Increase Crysis Performance - Discussion Thread

[Aus_Karlos]

Some people may struggle with crysis but i have spend the better part of the day working on some small tweaks to optimize the game. Those who run the game in high and get 30fps or above should create a "system.cfg" file in the crysis dir "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis". Add these lines to the cfg file. This should increase the games look while keeping fps high.

con_restricted=0
e_particles_thread=1
es_OnDemandPhysics=1
e_hw_occlusion_culling_objects=1
gpu_particle_physics=1
r_MotionBlur=3
r_GeomInstancing=1
e_decals_life_time_scale=2
e_foliage_wind_activation_dist=20
e_cull_veg_activation=30
p_splash_dist0=7
p_splash_dist1=30
p_splash_force0=10
p_splash_force1=100
p_splash_vel0=4.5
p_splash_vel1=10
g_joint_breaking=1
g_breakage_particles_limit=250
p_max_substeps_large_group=3
p_num_bodies_large_group=60

Then go to the Ingame options and select Very High for Water, post processing, Volumetric light, Shadows, Game effects.
*Must then restart the game to ensure the tweaks are properly applied*

*I will still work on them and find more*

[pharoah]

looks like ya got a good tweaking guide going here.

[koala]

Great work, Aus_Karlos. I can get about 30fps on medium settings with an ATI x1950Pro using the Omega driver, Athlon64 X2 4200+ and 2gb RAM. Using your config file, the fps stays about the same but the graphics look much better, especially the motion blur when looking around quickly, which used to be slightly pixellated and jerky but is now smooth and very lifelike. Do you have any more tweaks?

[Aus_Karlos]

For a few weeks a fellow Crysis player named Belloni has come up with an amazing tweak. With his permission i have modified it a bit (lighting a bit off) and added some of my tweaks, he has also agreed that the changes ive made has improved crysis and is using them in his config. So here it is...

con_restricted=0

r_VSync=0
d3d9_TripleBuffering=0
r_ssao_quality=1
r_ssao_amount=0.4
r_SSAO_darkening=1.5
r_TerrainAO_FadeDist=1
r_HDRlevel=1
r_TexturesStreaming=1
r_ColorGradingDOF=0
r_ShadowJittering=1
r_ShadowBlur=0
e_gsm_lods_num=5
e_shadows_from_terrain_in_all_lods=0
r_UseEdgeAA=1
e_shadows_max_texture_size=768
e_view_dist_ratio=80
e_particles_lod=0.7
e_vegetation_min_size=1.5
e_view_dist_ratio_vegetation=48
r_sunshafts=1
e_water_ocean_fft=1
e_detail_materials_view_dist_xy=4096
e_detail_materials_view_dist_z=256
r_UsePOM=1
e_lod_ratio=8
e_terrain_lod_ratio=0.6
e_vegetation_sprites_distance_ratio=1.7
r_GeomInstancing=1
e_vegetation_static_instancing=0
e_particles_thread=1
e_cull_veg_activation=70
e_max_entity_lights=20
es_MaxPhysDist=300
es_MaxPhysDistInvisible=35
r_BeamsMaxSlices=250
r_DetailDistance=12
r_TexturesStreaming=1
e_hw_occlusion_culling_objects=1
gpu_particle_physics=1
es_OnDemandPhysics=1
r_MotionBlur=3

r_EyeAdaptationBase=0.15

You may need to adjust r_ssao_amount and r_SSAO_darkening as it also depends on your monitor brightness.

[koala]

Thanks again. Are these tweaks aimed at DX10/Vista users? I'm using DX9/XP.

d3d9_TripleBuffering=0

Is there any performance loss if I enable triple buffering?

[Aus_Karlos]

Triple Buffer is only for DX9, enabling it may or may not have any performance increase and can only work if Vsync is enabled.

Edit: I added the Triple Buffer and Vsync (disabled) to improve performance on my system. Play around with them.

