{"name":"Arma 3: Performance Optimisation","title":"Arma 3: Performance Optimisation","type":"topic","url":"https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Performance_Optimisation","revid":352212,"updated":"2024-02-01T23:26:04Z","aliases":["Arma 3 Performance Optimisation"],"markdown":"Arma 3 performance has always been a great interrogation topic. This page brings light on some aspects of the Video Settings.\n\n### General Guidelines\n\n- **use auto-detection** as a base for other settings - the autodetect button knows best, most of the time\n  - an exception to that being that auto-detection will set the render sampling to *at least* 100% - this is not ideal if one wants to play e.g in 1920×1080 on a 3840×2160 screen.\n- in order to bring some relief to the CPU, play with (terrain/object) view distance\n- to alleviate pressure on the GPU, lower PiP settings and reduce 3D **Sampling**\n- to reduce stutter and greatly improve loading times, it is highly recommended to install Arma 3 on a Solid State Drive (SSD)\n\n> [!IMPORTANT]\n> - **Run tests on a Vanilla (no mods) Arma 3!** Some ill-conceived mods can bring performance down.\n> - **Run tests in a Single Player environment.** If performances in multiplayer are worse than in single player, the server/connection/mission is at fault; nothing can be done on Settings' side.\n\n### Video Options\n\n### Settings Impacts\n\n> [!NOTE]\n> ● means a heavy impact on performance\n> ● means an average impact\n> ● means little to no performance impact.\n\n#### General\n\n| Category | Setting | CPU | GPU | Additional Details |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **Quality** | Sampling | ● | ● | Defines the game's 3D resolution **based on Display's Resolution setting** (in %) - e.g **50%** of 3840×2160 results in a 3D resolution of 1920×1080 (1/4 of the original resolution) |\n| **Quality** | Texture | ● | ● | Defines textures' quality - dependent on the GPU's memory |\n| **Quality** | Objects | ● | ● | Defines object's details and LOD thresholds |\n| **Quality** | Terrain | ● | ● | Defines terrain's geometry details at medium long range (does not affect textures) |\n| **Quality** | Shadow | ● | ● | Defines shadow precision |\n| **Quality** | Particles | ● | ● | Defines quality and the amount of particles (smoke, fire, dust, etc) visible on screen. |\n| **Quality** | Cloud | ● | ● | Defines if **Cloud Simulation** should be used and at which level of detail |\n| **Quality** | PIP | ● | ● | Adds (doubles?) the strain on the CPU - another scene has to be calculated in order to do the render. Quality here means PIP drawing distance |\n| **Visibility** | Overall | ● | ● | Terrain's view distance |\n| **Visibility** | Object | ● | ● | Object's view distance - *The* CPU killer. Set to about 1/3 to 1/2 of terrain's view distance |\n| **Visibility** | Shadow | ● | ● | Shadows' draw distance - range 50..200m |\n| **Lighting** | HDR | ● | ● | Sets HDR quality, 8 or 16 bits |\n| **Lighting** | Dynamic Lights | ● | ● | Sets the maximum number of dynamic lights (light sources that are not the sun or the moon) in the scene |\n| **Lighting** | Water Reflections | ● | ● | Defines quality of water surface reflection |\n\n#### Display\n\n| Category | Setting | CPU | GPU | Additional Details |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **General** | Display Mode | ● | ● | Full Screen can solve some issues, Full Screen Window can fix some others. Windowed is useful for debug purposes |\n| **General** | Resolution | ● | ● | Should be set to the screen's native resolution and use **Sampling** to lower the 3D resolution if needed |\n| **General** | Aspect Ratio | ● | ● | Set to auto or to the screen's aspect ratio. No impact on performance |\n| **General** | VSync | ● | ● | **V**ertical **Sync**hronisation |\n| **General** | Interface Size | ● | ● | No impact on performance |\n| **General** | Brightness | ● | ● | No impact on performance |\n| **General** | Gamma | ● | ● | No impact on performance |\n\n#### AA & PP\n\n| Category | Setting | CPU | GPU | Additional Details |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **PostProcesses** | Bloom | ● | ● |  |\n| **PostProcesses** | Radial Blur | ● | ● | Adds \"speed\" blur to the border of the screen |\n| **PostProcesses** | Rotation Blur | ● | ● | Adds screen blur on fast camera movement |\n| **PostProcesses** | Depth of Field | ● | ● | Adds blur to non-focused background |\n| **PostProcesses** | Sharpen Filter | ● | ● | Makes the image sharper, but can also make it more grainy or too outlined |\n| **PostProcesses** | AO | ● | ● | (Screen Space) **A**mbient **O**cclusion. HBAO stands for Horizon-Based AO (Nvidia), whereas HDAO stands for High Definition AO (AMD). |\n| **PostProcesses** | Caustics | ● | ● | Water surface reflection on the ocean floor |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Color Preset | ● | ● |  |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Brightness | ● | ● | *Post-process* image brightness |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Contrast | ● | ● | *Post-process* image contrast |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Saturation | ● | ● | Colour saturation - the higher the more colours, the lower the more black & white |\n| **AntiAliasing** | FSAA | ● | ● | **F**ull **S**creen **A**nti-**A**liasing |\n| **AntiAliasing** | AtoC | ● | ● | **A**lpha **to** **C**overage. Requires **FSAA** |\n| **AntiAliasing** | PPAA | ● | ● | **P**ost-**P**rocessing **A**nti-**A**liasing. Less taxing than **FSAA**, with very minor graphical glitches |\n| **AntiAliasing** | Aniso. Filtering | ● | ● | Anisotropic filtering |\n\n### See Also\n\n- Mission Optimisation\n\n### External Links\n\n- [Yet Another Arma Benchmark](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=375092418)","sections":[{"heading":null,"level":1,"markdown":"Arma 3 performance has always been a great interrogation topic. This page brings light on some aspects of the Video Settings."},{"heading":"General Guidelines","level":3,"markdown":"- **use auto-detection** as a base for other settings - the autodetect button knows best, most of the time\n  - an exception to that being that auto-detection will set the render sampling to *at least* 100% - this is not ideal if one wants to play e.g in 1920×1080 on a 3840×2160 screen.\n- in order to bring some relief to the CPU, play with (terrain/object) view distance\n- to alleviate pressure on the GPU, lower PiP settings and reduce 3D **Sampling**\n- to reduce stutter and greatly improve loading times, it is highly recommended to install Arma 3 on a Solid State Drive (SSD)\n\n> [!IMPORTANT]\n> - **Run tests on a Vanilla (no mods) Arma 3!** Some ill-conceived mods can bring performance down.\n> - **Run tests in a Single Player environment.** If performances in multiplayer are worse than in single player, the server/connection/mission is at fault; nothing can be done on Settings' side."},{"heading":"Video Options","level":3,"markdown":""},{"heading":"Settings Impacts","level":3,"markdown":"> [!NOTE]\n> ● means a heavy impact on performance\n> ● means an average impact\n> ● means little to no performance impact."},{"heading":"General","level":4,"markdown":"| Category | Setting | CPU | GPU | Additional Details |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **Quality** | Sampling | ● | ● | Defines the game's 3D resolution **based on Display's Resolution setting** (in %) - e.g **50%** of 3840×2160 results in a 3D resolution of 1920×1080 (1/4 of the original resolution) |\n| **Quality** | Texture | ● | ● | Defines textures' quality - dependent on the GPU's memory |\n| **Quality** | Objects | ● | ● | Defines object's details and LOD thresholds |\n| **Quality** | Terrain | ● | ● | Defines terrain's