An in-depth guide for the effects of the graphics options in the PC version of Ninja Theory's "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice". (note: not the sequel). All the screenshot comparisons are interactive (hover over to slide divider) and can be clicked on for fullscreen and the intermediate options. All screenshots are from just after the Valravn fight, but in the previous area. The framerates are determined by a Fraps average over 8 seconds, on this PC. To get above 60 FPS, disable V-Sync and edit a config file as described on PCGamingWiki. The screenshots are also available to download as 1080p PNGs. Source:

"Set the overall preset of graphics quality." Sets every other option to the selected value at once. When set to low, the overall color and atmospherics of the scene are hardly changed, along with the model quality and bloom, but textures become very blurry, lighting and shadowing are inaccurate, and the grass is less dense. IMPORTANT: this is tied directly to the quality of light shafts. Turning this to medium or lower and every other option up to very high will result in about a 10 FPS increase at the cost of lower resolution light shafts.

"Set the density and draw distance of foliage. Higher settings will make the foliage thicker and visible at greater distances." Appears to only affect grass density, not quality or distance drawn, and has no effect on tree leaves.

"Set the quality of image postprocessing. Higher settings will result in better-looking filtering of the final image." Controls the existence and/or quality of ambient occlusion, chromatic aberration, lens distortion, and noise.

"Set the quality of shadows. Higher settings will result in more detailed and softer shadows." While the accuracy of shadows is clearly improved, the apparent quality change is almost undetectable in a still image. However, the pop-in (although smoothed) at lower settings is quite noticeable when in motion, and flags aren't properly translucent. Dithering is occasionally visible at all settings.

"Set the allowed memory size of textures and texture filtering quality. Higher settings will result in more detail textures at greater distances." Affects some textures (parts of trees, Senua's fur) way less than others, for some reason. Low makes certain environment objects particularly gross. Can indirectly affect shadows.

"Set the general draw distance of objects. Higher settings will result in more objects being displayed at farther distances." The objects that get removed at various distances are mostly grass, small rocks, and ropes, along with many other scene-specific models. Can indirectly affect shadows.

"Set the quality of special effects. Higher settings will result in better quality of particle lights and reflections." No apparent effect on reflections, and I don't even know where particle lights would be in this game, but it introduces a slight blueish tint at the convergence of Senua's skin and fur.

Shameless self-promotion — I made a song inspired by Hellblade: