Of near equal importance to the settings of the game is the configuration of the PC being used. The average Windows computers do not come out of the box optimised for video games, and typically divert a large amount of resources to background tasks and bloatware. While optimising the PC itself is out of the scope of this guide, as it is universal for all games, I will direct the reader's attention to some YouTube guides by other creators to complete this step first.

Before beginning this section, it is important to note that my test PC, an old gaming notebook with a GTX 1050ti and a dying HDD, will likely not be achieving the same performance as the reader's own PC, and the changes in average frame rates caused by tweaking the graphics settings will be of differing magnitudes, based on how the CPU, GPU, memory, and storage device the game is installed on work together, and which bottlenecks, if any, are caused. To check for bottlenecks, open Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+Delete and selecting "Task Manager." If your CPU usage is at 100% while your GPU usage remains notably lower, you likely have a CPU bottleneck. The reverse situation would suggest a GPU bottleneck. In game, Press F1 to toggle the performance menu in the top-left corner of the screen in order to gauge the performance changes.

To gain a benchmark for this test, I initiated a match on the "Shores of Nettuno" mission with the normal amount of bots, trying to follow the points of action and graphical intensity. My initial test settings are shown below.

This is what I would consider a general "High Settings" configuration without experimenting with extremely intensive settings like a 200% render scale/distance. The average frame rate during combat was 70 FPS, dropping regularly to 60 FPS. However, the game was plagued with extreme stuttering, likely caused by my malfunctioning and antiquated HDD.























Render distance
Changes the distance that the game will draw/render objects and shadows, and the distance at which they will revert to a low-poly version of themselves. Note that this does not affect the render distance of terrain, only the objects on the terrain, such as houses, trees, and fences, and NPC models. The minimum distance is 23%, at which point I gained an extra 15 FPS. This drastically degrades the look of the game, and in long-range engagements can break the immersion. In close-quarters battles the change is less noticeable. Consider a setting in the middle.

hd Grass
Did not notice any change, whether graphical or performance. I am unsure if this is a bug or I am not testing for the right change, but I could not detect any difference. Consider leaving it off.

Grass density
Changes the amount of 3D grass models on the ground. By turning it to the minimum 10%, I gained an average of 20 FPS in grass-intensive areas. However, at 10% the game's grass appears barren. Consider a setting in the middle.

Realtime reflections
Did not notice any change, whether graphical or performance. I am unsure if this is a bug or I am not testing for the right change, but I could not detect any difference. Consider leaving it off.

Post-Processing
Changes effects on screen at all times such as vignette, colour correction, etc. 3 FPS was gained by turning it off, with very minor graphical drawbacks. Consider turning it off.

Depth of Field
Changes the distant blur effect when aiming down the sights of a weapon. Blurs the distant vision and can make aiming more difficult, and 3 FPS was gained by turning it off. Consider turning it off.

Enable shadows
Enables or disables the rendering of shadows. Turning it off results in a major visual degradation, but I gained 25 FPS from doing so. Consider leaving this as a last resort.

Bullet holes
Presumably this is supposed to toggle the rendering of bullet hole decals when shooting into objects, but in my tests turning it off did not disable this. Unsure if this is a bug. Consider turning it off.

SSAO
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. A form of shadow rendering around complex geometric locations, such as the ledges of windowsills or the side of a rifle. Degrades the look of the game less than disabling shadows completely, with a gain of 5 FPS. Consider disabling this before disabling shadows.

Environments, textures, and shadows
Changes the resolution of every texture and shadow in the game. The lower the setting, the more washed out, blurry, and stretched the textures look. Changing it to Medium granted 15 FPS, while changing it to Low gave 30 FPS. Consider setting it to Medium or Low.

V Sync
Locks the frame rate to the refresh rate of the monitor being used, usually 60Hz/FPS. Enabling it prevents screen tearing and can reduce the heat of the PC's components. Consider enabling it.

Cap Framerate
Locks the frame rate to a chosen setting. If achieving close to 60 FPS is not possible, or the PC is overheating, consider changing this setting to 30 FPS.

ai cpu consumption
Changes the intelligence in the AI's pathfinding and tactical complexity. It is highly recommended to leave this at Max, as otherwise the AI's performance will suffer along with the gameplay. No noticeable performance change was seen.

Bullet extraction effect on AIs
Toggles the effect of cartridge casing ejecting from the weapons of the AI. In my testing this effect did not work on bolt-action rifles, the most common form of weaponry, and even the MG42's high cyclic rate did not noticeably affect the performance. Consider leaving this on.

Dynamic resolution
Actively changes the render resolution of the game depending on how low the framerate is. This setting did not work well in my tests, as even when I was achieving over 100 FPS, the resolution would not go near 1920x1080, the native resolution of the game. Consider leaving this off, and change the resolution manually to a fixed setting.

Increase max Render scale (Impacts performance!)
Allows the game to render a higher resolution image compared to the game's native resolution. In the scope of this guide, there is no reason to turn this on.

Render scale
Changes the render resolution of the game's world while leaving the HUD and menus unchanged. Peculiarly, in my tests lowering this setting lowered my FPS, though on a lower-end PC I expect this would not occur. Consider experimenting to find a balance between image clarity and performance.

Although most settings affecting performance are in the "Graphics" menu, there are some other options of note.

Settings

Set Fullscreen
In my test toggling this had no effect on performance, though others may have different outcomes. Consider experimenting.

Field of View
Changes the peripheral vision of the character's view, and thus how much of the world is rendered on screen at any given time. Changing this from the maximum of 65 to the minimum of 45 gained 5 FPS, though at 45 the game has a very claustrophobic and limiting feel. Consider a setting in the middle.

Color correction
Changes the post-processing colour settings of the game. Had no noticeable affect on performance, and a favourable setting could be used to partially hide the image degradation by lowering other settings. Highly recommended to find one that pairs the best with one's personal graphics settings.

map props caching
According to the developer, this setting when enabled uses more RAM in an attempt to use less VRAM and CPU during gameplay. On a low-end PC with integrated graphics, the VRAM is taken from the RAM, so this reallocation should in theory be negligible, though the savings in CPU usage could be favourable. On my end it was impossible to test this, so personal experimentation is recommended.

Gameplay

Objects despawn time
Changes the time before corpses and dropped weapons will despawn. In high-intensity combat, bodies piling up can affect performance, so it is recommended to have this setting under 120 seconds.

Max AI units
Affects the amount of squads that can spawn at once in missions. Can make the game more intense on higher settings, but with drastic performance hits. Consider leaving this on Normal or lower to achieve better performance.

Through following this guide and tweaking the settings to one's preference, there should be a noticeable increase in performance. Please feel free to provide feedback as well as personal testimony to the results, in order to better refine this guide.