EDIT: Detailed list of settings added. Added screenshots to demonstrate better readability of text with different UI color.
Hey guys, so I was playing Elite with the HTC Vive, and after messing around with the settings, I believe I found what I believe is the best possible settings to achieve the best image quality, while minimizing framerate drops and at least in my case, eliminating judder completely (when turning your head around).
First, here are some images. Please note these ignore the Vive's filtering, so text in-game is a little blurrier than the pictures, as well as the image. However, the game looks amazing. Here are the images directly from the HMD:
My computer setup is as follows (the important bits)if you are curious about the rest, feel free to ask.
CPU: I7 3770K @ 4.5GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3
GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti
Settings:
Quality: VR High (This will switch to Custom once you change other things)
Model Draw Distance: Around 25% (seems to be enough to see things in the distance)
Texture Quality: High (Max)
Shadow Quality: Medium (this seems to cause judder, as explained)
Bloom: On
Anti-Aliasing: Off (Or SMAA, MSAA seems to cause judder in some instances)
Supersampling: 1.5X (2.0X causes judder in some instances, and you will have to lower a lot of settings to run it reliably)
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Environmental Quality: Ultra (Max)
FX Quality: High (Max)
Depth of Field: High (Max)
Reflections Quality: High (Max)
Material Quality: Ultra (Max)
HMD Image Quality: Max
Galaxy Map Quality: High (Max, this seems to make the Galaxy Map lag a bit, but doesn't otherwise affect the actual game)
Terrain Quality: Ultra (Max)
Terrain Work: Minimum (This seems to affect FPS and cause judder. Plus, there are no negative effects I've noticed from having it on minimum)
Terrain Material Quality: Ultra (Max)
Terrain Sample Quality: Ultra (Max)
Field of View: Max (no effect that I can tell).
You have two choices here with Supersampling: You can put it at 2x, but you will have to lower the quality on other settings (otherwise, you will have judder). Or you can put it at 1.5X, and max out everything else. Personally, I prefer 1.5X with maxed out settings.
With these settings, gameplay is smooth with no missed frames on all instances (planetary surfaces, normal space, asteroid rings, and stations)
NOTE: In stations, when you load the game, and when you dock (basically, the first time you are on the station screen while docked) the game will judder a bit for a few seconds. Just give it a little bit for everything to be loaded, after which it's butter smooth.
ALTERNATIVE SETTINGS (No Supersampling)
I recently discovered that FXAA works wonders in game for the aliasing problem. Whereas Supersampling still leaves some jaggy edges especially in the distance, and even inside the ship, FXAA actually removes most of the jaggy edges in game. This at a much lower performance cost than Supersampling. The only thing is FXAA does not apply antialiasing to text, so it looks slightly blurrier (but still extremely readable without issue).
If you are having issues reading text in game:Try changing your UI color. The default orange has pretty horrible contrast, and can be very difficult to read. Here's some screenshots of my current UI:
On the screenshots at the beginning of this post (orange UI) the game text actually looks a bit worse in game.
In this case, with the blue UI, the game text actually looks better in game than the screenshots.
Depending on your setup, you might have to fiddle with these settings until they are just right.
Questions? Let me know! I will keep updating this post with new information as I find it.
Hey guys, so I was playing Elite with the HTC Vive, and after messing around with the settings, I believe I found what I believe is the best possible settings to achieve the best image quality, while minimizing framerate drops and at least in my case, eliminating judder completely (when turning your head around).
First, here are some images. Please note these ignore the Vive's filtering, so text in-game is a little blurrier than the pictures, as well as the image. However, the game looks amazing. Here are the images directly from the HMD:
My computer setup is as follows (the important bits)if you are curious about the rest, feel free to ask.
CPU: I7 3770K @ 4.5GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3
GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti
Settings:
Quality: VR High (This will switch to Custom once you change other things)
Model Draw Distance: Around 25% (seems to be enough to see things in the distance)
Texture Quality: High (Max)
Shadow Quality: Medium (this seems to cause judder, as explained)
Bloom: On
Anti-Aliasing: Off (Or SMAA, MSAA seems to cause judder in some instances)
Supersampling: 1.5X (2.0X causes judder in some instances, and you will have to lower a lot of settings to run it reliably)
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Environmental Quality: Ultra (Max)
FX Quality: High (Max)
Depth of Field: High (Max)
Reflections Quality: High (Max)
Material Quality: Ultra (Max)
HMD Image Quality: Max
Galaxy Map Quality: High (Max, this seems to make the Galaxy Map lag a bit, but doesn't otherwise affect the actual game)
Terrain Quality: Ultra (Max)
Terrain Work: Minimum (This seems to affect FPS and cause judder. Plus, there are no negative effects I've noticed from having it on minimum)
Terrain Material Quality: Ultra (Max)
Terrain Sample Quality: Ultra (Max)
Field of View: Max (no effect that I can tell).
You have two choices here with Supersampling: You can put it at 2x, but you will have to lower the quality on other settings (otherwise, you will have judder). Or you can put it at 1.5X, and max out everything else. Personally, I prefer 1.5X with maxed out settings.
With these settings, gameplay is smooth with no missed frames on all instances (planetary surfaces, normal space, asteroid rings, and stations)
NOTE: In stations, when you load the game, and when you dock (basically, the first time you are on the station screen while docked) the game will judder a bit for a few seconds. Just give it a little bit for everything to be loaded, after which it's butter smooth.
ALTERNATIVE SETTINGS (No Supersampling)
I recently discovered that FXAA works wonders in game for the aliasing problem. Whereas Supersampling still leaves some jaggy edges especially in the distance, and even inside the ship, FXAA actually removes most of the jaggy edges in game. This at a much lower performance cost than Supersampling. The only thing is FXAA does not apply antialiasing to text, so it looks slightly blurrier (but still extremely readable without issue).
If you are having issues reading text in game:Try changing your UI color. The default orange has pretty horrible contrast, and can be very difficult to read. Here's some screenshots of my current UI:
On the screenshots at the beginning of this post (orange UI) the game text actually looks a bit worse in game.
In this case, with the blue UI, the game text actually looks better in game than the screenshots.
Depending on your setup, you might have to fiddle with these settings until they are just right.
Questions? Let me know! I will keep updating this post with new information as I find it.
Last edited:
![[HJ]-RedRaven](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/67/67389.jpg?1553527112){kind=avatar}
Those 3770K processors are a beast! 
