Update 3: 5th April

New version 1.4.1 attached -

• Updated to include new cvars available in PC 1.3 patch
• Options such as tessellation and depth of field which were previously unchangeable should now change correctly
• FOV cvar "drawnear FOV" should no longer reset on each spawn

Update 3: 12th March

New version 1.3.1 attached -

• Fixed small bug with r_ssdo and r_ssao not being read correctly from cfg files, leading Ambient Occlusion option to set to None

Update 2: 28th February

New version 1.3 attached -

• Fixed a bug where r_ssdo and r_ssao weren't set correctly (only one should be active at once).
• Allow user to select a directory with no Crysis 3 install detected, to save custom cfgs.
• Add support for new cvar to allow custom graphics card selection, and to detail which cards are detected and their properties. This should rarely be necessary, but might be useful for users who have multiple graphics cards with monitors connected to each, where Crysis 3's auto-detection fails.

Update 1: 31st January

New version 1.2 attached - fixed to use autoexec.cfg where necessary for some tweaks, and fixed issue with non-english language setups.

Crysis 3 CVar Configurator

Hey guys, my name is Baldur and I work at Crytek UK on the R&D/Engine team on various parts of the rendering.

With the help of some of the guys at the office here I've written up a document covering the variables and tweaks that are available in Crysis 3. With these you can turn on or off features, and tweak settings more precisely to squeeze out better performance.

The difference between the autoexec and system config files

CVars can go in two files: autoexec.cfg and system.cfg.

The autoexec.cfg is executed just after the game has finished loading, and you should see the commands in it appear in the console if you bring it down right at the start. This way these settings are applied over the top of any graphics menu options you have chosen, and it's a good way to apply fine tweaking, especially of anything that is set up by default in all the graphics options.

The system.cfg file is loaded very early in the engine and basically overrides the programmer default values for the cvars. For some variables this is the only way to set them, as they are never used after the engine is starting. However that means that for other cvars, things such as the graphics menu options and other processes can ignore the system.cfg values and apply over the top.

The cvar help document tells you which file is best to put each cvar in. As a general rule, autoexec.cfg works for almost every cvar - but there are a few cvars which must be put in system.cfg to work.

DISCLAIMER

Any changes you make are at your own risk. Although I would love to promise that you will never encounter any problems when changing these settings, I can't. We at Crytek felt that it was better to allow you to change these values, and maybe encounter bugs, rather than not allowing any changes at all.

Some of these settings are developer tweaks and aren't rigorously tested, so you might encounter glitches or bugs. If you encounter any game bugs then please disable any tweaks you have before reporting them - otherwise we can waste time investigating problems caused by simply unsupported tweaks. However feel free to post in this thread to let people know if one tweak you made causes problems, to save others time finding that out themselves!


I've attached a zip containing two files.

The html file contains all of the variables and more information about what they do. You can change these files either in-game via the console, or in a 'system.cfg' file in your Crysis 3 game directory.

The zip file contains a tool I've written to show all the options in (hopefully!) an easy to understand way, and lets you simply check a box to e.g. enable windowed no-border mode. It should have included instructions that guide you on how to use it, please ask if anything is unclear. The tool requires the .NET 2.0 Framework which I think hopefully everyone will have as it comes with Vista and above.

If anything is unclear or you have any questions about configuring or tweaking any of these options then let me know and I'll do my best to clarify and explain.



Please post any comments, questions or bug reports in this thread, and not by PMing me. I will do my best to respond as quickly as possible to this thread, but understand that I can sometimes be busy with work so if you send something directly to me I can't promise a quick response.

Also as this is in danger of easily veering off topic, if you have general comments about the game or bugs to report that aren't related to customising your config or any of the options here then please search the forum to see if there is a topic about it already, or post a new one.

This is pretty good, but it won't be able to change variables that are locked. e_tesselation and r_depthoffield refuse to change no matter how you enter the command.

This is awesome! Very cool, an official tweak tool

Many thanks =)

Thank you Crytek, nice to see you guys listening to your fanbase and providing tweaks to us :)

sorry that the graphics of no better ((((

This is really nice tool, i like it.

Sticky please.

Most of them don't work. Don't report on the console as a green text with off or on after equal.

Disabled some of those like that pixel thing and global illumination and didn't saw any improvements. Ueless !

wow nice tool. but very few commands... only a part of main commands

That's weird, it looks like when set in the config file some of these variables aren't getting picked up, so although they can be changed in game in the console I suspect they might be getting overridden by the quality settings chosen in the in-game menus. I'm going to look into this at work tomorrow to see if there's any way around this, hopefully there is.

Unfortunately all I can say in the meantime is that you can use these cvars to tweak while in game to see which options are best to pick in the menus for you - and obviously any cvars which aren't overridden can still be changed like fov, sensitivity, fullscreen windowed etc. I'll do my best to improve this as soon as I can, as I do want all these variables to be modifable in game.



This is even weirder. I can't think of why these particular cvars shouldn't be changeable at least in game. I'll look into this as well since they should be configurable to the best of my knowledge. If there's a reason they have to be locked I'll let you know.