COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FOR BALANCING VISUALS AND PERFORMANCE THROUGH INI TWEAKS AND OTHER MEANS
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Changelogs
Version 1.3
Added notes about completely disabling lensflare/bloom in Fallout76Custom.ini.
Added notes about toning down ambient occlusion in Fallout76Custom.ini.
Added disclaimer about black water issue with disabling screenspace reflections.
Expanded on some explanations and recommendations based on further testing.
Version 1.2
Added notes about editing trees/foliage wind sway in Fallout76Custom.ini
Added notes about tonemapping in Fallout76Custom.ini
Version 1.1
New VSync/AA suggestions in the Geforce Control Panel part. Thanks Reddit user nxsnexus!
Added TAA Sharpening in Fallout76Custom.ini
Added bAllowCreateGrass in Fallout76Custom.ini
Added [LOD] attributes in Fallout76Prefs.ini
Corrected and elaborated on many explanations and recommendations based on further testing.
Removed some irrelevant attributes.
Color coded attributes that make largest performance/visual impact.
Added links to premade, commented INIs on their respective filenames.
Formatting/lookeyniceing.
Version 1.0
Initial release.
I found a disturbing lack of a complete list of tweakable values with detailed explanations and recommendations for the Fallout 76 INI files (Fallout76.ini, Fallout76Prefs.ini and Fallout76Custom.ini). There are some, but none of them contain what I find to be everything that matters and the explanations (if there are any) are not detailed, are hyperbolic or just speculations.
Most of the variables found in the INI’s are identical to the ones of Fallout 4 and should work just fine, but this list will be made with 76 in mind.
I am not going to talk about mods here because I want to get this done in my lifetime and what mods to use and what not is a personal affair. That being said, Better Inventory by reg2k and RatMonkeys easy sorting and tagging by RatMonkey (now supported by L0n36unm4n)are my must-haves.
By no means do I claim to have expert knowledge or the absolute truth in this collection. My observations are based entirely on fiddling with BGS games and INI’s since Oblivion and doing it quite compulsively – some might call it a mental illness at this point.
If any of my observations are found and proved false, I will make sure to edit this document accordingly. I do not want credit for any of it and am more than willing to make this a community effort.
The guide is the included file.
UPDATE: I've also included a ready-made pack with INIs and a ReShade preset. The INIs have comments on everything detailing what you should and shouldn't change. The ReShade is NOT stylized in any way, just FXAA + LumaSharpen. FXAA quality is cranked to max and LumaSharpen is tuned to tasteful yet efficient. READ the included instructions.