Turning off SSAO makes "a world of difference"...

[Zmaj76]

performance wise...and not only for slower machines (I have i7 3.6 Ghz and GTX 660Ti 2GB). So when I did that all the pauses (during explosion effect) or sometimes during flybys are gone...and game is smooth as butter. SSAO is a resource hog in ROF too, but there it can be disabled within the game GUI (video/graphics settings). For those who dont know, currently, in BOS, inside the game, it can be set only to low. But you can turn SSAO off via startup file (config file). To do that go to data folder which is located inside the game folder:

 \1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\

There scroll down till you reach startup.cfg file....open the file with notepad (right click on the startup file; open with notepad)...Then inside that file, scroll down till you reach ssao_res and ssao_samples entries. Set both to 0. So you will have:

ssao_res = 0

ssao_samples = 0

Then, save the startup file. You must do this after every update. And if you go (afterwards) to the graphic settings within the game the SSAO entries will reset to old values. So youll have SSAO ON again. Hopefuly turning off SSAO would be possible within the game gui in final version of BOS.

 

Hope this will help.

Edited December 27, 2013 by Tvrdi

[kestrel79]

I will for sure do this next time I start up the game. Not only does it look bad imo it's a resource hog good to know thanks.

[Bando]

Thx for the heads up.

[Emgy]

Just be aware that you're also turning off some shading effects. Cockpits and planes and objects in general will look kind of plastic-ish.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Calvamos

[Emgy]

That does need fixing.

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 In Cliffs of Dover SSAO caused stutter and lower FPS without any discernible effect on the image. Quite useless feature for the FPS hit vs gains IMHO. Have to check it again..

[Endy]

I'll give it a try, thanks for the info.

[Zmaj76]

Just be aware that you're also turning off some shading effects. Cockpits and planes and objects in general will look kind of plastic-ish.

Im aware of the fact that in both cases cockpits look plastic-ish....but without SSAO the sim is much "faster"...your call

[Mastermariner]

As usual when it comes to settings in the PC world there is not one conclusive answer. I tested setting SSAO high and low, in the game, and the only difference is that low gives me strange flimers on the instrument panel. FPS was the same, about 40. I admit not doing any scientific tests but as I said the result probably varies a lot according to your system. Only a test will answer.

Master

[Emgy]

I tested setting SSAO high and low, in the game, and the only difference is that low gives me strange flimers on the instrument panel.

S! Well spotted, SSAO set to high removes the "muddy goggles/fencer's mask" effect for me.

[Zmaj76]

FPS alone wont tell you much about smoothness of a game...

Well..

After I disabled the SSAO I dont have heavy pauses when explosion (plane crash etc) occurs near me. Sometimes I had big pauses even on headons, during flyby with AI....and now, looking with TiR around is much smoother....

[dburne]

S! Well spotted, SSAO set to high removes the "muddy goggles/fencer's mask" effect for me.

 

I have been working on my ground attacking in the Lagg this morning, and while doing so experimented around with these settings.

I am seeing pretty much the same on my system, SSAO on high especially from within the cockpit looks the best to me appearance wise, and I seem to be getting the same performance on my system, no matter the SSAO setting...

[SeaQuark]

Hello, I've just purchased and downloaded the game (April 2014). I am trying to get the game to run acceptably on my laptop. Rise of Flight runs just fine on my machine after messing with the graphics options.

 

I am on the "low" settings in-game, but I still only get 35 FPS.

 

I have opened the startup file, but the "ssao" file is nowhere to be seen. Was this removed in an update?

 

Could not find any info on this in recent FAQ or forum posts.

[dburne]

Unfortunately yes they did change this option, now that have graphics " presets" we choose from and SSAO is built into those without the ability to turn it off individually.

 

I would have thought maybe it was off in the " Low" preset, but perhaps not - they don't really say...

[Requiem]

The presets high and ultra have SSAO built into them at 32 and 64 samples respectively, so even inserting the SSAO line into the startup.cfg to turn it off won't work because the preset overrides it. There aren't that many differences between the balanced, high, and ultra presets when you compare their settings, except for SSAO of course which makes the high and ultra presets look terrible on my PC. The differences are mainly related to things like forest distance, shadows, cloud quality, etc. However, there is a big jump between low and balanced because you can tell low doesn't have HDR or SSAO enabled plus its object view distance is much smaller compared to the other three presets. 

Edited April 13, 2014 by SYN_Requiem

[Elem]

Well I'm dammed if I can find those ssao lines in my Config file?

[FuriousMeow]

That's because this is an invalid topic now. Those settings are locked down, nothing graphics related is adjustable in the config.ini anymore.

[Mnemonic]

So now it's impossible to disable SSAO from config files?

[dburne]

So now it's impossible to disable SSAO from config files?

 

Correct, and they plan to stick with these presets for release.

[Mnemonic]

.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Mnemonic

[Picchio]

they plan to stick with these presets for release.

 

Mmm. Source?

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 I hate that SSAO to the guts. It simply is ugly and distorting. Seeing those transitions and all, like a film plastered over the screen is really annoying. Remove it or fix it, please.

[Picchio]

I sincerely hope that what they mean is: presets will be there in the release version, as well as customizable options... it would be just silly to do otherwise, especially choosing to tie SSAO to a preset!

[naiboo]

I sincerely hope that what they mean is: presets will be there in the release version, as well as customizable options... it would be just silly to do otherwise, especially choosing to tie SSAO to a preset!

yep i hope so too!

 

till release they should keep the cfg files, i fiddling around would be helpful for the devs aswell as the players!

[Mnemonic]

.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Mnemonic

[Nage]

Devs said we wouldnt be able to use custom video settings (only presets) and probably there wont be possibility to edit config file. The most controversal decision in gaming industry I saw in recent times....With that said its a no go for me....

Edited September 5, 2014 by tikvic

[Mnemonic]

.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Mnemonic

[VR-DriftaholiC]

This is why we need advanced graphics options back again.

[Tektolnes]

SSAO really needs to be an optional thing. I couldn't care less about the other graphic options. BOS is not a very demanding engine so a lot of people can either bang it to high or ultra with no concerns. Unfortunately both of those settings automatically engage SSAO which looks crap. Please let us turn this off so we can get a nice sharp picture that doesn't look like a layer of something is over our eyes. This current always on setting is complete madness. 

[Mnemonic]

.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Mnemonic

[dburne]

Sometimes it feels like devs ignore this question. People demand ability to turn SSAO off, but looks like nobody from the developers cares.

 

They did not ignore it, they have already stated we will not have this ability, the game will release with the current presets only.

 

No I am not happy about it, like many others I am sure, but they did state this so they really did not ignore the question.

[VR-DriftaholiC]

SSAO really needs to be an optional thing. I couldn't care less about the other graphic options. BOS is not a very demanding engine so a lot of people can either bang it to high or ultra with no concerns. Unfortunately both of those settings automatically engage SSAO which looks crap. Please let us turn this off so we can get a nice sharp picture that doesn't look like a layer of something is over our eyes. This current always on setting is complete madness. 

 

I care about the other settings. Maybe I wan't max clouds and am willing to sacrifice other things to get a workable frame rate.