FPS Boost + Stuttering Mitigation + Force HDR

On Payday 3's game properties you can add a launch parameter so the game will use DX12 instead of DX11.

In some Systems this can boost FPS up to 50% on CPU limited configurations

However this can introduce Shader Compilation stutters when first opening the game / playing a heist but will mitigate once it has been running for a while.

Use the following parameter to enable DX12 Mode:

-dx12




Note: This may cause crashes for users with the Skull of Liberty Mask as stated by various comments

Note 2: A temporary crash fix is available on ModWorkshop as stated by users in the comments

In order to edit these values, you need to find the game's configuration files, which are located on:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\PAYDAY3\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\

In there you will find several configuration files, but we are looking for Engine.ini




In that file you can add:

[/script/engine.renderersettings]
r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1
niagara.CreateShadersOnLoad=1

and

[SystemSettings]
r.TextureStreaming=0

at the end of the file so the game will compile shaders on loading screens instead of when actually playing and will disable texture streaming so all textures will be loaded on RAM and VRAM instead of when needed, which can potentially decrease stuttering.

This is recommended for users with a SSD, large ammount of RAM, VRAM and a beefy CPU

There is a hidden configuration that forces HDR output on all Unreal Engine 4 games.


In the case of PAYDAY 3, HDR configurations exists but are not implemented yet and we can "enable" them by editing the file GameUserSettings.ini



In there we must find the following values:

bUseHDRDisplayOutput=False
HDRDisplayOutputNits=1000

and set bUseHDRDisplayOutput= to True and HDRDisplayOutputNits= to whatever you want but not exceeding the maximum of your display.

For example:

bUseHDRDisplayOutput=True
HDRDisplayOutputNits=600

Option 2:

We can Force HDR Output by adding the following lines on Engine.ini:

[SystemSettings]

r.AllowHDR=1
r.HDR.EnableHDROutput=1
r.HDR.Display.OutputDevice=5
r.HDR.Display.ColorGamut=2
r.HDR.UI.CompositeMode=1
r.FullScreenMode=0
r.HDR.UI.Level=1

Option 3:

We can put a line on Engine.ini let Windows' AutoHDR be enabled as it uses a Flip Mode Presentation, which is needed for AutoHDR on DX12 to work.

On Engine.ini add the following line under [SystemSettings]:

r.D3D12.UseAllowTearing=1


Note: Option 2 only works when the game is running on DX11 mode, as with DX12 it fails to engage FullScreen Mode. Also there may be tonemapping issues on images and UI elements as the game is not intended to use HDR at all.

Edit: Added extra option to force HDR Output. This works on all Unreal Engine 4 Games running on DX11

Edit 2: Added option to allow Windows' AutoHDR to be enabled

Thank you very much for reading this guide and leave a comment if you want to make a correction or note.

Until then, Happy Heisting!