I’ve been an XCom fan for years, and whereas we haven’t received a brand new one shortly, Star Wars Zero Company looks as if the proper substitute. It’s within the Star Wars universe, which is superior, and placing it in the midst of the Clone Wars makes it the proper setting for a tactical sport like this. And whereas I’ve been having a blast with it to date, it’s plagued with a number of the identical efficiency points as Halo Marketing campaign Developed had a few month in the past.
On the time of writing, my time with Zero Company has been a little bit of a nightmare, stuffed with crashes and body drops. I’m positive that, over time, the sport shall be patched to be a bit extra steady, however proper now, it doesn’t precisely play good with low-to-mid-range {hardware}. I’ve even had some points on an extremely highly effective RTX 5090 gaming PC.
Star Wars Zero Company PC Settings
Whilst you can tune Zero Company to run a bit smoother more often than not, there are nonetheless points with body drops, significantly in cutscenes. Even if you happen to get the sport to run at a gradual 60fps, there shall be instances when the sport will run into hitches. Probably the greatest methods round that’s to have a PC with a good processor.
After I tried to run the sport on one thing just like the Lenovo Legion Go 2, the CPU could be pinned at round 50–60% utilization, whereas the GPU sat at 70–80%, which is simply leaving efficiency on the desk. Nvidia Reflex and AMD FSR Anti-Lag assist a bit there, however more often than not you’re going to be restricted by your CPU. Even on a desktop with a Ryzen 7 9850X3D and an RTX 5090, the sport will sometimes spike CPU utilization as much as 50%, sometimes initially of a mission.
Video games utilizing Unreal Engine 5 are arduous to tune, however you may eke out some further efficiency if you realize the place to chop. I’ll undergo all of the settings and what they modify right here, so you may tweak the sport to your individual particular PC. For instance, when you have a weak CPU, you’re in all probability going to need to decrease issues like hidden objects and impact high quality first.
Windowing Mode: This can change how the window is displayed whenever you’re enjoying the sport. There are solely three choices. Fullscreen will make your laptop solely render the sport, which might trigger issues if you happen to attempt to alt-tab. Borderless Window is what I wish to name ‘faux fullscreen’ as a result of it takes up your whole show whereas nonetheless rendering the Home windows desktop beneath it. Then, Windowed mode simply places the sport in a typical Window, the place you may see the duty bar. I’d select Fullscreen if you happen to’re on a single-monitor setup, and Borderless when you have a number of screens otherwise you alt-tab often.
Anti-Aliasing and Upscaling: Again within the day, there was a real debate over which kind of upscaling people ought to use, however today, I’d simply choose relying on who makes your graphics card. AMD customers ought to use FSR, Nvidia customers ought to use DLSS, and XeSS for Intel GPUs. It is a sport the place I’d advocate just about everybody to make use of some sort of upscaling to maximise efficiency.
Upscaling High quality: This adjustments the size at which the sport shall be upscaled. Fortunately, every GPU vendor makes use of the identical scale, so I’d choose one relying in your native decision. My rule of thumb is Efficiency for 4K, Balanced for 1440p, and High quality for 1080p.
Body Technology: This makes use of AI to generate new frames and sandwiches them between natively rendered frames, which will increase your body charge. This does come at the price of latency, however in a turn-based sport like Star Wars Zero Company, that actually doesn’t matter that a lot. Flip it on if you would like a smoother picture.
Nvidia Reflex/AMD Anti-Lag/XeSS LL: This setting will change relying in your GPU vendor however the underlying know-how is comparable throughout the board. These zero out your rendering queue, which lowers latency by solely rendering frames as your CPU delivers them to your graphics card. Flip it on, there’s no purpose to not.
Shadow High quality: If you happen to’re GPU sure and struggling to get frames, Shadows are usually the very first thing I lower. This can change how correct shadows are, and even on low, they give the impression of being midway first rate right here (once more, Unreal has an issue with scalability). Mid-Vary PC: Excessive, Handheld: Low
World Illumination: This adjustments the standard of oblique lighting. That is one other setting that largely simply impacts your graphics card, so decrease it if you happen to’re GPU sure and on the lookout for higher efficiency. But when your graphics card isn’t even sitting at 100% utilization more often than not, this in all probability isn’t what’s inflicting your efficiency woes. Have in mind although, that the Excessive and Extremely settings listed here are utilizing ray tracing, so going from medium to excessive will hit your GPU arduous. Mid-Vary PC: Medium; Handheld: Low
Reflections: Similar to with GI, reflections are largely a GPU-bound factor and Bit Reactor is utilizing ray tracing right here too. Simply by advantage of this being a science-fiction sport, there are a number of reflective surfaces, so this may be fairly impactful to your efficiency, particularly on a weaker GPU. Except you’ve gotten a high-end card, I’d hold this at medium. Mid-Vary PC: Medium; Handheld: Low
Publish Processing: I’ve a love-hate relationship with post-processing results, and I’m not tremendous comfortable that Bit Reactor rolled all of them into one setting. This can change every part from movement blur to bloom. This truthfully received’t have an effect on your efficiency that a lot, however if you happen to hate movement blur, it may be value turning this down simply to avoid wasting your self a headache. Mid-Vary PC: Your Selection; Handheld: Your Selection
Textures: This adjustments the decision that textures are rendered at. This can largely hit VRAM, so modify accordingly. My tip could be to have a efficiency monitor up throughout one mission to see how a lot VRAM you’re utilizing, and solely decrease this if you happen to’re on the higher restrict. Or, simply flip it on Extremely when you have 10GB or extra, and switch it to medium or low when you have lower than 8GB.
Impact High quality: This can change how detailed visible results are. This can have an effect on every part from explosions to clutter to lasers taking pictures via the sky. That is one thing that can hit your CPU, so if you happen to’re being bottlenecked there, this is likely one of the settings it is best to lower. Mid-Vary PC: Excessive; Handheld: Low
Shading High quality: On this sport, shading high quality is basically the identical as mesh high quality. It’ll change how detailed objects on this planet are. Similar to with textures, that is one thing I’d decrease if you happen to’re operating out of VRAM. Mid-Vary PC: Excessive; Handheld: Low
View Distance: That is sort of a humorous setting to even have on this sport. This simply adjustments how far out you may see particulars on objects from. However due to how small a lot of the arenas are, that is purely an aesthetic selection, and so I’m obliged to show this down earlier than a lot of the different settings. Mid-Vary PC: Medium; Handheld: Low
Hidden Objects Element: This adjustments how detailed objects which can be at present hidden are. This can hit your CPU, so it’s one thing it is best to flip down if you’re bottlenecked. Mid-Vary PC: Simplified; Handheld: Simplified
Atmosphere Geometry Element: That is only a toggle that’ll change the geometry of fashions within the scene. Bit Reactor’s tooltip claims that newer GPUs received’t actually see a efficiency profit from turning it off, so I’d simply depart it on except you’ve gotten an older PC – suppose greater than 5years outdated. Mid-range PC: On; Handheld: Off
Jackie Thomas is the {Hardware} and Shopping for Guides Editor at IGN and the PC parts queen. You may observe her @Jackiecobra