One of the Perks of the PC version of a game is that PC players can tweak the settings and things are not any different for Final Fantasy 15 PC version and here we will discuss all the possible tweaks to enable Borderless windowed mode, sharpen the image quality, and the best graphical setting for optimal performance.
Following are the tweaks that will enable you to tweak the Final Fantasy 15 PC version to your liking for the best gameplay experience.
Final Fantasy 15 PC Tweaks
Final Fantasy 15 is the latest entry in the long-running franchise and following the game’s release on consoles, it has finally made it to PC. Here we will discuss all the tweak to make your gameplay experience smoother.
How To Enable Borderless Windowed Mode
Final Fantasy 15 PC version doesn’t have the option to enable the Borderless Windowed mode in the options menu. So to enable it you will have to do it through the game’s configuration file.
First, navigate to “C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XV\Steam\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\savestorage\” and open the GraphicsConfig.ini in notepad or any text editor.
In the configuration file, you have to look for “HardwareFullScreenMode=1”. Once located, replace it with “HardwareFullScreenMode=0” save and exit. Start the game, and it will run in Borderless Windowed Mode. Enabling this will also resolve the Grey Screen error.
However, in some cases, you won’t find the Final Fantasy 15 folder in documents and to get the folder you need to first create a save. Just start the game, and make a new save file. Now exit the game and the folder will be in place.
How To Reduce Blur
Final Fantasy 15 PC version offers a lot of options for anti-aliasing and the Temporal Anti-aliasing(TAA) is the best options to eliminate the jaggies in the game.
However, TAA Introduces some blur while playing the game making the overall image quality a bit soft. However, the image quality in the game can be sharpened if you make the following changes to the settings.
- Force 16x Anisotropic Filtering through Nvidia or AMD Control Panel.
- Open up the “GraphicsConfig.ini” file and set the texture memory to 8000.
This should reduce the blur during gameplay and will sharpen the image a bit.
Another way to reduce to sharpen the image in Final Fantasy 15 PC version, you can force SSMAA from Nvidia or AMD control Panel. SMAA removes the jaggies but, doesn’t make the image quality blur or soft.
However, SMAA demands a higher end graphics card as it renders the game at a higher resolution and downsamples it to your monitor’s native resolution. So basically use SMAA f you have a GPU that can handle it.
Ignore the above steps, enable TAA and scale up the resolution scaler to 125% or 150%. This will significantly reduce the blur and sharpen the image quality. This might even eliminate the blur all together. However, this only works if you have a high-end GPU since resolution scaler causes a big performance hit.
Graphics Settings For Best Performance
Graphics settings play an important part in running a PC game at smooth framerates and here we will give the best graphical settings for best in-game performance so that you can play Final Fantasy 15 PC version at a steady 60 FPS.
First up, open up Nvidia Control Panel and go to 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings. In the drop-down list, look for Final Fantasy 15 and if it isn’t on the list then manually add it.
Once the FFXV is the list, look for following settings set the values as given below.
- “Maximum pre-rendered frames” set it to “1”.
- “Power management mode” set it to “Prefer maximum performance”.
- “Threaded Optimization” set it to “On”.
Now with these settings set, open up the game go to graphical settings and use the following graphical settings for best performance on a high-end system.
- Model LOD – Average
- TRAM – Average
- Anisotropic Filtering – High
- Geomapping – Off
- Lighting – High
- Shadows – High
- Ambient Occlusion – High
- Anti-aliasing – FXAA or TAA
- Motion Blur – Off
- Filtering – Low
- Nvidia HairWorks – Off
- Nvidia-VXAO – Off
- Nvidia TurfEffects – Off
- Nvidia ShadowLibs – Off
As for the resolution scale setting, that is up to you since it costs performance to drop.
FPS Boost
There is another way in which you can potentially boost your FPS without making many sacrifices in graphical settings. However, the performance boost will be most noticeable for Nvidia GTX 10 series card owners.
Open Nvidia Control Panel and go to 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings. In the drop-down list locate Final Fantasy 15 and then look for V-Sync and set it to “Fast”. This will potentially boost your in-game FPS without many many sacrifices in graphical settings.
For a consistent 1080p 60FPS throughout the game, try these settings. However, note that increasing these values will make you lose frames in more significant battles and cities.
- Set TextureAnisotropicFilter to 8
- Set ShadowResolutionto 200
- Set TerrainTesselation to 0
- Set MotionBlur according to your preference
- Set ShadowDistanceScaling to 125
- Set LightingQuality to 0
- Set ModelLODScaling to 125
- Set ScreenFilterDetail according to your preference
- Set AmbientOcclusion to 1
- Set Antialias to 2
- Set HighSpecAsset to 0
Special K Settings
These are the special K settings that will help you enhance your gaming experience.
The first thing you need to do is open Special K Interface and go to display settings. Here you will find the Fullscreen option, go to Force Override and uncheck it. Next, Find Application Preference and set it to Scaling Mode.
For Final Fantasy 15, find the Above Normal option and then go to VSYNC Emulation Thread. You will also find a SwapChain Flip Thread option for better performance. Next, go to Time Critical and then find Aync. File Run Thread; this will stop any physical twitches from happening. Lastly, Go to Sleep(0) and then check SwitchToThread().
