[GUIDE][UPDATED] Improved Conan Exiles graphics (new effects and techs) for 2.7+ version

[Fenharell]

This is tweaked preset of game settings in Conan exiles (.ini files)

Features:

In all game settings:

• Added 16x Anisotropic filtering (base Ultra has only 8x for no reason) also i added 16x AF to all presets too, even on low cause it does not impact FPS at all.

• TXAA - replaced game own blurry AA with modern TXAA that brings more crisp and sharper image (works on any graphics settings, but i prefer x4 or higher)

• Distance Field AO - for some reason it was turned off by devs, even on Ultra, but now it works . Funcom added it to the game in 2.6.

For ULTRA game settings:

• Increased draw distance by twice (base ultra was 1 now its 1.5, equal to ARK ultra settings) that affects any object in game such as grass, trees, rocks, clutter, etc.

• Also some tweaks to existing game technologies such as AO and Shadows.

How to use:

Download both Engine.ini and Scalability.ini and put them inside game folder located at

Steam\steamapps\common\Conan Exiles\ConanSandbox\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

Set them to read-only.

Then start the game and set Post processing, Shadows, Effects and Draw distance on ULTRA quality. Textures and Vegetation settings can be any that you want.

Optional - enable motion blur to get rid of ghosting effect

DOWNLOAD

Scalability.ini

Engine.ini

You also can configure game .ini by yourself by my guide below

GUIDE

First that you must know CE can look much better then it is in present state. Game is build on Unreal engine 4 and with proper knowing you can add effects that are not implemented by devs.

So, first of all, CE dont have Anisotropic filtering. (Yes, it have x4 on High and x8 on ultra in Texture quality settings) And because of that game textures are very blurry, when you look at them on different angles.

To fix that, you need to go game directory, located at

Steam\steamapps\common\Conan Exiles\ConanSandbox\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

and open with any text editor file named Scalability.ini

its empty, but its normal, any changes you put in it will overwrite game settings that located in BaseScalability.ini here Steam\steamapps\common\Conan Exiles\ConanSandbox\Config

So, to add anizotropic filtering you need to do the following:

Enter

[TextureQuality@2] (0-1-2-3 numbers here are equal to low\medium\high\ultra settingss in game)

So if you want to play with Low textures but with x16 AF you enter following

[TextureQuality@0]

And etc the same for all settings.

after header you enter that line

r.MaxAnisotropy=16

So the game will use AF in it.

You can edit more of this settings, for example you can improve shadow draw distance, add distance Ambient occlusion, more complex shadowing and etc. Just look at BaseScalability.ini and tweak (if you dont want to bother with all that stuff you will have my config at the end of the post)

The second - replacing game AntiAliasing by TXAA.

Go to Steam\steamapps\common\Conan Exiles\ConanSandbox\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

Open Engine.ini

Add that text below existing (dont replace, just add from new line!)

[SystemSettings]

r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=2

r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.2

r.TemporalAASamples=32

r.TemporalAASharpness=0.5

r.Tonemapper.Sharpen=1

Thats all, save file and ingame when you will use game AA you will have TXAA insteas of x2\x4\x6 AA.

You can tweak those settings, if you want less sharpen just change 0.5 to 0.2 and etc.

Also, i must admit, that this tweaks and guide will be impossible without Lulech23 guide here

UE4 Tweaks Guide (Temporal AA, No Chromatic Aberration, Improve Performance, and More!)

And the latest part, the screenshots with my tweak:

*open in new tab for fullscreen

Screenshots (right click on them and open in new tab to see full screen)

[Album] imgur.com

Or direct comparison here
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/19365/picture:0

[Fenharell]

i will upload new screenshots soon, so you could see how new TXAA settings look

[Multigun]

Well done. Might I suggest some before and afters? Not super duper needed, but might drive home what you are explaining here.

[Fenharell]

Before and after is hard to shot cause i must delete settings and then restart the game, come to exact same spot and angle and shot image. Its merely impossible without 2nd pc which i dont have.

[rolee9309]

What about replacing the edited files to another drive?
I myself like to tweak .ini files (however I never got this level of improvement, so big thanks!) and just switch them when I want, it’s pretty quick.

[Multigun]

@Fenharell

Before and after is hard

Ya understandable. Though like rolee said, you can create multiple copies of the ini file and just rename to whichever is you are going to use for that playthrough.

But like I said, its not a big deal, was just a little suggestion. You are NOT obligated at all to do so, you’ve done plenty!

[Selene01]

Here is the screens, originals settings and new settings.
ultra and x6, 1920 x 1080, rtx 2060 super.
It look better

[Fenharell]

I still must restart the game after removing files, so its all about finding same postitions to make screenshots. ill make one little comparison on my holidays.
Right now i uploaded new screenshots, just look at the grass and vegetation - its less blurry then in original game.

[Fenharell]

I will try soon.

Also i must say that some textures in game still unaffected my x16 anizotropy setting and remain blurry. I cant do anything about that, only Funcom developers can. Maybe they need to change some texture properties, i dont know.
@AndyB i hope he will see that and speak with dev team

[Multigun]

@Fenharell

remain blurry.

Define, “remain blurry.” There is a common problem with things like mods when you have a ton of assets on the server/screen at one time. Mods don’t use granite (they can’t), so they are the first to go “blurry” when performance starts to tank. AoC in particular had this issue for a long time before they did some clean up on the mod (it can still go blurry though).

[Fenharell]

I talking about game assets, not mod ones. If you look at rocks or structures in different angles it becomes blurry. No matter how much filtration you put in .ini or even with nvidia control panel. It doesnot affect this textures.
In ARK survival evolved i found some code lines in engine.ini that defines which texture filter each class of objects will use. It look something like this:

TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Heightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=aniso,MipFilter=point)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Weightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=aniso,MipFilter=point)
TEXTUREGROUP_Bokeh=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=256,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=linear,MipFilter=linear)

And in CE baseengine.ini i didnt found anything similar. Putting that text inside engine.ini dont help too.
So its up to Devs i think how to fix that issue.
Game could look way more better if its textures wont be muddy mess…

[Multigun]

I could be misunderstanding what you are claiming, but Texture Groups are assigned in the textures. If your claim that Conan Exiles doesn’t use it at all, then they wouldn’t be using UE4

You should also keep in mind that Ark and Conan are built on different, and very heavily modified UE4 engine versions. We get mod creators coming over from Ark from time to time, and they are always in awe at how much more developer features they suddenly get because Conan runs on a newer engine.

Texture Properties

[arthurh3535]

Dang it, I think I undid the command to disabled fast loading of mod-controllers copying this.

[Fenharell]

I think that Fc used some kind of Linear filter on most of the texture groups and aniso for only few of it, thats why they become blurry by looking at them from angle. And thats why settings in ini dont affect them. Perhaps devs need to change those filters in engine, idk. X16 af is not much performance cost.

[Fenharell]

Idk how that can be possible but if you expecting any issues just delete this 2 files and your game will go back to its unmodded state

[arthurh3535]

It’s a manual setting to disable the modcontroller setting.

[/Script/ConanSandbox.SystemSettings] 
dw.UseModControllerCache=0

Without it, if you have mods that might conflict with each other, some of them won’t work right. It’s a work around until the next patch (2.7) which allows it to load faster.

[Fenharell]

You asked for comparison here it is
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/19365/picture:0