So I just tried the
Path Tracing Optimizations Ultra Plus Better Path Tracing mod and it's worth checking out if you're after a few more frames. I tested the
Ultra Faster variant
which only reduces ray bounces from 2 to 1, changes nothing else, does a bunch of shit and it yielded upwards of 10% FPS increase, which in my test scene in Dog Town meant 5+ frames. The visual downgrade is particularly noticeable in highly lit scenes at night - in layman's terms it's as if light just travels less
but it's still a capital improvement over RT Ultra because you can still clearly see that all light sources are affecting the entire scene. It's kinda like a dimmer, less vibrant version of the default PT, but it's still recognisably PT.
I'm gonna play with this some more, seems like it might be a promising compromise. Parts of DT were dipping my FPS down to the mid 40s in motion, so this might be worth it. Anyone know if there's a mod that changes Path Tracing settings just for Photomode?
EDIT: Scratch that, I got mixed up like a bellend and the above test results are for the other mod, fixed now. The
Raytracing Overdrive Path Tracing Optimizations mod, at least its Ultra variant, has a barely noticeable visual degrade, but it also yields a very small performance increase, like 2, maybe 3 frames in my reference scene.
EDIT #deux: What the fuck?! Since I'd started, I decided to test the Ultra Plus etc. Full variant as well (it wasn't what I was after, I wanted performance) and it both
looks better than the Fast preset and it
runs better! My reference scene, static, went from 51FPS to hitting full 60 V-sync where the Fast preset was only 57, and the visual downgrade from vanilla is barely perceptible (in some details, it's actually better, the author wasn't lying). Even a quick test in motion didn't drop under 50. Was something in the lower Fast preset disagreeing with my GPU?
Anyway, check out the Ultra Plus mod, guys, and start with the Full preset, it looks like it might actually be free FPS.
!
