Game has a lot of visual effects tied to generic UE4 quality settings. This guide shows you how to enable/disable them individually. Unlike UE3, you can change graphics options in menu and any tweaks made in ini's will not be reverted. Ini tweaks override the menu.

We're editing config files for this. The configs are found inside of,

C:\Users\(your name)\AppData\Local\Styx2\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

Default location for most people.

It seems certain driver utilities (nvidia profile inspector and the like) are unable to cap framerate in some UE4 games, so use this tweak if you normally rely on them. The game has no option in menu.

Using smooth framerate option, we can both cap game framerate and get more FPS than with vsync. This is also recommend for people getting stuttering or other performance issues, as uncapped framerate makes the system work harder and hotter. Also, there will be no mouse lag.

[/script/engine.engine]
MinDesiredFrameRate=0
bSmoothFrameRate=true
SmoothedFrameRateRange=(LowerBound=(Type=Inclusive,Value=5),UpperBound=(Type=Exclusive,Value=78))

Paste the above into Engine.ini

Value 78 or of your choosing.

For mouse sensitivity:

Inside of Input.ini, find

AxisMappings=(AxisName="LookUp",Key=MouseY,Scale=1.000000)
AxisMappings=(AxisName="Turn",Key=MouseX,Scale=1.000000)

These are the default max values. Kinda low if playing on max FOV. Increase as desired. Start with 1.500000 up to 3.000000.

For raw input:

Inside of Input.ini,

Paste the following

[/script/engine.inputsettings]
bEnableMouseSmoothing=False
LookRightScale=0.000000
LookUpScale=0.000000
bViewAccelerationEnabled=false

[Engine.PlayerInput]
bEnableMouseSmoothing=False
LookRightScale=0.000000
LookUpScale=0.000000
bViewAccelerationEnabled=false

Inside of Engine.ini,

Paste the following

[/script/engine.engine]
r.oneframethreadlag=0

Also helps to disable Vsync.

Add the following lines under [Systemsettings] section in Engine.ini. For most of these, value of 1 to enable and 0 to disable.

r.DepthOfFieldQuality=4

Out of focus blurring effect. Quality options: 0-4.

r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=1
r.Tonemapper.Quality=5

Film grain effect. First line toggles, the second line("quality") controls the grain intensity. Quality options: 0-5.

r.Fog=1

You can disable ambient fog. Levels may look darker and flatter than intended, though.

r.MotionBlurQuality=4

Blur on moving characters/objects and when you turn. Quality options: 0-4.

r.BloomQuality=5

Bloom lighting. Quality options 0-5.

r.MaxAnisotropy=16

Image filtering quality. 0-16. Recommended for games without the menu option.

Can impact performance a lot; Enabling qualities not found in menu or increasing them higher than most games allow. I use this set.

Better shadows, lighting, reflections.

r.LightFunctionQuality=1
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2048
r.EyeAdaptationQuality=2
r.LensFlareQuality=3
r.BloomQuality=5
r.LightShaftQuality=1
r.DynamicLights=True
r.DynamicShadows=True
r.bAllowLightShafts=True
r.CompositeDynamicLights=False
r.FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
r.AllowSubsurfaceScattering=True
r.SSS.Scale=1
r.SSS.SampleSet=2
r.SSS.Quality=1
r.SSS.HalfRes=0
r.AllowImageReflections=True
r.AllowImageReflectionShadowing=True
r.MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution=2048
r.ShadowTexelsPerPixel=16.000000
r.bEnableVSMShadows=true
r.bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=True
r.bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=True
r.bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=True
r.ScreenPercentage=100

regarding r.MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution= value: should be set to the same resolution, or one resolution lower, higher, or same than your game shadow resolution. Example: 512 (Low), 1024 (Medium), 2048 (High), 4096 (Ultra). Or disable with r.bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=False.

These are overkill.

r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
r.LightFunctionQuality=1
r.ShadowQuality=2
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=10
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=8192
r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.03
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=2.0
r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=1.0
r.DistanceFieldShadowing=1
r.DistanceFieldAO=1
r.MotionBlurQuality=0
r.AmbientOcclusionMipLevelFactor=0.4
r.AmbientOcclusionMaxQuality=100
r.AmbientOcclusionLevels=-1
r.AmbientOcclusionRadiusScale=1.0
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=4
r.RenderTargetPoolMin=1000
r.LensFlareQuality=3
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=1
r.EyeAdaptationQuality=2
r.BloomQuality=5
r.FastBlurThreshold=100
r.Upscale.Quality=3
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=1
r.LightShaftQuality=1
r.Filter.SizeScale=1
r.Tonemapper.Quality=5
r.Streaming.MipBias=0
r.MaxAnisotropy=16
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=0
r.Streaming.PoolSize=3000
r.TranslucencyLightingVolumeDim=64
r.RefractionQuality=2
r.SSR.Quality=4
r.SceneColorFormat=4
r.DetailMode=2
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=1
r.MaterialQualityLevel=1 ; High quality
r.SSS.Scale=1
r.SSS.SampleSet=2
r.SSS.Quality=1
r.SSS.HalfRes=0
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=1.0
r.ParticleLightQuality=2
foliage.DensityScale=1.6
grass.DensityScale=1.6
r.NT.PMV.PixelTileSize=8
r.NT.PMV.NumDepthSlices=196
r.NT.PMV.LightInjection=2
r.NT.PMV.ShadowFilterQuality=2
r.NT.PMV.TemporalBlendMin=50
r.CompositeDynamicLights=FALSE
r.FloatingPointRenderTargets=True
r.AllowSubsurfaceScattering=TRUE
r.AllowImageReflections=TRUE
r.AllowImageReflectionShadowing=TRUE
r.MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution=8192
r.ShadowTexelsPerPixel=16.000000
r.bEnableVSMShadows=true
r.bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=True
r.bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=TRUE
r.bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=True
r.StaticDecals=True
r.DynamicDecals=True
r.DynamicLights=True
r.DynamicShadows=True
r.bAllowLightShafts=True
r.ScreenPercentage=100

Game only supports TAA (temporal anti-aliasing). This is blurry, and might disorientate people.

I have a Reshade config to inject SMAA into the game. The image will be sharper, but there will be a lot more shimmering.

Add the following to Engine.ini

[SystemSettings]
r.PostProcessAAQuality=0

Here's a link to my Reshade preset that injects the SMAA (paste link in browser, add back the periods),

https://www mediafire com/file/79tu6j3r84olb74/Styx_SOD_SMAA_Reshade.rar/file

Unpack archive to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Styx Shards of Darkness\Styx2\Binaries\Win64

Toggle the shader with Insert key.

Preset assumes game is installed on drive C: and in default install paths. If it's not, you have to edit the dxgi.ini to reflect that.

These lines,

TextureSearchPaths=
EffectSearchPaths=
ScreenshotPath=
PresetFiles=

Increases render resolution, making the image sharper. This will tank FPS for people not running uber rigs, though.

Inside of Engine.ini,

[SystemSettings]
r.ScreenPercentage=100

For r.ScreenPercentage= value, set between 100 to 200. You could start at 130 or 150