UE4 is a graphically intense engine. Most engines today require higher rendering power to meet the demands for graphics of the gaming community.
For H-Hour, we have not fully finished optimizing yet but are getting close for what is suitable for the full PC release. H-Hour is not the only game demanding more GPU power and some games require much higher specs. More optimization will happen as we move to the PS4 platform, upgrade our engine and focus on meeting console requirements but in the interim, players gaining an understanding of their PC, its settings and the game’s requirements will aid them in playing.
First thing I would advise anyone having issues is shutdown unneeded applications while you play ESPECIALLY internet browsers. Use TaskManager to see what you are running (Ctrl+Alt+Del). We have seen players with over 400 applications running while trying to play a game; just will not work.
The Baseline
H-Hour was optimized for 1080p (1920*1080), 16 GB RAM and a GTX 970 OR HIGHER GPU. We have tested to confirm our recommended settings.
Testing on all official maps with a GTX 970 set at Highest video settings on 1080p returned results ranging from between 50-100 FPS, lower when in an area of high particle effects (smoke, waterfalls, lots of gunfire, explosions, etc). BTW, the next gen 10 series GPU offers better performance so a GTX 1070 would bump up this experience in frame rates.
If you want more FPS than our tests and you run with a GTX 970 or equivalent, use the recommended settings below:
Display Resolution 1920*1080
VSync=Off
Graphic resolution=Default
AA=High
Post Processing=Low
Shadows=High
View Distance=High
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What these video settings do:
Graphic Resolution
Affects fine grained control on screen/window resolution across the various settings groups including those options already available below but adds Texture, Effects and Foliage quality adjustments. Recommended setting is default, but players can adjust downward to achieve higher performance at the cost of graphical quality.
AA
Smooths out jaded edges around objects. Turning up will take a sizeable hit in framerate. For most, there is not much of a different between High and Highest. Adjust to reduce framerate cost while maintaining the graphics you prefer.
Shadows
Another that take a sizeable hit in framerate in High and Highest. Keep in mind that Low and Medium settings will remove player shadows and that may be a disadvantage in your ability to get a quick glance that someone is there. So, balance your need for performance vs losing the character shadow of other players when setting this.
Post Processing
This handles effects like occlusion and dynamic lighting. Low will give you ambient occlusion which is a noticeable visual and framerate improvement, but the graphics will appear darker, High will add depth of field and Highest will add dynamic effects like bloom and God rays. The trade off here is between visual effects and framerate.
View Distance
Affects how much you can see off in the distance. Useful for scopes or when watching map activity from a high point.
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You Want More Speed OR Have Lower End Hardware
Pushing your system outside of our recommended requirements can significantly affect how the game is played particularly if your hardware is not capable of supporting the upgrade you are trying to use.
Running High Res OR High Hertz Monitors
Running Highest settings at 2K (2560*1440) or on a high Hertz monitor would require a GTX 1080 to consistently stay above 60 FPS in heavy gameplay on maps that include a lot of rendering requirements. Running 4K (3840*2160) would require a GTX 1080Ti to even entertain playing at this level.
If you do not have the equipment, you need to reduce your hertz and/or resolution.
Less than 16 GB RAM installed
Running with less than 16 GB of memory can affect gameplay during intense battles—get more memory or set your Virtual Memory custom settings properly to avoid hard drive spikes.
Recommended virtual memory settings are 2.5 times your on board RAM. Example, 8GB Ram would be 1024 x 8 x 2.5 = 20,480. This calc should be set as Virtual Memory using Custom size for both Initial and Maximum sizes so there is no hard drive spiking going on.
Other Tips for Lower Hardware Specs
If you are running with lower end hardware or having issues with lag in game, a series of potential tweaks that may help follows.
NOTE: Use at your own risk and test to see results, returning to defaults any settings that do not improve your situation.
Step 1:
Make sure Windows is up to date. Go to Control Panel, search on Updates and run Windows Update. Download and install any missing ones.
Step 2:
With UE4 being a newer and evolving engine, there are continual updates made to drivers for this engine so make sure you have the latest. Go to the AMD or Nvidia website and check for driver updates for your video card. Download and install.
After install, go into your AMD/Nvidia Control Panel and change your image settings from Quality to Performance. Inside your 3D image settings (Advanced 3D image settings) you may also want to change the following:
Turn off “Antialiasing – Gamma correction”
Change “Maximum pre-rendered frames” to 1.
Change “Power management mode” to “Prefer maximum performance”.
Change “Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias” to Clamp
Change “Texture filtering – Quality” to High performance
Turn off “Texture filtering – Trilinear optimization
Turn on “Threaded optimization”
Apply the settings and restart your PC to activate them.
Step 3:
Clean out hard drive clutter.
Go to Windows Start menu and type in
%temp%
Hit Enter.
It will bring you to a folder Windows stores all temporary use files in. Things deleted from there are replaced when needed so nothing to worry about with deleting this content.
Click on the top item (file or folder).
Scroll to bottom and use Shift+Click on the bottom one. This will select all files and folders in Temp.
Click Delete.
If you get a “Folder in Use” message, click the “Do this for all current items” and select Skip. (those items are in use at this time and cannot be removed)
After complete, go to your Recycle Bin on Desktop, right click and select Empty Recycle Bin.
Step 4. Reduce your expectations that you will get top end graphics with low end hardware-LOWER your settings!
Turn your Display Resolution down.
Don't connect to a high Hertz monitor if your game is struggling.
Turn your Resolution Quality down in Options.
Adjust other settings to reduce.
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Steam Launch Options, depending on your situation:
Steam provides the ability to set Launch Options to help those with hardware issues. If you want to try these, here is how to do so:
Open Steam
Go to the "Library"
Right-click the game which needs to be reconfigured
Select "Properties" from the menu
Click the "Set launch options..." button
Copy and paste the following (there are more options than this but these are the primary ones of use):
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4
What they mean:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES
Tells the game to use all your CPU cores. You can use Windows “Resource Monitor” CPU tab to check if your cores are active after entering the game. If not, you might want to remove this launch option to avoid any stuttering.
-sm4
Forces the game to use Shader Model 4 instead of the default Shader Model 5 and dx10 vs dx11.
Test appearance in game and if you are not satisfied, remove. This option can give a very good boost to performance when used but at a cost of appearance. For some this may worsen performance so it is important to test, test, test. Should this not improve your situation, you can try just dropping to dx 10 by alone using the following instead of -sm4:
-d3d10
Known Windows Issues
Compatibility settings:
There are Windows settings that though intended to improve performance, in some scenarios reduce performance by causing jittery gameplay or overheating GPUs. If you experience these, you can try setting Compatibility settings for the game.
To do this, go to the following location and right-click on the game exe, select Properties and click on the Compatibility tab.
\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\H-Hour Worlds Elite\HHourGame\Binaries\Win64
Check the box that says “override high DPI scaling behavior”.
Check the box that says “disable fullscreen optimizations”.
Apply.
Test in game to see if the situation is improved.
Unstatble Overclock or Computer
If you experience instability, blue screens or see Windows errors such as DXGI_ERROR, there is an issue within your system. You should run stress tests, downclock or if it continues, check for malware. Check your Event Viewer (use Windows key and type Event Viewer to access) to get the details of your crash/disconnect and search online for solutions.