Options

Options are where you change many things about the game. Including graphics, game play, and controls. They can be accessed from the main menu or within the game itself.

=Graphics= Where all the graphic settings for the game can be changed. Some of these settings are accessible before starting the game itself.

Graphic Settings

 * Resolution - The amount of pixels being rendered. Use the highest for image clarity.
 * Preset - Easiest way to get into the game with the right settings without messing with 20 options.
 * Field of View - % Meter and how much you can see on your screen at once.
 * V-Sync - On/Off, Video-Sync. When the game/engine tries to tie your frame-rate to your monitor's refresh rate to mitigate screen tearing (which is when your graphics card is ahead of your monitor.) If you cannot reach your monitor's refresh rate (most likely 60hz or 144hz or by your monitor's spec) you will get your frame-rate cut in half and is called triple-buffered V-Sync. This can cause your game to run at 30fps if you cannot reach 60fps.
 * Fullscreen - On/Off
 * Max Frame Rate - No Limit/60 FPS
 * Low Memory Mode - For systems with less than 4gb of RAM?

Advanced Settings

 * Renderer - DirectX9 (Legacy) or DirectX11 (DX11). DX11 can help improve performance for newer computer hardware and when using the Ultra preset, it will theoretically run faster than it will do on DX9 mode with some visual improvements.
 * Anti Aliasing - Disabled, FXAA and TAA. FXAA focuses on making edges smoother and TAA focuses on neutralising the shimmering effect when there isn't enough pixels to determine the material properly. Usually for games like The Forest, TAA is your best option. (TAA does create visual artifacts like Movement Blur since TAA is generally more slower than FXAA sample wise.)
 * Shadows - Adjusts Shadow Resolution and how far Shadow Quality LOD's drop. In video games Shadow Quality varies between distance closest being the highest quality and furthest being lowest and because the player would never notice that the shadow quality they see from their character would be the same quality on a distant pebble.
 * Far Shadows - On/Off, Shadows that appear on far away objects like rocks, crates, cannibals, etc. Even if you are playing with the Ultra preset this doesn't have a effect on performance by much unless you have an older CPU.
 * Draw Distance - How far objects, building structures, NPCs will start to draw. Drawing, as in rendering terms, is when the rendering API (DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan) will show objects. This number can vary between 1000 - 20000 in this game since there is a lot of grass. Turning this option down will improve performance a lot.
 * Sunshine Occlusion - On/Off Another term for Global Illumination, when the Sun's Light rays count as physical based light, this option will have no effect unless SSAO is at least on.
 * Light Scatter - This is usually called Subsurface Scattering in other titles, this is when you can see light passing through skin such as the sun, torches and can be seen most of the time on your left hand whilst you have your lighter on.
 * Terrain - How complex the geometry is for terrain. This game uses tessellation and is a good technique to get a Very High quality Terrain model without destroying one human's computer. Usually Very High will show around 20m of the upmost quality of terrain before getting worse in quality.
 * Grass Distance - How far the game will render grass.
 * Grass Density - Grass thickness. Causes grass entities to become more lush. This limitation also reduces the visibility for the player when looking at the ground, or at greater distances. Has no effect on FPS.
 * Texture Quality - The higher this is, the better texture resolution will be sent to your Video Memory on your Graphics Card. Full Resolution will use up to 4gb's of VRAM and to make it idiot-proof, VRAM is not RAM. It is memory that is directly and physically on your video card and cannot be changed unless you get a higher end or newer graphics card. Although Laptops' VRAM can be low, it will also use your RAM as VRAM and if Texture Quality is set very high, it can generally cause a lot of stuttering if you don't have much RAM and VRAM at all.
 * Ocean Quality - Complexity of Ocean effects, this game uses a single material and deforms a Plane (Flat singular Face of a Cube, like a 2D cube.) Setting this higher will enable effects like Ocean foaming, waves, water refraction and under-water effects like dust and molecules.
 * SSAO Type - Unity or Amplify. My guess is that Unity means standard SSAO which can be found in every game made past 2012. Amplify has more accurate Physically Based renderer and will create dark areas more accurately. Amplify also takes into the account of every light source on the screen.
 * Motion Blur - Motion Blur Wikipedia - Causes the screen to blur when moving around. This can assist players whose computers are struggling to run the game. It can help merge the frames together to feel more 'smooth'. Some players may find this disorientating. Most console games have this by default due to their restrictive 30FPS on most games.
 * Chromatic Aberration - On/Off Chromatic Aberration Wikipedia - Considered to be a negative effect that occurs during photography. In The Forest, it leaves somewhat of a purple color around game objects. It is very difficult to see. This is usually seen around the edges of the screen and is that red and cyan displacement of pixels you can see near the edges.
 * Bloom - On/Off, when excessive light is shown, it bleeds. Like looking at a bright light and seeing it glows. This is because in real-life the Human eye can see a threshold of light until it breaks it is too bright.
 * Film Grain - On/Off, the real-life side effect of having a bad sensor in a camera. This can be noticed in-game during dark areas like caves and night time. This is because of Film-Grain and is a definite real-life thing but not with our own eyes.
 * Depth of Field - An illusion of depth to the scene, if your character is focused on a closer object than it is to the further object, it will blur the further object and the scene around them. This is shown when you are looking at your survival guide near the edges of the book.
 * Color Grading - Changes the filter for the game, allowing the game to have a different look. Certain color grading types can allow the player to see better at night time or within caves such as Blockbuster. It is possible that color grading is highly dependent on players monitor and graphics card. It is recommended for the player to experiment with each during the day and at night time to find which is most suitable.

=Gameplay= This is where audio, game rules and the interface can be changed

Rules

 * Regrowing Trees - When this is on, it allows the play to regrow 10% of trees when they sleep. The stumps must be present for the tree to grow back. It can be changed at any time.
 * Allow Building Destruction - When this is on, it allows enemies, falling trees, explosives and the player themselves to destroy their buildings. If you are struggling with attacks or you are cutting trees near your buildings, consider turn this off. It can be changed at any time.

Audio
This is where the volume of sound effects and music can be changed. It also has the voice count option
 * Sound Effects - Adjusts the volume of sound effects within the game.
 * Music - Adjusts the volume of music within the game, including the main menu. It does not turn the music off during the game ending cut scene.

Interface
This is where you can turn the HUD (Head-up Display) off, game icons, and other overlays. You can also change the language here.
 * Ghost Building Tint - Changes the color of your blueprints. Default is white, though it can be changed to white, blue, purple, and green.
 * Ghost Building Opacity - This changes the opacity of the blueprints. The higher the percentage, the darker the color. Can make it easier to see at higher levels.
 * Show HUD - Turns off the HUD, this can be good for taking screen shots or shooting game play footage. Note that it also turns off the labels and writing within the inventory. It is far too difficult to play with turned off.
 * Show Overlay Icons - Allows the player to turn on/off marking icons such as Shelters, Stick Markers, Log Sleds etc. This can provide a cleaner look.
 * Group Overlay Icons - Allows the player to group marking icons such as Shelters, Stick Markers, Log Sleds etc. This can provide an even cleaner look.
 * Show Projectile Reticle - Allows to see where throwable object will land. Basically, if you have something, in your hand, what you can throw, you will see white circle on the ground. Helpfull for aiming.
 * Show Player Names (Multiplayer) - Allows the player to turn on/off player names above their heads during multiplayer.
 * Show Stealth Meter - Allows the play to turn on/off the stealth meter icon that appears when the player is crouching. The icon is an eye.
 * Language - Allows the player to change the language of the game, the default language is English. Other languages include French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Simplified Chinese.

=Controls= See Controls for more info