Graphics & performance¶
Presets¶
On first run Slipstream picks a graphics preset for your GPU: integrated graphics start low, cards without ray tracing start mid-high, and ray-tracing cards with plenty of VRAM start high. You can change it any time in Preferences → Graphics; "Reset to recommended" in the advanced graphics panel re-applies the choice for your GPU.
Shadows¶
Shadows are the biggest single cost in busy scenes.
| Control | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow quality | Graphics → Advanced | Sun/moon shadow map resolution (Low 512 … Ultra 2048) |
| Shadow updates | Graphics → Advanced | Realtime re-renders every cascade every frame; Balanced/Performance update distant cascades less often |
| Projector shadow budget | Graphics → Advanced | How many spotlights cast shadows at once (0 = none). Moving stage lights are expensive |
If a busy club or event is slow, drop the projector shadow budget first (to 0–4), then shadow quality.
Ray tracing¶
On RTX 20-series / RX 6000 or newer, spotlight (projector) shadows can be ray traced: exact, with no
light leaking through walls. Pick Ray traced for projector shadows in the advanced graphics panel
(debug setting RenderVKProjectorShadows = 2). Without supported hardware, ray tracing switches off
automatically.
FPS limit¶
Graphics → Advanced → FPS limit (next to VSync) caps the frame rate; 0 is unlimited. It only waits when you're already faster than the cap, so it never slows a frame that is below it.
High-DPI displays¶
Slipstream renders at your monitor's full resolution and scales the UI by your desktop's scale factor. If the UI is too big or small, adjust Preferences → Advanced → UI size.
Measuring performance¶
Turn on the debug setting RenderVKGpuTimers for a minute in the slow spot, then attach your
Slipstream.log to a bug report. It records how long each GPU pass takes, which tells us exactly
what to optimise.