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Sons Of The Forest v1.0 | OPTIMIZATION GUIDE | Every Setting Tested | Best Settings
BenchmarKing
Overview
This video provides an in-depth optimization guide for Sons Of The Forest v1.0, focusing on balancing visual quality with performance. It revisits graphics settings from the Early Access version, highlighting improvements like FSR3 support and reduced VRAM usage. The guide systematically tests each graphics option, explaining its visual impact and performance cost, and offers specific recommendations for optimal settings, particularly recommending DLSS or FSR3 over TAA for better image quality and stability. The video concludes by demonstrating the significant performance gains achievable with optimized settings compared to the Ultra preset.
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Chapters
- Sons Of The Forest v1.0 retains the visually impressive HDRP engine from Early Access, especially in foliage and environmental detail.
- Persistent issues include subpar rain effects and low-resolution volumetrics, along with occasional CPU spikes.
- Graphics settings are largely similar to Early Access, with minor additions like Anisotropic Filtering and updated option names.
- The primary goal is to find the optimal balance between performance and visual fidelity.
Understanding the game's visual foundation and persistent issues helps set expectations and prioritize optimization efforts.
The game's use of Unity's HDRP engine for detailed foliage and environments.
- The v1.0 version shows lower VRAM usage and slightly more consistent performance (percentile lows) compared to Early Access.
- FSR3 is now supported, offering an alternative to FSR1 and DLSS.
- Temporal Anti Aliasing (TAA) exhibits noticeable shimmering and aliasing, especially on foliage.
- DLSS and FSR3 provide superior image quality and stability over TAA, with DLSS generally looking better.
- Dynamic Resolution Scaling is limited to FSR1 and TAA, negatively impacting image quality.
Choosing the right upscaling technology is crucial for achieving both sharp visuals and smooth performance, as TAA and dynamic scaling have significant drawbacks.
Comparing the shimmering and aliasing of TAA on trees versus the cleaner image provided by DLSS or FSR3.
- Draw Distance: Medium or High is recommended for weaker CPUs to minimize pop-in, as lower settings perform similarly.
- Ambient Occlusion: Appears to be non-functional, so setting it to Ultra is recommended with no performance cost.
- Fog Quality: Volumetric fog is a performance drain; disable it or set to Low if enabled.
- Texture Filtering: Enable Anisotropic Textures and set Terrain Anisotropic Textures to High for improved clarity with minimal performance impact.
- Shadow Quality: Medium or High offers a good balance between shadow definition and performance cost.
- Clouds: Low is recommended for performance, but High offers volumetric clouds with a significant performance cost.
These fundamental settings directly impact how much of the world is rendered and how detailed it appears, requiring careful tuning to avoid performance bottlenecks.
Lowering Draw Distance can cause objects to suddenly appear (pop-in) as you approach them.
- Grass: Medium or High settings are recommended for foliage density and render distance.
- Water: High quality is recommended as it has a negligible performance impact.
- Parallax Distance: High is recommended for added surface depth with no noticeable performance cost.
- Billboard Quality: High is recommended to reduce LOD pop-in of distant foliage, though lower settings save performance if pop-in is acceptable.
- Texture Resolution: Ultra is recommended as VRAM usage remains low (around 5GB) even at 1440p.
Fine-tuning these settings enhances environmental detail and texture clarity without significantly impacting frame rates, contributing to overall visual immersion.
Parallax Occlusion Mapping adds a sense of depth to flat surfaces, making them appear more three-dimensional.
- Screen Space Reflections (SSR): Keep enabled as it significantly enhances visuals, especially water, at a moderate performance cost.
- Micro Shadowing & Contact Shadows: Keep both enabled if possible; disable Contact Shadows first if performance is needed, as Micro Shadowing has minimal impact.
- Optimized Settings vs. Ultra Preset: Optimized settings yield approximately a 25% performance increase with minimal visual difference.
- Leverage DLSS/FSR3: These upscaling technologies offer superior image quality and performance gains compared to lowering native settings or using TAA.
These advanced features add polish to the visuals, and understanding their performance trade-offs allows for informed decisions, especially when combined with upscaling.
Disabling SSR can make water surfaces look flat and less reflective.
Key takeaways
- Sons Of The Forest v1.0 offers improved performance consistency and lower VRAM usage compared to its Early Access version.
- DLSS and FSR3 are highly recommended for superior image quality and performance over native TAA and dynamic resolution scaling.
- Settings like Ambient Occlusion appear to be non-functional and can be set to Ultra without performance penalty.
- Prioritize settings that significantly impact visuals like Shadow Quality and Clouds, opting for Medium/High and Low respectively for a balance.
- Texture Filtering and Resolution can be set to High/Ultra with minimal VRAM impact, enhancing clarity.
- Advanced effects like SSR, Micro Shadowing, and Contact Shadows add visual depth; disable Contact Shadows last if performance is critical.
- Optimizing individual settings provides a significant performance boost (around 25%) over the Ultra preset, with minimal visual compromise.
- Utilizing DLSS or FSR3 in conjunction with optimized settings is the most effective way to maximize both performance and visual fidelity.
Key terms
HDRP (High Definition Render Pipeline)FSR3 (FidelityFX Super Resolution 3)DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling)TAA (Temporal Anti Aliasing)FXAA (Fast Approximate Anti Aliasing)SMAA (Subpixel Morphological Anti Aliasing)Draw DistanceAmbient OcclusionVolumetric FogAnisotropic FilteringShadow QualityVolumetric CloudsParallax Occlusion MappingBillboard QualityScreen Space Reflections (SSR)Contact ShadowsMicro ShadowingVRAM UsageCPU BoundLOD (Level of Detail) Pop-in
Test your understanding
- What are the primary visual advantages and disadvantages of Sons Of The Forest's engine in v1.0?
- How do DLSS and FSR3 compare to TAA in terms of image quality and performance in this game?
- Which graphics settings can be set to their highest values with minimal performance impact or appear to be non-functional?
- What is the recommended approach for balancing performance and visual quality when configuring graphics settings in Sons Of The Forest?
- Why is it generally more beneficial to use DLSS or FSR3 rather than solely relying on lowering native graphics settings for performance gains?