geometry details at medium long range (does not affect textures) |\n| **Quality** | Shadow | ● | ● | Defines shadow precision |\n| **Quality** | Particles | ● | ● | Defines quality and the amount of particles (smoke, fire, dust, etc) visible on screen. |\n| **Quality** | Cloud | ● | ● | Defines if **Cloud Simulation** should be used and at which level of detail |\n| **Quality** | PIP | ● | ● | Adds (doubles?) the strain on the CPU - another scene has to be calculated in order to do the render. Quality here means PIP drawing distance |\n| **Visibility** | Overall | ● | ● | Terrain's view distance |\n| **Visibility** | Object | ● | ● | Object's view distance - *The* CPU killer. Set to about 1/3 to 1/2 of terrain's view distance |\n| **Visibility** | Shadow | ● | ● | Shadows' draw distance - range 50..200m |\n| **Lighting** | HDR | ● | ● | Sets HDR quality, 8 or 16 bits |\n| **Lighting** | Dynamic Lights | ● | ● | Sets the maximum number of dynamic lights (light sources that are not the sun or the moon) in the scene |\n| **Lighting** | Water Reflections | ● | ● | Defines quality of water surface reflection |"},{"heading":"Display","level":4,"markdown":"| Category | Setting | CPU | GPU | Additional Details |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **General** | Display Mode | ● | ● | Full Screen can solve some issues, Full Screen Window can fix some others. Windowed is useful for debug purposes |\n| **General** | Resolution | ● | ● | Should be set to the screen's native resolution and use **Sampling** to lower the 3D resolution if needed |\n| **General** | Aspect Ratio | ● | ● | Set to auto or to the screen's aspect ratio. No impact on performance |\n| **General** | VSync | ● | ● | **V**ertical **Sync**hronisation |\n| **General** | Interface Size | ● | ● | No impact on performance |\n| **General** | Brightness | ● | ● | No impact on performance |\n| **General** | Gamma | ● | ● | No impact on performance |"},{"heading":"AA & PP","level":4,"markdown":"| Category | Setting | CPU | GPU | Additional Details |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **PostProcesses** | Bloom | ● | ● |  |\n| **PostProcesses** | Radial Blur | ● | ● | Adds \"speed\" blur to the border of the screen |\n| **PostProcesses** | Rotation Blur | ● | ● | Adds screen blur on fast camera movement |\n| **PostProcesses** | Depth of Field | ● | ● | Adds blur to non-focused background |\n| **PostProcesses** | Sharpen Filter | ● | ● | Makes the image sharper, but can also make it more grainy or too outlined |\n| **PostProcesses** | AO | ● | ● | (Screen Space) **A**mbient **O**cclusion. HBAO stands for Horizon-Based AO (Nvidia), whereas HDAO stands for High Definition AO (AMD). |\n| **PostProcesses** | Caustics | ● | ● | Water surface reflection on the ocean floor |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Color Preset | ● | ● |  |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Brightness | ● | ● | *Post-process* image brightness |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Contrast | ● | ● | *Post-process* image contrast |\n| **PostProcess Color Corrections** | Saturation | ● | ● | Colour saturation - the higher the more colours, the lower the more black & white |\n| **AntiAliasing** | FSAA | ● | ● | **F**ull **S**creen **A**nti-**A**liasing |\n| **AntiAliasing** | AtoC | ● | ● | **A**lpha **to** **C**overage. Requires **FSAA** |\n| **AntiAliasing** | PPAA | ● | ● | **P**ost-**P**rocessing **A**nti-**A**liasing. Less taxing than **FSAA**, with very minor graphical glitches |\n| **AntiAliasing** | Aniso. Filtering | ● | ● | Anisotropic filtering |"},{"heading":"See Also","level":3,"markdown":"- Mission Optimisation"},{"heading":"External Links","level":3,"markdown":"- [Yet Another Arma Benchmark](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=375092418)"}],"categories":["Arma 3"],"groups":["Game and Troubleshooting"]}