SpaceEngine
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All Graphics Options Explained [Updated for General Relativity]
Автор: HarbingerDawn
An explanation of every graphics setting in SpaceEngine.
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Graphics Settings (1/3)
Graphics settings menu, edited to extend the window to fit all settings without scrolling. Example settings above tuned for use with a 2560x1440 display and RTX 3090 graphics card.

Graphics quality
This option allows you to select between several different graphics quality presets. The options are:
  • potato - lowest graphics quality settings best suited to computers with weak GPUs (graphics processors), or which have less than 3 GB of dedicated video memory (VRAM)
  • low - low graphics quality settings best suited to computers that meet SpaceEngine's minimum hardware requirements, including having at least 3 GB of dedicated video memory (VRAM)
  • medium - improved graphics quality settings best suited to computers that have at least 4 GB of VRAM
  • high - high graphics quality settings best suited to computers with reasonably good GPUs, and which have at least 6 GB of VRAM
  • ultra - maximum graphics quality settings best suited to computers with high-end GPUs, and which have at least 8 GB of VRAM
  • custom - unlocks all graphics settings, allowing you to change each one to suit your preference

Vertical synchronization
Vertical synchronization, more commonly called "vsync", synchronizes the output of rendered frames from the program to the refresh timing of your screen - this prevents the screen from being told to draw a new frame before it finishes drawing the previous one, which can cause tearing (a noticeable horizontal cut in the image at the point where the screen switches from drawing one frame to another). It also prevents the program from rendering frames more quickly than your screen can draw them, which saves processing power. This setting has the following options:
  • off - vsync is turned off, and the program will render as many frames as possible and deliver them to your screen as soon as they're done, regardless of whether your screen is ready to draw them or not
  • on - vsync is turned on, and the program will only render and deliver frames to your screen when the screen is ready to draw a new frame
  • auto - if the program can render frames faster than your screen's refresh rate, vsync will turn on; otherwise, vsync will turn off - this option essentially functions as a framerate limiter, with the limit set to your screen's refresh rate

MSAA antialiasing
Aliasing refers to the jagged, hard edges that objects appear to have on screen, caused by the limited number of pixels available, and each pixel either containing an object or not. Antialiasing refers to techniques that try to reduce this effect by smoothing the edges by allowing pixels to contain an intermediate value between object and no object, making edges seem more natural.

MSAA (multi-sampling antialiasing) is an antialiasing technique that samples multiple points in a pixel along the edge of an object while rendering, and averaging the result, thus increasing the effective resolution of object edges. Note that MSAA is very performance intensive, especially at high settings, and most settings will reduce performance noticeably on all but the highest-end graphics cards (and very high sample counts will noticeably decrease performance even then).

This setting has the following options:
  • off - MSAA disabled
  • 2 - 2 samples per pixel (small performance impact, small visual improvement)
  • 4 - 4 samples per pixel (medium performance impact on mid-range hardware, good visual improvement)
  • 8 - 8 samples per pixel (significant performance impact on most hardware, very good visual improvement)
  • 16 - 16 samples per pixel (huge performance impact on all hardware, excellent visual improvement) *not supported on all GPUs*
  • 32 - 32 samples per pixel (colossal performance impact on all hardware, excellent visual improvement) *not supported on all GPUs*

Landscape LOD
This option allows you to change the level of detail (LOD) that the surfaces of planets and stars are rendered at. Higher values cause more detailed terrain to be rendered at farther distances, but increase the amount of time it takes to fully generate the landscape. Note that in the current version, landscape tiles are stored in a texture array of limited size - this means that it is not possible to fully render the landscapes of some planets (which have many texture layers, like multiple cloud layers, lava/lights, etc.) at maximum detail, depending on your screen resolution and viewing angle. If you encounter a situation like that, reduce the LOD value until everything can fully load.

This setting has options ranging from -1.0 to 1.0, in increments of 0.1.

Landscape loading speed
This setting determines how many landscape tiles can be generated during each frame the program renders. Higher values mean that landscapes can finish rendering more quickly, but at the cost of reduced framerate during loading/generation.

This setting has options ranging from 1 texture per frame to 20 textures per frame, in increments of 1.

