Warframe Display Settings.

[--DSP--Kyoko]

Hello Everyone :),

So first of all I am a total I.T noob...so I don't know what I can do to improve my gameplay experience. That's why I am here. Anyways I was wondering what would be the best settings for me to run when I play Warframe?

I have a pretty standard Laptop, nothing too impressive.

Windows 10
Processor: Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-4500U CPU 1.80GHz 2.40GHz

RAM: 8.00 GB

System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64 based processor.

DirectX version 12

Display Mode: 1366 x 768

AMD Radeon Graphics Processor
AMD Radeon HD 8850M

I do live in Australia so my net is pretty S#&$. 65Mbps Speed and I get about 40-50FPS.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

Edited June 18, 2016 by ProjectSaberX7

[Amazerath]

I don't know how much you know about this and your question doesn't have a straightforward answer either. So I ended up writing a short guide that will hopefully help you in some way.

 

First of all, don't worry about your internet connection because it doesn't affect your FPS in any way.

Second, the best settings depend on how many FPS you are willing to sacrifice in order to make Warframe look better. And that is something you can only figure out by trying things out. Usually, your goal is to make the game run as close to 60fps as possible while looking as good as possible.

So which display options should you mess with in order to achieve that? Well, it depends a lot on your own personal preferences. I suggest you start by selecting the resolution you want and then setting everything else to either 'off' or 'low'. If after doing that you end up getting 60fps or close then it means you can start to enable some fancy stuff. But if you're reading the options in the display menu and it feels like they were written by klingons then I can kind of explain what some of them do. Options listed in bold are the ones I think you should pay more attention to:
 

Spoiler

 

Runtime Tessellation - OFF (it is supposed to make 3D models more detailed but it doesn't do much in Warframe)

Local Refletions - OFF (makes reflections on shinny materials more realistic)

Blur Reflections - OFF (makes reflections on shinny materials look more smooth)

High Dynamic Range - ON/OFF (not sure if it affects performance but it should affect the colors in the game. Enable if you like it)

Adaptive Exposure - ON/OFF (simulates your eyes adapting to sudden lightning changes. It's not supposed to affect performance much. Enable if you like it)

Glare - ON/OFF (looks like lens flare and it shouldn't hit performance too much. Enable if you like it)

Ambient Occlusion - OFF (adds special shadows to give you a better sense of depth. It is also known to murder performance in some games)

High Shader Quality - ON/OFF (basically it should improve the way objects react to lightning. It might affect performance a lot but I'm not sure)

Geometry Detail - Low/Medium (controls the amount of details on 3D objects)

Particle System Quality - Low/Medium (controls the quality of particle effects such as melee channeling. Put it on low if you don't really care about shinny dots floating around)

Shadow Quality - Low (controls the quality of shadows. Shadows can kill performance, especially when the screen gets crowded)

Texture Memory - Low/Medium (depends on how much VRAM your GPU has. If it has more then 2GB of VRAM then try Medium or even High)

Anisotropic Filtering - OFF (adds detail to all textures but it also hits performance a bit)

Trilinear Filtering - ON (makes textures slightly smoother. It is not always noticeable but it should not affect FPS in a noticeable way either)

Anti-Aliasing - OFF (do not turn this on unless you really hate jagged edges created by low resolutions. It impacts performance a lot)

Depth of Field - OFF (simulates your eyes focusing on specific objects and losing focus of other objects. I personally don't like it and it also hits performance)

Motion Blur - OFF (simulates blur created by very fast movement. I also don't like this one and it hits performance like Depth of Field)

Bloom - ON (this one is what makes objects glow when under strong light sources. It's a nice effect and I don't think it harms FPS much)

Color Correction - ON/OFF (controls colors in the game. Should not affect performance)

Dynamic Lightning - ON/OFF (allows the game to use fancy dynamic lights. They look nice but in some games they hit performance)

Character Shadows - OFF (enables shadows on characters such as your warframe and enemies. You might want to enable it if you can spare the FPS)

Constant Weapon Trail - ON/OFF (melee weapons have permanent trail, like when channeled. It doesn't affect FPS much but only enable it if you like it)

Weapon Elemental FX - ON/OFF (also a very personal choice that should not affect FPS)

 

Lastly, there are two things you should always keep in mind.

1) Your FPS and hardware are very likely to be affected by the amount of things on your screen. You might be able to get 60fps when you're just standing in a corridor but then it could drop to 30fps when you're in a room with enemies, explosions and lots of movement.

