Live Feedback - Star Citizen Gameplay Survey
Happy Luminalia PIPELINE!
Its official, CIG has brought back the Star Citizen 2025 Gameplay Survey, asking players how they play, who they are, and what they think about the game now and long term. It takes about 15 minutes, you can skip any questions, and it runs until January 15.
Everyone who completes it gets an in‑game reward: a light‑up Café Musain hangar flair granted directly to their account after the survey closes.
Will Hain, AKA River Guy AKA CIG’s Best Developer Ever, Literally No Contest has been promoted to Lead Planet Tech Programmer! Congrats to him!
Star Citizen Graphics Settings
Hi everyone,
I wanted to take a moment to help clarify what each of our Graphics Settings does and how they impact your experience. Below, you’ll find a brief description of each setting, along with notes on what it affects in terms of performance, visuals, or hardware usage.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask below. I’ll do my best to jump in and answer where I can.
Video Memory (VRAM)
- The horizontal bar in the bottom right of the Graphics Options menu shows the maximum video memory the game will use with the chosen resolution + settings. It is crucial this is kept below the recommended maximum, but if you are running other software (e.g. recording/streaming) then you may need to leave more headroom. If you run out of VRAM, especially on Vulkan, then you will see huge performance dips (e.g. going from 60fps to 10fps) and this won’t recover until the memory goes back under the limit. Actual usage can vary throughout the game, based on locations and other players.
Setting Descriptions
Graphics Renderer
- [Desc] Changes the graphics API used for rendering (Vulkan/DX11)
- [Affects] Vulkan is the more modern API, and will be mandated in a future patch as it supports the latest hardware features such as ray tracing, whereas DX11 is no longer being updated
- Vulkan graphics drivers tend to change more frequently, and so are at more risk of bugs, so we always recommend being on the latest ‘safe’ driver, and avoid experimental drivers. If you hit issues after a driver update then roll back to the most recent working driver. If you have issues running Vulkan on any driver then we strongly recommend you report them so that you are not blocked from running the game in a future patch
- CPU performance should be much better on Vulkan
- GPU performance should be broadly similar between APIs
- Visual quality should be identical on both
- Behaviour/support for driver related overrides such as frame-generation/motion smoothing may vary between graphics APIs, and is largely beyond CIG’s control. We recommend not using any such driver overrides or render-overlays if you experience any issues
Resolution
- [Desc] Sets the final output resolution (after any up-scaling).
- [Affects] Large impact on VRAM usage and GPU performance. Recommend 1080p for low-spec, and 4k only for more recent GPUs
Window Mode
- [Desc] Full screen vs windowed
- [Affects] GPU performance should be slightly better in full-screen, though using a higher resolution will counteract that
VSync
- [Desc] Enable or disable v-sync. Locks image updates to your monitors refresh rate, which also locks your frame-rate to a divisor of your refresh rate (e.g. 120/60/30/20 fps). When disabled you may see ‘screen tear’ where you see partial image updates. We recommend you set your monitor refresh rate via the OS to the maximum and then enable VSync
- [Affects] Screen tear. Frame-rate clamping.
Upscaling
- [Desc] Use a lower resolution internal resolution for some of the rendering (UI is not affected), and use temporal upscaling to recover that detail over time
- [Affects] Lower resolutions can drastically improve GPU performance, and can save VRAM
Upscaling Technique
- [Desc] Change the upscaling technique used. If you have an NVidia card then we recommend DLSS, and for all others we recommend CIG-TSR
- [Affects] Each technique has a different cost in VRAM and performance
Upscaling Model ( DLSS only )
- [Desc] Different variants of NVidia’s DLSS upscaling
- [Affects] Can be a large performance difference between modes
HDR
- [Desc] Enable High Dynamic Range output for improved contrast
- [Affects] Performance should be near identical. This can have an impact on screenshots and your ability to stream content
HDR Brightness (Ref-White) ( HDR only )
- [Desc] Desired brightness of a comfortable ‘paper white’. Adjust based on the light levels in your room. Ideally HDR is experienced in a dim room with a low reference white setting to maximize the contrast of bright highlights.
- [Affects] Typical brightness of a white object/screen.
HDR Peak Brightness ( HDR only )
- [Desc] Maximum brightness to use. Recommended setting is the maximum, which is automatically detected from your display, and only lower if uncomfortable.
