Monday, 28 September 2015

Pictures To Be Proud Of - Settings



In the first section of this series I want to talk about settings. It's something that is easily overlooked. I have seen a lot of people assume that a better camera means better photo's. I have then seen these same people go and buy an expensive camera and still get the same poor quality photos they were getting before. Well there is a reason for that. A camera is simply a tool. It's not going to do all the work for you. A better camera will help you get better results as long as you understand how it works and when to use the appropriate settings and features.

The automatic mode in most cameras has a lot of flaws. They are designed to assume many things about the scene that it needs to photograph and change settings accordingly. However it can only glean so much from reading the light on its sensor. It wont know what the subject is, if its moving, what you want to focus on, do you want a flash used and so on. It can certainly make assumptions but only you, as the photographer, really know what is needed.

Most cameras will come full of settings. Many of these are actually various ways of processing the picture once it is taken. These are certainly worth looking at but can all be altered yourself later in the final photo. The most important settings are those that are key to the actual process of taking a photo. These are the Flash, Focus point, Shutter speed, Aperture and the ISO. Almost all cameras will allow you to change the flash and focus point settings. Smaller cameras often wont give you access to the shutter speed, aperture and ISO but it is important to know what they are so that you can understand what your camera is doing and what you might be able to change to get a better result.

The Flash

It is rare you will actually want to use the built in flash on any camera. They are there so that in a dark room you can get a picture of your friends. Its going to wash out your skin, give flat lighting and can cause red eye but if all you care about is that your subjects appear in a photo together, it will do. For almost anything else it is more of a hindrance and you are better to turn it off until you actually need to use it. Without the flash in a low light setting, your options will depend on the type of camera you own. With a phone camera or compact, these will be limited and your best bet is to wait for better lighting. With a DSLR you will have more options for low light but it is always better to wait for or create better lighting if possible.

You might also want to use the flash in the daytime. It can be used for a technique called 'fill flash'. An example of when you might want to use this is if you are taking a picture of someone and the ambient light is coming from behind the subject or directly above. When the light is behind this will darken your subject in comparison to the rest of the scene and when the light is directly above it will give you subject strong eye shadows (known as panda eyes). Using a flash in this situation can add light to your subject to even it out with the rest of the scene helping to limit the above problems.

You may also want to look into an external flash if you camera has the compatibility. A decent external flash will allow you to change what direction it fires letting you bounce the light off walls and create your own high quality light.

If left on auto the flash may have fired and ruined this shot


The Focus Point

If left in automatic mode a camera will often decide that the closest object is what needs to be focused on. As with the flash, only you know if this is what is actually needed. Maybe you want something further back in the frame to be the point of focus, or even something in the background.

When it comes to focusing you will want to set the focus point manually. A common trick here is to set the focus point to the centre of the shot, place your subject over this point, do a half press (often accompanied by a beep to indicate focus has been achieved) and then re-frame and complete the press to take the picture. This allows you to quickly focus on your subject and then get the picture framed as desired and take a picture without having to mess around with choosing focus points.

Some phone cameras may work differently to this. For example the Moto G I use allows you to simply move the focus point with your finger to exactly where you want it. Its simple but effective.

The other options available will vary by device but you should take note of what is there and see if there is anything you can take advantage of. Even some of the scene settings might help you get a better result as it limits down the cameras guess work.

Manually selecting the focus point allows you to choose the subject

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is how quickly the cameras shutter opens, lets light hit the sensor to create the photo and then close again.

The shutter speed is important because if you are shooting a moving subject you need to make sure that the shutter speed is fast to eliminate motion blur. Even on still subjects you need a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate any hand shake that might occur. How fast this needs to be will depend on the focal length you are using and your own ability to keep a steady hand. If you want to eliminate this factor so you can use really slow shutter speeds then you will need to use a tripod.

A fast shutter speed meant the Osprey was captured without any blurring


Aperture

Aperture is essentially the iris of the camera lens. It is the size of the hole that lets light through to the lens. A smaller hole will let less light through while a bigger whole will let more light through.

