Far Cry 3 PC performance thread

Sethos said:
Hey,

1) No, the files need to be placed alongside the .exe as they are injected into it, so no separate folders. So all the files need to be dropped into the "Bin" folder. Remember to disable various third party programs that also inject into the games, Afterburner, some recording apps, D3D etc. they can crash the game.
Click to expand...

Ok. Easy.

2) Yes, you need to disable FXAA for the best result, see http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44913691&postcount=655 - FXAALevel="0" is the important bit.
Click to expand...

So in general (for any game X), disable in game AA either through the options or editing the files, I think that makes sense. Okay.


3) Nothing will work, you need compatibility / AA flags for the various options to have an effect and there's no flags available at present.
Click to expand...

Not understanding this one as much. I'm thinking this would be the best probable settings to leave in the NV Control panel.

ibvHGpqEIFjwLW.png


Also, you need to be running DX9 for it to work.
Click to expand...

For this game or any game? I know my card supports 11.1 (supposedly). Is running the game in DX9 an in game option or something you select in some other fashion?


^ That's kind of an ugly post :/
 
Khold said:
So in general (for any game X), disable in game AA either through the options or editing the files, I think that makes sense. Okay.
Click to expand...

Actually, more for this game specifically as the game appears to crash with FXAA enabled and SMAA on top, from what I've gathered. In general, you can actually add several kinds of AA, like MSAA + SMAA to really clean up an image. However both SMAA and FXAA are post-process AA which means they don't work together that well and can cause problems.



Khold said:
Not understanding this one as much. I'm thinking this would be the probably setting to leave in the NV Control panel.

ibvHGpqEIFjwLW.png
Click to expand...

Don't touch anything in the control panel. What I'm talking about is a commonly used app called Nvidia Inspector, which allows all kinda of AA. However these AA options need to have a special flag to work with the games, a bit set that needs to be typed in which is usually added through Nvidia driver updates however can be added manually. Without a compatibility flag you won't be able to do any external AA.

FXAA on the other hand can be added no matter what I believe, due to its post process nature.

You don't need to do anything in the Nvidia control panel.



Khold said:
For this game or any game? I know my card supports 11.1 (supposedly). Is running the game in DX9 an in game option or something you select in some other fashion?
Click to expand...

For this game right now. the injectors are DX11 compatible but apparently not for this game, so the injectors will crash the game or just not work when launching in DX11. Doesn't matter what your card supports.

Running the game in DX9 is an option in the settings menu, requires a restart.
 
Thanks for the help, Sethos. I guess I haven't used inspector. Will have to learn that some other time.

Edit. Oh, that's cool. Inspector sees the settings in CP and I can change them from there. I guess thats why everyone uses inspector.
 
Khold said:
Thanks for the help, Sethos. I guess I haven't used inspector. Will have to learn that some other time.
Click to expand...

No worries. If you need any clarification or have any other questions for all this technical mumble about the game, fire away :)
 
WTF...I'm running this on Ultra with all the bells and whistles on with my GTX 580 and it runs great. Am I missing something here? I thought it was supposed to run like shit. My resolution is 1920x1080. Should I not run it like this? Sounds like my card's fan kicks into over drive but other than that, it runs at a solid 40-50ish frames.

Sorry for the noob questions. I'm new to PC gaming.
 
Here's all (I think) the AO methods for DX9 and DX11 with frame counter included.

the DX9 methods were done in the config using numbers 1 to 5 and the DX11 methods were done using the in-game settings.

DX9
ibcRF0oXtRK4N6.png

iLWSqgzXRXGo7.png

ibnl1qVvMsdUqt.png

inZlg9bFVs58R.png

isaPsBiWJ2qiL.png

ijFg0BZLdUJHC.png

iU7cw5TUZYX1f.png
Click to expand...

DX11
ibyuuXBI5g0CEz.png

ib1DbknHnzLp1Q.png

if5iBGXfWewYc.png
Click to expand...

I'm flip-flopping between regular ol' DX9 SSAO 1 and 4.

Edit: Anyone know what the SDSM setting in the config does? It's on 0 by default and when I set it to 1 I lost about 10 frames with no change in visual quality...
 
Bob White said:
WTF...I'm running this on Ultra with all the bells and whistles on with my GTX 580 and it runs great. Am I missing something here? I thought it was supposed to run like shit. My resolution is 1920x1080. Should I not run it like this? Sounds like my card's fan kicks into over drive but other than that, it runs at a solid 40-50ish frames.

