FC3: Tips and Tricks

[Art Blade]

 :-()

[fragger]

Nice one mandru - on both counts  :-X +1

[mandru]

Heh heh. thanks fragger.  :)

[Art Blade]

Here's how to produce the most probably biggest boom and environmental destruction possible.

Get three packs of C-4 and three land mines. Go to the Pacific Airport in the South and walk to the road just opposite the Arrival terminal near the river. From there move towards the tank lorry. In the road, carefully place a pack of C-4 and a land mine in turns (use all you've got but be warned, you cannot use more than three mines -- exceeding mines won't blow up) near those canvas barracks and the tank lorry. Try to get even and not too big distances between C-4 and mines just so one mine is able to blow up a neighbouring mine and at the time a mine will blow up a pack of C-4.

Wait for the patrol car and get your camera ready.  >:D

Here the story in pictures, click spoiler

Spoiler

1) just arrived and ready for rigging the area
[smg id=6194 type=preview align=center caption="biggest boom 01"]
2) Between the lorry and the barrack on the opposite side, a patrol is about to set off the explosives
[smg id=6195 type=preview align=center caption="biggest boom 02"]
3) all red lights on my remote went off so it was a success :)
[smg id=6196 type=preview align=center caption="biggest boom 03"]
4) first glance.. looking good  >:D
[smg id=6197 type=preview align=center caption="biggest boom 04"]
5) the tank lorry surely produces the biggest flash and smoke screen.. it was amazing. Here the remnants. The canvas barracks are destroyed.
[smg id=6198 type=preview align=center caption="biggest boom 05"]

[mandru]

Heh heh. I'd just posted on the Funny Moment thread that a sky high Moon Shot Pirate screenie you'd posted reminded me that the canvass tents blow up nicely when nudged.  You edged me out on that factoid with this great series.  ;D

+1  :-X

[Art Blade]

Cheers mandru :) you just caught me posting this here so I had to slip in this line  :-()

***

tip: PROXIMITY for explosives

By the way, so you know the maximum distance between mine and C-4 and how to place them in order to get a chain reaction:

Mines are best placed when standing, don't crouch. Look all the way down so you can drop them neatly. Standing, they'll be just below your monitor's lower edge. Crouched, they'll drop about twice as far from your monitor's lower edge.

C-4 is best placed when crouched (don't stand, it is not a mine) and again look all the way down. You'll be sticking it to the ground about there where you'd aim down a barrel or with a scope.

Funny enough, those explosives need to be rather close in order to cause a chain reaction.

Here, this is about the maximum distance, you can see I used the painted numbers at the Pacific Airport in the South. The mine to the left on the inner corner above the white base line, the pack of C-4 opposite to the right.
[smg id=6200 type=preview align=center caption="proximity 01"]

And here a successful test, both explosives went off at the same time. :-D
[smg id=6201 type=preview align=center caption="proximity 02"]

[PZ]

Excellent w@&k, Mr. Blade - did you shoot at one of the two explosives to cause the chain reaction?

+1 from me as well  ;)

[Art Blade]

cheers PZ :)

yes, in the previous example I shot the mine -- note the ejected bullet casing flying away to the right of my 6P9.

You may shoot any explosive or set it off with a grenade in order to cause the chain reaction. In the example of the biggest boom, however, a mine was triggered by a vehicle. Mines may be triggered by any living thing and vehicle within its proximity, minus the player.

[PZ]

Very nice  :-X ;)

[nexor]

Nice fireworks Art  ;)

[Art Blade]

thanks nexor :) one of my favourite pastimes in any game that features explosives  :-()

[fragger]

Nice w@&k Bladey :-X :-X :-X

[Art Blade]

heh heh, cheers fraggster  :-()

[Art Blade]

Finally I found out what had caused my FC3-ingame-screenshots to mess up. It is indeed motion blur which will enable automatically if and when you choose the high or ultra high settings in the options>video quality settings. You may check my FC3 video (not video quality) and nVidia driver settings in the spoiler at the end of this post.