The aperture has an impact because not only does it effect the amount of light let through to the cameras sensor, it also effects the the depth of field. This is the amount of area that is kept in focus. A large aperture will have a smaller depth of field while a smaller aperture will have a larger depth of field. This can get confusing at first because of a few factors. For starters, the numbers used to set the depth of field work the opposite way to what you might assume. A large aperture is represented by a low number (such as f1.8) while a small aperture is represented by a high number (such as f16). The other thing to get your head round is that as the aperture gets larger, the depth of fields gets smaller. So if you want to take a picture with only your subject in focus (such as a person) then you will want to use a large aperture. If you want to take a picture with everything in focus (such as a landscape shot) then you will want to use a small aperture.

A small aperture can allow you to keep the whole scene in focus

ISO

The ISO is the setting that changes how sensitive the cameras sensor is to light. A low ISO number (such as 100) means you will need more light as it is a low sensitivity. A high ISO number (such as 1600) increases its sensitivity meaning you need less light.

The ISO is best treated as a last resort to get the aperture and shutter speed needed for the shot. Being able to increase its sensitivity to need less light sounds great on paper but it has one rather large drawback. The higher the ISO goes, more grain / noise is introduced. This is a straight up drop in image quality. How high you can go with an acceptable amount of quality loss will vary from camera to camera as well as personal opinion. Some people hate any noise at all while others will find some perfectly acceptable.

A high ISO can allow you to take great shots in low light areas
The Big Three

While the flash and focus point are important to understand, the shutter speed, aperture and ISO are the three core parts to taking a photo. Each one effects the other two in a relationship that is vital to understand if you truly want control over you photography. If you need a faster shutter speed to capture a moving target then you need to increase the light intake using the aperture and/or ISO. Make the aperture smaller and you have to keep in mind if your entire subject will remain in focus with a reduced depth of field. Increase the ISO and you have to be aware of the quality loss to the final image.

Settings Summery

So to summarise the 5 key settings to be aware of.

Focus - Choose a focus point and don't let the camera decide for you.
Flash - Set it to manual and decide yourself when it's needed.
Shutter speed - Is your subject still? is it moving?
Aperture - How much of the shot do you want in focus?
ISO - Do you need more light and can accept the loss in image quality?

Once you truly understand these 5 things and how they can all effect a photograph you will be well on the way to taking better picture.

Pictures To Be Proud Of - Introduction


Cameras are everywhere. These days, if you have a mobile phone, odds are you have a camera. Photography has been a popular hobby for many many years but since it went digital its popularity exploded. Whether its just taking a selfie, holiday snap or trying to capture a rare species of animal out in the wilderness, people are taking pictures. But how many people are taking good pictures?

You might be wise to ask what exactly makes a good picture? Part of this is very subjective of course. Opinions on if a picture is good or not will vary from person to person but there are at least some basics you can grasp to keep the fundamentals of the picture at a high quality. This way, even if some people don't like what the picture is of, at least it wasn't down to something more in your control such as not being out of focus or washed out.

In this series I want to cover the basics of taking a good photograph. Some of these may only apply to more advanced cameras but most of them apply to all photography with any camera. If you only have a mobile phone to take pictures with, you can still take great shots. Just know your limitations and how best to get the result as close as possible to what you are after.

The subjects I will be covering are:

• Settings

• Framing

• Focus

• Subject

• Colour

• Light

My aim is to show you that no matter what camera you have, it is possible to take a great picture.

> Settings

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

The Skull Throne


The Skull Throne is the 4th book in the Demon Cycle series from Peter V. Brett. It takes place in the far future where the human race was all but wiped out by the appearance of demons that walk the earth at night. With only magic wards to protect against the demons (known as corelings), the human race lives in a much more primitive state than we do today.

We were left after book three with Arlen and Jadir having fallen from a cliff and both presumed lost by there followers. The Greenlanders are left with having to fight a war against both the increasing demon numbers as well as the Krasian people. The Krasians are left leaderless and a struggle for the skull throne begins.

