Highguard's output resolution is bizarrely tied to its post processing setting, which feels like a crunchy bug that needs squashing

Word reached me this morning that hot new PvP raid shooter Highguard has an unusual bug. According to Steam user Captain_SmellyRat (excellent), the game's resolution is tied to its post processing setting, which means lowering it drops the output resolution in turn—despite reporting otherwise in the settings menu.

Youtuber Daniel Owen has also separately confirmed the issue, but I felt it was worth some testing of my own. Jumping into the training area of Highguard, I played around with the post processing options, and the difference was clear to see.

Not only does the game look noticeably blurrier with post processing set to Low, but the performance improves dramatically, too. Using a registry edit to force DLSS to display the input and output resolution reveals that, with post processing at its lowest, the game is actually displaying at 1728p on my setup rather than the 2160p it reports in the settings menu, despite the output resolution being set to 100%.

Turn post processing to High, and the game runs at full 4K. I tried a few different resolutions to see if the effect scaled down the stack, and yep, post processing Low seems to force the game to run at 80% of its stated resolution, despite what the settings menu might say.

While the difference is minimal in screenshots, in person the effect means that rather than taking advantage of my display's full native 4K resolution, the image is instead scaled to fit the screen, resulting in a significant amount of blur.

The performance difference is also significant, in a way that a post processing adjustment wouldn't usually provide. Low post processing (and therefore, a significantly lower resolution) adds a good 15-20 fps on top of my frame rate using an RTX 5070 Ti.

So, what's going on here then? Well, chatting to my colleague Nick Evanson (our resident game engine expert) reveals a theory. In essence, lowering the post processing setting should lower the resolution of the effect being displayed, rather than the full frame.

Post processing effects often involve a lot of sampling and blending of pixels, so there's a small amount of performance to be gained by reducing this overhead. It seems, however, that the post processing slider is lowering both the resolution of the effect and the resolution of the full frame itself, likely due to some erroneous code.

It seems the gaming community is reacting poorly to Highguard's release for a number of reasons, with the game currently sitting at a "Mostly Negative" rating on its Steam store page. However, "blurry graphics" seems to be a repeated complaint, and if players are lowering the settings to make up for its reportedly poor performance, then it may well be the post processing setting that's to blame.

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