[Plutia]

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The settings menu can be really complicated, so let's not keep it that way.

One of the first things people do when starting a game is go to the settings, and clicking the "Video" or "Graphics" tab, in order to see what options they have, often turning out completely perplexed by their names.

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The main page

To put it simply, this is the settings menu you are met with the moment you go to the "Video" option: 

I will go through every setting/mention in this screen, from top to bottom:

Frame/Sec(FPS):

This is not a setting, this is a basic statistic, showing you the game's current performance, measured in frames per second. This is the main thing that will be affected by changing settings, so pay close attention to it.

We should make one thing clear before anything else: the description it provides is only right up until its second line, after that it is completely wrong. Having a higher framerate will not result in better graphics, it will only make the graphics that are already shown have a smoother motion. You should also not aim for a number around the green bar, but do your best to get as close to the limit as possible, maybe even comfortably above it. Framerate is not always consistent, and when fiddling with settings you are definitely not in the most demanding position the game will potentially present to you. In such cases, if the graph is not all the way filled up, it is advisable to make sure it does so.

Resolution Setting:

This is your way of changing the game's resolution, which is one of the biggest factors in what kind of performance you will get out of it.

Full Screen Res. is the default option that is selected for you at the start. This option provides what most games would label a "Borderless Windowed" mode to the game, allowing you to use Alt+Tab in order to switch to other applications without the need to minimize and maximize the game, while also not having the distracting borders one would expect from a game running in an application frame, with a minimize and close button.

Custom allows you to switch between Aspect Ratios, use any supported resolution numbers and use them in either a Windowed or Full Screen mode. If your monitor's resolution is not included in these, you might not have selected the right Aspect Ratio.

One thing to keep in mind is that Full Screen is a veritable gamble in this game, having the potential of locking it up for long periods of time, with hardly any recourse to get it working again. Please exercise caution when using it, and make sure you've got the afternoon free in case something tragic happens.

Graphics Settings:

This is the meat and potatoes of the settings menu, home to the most complex changes you could make to the game's visual presentation.

If you do not want to bother tweaking small things to cater to your wishes, you can always use the Simple Settings option, which offers you a slider that you can drag in order to adjust settings to a roughly equal degree between a few created presets. Just switch between a few of them and see your framerate results.

Picking Custom will allow you to access the Advanced settings menu, allowing for fine tweaking of each available setting to your heart's content.

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The Advanced Settings

This guide will only go through the basics of each setting, explaining what it is and what kind of impact you should expect. This is what the Advanced settings page will look like upon entering it (actual setting values may differ):

Just like before, I will go through each setting from top to bottom, and left to right:

Model Detail:

This setting controls the quality of the models used in-game. This means any 3D element, such as the player character, monsters, or sometimes the maps themselves and props within them. This setting has generally low impact on performance, and with its usual camera distance, will not be very noticeable.

Texture Detail:

Textures are the images applied to surfaces in order to convey what that surface is supposed to represent, such as a wall, a patch of dirt, player clothes, or weapons. This setting can affect performance if you have a low amount of VRAM, and if your game stutters a lot (meaning, freezing temporarily, not having a constantly bad framerate), you should probably consider lowering this setting. Visually, surfaces will start looking visibly more pixelated the lower the setting is.

Shader Detail:

This setting has a bearing on the way things are shaded, with regard to players and other dynamic objects. In Source games (the engine on which this game is made), shading quality can drastically change the look of some scenes, but does not offer much of a change in framerates.

Particle Effects:

This setting controls all the special effects that are generated when interacting with the world, things such as sparks, abilities, or any effect shown as feedback for hits. This setting could potentially affect framerates when using a character with attacks that would generate a lot of different effects at the same time, such as Delia or Lynn. This setting can make the combat look less satisfying, but context might demand that you disable it, since it can end up causing a lot of stress for your machine.

Lighting Effects:

This setting controls the quality of the lighting between a few basic presets. This can affect performance when faced with dynamic lights, such as those from lit braziers or campfires. Source calculates this dynamic lighting in a much more basic form when compared to games released today, so this setting does not usually have a great impact on performance.