Spoiler Alert (although who couldn't guess), Alren and Jadir aren't dead. They are however now locked in their own plot to take the fight to the core while their respective peoples have to learn to survive without them.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than the daylight war. I felt the pacing was much improved and, in the first half at least, we are treated to a lot of Arlen and Jadir, arguably the two most interesting characters. Its great to follow their relationship as they have both hate and love for each other due to there heavy past. They have a plan to take this fight to the core but they need a coreling prince to do it and he needs to be alive. They are not totally alone of course. Arlens slightly crazy wife and a couple of Jadirs trusted people are there to help carry out this crazy plot of theirs.

I also enjoyed the chaos that is caused by the empty Skull Throne. With Jadirs sons all hungry for power, only Inevera and Ashan can hold them at bay. But their grip can only hold so long and the second half of the book focuses a lot on this struggle. 

There is also a strong focus on the Hollow trying to form an alliance with Angiers as this is logically the only hope the Greenlanders really have against the inevitable invasion of the Krasian army.

The pace of this book flows a lot better than both book 2 and 3 and something exciting is frequently happening. You are treated fairly evenly to events involving many of the main characters such as Leesha, Rojer, Inevera and Abbon. As always it would be nice to get even more of Arlen and Jadir but I guess I got more than I expected after reading the Daylight War, so I was left satisfied enough.

I am now looking forward to book 5 as it is set to be the final book in the tale and you can see big things should be happening with regards to Arlen, Jadir and the corelings. However the rest of the world is left in somewhat of a mess due to the lack of their leaders and I find it hard to see how it could possibly fix itself. But that just makes me all the more eager to find out whats next.

One thing I have noticed is that Brett has a tendency to add a new element on mass.  In book 4 its Auras. In book 3 Arlen and Jadir both suddenly started to be able to see auras around people helping him determine there feelings and sometimes thoughts. In The Skull Thrones its seems that suddenly half the main cast can see them. Leesha, Inevera, Ahmanvah, the list goes on. I understand this is meant to be happening because of these peoples continued absorbence of magic, but it just seems a little strange how quickly it happens and to so many people at the same time. It feels more like Brett had a new idea and was desperate to implement it. These are minor quibbles in a series that I have, for the most part, very much enjoyed.

While these books suffer some pacing issues, their biggest strength is Brett's character building. He has a whole host of characters you will love, hate and at times both. Even Jadirs sons are brought more into the spot light and its great to see how they develop and try in their own way to prove their own worth to take the Skull Throne in their fathers place. Its unlikely you will be cheering them on but you will at least be excited to see what they do next.

It's a big step up from book 3 and has me looking forward to the final instalment.

A ripping good read

Air Force Gator II - Scales of Justice


Air Force Gator II - Scales of Justice is the second book in Dan Ryckets Air Force Gator series. The first book took every possible trait and cliche from 80's action films, stuffed them into a mutant alligator and for some crazy reason wrote a story about him. It was really dumb. It was also a lot of fun. 

In the sequel we find Gator living life as a true American hero. He has everything he could want. Fame, booze, respect and of course a super hot stripper girlfriend. He even gets a national holiday named after him. Gator was just getting ready to retire having achieved everything he had set out to do, including wiping out practically every terrorist that was a threat to the USA. That is of course until a disgruntled pig farmer comes along and riles up the local mutant reptile population into a human hating army of death. But their plan for destruction had one big flaw. They pissed off the wrong Gator.

With a little help from an old friend and the coolest political figure around, a new tale of death and destruction follows. What it lacks in character building and coherent plot, it more than makes up for in gratuitous violence and dumb one liners.

Air Force Gator 2 sticks to the true formula for classic 80's action movies and puts them into book format. Its longer. Its dumber. Its even more fun.

Leave you brain at the door and enjoy the ride. "Lick my asshole, asshole"

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

The Demon cycle books 1-3, micro reviews

I recently finished 'The Skull Throne' which is book 4 of 'The Demon Cycle' series (currently planned at 5 books total) from the author Peter V. Brett. Before I review it I wanted to post a brief run down on the previous 3 books in the series. Think of them as micro reviews if you will. 

