Does the game even support or use DoF outside of cut scenes? AFAIK it only uses Radial Blur for far-away objects. What happened to the "TextureStreamingReduceGameplayLOD=false" tweak? Is it no longer valid after 1.21 patch? I also recall there was some Stencil Lighting tweak - did anyone ever create on/off comparisons of this tweak? I don't think it did anything...
IMHO, the best shadow image quality improvement at little-to-no cost to performance is this:
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=4 (values of 8 and 16 require CascadeShadowMapSize to be at 8192 for decent shadow quality, but the performance cost is really high)
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=8 (much better than 4 and without noticeable shadow quality loss)
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=4
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=2
CascadeShadowQuality=6
CascadeShadowMapSize=4096
I also strongly suggest for people to use Sharpness=2 (Heavy), but set TextureMipBias=0 and add ReShade FXAA. ReShade sharpness tools like LumaSharpen, AdaptiveSharpen, etc. are applied to the whole image, while in-game sharpness is selective and is mostly applied to textures. I advice against applying ReShade sharpness. When TextureMipBias is set to 0, heavy sharpness doesn't shimmer much, at least not with HD Project Reworked and Realistic Contrast Textures mods. Negative LOD Bias is a very cheap way to improve image quality at the cost of shimmering... Adding ReShade FXAA on top of all that (+ in-game AA) will further reduce shimmering and remove many jaggies that in-game AA doesn't remove. ReShade FXAA will also reduce the over-sharpness, making it nearly-perfect! I advice to use FXAA instead of SMAA because FXAA works better for temporal aliasing than SMAA. UseMipRefiner=true is a must of course.
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When I first tried Super Turbo Lighting mod, I thought it was really bad, but since 2.2 version, there has been much so much improvement. I don't use it because it desaturates all the colors and they don't look realistic. There's very little contrast when this mod is used...For example, fire is too pale, interiors are too bright, etc. I think it can BECOME an extremely good mod if developers put work into it. I think they are trying to make the game neutral and remove the post-grading filters, but it doesn't look like the E3 2014 grading either. Anyway - HUGE THANKS FOR THIS MOD TOO!
I must disagree with these advices, considering the current state of the game with 1.21 update and it's modding related stuff (complex lighting system with uneasy modding tools), using any mod that modifies lighting it's a risk since modders currently haven't analyze and work with all the changes brought by the latest update, something which is worsened by the complex modding system that we have (and the desperately need of better modding tools).
IMO working through the settings showed in the post and cconsidering the complex vanilla lighting system (and if you want to, complementing it with really great texture mods, like rework HD and better lod, and maybe even weather mods like weather enhanced) is the best workaround we can do today.
Regarding some of the settings showed in the main page, i have tested with a relative normal/common setup (gtx 970 + i5 4690k, enough ram, window 8.1, etc) and i've came to some conclusions:
-It's indeed better to have anisotropic filtering off (through NVCP) and use MaxTextureAnizotropy=0 (through user.settings) if you use high visual settings and demanding mods (which are worth it really), otherwise a kind of stuttering and lower fps will happen in demanding areas.
-In the adaptive sync and vsync topics, it depends on whether your system can achieve more than 60 fps or not, i've a 144hz monitor (im a fps player, where having at least a 120 hz monitor is really important for visual fluency in the game) and i've noted that when i try to use any type of vsync while limiting fps to 60 -in situations where your fps could be higher- the visual transition from frame to frame seems to be kinda off, like if you were playing with visual stutter.
In fps we avoid limiting fps since if your system constantly reaches the fps cap (which happens quite a lot depending on the situation) it creates input lag and other problems, maybe in TW3 limiting fps and while your system is able to constatly reach that limit creates this visual stuter.
Then i tried playing the same situation but with unlimited fps cap (reaching 90 or so fps) and this stutter was gone, i dont know if it's because of my monitor hz or because im used to higher fps (so it's normal to feel clunky), but i rather get used to fps fluctuation (since when i go to city and demanding places, fps drop to 50-60) and have unlimited fps than to cap it at 60 and feel this visual stutter when i'm in a situation where fps could go higher.
I would like some opinions about this (maybe im not the only one feeling this), regarding vsync, when having a high hz monitor like mine the only viable options would be either half adaptive sync (so the limit where vsync switches on or off is 72 fps) or complete vsync (limit is 60 always, no switching), to achieve the first one i obviously had to put unlimited fps in the ingame config and it was the one where i felt less visual stutter (and ofc no visual tearing when higher fps were achived).