[ebackhus]

It should also be noted that enabling high quality volumetrics will punish most older cards. I had to turn it off to get movement of the screen on my system.

[Aus_Karlos]

Basically this tweak improves the quality of the recommended settings that your computer can run at. It fakes a higher setting with minimal fps loss.
Example if you can run the game in Medium the tweak will improve the image to the point of it looking like high settings.

Also the option r_usePOM requires lots of GPU power. Disabling it will give back aprox 10fps on most systems. All it does is make terrain look more bumpy. Not much image quality loss if disabled.

[ebackhus]

Hm, I'll give it a shot.

[Aus_Karlos]

Add these to the config file. This is to get more constant fps with the config.
e_phys_ocean_cell=0.5
es_DebrisLifetimeScale=0.2
d3d9_ClipPlanes=1

[redsunx]

sys_physics_cpu=0

[Aus_Karlos]

sys_physics_cpu=0 will hinder performance on peoples systems with GPU's nvidia low-end 7 series and below as it switches physics calculations from the CPU to the GPU. (This option is mainly for people that use Single core CPU's)
However if anyone is have a "slow motion" affect or bad fps during heavy physics movement, ie blowing up houses. Then see if this command helps you if you add it to the config file.

[redsunx]

Still helps on a Dual core.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG5qDeWHNmk

That is insane.

[Aus_Karlos]

Ah yes the old barrel trick. When they recored that it was running at 2-5fps. lol. Then they used editing software to "stretch the frames" to make it look smooth then sped the frames back up to real time. But its fun the watch especially when the tornado affect rips through the barrel house.

[c_walk]

Im having a bit of trouble using the system.cfg. I created a blank notepad .txt file and loaded it into the main crysis directory. Its not working. I have con_restricted=0 first and foremost, and a few other commands that seem not to be loading.

It works once i go into the console and manually put it all, but i cant seem to get it working when the game loads. any one know where im going wrong? is it my file type?

oh and im trying to use i_unlimitedammo 1 and it wont let me change it from 0. Do I have to beat sp again? (reformatted a few days ago and didnt bother backing up the saved game files cuz i wanted to beat it again)

[koala]

Check the file extension of the system file to see if you've saved it as cfg or txt.

[Aus_Karlos]

If there are people out there with a super amazing PC that runs Crysis like there's no tomorrow but are stuck in DX9 here is a tweak to force the game to run at Very High in DX9.
This may not be all the cmds to run in very high but i think ive found most of them.
You have the option to replace your current system file or add these to to your original system file.
*Note Some setting will duplicated if you just copy and paste they will have different values so delete the values you don't want*

[ebackhus]

Originally Posted by c_walk

Im having a bit of trouble using the system.cfg. I created a blank notepad .txt file and loaded it into the main crysis directory. Its not working. I have con_restricted=0 first and foremost, and a few other commands that seem not to be loading.

It works once i go into the console and manually put it all, but i cant seem to get it working when the game loads. any one know where im going wrong? is it my file type?

oh and im trying to use i_unlimitedammo 1 and it wont let me change it from 0. Do I have to beat sp again? (reformatted a few days ago and didnt bother backing up the saved game files cuz i wanted to beat it again)

Open the system.txt file you created and click File->Save As...

Type "system.cfg" in the file name box and click save. It'll tell you that there's a file with that name already present and that you'll be overwriting it. Let it overwrite and you'll be good.

[HawMan]

Im using your cfg Aus_Karlos but i cant select 'Very high' Any ideas?

Same with The other configs.

[Aus_Karlos]

You wont be able to select them in the menu, its replaced with "custom" so your now running the game in Very High "Custom". This a much safer way to use Very High on DX9 as it doesn't mess with the games system files to enable Very High. To test the settings, remove the cfg file and play the game using High, Exit and add the cfg back into the game directory and play again you should notice a difference in quality.
The one thing ive noticed about Very High in DX9 is that everything seems very sharp. Not jagged but sharp and crisp. Where as DX10 is smooth and uses a lot of DOF.