Best graphics settings to improve performance and FPS in Once Human

Fiddling with the graphics settings is part of the experience. 

Once Human screenshot featuring the player character in a grassy area looking at a camping site in the tutorial section of the game.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

Once Human is finally out on PC, and like most multiplayer open-world survival-crafting games, it has a few performance woes at launch.

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While optimization is surely on the menu for Starry Studio, you should know the best graphics settings to improve your performance in this free-to-play survival game. Our recommended settings will help minimize stutters, improve FPS, and give you the best experience possible with Once Human.

Best Once Human graphics settings for performance and FPS

Once Human graphics settings performance tab
Our recommended graphics settings. Screenshot by Dot Esports

To tune the graphics settings in Once Human, head to the Escape Menu, select Settings, then choose the Video tab. You can access this menu while already playing on a server or from the main menu itself.

Setting NameOur recommended settingNotes
Display ModeFullscreenFull-screen mode is always preferred over Windowed for performance.
ResolutionYour monitor’s resolutionOnly choose a lower resolution if you have already lowered the other settings and still have low FPS.
Brightness50This depends on your monitor settings. Tweak it to your liking.
GraphicsHighThis dictates the rest of the settings. We recommend setting it to High and tweak the rest afterward.
Max Framerate60/120The in-game frame limiter works fine. Only go unlimited if you’re playing PvP and prefer performance at the cost of higher power usage and fan noise. 
Texture QualityHighIf you have a GPU with less than 6GB VRAM, set this to Low. Otherwise, the High setting has no noticeable performance impact.
Render Scale100Setting this to 100 makes the game render in the same resolution internally. Only lower this if you’ve lowered everything else and still have low FPS.
Anti-AliasingHighThe High setting (TAA) is better for performance and better-looking than Low (FXAA) and Medium (SMAA).
ShadeLowSet this to High only if you have a beefy GPU. Low shadow quality doesn’t look too bad when you’re on the move.
VFXMidVFX has a noticeable performance impact on High and Highest. The Mid setting is a nice balance between fidelity and FPS.
Draw DistanceVery HighThis has a significant performance impact, but setting it to Very High gives you leverage in PvP. Only drop it to lower settings if you’re struggling to get playable FPS.
V-SyncDisabledIf you’re experiencing screen tearing, use something like RivaTuner. The in-game V-Sync setting is better kept disabled to minimize input delay.  
Motion BlurDisabledFor the most part, motion blur is a personal preference. I don’t like motion blur in any games except racing titles.
Vegetation DensityLowSetting Vegetation Density to Mid or High is a performance hog. It’s best to keep it Low before the game receives an optimization patch.
DetailHighWe found no discernible FPS gain when setting Detail to Low. 

I tested the game on a PC with an AMD Ryzen 5600X CPU, Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB GPU, and 32 GB RAM. This is comfortably above Once Human’s recommended system requirements

The most important thing is to ensure your computer meets Once Human’s minimum requirements. Finally, ensure your Graphics Driver is up-to-date and that you’re not running any heavy-duty applications in the background. 

Author
Image of Manodeep Mukherjee
Manodeep Mukherjee
Freelance writer for Dot Esports since May 2023. Started writing about esports and gaming three years ago. English Major. Favorite game: Disco Elysium. Has played an awful lot of Dota 2.