Book 1
The painted man (called 'The Warded Man' in the US)



The first entry into the series is the strongest book so far and is truly a fantastic fantasy novel. It has an interesting premise and follows 3 main characters on there own paths that eventually converge. The set up is actually in the far future where the world has been taken back to a primitive state due the the arrival of 'Demons' from the core of the earth. Set far after these events took place we are introduced to a world where by day people live their lives as normally as they can but by night they have to hide from the demons. These demons have no tolerance to sunlight so only rise to the surface once the sun sets. The magic in this world is introduced in the form of wards. Magic fuelled symbols that are mankind's only defence against the demon threat.

The main protagonist, Arlen, starts off in your usual fantasy novel fashion of having grown up on a farm and wants to better himself, gradually rising in power. The other two leads are a herb gatherer called Leesha and a musician called Rojer. The story follows each character and does a great job of building them up and making you care about each of them in equal measure (OK maybe Arlen more than the other 2 but Leesha and Rojer are still great characters).

Without spoiling anything all I will say is go and read it if you haven't already. I would say its a must read if your a fan of fantasy. Obviously there will be some spoilers to this book in the reviews below.

Book 2
The Desert Spear



The sequel to the painted man was some what of a disappointment for me. It wasn't that it was a bad book per se, it was just that it really wasn't what I was expecting. With Alan having recovered the fighting wards, been betrayed by Jadir and warded his own flesh in book one, I was expecting it to jump straight back into exploring Arlens new power and how he would use it to fight the demons.

What actually happens is that it spends about the first 2 thirds of the book talking about Jadir. A lot of this time is about his past and how be became the leader of the Krasian people. This then leads up to present day and what follows is some rather out of character actions between himself and Leesha. Her actions while amongst the Krasian people don't really make much sense for her character and it ends up being somewhat unbelievable. What you do gain is a much better understanding of Jadir and his actions. You understand why he did what he did to Arlen even if you may not agree with his actions. You also learn a lot more about the Krasian culture which I feel is what Brett really wanted this book to be about.

While this is an interesting tale in itself, you really want more of Arlen. He does turn up towards the end and the book certainly gets more interesting again but it can throw you off somewhat. When Arlen does become the focus once more you are treated to new powers, a new love and some great action.

If you liked book 1 enough to want more then I do recommend reading The Desert Spear. Just be prepared for a drop in quality and to have to read through story arcs you may not have either expected or even wanted to read.

Book 3
The Daylight War



The Daylight War strangely enough doesn't really contain that much of what you would think the daylight war is. No where is conquered during the book and its mostly about Rojer and his new wives. I would say Rojer is the main focus here and you see his powers grow with the assistance of his wives and their singing mixed with his fiddle playing. Watching their relationship grow as well as a lot of the politics between the Krasians and the Greenlanders is the focus in book 3.

I was worried another 'Jadirs past' situation was arising as Brett starts talking about Inevera's History. Luckily it was no where near as long and just about didn't over stay its welcome. The rest of the book is mostly based around Rojer and Leesha but you also get a good dose of Jadir as well as Arlen and Jenna (Arlens lady) mixed in as well.

I enjoyed the third instalment more so than part 2 but it wasn't without its issues. It's pace is on the slow side and the main story doesn't really progress that much. Its not really until the very end of the book that a big event really happens. While I found many parts of the story interesting it still wasn't close to the quality of the first book. However it did make me eager to move on to the fourth book as it has a lot of action at the end and a rather big cliff hanger.

One problem I have with the story up until this point is that Arlen and Jadir are so over the top powerful that Brett has to keep throwing mind demons (princes of the demon world) at them to make them even seem threatened. With arlens warded flesh (as well as other powers) and Jadirs scar wards, crown and spear, no normal demon or person is even a slight threat to them. The same can be said in part for most humans as well. Seeing as everyone seems to now have fighting wards on their weapons, demons get slaughterd by the thousands with relative ease. It takes all the tension away from any standard demon encounter. However this has allowed the focus to shift more to the war between the Krasians and Greenlanders which is often both interesting to see unravel and exciting to read.