For SwapChain Management, go to settings and then SwapChain Management. Set Presentation Interval to 1 for V-Sync, BackBuffer Count to 3 for FrameBuffer, and Maximum Device Latency to 4. You can reduce this value to 3 if you’re experiencing a high input lag.
For Texture Management, check Enable Texture Caching, Cache Stages Tecture Uploads, and Measure Residency. Set the Maximum Cache Size to the size of your VRAM.
For Input Management, go to Enable/Disable Devices and disable the mouse and keyboard input to the game. Secondly, uncheck the Disabled Gamepad Input to Game option.
Lastly, for the Plugins, go to ThirdParty and check the ReShade(Official) Plug-In Load Order.
Nvidia Control Panel Settings
These are the critical Nvidia Control Panel Settings that will you in the game. Set the value of Anisotropic Filtering to 16. Secondly, set Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames and V-Sync to Application Controlled. These settings are essential for the Speak K Settings to work.
Game Settings
Below are mentioned the primary game settings that you need to make.
Let’s discuss the basic settings first, set DisplayResolutionWH to 2560×1440, set GraphicsPreset to 4, Max Framerate to 30 and RenderingResolutionRatio 100. Keep the ShowFPS setting to 0.
For display settings, set CurrentDisplay, FullScreenModeOnStartup, HardwareFullScreenMode and VSync to 1. For HDRLuminaceScale, keep it to 600.
Moving on to the NVIDIA Game Works Settings, set NvidiaHairWorks, NvidiaShadowLibs, and NvidiaVXAO to 0. To fix memory leaking issues, set NvidiaTurf equal to 1.
For Rendering Settings, set AmbientOcclusion and Antialias, LightingQuality to 2. For HighSpecAsset and TerrainTesselation, set it to 1. For ModelLODScaling and ShadowResolution, put these two values to 200. MotionBlur and ScreenFilterDetail will be set to 0. TestureAnistripicFilter will be set to 8, and the TextureStreamingMemory will be set to 1000.
ReShade Settings
Reshade settings implement the Post Processing Effects such as sharpening and adding more contrast and color. This setting will lessen the blurriness of TAA and fix the game’s overall colors, making the image more clear and more sharp.
Activate a Mod to Improve Performance
The Final Fantasy 15 mod created by Kaldaein adds some major enhancements to the Windows Edition of the game. This mod is named ‘Special-K mini-mod’ and it boosts performance.
This mod will also help in lessening the load duration and texture streaming. The differences are noticeable when you use high-resolution texture packs.
After downloading, you can access this mod in the game by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + BACKSPACE. This is where you will find all of its features and utilities.
Update your Driver
If you’re an NVIDIA user, then you should not be using a driver below 391.01. For AMD Users, using a driver of at least 18.3.1 is recommended.
Enable Borderless Mode
You can activate the Borderless Mode from the GraphicsConfig.ini by setting the value of ‘HardwareFullScreenMode’ to 0. Do not play with borderless mode as it can highly decrease your performance.
White Flickering
Disable or reduce the Filtering settings of NVIDIA remove the white flickering. If this problem still persists with NVIDIA FXAA turned off, try to minimize the filtering.
Black Flickering
Black Flickering can occur due to various reasons, such as memory leaks. Consider forcing Anisotropic filtering x16 through AMD Relive or NVIDIA Control Panel.
Texture Flickering
There might be some texture issues while playing in the Highest settings of TRAM. If you reduce these settings, then the flickering problems will be alleviated, but it will also change the quality to a considerable extent. Some players have fixed this issue by capping their frames to 30 or 59. Play around with the values to find the best compromise between quality and performance for you.
Shadow Distance Scaling
Enhance the Shadow Settings individually from GraphicsConfig.ini. The Shadow Distance Scaling determines the distance at which the shadows are produced. 200 is the highest value in the game. Shadow Distance Scaling is difficult on GPU.
Shadow Resolution
The Shadow Resolution will identify the quality of shadows produced. 400 is the game’s highest setting. You may tweak the Level of Detail of Objects in the game from GraphicsConfig.ini until you find the right performance.
Model LOD Scaling
This scaling will enhance the polygon-count, detail level, and draw distance of objects. This scaling has a significant impact on the GPU and CPU. Adjust this setting if you’re struggling inside battles and cities. The highest In-game settings are 200, and the lowest is 75. The values can go above 75 and to a maximum of 999.
Rendering Resolution
Rendering resolution at 125%, 175%, 150%, and 200% are quite big; consider adjusting from the GraphicsConfig.ini until you find the performance that you’re comfortable with.
Rendering Resolution Ratio
For this setting, the values 50 to 100 are equivalent to 50% to 200%. Enhancing this value will help you remove the aliasing, and blurry anti-aliasing method passed from TAA. This will result in a sharper picture. Make sure to stick with the multiples of 5; other values that don’t end with five will cause some glitches
These are all the Final Fantasy 15 PC Tweaks. Is there anything you would like to add that we missed? Let us know in the comments.
