Hello, SC2 and TL.net community! More than 1.5 years ago Hybrid Settings 2.0 was developed by JaKaTaK and me. What is so unique in these settings? They are different from official ingame settings presets, and they took a place between Low and Medium. In starcraft 2 you may notice huge difference between Low and Medium settings - shaders, tons of effects, etc.Hybrid Settings 3.0 are exactly same as previous one. They are working perfectly on Legacy of the Void expansion. So why I created this thread? First of all I want to provide some information on specific graphic issues that appeared in LOTV, like as new creep design. Second reason is inability to edit previous thread (it is impossible to edit such old posts on TL.net). Third reason, which is the most interesting in my opinion - I decided to merge Hybrid Settings 2.0 with Lite into one thread. And fourth reason - I managed to fix red water issue. Right now Hybrid Settings contains less lines to add to variables and more manual configuration through ingame options.Main goals of this thread is to simplify installation process of Hybrid Settings (less text, easier to read) as well as bring some other customization to your ingame graphic. Basically, I want to compilate most popular graphic customization threads into one.

Brightness balance

Low settings making game darker and a bit more color saturated. Medium and higher settings solve this problem by adding better lighting, entire brightness, contrast and colors become more easy for eyes, but Medium settings also added shiny effect, which isn't beloved by many players so they still are staying at Low settings, even today in 2014.

VFX balance

On low settings you may notice, that you can not understand what your or enemy Nexus is doing - warping Mothership Core or producing Probes.You also can't see which units are in warping process, because of low models. Force Fields sometimes are very hard to see on low settings, and they become clearly visible, brighter and "sharper" only on medium settings. Hybrid Settings solving these issues, allowing you to have everything in one settings preset.

Better clarity, better look

Hybrid Settings taking the best from both Low and Medium settings. For example on Low settings you can not set Models to High, meaning that you will never see warping units or nice deaths from acid or flame. On Medium settings you can't turn off creep giggling-wiggling waterlike animation, you can turn it off only on Low... and with Hybrid Settings.

No more 3D shadows

Perfomance varies depending on what Graphic Settings level you chose.





Noticeable difference from Low (dark) and Medium (bright, shiny) settings.





Ingame brightness is normalized across all maps. No more very dark or very bright maps.





Visible unit outlines when they're behind buildings. This option is not available for Low shaders users.





Creep spreads with simplified animation (like on Low). No giggling-wiggling animation on creep.





Creep edges and holes are smooth (like on "Terrain: Medium").





Improved look of Force Fields (same as on Medium or higher).





Comparison









Hybrid Settings video demonstration in Heart of the Swarm



+ Show Spoiler +















How to install

Set Graphic Settings to Low.



Set Shaders to Medium.



Set Textures - as you want.

Recommended - Medium (best balance between blurry and sharp textures).



Set Models - as you want.

Recommended - High (models of warping units, Force Fields, Pylon radiuses are clearly visible)



Set Effects - as you want.

Recommended - Medium (visible difference between M.Core and Probe production on Nexus



Set Terrain - as you want.

Differences:

Terrain: LOW - spreading animation is blocky and is simplified, creep holes are slightly smaller.



- spreading animation is blocky and is simplified, creep holes are slightly smaller. Terrain: MEDIUM - spreading animation is smooth, creep holes are slightly larger.



- spreading animation is smooth, creep holes are slightly larger. Terrain: HIGH / ULTRA - same as medium + creep covers ground decals





Accept saved settings. Do not restart the game. Just close it.



Find your variables.txt, located here / Documents / StarCraft II / ..



Copypaste the following code to the end of your original variables.txt:



GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0

lighting=0

shadowmapsize=1





WARNING. Blob-shadows will dissapear, if you modify options . Any changes in Options (sound, hotkeys, game settings) will remove your blob-shadows. Solution is simple - don't touch Options (even don't press OK). If you accidentally changed something, just add again code above.

In patch 3.1.0 creep graphic on low settings was updated, due to that I removed previous information about creep customization in this post. Instead, I will provide some screenshots with that new creep graphic on Terrain: LOW .





. Creep holes are smaller than on Terrain: Medium or higher.





Creep spread animation is "block'y", i.e. it spreads by squares instead of smoothly filling ground.





Hybrid Settings 3.0 creep with "Terrain: Low" on Central Protocol





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Similar to standard Low graphic settings in terms of perfomance.





Brighter models of ingame objects including buildings, units and map doodads.

Surface and landscape brightness is same as on standard low settings.





Surface and landscape brightness is same as on standard low settings. High models are unlocked (you can't use High models on Low by default). Thanks to that pylon radiuses and models of warping units are clearly visible.





(you can't use High models on Low by default). Thanks to that pylon radiuses and models of warping units are clearly visible. No improved look of Force Fields



Comparison







Image gallery with Terran, Zerg and Protoss bases





How to install

In game settings set all your Graphic Settings to Low.



Set Textures - as you want. Recommended - Medium (best balance between blurry and sharp textures, between good perfomance and low amount of video memory required..



Close the StarCraft 2 game



Find your variables.txt, located here / Documents / StarCraft II / ..



Copypaste the following code to the end of your original variables.txt:



lighting=0

GraphicsOptionModelQuality=1

lowqualitymodels=0

uselowqualitymodel=0

useLowqualitymodels=0

Removes 3D shadows. Instead, you can use blob-shadows on Medium, High, Ultra and Extreme settings. It means that you may have all the nice graphic effects while turning off shadows. This is not possible through ingame options.









Screenshots (taken on Ultra settings) (taken on Ultra settings)





How to install

In game settings set all your Graphic Settings and Textures as you want.



Close the StarCraft 2 game.



Find your variables.txt, located here / Documents / StarCraft II / ..



Copypaste the following code to the end of your original variables.txt:



GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0

shadowmapsize=1





WARNING. Blob-shadows will dissapear, if you modify options . Any changes in Options (sound, hotkeys, game settings) will remove your blob-shadows. Solution is simple - don't touch Options (even don't press OK). If you accidentally changed something, just add again code above.

Close the StarCraft 2 game.



Find your variables.txt, located here / Documents / StarCraft II / ..



Find lighting=0 and delete that line. Save changes and close variables.txt



In game settings set all your Graphic Settings and Textures as you want.



Some users pay experience lags during games. Try to run Unit Preloader. Open ingame Arcade tab and search for Unit Tester.





If you have lag, purple terrain/models and FPS drops, try to clear cache from ProgramData / BlizzardEntertainment / StarCraft II (this folder might be hidden, google how to show hidden folders).





(this folder might be hidden, google how to show hidden folders). If you have lag, purple terrain/models and FPS drops, try to update your video drivers to the latest ones.





If you have lag, purple terrain/models and FPS drops, try to Scan and Repair your game. You can find this option in dropdown Options menu in the Battle.Net launcher.





If you still have issues, try to post comment here in thread and we'll investigate your problem together.



Yes, Hybrid Settings allow you to turn off shadows completely. It means that game becomes even more clear and easy to read. And we paid attention to those who prefer to play with low (basic) shadows, i.e. blob-shadows (black blob under air and ground units).