Sorry for the noob questions. I'm new to PC gaming.
Click to expand...

Thing is, aside from a very minor difference in water reflections, shadow filtering, and ambient occlusion, DX9 looks identical and runs better.
 
scitek said:
Someone else mentioned it earlier, but the crosshair's not showing up in the scope of my second sniper rifle. It's unusable.
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I'm having the same problem. The one on my assault rifle works, but it's missing from my bow and sniper. I read somewhere you can fix this by forcing AA in the nvidia panel but I have no idea how to do that.
 
scitek said:
Are you using an injector? I removed SMAA and started using driver-FXAA instead and it fixed it.
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I have no idea man. I'm actually running it on an ancient 8800GTX on low. Still looks pretty nice and runs well enough. I'm getting about 40fps on average. Installed the beta drivers from nvidia and it's actually running a bit smoother. I'm really surprised it runs as well as it does. This game seems extremely well optimized for low end systems.
 
scitek said:
Thing is, aside from a very minor difference in water reflections, shadow filtering, and ambient occlusion, DX9 looks identical and runs better.
Click to expand...

Yeah, after going back to dx11 for a while, I'm back on 9 and reckon I'll stay there now. DX9 on ultra just seems to trump dx11 with some settings turned down. And the extra FPS is very welcome.
 
Can I quickly add this for people who think they may not be able to run FC3.

I think I have an older rig. Dual core 3gig and a radeon HD4850. I have no idea if I can run FC3 but Ive just loaded up a demo of crysis1. I have ran it at full HD res with all settings at high and got a constant 30-frames per second...dips now and again to late 20s..but overall I was impressed my aged rig could handle it.

Albeit I have no idea if Crysis and FC3 are equally or more demanding than the other.
 
DrFurbs said:
Can I quickly add this for people who think they may not be able to run FC3.

I think I have an older rig. Dual core 3gig and a radeon HD4850. I have no idea if I can run FC3 but Ive just loaded up a demo of crysis1. I have ran it at full HD res with all settings at high and got a constant 30-frames per second...dips now and again to late 20s..but overall I was impressed my aged rig could handle it.

Albeit I have no idea if Crysis and FC3 are equally or more demanding than the other.
Click to expand...

I think FC3 in DX9 will run better than Crysis DX10 generally speaking. Crysis is pretty poorly optimized, though, and FC3 seems pretty scaleable, at least.
 
Cannon Goose said:
Here's all (I think) the AO methods for DX9 and DX11 with frame counter included.

the DX9 methods were done in the config using numbers 1 to 5 and the DX11 methods were done using the in-game settings.

DX9


DX11


I'm flip-flopping between regular ol' DX9 SSAO 1 and 4.

Edit: Anyone know what the SDSM setting in the config does? It's on 0 by default and when I set it to 1 I lost about 10 frames with no change in visual quality...
Click to expand...

Damn, had hoped you would also try setting 6 under DX9
 
I am currently doing Playing the Spoiler and am getting very erratic performance.

On TRI 580's it will still drop to 40's.

On a 680m same, Dx 9 or 11 still results in strange dips. As with ultra, high setting. I mainly get 60 but then it bombs at certain points, very jarring. Any suggestions? Doesn't matter what settings at certain points the fps conks out, new drivers need? I am on latest beta.
 
I was using DX11 on my 670 and getting 50-60fps but I find DX9 lets me put the world on Ultra and looks better? Think I'll stick with it.
 
How can I get the shadows to appear sharp like they do in the Xbox version ?
I like that look eventhough it isn't very realistic.

1VyVj.jpg
 
Cannon Goose said:
Hot off the presses:



I also added it to my earlier post.
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Thanks man, it does appear that 4 and 5 are the best options under DX9.

It's quite funny they have this kind of AO available under DX9 yet only have some complete rubbish ones available to everyone who doesn't know about this tweaking.
 
What is the difference in PostFX from medium to higher values?

In medium I get 60 FPS just about anywhere but the moment I bump it to high or higher not only do I get a lower frame rate but my GPU goes to max use causing some really high temps that I'm not sure I'm too comfortable with, reaching around 78c on a 7970 with a custom fan profile that is loud as hell at those temps. With most games I get to around 74c and those games are visually more impressive than FC3.
 
