So this might be a long post, hold on till the end and hopefully it will be worth it...
To prerefrence;
I want to start a discussion about Just Cause 3, bad performance, and what I have done to combat it. Hopefully in the near future Avalanche will release some updates/patches and it will get better, but in the mean time lets talk specifics. Also its super late at night and I'm kind of tired so I apologise in advance if there are various spelling mistakes, sorry.
My PC specs are;
- Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz (not over clocked)
- Asus GeForce GTX 970 Strix GPU, (not over clocked)
- Asus P8Z77-V lx Motherboard,
- 8GB G.Skills ARES DDR3-1600 RAM,
- Western Digital Black 1TB 7200rpm HHD (the game is on here)
- 1920x1080 resolution 60Hz Monitor
- I have been using FRAPS to monitor frame rate and MSI afterburner to see the GPU and CPU usage.
Current Graphics setting In JC3
Now lets get to the meat of this post. Lets start with frame rates, for me personally I want a pretty constant 60fps, some quick dips (a second or two) to 30fps when explosions are happening is ok, anything under 45fps with normal play is not. 60fps is what I consider playable, 30fps for me is not an option if you are happy to play at 30 than this post might not be for you.
The stress testing that I have done has been in one of the small towns with a wanted level, enemies attacking me, shooting, grappling, wing suiting ect, this is where I find the game tends to struggle the most, just flying around the map seems to be less taxing on my system. So at in these locations I have learnt to tolerate dips to 50-55fps.
Everything is a compromise between fps, graphical fidelity and resolution. You get to pick two. My setting have basicaly compromised graphical quality in favour of fps. Hence what I have noticed with these settings is that when flying and parachuting there is a bit of pop in, specially with the flowers on the ground, bushes and some trees, but for me I would rather have some pop in and a solid 60 frame rate, and not have to adjust my settings when the game heats up a bit. (that was a bad pun)
Another point a wanted to make is that I don't think its out hardware that's the problem it's optimisation. My GPU usage was anywhere from 60% to 80% with V Sync turned on. When I turned it off the GPU usage when up to 90-99% and I was getting over 70fps, but then I got screen tearing as my monitor is only 60Hz. So V Sync got turned back on.
Now some tips, if your are having trouble, I have found;
- Anisotropic level of above 8x was very taxing and was quite a big hit on fps
- Same with SMAA and SMAA T2X
- LOD factor I think is to do with draw distance quality, (turn this down)
- Edge fade is the same as photo vignetting (no hit on performance)
- Global Illumination seems to be lighting close to Rico (not a large loss of fps but I turned it off)
- Screen space reflections (for me not worth the hit of fps for some reflections on the ground)
In conclusion this PC port is really not very good and I expected better from Avalanche, considering when I first played Just Case 2 I don't remember fiddling with graphics settings at all (man that was a long time ago!). I would love to see/hear the specks you guys are running at the moment, and any other tips you have to find that sweet spot between quality and frame rate. I will update the post with more tips is you guys have them.
Hopefully this was of some use to someone, I know further testing is needed, I just though I would put up a quick post on the forum, as I don't think I'm the only one having problems.