Bioshock tweaks

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/27/bioshock-infinite-tweaks/#more-147432

Nice the mouse sensitivity one would be helpful

Nice, if they ever patch the mouse issues(jumps all around for me-pretty much unusable) I might take advantage of that. The way they set up mouse sensitivity is stupid as fuck. Also note that the ini location they listed is not for the Steam version.

Some additional performance related tweaks they didn't list(I posted these on another thread):
1.Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\Engine\Config and open up BaseEngine.ini
2.Change PoolSize to however many megabytes of vram your graphics card has(1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). It's at 140 by default...
3. Change the MinSmoothedFramerate at MaxSmoothedFramerate. I read on gamefaqs it should be about 59 for min and 61 for max if you have a 60Hz monitor.

And for Nvidia card users only:
Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.
Also there's a new driver out.

Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.

Yea Vsync seems to be fucked

Seems if I even get any drop of frames even to like 58 it stutters and drops me down to like 30 for a second. Really annoying.

Yeah, it seems like they have some kind of dynamic vsync. In the areas with heavy lighting I'll get a steady 30. If it was really that taxing, it wouldn't be completely steady at exactly 30 every time it slows down... I think that the FPS smoothing settings help out with this too but I'm not sure.

The AO is very poorly optimized for nvidia cards as well, I definitely recommend turning that off in game and using the control panel. From what I've seen so far I got a pretty big jump by doing that.

No idea why they have the pool set at only 140 megs either. That's just ridiculous.

Thanks for the tips Ill do that now and see if it helps

yeah the sensitivity seems wonky for me,in game I have it set at the lowest.


I have it turned all the way up on my actual mouse though (3600dpi I think),it feels horrible to use anything slower on a computer now,maybe it has to do with this 23inch 1080p screen

Chewy wrote:Nice, if they ever patch the mouse issues(jumps all around for me-pretty much unusable) I might take advantage of that. The way they set up mouse sensitivity is stupid as fuck. Also note that the ini location they listed is not for the Steam version.

Some additional performance related tweaks they didn't list(I posted these on another thread):
1.Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\Engine\Config and open up BaseEngine.ini
2.Change PoolSize to however many megabytes of vram your graphics card has(1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). It's at 140 by default...
3. Change the MinSmoothedFramerate at MaxSmoothedFramerate. I read on gamefaqs it should be about 59 for min and 61 for max if you have a 60Hz monitor.

And for Nvidia card users only:
Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.
Also there's a new driver out.

Don't do this. There are a few sections in the game that completely break (and make it so you cannot continue the game). Never had an issue with framelock or AO on my 560 ti. I would recommend not using AO in the nvidia control panel, that is even more poorly optimized since it is a brute force method. Also oddly enough I never had an issue with my mouse sensitivity.

Tom wrote:

Chewy wrote:Nice, if they ever patch the mouse issues(jumps all around for me-pretty much unusable) I might take advantage of that. The way they set up mouse sensitivity is stupid as fuck. Also note that the ini location they listed is not for the Steam version.

Some additional performance related tweaks they didn't list(I posted these on another thread):
1.Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\Engine\Config and open up BaseEngine.ini
2.Change PoolSize to however many megabytes of vram your graphics card has(1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). It's at 140 by default...
3. Change the MinSmoothedFramerate at MaxSmoothedFramerate. I read on gamefaqs it should be about 59 for min and 61 for max if you have a 60Hz monitor.

And for Nvidia card users only:
Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.
Also there's a new driver out.

Don't do this. There are a few sections in the game that completely break (and make it so you cannot continue the game). Never had an issue with framelock or AO on my 560 ti. I would recommend not using AO in the nvidia control panel, that is even more poorly optimized since it is a brute force method. Also oddly enough I never had an issue with my mouse sensitivity.

Which part of it causes this, and at what parts of the game?

