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Introduction to Deadlock Settings

Deadlock, Valve's newest team-based shooter, emphasizes competitive gameplay, making optimized settings essential for a smooth experience and a competitive advantage. The game, built on the Source 2 engine, is still in active development, so performance may vary, but these settings aim to maximize frames per second (FPS) and visibility without compromising playability. Achieving high framerates is paramount for competitive gaming, ensuring faster reaction times and a smoother overall experience. While turning all settings to the lowest might boost FPS, it can sometimes reduce visibility, which is counterproductive in competitive scenarios.

Display and Video Settings

Balancing performance with visual clarity is key in Deadlock's display settings.

Custom Resolution: Enable this if you wish to play on a custom resolution, such as 4:3. By default, Deadlock will use your native resolution.

Resolution: Native resolution is generally recommended, but you can choose a different one if preferred. Always ensure the highest refresh rate supported by your monitor is selected. If you have a 4K or 8K monitor, consider decreasing the resolution to avoid immense performance losses, prioritizing frames over absolute sharpness.

Window Mode: Full-Screen mode is often recommended for competitive play to reduce input latency and ensure primary PC resources are dedicated to the game. However, Borderless Window is a viable option if you frequently Alt+Tab, with no significant performance difference noted by some sources.

Advanced Settings: Turn this on to access and tweak individual graphics settings.

Rendering API: Direct3D 11 is a trusted renderer for most PC gamers, offering optimal performance. Some users might experience better performance with Vulkan, depending on their system, so it's worth trying both.

Full-Screen Focus Behavior: Set this to Off.

Reduce Flashing Effects: Turning this on can slightly increase visibility.

V-Sync: Always keep V-Sync Off as it is known to cause input lag, which is detrimental in competitive games.

Maximum FPS: You can set this to a very high number (e.g., 1000) for an uncapped framerate, or cap it to your monitor's refresh rate minus three (e.g., 141 FPS for a 144Hz monitor). Capping it slightly below your refresh rate can help maintain G-Sync/FreeSync range and reduce input lag and stuttering.

Brightness: Set to your personal liking; 90% is suggested as a nicely balanced option.

Graphics Quality Settings for Performance

These settings are crucial for balancing visual quality and performance, with a strong emphasis on maximizing FPS and visibility for competitive play.

Upscaling Technology: If you need an FPS boost, utilize upscaling. For NVIDIA RTX GPUs, DLSS Quality mode can provide a significant FPS increase with minimal quality loss. For AMD or Intel GPUs, FSR2 (TAA) is recommended for solid upscaling and temporal stability. If maximum sharpness is preferred and an FPS boost isn't needed, use Native AA. Some sources suggest using 'Stretch' for upscaling technology. If using DLSS, 1x DLA in Transformer is suggested, but if more FPS is needed, 1.5x, 1.7x, or 2x can be used, though this will reduce quality.

Render Quality: If not using upscaling, aim for 100%. If upscaling is used, Render Quality can be set lower (e.g., 60-70%).

Shadow Quality: Set to Low. Shadows are one of the most GPU-intensive settings and can cause inconsistent or jarring visuals when low, but also aid in locating enemies.

Texture Quality: This depends on your system's VRAM. If you have 6GB or higher VRAM, you can use High; 4GB or higher, use Medium; anything lower, use Low. Medium is often a good balance, but Low offers the best performance.

Fog Quality: Set to Low. High fog quality can cause visibility issues in-game.

Anti-Aliasing: FXAA is recommended to smooth out edges for a better overall look. Turning it off provides only a small performance boost at the cost of visual quality. If using DLSS or FSR, let the upscaler handle anti-aliasing.

Screen Space AO (Ambient Occlusion): Set to Off. This is an eye-candy setting that costs performance.

Distance Field AO: Set to Off.

Post Process Bloom: Set to Off. Bloom can reduce FPS and make the image blurrier.

Effects Bloom: Set to Off. Similar to Post Process Bloom, it should be off.

Motion Blur: Set to Off. This blurs objects and is not needed for competitive gameplay.

Depth of Field: Set to Off. This blurs objects outside the focal plane, which is undesirable for competitive play.

Distance Field Shadows/Reflections: Set to Off. These are eye-candy settings with a performance cost.

Displacement Mapping: Set to Off.

Area Lights: Set to Off.

MBOIT: Set to Off.

Game and Gameplay Settings

These settings are largely personal preference but can significantly impact your gameplay and competitive edge.

Camera FOV: It is highly recommended to set your Camera FOV all the way up to 90. A higher FOV allows you to see more of your surroundings, which is advantageous.

Toggle Zoom: Keep the

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