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The net is full of fun tweak guides right now, generally I've found myself modding the existing files on the install instead of writing special launch configs for the system.

Given that I'm going to list off a few key things and a few interesting points of investigation for those who are looking to really dig into their install.

The first thing I did in the Crysis beta when I was trying to find some solutions on things was check out the my games folder. Given that it was an EA game often is it that many settings are stored here.

C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Crysis - is the usual directory to find things in.

From this point the first area of interest is in Profiles under the attributes.xml file (open in notepad or wordpad) The values can be tweaked around and the player can generally set the file as read only to stop the game from re-writing the configuration changes. Next up is and Shaders/Cache and the ShaderList file, some users may notice that their SM3.0 cards find themselves reverting back to PS2.0 or PS2.0B in some cases, with some tinkering and again a read only status the file can serve to change some items up. For the most part I didn't have a ton of success here despite my efforts.

For the most part the real changes came up here

[Drive letter]:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\Game\Config\CVarGroups - this may vary per install

Every config file in this folder has huge impacts on the result of the graphic system in the game. For many users the starting point will be sys_spec_Full. Users can either backup their settings before editing this or make an extension in the folder.

*Note: 1 = Low, 2 = Medium, 3 = High, 4 = Very High

Ex.

[1]
sys_spec_ObjectDetail=1
sys_spec_Shading=1
sys_spec_VolumetricEffects=1
sys_spec_Shadows=1
sys_spec_Texture=1
sys_spec_Physics=1
sys_spec_PostProcessing=1
sys_spec_Particles=1
sys_spec_Sound=1
sys_spec_Water=1
sys_spec_GameEffects=1

Can be placed at the bottom of the list as such

[backup 1]
sys_spec_ObjectDetail=1
sys_spec_Shading=1
sys_spec_VolumetricEffects=1
sys_spec_Shadows=1
sys_spec_Texture=1
sys_spec_Physics=1
sys_spec_PostProcessing=1
sys_spec_Particles=1
sys_spec_Sound=1
sys_spec_Water=1
sys_spec_GameEffects=1

As such it allows the gamer to have a quick copy of the settings without going through 1 by 1 rewriting the values of the settings.

For the most part gamers will want to go ahead and investigate the other cfg files present, files like sys_spec_Water will hold many goodies just as sys_spec_ObjectDetail will hold various interesting tweaks to play with. The important thing is sampling from the = 4 listing at the top and then copying those commands into your level.

Some interesting tweaks that change visuals greatly:

sys_spec_ObjectDetail -

e_proc_vegetation=1
e_view_dist_ratio=60
i_rejecteffects=1

sys_spec_Shading -

e_sky_type=1
r_HDRRendering=2
r_UsePom=1
r_DetailDistance=8
r_HairSortingQuality = 1

sys_spec_Texture

r_DynTexMaxSize=80
r_EnvTexResolution=3

sys_spec_Water

r_WaterRefractions=1
r_WaterReflections=1
q_ShaderWater=2

There are many factors in these files that can change how the game stacks up, I suggest though that each individual play with the settings on their own hardware because while I could post what I use on an X1800 it might night do well for someone on another card. I will say that many level 4 tweaks can usually be applied to some extent in lower end cards as long as they usually support SM3.0. I've noticed a slew of issues working in SM2.0 on the X800 though so I'm still trying to get that going completely.

I did note things of interest, I guess this would be the point to bring that up before I close out the tweaking.

[Drive Letter]:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\Game\Config\gpu

There are two files here, AMD and NVIDIA

The series of numbers that come up are the point of interest for me at least.

As I found while checking out other games, often is it that there are some viewable compatibility lists for hardware.

0x1002, 0x9400, 3 // ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT

We see the Manf. ID and the Part ID and then a new number (3) then the description of the product.

From what I've been able to task so far it seems that the ratings are based on hardware performance levels, that being the maximum level suggested by Crysis for the HD 2900 XT is High spec. Ok well the card is a bit dated and the HD 3870 is now available and is the successor to the 2900 series. How does Crysis rate this card?

0x1002, 0x9500, 2 // RV670
0x1002, 0x9501, 2 // RV670
0x1002, 0x9505, 2 // RV670
0x1002, 0x9507, 2 // RV670

Right now I'm figuring that the variations include the 3850 in 512, 256 and soon in AGP form and it holds one slot for the 3870, regardless the extensions to the products all note a level 2 support function from the game, so apparently these cards are rated as Medium spec from Crytek/EA. Given the NVIDIA sponsorship this doesn't exactly seem like fair play. But lets skip to the NVIDIA file and see what we have available.

0x10DE, 0x0191, 4 // NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
0x10DE, 0x0193, 3 // NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
0x10DE, 0x0194, 4 // NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
0x10DE, 0x0400, 2 // NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
0x10DE, 0x0402, 2 // NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
0x10DE, 0x0403, 1 // NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT / NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS
0x10DE, 0x0404, 1 // NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
0x10DE, 0x0421, 1 // NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
0x10DE, 0x0422, 1 // NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
0x10DE, 0x0423, 1 // NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS
0x10DE, 0x0611, 4 // NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

The GTX, The Ultra and the GT all carry level 4 ratings by Crytek, even stranger is the fact that the GT which is a very recent part in the more value oriented segment compared to the GTX and Ultra comes in with a level 4 rating while the GTS matches up only with the 2900XT at a level 3 and surpasses the rating to the HD 3870 which was only attributed a 2. It's a bit of an odd thing going on here, luckily just like everything else we have hit, you can change the rating on your card and feel some changes in the performance of the system (for the better of course).

Strange that Crytek feels that the 8600GT and GTS are equivalent to the HD 3870 in features and performance. If I had the parts on hand to test out I'd give it a go to see how these rankings hold up. Unfortunately I can only really test on my X1800XT and see whatever performance changes are made to the card. Hopefully others can explore this item and even test out some of the -1 ranking cards to see if there are some levels of remote playability going on given that if Crytek had no intention of supporting those cards they wouldn't be in the list to begin with.

With that said I hope this pushes those interested or already adventuring in Crysis tweaks to change up things a bit and see what performance benfits and visual benefits they can get. I know this is a bit of a quick and dirty guide but I wanted to introduce some locations of the files that can impact the game greatly.