Avatar is a gorgeous recreation that pushes era arduous to permit some in point of fact wonderful visuals – however how are we able to scale that have all the way down to a cast 60fps revel in that also appears excellent on older and slower PCs? To determine optimised settings, I will speak about the sport’s PC person revel in, examine the sport in opposition to the PS5 model for some efficiency optimisation hints and assessment a few of the ones ‘Unobtainium’ settings meant for long run {hardware}.
Prior to I am getting into the settings themselves, let’s communicate concerning the person revel in on PC – as it is a spotlight of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The very first thing you can understand is that the sport does not have a noticeable shader pre-compilation step while you play it for the primary time, nevertheless it does happen in keeping with my dialog with builders. When taking part in the sport, it is simple to note that there are not any frame-time problems with the sport – and certainly the frame-time graph is easy. With excellent settings to your GPU, you can have a fluid revel in in Avatar – one thing numerous trendy video games get mistaken.
The graphics menu additionally provides quite a lot of tweakables to make the revel in your individual with a vintage Ubisoft-style menu – very similar to the ones in A long way Cry and Murderer’s Creed titles. The descriptions right here give an explanation for what each and every environment does, the way it impacts VRAM utilization, what number of environment there are according to the visual pips and the way each and every visible exchange will glance with a preview symbol.
This is the entire PC vs PS5 comparability, plus optimised settings and FSR 3 research in video shape.
To again all of it up, the sport additionally supplies an in-game benchmark which rings a bell in my memory of the only we noticed in Returnal on PC, however most likely much more in-depth. I like this benchmark, and despite the fact that it does not use a natural gamplay digicam, it’s consultant of the upper load the sport could have at its maximum intense and taxing moments. You’ll be able to even run the benchmark from the command line for automatic checking out – great. In line with the person revel in then, that is the most efficient PC port I have had the excitement to study in 2023.
As I discussed in my preliminary Avatar PC research, the builders have a ‘Unobtainium’ excessive graphical preset locked away with a command line argument (-unlockmaxsettings). When entered by the use of the Ubisoft Attach launcher, this unlocks a ‘max’ high quality choice within the menu for a lot of graphical choices.
Prior to I give an explanation for what those max settings just do – and whether or not they are price enabling on high-end {hardware} – I need to speak about the philosophy of this resolution. Most often I am in opposition to doing away with choices from the menu, however Ubisoft Large will have stored themselves numerous grief by means of hiding those choices.
Right here for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora PC optimised and PS5 an identical settings? We’ve got were given you.
Environment
PS5 Efficiency Mode
Optimised Settings
Movement Blur
Off
Off
Intensity Of Box
Low
Low
Shadow High quality
Top
Top
Solar Touch Shadows
Medium
Medium
Spot Shadows
Top
Top
Spot Shadows Solution
Top
Top
Shadow Proxies
Off
Off
Specular Reflections
Medium
Medium
Diffuse Reflections
Medium
Medium
Setting Mirrored image High quality
Top
Top
Volumetric Clouds
Medium
Medium
Volumetric Fog
Top
Top
Further Streaming Distance
5
5
Object Element
9
9
BVH High quality
Top (however worse)
Top
Microdetail High quality
Extremely
Extremely
Particle Element
Top
Top
Scatter Density
Top
Top
Dither Fade
On
On
Highlight Projection Solution
256
256
Destruction High quality
Top
Top
Terrain Tessellation
Top
Top
In any case, folks with much less technical wisdom might be expecting excellent efficiency even with the perfect settings, now not realising that those choices are meant to let the sport scale gracefully to long run {hardware} relatively than being a performant choice on mainstream {hardware} within the right here and now. This took place with the primary Crysis name and left an enduring scar at the recreation trade on the subject of how PC variations are advanced.
With that stated, let’s transfer onto what those unobtanium settings in truth do in follow. The largest visible distinction comes essentially in answer will increase. For instance, when fog volumetric lighting fixtures is about to max, we see a long way larger element within the lighting fixtures and shadowing on intermediate fog volumes in just about mid-field of the digicam, a great deal bettering realism. It is a an identical tale with cloud high quality; at max, the volume of noise that may doubtlessly happen within the clouds themselves is a great deal decreased, even though admittedly it already appears great at excessive.
With shadow maps from the solar, the greater answer is keenly noticed with it set to max, the place I believed the former perfect environment truly did not hit the heights it should have executed. You’ll be able to see the similar with indoor highlight shadows as smartly, with max decreasing the aliasing this is noticed at the decrease settings.
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The least vital Unobtanium environment is the only for transparency, which subtly provides a couple of extra items into the sport’s cubemap reflections which partly replace in real-time. Those variations are scarcely visual even in side-by-side comparisons, and as soon as once more, I might love to peer transparency RT reflections as a substitute of cubemaps at some point right here.
For the RT settings, the max environment for diffuse lighting fixtures essentially upgrades the answer of the impact. At the medium environment, for instance, it seems like we’re seeing each axes of the RTGI (ray-traced world illumination) impact being halved in answer, which results in fuzzy edges and weirdness going on within the GI itself on best of a greyer, much less outlined glance. At excessive, it nearly seems like handiest some of the axes is part answer, which results in numerous aliasing on vertical edges on best of a much less outlined glance. The max environment appears to make use of the local enter answer right here, making for pristine GI.
For specular GI or reflections, the max environment does now not appear to extend answer past that which is already introduced by means of the extremely mode – in my checking out, the volume of specular aliasing as we see right here appears to be more or less the similar because the extremely environment. When taking a look at very mirror-like reflections out of display area, they get to the bottom of with equivalent ranges of readability, whilst very excessive is rather clearly decrease answer by means of comparability. On the other hand, the max environment for reflections does upload skinned items to reflections, because of this such things as squaddies, mechs, animals, Navi and extra in truth display up in reflections when now not in display area. This makes for fewer display area mistakes typically and is a neat bonus for higher-end machines.
Altogether then, the unobtanium settings pump up high quality point for quite a few key results – I handiest suggest them truly for RTX 4080/4090 and RX 7900 XT/XTX elegance GPUs.
This is our preliminary PC research, which has extra pictures of the sport working at each the usual best settings and the unlocked ‘unobtainium’ max presets.
Past the unobtanium settings, there are two different issues I need to point out. The primary is that the sport has a instrument trail for its ray-traced results for GPUs that do not have reinforce for DirectX Raytracing (DXR). To peer what this seems like, you’ll be able to disable DXR on Nvidia GPUs by means of the use of the nvidiaProfileInspector application and disabling the RT flag.
When put side-by-side, the instrument RT trail in truth turns out whole on the subject of options and constancy – rather a distinction to Epic’s method with UE5 the place instrument RT has visibly inferior symbol high quality. In fact, there is a sizeable efficiency benefit to having devoted ray tracing {hardware}; I measured an 18 p.c frame-rate benefit in a easy scene and a 66 p.c frame-rate build up in a extra advanced wooded area scene.
After all, prior to transferring onto the PS5 comparisons and optimised settings, it is price discussing Avatar’s symbol reconstruction and body era choices. The name helps FSR 3, which has been upgraded to be suitable with VRR – despite the fact that frame-times stay erratic, with blended brief and lengthy frames that has effects on visible smoothness even with VRR engaged. I realized the problem will get extra intense in open international, battle and traversal situations, whilst indoor spaces or much less intense cutscenes have smoother body supply with VRR. In the end, I nonetheless suggest the use of v-sync and seeking to handle a frame-rate that fits your observe’s most refresh price with FSR3 for a fully easy revel in.