Self-emission
This checkbox enables or disables emissive (glowing) textures for planets and spacecraft.

Planet shine
This checkbox enables or disables illumination of objects by light reflected from planets/moons/etc.

Eclipse shadows
This checkbox enables or disables shadows cast by planets/moons onto other objects.

FXAA antialiasing
This checkbox enables or disables FXAA (fast approximate antialiasing). FXAA is a shader-based antialiasing method that blurs high-contrast boundaries in the image to make aliasing less noticeable. It has a very small performance impact, but can make the image look blurry, and makes background stars look dim.

Dithering
This checkbox enables or disables an extremely subtle animated noise pattern on the image, which can significantly reduce banding artifacts (most noticeable in the sky of a planet with an atmosphere, or in the background "milky way"). This can improve image quality with no performance impact, but can significantly increase the file size of PNG screenshots.

Ring shadows on sky
This checkbox enables or disables displaying the shadows of rings on a planet's atmosphere.

Landscape target resolution
This setting allows you to limit how detailed the terrain will be on high-resolution displays. If your screen resolution is higher than the setting you choose, SpaceEngine will act as if your screen resolution is equal to this value for the purposes of landscape generation (e.g. if you are using a 1440p display, and you set this setting to 1080p, then the same landscape tiles will be generated as they would be for someone using a 1080p screen). This helps to prevent the landscape texture arrays being overloaded on high resolution displays, and can be used to reduce landscape generation time for low-end hardware.

This setting has the following options:
  • 480p
  • 720p
  • 1080p
  • 1440p
  • 2160p
  • 4320p

Warp & refl. resolution
This setting allows you to choose the environment map resolution used with spacecraft reflections and gravitational lensing (e.g. from black holes, neutron stars, warp drives). Higher values result in higher quality reflections (though in most cases settings above 1024 or 2048 will not be noticeable), but will decrease performance and increase VRAM usage.

This setting has the following options, which represent the width of each environment map face in pixels:
  • 256
  • 512
  • 1024
  • 2048
  • 4096
Graphics Settings (2/3)
Warp & refl. update interval
This setting allows you to adjust how frequently spacecraft reflection and warp effect environment maps are updated, or disable them entirely.

This setting has the following options:
  • off - spacecraft reflections and space warping effects are disabled
  • low - spacecraft reflection and space warping environment maps are updated at a rate of one face per frame every 2 seconds (low performance impact)
  • medium - spacecraft reflection and space warping environment maps are updated at a rate of one face per frame every 0.5 seconds (increased performance impact)
  • high - spacecraft reflection and space warping environment maps are updated at a rate of one face per frame continuously, meaning the full environment map is updated once per six frames (medium performance impact)
  • ultra - spacecraft reflection and space warping environment maps have all 6 faces updated for every frame (large performance impact)
Note: the settings are adjusted invisibly by the engine in the following circumstances:
  • if time is paused, the setting is forced to "low"
  • if time is flowing at 10x speed or higher, and you are using "low" or "medium", the setting will be forced to "high"
  • if there are multiple objects on-screen which use environment maps, their maps will be updated sequentially (i.e. if two such objects are on screen, 12 frames will be required to finish updating all environment maps on the screen on most settings, and 2 frames will be required on ultra)

Black hole update interval
This setting allows you to adjust the update frequency of gravitational lensing environment maps (for black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and wormholes), or disable them entirely.

This setting has the following options:
  • off - gravitational lensing effects, as well as accretion disks and relativistic jets, are disabled; black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs are represented by simple spheres with a solid color
  • low - gravitational lensing environment maps are updated at a rate of one face per frame every 5 seconds (low performance impact)
  • medium - gravitational lensing environment maps are updated at a rate of one face per frame every second (increased performance impact)
  • high - gravitational lensing environment maps are updated at a rate of one face per frame continuously; i.e. the environment map update cycle is completed every 6 frames (medium performance impact)
  • ultra - gravitational lensing environment maps have all 6 faces updated for every frame (large performance impact)
Note: the settings are adjusted invisibly by the engine in the following circumstances:
  • if the object moves quickly (such as a black hole in a close binary system), the update interval for the "low" and "medium" settings is reduced to 0.2 seconds (from 5 and 1 seconds respectively)
  • if time is paused, the setting is forced to "low"
  • if time is flowing at 10x speed or higher, and you are using "low" or "medium", the setting will be forced to "high"
  • if there are multiple objects on-screen which use environment maps, their maps will be updated sequentially (i.e. if two such objects are on screen, 12 frames will be required to finish updating all environment maps on the screen on most settings, and 2 frames will be required on ultra)

Aurora quality
This setting allows you to adjust the level of detail (sprite density) used in planetary auroras.

