Darksiders III PC performance thread

[GrrImAFridge]

(Click for general game info.)

🖥️ System requirements:

🧰 Latest drivers: (as at 24/02/2022)
AMD: 22.2.2
Nvidia: 511.79

📊 Benchmarks:
GameGPU (Russian; review build)

🎩 Tips and tricks:
Cap the frame rate/potentially improve frame times: Download RivaTuner Statistics Server (if you use MSI Afterburner, then you already have it installed), input your desired framerate limit in the "Framerate limit" box, and hit Enter . Alternatively, those with an Nvidia GPU can either cap the frame rate at the driver level via the Nvidia Control Panel (requires the 441.87+ drivers) or use Nvidia Inspector to force a vsync internal lower than one-half (click the small tool icon to open the game profile section).
Note: Useful if your system can't maintain, say, 60fps and you're sensitive to the wild fluctuations, or you're experiencing uneven frame times. The greater window the engine has to render a given frame, if you're imposing a lower frame rate than the game can otherwise provide, may also help in alleviating stuttering related to data streaming.
Increase the frame rate cap: Open C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Darksiders3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\GameUserSettings.ini and change the value of FrameRateLimit as desired.
Toggle HUD: Open C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Darksiders3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Input.ini and add ActionRebindings=(ActionName="ToggleHUD",AddedKeys=((ActionName="ToggleHUD",Key=x)),RemovedKeys=), where x is your desired key. (Credit to QueenOfHunting.)
Mitigate TAA blur: Follow these instructions. (Credit to someone @ PC Gaming Wiki via didamangi.)
Enable downsampling: Follow these instructions. (Credit to didamangi.)
Enable HDR in exclusive fullscreen mode: Follow these instructions. (Credit to Xploder @ Steam Community via Schlomo.)

When posting your own tip/trick or something else you'd like to see here in the OP, be sure to tag my username (@GrrImAFridge), as this way I'll receive a notification. I may miss your suggestion otherwise.

⚙️ Graphics settings:

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Display mode: Window; Windowed fullscreen; Fullscreen
Resolution: Self-explanatory
Brightness: Self-explanatory
Vertical sync: Off/On
Shadow quality: Low; Medium; High; Epic
Anti-aliasing: Low; Medium; High; Epic
View distance: Low; Medium; High; Epic; Cinematic
Texture quality: Low; Medium; High; Epic
Post-processing: Low; Medium; High; Epic
Effects quality: Low; Medium; High; Epic
Foliage quality: Low; Medium; High; Epic

 

[Schlomo]

Downloading now. Any word on how to activate HDR?

 

[Grimminski]

So it's Unreal Engine 4?

 

[chandoog]

Minimum requirements (CPU) seem a bit high .. huh. Would love to hear if someone on a 7300HQ or equivalent Intel processor is able to run this without issues.

 

[Parsnip]

I assume there's no in-game bench?
I'm not going to start the game until I finish my Deathinitive run on DS2 but after that I'll post my numbers and settings.

So it's Unreal Engine 4?

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Yup.

 

[Deleted member 300]

you can uncap framerate

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Darksiders_III#Unlock_Frame_Rate

 

[Nooblet]

It's a rather pretty game

you can uncap framerate

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Darksiders_III#Unlock_Frame_Rate

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Thanks a lot for this.

 

[Schlomo]

Impressions so far (i5 4690k, 1080ti, 4k resolution):
- It looks beautiful! Texture resolution and image quality are not even comparable to the first two games.
- It runs pretty well in exclusive fullscreen (which can be a little difficult to activate, I had to switch back and forth a few times until it registered).
- The option with the biggest impact on performance seems to be shadow quality.
- HDR works by activating it in the Windows desktop. Starting the game with this forces it to borderless window, which has a massive performance penalty. Switching to fullscreen in game disables HDR. So the choice is between good performance or HDR, which is tough, because the HDR looks very nice.
- Bug: sometimes framerate can get wonky after a death or an option change. Dying again or switching screen modes fixes this.
- Game is fun!

 

[NeoRaider]

What is "Cinematic" view distance?

 

[Schlomo]

What is "Cinamatic" view distance?

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I suppose it is just the maximum LOD distance setting. Despite the dramatic name, it doesn't seem to be that taxing.

 

[Deleted member 15497]

i7 3770k
16GB RAM
GTX 1080
1080p
Everything maxed out ingame
Flawless performance in the first 2 hours.

 

[Ahti]

The game runs at nearly flawless 60FPS in 1440p, with maxed out settings on my PC (4790k, 1080Ti, 16GB RAM, Win10).
But downsampling resolutions don`t work for me, the game keeps running in native res no matter what.

 

[La Fawn Duh]

Some strange technical problems on PC. Dialogue Language changes everytime after entering a cutscene (from English to German for me)
Characters are teleporting strange forward after a cut in a cutscene. Lipsync in German is completly broken for me. Weird FPS Drops after entering some new areas in the game. So sad, because the Game looks and plays good.

