Boosting GTL's Frame Rate 2

The default values with the High preset selected

In the first part of this guide, I talked about how you could improve the frame rate in GT Legends by changing a few settings in the external GTLconfig.exe utility. This time, I’ll be looking at some of the settings you can make from within GTL itself. I'll leave the more advanced settings for next time, so the options I’ll discuss in this post are found from the main menu by selecting Options and then Video.

High as a kite

GT Legends offers you a range of several presets for graphics settings, and that’s the best place to start. Your choices are Low, Medium, High and Full. Unless you’re stuck playing GTL on a very underpowered PC indeed, you can probably ignore the first two settings. High is a reasonable place to start. As you can see from the screenshot above, this gives you maximum detail for the circuit – which is after all what you’ll be looking at most – and high levels for other cars. Other settings are at medium except for Draw distance. This is set to Very Far even on Low setting, and I’d strongly advise keeping it that way unless you have no option. Lots of pop-up is extremely distracting while you’re racing. Be aware, though, that even at Very Far you’ll still get a bitof pop-up in the far distance on some tracks.

Note the cars on the right's exhaust smoke, invisible at lower graphics settings

Do it yourself

Although it’s not that obvious, there is another setting Full, and this is called Custom. You can access it by picking a preset and then changing one or more of the individual settings below. Custom is a godsend if you have a moderate system like mine, since it means you can do a I do: ratchet every setting up as high as it will go except for those which take the most processing oomph. In general, these are Shadows and Special Effects. Headlight Effects are also draining, but frankly night racing in general is a huge fps hog thanks to the multiple extra light sources it introduces.

How much can you gain from fiddling about with these options? A bit. I know that's a vague answer, but it really is dependent on too many things for me to give you a better one. It all depends on what you consider an acceptable trade-off between looks and performance. Of course, if you have a super-rig that can blast through GTL at 150 fps with everything maxed out, then lucky you! 

In the final part of this guide, I’ll take a look at the Advanced menu, which offers options to fine-tune your visual experience and – if your PC has the grunt – to make GT Legends look really pretty darn good for a 2005 game.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JOLLY GTL!