An Unreal Engine 4 tweaking guide to achieve next generation graphics and improved performance in Deep Rock Galactic; global illumination, screen space reflections, and more all included and tested.

Introduction

This guide will go over editing the INI file to achieve next generation graphical effects (such as screen space reflections, global illumination, and more), as well as much improved performance with very little to no change graphically. There will also be tested pre-configured INI files available for download (see below).

Comparison Screenshots

Left = On

Right = Off

Comparison 1 – https://imgsli.com/ODk5NTY – [imgsli.com]

Comparison 2 – https://imgsli.com/ODk5NjA – [imgsli.com]

Comparison 3 – https://imgsli.com/ODk5NjI – [imgsli.com]

(Side note: ignore some of the distortion artifacts, it’s a side effect of getting the images aligned)

Pre-Configured INI File Download

So, have I convinced you through the screenshots? The download link is just below, as well as a quick Q&A for common questions.

Pre-download Q&A:

Q: Can I use this mod online?

A: Yes! It’s totally safe online, and in non-modded lobbies.

Q: What’s the performance impact of this mod?

A: It’s quite well optimized, but may have 5 – 15 percent performance impact with the non-performance version. However, the performance version can even gain FPS over the base game!

Q: Is it easy to uninstall?

A: Yes! To uninstall, just delete the INI file. A fresh INI will be generated on startup.

Download:

https://www.nexusmods.com/deeprockgalactic/mods/27 – [nexusmods.com]

Still not convinced, or want to tweak it yourself? I explain each of the tweaks and their effects below.

Tweak Explanations

Screen Space Global Illumination

r.SSGI.Enable=1 - Enables the global illumination effect.
r.SSGI.HalfRes=1 - Lowers the rendering resolution of the global illumination by half the screen resolution. Saves a lot of performance at the cost of very slight graphical quality.
r.SSGI.LeakFreeReprojection=0 - Combats color leakage at the cost of performance, negligible impact.
r.SSGI.Quality=3 - How many rays are used in the calculation of the global illumination.

Screen Space Reflections

r.SSR.Quality=3 - Whether to use screen space reflections and at what quality setting. 1-4, low, medium, high, very high. High enables glossy reflections, very high has non-noticeable graphical improvement for a heavy performance impact.
r.SSR.HalfResSceneColor=1 - What resolution to use for the SSR rendering. Heavily improves performance at the cost of slight visual quality impact.
r.SSR.MaxRoughness=1 - The cutoff point for SSR. Higher means more objects are affected by SSR, but lower performance. In this case, setting it to 1 means there should be no cutoff, and every object should be slightly affected by SSR.
r.SSR.Temporal=1 - Whether or not to use TAA for the SSR. Can cause a bit of ghosting, but the alternative is a lot of aliasing.

TAA Tweaks

r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=2 - What type of AA to use. 0 = none, 1 = FXAA, 2 = TAA
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.03 - Blending between the current frame and previous frame, lower = more ghosting but less aliasing, and vice versa.
r.TemporalAASamples=8 - Sample count of the TAA, higher = more jittering but less aliasing.
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6 - Quality of the AA.
r.TemporalAACatmullRom=1 - Uses a higher quality filter instead of blurrier gaussian filter.
r.TemporalAAPauseCorrect=1 - Holds onto render targets longer preventing reuse. Negligible.
r.TemporalAAFilterSize=1 - The size of the TAA filter. Higher = more blurriness, less aliasing. Setting it too low may cause artifacting.
r.TemporalAA.R11G11B10History=1 - Uses more lighting data to enable higher quality TAA.

Performance Tweaks

r.ScreenPercentage=80 - Render resolution scale. In this case, it will render at 80% resolution.
r.TemporalAA.Upsampling=1 - Enables a much higher quality TAA upsampling technique, enabling near-native image quality at much lower render resolutions.
r.TemporalAA.Algorithm=1 Algorithm to use for TAAU, 0 = Gen 4 TAAU, 1 = Gen 5 TAAU (an experimental algorithm that can have upscaling quality improvements).
r.TemporalAAUpsampleFiltered=1 - Use filtering to fetch color history during TAAU. Disabling this makes TAAU faster, but lower quality.

Note that this will override the in-game resolution slider.

Sharpening Tweaks

r.ToneMapper.Sharpen=0.9 - Lower quality sharpening filter. Setting too high can cause artifacts.
r.TemporalAASharpness=1.4 - Sharpens the image before TAA.
r.TemporalAADynamicSharpen=1.8 - Dynamic modern sharpening.

Note that while this is compatible with the in-game sharpening, it may cause over sharpening. Experiment with different settings and see what you like.

Updates, support, and other information

I will provide limited support for any incompatibilities or issues, but to prevent cluttering up the comment section, please post support requests over in Nexus Mods.

Feel free to comment here and ask questions that aren’t necessarily about support; simple questions and the like.

As for updates, assuming Deep Rock Galactic keeps getting updated with the latest of UE4 (and potentially 5) updates, i’ll do my best to update with any new features that might be available.

To-Do:

• Add RTX support such as raytracing lighting and reflections (currently don’t have an RTX GPU, so this may take awhile)
• Further tweak the TAA to get better image quality.

 

This is all about Deep Rock Galactic – Next Generation Graphics Tweak Guide; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!