 

[Coolade]

For my 21:9 family.

 

[CloseTalker]

i7 3770k
16GB RAM
GTX 1080
1080p
Everything maxed out ingame
Flawless performance in the first 2 hours.

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Dope. That's basically my rig, but I have a slightly better CPU, so that's great to hear.

 

[Nooblet]

For my 21:9 family.

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The offcentre subtitles are bothering me.

 

[SleepSmasher]

Almost flawless, native 21:9 support? That's enough reason for me to buy the game.

 

[Bucca]

Anyone know why both GeForce Experience overlay and RTSS aren't showing my FPS while the game is running?

 

[Talus]

No DLSS out of the gate I'm guessing?

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Anyone know why both GeForce Experience overlay and RTSS aren't showing my FPS while the game is running?

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Steam's FPS counter should work.

Late edit:

No DLSS out of the gate I'm guessing?

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Yeah. Still TBA.

 

[Teggy]

I'm having a hard time telling what's being used for cutscenes. Sometimes it looks in engine, sometimes it drops to 30 FPS. Overall I'm getting a pretty solid 60 at 1440p with a 1080.

 

[nikasun :D]

When I use 3480x1080 as resolution, the picture is zoomed in. Does the game not support this resolution?

 

[GavinUK86]

i7 2600k, GTX 970. Textures and AA on Epic and everything else on High at 1080p gives me 60fps 90% of the time. Drops to around 50 when a lot of particle effects show up like in busy fights. Getting judder running around new areas but that could be due to my mechanical drive. One crash at the beginning but nothing since. Played it for 4 hours so far. It's pretty solid.

 

[Nooblet]

I'm having a hard time telling what's being used for cutscenes. Sometimes it looks in engine, sometimes it drops to 30 FPS. Overall I'm getting a pretty solid 60 at 1440p with a 1080.

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All cutscenes are locked to 30FPS but particle effects in cutscenes are unlocked. They are also real time as they show the current armour and hollow that you are wearing. They look slightly choppy but that's because they are hand animated not because it's a poor quality video playback.

 

[Teggy]

All cutscenes are locked to 30FPS but particle effects in cutscenes are unlocked. They are also real time as they show the current armour and hollow that you are wearing. They look slightly choppy but that's because they are hand animated not because it's a poor quality video playback.

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Oh ok, so they are in-engine but have that "cinematic feel" :P

 

[SunBroDave]

For my 21:9 family.

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Is it just me or does the camera seem very close to the player character? It's a little disorienting when this is blown up to fullscreen and I'm sitting my normal distance away from the screen that I would be when playing a game

 

[GymWolf86]

Guys can you tell te if the pc persion let you chose audio and subs from different languages?

Like audio eng and italian sub?

Thanks.

 

[c0Zm1c]

Is it just me or does the camera seem very close to the player character? It's a little disorienting when this is blown up to fullscreen and I'm sitting my normal distance away from the screen that I would be when playing a game

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According to the pcgamingwiki page it's "vert-", crops the top and bottom to fit rather than expanding the view horizontally. It can probably be fixed though.

Edit: QUBE 2 also has this problem and also runs on UE4 but I never found a fix for that. :/

 

[chandoog]

Is it just me or does the camera seem very close to the player character? It's a little disorienting when this is blown up to fullscreen and I'm sitting my normal distance away from the screen that I would be when playing a game

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Yeah, it seems like Yakuza 0, this is cropping the image to maintain the ultra wide screen aspect ratio, instead of pulling the camera back and drawing it natively. Possibly something a modder might be able to fix.

 

[LatscherGnu]

wsgf already has a fov changer but haven't tried it myself

 

[zerocalories]

Yeah, it seems like Yakuza 0, this is cropping the image to maintain the ultra wide screen aspect ratio, instead of pulling the camera back and drawing it natively. Possibly something a modder might be able to fix.

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This shit is atrocious that it might as well not be in the game

I don't mind playing in low fov, but give me the proper options

 

[b0uncyfr0]

Having afew issues with fullscreen. Going from 4k to 1440p stays in fullscreen one sec and then changing it again - its windowed. No consistency. Also vsync doesn't work half the time. This needs some patches.

 

[c0Zm1c]

This shit is atrocious that it might as well not be in the game

I don't mind playing in low fov, but give me the proper options

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I don't think some devs know how to implement it correctly. For QUBE 2 (another game with this problem) their answer was to add an FOV slider but that's not how it works. It should be extending the view horizontally. So in QUBE 2, even with FOV on the highest setting, you get this:

16:9
http:///kHNc.jpg

21:9
http:///lHNc.jpg

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Where as in a game that does it right (Gravel) you get this:

16:9
http:///uHNc.jpg

21:9
http:///vHNc.jpg

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[Sanctuary]

Having afew issues with fullscreen. Going from 4k to 1440p stays in fullscreen one sec and then changing it again - its windowed. No consistency. Also vsync doesn't work half the time. This needs some patches.