2) Increasing your display settings usually causes your hardware to work harder. That means it will consume more power (or battery power) and that it will produce more heat.

[--DSP--Kyoko]

6 hours ago, Amazerath said:

I don't know how much you know about this and your question doesn't have a straightforward answer either. So I ended up writing a short guide that will hopefully help you in some way.

 

First of all, don't worry about your internet connection because it doesn't affect your FPS in any way.

Second, the best settings depend on how many FPS you are willing to sacrifice in order to make Warframe look better. And that is something you can only figure out by trying things out. Usually, your goal is to make the game run as close to 60fps as possible while looking as good as possible.

So which display options should you mess with in order to achieve that? Well, it depends a lot on your own personal preferences. I suggest you start by selecting the resolution you want and then setting everything else to either 'off' or 'low'. If after doing that you end up getting 60fps or close then it means you can start to enable some fancy stuff. But if you're reading the options in the display menu and it feels like they were written by klingons then I can kind of explain what some of them do. Options listed in bold are the ones I think you should pay more attention to:
 

  Hide contents

 

Runtime Tessellation - OFF (it is supposed to make 3D models more detailed but it doesn't do much in Warframe)

Local Refletions - OFF (makes reflections on shinny materials more realistic)

Blur Reflections - OFF (makes reflections on shinny materials look more smooth)

High Dynamic Range - ON/OFF (not sure if it affects performance but it should affect the colors in the game. Enable if you like it)

Adaptive Exposure - ON/OFF (simulates your eyes adapting to sudden lightning changes. It's not supposed to affect performance much. Enable if you like it)

Glare - ON/OFF (looks like lens flare and it shouldn't hit performance too much. Enable if you like it)

Ambient Occlusion - OFF (adds special shadows to give you a better sense of depth. It is also known to murder performance in some games)

High Shader Quality - ON/OFF (basically it should improve the way objects react to lightning. It might affect performance a lot but I'm not sure)

Geometry Detail - Low/Medium (controls the amount of details on 3D objects)

Particle System Quality - Low/Medium (controls the quality of particle effects such as melee channeling. Put it on low if you don't really care about shinny dots floating around)

Shadow Quality - Low (controls the quality of shadows. Shadows can kill performance, especially when the screen gets crowded)

Texture Memory - Low/Medium (depends on how much VRAM your GPU has. If it has more then 2GB of VRAM then try Medium or even High)

Anisotropic Filtering - OFF (adds detail to all textures but it also hits performance a bit)

Trilinear Filtering - ON (makes textures slightly smoother. It is not always noticeable but it should not affect FPS in a noticeable way either)

Anti-Aliasing - OFF (do not turn this on unless you really hate jagged edges created by low resolutions. It impacts performance a lot)

Depth of Field - OFF (simulates your eyes focusing on specific objects and losing focus of other objects. I personally don't like it and it also hits performance)

Motion Blur - OFF (simulates blur created by very fast movement. I also don't like this one and it hits performance like Depth of Field)

Bloom - ON (this one is what makes objects glow when under strong light sources. It's a nice effect and I don't think it harms FPS much)

Color Correction - ON/OFF (controls colors in the game. Should not affect performance)

Dynamic Lightning - ON/OFF (allows the game to use fancy dynamic lights. They look nice but in some games they hit performance)

Character Shadows - OFF (enables shadows on characters such as your warframe and enemies. You might want to enable it if you can spare the FPS)

Constant Weapon Trail - ON/OFF (melee weapons have permanent trail, like when channeled. It doesn't affect FPS much but only enable it if you like it)

Weapon Elemental FX - ON/OFF (also a very personal choice that should not affect FPS)

 

Lastly, there are two things you should always keep in mind.

1) Your FPS and hardware are very likely to be affected by the amount of things on your screen. You might be able to get 60fps when you're just standing in a corridor but then it could drop to 30fps when you're in a room with enemies, explosions and lots of movement.

2) Increasing your display settings usually causes your hardware to work harder. That means it will consume more power (or battery power) and that it will produce more heat.

Thanks for all that Info! Like you said I'll play around with the setting in bold/unbolded and see what I end up liking. Thanks once again for taking your time to explain :)

[BEKONE]

On 6/18/2016 at 11:06 PM, Amazerath said:

-snip-

Thanks for the explanation of the settings! They need to add them in the game.

[Amazerath]

No problem! And yes, every game should have tooltips displaying that kind of information. Especially games that lack predefined "low/mid/high" settings.