This setting has the following options:
  • low - auroras use a small number of low-detail sprites
  • high - auroras use large number of high-detail sprites (small performance impact)

Ship engine quality
This setting allows you to adjust the level of detail (raymarch step length) used for spacecraft engine exhaust effects.

This setting has the following options:
  • low - half as many sample steps as default/medium quality, noticeable decrease in engine effect quality (small performance improvement)
  • medium - default setting, same quality as in older SE versions
  • high - 2x as many sample steps as default/medium quality, noticeable increase in engine effect quality in some cases (moderate performance impact)
  • ultra - 5x as many sample steps as default/medium quality, quality increase only noticeable on a few engine effect types (medium-high performance impact)

Planet shine
This setting allows you to adjust the color and brightness accuracy of reflected light (planet shine).

This setting has the following options:
  • low - planets have their average color calculated from an image of their sun-facing side once (when they are loaded)
  • medium - planets have their average color calculated from an image of their sun-facing side every 10 frames (small performance impact)
  • high - planets have their average color calculated from an image of their sun-facing continuously, limited to one planet per frame (higher performance impact)

Anisotropy level
This setting determines the amount of anisotropic filtering applied to textures (this makes textures much less blurry when seen at a shallow angle).

This setting has the following options (all have a negligible performance impact on most modern graphics hardware):
  • off - disables anisotropic filtering
  • 2
  • 4
  • 8 - recommended for users with low-end hardware
  • 16 - recommended for most users

Detail textures
This checkbox enables or disables detail textures (grass, rocks, dunes, etc.) that are visible on the ground. Users with low-end hardware should keep this disabled.

3D stones
This checkbox enables or disables displacement mapping for detail textures (gives the textures height variations). Note that not all detail texture materials have displacement maps.

Compress textures
This checkbox enables or disables texture compression. Texture compression converts textures into a compressed format that requires less memory to store - this comes at the expense of slightly reduced performance and increased loading times, and a minor loss of visual quality. Users with limited amounts of VRAM - 4 GB or less - should keep this option enabled. Users with 5-8 GB of VRAM may also benefit from texture compression if viewing a large number of ships simultaneously from add-ons, e.g. Steam workshop items, if they use high-resolution uncompressed textures.
Graphics Settings (3/3)
Volumetric rings quality
This setting allows you to adjust the quality of upscaling used for 3D volumetric planetary rings, or disable 3D rings entirely. Note: these settings only have an effect if you are rendering the rings at less than your native resolution (i.e. when they are being upscaled). If the rings target resolution and rings resolution settings below are set such that the rings render at the same internal resolution as the window SE is running in, there will be no difference between low/medium/high for this setting.

This setting has the following options:
  • off - volumetric rings are disabled, only flat 2D rings will be rendered
  • low - volumetric rings are upscaled using bilinear filtering
  • medium - volumetric rings are upscaled using bicubic filtering (almost identical performance to "low" setting, looks more blurry but aliasing is less noticeable)
  • high - volumetric rings are upscaled using bicubic filtering with sharpening, with FXAA applied to the result (small performance impact compared to low/medium)

Rings target resolution
This setting allows you to limit the internal rendering resolution of the 3D rings. If your screen resolution is higher than the setting you choose, SpaceEngine will render the rings at the chosen resolution (e.g. if you are using a 1440p display, and you set this setting to 1080p, then the rings will be rendered at 1080p and upscaled to 1440p). This allows you to increase your screen resolution without the rings resolution changing, thus preventing a huge performance drop in that case.