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I can't even get it in full screen above 720p (I'm on a 4K screen as well). Shit stays greyed out. When I initially launched the game for the first time, the resolution was so low that I could barely even see any of the options to actually select windowed mode just to see the rest of them.

edit: OK, got it to go into full screen 1440p, but I shouldn't have exited the game. Now it won't let me play in any full screen resolution that isn't native, but the game is unplayable at 4K. Might end up having to play this shit on my plasma just to get it to fucking run correctly.

 

[Ahti]

So no one else has difficulties with getting this game to run with resolutions higher than 1440p/downsampling?

 

[didamangi]

Try disabling fullscren optimizations and set override high dpi scaling to applicaton for Darksiders3-Win64-Shipping.exe in steamapps\common\Darksiders 3\Darksiders3\Binaries\Win64

Seems like I have to do this every time for some games when playing in 4K with high dpi scaling that have problems changing fullscreen mode.

JaseC https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Darksiders_III#Sharpening feels pretty important to offset blur by TAA

To change render resolution:

1. Go to the configuration file(s) location ( %LOCALAPPDATA%\Darksiders3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\ )
2. Open Engine.ini.
3. Add the following and save the file.

[SystemSettings]
r.ScreenPercentage=100

You can change 100 to a lower or higher number depending on your needs.

 

[unfashionable]

Games literally unplayable for me at the strange, extremely unusual resolution of 1080p

its rendering as if the screen is bigger (say 1440p) but instead of scaling, its just missing 1/3 of the screen horizontally and vertically so its literally unplayable

-edit resolved as per below post

 

[scitek]

wsgf already has a fov changer but haven't tried it myself

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Can confirm it works.

http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=32918

 

[Xiofire]

Worst port seen in years. Games literally unplayable for me at the strange, extremely unusual resolution of 1080p

its rendering as if the screen is bigger (say 1440p) but instead of scaling, its just missing 1/3 of the screen horizontally and vertically so its literally unplayable

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Do you have any kind of scaling enabled in Windows? I had this issue on my 4K TV with 150% scaling.

Just right click the .exe, under the compatibility tabs, Change high DPI settings, and change the option on the right. I did this and it fixed the issue, albeit having to juggle the resolution back and forth a few times to get it to fullscreen properly lol

 

[unfashionable]

Do you have any kind of scaling enabled in Windows? I had this issue on my 4K TV with 150% scaling.

Just right click the .exe, under the compatibility tabs, Change high DPI settings, and change the option on the right. I did this and it fixed the issue, albeit having to juggle the resolution back and forth a few times to get it to fullscreen properly lol

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Thanks for reply, I fixed issue with post in another thread by Senseix as below

SenseiX said:↑
This also happened to me. Changing the display mode to windowed then to fullscreen fixed the resolution problem for me.

 

[Tizoc]

Ive got a gtx 970m with an i7 6700 hq cpu
All settings maxed out and the performance is a solid 60 fps muxh of the time. In fact it only dips 8n non combat areas if there is a lot of visual effects going on.

 

[scitek]

Thanks for reply, I fixed issue with post in another thread by Senseix as below

SenseiX said:↑
This also happened to me. Changing the display mode to windowed then to fullscreen fixed the resolution problem for me.

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A quicker way to do this is just hit Alt+Enter twice when you first start the game.

 

[Xiofire]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone given this a whirl on Linux through Proton?

 

[GrrImAFridge]

<snip>

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Ta, added.

 

[Ahti]

To change render resolution:

1. Go to the configuration file(s) location ( %LOCALAPPDATA%\Darksiders3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\ )
2. Open Engine.ini.
3. Add the following and save the file.

[SystemSettings]
r.ScreenPercentage=100

You can change 100 to a lower or higher number depending on your needs.

Click to shrink...

This works! Thank you very much!

 

[Tizoc]

OK so adding in that Sharpening code causes my FPS to dip into 30-40 range now XP

Which settings have the biggest impact on performance? I feel I can get away with Medium shadows, but what about the other options? Is there any major difference between high and epic for aa for example?

 

[Schlomo]

Does the Steam fps counter work with this game? I activated it in the Steam options, but it doesn't show up. Achievements do show up, so the overlay seems to be working.

 

[Tizoc]

Does the Steam fps counter work with this game? I activated it in the Steam options, but it doesn't show up. Achievements do show up, so the overlay seems to be working.

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The FPS counter doesn't show up if you are in Big Picture Mode.
If you are not in bpm, try re-positioning it or pressing F12. There should be a hotkey to change its position.

 

[Spaltazar]

wait, 21:9 is cropped? i never even noticed because i immediately switched to borderless fullscreen before i started the game. I almost wish i didn't knew this, now i am tempted to go 16:9 for better camera even though i have been playing fine so far

 

[d00d3n]

Anyone with a 2080ti who has experimented with lowering settings from epic to get 4k 60 fps? What setting should be lowered for minimal visual impact?