Nekrono said:
What is the difference in PostFX from medium to higher values?

In medium I get 60 FPS just about anywhere but the moment I bump it to high or higher not only do I get a lower frame rate but my GPU goes to max use causing some really high temps that I'm not sure I'm too comfortable with, reaching around 78c on a 7970 with a custom fan profile that is loud as hell at those temps. With most games I get to around 74c and those games are visually more impressive than FC3.
Click to expand...

FXAALevel=""
MotionBlur=""
DepthDownsample=""
CloudShadows=""
SSAOMaxDistance=""

might be more.
 
Sethos said:
Did you add the DX11 .exe to the Nvidia Inspector profile and the SLI DX1x 0x0C1902F5 bit?
Click to expand...

Yes indeed. I thought it might be an SLI issue but even a 680m gets random dips. Wish I could stop obsessing and start playing. Might kill the game for me if i don't find the sweet spot soon. At 1080p with SSAO, no MSSA and High settings I still get dips and stutters. So makes me think something else is afoot...

Don't get me wrong most of the time iIm getting 60fps but I could be looking at a cabin or approaching a certain intersection and bam, stutters and low fps.
 
Manac0r said:
Yes indeed. I thought it might be an SLI issue but even a 680m gets random dips. Wish I could stop obsessing and start playing. Might kill the game for me if i don't find the sweet spot soon. At 1080p with SSAO, no MSSA and High settings I still get dips and stutters. So makes me think something else is afoot...

Don't get me wrong most of the time iIm getting 60fps but I could be looking at a cabin or approaching a certain intersection and bam, stutters and low fps.
Click to expand...

You need to turn PostFX down to medium, it will kill your FPS in no time. Shadows to "High" max.
 
Sethos said:
You need to turn PostFX down to medium, it will kill your FPS in no time. Shadows to "High" max.
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Is there no real noticeable difference from "Medium" PostFX to higher values? I'm having a hard time trying to find any and I don't know If I'm being paranoid but I get the urge to continue playing with it on Ultra.

The FPS gain is outstanding though.

KyleN said:
FXAALevel=""
MotionBlur=""
DepthDownsample=""
CloudShadows=""
SSAOMaxDistance=""

might be more.
Click to expand...

I see, I'm having a hard time noticing it though, maybe it's time for some comparison shots.
 
Nekrono said:
Is there no real noticeable difference from "Medium" PostFX to higher values? I'm having a hard time trying to find any and I don't know If I'm being paranoid but I get the urge to continue playing with it on Ultra.

The FPS gain is outstanding though.



I see, I'm having a hard time noticing it though, maybe it's time for some comparison shots.
Click to expand...

I've done of lot of comparing between the two and no, no there isn't. There's just one or two settings in there that annihilates performance and they certainly aren't noticeable. AO distance / depthDownsample could sound like culprits but I'm not sure.

However it's pointless to have it on anything above Medium, even if you still have 60FPS on High / Very High, just seem like unnecessary taxing of the GPU.
 
Sethos said:
I've done of lot of comparing between the two and no, no there isn't. There's just one or two settings in there that annihilates performance and they certainly aren't noticeable. AO distance / depthDownsample could sound like culprits but I'm not sure.

However it's pointless to have it on anything above Medium, even if you still have 60FPS on High / Very High, just seem like unnecessary taxing of the GPU.
Click to expand...

The one difference I could spot right away is the lack of motion blur which doesn't seem to be that big deal since it's low quality and it's not even used that much.

But yeah you're right, I'll probably turn it to medium since from time to time when I'm overlooking parts of the island or when I'm at the top of a tower I get drops as low as 30 FPS and the temps are absurdly high without any good reason.
 
Nekrono said:
Is there no real noticeable difference from "Medium" PostFX to higher values? I'm having a hard time trying to find any and I don't know If I'm being paranoid but I get the urge to continue playing with it on Ultra.
Click to expand...

If you don't see any noticeable difference in-game, why would you have it on Ultra for such a big fps hit?
 
Cannon Goose said:
Here's all (I think) the AO methods for DX9 and DX11 with frame counter included.

the DX9 methods were done in the config using numbers 1 to 5 and the DX11 methods were done using the in-game settings.
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch for all the screenshot comparisons! Do you mind trying AO=0 on DX9? I would like to know if you can turn it completely off.
 