In order to fix the motion blur problem while maintaining ultra high or high settings, you will have to manually edit your GamerProfile.xml which is located in HD:\Users\yourname\Documents\My Games\Far Cry 3\

There you may want to get a really clear sight when looking at distant objects rather than having a completely blurred view which is also the case when you use a scope. In order to fix this AND to get rid of the silly motion blur (particularly when taking screenshots using the PRNTSCR key) you will have to edit as follows:

Open with notepad or something like that, hit CTRL-F to find the PostFxQuality setting (just type post and hit enter) and in my case it is set like this: PostFxQuality="ultrahigh" -- note the ultrahigh setting. If you have a different one, perhaps "high" you will have to remember that and adjust the edit we're going to do which you'll find in the code below by replacing "ultrahigh" with "high" or whatever you use.

Spoiler

Code Select Expand

<Post>
<quality GameDepthOfField="0" CinematicDepthOfField="1" MotionBlur="0" SSAO="0" FXAALevel="0" CloudShadows="0" SSAOMaxDistance="100" id="ultrahigh" />
</Post>

Now the edit: check the code below and you'll see that after the CustomQuality now is an entry you don't have (the "post" one as shown in the previous code) check particularly the MotionBlur entry. Here it is plus my entire UltraHigh GamerProfile minus the Uplay string (heh heh heh, you better use your own, then) -- by the way, I am using spoiler tags because the code does blow the forum's spacing.

Spoiler

Code Select Expand

<GamerProfile>
<SoundProfile MusicEnabled="0" MasterVolume="100" MicEnabled="0" IncomingVoiceEnabled="0" Language="English" />
<RenderProfile MSAALevel="4" AlphaToCoverage="2" SSAOLevel="3" SDSM="0" ResolutionX="1920" ResolutionY="1200" Quality="custom" QualityEditor="editor_ps3" Fullscreen="1" Borderless="0" UseD3D11="1" D3D11MultithreadedRendering="0" WidescreenLetterbox="0" UseWidescreenFOV="1" FOVScaleFactor="1.23" EnableSubResolution="0" SubResolutionX="960" SubResolutionY="540" VSync="0" RefreshRate="0" DisableMip0Loading="0" GPUMaxBufferedFrames="5" ShowFPS="0" Brightness="1" Contrast="1" GammaRamp="1" AllowAsynchShaderLoading="1">
<CustomQuality>
<quality ResolutionX="1280" ResolutionY="720" EnvironmentQuality="high" AntiPortalQuality="default" PortalQuality="high" PostFxQuality="ultrahigh" TextureQuality="high" TextureResolutionQuality="high" WaterQuality="veryhigh" DepthPassQuality="high" VegetationQuality="veryhigh" TerrainQuality="high" GeometryQuality="ultrahigh" AmbientQuality="high" DeferredAmbientQuality="high" ShadowQuality="ultrahigh" EditorQuality="" Hdr="1" HdrFP32="0" ReflectionHdr="1" EnableVertexBinding="1" id="custom" />
</CustomQuality>
<Post>
<quality GameDepthOfField="0" CinematicDepthOfField="1" MotionBlur="0" SSAO="0" FXAALevel="0" CloudShadows="0" SSAOMaxDistance="100" id="ultrahigh" />
</Post>
</RenderProfile>
<NetworkProfile VoiceChatEnabled="0" CustomMapMaxUploadRateInBitsOnline="10240000" OnlineEnginePort="9000" OnlineServicePort="9001" FileTransferHostPort="9002" FileTransferClientPort="9003" LanHostBroadcastPort="9004" LanClientBroadcastPort="9005" ScanFreePorts="1" ScanPortRange="1000" ScanPortStart="9000" SessionProvider="" MaxUploadInbpsOnline="10240000">
<Accounts />
</NetworkProfile>
<GameProfile />
<ProfileSpecificGameProfile Sensitivity="0.784" Invert_x="0" Invert_y="0" DefaultFlickFireDirection_y="0" UseMouseSmooth="0" Smoothness="0" Smoothness_Ironsight="0.2" HelpCrosshair="0" Gamepad_vibration="0" UseRoadSignHilight="1" UseSubtitles="0" TaggingEnabled="0" WikiUpdatedEnabled="0" CollectibleUpdatedEnabled="0" TutorialUpdatedEnabled="0" ObjectiveReminderEnabled="0" CraftingTipsEnabled="0" DisplayXPEnabled="0" DetectionIndicatorEnabled="0" HitIndicatorEnabled="0" GrenadeIndicatorEnabled="0" UseAmbx="0" UseGamePad="0" GamepadAnswered="0" Autosave="1" Machete="0" IronsightToggleMode="0">
<FireConfig QualitySetting="VeryHigh" />
</ProfileSpecificGameProfile>
<RealTreeProfile Quality="VeryHigh" />
<EngineProfile>
<PhysicConfig QualitySetting="VeryHigh" />
<QcConfig GatherFPS="1" GatherAICnt="1" GatherDialogs="0" IsQcTester="0" />
<InputConfig />
<ZoneConfig />
</EngineProfile>
<UplayProfile LockString=" ENTER YOUR UPLAY STRING HERE " />
</GamerProfile>


