Planetside 2 offers extensive options for advanced users looking to squeeze even more juice of the game, or just tweak even more to their liking. To start, access C:\Program Files (x86)\Planetside 2 (or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\PlanetSide 2 if you're using the Steam version), and open Useroptions.ini with Notepad. Note while editing this file is perfectly safe, enabling client modifications like SweetFX will get you banned, as they are “indistinguishable from hacks" to SOE, so it's strongly recommended you do not use them.

From useroptions.ini, you can adjust different values to induce various changes in-game. As always, make a backup copy of this file before making any changes, and make any changes before launching the game, after which point save and exit the file, then right click it, click Properties, and set it to Read-only to prevent the game from reverting your changes.

Below are the notable settings many players will find use for, accompanied by explanations and recommendations. Note various graphics-related settings not listed below were tested (including the fabled “Ultra” settings), with no effects found.

[Display]

RenderQuality=1.000000 Increase this beyond the default value to enable supersampling, which renders the game image multiple times to reduce aliasing and increase image quality (moreso the latter in the case of Planetside 2). Replace the default value here with the square root of the level of supersampling you want (eg. 1.41 for 2x supersampling, 1.73 for 3x supersampling, etc).



Click here for an interactive comparison showing RenderQuality=1.00 vs. RenderQuality=1.73.

As you might expect, this setting is very expensive on the GPU and RAM. If you have the power to spare and/or are looking to increase your GPU and/or RAM usage, this setting is recommended.

TextureQuality=1 Changing this setting to 0 will drastically improve texture quality on objects, as seen here. No performance impact was noticed in our testing. As such, it's recommended to anyone that can afford it. Just be aware there is the potential for issues, though none were observed in our testing.



Click here for an interactive comparison showing TextureQuality=1 vs. TextureQuality=0.

RenderDistance=999999.000000 Controls maximum draw distance (how far out you can see objects in the distance before they're 'drawn in' as you move toward them).

Numbers above the default value do not affect visuals; numbers lower than the default value can majorly improve performance, but may cause certain objects and portions of the landscape to not appear when they should. For most, 2000 or 3000 should be the ideal amount, offering a welcome performance boost at minimal cost to visuals.



Click here for an interactive comparison showing RenderDistance=500 vs. RenderDistance=999999.

MaximumFPS=250< If you want to cap your framerate for a more consistent experience and/or to prevent any possibility of your GPU overworking itself, set this to your desired value (above 120 is not recommended).

OverallQuality=4 Setting this to -1 will enable the “Ultra” preset, which includes the fourth Texture Quality setting, and puts all other settings at their normal maximum.

[General]

MouseSensitivity=0.420000 Adjust this setting if you need a very specific mouse sensitivity your gaming mouse software, Windows, and the in-game option can't satisfy. Higher values provide increased sensitivity, and lower values provide decreased sensitivity.