go to c:\users\username\AppData\Local\Talos2\Saved\Config\Windows

Or copy the following %appdata%\..\local\talos2\saved\config\windows press Windows key + R paste it and press enter it will take you straight to the correct directory path.

then open Engine.ini then scroll all the way to the bottom inside the engine.ini file now you can start adding the commands.

important /!\ make sure to save the engine.ini file and then once done right click on engine.ini then click on properties then check "read only"

As shown in the screenshot below this is how you wanna place the commands that you are going to copy and paste at the very bottom.

I highly recommend trying my setup called "Performance/Quality balanced settings 2" first
since the first version is not as good, the second version provides the most performance gain and the least quality loss you can always completely disable shadows if you really want to maximize performance but i would recommend just copying it as it is and not changing it first

to remove shadows the infos are at the guide section called "Performance/No Shadows"

right click on The Talos Principle 2 in your steam library
then click on properties

in the launch options section in general add the following:

-high -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -preload -xgeshadercompile -nothreadtimeout

I don't recommend using this one, try Performance/Quality balanced settings 2 first but i left that one here so you can try both settings still in case that one works better for you

[SystemSettings]
r.RayTracing=0

[/script/engine.renderersettings]
r.AllowLandscapeShadows=0
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=0.001
r.Shadow.CachedShadowsCastFromMovablePrimitives=0
r.ShadowQuality=1
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=1
r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.1
r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=0
r.ContactShadows=0
r.LandscapeLODBias=0.5
grass.DiscardDataOnLoad=1
foliage.DensityScale=0
foliage.DiscardDataOnLoad=1
foliage.LODDistanceScale=0
foliage.LODDistanceScaleGrass=0
foliage.OnlyLOD=0
r.ViewDistance=0.4
r.ViewDistanceScale=0.5
r.LandscapeLODDistributionScale=1
r.LandscapeLOD0DistributionScale=0.5
r.Streaming.PoolSize=1978
r.Streaming.UseFixedPoolSize=1
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=0

Note: the command "r.Streaming.PoolSize=1978" you need to replace the number for your amount of vram the number is 1978 because i have 1978 mb of vram and i'm using an nvidia graphics cards 1050 ti.

This version is better because it fixes blurry textures by adding "r.Streaming.FullyLoadUsedTextures=1"
on top of that it also makes the performance even better i highly recommend trying this one out instead of the previous version

However if you have a CPU with less than 16 gb of ram i recommend changing the value of r.Streaming.AmortizeCPUToGPUCopy=1 to 0

[SystemSettings]
r.AmbientOcclusionMaxQuality=0

[/script/engine.renderersettings]
r.AllowLandscapeShadows=0
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2
r.DistanceFieldShadowing=1
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=0.001
r.Shadow.CachedShadowsCastFromMovablePrimitives=0
r.ShadowQuality=1
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=1
r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.1
r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=0
r.ContactShadows=0
r.LandscapeLODBias=0.5
grass.DiscardDataOnLoad=1
foliage.DensityScale=0
foliage.DiscardDataOnLoad=1
foliage.LODDistanceScale=0
foliage.LODDistanceScaleGrass=0
foliage.OnlyLOD=0
r.ViewDistance=0.4
r.ViewDistanceScale=0.5
r.LandscapeLODDistributionScale=1
r.LandscapeLOD0DistributionScale=0.5
r.Streaming.PoolSize=1978
r.Streaming.UseFixedPoolSize=1
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1
r.SSR.Quality=0
r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=1
r.AmbientOcclusion.Compute=0
r.AmbientOcclusion.Compute.Smooth=1
r.Streaming.AmortizeCPUToGPUCopy=1
r.Streaming.Boost=0
r.Streaming.FullyLoadUsedTextures=1
r.Streaming.DropMips=2
r.Streaming.MinMipForSplitRequest=1
r.Streaming.HiddenPrimitiveScale=1
r.Streaming.MipBias=1
r.Streaming.DefragDynamicBounds=1
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2
r.RayTracing=False
r.OptimizeForUAVPerformance=1
r.PostProcessAAQuality=0

Try this this has helped me a bunch in the later worlds where the Performance/Quality balanced settings 2 wasn't working as well as it was before, add the following commands to your engine.ini file under the [/script/engine.renderersettings] subsection:

r.VolumetricFog=0
r.fog=0
r.OneFrameThreadLag=1
r.AntiAliasingMethod=4

then change the value of r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=1 to 0 once that's done make sure you have quitted the game before saving and make sure that once you're out of the game that you unchecked "read only" in the properties of engine.ini file so that it allows you to make the modifications, once you saved the changes go back to the properties of engine.ini and check read only again


Once all of this is done, start the game click on play and start your loaded save, once done go to video settings you'll want to do a manipulation to make it all work:

Put the game in the TSR upsampling method and put it on Quality like shown here then hit save unpause the game completely


then pause the game again go to video settings again and keep the upsampling method on TSR but change the upsampling preset to Native hit save unpause the game.


then pause the game again and change it back to Quality again and hit save and unpause the game, it seems to make the game run smoother to do this for some reasons.

You are now done if you properly followed the steps

In conclusion you just have the game on TSR and switch from Quality to Native then back from Native to Quality to really confirm it.

just change the value at this line to 0:

r.ShadowQuality=1

r.ShadowQuality=0

Best video settings to run in combination with "Performance/Quality balanced settings 2" engine.ini file you can always try to change it a little but i would highly recommend sticking to what's shown below for the settings

You can always edit some of the values in the provided commands to fit the desired result:

if you want more quality make the value higher
if you want less quality and more performance make the value lower.

if you want some commands that i didn't include in this guide that could be added in your engine.ini file you can check the guide below.

Note: the only command that i've given from this guide that this other guide shares is

"r.ContactShadows=0"

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3073567923