Conclusion

After the high quality of the first book in the series it has been a bit of a bumpy road after that. It's still a great series but flawed in parts. At times you might feel a little bored but something always happens to pique your interest a little further down the line. While the story can start to plod at times there are fortunately plenty of rich, interesting characters to hold your attention and keep you wondering what lays ahead for them.

Worth Reading - "Honest word"

http://adam-wignall.tumblr.com/post/123543504622/its-been-5-years-since-i-went-to-the-maldives-for
http://adam-wignall.tumblr.com/post/123536346592/osprey-hunting-at-dawn-i-took-this-series-a-few
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http://adam-wignall.tumblr.com/post/123110259272/hanging-by-a-thread-while-walking-around-whipsnade
http://adam-wignall.tumblr.com/post/123110224572/among-the-grass-taken-at-whipsnade-zooi-thought
http://adam-wignall.tumblr.com/post/123110125552/camouflage-taken-in-the-butterfly-room-at
http://adam-wignall.tumblr.com/post/123110095852/everythings-amazing-my-son-toby-having-a-sit

Air Force Gator


Air Force Gator is Dan Rykerts first fiction novel he has published. 
If you have never heard of Dan Rykert, he is mainly known for being a personality within the video gaming industry. He is a writter for Giant Bomb and is featured on their podcasts and videos. He comes across as dumb and fun and this translates perfectly to his book. Boy is it dumb and is sure as hell a lot of fun. 
Air Force Gator is the tale of a mutated alagator that exists for some reason or another. He is also a legendary figher pilot for the US Air Force. Oh and if I havn’t said the words ‘Air Force’ enough already….. his name IS Air Force Gator. The book starts with Gator spending his time boozing and sleeping with hookers as a washed up veteran. That is until he witnesses the horror that was the destruction of the twin towers and is spured on to get revenge on the monsters that commited such a crime. While on this cold blooded revenge spree, a croc from his past arrives back on the scene and threatens all man kind.
What follows is no brains needed afair of 80′s action movie inspired violence and dialogue which often left a dumb childish grin on my face. You will be treated to gatuitous violence, explosions, blood, more explosions and a healthy dose of cringe worthy one liners.
It only took me 3 hours to read as its really short but all the better for it. It just wouldn’t work if it took itself remotely seriously. 
So if you decide to read this ‘so bad its good’ book, go in with the right expectations and enjoy the ride


The Witcher 3 on a GTX 765m


Laptop Spec:

CPU:  Intel® Core™i7 Quad i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory:  8GB
GPU: GTX 765m 2gig GDDR5
if you just want just the ini settings and the Kepler “fix” then scroll down
The Witcher 3 has recently come out and is an incredibly demanding game to run. With CDPR’s history of Witcher games this should of course be no surprise to anyone. Each one has released with high specs needed to run it well, and each one has released with many performance tweaks needed (and provided by CDPR over the first few months of each games life).
If you are like me and bought your gaming laptop just as the new consoles came out then you might have a similar spec to me. Overall it has performed at a similar level to the new consoles (somewhere just above the Xbox one and below the PS4) and so I fully expected to be able to at least run this game at 768p and 40+ frames a second.
I based this theory off my past experience with games released on the new consoles. Any game that has come out on PS4 so far that ran at 1080p 30 fps I have been able to get to run at 768p or 900p at between 40-60 fps at very similar graphic settings. Lords of the fallen is a good example of a demanding game that I ended up selling my PS4 version because of its frequent dips below 30 FPS and getting it on my laptop. With the right settings I had it looking pretty much the same, just at a lower resolution and 45-60 fps. It played so much nicer this way.
Then out comes the witcher 3 and its performance on consoles had issues so I was a bit doubtful at this point. My first step was to start at the lowest of the low settings. 768p and everything on the lowest. All post processing effect off and all graphic sliders fully to the left. The result? a rather dire 25-35 fps. And this is in the starting area, one of the least demanding points in the game. 
This is mainly because this game looks technically impressive even on its lowest settings. Shadows and vegetation all still look fantastic as well as all the main character models having great facial animations.
It took a lot of tweaking of a certain ini file and a certain kelper “fix” that was found and in the end I have managed to get the game running at 30+ fps 768p almost all of the time. There are a few areas where it dips just below, the most demanding of which is fighting foglets in the bog area where it would drop to about 25-28. Still playable, just a little sluggish. But its really very rare now to get this drop. 