Shadow Detail:

This is one of the most important settings you will be able to tweak. Dynamic shadows are counted differently from dynamic lights, since the dynamic lights seldom actually cast dynamic shadows. This process is one of the more intensive that the game can run, and lowering it has the potential to greatly affect your performance, at a great potential loss in image quality, depending on the map. 

Animation Effect:

This setting affects the quality of the character animation, both yours and the enemy's. This setting could change the way combat feels, and its impact on performance is hardly pronounced, so it's recommended it stays on its high setting.

Physics Effects:

Source is known for its use of the Havok physics interactions, allowing you to move objects in the level, throw them around and even break them into several tiny pieces. What is not so well known is the potential CPU strain these interactions can cause. If you know you are being CPU limited, unfortunately lowering this setting might be your first required step.

Display other Player's Effects:

This setting allows you to only render your own particle effects in combat, lowering the burden you are placing on your GPU when you go into a dungeon with more people. This setting can have a drastic impact on performance, which could end up drowning out any visual boost you might see from being able to observe the other player's effects.

Transparency Effect(Both for yourself and other players):

Rendering effects with transparency values(also known as alpha textures) is a more intensive task than simply rendering the effects, as there are a lot more variables to take into account. This setting is a slider, but I would encourage that if you find issues with effects, then try lowering this setting before going to any other ones.

Texture Streaming:

This setting implements a texture streaming system, allowing players that have less VRAM to use higher texture settings without necessarily compromising their performance. Despite its description as a good thing, this setting has always tried to apply the highest quality textures right after loading, resulting in very nasty stutters at the beginning of every dungeon, so I would recommend keeping it off.

Antialiasing Mode:

This is the second biggest factor in what kind of performance you will get. Antialiasing is the concept in which the edges of objects are smoothed out, making the game look less pixelated even when the player moves close to the screen. This game uses Multi-Sampling Anti Aliasing(MSAA), which has options of 2x, 4x and 8x. It is advisable to have this setting enabled, as it makes the game look much clearer, but it is recommended to not go beyond 4x unless you have too much power to spare. It is a very expensive option when it comes to performance.

Texture Filtering Mode:

Texture filtering applies when the camera is facing a texture in any other way than head-on(or, looking at it at a perfect 90 degree angle). When seen at a very oblique angle and at low settings, the texture will become less and less clear, until it ends up looking like a particularly colourful soup. It often has very little impact on performance, if  any, so my recommendation is to keep it at its maximum setting of 16x and go on your way.

Wait for vertical sync:

This setting controls Vertical Sync(or Vsync, as it is often called). This setting can affect your performance, since each frame will be delayed until it is complete and ready to be shown, and it's also one of the options that can have an impact on input lag(the time between you pressing a button and the result of it being shown on screen). Enabling this option will eliminate screen tearing, which happens when a half-finished frame is pushed out before it is ready, making the game potentially look choppy in motion. The tradeoff is clear, so this setting is often down to the player's personal preference.

Multicore Settings:

This setting allows for the game to use more than one core from your processor in order to work. Disabling this will only serve to make you CPU limited in most instances, and should always be kept on, as any processor made in the past decade will have more than a single core.

Motion Blur Detail:

This setting affects camera motion blur, an effect that happens when moving the in-game view, in order to convey the sensation of speed or a smoother framerate. It can have a small framerate impact, but enabling or disabling it is largely a matter of personal preference.

Vignette Effect:

This setting allows you to have the edges of the screen slightly darkened, allowing for a less harsh transition between the game and the edge of the screen. It has virtually no impact on performance, so using this setting is also a matter of personal preference.

Hardware DirectX level:

This setting allows the player to change between a DirectX9(also DX9, or D3D9) rendering API or a DirectX8 one. This setting is given for the sake of compatibility, as some older machines would run much better on the older API version, while all new machines would be best suited by the newest version available.

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I hope this guide has helped people better understand what each of the video settings does to at least a basic level, and you can use this knowedge to map out your best settings for your expected image quality and performance level.

Remember, there are no stupid questions, so if there is any concern you have about a setting, all you need to do is ask about it in the chat, and if someone is available they will gladly explain it to you, to the best of their ability.