Make a backup of your profile first, then make changes accordingly or just copy-paste my code but don't forget to insert your UplayProfile LockString.

It is mandatory to change the attribute of your file to read only because FC3 will override that file occasionally and even checking your video quality settings will reset your editing unless you have it write-protected.

Here without editing, obviously blurred, particularly the guys to the left (even without moving it keeps blurring screenshots)
[smg id=6212 type=preview align=center caption="motion blur on"]
And here, as it should be, no motion blur. Note the clearly visible mountains in the background, too.
[smg id=6213 type=preview align=center caption="motion blur off"]

Edit:
This here is my overall video setup:

Spoiler

..for my GTX660 video card so you may check it together with the above profile (which includes the modified "video quality" option) to get a complete impression of my settings.
[smg id=6216 type=preview align=center caption="video settings"]
and the nVidia driver setup:
[smg id=6217 type=preview align=center caption="nvidia driver setup"]

Enjoy  :)

[PZ]

Definitely a great tip, bladester, +1

[Art Blade]

thank you, EZ-PZ  :)

[Binnatics]

Good find indeed! What a difference  :-X :)

[Art Blade]

thank you, Binnatics :)

Here one more example, using the above settings, that shows how far you can see and how detailed it is up to the horizon.
[smg id=6214 type=preview align=center caption="far view"]

[Art Blade]

One more tip for those of you who like to use the ignore player cheat:

Throw a rock at a pirate or merc (it goes SMACK!) and when you hit him he will shout out which will alert everyone else around him. Like that, you can make them follow you as they will always home in on the spot from where you threw the rock. If you follow a road, you may "pick up" more and more guys, just keep throwing rocks at them.

Best way to stop a patrol car: shoot TWO tyres.. it will render the vehicle useless and the crew will continue on foot. Add them to your followers.. :-()

Try to lead your minions to a decent place.. where there may be bears or Amanaki warriors..  >:D

[PZ]

Man, you're definitely the king of open world experimentation!

[mandru]

I'll 2nd that.  :-X

[Art Blade]

cheers, that tells me I'm just in the right place here, then  :-D

[Art Blade]

I just can't help but admire the clear view with the new settings. This pic was taken using the in-game camera and hitting PRNTSCR to create a screenshot without the HUD (viewfinder) overlay. Note the crystal clear twinkle on the mountain in the background or to the top and very right, a radio tower, in the far back of the centre, a faint smoke column.

[smg id=6215 type=preview align=center caption="clear sight"]

[Art Blade]

I edited the "anti motion blur" tip by adding a screenshot of my overall video settings AND my nVidia driver setup so you get a complete setup.
click here to jump to the corresponding post :)

[PZ]

I love it!  Do you know if it will collide with the mods I have installed?