The settings menu here’s a factor of good looks, with pips indicating what number of choices are to be had for each and every environment, preview photographs appearing the consequences of settings possible choices and a VRAM metre. To get the ‘max’ settings noticed right here, you can want to run the sport with the -unlockmaxsettings command line argument within the Ubisoft Attach launcher. Symbol credit score: Ubisoft Large
In regards to symbol reconstruction, it is transparent that we see some acquainted variations between FSR and DLSS. Transferring items with FSR showcase fizzling reconstruction artefacts in the back of them and one of those fuzzy glance that isn’t there with DLSS. Moreover, FSR has one of those ghosty pixelated glance with particle results this is progressed with DLSS, whilst aliasing on motion may be now not superb – particularly at night time or when it rains.
With that stated despite the fact that, DLSS has its personal problems, with volumetric clouds showing steadiness problems, perhaps because of the pattern positions misaligning with DLSS – I believe XeSS when built-in within the recreation will have an identical problems. FSR does not showcase this factor. In a similar fashion, despite the fact that admittedly much less noticeable, is the small quantity of visual jitter in water reflections with DLSS at decrease resolutions, as soon as once more most definitely because of pattern positions misaligning.
Extra vital is the selection of the default DLSS ‘D’ type for Avatar, which reasons some smearing in sure gentle and motion situations. Should you revel in this, you’ll be able to take a look at the use of the ‘C’ preset as a substitute the use of nvidiaProfileInspector with this XML document positioned within the Profile Inspector listing – or, on the other hand, by means of changing the default DLSS .dll document within the recreation’s set up listing with model 2.5.1 to be had at TechPowerUp. I might love to peer the ‘C’ preset transform the default choice in a long run recreation patch, along side a repair for the cloud and water problems.
Here is what your Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora profile will have to seem like in nvidiaProfileInspector with the XML document put in to reveal the DLSS preset settings. | Symbol credit score: Virtual Foundry
Past those somewhat minor problems, the person revel in in Avatar is fantastic: nice settings, nice menus and surely nice frame-time supply.
Now it is time for optimised settings. The PS5 model of the sport working in its 60fps mode is a smart start line for optimised PC settings for older low to mid-range GPUs, which is what the PS5 is in 2023. (Notice that the sport on PS5 does have further lower-level optimisations as my tech interview with Ubisoft Large main points.)
Solution turns out a herbal position to start out, and the PS5 in efficiency mode outputs at 1440p the use of FSR 2 with dynamic answer cutting down as little as 720p, in keeping with my counts. On a mid-range GPU then, no doubt glance to make use of DLSS or FSR 2 as this is a key method that consoles handle efficiency and one thing that should mimic on PC.
Within the PS5 efficiency mode, Avatar runs at 1440p with FSR 2, with dynamic answer scaling that bottoms out at 720p – and a few console-specific settings tweaks. It holds up lovely smartly in opposition to the PC unlock, even on ‘unobtainium’ settings. | Symbol credit score: Virtual Foundry
Past a discount in answer, quite a few the important thing results within the recreation have had settings discounts to stay the efficiency up and we will need the similar on PC.
For instance, we will drop the standard of specular reflections, accepting a noisier and not more strong symbol for higher efficiency. In a similar fashion, the roughness cutoff may be decreased, because of this fewer items have reflections. Right here, PS5 is closest to the medium environment on PC, which I additionally suggest for optimised settings – because it will increase efficiency by means of a cast 5 p.c as opposed to very excessive, as measured on an RTX 3070 at 4K in DLSS efficiency mode.
Following that very same line of considering, PS5 additionally reduces diffuse mirrored image high quality in a an identical means and once more appears closest to PC’s medium preset. At the RTX 3070, going from excessive to medium will increase efficiency by means of 8 p.c, so I like to recommend medium.
One instance of a PS5 RT environment that can not be matched completely on PC is BVH high quality. In side-by-side comparisons it is simple to peer that the PS5 has the similar geometry roundedness and element as PC’s excessive environment, however while you glance nearer, you’ll be able to see that some triangles are simply totally lacking on PS5 – which has a tendency to depart little black holes in geometry in additional mirror-like reflections, one thing now not noticed on any PC environment. Right here, I to find excessive to be completely cromulent for optimised settings.
