Here is the appearance of maximum texture fidelity, set by in-game settings, before the Engine.ini changes:



The above photos show a subpar level of texture quality, with the F-104's cockpit showing text with a lot of bluriness, especially on the fire extenguisher. The side/nose of the F-16 also has flat textures, notably the yellow warning label; within the F-16's cockpit, textures on various digital and analog displays are blurry.

The first step is to find your Engine.ini file, located here:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment\ACE COMBAT 7\Config\Engine.ini

All you have to do is click on it to open it. It'll likely open with Notepad or a similar program. Then, copy and paste the lines below into the Engine.ini file:

[SystemSettings]
r.MaxAnisotropy=16
r.Streaming.UseAllMips=1
r.Streaming.FullyLoadUsedTextures=1
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2
r.Streaming.FramesForFullUpdate=0
r.Streaming.UseFixedPoolSize=False
r.Streaming.PoolSize=0
r.MipMapLODBias=-1
r.DisableLODFade=True
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.ViewDistanceScale=6
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.1

(Note: Chromatic Aberration is disabled with SceneColorFringe.Max & SceneColorFringeQuality; if you wish to keep the effect in the game, omit those two lines from the .ini changes)

If done right, the file in it's entirety should appear like so:

[Core.System]
Paths=../../../Engine/Content
Paths=%GAMEDIR%Content
Paths=../../../Engine/Plugins/Wwise/Content
Paths=../../../Engine/Plugins/2D/Paper2D/Content
Paths=../../../Engine/Plugins/Media/MediaCompositing/Content
Paths=../../../Engine/Plugins/Runtime/CriWare/CriWare/Content
Paths=../../../Engine/Plugins/TrueSkyPlugin/Content

[SystemSettings]
r.MaxAnisotropy=16
r.Streaming.UseAllMips=1
r.Streaming.FullyLoadUsedTextures=1
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2
r.Streaming.FramesForFullUpdate=0
r.Streaming.UseFixedPoolSize=False
r.Streaming.PoolSize=0
r.MipMapLODBias=-1
r.DisableLODFade=True
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.ViewDistanceScale=6
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.1

Save the file, and then right click on the file, click on "Properties," and check the box that says "Read-only," that way the game does not override the settings in any way.

MipsMaps are a function of the Unreal engine. In Ace Combat 7, they can be added in for additional layers and adjusted; the fine tuning can affect the clarity, depth and overall appearance of textures and are also impacted by Anisotropic Filtering.

These are the recommended settings, provided you have the hardware to run them:

r.MaxAnisotropy=16
r.MipMapLODBias=-2

Below, are two examples of how the MipMaps and Ansitropic Filtering interact in-game (these changes are less visible in the hangars):

Here are comparative examples of the changes:


I hope this guide helps, and you can enjoy your Ace Combat 7 experience a little more!