen space reflections

 -- Sky
e_SkyBox = 1 --Activates drawing of skybox and moving cloud layers
e_SkyQuality = 2 --Quality of dynamic sky: 1 (very high), 2 (high).
e_SkyType = 1 --Type of sky used: 0 (static), 1 (dynamic).
e_SkyUpdateRate = 1 --Percentage of a full dynamic sky update calculated per frame (0..100].



 -- SSAO / SSDO
r_ssdo = 1 --Screen Space Directional Occlusion
r_SSAO = 0 --Screen space ambient occlusion:
--0 - disabled
--1 - SSAO technique with normals
--2 - SSAO technique with normals and temporal accumulation
--3 - Volumetric Obscurance technique with jittering
--4 - Volumetric Obscurance technique with jittering and temporal accumulation (Consoles only)
--5 - VO variation with multiple radii
r_ssao_quality = 3 --SSAO shader quality[0 - Low spec, 1 - Medium spec, 2 - High spec, 3-3 Highest spec]
r_ssao_amount=.7  --Controls how much SSAO affects ambient


 -- Draw Distance ( Disabled for now, draw distances for players and objects seem to be hardlocked )
 e_MaxViewDistance = 2500 --Far clipping plane distance
 --e_ViewDistRatio = 2000
 --e_ViewDistRatioDetail = 2000
 --e_ViewDistRatioCustom = 2000
 --e_ViewDistRatioPortals = 2000
 --e_ViewDistRatioVegetation = 2000
 --e_ViewDistRatioVegetation = 200
 --e_ViewDistRatioDetail = 800
 --e_ViewDistMin = 2000
 --e_ViewDistCompMaxSize = 2000

 -- Merged Meshes (aka Flora)
 e_MergedMeshesInstanceDist = 32.0 -- Should be safe to set this value up to 96.0
 e_MergedMeshesViewDistRatio = 100 --merged meshes view dist ratio
 e_ObjectLayersActivationPhysics = 1 --Allow game to create/free physics of objects: 0: Disable; 1: All; 2: Water only.

 -- HDR
 r_HDRBrightLevel = 1.0 --HDR rendering level (bloom multiplier, tweak together with threshold) Default is 1.25
 r_HDRBloomRatio = 0.15 --HDR scene bloom ratio

--GPU
r_MultiGPU = 2 --0=disabled, 1=extra overhead to allow SLI(NVidia) or Crossfire(ATI),
2(default)=automatic detection (currently SLI only, means off for ATI)
should be activated before rendering

 -- Level of Detail
 e_LodMax = 3
 e_LodMin = 0

 -- Terrain
 r_TerrainAO = 7
 e_TerrainTextureLodRatio = 800
 e_TerrainLodRatio = 800

 -- Particles
 e_ParticlesSortQuality = 2 -- HQ Sorting
 r_ParticlesSoftIsec = 2 --Enables particles soft intersections.
 r_ParticlesRefraction = 1 --Enables refractive particles.
r_ParticlesTessellationTriSize = 1 --Sets particles tessellation triangle screen space size in pixels (DX11 only)
 r_ParticlesTessellation = 1 --Enables particle tessellation for higher quality lighting. (DX11 only)
 e_ParticlesForceSoftParticles = 1
 e_ParticlesObjectCollisions = 2 --Enable particle/object collisions for SimpleCollision: 1 = against static objects only, 2 = dynamic also
 e_ParticlesMotionBlur = 2 --Motion blur for particles 0 = Off  1 = On  2 = Force
 e_ParticlesShadows = 2 -- Forced
 e_ParticlesSortQuality = 2 --Minimum sort quality for new particle insertion: 0 = basic, 1 = better, 2 = best
 e_ParticlesLights = 1 --Allows to have light source attached to every particle 0 = Off 1 = Deferred lights
 e_ParticlesGI = 2 --Apply global illumination to appropriate particle effects 0 = Off  1 = On 2 = Force
 e_ParticlesDiffCM = 1
 e_ParticlesAnimBlend = 2 --Blend between animated texture frames 0 = Off 1 = On 2 = Force

 -- DOF
 r_DepthOfField = 2 --Enables depth of field.Default is 0 (disabled). 1 enables, 2 hdr time of day dof enabled
 r_DepthOfFieldBokeh = 3 --Sets depth of field bokeh type (only for dof mode 3).Default is 0 (isotropic/spherical).
r_DepthOfFieldBokehQuality = 1 --Sets depth of field bokeh quality (samples multiplier). Default is 0: ingame quality, 1: high quality mode
--r_DepthOfFieldDilation Sets dilation width to reduce ghosting artifacts on near objects (can introduce other artifacts)
r_DetailDistance = 20 --Distance used for per-pixel detail layers blending. Usage: r_DetailDistance (1-20) Default is 6.
r_DetailTextures = 1 -- Toggles detail texture overlays. Default is 1 (detail textures on).
 -- Refraction
 r_Refraction = 1 --Enables refraction. Default is 1 (on). Set to 0 to disable.

 -- Screen Space Indirect illumination (Does this work on AA's build?)
 r_SSII = 1

 -- Sun Shafts
 r_sunshafts = 1 --Enables sun shafts. Default is 1 (on). Set to 0 to disable.

--sampling
r_Supersampling = 3 --Use supersampled antialiasing(1 - 1x1 no SSAA, 2 - 2x2, 3 - 3x3 ...)
 -- Light Beams
 r_Beams = 1 -- (3 default)

 -- Engine Tesselation
 e_Tessellation = 1

 -- Clouds
 e_Clouds = 1 --Enable clouds rendering
 e_ShadowsClouds = 1 --Cloud shadows


 -- Wind
 e_Wind = 1
 e_WindAreas = 1
 e_WindBendingDistRatio = 800

 -- Weather
 r_Rain = 2

 -- Vegetation
 e_Vegetation = 1
 e_VegetationAlignToTerrainAmount = 1
 e_VegetationSphericalSkinning = 1
 e_ProcVegetation = 1
 --e_ProcVegetationMaxObjectsInChunk = 200
 --e_ProcVegetationMaxViewDistance = 1200

 -- Character Animation
 ca_thread = 1
 ca_cloth_air_resistance = 1
 ca_ApplyJointVelocitiesMode = 1
 ca_eyes_procedural = 1
 ca_UseLookIK = 1
 ca_useADIKTargets = 1
 ca_UseAimIK = 1
 ca_LockFeetWithIK = 1

 -- Sound
 s_HDR = 1
 s_HRTF_DSP = 0
 s_ReverbDynamic = 1