DayZ was one of the most popular games sold on Steam in 2014 and it still is today. The game started off as a mod for ARMA 2, a military based simulation game which later on bloomed into an Early Access release.
As I said before the game is being developed on "Bohemia Interactive" ARMA engine, with a few tweaks done for the purpose of the game, later being named "Enfusion". But make no mistake, it's still the same engine at heart.
Many of you already know that the game is not the best example when it comes to optimization, as it tends to run lets call it "not that great" even on high end gaming rigs. So here are a few tips on how to get DayZ SA running smooth even on lower end configurations.
EASY TO-DO LIST
In-game options:
-Resolution:
This option is mainly for the interface and the text and it does not have a very big impact on the overall performance. I usually set this as high as possible (1920x1080) as I have trouble reading the font the engine uses if the resolution is anything lower than that.
-Aspect Ratio:
This has nothing to do with performance, it's just the way the image is stretched (or not)over the screen to better accommodate the resolution of the game to the one of the monitor. This is important so that your game does not look STRETCHED as I have seen on so many Screenshots over the web. You should check this Wiki Page to get a better idea of which Aspect Ratio is good for the resolution you are running and the monitor you have.
-Overall Quality:
This should be ignored as we want to have a custom made quality preset.
-Rendering Resolution:
This is by far the most expensive option when it comes to performance but we also like things to look good and not have everything look like Mario. So change this to something like 1280x720 if you are running a 16:9 monitor. The game will look good and will perform better, At the end of the guide you can increase this option up to 100% and see what are the results.
-Brightness & Gamma:
This has no impact on performance at all but if you are playing at night (in-game) you will want to raise them both up to help you see.
-Video Memory:
Auto = default. Set it to auto and let the game detect how much video memory your GPU has.
Low=128MB
Medium=256MB
High= 512MB
-Texture Detail:
This option has a great impact on performance and quality. Setting it to Low will make the game look bland and undetailed, I would set it to High or Normal to get the most quality out of the performance loss.
-Texture Filtering:
Setting this from x16 to disabled filtering will gain you 1 or 2 FPS. Sincerely I see no difference in quality on either of the options so you can set it to disabled, just for the 1FPS gain.
-Objects:
This option is the one to experiment with on a regular basis as it is the option that renders Everything you can see on the screen, trees, houses, players and so on.
I would recommend Normal.
With Very Low you will have difficulties in spotting other players.
With Low there are usually glitches and the spawned items in houses will take a second or two to load in.
But if you can spare the performance loss you can set it to High or even Very high, the last not being that recommended as it draws too many objects on the screen and is usually the performance breaker.
-Terrain:
This should always be set to Low or above as Very low will absolutely eliminate any grass or foliage on the ground.
The difference in performance between Low and Very Low is not that big but the quality is to be taken in consideration.
-Clouds:
The cloud rendering adopted from ARMA 3 is very detailed but it's also a performance killer. This options should be set to disabled in order to get a few extra frames.
-Shadows:
There is much debate here.
Disabled will make shadows disappear all together so I would recommend to set it to Very Low.
BUT, some people have reported having better performance setting shadows to High, due to the fact that the shadow rendering on Low is handled by the CPU and anything from High and above is done by the GPU. So try both and see which works better for you.
-Anti Aliasing (AA)
This is another option that if turned On will murder your performance as it makes images look smoother and less jagged. But in DayZ AA is taken one step further as it influences the vegetation. The tree leafs and the grass quality is dependent on this option.
I recommend OFF for the most performance gain, but you can experiment with Very Low.
-Alpha to Coverage (AtoC)
This option is activated only if you have Anti-Aliasing enabled. It will apply anti-aliasing to vegetation. The quality differences are Massive, but so is the performance loss. I recommend setting this to Apply only for the Trees and not the grass too.
-Edge smoothing:
This option activates another layer of anti-aliasing but this time done on the Effects of the game. It basically adds more blur to the game as a whole so I usually have it to disabled. But for the best performance to quality ratio I recommend FXAA Normal as anything above will kill performance.