KePoW said:
If you don't see any noticeable difference in-game, why would you have it on Ultra for such a big fps hit?
Click to expand...

Well for me it's not really that big hit since most of the times it's on 60, when it drops it drops to around 45-30ish but it doesn't happen that often.

Like Sethos said, it's really taxing on the GPU which is the main reason why I'm turning it to medium. I asked because I thought maybe I was missing something.
 
Nekrono said:
What is the difference in PostFX from medium to higher values?

In medium I get 60 FPS just about anywhere but the moment I bump it to high or higher not only do I get a lower frame rate but my GPU goes to max use causing some really high temps that I'm not sure I'm too comfortable with, reaching around 78c on a 7970 with a custom fan profile that is loud as hell at those temps. With most games I get to around 74c and those games are visually more impressive than FC3.
Click to expand...

Setting it to high disables Depth downscaling. Which basically ruins IQ when it's enabled, anyone who cares about jaggies should be running Post-FX on at least high.
 
So I'm installing the game now. Is there a compiled post in this thread on what settings to use to get best IQ while still maintaining performance? I'm on a 2500k and 560Ti.
 
Elsolar said:
Setting it to high disables Depth downscaling. Which basically ruins IQ when it's enabled, anyone who cares about jaggies should be running Post-FX on at least high.
Click to expand...

or you could just add depdownsample to the gamerprofile.xml and set it from there.

But OFF is the one we want for it?
 
Turning on D3D11MultithreadedRendering in the config file helped my framerate and stuttering a great deal. I don't know why this was taken out of the ingame options.
 
Well I was running FC3 on Ultra @ 1280x720 but just couldnt get used to the resolution change, If I were using a CRT it probably would've been fine but as most of you may know running an LCD outside of its native res isnt the best idea due to scaling.

Anyhow after fiddling with settings and monitoring framerates I ended up with these settings @ 1080p and its very playable, not a solid 60fps but hovers in the low 50's most of the time.

I'm also using D3DOverider to force Triple Buffering, I had to do away with MSAA & HDAO tho unfortunately. HDAO alone was costing 6fps vs. SSAO.

(i7 920 @ 3.36ghz / 12GB / GTX 480 1.5GB)

Video%20settings.jpg


Video%20Quality.jpg
 
So I just tried disabling the DepthDownsampling.

Yes, it cleans up the image a bit but holy shit at that GPU use. I have quite an overhead so I didn't see an FPS drop but my GPU temps went from a 55-59* average to peaking at 72*. It's SO GPU intensive. I will be leaving it on. Despite running 60FPS the game felt a bit more sluggish, like a tiny delay was added to the frames.

JRW: PostFX on high is really taxing.
 
Am I really the only one? Using a 6870 I get better performance with DX11 than I get with DX9. On a sidenote. I am running the game from the dx11 executable. If I have the in-game settings set to use DX11 msi afterburner confirms that it is indeed DX11 that is in use. If I on the other hand set it to DX9, restart the same executable msi afterburner still says it's DX11.
Even though the in-game settings says it's DX9. Any thoughts?

And this constant stuttering is driving me crazy.

EDIT: For some reason windows had the frequency of my screen set to 59hz while the gpu drivers were set to 60hz.
Almost perfect now, but not quite.
 
Sethos said:
So I just tried disabling the DepthDownsampling.

Yes, it cleans up the image a bit but holy shit at that GPU use. I have quite an overhead so I didn't see an FPS drop but my GPU temps went from a 55-59* average to peaking at 72*. It's SO GPU intensive. I will be leaving it on. Despite running 60FPS the game felt a bit more sluggish, like a tiny delay was added to the frames.

JRW: PostFX on high is really taxing.
Click to expand...

Sooo if I have PostFX on Medium and that in my config:

<Post>
<quality GameDepthOfField="1" CinematicDepthOfField="1" MotionBlur="1" SSAO="1" FXAALevel="0" CloudShadows="1" SSAOMaxDistance="100" id="medium" />
</Post>
Click to expand...

Do I have Depth Downsampling on or off? o.o If it's still off how can I turn it on?
 
Sethos said:
JRW: PostFX on high is really taxing.
Click to expand...

Yea I just didn't like how much the image quality decreases between medium & high, I was taking screenshots and making notes as I changed settings. PostFX on Ultra does a lot of good things to the image but to bad its so taxing.
 
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