This setting has the following options:
  • 480p
  • 720p
  • 1080p
  • 1440p
  • 2160p
  • 4320p

Rings resolution
This setting determines what resolution scale the volumetric 3D rings are rendered at. The scale is relative to either your current screen resolution or the rings target resolution set above, whichever is smaller. The internal resolution the rings are rendered at will be the value of this setting multiplied by the resolution as determined in the previous sentence. For example, if rings target resolution is set to 1440p, and SE is running in a window/screen that has a vertical resolution of 1440 pixels or more, and rings resolution is set to 0.85, then the internal resolution of the rings will be 1440 * 0.85, or 1224 pixels vertically. This is then upscaled to your window/screen resolution. Note that if this value is set to 1.0, and if the rings target resolution is at least as high as your window/screen resolution, then the rings will be rendered at native resolution and thus won't be upscaled.

This setting can be set to a value of 0.1 to 1.0, in increments of 0.05.

Fast temporal rendering
This checkbox enables or disables a performance-enhancing temporal rendering method for 3D rings. With this setting enabled, only 1/4 of the ring's pixels will be rendered in each frame, thus spreading the rendering load across 4 frames. This offers a huge performance boost, equal to reducing the rings resolution value by half, but causes noticeable ghosting if ring particles move a significant amount between frames, since any given pixel in the image is only updated once every 4 frames. If the camera is stationary relative to the ring particles, or moving/rotating slowly, this effect will not be noticeable.

Gravitational lensing precision
This setting determines the level of precision used in calculating gravitational lensing. Higher values give in more accurate results, but at the cost of a large performance impact.

This setting can be set to a value of 0.0 to 1.0, in increments of 0.05.

Volumetric objects resolution
This setting determines what level of detail volumetric objects (galaxies, nebulae, and accretion disks) are rendered at under different circumstances. While moving refers to what resolution the galaxy or nebula you're in is rendered at when the camera is moving enough to noticeably change its perspective of the object; it also determines what resolution is used for accretion disks at all times. While stationary refers to what resolution the the galaxy or nebula you're in is rendered at while the camera is stationary, or moving too little to change the perspective of the object (in this case, the object is rendered to a skybox texture). Increasing the "while moving" value can have a very large performance impact, while increasing the "while stationary" value has a much smaller impact, but does increase VRAM usage.

This setting can be set to a value of 0.1 to 1.0, in increments of 0.05; the numbers indicate the amount the full resolution of the object will be multiplied by to get the new resolution (in the case of "while stationary", this means the resolution of the skybox texture relative to the resolution of the display or window SpaceEngine is running in).
Коментарів: 19
TruFoox 19 листоп. 2024 о 20:27 
what about environment maps resolution
Zombie 20 серп. 2024 о 12:01 
Volumetric objects resolution
HarbingerDawn  [автор] 17 груд. 2022 о 12:16 
Yes, it will be updated, in the meantime you can always read the news posts where all the options were explained.
Occam's Chainsaw 17 груд. 2022 о 12:08 
Any plans on updating it to include the options in the General Relativity update?
HarbingerDawn  [автор] 24 січ. 2022 о 19:57 
Please make a post in the troubleshooting section of the discussions forum and provide your log file, as described in the pinned post, or email [email protected]
Luna 24 січ. 2022 о 19:54 
why space engine is black its just all black i cant see anything only gui
JayDev64x 27 лип. 2021 о 9:30 
Is there any ideal way to improve the VR preformance without turning the settings down to low. I enjoy the game very much and there is really nothing that comes close to the detail this game has and in VR it makes all of that 3x better for me, yet it seems it also is considerably harder to run.
HarbingerDawn  [автор] 9 лип. 2021 о 19:36 
There is obviously something wrong in your screenshot, it has nothing to do with optimization or settings.
Robotsg 9 лип. 2021 о 9:52 
Omg game has terrible optimization of couse. I can set all to max and planet would be blur wtf?? My gpu and cpu even not load.
https://fastpic.ru/view/115/2021/0709/_375489d13a5cd4e1ebdf07d3c95e1b14.jpg.html for example Mars not loaded.
TeaJu1ce 25 трав. 2021 о 16:46 
For some reason it runs on high or higher on my vr headset. Laptop with a 1660ti. Try things like refresh rate and stuff with your headset's settings. The only lag is caused by going near large planets