The fix and settings tweaks

The following tweaks essentially fix a bug that causes your GPU to run physx instead of your CPU giving you large frame rate drops any time you encounter people or buildings as well as tweaking the draw distance and quality of foliage and shadows.
They will also give most post processing options, such as motion blur, light shafts and depth of field as well as low sharpness and Ambient Occlusion set to SSAO. You will also have high water effects and high textures (but the game will tell you its on low because I removed a mipmapbias line that got added in a patch to the ini on high textures that drops performance)

It will essentially look very similar to the console settings but at a lower resolution and in parts a better frame rate. 
First the Kepler “fix” I mention. Someone found out a file that was causing Nvidia cards with the Kepler architecture to have issues whenever they encountered buildings or people. It meant you could be playing at 35-40 fps, then encounter a small hut and your fps tanks to the mid 20′s. It was very irritating. To fix this you can use 1 of 2 methods:
1 - Go to the nvidia control panel and set your physx to run of the CPU rather than leave it at auto (its default). Just remember to change it back when you are finished with the game.
2 - The second involves removing the file causing the issue in the first place. Rather than delete it I just moved it into a folder elsewhere in case the need ever arises to put it back. Follow this youtube guide by phixsator to find the file causing the issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnWkSFqo5A4.
The other changes involve altering the games settings file so that the draw distance of grass, foliage and shadows is lower than that its preset low settings allow. You can drop all these settings lower if you want but this is the sweet spot for me for visuals and performance.
To tweak the ini file you need to load up the settings file in notepad. This should be found at the following path:  C:\Users\[name]\Documents\The Witcher 3\user.settings.
Nvidia did a fantastic guide on these ini settings but its designed for people with monster rigs trying to push visuals further. So you essentially do the opposite of what it suggests:  http://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/guides/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide 
Just note that this includes other settings like difficulty. This has it set to the third difficulty (one above default) so after you do this you might want to change a few settings again. However if you have the same spec as me it should get the game running at a very acceptable level.
Open the file in notepad and copy the below over it, save and your done. 
[Gameplay/EntityPool]
SpawnedLimit=75
[Hidden]
HasSetup=true
uiVerticalFrameScale=1
uiHorizontalFrameScale=1
[Localization]
SpeechLanguage=EN
TextLanguage=EN
[Viewport]
VSync=true
Resolution=“1366x768”
FullScreenMode=2
VSyncThreshold=0
OutputMonitor=-1
[Hud]
OnelinersModule=false
QuestsModule=false
HorseStaminaBarModule=false
ControlsFeedbackModule=false
[Budget]
cvMaxAllowedLightsShadowTime=1
cvMaxAllowedApexDestroTickedTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedGrass=5000
cvMaxAllowedDecalsDynamic=10
cvMaxAllowedDynMeshes=104857600
cvMaxAllowedChunksSkinnedTime=2.5
cvMaxAllowedTrianglesSkinned=100000
cvMaxAllowedDecalsSSTime=0.1
cvMaxAllowedLightsShadow=3