It's done nothing but good for me so far, all the framerate problems are fixed.

kinda like what I had to do to gta4

Chewy wrote:

Tom wrote:

Chewy wrote:Nice, if they ever patch the mouse issues(jumps all around for me-pretty much unusable) I might take advantage of that. The way they set up mouse sensitivity is stupid as fuck. Also note that the ini location they listed is not for the Steam version.

Some additional performance related tweaks they didn't list(I posted these on another thread):
1.Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\Engine\Config and open up BaseEngine.ini
2.Change PoolSize to however many megabytes of vram your graphics card has(1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). It's at 140 by default...
3. Change the MinSmoothedFramerate at MaxSmoothedFramerate. I read on gamefaqs it should be about 59 for min and 61 for max if you have a 60Hz monitor.

And for Nvidia card users only:
Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.
Also there's a new driver out.

Don't do this. There are a few sections in the game that completely break (and make it so you cannot continue the game). Never had an issue with framelock or AO on my 560 ti. I would recommend not using AO in the nvidia control panel, that is even more poorly optimized since it is a brute force method. Also oddly enough I never had an issue with my mouse sensitivity.

Which part of it causes this, and at what parts of the game?

It's done nothing but good for me so far, all the framerate problems are fixed.

There are a few parts it can break. For me it broke the entrance to an area about 9 hours into the game (i already beat it). Also it never fixed my stuttering issues (good thing there is barely a difference between normal and ultra textures).

Tom wrote:

Chewy wrote:

Tom wrote:

Chewy wrote:Nice, if they ever patch the mouse issues(jumps all around for me-pretty much unusable) I might take advantage of that. The way they set up mouse sensitivity is stupid as fuck. Also note that the ini location they listed is not for the Steam version.

Some additional performance related tweaks they didn't list(I posted these on another thread):
1.Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\Engine\Config and open up BaseEngine.ini
2.Change PoolSize to however many megabytes of vram your graphics card has(1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). It's at 140 by default...
3. Change the MinSmoothedFramerate at MaxSmoothedFramerate. I read on gamefaqs it should be about 59 for min and 61 for max if you have a 60Hz monitor.

And for Nvidia card users only:
Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.
Also there's a new driver out.

Don't do this. There are a few sections in the game that completely break (and make it so you cannot continue the game). Never had an issue with framelock or AO on my 560 ti. I would recommend not using AO in the nvidia control panel, that is even more poorly optimized since it is a brute force method. Also oddly enough I never had an issue with my mouse sensitivity.

Which part of it causes this, and at what parts of the game?

It's done nothing but good for me so far, all the framerate problems are fixed.

There are a few parts it can break. For me it broke the entrance to an area about 9 hours into the game (i already beat it). Also it never fixed my stuttering issues (good thing there is barely a difference between normal and ultra textures).

Which part of the tweak are you referring to?

You are the only person I've seen reporting this. Changing the pool size might not even do anything based on what I've seen in another config file(it's supposed to be automatically calculated).

Chewy wrote:

Tom wrote:

Chewy wrote:

Tom wrote:

Chewy wrote:Nice, if they ever patch the mouse issues(jumps all around for me-pretty much unusable) I might take advantage of that. The way they set up mouse sensitivity is stupid as fuck. Also note that the ini location they listed is not for the Steam version.

Some additional performance related tweaks they didn't list(I posted these on another thread):
1.Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\Engine\Config and open up BaseEngine.ini
2.Change PoolSize to however many megabytes of vram your graphics card has(1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes). It's at 140 by default...
3. Change the MinSmoothedFramerate at MaxSmoothedFramerate. I read on gamefaqs it should be about 59 for min and 61 for max if you have a 60Hz monitor.

And for Nvidia card users only:
Turn off ambient occlusion and vsync. Turn them on in the Nvidia control panel if you want them.
Also there's a new driver out.

Don't do this. There are a few sections in the game that completely break (and make it so you cannot continue the game). Never had an issue with framelock or AO on my 560 ti. I would recommend not using AO in the nvidia control panel, that is even more poorly optimized since it is a brute force method. Also oddly enough I never had an issue with my mouse sensitivity.