-Ambient Occlusion:
This is one of the options that will kill performance but makes the game pretty hard to play during night time.
My recommendation is that you only enable it during night time, and disable it during the day.
-HDR:
High definition rendering is the MUST HAVE option for night time play. This draws the light sources of the game and the shadows. Yes shadows in the night. You will need this set to Low for the game to draw the lights as it should. But in the day time you can set it to Very Low.
-Postprocess Quality:
This option adds bloom, blur, light shafts, depth of field and all kinds of other Eye Candy for the game. The fact that all the mentioned effects depend on just one option is really a let down from the devs at this point as I love Bloom but I hate Rotational Blur.
I recommend setting this to Very Low or Low as anything above will enable the Blur effect which will kill performance a lot more than we might want to.
Advanced To-Do List
Steam Launch Options:
To access this side of things you need to right-click on DayZ in your steam library and select settings and then launch options.
Here you can enter:
-nosplash => will make the game load faster by removing the Dev Logo
-skipintro => loads the game faster again
-noPause => this is important if you usually alt-tab a lot, as it will continue to run the game in background
-cpuCount=# => Set # to the number of physical cores your CPU has. 2=Dual, 4=Quad, 6=Hex and 8=Octa
-exThreads=# => available options are 0, 1, 3, 7. 3=Dual core, or 7 for Quad core and above.
-maxMem=# => set # to the number in MB of your RAM. 2048=2GB, 4096=4GB, 8192=8GB and so on
-maxVram=# => set # to the number in MB that the GPUs RAM is.
-winxp => this option will gain you a few extra FPS as it makes the game run in DirectX9 Library but it will make the game crash if you are trying to Alt-Tab. Also I do not recomment changing any in-game video options with this enabled as it will make the game crash.
-malloc=# => This is one of the better performance enhancers but it is regularly updated and requires a whole new skill set to be used successfully. More on this option here.
in the end your Launch Options screen should look something like this:
CFG Files Settings:
Locate the DayZ folder in My Documents usually at C:\Users\Username\Documents\DayZ\.
Here you will find a couple of files which we will use NotePad to open.
First open up the file DayZ.cfg
Here find the lines:
GPU_DetectedFramesAhead=# => set # to a number between 1 and 1000. 1 is the best choice as it will make the game a bit more responsive and takes a bit of the load OFF the CPU. But i recommend to experiment with 1, 2, 3, 1000 and even 2000 and see what is your best result.
GPU_MaxFramesAhead=# => set # to a number between 1 and 4. 1 granting a less laggy gameplay and experience all together, and 3 making the FPS a bit smoother. 4 will detect the options set in the graphics driver.
PipQuality=# => this has no visible effect for now, but it will once Vehicles are better implemented in the game. Set # from 1 to 3.
Now lets open the YOURNAME.DayZProfile file using Notepad.
Here first of all we will locate:
mouseSmoothing and set it to 0. This will give the game better responsiveness.
MaxSamplesPlayed=# => this is the audio quality option, here users have reported to gain FPS by setting it to 16, but i like mine on 64. You can also change this In-Game.
sceneComplexity=# => this option is the Objects Option only in numbers. You can change this to your liking from 50000 to 1000000. I recommend 35000 as it is very dependent on the power the CPU has.
shadowZDistance=# => set this from 50 to 200. I recommend 50 for the best performance.
viewDistance=# => this is how far you can see. I recommend setting this to as low as 1400 but not higher than 3000 (or 3KM) as this has a great effect on the overall performance.
prefferedObjectViewDistance=# => This option sets how far objects will be seen or drawn on the screen. Set # from 800 to 1600 for the best performance.
terrainGrid=# This is the quality of the terrain. You can also change this in game but the values are
50 - less lag but does not draw grass
25 - default for multiplayer
12.5 - default for singleplayer
6.25 - better quality
3.125 - best quality
This is it, every option that has an impact on performance or quality in DayZ Standalone has been explained.
Please leave a comment saying if I missed anything and enjoy your game!
