Tomb Raider - Essential Tweaks

Here are the tweaks I applied to the Steam version of Tomb Raider. Whenever I install a new game, it takes some time to find all the essential tweaks necessary to run the game flawlessly. This post is just a collection of the most important tweaks, all in one place, as they work for me to get almost always 60 FPS while reducing system heat as much as I can without sacrificing to much visual quality.

System Setup

I run the game on a PC with the following components and drivers:

• Windows 7 64bit
• Intel i5 2500k
• GeForce GTX 560 Ti
• GeForce Driver Version: 337.88

I installed only the Graphics Driver, the HD Audio Driver and the PhysX System Software and left the other drivers unchecked. I always choose a custom installation when updating my drivers, which provides the option to enforce a clean installation.

Startup Tweaks

By default the game starts the game launcher instead of the game itself. This becomes kind of annoying after you have configured the game to your liking. Hence, skipping the game launcher is our first choice. Open your steam game library and right-click the Tomb Raider game icon. Select Properties from the context menu and press the SET LAUNCH OPTIONS... button. Add the value -nolauncher and press the OK button.

Performance Tweaks

The game uses the DirectX 11 renderer by default. Changing the renderer to DirectX 9 may result in a boost of up to 25% FPS while sacrificing very little visual quality. To force the game to use DirectX 9, press the Windows Start button and type regedit into the search field. Press enter which launches the registry editor and navigate the registry by following this path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Tomb Raider\Graphics

Change the value of the entry RenderAPI from 0 to 9.

That's it. I hope you enjoy playing Tomb Raider without having low FPS or too high GPU heat.

Logged Off: Harmlezz

Tweak Sources

• PC Gaming Wiki

Spec Ops: The Line - Essential Tweaks

Here are the tweaks I applied to the Steam version of Spec Ops: The Line. Whenever I install a new game, it takes some time to find all the essential tweaks necessary to run the game flawlessly. This post is just a collection of the most important tweaks, all in one place, as they work for me to get almost always 60 FPS while reducing system heat as much as I can without sacrificing to much visual quality.

System Setup

I run the game on a PC with the following components and drivers:

• Windows 7 64bit
• Intel i5 2500k
• GeForce GTX 560 Ti
• GeForce Driver Version: 334.89

I installed only the Graphics Driver, the HD Audio Driver and the PhysX System Software and left the other drivers unchecked. I always choose a custom installation when updating my drivers, which provides the option to enforce a clean installation.

The tweaks require you to edit the files SREngine.ini and SRInput.ini which can be found in the folder located at:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My Games\SpecOps-TheLine\SRGame\Config

Those files are encrypted and have to be decrypted before you can edit them. Download the tool from here and extract the three files contained in the archive directly into the configuration folder mentioned above, so they are located side by side with all the *.ini files.

Just drag-and-drop the *.ini file you want to edit over the Gibbed.SpecOpsTheLine.IniDecrypt.exe file before you start editing it and drag-and-drop the same file over the Gibbed.SpecOpsTheLine.IniEncrypt.exe when you are done editing it.

Startup Tweaks

Watching advertisement videos over and over again is very annoying and time consuming. Hence it's best to disable as many of them as possible. In the file SREngine.ini find the section [FullScreenMovie] and prepend a semicolon to the following lines, make them look like this:

;StartupMovies=legal
;StartupMovies=ESRB_Screen
;StartupMovies=legal_logo_screen
;StartupMovies=UnrealLogo
;StartupMovies=2KLogo
;StartupMovies=YagerLogo
;StartupMovies=2KDemo_Warn
;StartupMovies=StartupMovie

Performance Tweaks

The most important tweak to boost FPS and reduce overall system heat is to disable depth of field. I gained a reduction of total GPU heat of 3 degree. In the file SREngine.ini find the section [SystemSettings] and adjust the value of the following property as shown below:

DepthOfField=False

Control Tweaks

If you play with a keyboard and mouse you may notice some kind of mouse acceleration when moving your mouse too fast. To improve aiming with the mouse I just disabled smoothing. In the file SRInput.ini find the section [Engine.PlayerInput] and adjust the value of the following property as shown below:

bEnableMouseSmoothing=false

That's it. I hope you enjoy playing Spec Ops: The Line without having low FPS, high GPU heat or aiming issues.

Logged Off: Harmlezz

Tweak Sources

• PC Gaming Wiki
• Steam Users' Forum