Sometimes called "desktop friendly full screen". Allows you to switch applications more easily while still covering the entire monitor. Can be set to a smaller resolution than your monitor.
Screen Brightness
Only works in Exclusive Full Screen mode.
Rendering Pipeline
Multi-Threaded
Does not affect graphical quality. It is recommended that you use Multi-Threaded rendering unless it causes problems on your hardware.
V-Sync
Double Buffering
Synchronizes frame rate with your monitor's ability to display frames. May reduce frame rate if your computer cannot render frames fast enough.
Faster
Higher Quality
Effect Detail
Affected by CPU (processor) performance. Affects impact effects, physics-controlled debris animations, and precipitation.
Shader Detail
Affected by GPU (graphics card) performance. Affects lighting and material detail, fog, stains, and bullet holes.
Texture Detail
Affected by GPU (graphics card) memory capacity and speed. Affects sharpness of textures.
Anti-Aliasing
Smooths out jagged edges on objects. Available options depend on your graphics card.
Texture Filtering
Higher quality filtering makes textures viewed from a shallow angle or from far away clearer.
Film Grain
Enabled
Adds a simulated film grain (fuzziness) effect to the screen, controlled by the mission. It is recommended to disable this if you are recording gameplay as it can negatively affect video encoding.
Local Contrast
Enabled
Controls whether missions can change the sharpness of a scene for dramatic effect.
Depth Blur
Enabled
Controls whether missions can make objects far below the marines blurry for a simulated camera focus effect.
Weather Effects
Enabled
Controls some rain and snow effects.
Light and Specular Blooms
Enabled
An effect where brightly glowing objects "spill" light into the surrounding area.
High Quality Dynamic Shadows
Enabled
Some missions contain stationary or moving area lights that produce dramatic shadows of marines and aliens. If this option is disabled, these lights will be turned off entirely.
Flashlight Dynamic Shadows
Enabled
Controls whether the Flashlight Attachment equipment casts high quality dynamic shadows.
Flashlight Light Spill
Disabled
Controls whether the Flashlight Attachment equipment adds light to the area outside its beam.
High-Quality Beacons
Enabled
Controls whether items such as the IAF Heal Beacon and X-33 Damage Amplifier cause light distortion, glowing, and pulsing effects.
Muzzle Flash Lights
Enabled
Controls whether guns light up nearby surfaces and objects when fired.
Alien Shadows
Disabled
Controls whether aliens have shadows. Warning: Setting this to "Enabled" may have a large affect on the frame rate of the game.
Low Health Vignetting
Enabled
Controls whether the edges of the screen glow red when the marine is at low health.