Do you love playing Apex Legends? Are you tired of not being able to see enemy players? Tired of being shot before you can even aim down your sights? Well, you came to the right place because I will be helping you figure out the best settings to improve your visibility, giving you the edge in every fight.
15-Sprint Shake View
For those who may not know, Sprint Shake is a way to make you believe and feel more immersed in the game. Sprint Shake can be described as the movement of your vision as you are running. Now there is nothing wrong with feeling like you are truly in the game, but if you are looking for an edge, this is the place to start.
In order to get the most out of this setting, change it to Minimal. Minimal does exactly as it sounds, it will reduce the overall vision shake you get when running. Once changed to Minimal, you’ll experience a more fluid game.
Advantages
Allows for quicker recognition by reducing movement blur
Smoother transition into aiming since the screen doesn’t shake as much
14-Prompt Style
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The minimized prompt style will reduce screen clutter within your game making visibility increase.
Another simple but important way to fix your visibility would be to change your Prompt Style. But what is Prompt Style? Prompt Style is the display when you go to interact with in-game objects like weapons, armor, loot, etc. What you need to understand is that the default version of this setting is a visual hindrance.
Similar to Sprint Shake, there is only one other option you can pick for this, Compact. If you’re new to Apex, then I would say leave this on default until you get an understanding of the game. Once you feel confident in your game, change it to Compact to improve your visibility.
Advantages
Compact style reduces screen clutter in comparison to the default version
Increases awareness of your surroundings by allowing you to see more
Gives you only the key information you need instead of information you already know
13-Effect Details
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Effect Details will control the amount of details in grenades like the thermite above.
This is the first setting that will help your visibility by increasing your FPS. Effect Details controls the overall graphics of explosions and abilities. Some may think that having all settings set to the highest choice is how you get the best visibility. In reality, a majority of these settings don’t offer much in terms of vision and cause more stress on your system.
Surprisingly, the difference between these settings isn't as much as one might believe it to be. Even the Low setting, it won’t make a major difference in your game's graphics. But what the lowest setting will do is give you the most frames.
Advantages
Increases FPS by reducing PC load
The increase in FPS grants smoother gameplay
Minimal change to graphics since the lowest and highest settings are nearly identical
12-Ragdolls
Ragdolls are best described as the motion of an enemy’s body once they have been killed. This setting controls the rendering time of a body on the ground. The longer rendering time is what allows bodies to be flung, slide, or fall in the environment. While this can lead to funny moments between you and your team, it doesn’t offer a true benefit to you.
Changing this setting to Low will lower the amount of work your computer has to do. Decreasing the load on your system is important when trying to achieve the most FPS possible, and Ragdoll causes unnecessary strain on your hardware without any true improvements to gameplay.
Advantages
Lowest setting grants the fastest removal of dead bodies, reducing PC strain
The maximum reduction of PC load will result in better frames
Lowest setting will give the highest FPS to make for a more fluid game
11-Reticle Colors
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In order to take full advantage of customizable reticles, it is best to select a color you find appealing, in addition to standing out.
In a game with so many different players, it is always nice to stand out. When Respawn introduced Reticle Colors, every player jumped at the opportunity to be able to express themselves within the game. While some players do it just for the look, some do it for the hidden benefit it provides.
The benefit is making your sights standout just like you. Changing the color of your reticle allows you to better spot your sights against different backgrounds. Having a clear and visible sight will improve aiming, upping the odds in a fight. Understand that this doesn’t have a clear best setting, so you should try several and pick what works best for you.
Advantages
Personalized look by selecting a color you prefer
Improvement of crosshair recognition in certain settings and environments
Better aiming when looking down sights
10-Impact Marks
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The amount of bullet holes being rendered at any given moment may lead to reduced frames in the game.
While the term Impact Marks might cause one to assume that they are the hit markers registered during a fight, it's not. Much like Effect Details, Impact Marks are the graphics of the game itself. More specifically, the graphics of bullets that have struck the wall.
So, what will changing this setting do? By completely disabling this, you will remove all bullet holes from the game, which makes your hardware work harder during intense times of gunfire. When your system works less, you’ll be able to maintain more frames. Being able to have more FPS during a gunfight is crucial to your vision.
Advantages
Disabling removes bullet holes from walls, causing your GPU to work less
FPS will be more consistent during gunfights since no bullet holes will be rendered
More frames during a fight will make aiming smoother and increase the chances of winning
9-Model Details
Model Details can be understood as the overall graphics of the world around you and the legends within it. Now, no need to worry, changing this won’t send you back 20 years in terms of graphics. If you truly prefer graphics over performance, it’ll be okay if you leave this on.
It is important to understand that this setting won’t change your game in any dramatic way. The difference between the lowest and highest setting only gains you a few frames, but the visual difference is also negligible. So we’ll set this to Low to get the most bang for our buck.
Advantages
Improves FPS by lowering the details of legends
Lowered environmental details will improve FPS
8-Dynamic Spot Shadows
Apex Legends offers plenty of settings dedicated to shadows, but the one I find most helpful in our mission for better visibility is Dynamic Spot Shadows. If you pay close attention to your surroundings, you may notice that other Legends cast shadows in the arena. What Dynamic Shadows does is it grants you the ability to turn these shadows off or on.
Unlike some other settings, LEAVE THIS ON! Yes, if you turn this off, you will improve the performance of your PC, but you will lose awareness. By having this on, you'll gain another way to spot and find players without ever needing to see them. How’s that for visibility?
