Here's All of Your Burning PC Graphics Questions Answered

Ever been absolutely flummoxed when it comes to graphic settings in games? Well, look no further for one gamer, in great kindness, has explained them in an easy to understand guide.

Field of View (FOV)

Vz58V explains that,

FOV is kind of self-explanatory, but still important. Your FOV is the number of degrees of (usually) horizontal view you see on your screen, and is completely based upon how large your screen is and how close it is. For instance, I use a 27″ 1080p monitor about 20 inches away, so 90 FOV is quite comfortable for me. Remember that the higher the FOV, the more you see, but the smaller distant objects get; for things like multiplayer shooter games, this is good to keep in mind based upon your playstyle. Around 75 is a good average for most people.

 Anti-aliasing

Vz58V explains that,

Antialiasing or AA is a way to reduce jaggies and the “staircase effect” caused when games have diagonal lines, which is due to the fact that screens are made up of pixels that run only horizontally and vertically. Antialiasing essentially adds a “blur” to these lines in various different methods. Antialiasing is less and less important with higher resolutions, as the higher the resolution, the more pixels there are and the smoother everything looks; this is bad news for console graphics as they lack both anti-aliasing and decent resolution. If you game gives you the option, pick SMAA. Its looks good and has a low performance hit. If SMAA isn’t available, use FSAA or MSAA.

V-sync AKA Vertical Synchronization

Vz58V explains that,

Screen tear is an effect wherein one part of a frame is rendered out of sync with the rest of it, causing a “tear” effect, which results when your game is at a higher framerate than your monitors highest limit (usually 60Hz, or 60FPS). V-sync Solves this by holding frames in a buffer and letting your screen catch up to the game. V-sync is a compromise, because while it eliminates screen tear, it increases input lag due to the frames that are held in a buffer before being displayed. Nvidias Gsync and AMD’s Freesync both resolve this lag issue, but both require special monitors.

Texture settings

Vz58V explains that,

A texture is an image that is projected onto 3D objects in a game. Textures are, in my opinion, the most important part of graphics quality. Textures are intensive on your Vram or Video Memory so make sure you know the limitations of your video card.

An-isotropic Filtering

Vz58V explains that,

AF is a little hard to explain, but essentially it reduces weird effects with textures on flat planes as they get distant. Game textures are flat, so as you see them from a far angle, they appear to stretch. AF reduces this effect, usually by “flattening” these textures toward you as they get distant.

Depth of Field (DOF)

Vz58V explains that,

Depth of field is basically distance-based blur meant to simulate your eyes focusing of objects based upon their physical distance. It looks pretty, but its very intensive and you don’t really need it.

Tessellation

Vz58V explains that,

Tessalation is, again, hard to explain, but its a way to make textured surfaces “pop” by changing the texture based upon what angle you’re looking from to give the illusion of depth. Remember the bullet holes from Fallout New Vegas? That was tessalation.

Ambient Occlusion

Vz58V explains that,

AO adds shading effects to 3D objects based upon how close they are, such as two sides of a corner. Again, like DOF, its pretty, but not necessary.

He then goes onto explain how to optimize your settings in a simple hierarchy,

To recap:

What you pretty much need: FOV, Textures.

What you want: AA, No screen tear, An-isotropic Filtering.

What you really don’t absolutely need: DOF, Tessellation, Ambient Occlusion, Ubisoft.

If this guide helped you at all then make sure to thanks its creator, Vz58V.