Dakar Desert Rally is brilliant, but it has been all but unplayable ever since I bought it. Being the stubborn old mule that I am, I have never given up. The game is just too good. And now, I have tweaks that work, at least on my machine.

These tweaks were developed with the help of DeepSeek AI, which knows Unreal engine 4.27 inside out and backwards. I have stress tested this setup extensively, free roamed all over in different vehicles, and run several races (and won them). I have watched full race replays from all the camera angles, and given the game every opportunity to crash or stutter. It did not.

Here's hoping that this guide will work for you. As always, you follow this guide at your own risk. If your PC malfunctions or drops dead, I take no responsibility. You're the one who decided to start messing around. But it works on my PC, so you decide before you proceed.

First of all, navigate to the game's main folder. This is typically:

C:\...\Steam\steamapps\common\Dakar Desert Rally

Right click on, "Dakar2Game.exe", select "Properties" and go to the "Compatibility" tab. Disable full screen optimizations. Change High DPI settings to scaling by "Application". Apply and click OK.

Now go into C:\...\Steam\steamapps\common\Dakar Desert Rally\Dakar2Game\Binaries\Win64, right click on "Dakar2Game-Win64-Shipping.exe" and do the same thing. Click "Apply" and OK.

And away we go to the next tweaks...

Now open your nVidia Control Panel and go to the 3D settings, Programs. In the drop down, find Dakar Desert Rally. If it's not there, add it. Create a profile that contains...

Low Latency Mode - Ultra
Power Managment - Prefer Maximum Performance (Keeps your GPU from down-clocking in-game)
VSync - On

I set AA to "Enhance Application". Try what you want, though.

Click "Apply" and "OK" when you're done tinkering. And on we go to more tweaks...

Right click on Dakar Desert Rally in your Steam games list and select "Properties". Under "General" and "Launch Options" set "-USEALLAVAILABLECORES" (without the quotation marks).

Disable the Steam Overlay in-game.

And on we go...

Now, you'll have to figure this section out for your machine. I don't know what you have installed. If you need detailed instructions, consult your favorite search engine. The procedures are readily available.

Kill ALL in-game overlays. The game hates them. If you have Discord installed, at minimum go into Discord's settings and disable the overlay. Personally, after going through Discord's settings and seeing all that it does, I uninstalled it. It's intrusive and hooks into game engines like a blood sucking tick. If you choose to uninstall it, hunt down the folders it left behind in your Appdata and delete them. Then restart your computer. If you do not restart, Windows will merrily retain the hooks in memory and you will be haunted by the vengeful ghost of Discord.

But if you want to keep Discord, at least disable the in-game overlay.

As previously mentioned, turn off the Steam overlay for this game.

Open the nVidia App and disable the nVidia overlay. It duplicates things already done if you have Windows in game mode. What do you want to press Alt + Z for anyway?

If you're running iCue or Razer software, or other RGB software, either uninstall it and restart like with Discord above, or at least exit all apps before launching Dakar Desert Rally.

End Task on all unnecessary apps running in Task Manager. If you need to know what's essential, consult your favorite search engine.

Right click on the game again and disable Steam Input in your Steam interface. Let the game and your controller speak directly. It gets rid of those horrendous dead zones that you didn't know about, too.

And hunt down anything else that you're using that has an in-game overlay and get rid of it. And now on to more tweaks...

Navigate to:

C:\Users\YourComputerName\AppData\Local\Dakar2Game\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

Open "GameUSerSettings.ini" Make a backup copy, ALWAYS! Then, make it look like this, especially the Scalability Groups. Things like resolution are up to you.

[/script/dakargame.dkgameusersettings]
bUseVSync=False
bUseDynamicResolution=True
ResolutionSizeX=2560
ResolutionSizeY=1440
LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeX=2560
LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeY=1440
WindowPosX=-1
WindowPosY=-1
FullscreenMode=1
LastConfirmedFullscreenMode=1
PreferredFullscreenMode=1
Version=5
AudioQualityLevel=3
LastConfirmedAudioQualityLevel=3
FrameRateLimit=0.000000
DesiredScreenWidth=2560
DesiredScreenHeight=1440
LastUserConfirmedDesiredScreenWidth=2560
LastUserConfirmedDesiredScreenHeight=1440
LastRecommendedScreenWidth=-1.000000
LastRecommendedScreenHeight=-1.000000
LastCPUBenchmarkResult=-1.000000
LastGPUBenchmarkResult=-1.000000
LastGPUBenchmarkMultiplier=1.000000
bUseHDRDisplayOutput=False
HDRDisplayOutputNits=1000

[ShaderPipelineCache.CacheFile]
LastOpened=Dakar2Game

[ScalabilityGroups]
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=2 ; Medium (3=High, 1=Low)
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=2 ; FXAA or lower TAA
sg.ShadowQuality=2 ; Medium shadows
sg.PostProcessingQuality=2 ; Medium post-processing
sg.TextureQuality=3 ; High textures (VRAM dependent)
sg.EffectsQuality=2 ; Medium effects
sg.FoliageQuality=2 ; Medium foliage
sg.ShadingQuality=2 ; Medium shading

When you're done, right click on the file and make it "Read Only" or it will get changed.

In the same folder where you found and tweaked, "GameUserSettings.ini" in the previous section, open "Engine.ini". Make a backup, as always. Then, beneath the [Core.System] section, skip a space and then add this:

[SytemSettings]
;Reduce stuttering by optimizing streaming and texture loading
r.Streaming.PoolSize=6144 ; Adjust based on your VRAM (e.g., 4096 for 8GB, 6144 for 12GB)
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1 ; Prevents over-allocation
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2 ; Prioritizes closer objects
r.TextureStreaming=1 ; Enables texture streaming
r.VSync=0 ; Disable VSync (use nVidia/AMD control panel instead if needed
r.D3D11.UseAllowTearing=1 ; Reduces input lag
r.D3D12.UseAllowTearing=1 ; Same as above, if using DX12
r.TargetFPS=0 ; Unlocks FPS (helps with stuttering)
r.MaxFPS=144 ; Cap it to something reasonable
r.ShadowQuality=3 ; Adjust shadows (3=High, 2=Medium, 1=Low)
r.LightFunctionQuality=1 ; Reduces GPU load
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=1024 ; Lower shadow resolution
r.DistanceFieldShadowing=0 ; Disable distance field shadows
r.DistanceFieldAO=0 ; Disable distance field AO
r.MotionBlurQuality=0 ; Disable motion blur
r.AmbientOcclusionLevels=0 ; Disable SSAO if unstable
r.DefaultFeature.Antialiasing=2 ; FXAA instead of TAA (TAA can cause ghosting)
r.TemporalAASamples=1 ; If TAA is necessary, reduce samples
r.ScreenPercentage=90 ; Slight resolution scaling if needed
r.URO.Enable=1 ; Enable Unreal's Update Rate Optimizer
r.URO.MaxFPS=60 ; Helps with CPU bottlenecks

Read the comments for each entry. Adjust for your machine. Add two more blank lines beneath this, save the file, right click, set to "Read Only".

Those are the tweaks that FINALLY fixed the game for me. You might want to restart your computer for a fresh start, especially if you uninstalled anything along the way.

Now, launch Dakar Desert Rally, and start playing. Watch for stutters, freezes, and crashes. If you still have problems, consult the brilliant DeepSeek AI app. It was DeepSeek that gave me the tweaks here that finally fixed this game on my PC.

If no problems, happy racing! Enjoy the desert!

Cheers!

Pops