Advantages
Helps you spot enemies above you when you notice their shadow on the ground
Prevent someone from sneaking up on you since a shadow will be cast
7-Volumetric Lighting
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This blinding light we see is what is known as God rays, due to the Volumetric Lighting, which often leads to poor visibility and aim.
Have you ever walked outside your house and been blinded by the sun? Well, that is what this is. Volumetric Lighting, or God Rays to some, is the effect of sunbeams within the game. Another immersive detail added in to make the game feel more realistic but with unintended consequences. Mostly, the blinding light.
The first thing you will notice when disabling it is the fact that there is no more sunlight in the game. Don't worry, it won't be pitch black. I mean that when you are outside, there are no sunbeams making it difficult to see. The next thing you might notice would be your FPS improving since there will be less strain on the computer.
Advantages
Removes the blinding beams of light, allowing for better vision
Less of a workload on your hardware, giving you better FPS
6-V-Sync
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V-Sync, which is found in the Video tab, was created with the intent to help improve players' gaming experience but has become more of a hindrance.
V-Sync, also known as Vertical Sync, was intended to improve your gaming experience by essentially locking your FPS to match what your monitor can handle. Why wouldn’t we want this on? See, having your frames locked sounds like a great idea, and it was when it first came out. “locking” of frames is what may cause you issues in Apex Legends.
The way V-Sync works is by not letting your GPU send more information to your screen, which in some cases can cause tearing. But in doing so, it creates the issue of input lag. See, if you were to make a movement, fire a weapon, or an enemy player appears on screen during this time, you wouldn’t see it. So, as confusing as it may sound, make sure this is disabled.
Advantages
Removal of input lag by freeing up your GPU
Not having your frames frozen allows you better awareness of what is happening
5-Texture Filtering
Texture Filtering can be understood as the visibility and sharpness of what is being shown in the game. Like some of the previous settings, this doesn’t offer crazy improvements in frames for you, but the benefits are still there. Apex offers you several different options to set this to, all dependent on your system.
Bilinear is the lowest of the bunch, netting the greatest gains in FPS along with the most noticeable loss in graphics. Conversely, 16x Anisotropic will give you the best graphics. I like to use 4x since I get an increase in frames while maintaining a good visual aspect to my game. If you want nothing but increased FPS for better visibility, then 2x Anisotropic is best.
Advantages
Greater FPS by lowering graphics in game
Most frames with the least amount of visual loss at 2x
4x/8x grants the best graphics while still improving your FPS
4-Texture Streaming Budget
Occasionally confused for Texture Filtering, Texture Streaming Budget does affect the quality of graphics but in a different way. Texture Streaming is based around the concept of reserved memory for texture rendering. Optimizing this is important to achieve better graphics along with better FPS. The most important thing one needs to understand is that this is based on the VRAM of your GPU.
You never want to exceed the amount of VRAM on your GPU since the excess will cause a drop in frames. Apex developers give you several choices to pick from here, the first being None. None will grant you the highest increase in FPS but also create the biggest loss in visuals. The best practice is to set it to what you have, or if you want the most frames, set it to 2GB.
Advantages
Optimizing for your GPU will grant better frames and better visuals
The lower setting you select will grant more FPS
3-Adaptive Resolution FPS Target
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Often misused by new players, Adaptive Resolution will lead to lower graphics and visuals during moments of intense PC workload.
Adaptive Resolution was created with the concept of helping players experience consistent and locked frames during a game. Unlike V-Sync, this does not lock to your monitor but rather to a fixed value that you have selected. While the idea of setting this to a high frame rate and hopping right into playing is great, the outcome isn't.
Once you have this set to a specific FPS, your settings will automatically adjust to meet that desired rate. This causes an extremely undesirable effect of raising and lowering graphics unexpectedly. This is mostly noticeable in times of extreme stress, like in a fight, which may cause you to lose focus and miss your shots. The best setting for this would be to leave it at 0 so it doesn’t mess with your visuals at all.
Advantages
Unlocked frames allow for changing frames during low and high-intensity moments
Graphic quality will stay consistent throughout the entirety of the game
2-Ambient Occlusion
How often do you run into a room and have been killed because you didn’t see someone hiding in the corner? I know I have before, until I turned Ambient Occlusion off. Ambient Occlusion is understood to be the shadows cast in the corners of a room. Meant to make the game feel more realistic and immersive, not meant for competitive and visual advantages.
Once disabled, this will remove the details of shadows in corners, stopping you from overlooking anyone trying to hide there. This is a big advantage in helping you keep your visibility to a maximum, but not the greatest. The greatest plus of this would be the fact that this one setting is actually the most draining on your PC, so removal of this allows for a massive increase in FPS.
Advantages
Greatest gains in FPS out of all the settings
Removal of shadows in corners prevents players from using it as cover
1-Field-Of-View
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FOV is used by many players, in all games, to increase their total visibility by granting one the ability to see more on their screen.
The greatest improvement to your visibility is none other than Field-Of-View, or FOV. What FOV does is increase the total of what is seen on screens, providing you with the ability to spot rival legends before they spot you. Think of it as zooming out your screen. This zooming out is critical in winning and surviving in a game like Apex.
By being able to see more, you will develop better situational awareness during fights to see if someone is trying to flank you. Additionally, you’ll find cover quickly, granting you time to heal, reload, and recover back into the fight. No one can tell you what to set this to, so it's best to decide on a number yourself, but anything is better than default.
Advantages
Greater FOV allows you to see players you normally wouldn’t have
Get a better understanding of your surroundings by seeing more
Increases awareness in fights if you need to move or take cover
Brandon is a lone survivor of the Florida Wasteland, his journey has led him here, to The Grid. Learning along the way, a pen wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage.