TerrainTileMipDataBudget=100
cvMaxAllowedApexTicked=60
cvMaxAllowedActiveEnvProbesTime=0.1
cvMaxAllowedStatTextures=314572800
cvMaxAllowedSpeedTree=150
cvMaxAllowedLightsNonShadowsTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedSpeedTreeTime=2.2
cvMaxAllowedChunksStatic=1500
cvMaxAllowedTrianglesStatic=500000
cvMaxAllowedHiresChunks=25
cvMaxAllowedDecalsDynamicTime=0.5
cvMaxAllowedLightsNonShadows=40
cvMaxAllowedChunksStaticTime=1.5
cvMaxAllowedChunksSkinned=400
cvMaxAllowedApexDestroTicked=20
cvMaxAllowedStatMeshes=209715200
TerrainTileMinTimeout=2
cvMaxAllowedHiresChunksTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedApexTickedTime=0.5
cvMaxAllowedCharTextures=209715200
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCountTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCount=800
cvMaxAllowedGrassTime=1.5
TerrainTileTimeout=10
OcclusionQueryAdditionalMemory=5
TerrainTileLoadingTimeout=5
cvMaxAllowedDecalsSS=160
[Audio]
Subtitles=true
[LoadingScreen/TCR]
ShowProgress=true
[Game]
DoNotPauseWhileStopped=false
[PostProcess]
AllowChromaticAberration=false
SharpenAmount=1
MotionBlurPositionTreshold=0.05
MotionBlurRotationTreshold=1
SSAOSolution=1
AllowBlur=false
[Input]
PadVibrationEnabled=false
KeyboardCooldownSpeed=0.1
InvertCameraXOnMouse=false
InvertCameraYOnMouse=true
CameraAutoRotX=true
InvertCameraX=false
UIMouseSensitivity=1
CameraAutoRotY=true
RightStickCameraSensitivity=0.7
InvertCameraY=true
RightStickAimSensitivity=0.7
MouseSensitivity=1
[DLC]
DlcEnabled_dlc_001_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_002_001=1
[Gameplay]
Difficulty=3
[LevelOfDetail]
SwarmHideDistance=200
DecalsHideDistance=15
DimmerHideDistance=30
DynamicDecalsHideDistance=30
StripeHideDistance=60
[General]
ConfigVersion=1
[LoadingScreen/Editor]
Disabled=false
[LoadingOverlay/TCR]
FadeOutCooldownExtraTime=1
FadeInSpinnerTime=1
NoninteractiveSpinnerTime=3
FadeOutSpinnerTime=1
NoninteractiveEndCooldown=1
[Visuals]
InventoryBgColorScaleB=0.036
InventoryFixedLuminance=0.25
InventoryBgColorScaleG=0.034
MovieFramerate=30
GammaValue=1.36
InventoryBgColorScaleR=0.02
[Rendering]
GrassDensity=500
DecalsSpawnDistanceCutoff=30
TextureStreamingHeadsDistanceLimit=10
GlobalOceanTesselationFactor=32
TextureStreamingCharacterDistanceLimit=50
CascadeShadowFadeTreshold=1
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=0.5
MaxTextureAnizotropy=8
TextureStreamingDistanceLimit=30000
MaxCascadeCount=3
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=0.5
MeshLODDistanceScale=1
MaxSpotShadowSize=256
ScaleformTextureUnstreamDelay=2.5
DecalsChance=1
TerrainReadAheadDistance=200
HairWorksLevel=0
MaxTextureAnisotropy=8
TerrainScreenSpaceErrorThreshold=3
MaxTerrainShadowAtlasCount=1
MaxCubeShadowSize=256
TextureInFlightCountBudget=12
TerrainErrorMetricMultiplier=20
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=1
MeshRenderingDistanceScale=1
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=1
[Input/Gestures]
EnableSwipe=true
EnablePan=true
EnableGestures=true
EnablePinch=true
[LoadingScreen]
FadeInTime=3
SkipShowWithAnyKey=true
GameRevealTime=3
SkipHideDelay=3
SkipInputDelay=0.25
FadeOutTime=1.5
SkipAutoshow=false
[Engine]
LimitFPS=0
[Rendering/SpeedTree]
GrassGenerationEfficiency=0.075
GrassDistanceScale=0.8
FoliageDistanceScale=0.9
FoliageShadowDistanceScale=4
GrassRingSize=4194304
[Save]
ShowCompatWarning=false
[Kinect]
Kinect=true
[Foliage]
MaxVisibilityDepth=12