Some PS5 settings do not have PC equivalents, together with the BVH high quality choice which seems not up to the low environment on PC. | Symbol credit score: Virtual Foundry
Transferring over to post-processing, the PS5 in efficiency mode cuts out each per-object and display movement blur, and I might suggest the similar for optimised settings on older GPUs. Intensity of subject high quality is some other excellent environment to show down, with the PS5 taking a look to make use of the low preset. This produces a noisier outcome with distinct halos round items, however it is arduous to note this in gameplay.
Every other excellent PS5 optimisation is volumetric fog rendering high quality, which makes use of a decrease inner answer for a much less temporally strong outcome – plus much less obtrusive gentle beams because the answer is to low to seize those small main points. When coated up with PC, we will see the standard point correlates maximum intently with the excessive choice. As in lots of video games, losing volumetric fog high quality is an easy efficiency win on mid-range GPUs, the place the RTX 3070 sees 5 p.c higher efficiency over extremely on this scene.
Following the fad with volumetrics, spot shadow high quality – shadows indoors and from synthetic lighting fixtures – may be decreased on PS5’s efficiency mode from the very excessive environment, appearing a little extra aliasing on edges, however nonetheless taking a look truly decent for shadow maps at standard digicam distance. Right here the RTX 3070 will get 3 p.c higher efficiency on excessive, so it is no doubt recommended for optimised settings.
Further streaming distance and object element settings may give excellent efficiency wins, and we propose adopting the PS5 settings right here for a excellent stability of constancy and function. | Symbol credit score: Virtual Foundry
One PS5 environment this is arduous to pin down is cloud high quality, however given the volume of noise and edge flicker it appears maximum like medium – and right here I like to recommend medium for optimised settings.
Probably the most vital optimisations is the additional streaming distance environment, which determines the variety at which massive items like bushes transition from genuine geometry to imposters. PS5 turns out to make use of the ‘5’ environment, and I additionally suggest this for optimised settings. In a similar fashion, the article element environment on PS5 seems closest to ‘9’, and we will undertake that on PC for our optimised settings too. This claws again 14 p.c of additional efficiency as opposed to the perfect ’15’ environment, whilst nonetheless providing minimum pop-in whilst exploring Pandora on foot.
That rounds off probably the most vital settings, and those shape a excellent foundation for optimised settings on one thing like an RTX 2070 Tremendous. When you have extra GPU efficiency to be had, I might suggest upping inner answer or specular mirrored image high quality if conceivable.
We claw again a mighty 61 p.c of efficiency the use of optimised settings as opposed to extremely settings on RTX 2070 Tremendous at 1440p with FSR 2 efficiency mode engaged. That permits the RTX 2070 Tremendous to ship frame-rates which are marginally higher than PS5, in spite of the ones additional console-specific optimisations. | Symbol credit score: Virtual Foundry
As opposed to extremely settings – now not even the unobtanium preset – our optimised settings at the RTX 2070 Tremendous at 1440p with FSR 2 efficiency mode build up efficiency by means of an unbelievable 61 p.c. There’s admittedly much less actual RT and long-range distance element, however the recreation remains to be good-looking.
If we consult with a place the place the PS5 is bottoming out at a 720p inner answer with FSR 2, the RTX 2070 Tremendous has a minor 5 p.c efficiency lead – despite the fact that, as mentioned above and in our Avatar developer interview, the PS5 deploys additional optimisations to succeed in its frame-rate goal.
With all stated and executed then, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a superb PC unlock. It runs smartly and not using a shader compilation stutter, options transparent menus and provides very scalable graphics choices, as our optimised settings divulge. I do have a couple of minor requests to make the sport even higher, like enhancements to the DLSS implementation and the inclusion of XeSS upscaling and DLSS body era. Another way despite the fact that, Avatar is with regards to the whole thing I may ask for from a contemporary PC unlock.