- [Affects] Maximum brightness of lights & reflections
Overall Quality Preset
- [Desc] Sets all quality controls below to the same setting
- [Affects] VRAM, GPU performance & quality (see below for details)
Object Detail
- [Desc] Adjusts polygon detail on meshes via changing the distances that each ‘level of detail’ is used, and whether to use hardware tessellation (High and above)
- [Affects] GPU performance
Object View Distance
- [Desc] Controls the maximum distance at which objects are drawn (up to 200% difference between Ultra and Low)
- [Affects] GPU performance and minor CPU cost
Textures Quality
- [Desc] Changes the amount of VRAM used for streaming textures, as well as the target resolution of textures
- [Values] Ultra = 5800Mb, Very High = 4300Mb, High = 3300Mb, Medium = 2300Mb with 25% quality reduction, Low = 1400Mb with 50% quality reduction
- [Affects] VRAM, and increased disk access at higher settings
Detail Textures
- [Desc] Changes the resolution of textures used for details on characters, weapons and items/props.
- [Values] High = 512x512, Medium = 256x256, Low = 128x128
- [Affects] VRAM
Ground Textures
- [Desc] Sets the resolution of ground textures used on planets
- [Values] High = 2048x2048, Low = 1024x1024
- [Affects] VRAM
Texture Filtering
- [Desc] Sets anisotropic texture filtering quality for preserving details at grazing angles
- [Values] High = 16x, Medium = 8x, Low = 4x
- [Affects] GPU performance
Shadow Maps
- [Desc] Changes the resolution of shadow maps as well as their quality.
- [Values] Ultra = 200%, Very High/High = 100%, Medium/Low = 50%
- [Affects] VRAM & GPU performance
Screenspace Shadows
- [Affects] Visual quality & GPU performance
Planet Volumetric Clouds Quality
- [Desc] Changes the rendering quality settings of planet clouds
- [Affects] Visual quality & GPU performance
Gas Clouds
- [Desc] Changes the rendering quality settings of gas (space) clouds
- [Affects] Visual quality & GPU performance
Fog
- [Desc] Changes the resolution of the local fog (i.e. fog within 500m). Higher settings will preserve more detail in shafts of light, lower values will have a flatter appearance.
- [Affects] Visual quality, VRAM & GPU performance
Water Caustics
- [Desc] Enables water caustics effects (light scattered onto objects beneath the water)
- [Affects] GPU performance
Water Simulation
- [Desc] Controls the number of simultaneous water simulations that can occur at once
- [Affects] VRAM & GPU performance
Shader Quality
- [Desc] Adjusts the quality of some material shader effects, such as parallax occlusion mapping (to add 3D details to otherwise flat surfaces).
- [Affects] Visual quality & GPU performance
Post Effects
- [Desc] Controls the quality of some post effects such as Motion Blur, Bloom, Flares & Refraction
- [Affects] GPU performance
Video Comms
- [Desc] Controls the quality of lighting in video comms calls
- [Affects] GPU performance
Visor and Lens Aspect Modifier
- [Desc] Aspect ratio for the UI displayed on the visor/lens. Useful for ultra wide monitors or multi-monitor setups.
- [Affects] Visual only
Field Of View
- [Desc] Horizontal field of view.
- [Affects] Can affect both CPU and GPU performance
Gamma
- [Desc] Adjusts the midtone brightness curve without changing pure black or white levels. Increase if dark areas appear too dark, decrease if the image looks washed out.
- [Affects] Visual only
Brightness
- [Desc] Controls the overall brightness level of the image. Adjust so that dark scenes are visible but blacks remain true black.
- [Affects] Visual only
Contrast
- [Desc] Adjusts the difference between the darkest and brightest parts of the image. Higher values create more dramatic differences between light and dark areas.
- [Affects] Visual only
Motion Blur
- [Desc] Enables/disables motion blur. Camera rotation does just apply very little blur to mimic saccadic masking and improve clarity, meaning blur should mostly occur with camera translation or object movement. Shutter speed is equivalent to a 60 fps camera with the shutter open half the frame.
- [Affects] GPU performance & image clarity when moving
Sharpening
- [Desc] Applies post-process sharpening to enhance edge definition and perceived detail. Can help counteract softness from upscaling techniques but may introduce artifacts if set too high.
- [Affects] Visuals only
Chromatic Aberration
- [Desc] Simulates lens color fringing effect seen in real cameras. Adds a ‘filmic’ look but can be disabled for greater clarity.
- [Affects] Visuals only
Film Grain
- [Desc] Adds a subtle grain texture overlay to simulate analog film cameras. Purely aesthetic effect that can be disabled for greater clarity.
- [Affects] Visuals only
Jump Point Magazine - December 2025
Articles on:
- BEHIND THE SCENES : RSI Salvation
- STAR CITIZEN : A Year In The 'Verse: 2955
- BEHIND THE SCENES : Drake Clipper
- PORTFOLIO : InterSec Defense Solutions
It’s that time of year
Letter From The Chairman
TL;DR:
- Dynamic Server Meshing, Genesis, Starchitect implied release in 2026
- SQ42 heading towards internal Beta and release. No long drawn-out marketing campaign. All chapters are now playable from start to finish.
(glow is barely there)