Soulmask Optimization Guide
Post of helpful Optimizations and Client side bug fixes for our Enshrouded Players:
Soulmask system requirements
Firstly, let's take a look at the Soulmask recommended and minimum specs listed on the store page.
Minimum Specs:
Windows 10 (64 Bit)
Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
16GB RAM
GTX 970 4GB or AMD RX 580 4GB
Recommended Specs
Windows 11
Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
24GB RAM
RTX 3060 or AMD 6700XT
SSD (With the note that this is 'Highly Recommended')
As such, a good place to start to make sure your performance is the best it can possibly be is to ensure you're rocking at least one set of these specs.
Soulmask graphics settings suggestions
Soulmask is heavily GPU-bound, so having a decent GPU, a solid amount of high-speed RAM, and an SSD to run it from are responsible for the bulk of the performance here. This is, of course, subject to change, thanks to the large amount of NPCs you'll be collecting down the line.
We will go through some of the settings listed above, and break down some of them to explain what might be best for your setup.
Display
There are many reasons to use a borderless window as opposed to an exclusive fullscreen in any game, but the simple fact is that using an exclusive fullscreen does impact your performance in a positive way. This is because while in exclusive fullscreen, many background processes on your PC are paused as there's no need to render them directly, but in borderless, any background processes continue to run as normal.
Resolution
It's advised to keep your resolution native to what your monitor is running here; and if you intend to upscale using either DLSS or FSR, that will be covered later.
Quality Presets
You can use the settings the game suggests, but as with all things, they're only simple checks that figure out what you're running hardware-wise. They can't account for background resource usage, any recording software, or 73 browser tabs. If you're going to be running a lot of stuff in the background during play, it's always best to go a little lower than they would suggest.
Because the next section of settings can vary depending on the hardware you're running, I'll express whether each setting is high impact and low impact.
Shadows - High Impact
Anti-Aliasing - High Impact
View Distance - High Impact
Textures - Low/High Impact (Depending greatly on your GPU)
Visual Effects - Low/High Impact (Depending greatly on your CPU)
Post-Processing Effects - Low Impact
Foliage Quality - High Impact
Motion Blur - Low Impact
Depth Of Field - Low Impact
Point-Light Shadow - Low/High Impact (Depending on your GPU)
V-Sync and Frame Rate Limit
V-Sync and Frame Rate Limit are two really important ones to discuss if you're having a lot of stuttering issues. V-Sync is designed to lock your game to the refresh rate of your monitor, and having it on or off incorrectly can lead to stutters and some visual issues. If you're running a monitor with a refresh rate of 60HZ, and you're getting consistently more than 60FPS, you want to turn this setting on. If you're running a monitor with a 120HZ refresh rate but are getting consistently less than 120FPS, turn the setting off and then lock your framerate to get closer to what you're getting—be that 60FPS or 90FPS. It's also important to note in both situations that you may want to lock your framerate to something your system can achieve..
DLSS and FSR
DLSS by NVidia and FSR by AMD are both incredibly complicated pieces of technology that I cannot really begin to understand, but are not all the makers herald them to be. DLSS can perform something called upscaling, which is when DLSS takes your native resolution and, using deep-learning-AI, renders your game to look like it's running at a higher resolution. For example, you might be running your game in 1080P, but DLSS will attempt to make it look like you're running at 1440P. The Quality setting will give you a smaller boost but better visuals, while the Performance setting will give you massively increased performance but noticeably worse visuals, so experiment with this one to find what works for you. Please note however that DLSS is only available on 20+ series NVidia GPU's, and does not work at all on AMD GPU's.
FSR is very much the same thing, however, one notable benefit to this one is that it's available to a much, much wider range of GPU's. This includes even 9 and 10 series NVidia GPU's, giving them a nice new lease of life. Sadly, it appears Soulmask doesn't use FSR 3.0 😞
Soulmask Launch Settings on STEAM
On Steam, go to your library, right-click on Soulmask, select Properties and click on Set Launch Options.
Here’s a list of the best ones you can and should use: -high -lowmemory -dx12 -window
-dx12 - Forces the game to run in the dx12 Graphics Mode.
-high - Forces high CPU priority, which might give you extra FPS.
-full - (fullscreen mode) (Use -window if you tab out of game for discord etc.)
ALL LAUNCH OPTIONS Explained.
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES - (the game will use all your CPU cores) -sm4 and -d3d10 - (runs game with DirectX 10) -nomansky (removes clouds and some sky effects) -lowmemory (the game will use only 4gb of your RAM) -w 640 -h 480 - (runs game in 640x480 resolution)(resolution can be changed to your choice) -full - (fullscreen mode) -window - (windowed mode with borders) -noborder - (windowed mode without borders) -low - (runs ARK as a low-priority process) -high - (runs ARK as a high-priority process) -noaafonts - (removes fonts anitalising) -autoconfig - (return default settings) -novid (turns off some cinematics) -console - turns on the developer console -noeac - turns off the easy anti-cheat software. -dx10 - toggles dx10 use -dx11 - toggles dx11 use -dx12 - toggles dx12 use
Guide to Known Issues & Fixes
Save File Locations
The location of the Player save game file for Soulmask is actually rather simple. If you truly know what you’re searching for, that is.
Single Player Save File Location
Multiplayer Save File Location
How to Fix Crashing and Black Screen Issues
Run Soulmask as an Administrator. (Steam)
I'd be guessing that 90% of Steam users don't know this but you can actually run games as admin from Steam.
Go to library > right click game > properties > installed files > browse.
Right-click .exe > run as admin.
Disable or Retune Your Overclock Settings for Soulmask.
Even if Soulmask isn't your most demanding game you should check your OC settings.
Turn off any GPU, CPU, or RAM overclocking.
Launch Soulmask and see if you are still getting a black screen.
If disabling overclocking resolves the problem, reconsider your overclock settings. Starting with GPU, then CPU, and finally RAM.
When you get stable settings you should be able to play without any future problems, though future game updates may change things so keep an eye on it.
How to Unlock FPS
About the 60 frame rate lock:
In the Settings -> Display mode, set to full-screen mode (note that the full-screen mode, not full-screen window mode).
In the Settings-> Vertical Sync, turn off the Vertical Sync.
In the Settings-> Frame Rate Limit, set to unlimited.
Check whether Vertical Sync is enabled in system settings and third-party software. If it is on, please turn it off.
If You Encounter the Issue That You Can’t Login or Get Stuck on Loading
You can try the method stated below:
Restart Steam.
Verify the Game and restart Steam.
Update your graphics card’s drive to the updated version.
Trouble with opening the command line console
If it happens to others, I resolved it by remapping the console key for Soulmask: Go to your Soulmask user folder:
Then edit the input.ini file and add the following lines. Chose which key to bind it to;
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