Crysis 3 Tweak Guide

[Page 17] Conclusion



Crysis 3 carries through on its promise to deliver stunning visuals. There are few game engines quite as advanced as CryEngine 3, and the user-made Crysis 3 screenshots and videos you may have seen proliferating around the web stand as testimony to its eye-catching graphics. At the same time, a lot of people seem to be frustrated by the fact that Crysis 3 cannot run smoothly on their system at higher settings. Aside from the potential improvements and minor fixes that newer graphics drivers and game patches will bring, in general, the fact of the matter is that Crysis 3 is already quite optimized in terms of resource management. Just remember that unlike many other games, most of what you see on screen in Crysis 3 is dynamic and is being rendered very accurately.


If you're struggling for performance, use the customization potential in Crysis 3 to tone down some of the more subtle performance-intensive effects, keeping in mind the following tips:


  • The Shading, Objects and Shadows settings in particular can be quite strenuous, so lower them first before turning to other areas.
  • Try FXAA or SMAA Low (1x) for Anti-aliasing, as they have virtually no performance impact. If you use FXAA, you can use the sharpening advanced tweak to offset the blur.
  • As with most games, if all else fails to improve performance, reduce your Resolution.
  • Take advantage of the tweaking possibilities by making use of the command variables as described in the Advanced Tweaking section. For example, lower your in-game settings to High or Medium, then add back only those effects that you can't do without via several commands placed in the cfg files. Or choose Very High for the in-game settings, then selectively remove individual effects that you feel add little to the overall atmosphere of the game, thus improving your performance with minimal loss in image quality.

    • Unfortunately there is no magic bullet that will make the game run at maximum visuals with high framerates on regular hardware. To achieve its atmospheric and highly interactive game world, Crysis 3 requires lots of computing power. If you push the engine to its maximum and want to retain high framerates, you will need something like a GTX Titan, or a multi-GPU setup using two or more high-end graphics cards.


    If you're having difficulties with the game, or just want to talk to other players, check the Official Crysis 3 Forums. They're also a good place to go for more advice on tweaking, or for custom modifications (mods) that will give you more enjoyment out of the game. If you're experiencing lag in multiplayer mode, refer to the How to Get Rid of Lag article to correctly determine the source of your lag, and what if anything you can do about it.


    Until next time, take care!