Which part of it causes this, and at what parts of the game?

It's done nothing but good for me so far, all the framerate problems are fixed.

There are a few parts it can break. For me it broke the entrance to an area about 9 hours into the game (i already beat it). Also it never fixed my stuttering issues (good thing there is barely a difference between normal and ultra textures).

Which part of the tweak are you referring to?

You are the only person I've seen reporting this. Changing the pool size might not even do anything based on what I've seen in another config file(it's supposed to be automatically calculated).

The poolsize tweak. Though it seems it might been related to a texture streaming option.

Yeah I have my doubts that the pool size option broke anything. I have my doubts it even does anything, even though many people report that it helps a ton. I found this in another config file in the xgame folder:

[TextureStreaming]
UseTextureFileCache=TRUE
; We now auto calculate the texture pool size on PC.
; The equation is basically TexturePoolSize = Detected video memory - size of frame buffers - estimate for other resource useage like vertex buffers.
; TexturePoolSizeReductionMB is the estimate of how much we'll need for resources than the frame buffers
TexturePoolSizeReductionMB=40
;On PC, pool size only gets used if -ReadTexturePoolFromIni is passed in on the commandline. Otherwise it is auto calculated based on your video card memory.
PoolSize=400
; hard coded "safe" max texture pool size if running in low or very low
LowPCTexturePoolSizeMB=256

Which basically means that any other poolsize variables are completely irrelevent by default, and the true poolsize is based on a calculation.

I'll have to test later if it still runs smoothly when I remove it. Maybe a combination of the FPS smoothing settings and the new driver are what made it run better for me, I did change multiple things at once. I did try turning AO back on in game and off in the nvidia control panel and it still runs good.

Alright so I changed the PoolSize back to 140 and it didn't seem to effect anything. So yeah I don't think it does shit.

Looks like it's either the FPS smoothing settings or just the new nvidia driver that gave me a massive performance increase.

And also I noticed that changing the ini file resets the graphics settings in the game so watch for that.

You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

Well I could just set it to 720p and be done with it, and that would still be a lot better than console graphics and at twice the framerate.

But I've had it working fine at 1080p and maxed out for a while now, I'm just trying to determine exactly which one of the tweaks I did caused my performance increase. It's looking like it was simply getting the new driver.

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

Not all gaming PCs, my best friend has one that works with everything pretty easily, lol.

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

It has actually been a while since I had to use .ini tweaks to fix my performance issues. The vast majority of games just boot up and play, I am just one of those people that loves tinkering with everything.

Kitsune wrote:

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

Not all gaming PCs, my best friend has one that works with everything pretty easily, lol.

The type of pc you have has nothing to do with it. In regards to bioshock, it is really random if you get the stuttering issues or not.

I've had no issues during gameplay with my 660ti. Loading new areas jitters the framerate a little, but it only lasts a few seconds and then it's 60 fps smooth sailing from there.

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

SIgh

Sym wrote:

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

SIgh

Sorry bud, thats not just my anti PC stance showing. Its the fact that most of these technical terms you guys discussed mean diddly squat to me. If I bought a game for my new PC and couldn't run it at a high level due to this kind of issue I would be screwed because I wouldn't be able to fix it.

Thats all I was getting at.

Hank Hill wrote:

Sym wrote:

Hank Hill wrote:You see, all of this is why I never want to get a gaming PC. This is way too much headache and bullshit to have to go through to make a game work.

SIgh

Sorry bud, thats not just my anti PC stance showing. Its the fact that most of these technical terms you guys discussed mean diddly squat to me. If I bought a game for my new PC and couldn't run it at a high level due to this kind of issue I would be screwed because I wouldn't be able to fix it.

Thats all I was getting at.

Terry you noob

Also these are just tweaks, not required to play the game fine.