SILENT HILL: Townfall

This guide takes you through optimizing SILENT HILL: Townfall for the best visuals while keeping performance as good as possible.

There’s only so much you can squeeze out of this game. Motion blur helps hide low FPS and small hitches while moving around, but traversal stutter still occurs when loading new areas, such as when rounding corners. Here are my results from testing the graphics settings on an RTX 3080 Ti.

Upscaling

Upscaling gives one of the largest performance boosts. The game requires you to select a reconstruction or anti-aliasing method, but you can run it at native resolution or use upscaling to gain more FPS. To keep the comparison simple, I’ve included Quality and Ultra Performance: one prioritizes image quality, while the other trades more detail for performance on less powerful PCs.

Throughout my testing, DLSS consistently produced the best-looking image. It was less blurry than the other options, especially TAAU at Ultra Performance. I also noticed more aliasing with most of the alternatives.

Upscaling (Native)

If you choose native resolution, compare the available methods to see which looks and runs best on your system. On my RTX 3080 Ti, the native modes averaged between 37.2 and 44.6 FPS, so I wouldn’t recommend them for this setup. I’d start with Quality upscaling and lower the internal resolution further if needed, aiming for at least 50 to 60 FPS for more responsive input and smoother gameplay.

Motion blur can help mask low FPS and small hitches, but it won’t fix the underlying stutter.

TSR does have the highest performance in native mode, meaning there’s probably the least amount of upscaling done here, or at least the least expensive upscaling.

Fog Quality

Fog quality affects performance, with most of the gain coming from dropping Ultra to High. I’d use High at most, as I saw little visual difference between the settings.

Global Illumination

Global illumination is subtle, but it affects lighting throughout the scene. The largest visual difference is between Low and Medium. Above Medium, the settings look much the same during general gameplay. Lowering Ultra to High raised average FPS from 89.3 to 94.6, while dropping Medium to Low gave a smaller gain.

I’d recommend High here. Ultra costs more performance without much visible improvement in the scenes I tested.

Letterbox

Letterboxing is a matter of preference and adds to the cinematic feel. Disabling it renders more of the scene and reduces performance. In this test, average FPS dropped from 73.1 to 66.4 with letterboxing off.

If you’re playing at 16:9 and don’t mind the black bars, leaving it on gives you a small FPS boost.

Post Processing

Post-processing changes were difficult to spot during general gameplay. Most of the differences I noticed appeared to involve chromatic aberration, lens distortion, and similar effects, particularly when there was action in the scene.

In the test scene, dropping Medium to Low raised average FPS from 65.4 to 71.8. Medium, High, and Ultra performed almost identically. I’d recommend Low for the extra performance and cleaner-looking image, especially if you prefer less chromatic aberration and lens distortion.

Ray Tracing

Toggling ray tracing only changed a few shadows slightly in the scene I tested. Most of the visual differences were hard to notice, while disabling it raised average FPS from 73.3 to 78.3. I’d leave it off if you need more performance.

Reflections

Reflections were difficult to compare. I tested the starting scene overlooking the water, then checked windows and reflective surfaces such as barrel tops later on. Changing this option made little visible difference in those scenes.

Dropping Ultra to High gave a small performance boost, with little additional gain from going lower, so I’d recommend High.

Shadow Quality

Shadow quality surprised me: changing it made little difference to either visuals or performance in the test scene. Lower settings didn’t improve average FPS in these results.

The scene may not contain enough of the shadows affected by this setting to show a useful difference. Other areas could behave differently, but I didn’t find a clear reason to lower it based on this test.

Motion Blur

Motion blur has a small performance cost. Turning it off raised average FPS from 76.5 to 78.3, but made small hitches and uneven motion easier to notice while moving around. Leaving it on made movement feel smoother to me, although traversal stutters remained.

If you like the effect, I’d leave it on.

FOV

Field of view is a matter of preference. Lowering it from 80 to 70 made no difference to average FPS in my test, while raising it to 95 reduced average FPS slightly, from 63.5 to 62.4. Set it to whatever feels comfortable.

Texture Quality

Texture quality had almost no effect on performance in my tests, and I saw little difference when looking at detailed objects. I’d set it as high as your VRAM budget comfortably allows, using the estimate in the game’s graphics options as a guide.

Exceeding that budget can cause stuttering as textures are swapped in and out. If you’re running short of VRAM, lower this setting.