This section takes a close look at the graphical options in the game, and their effects on the game’s performance.
The ‘performance impact’ in each subsection below is the measured difference in average FPS between playing the game with all settings at their highest and turning only the setting in question down to the lowest while leaving all others untouched.
Graphics Quality Presets
The quality presets are ideal for those who don't want to touch individual settings, allowing you to change multiple settings at once.
From testing, going from the 'Epic' preset to 'Low' results in a 100-150% increase in average frame rates—in other words, you can more than double your framerate by turning all the settings to Low. Now, as one of those options on the Low preset includes setting the rendered resolution to 480p, you will notice a fair amount of detail drop when playing at 1080p or higher.
We have found that tweaking the individual settings can result in a much nicer graphical experience overall, while potentially resulting in a lesser decrease in frame rate than using one of the highest presets.
Performance Impact: Up to 150% between Low and Epic
Drag the bar to compare Quality Presets on Low and on Epic.
Visually, there are a lot of obvious changes. Although the UI remains fixed, everything—from the environment detail and effects (look at the water splash), to lighting, smooth edges, and more—is impacted.
3D Resolution
This essentially does what it says on the tin. This is the resolution to which the game engine will render everything. This is why the game quality can look poor when this is set to 480p on a 1080p monitor, and likewise why the developers recommend setting this to epic for the best 1080p or higher experience.
Performance Impact: Up to 100% between 480p and Epic
Drag the bar to compare 3D Resolution on 480p and on Epic.
When playing Fortnite at 1080p, the most obvious changes are the smaller details which are nice and sharp at epic setting but then blur at 480p. Easy examples are the tattoo on the right arm, and edges becoming very undefined on objects and the environment as a whole.
View Distance
View distance is another setting that is relatively self explanatory. One of the things I picked up on quickly was that having a far view distance is hugely critical at times in the Battle Royale PVP mode, but less so in the PVE environments when a lot more of what you can be doing is in closer quarters without the need to keep looking for players everywhere!
Performance Impact: ~5-10% depending on game mode
Drag the bar to compare View Distance on Near and on Epic.
As you will see from the comparison, most of the environment stays the same, up to the point of where the horizon is in the shot. At this point, you start to lose a few details like trees and part of the barn in the middle distance. Not so much of a game breaker in PVE, but in PVP that loss of detail could cost you your life!
Shadows
Like in most games, shadows are a major GPU resource in Fortnite—so much so that this has one of the largest frame rate jumps when turned off, depending on the environment at the time. That being said, because of the cartoonish style of the game, it is well worth noting that turning the shadows off does have a huge overall impact on how the game looks, making it look a lot more flat and lifeless when compared to having them on.
Performance Impact: ~50-100% depending on map location
Drag the bar to compare Shadows turned Off and on Epic.
As you can see with the comparison, the shadow setup in-game is very elaborate and does a great deal to give life to a world. Just about everything is affected here, from larger shadows beneath trees and buildings to more subtle ones like the shadow between the two posts of the fence and the holes for the beams just to the left of the character.
Anti-Aliasing
One of the more subtle changes by itself is anti-aliasing. This is one of the greater benefits of the cartoon-style graphics, as finer detail like smooth edges are not always noticed, especially when playing at high resolutions.
Performance Impact: ~5% between Off and Epic
Drag the bar to compare Anti-Aliasing turned Off and on Epic.
As you can see from the car, if something is close enough, it is honestly very hard to tell the difference. However, as you start to move further away, you can pick up on the loss of anti-aliasing. Pay attention to the fence just behind the car, as well as the edges of the tree trunks.
Textures
The 'textures' option encompasses pretty much every major texture in the game. However, thanks to the cartoon art style, many will be hard-pressed to see the overall differences between Low and Epic at 1080p. Where you do start to notice this is in 1440p and 4K gameplay, so consider leaving this on Epic for a good experience if you're playing at those resolutions.
Performance Impact: ~2% between Low and Epic (mostly load times), increases to ~5% at 4K
Drag the bar to compare Textures on Low and on Epic.
Post in the comments below if you can pick out the differences at 1080p!
Effects
Another broad category is effects. Everything from fancy crafted weaponry to explosions to item-highlighting all come under the effects option. Once again, thanks to the Fortnite's art style, you honestly don't miss things too much between low and epic—a lot of it is just finer detailing that is nice to look at, but not super critical.
Performance Impact: ~5% between Low and Epic
Drag the bar to compare Effects on Low and on Epic.
In these shots, the two examples I'm showing are the yellow projection light below the virtual satellite, and the lighting around what is called BluGlo (used mainly in the PVE campaign as a power source), which is in the room below on the left.
Post Processing
Making everything look that little bit prettier. This is another one of those visual tweaks in Fortnite which you don't notice too much at 1080p, but which you will notice a lot more at 1440p and 4K. Generally speaking, the post processing has a larger impact when used in conjunction with other settings.
Performance Impact: ~2% between Low and Epic, increasing to ~5% at 4K resolution
Drag the bar to compare Post Processing on Low and on Epic.
I used this point in the start of Fortnite's campaign to try and show post-processing, but it is very slight. Have a look at how the detail behind the blue shield (and the effect on the shield itself) come across. Personally, it's something you can afford to drop down if you're chasing frames.
Grass
Finally, the grass setting. Do you want it or not? That's what you're picking here. This doesn't impact any set environment (like trees and bushes) and, as it does impact frame rate, I know a lot of players just turn it off in Battle Royale. I personally think it adds to the look of the world overall, while not being a performance hog in the majority of areas.
Performance Impact: ~1% depending on map location
Drag the bar to compare Grass turned Off and On.
The visual difference here needs no explanation, but just in case . . . it's the grass.
