[5.10] x4 resolution settings in config.xml not applying in game

[gonica]

I'm playing x4 on the steam deck and while it runs fantastic it only does so sitting in front of an ac. I tried to fix the problem by enabling fsr and setting the resolution to 540p so that it could upscale to the steam decks native resolution to help. However, changing the resolution in the config.xml does not seem to apply in-game. I've confirmed that I'm editing the correct file; when I change the settings in-game, all changes are reflected in the file.

[CBJ]

540p isn't a supported resolution, so that could be why it's not working. 720p is the minimum.

[Imperial Good]

I tried to fix the problem by enabling fsr and setting the resolution to 540p so that it could upscale to the steam decks native resolution to help.

FSR is an upscaler. You want the output resolution to be set to your native resolution and then to use FSR to select the render resolution. The resolution that is rendered at is a fraction of the output resolution selected by the FSR quality setting.

As such you want the output resolution set to 1280 x 800px (native resolution of steam deck according to valve's website) and FSR set to Quality (1.5x upscale). This will give a render vertical resolution of ~533 pixels which is close to your desired 540p that FSR then upscales from. If the game renders correctly at such low internal resolution is another matter, but I would hope it does even if some elements might be illegible.

Although this will save power on the GPU, X4 is notorious for working the CPU very hard. As such it might still run quite warm.

[gonica]

from what I've read, the steam deck handles fsr in a strange way. basically, the operating system has built-in fsr so you set the game to your desired low resolution and then the os upscales it for the display. I can confidently say that the fsr isn't working because there is an overly that steam uses that lets you know statistics and one of them is if fsr is on or not. I also know that x4 is super CPU heavy but I think the steam deck has an APU instead of a GPU and CPU. so reducing the graphical fidelity should give more to the processing.

[Imperial Good]

basically, the operating system has built-in fsr so you set the game to your desired low resolution and then the os upscales it for the display. I can confidently say that the fsr isn't working because there is an overly that steam uses that lets you know statistics and one of them is if fsr is on or not.

This is a different technology available to all recent AMD GPUs (steam deck APU has one). You can either apply FSR in game (recommended, best results, choose this for X4) or for games that do not support it, such as older games, you can force FSR at an OS level. Forcing FSR at an OS level potentially produces worse results due to lacking internal pipeline information and tuning that game developers can use to improve the results. However it is the only way to get FSR in older games that have not been updated to add FSR support.

You always want to use the in game FSR setting and disable the driver/OS wide FSR when possible. This will produce the best visual results at as good as the same performance.

To validate that the in game FSR is working as intended the easiest way is to disable driver wide FSR and set the in game FSR setting for maximum performance (largest upscaling factor). There should be noticeable visual artefacts produced by the upscaling as a result of the very low resolution source image being used. Also frame rate will either increase (GPU bound) or GPU power consumption will decrease if it is working correctly.

As application integrated FSR is a programable shader upscaler it is unlikely overlays can detect if it is enabled. As such the steam overlay is likely reporting if OS level FSR is enabled and not integrated application FSR. I would ignore this field and instead use the more hands on test I described above to check if the X4 FSR setting is working correctly on the steam deck.

so reducing the graphical fidelity should give more to the processing.

Assuming the CPU is throttled. Otherwise it will improve battery life, thermals and potentially reduce fan noise.

[gonica]

wow, this is fantastically worded thank you. the reason I was trying to use the os level fsr is I didn't know x4 had fsr as an option. How would I enable it through the game as I've not seen an option for fsr?

[Imperial Good]

How would I enable it through the game as I've not seen an option for fsr?

Settings -> Graphic Settings -> Upscaling

Select AMD FSR 1.0 Quality from the pulldown.

Currently only FSR 1.0 is supported but hopefully in future versions support for 2.0 could be added as well as potential other competing upscalers for additional user choice.