Setting Up Elden Ring for Clean Ultra Graphics Gameplay Capture

If you are trying to capture Elden Ring gameplay on PC with no commentary and ultra graphics settings, the main problem most people hit is that the default configuration looks terrible on stream or in recordings. The game defaults to a grainy, desaturated mess because of how it handles post-processing effects. Getting it to look correct takes some adjustment before you even hit record. I started by running the game on a dedicated second monitor while using ShadowPlay to capture. My system is a 4070 Ti, Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB RAM. I spent about three hours tweaking settings across multiple configurations before settling on something that actually holds up. Here is what I learned doing it the hard way.

Elden Ring Gameplay No Commentary Pc Ultra Graphics

The first thing you need to understand is that Elden Ring's "Ultra" setting on PC does not mean what it says it means. Many of those settings are locked or don't actually translate to visible improvements. The frame generation option, for example, adds noticeable input latency and can cause ghosting in fast combat scenes. I disabled it immediately. Ray tracing also needs to be turned off unless you are specifically recording a cinematics-style piece. It tanks your frame rate by roughly forty percent and makes shadows look unnaturally dark in outdoor areas. The settings that actually matter are the resolution scaler, VSync, and texture streaming budget. I run the game at 1440p native with the resolution set to 100 percent. Texture Streaming Budget is set to Maximum. The difference between High and Maximum is subtle but measurable—some distant foliage textures pop in late without it, and that looks sloppy in a recording. For the capture side, I use NDI if I am overlaying anything later, but for straight no commentary footage, raw OBS recording with x264 medium preset at 60 frames per second works fine. If you are encoding to H.264 for direct upload, set the bitrate to 45 megabits per second. Anything lower and the post-processing bloom in Liurnia and Caelid starts breaking up into blocks. I wasted about four hours one afternoon dealing with this before figuring out the correct threshold.

There is also the matter of the UI. By default, the HUD stays visible, which is usually not what people want for no commentary gameplay videos. Pressing the touchpad button on a controller or holding the minus key on a keyboard brings up the option to hide elements. Alternatively, you can navigate into Settings and turn off the Combat Log and Minimap. Some people prefer to disable the entire HUD through mods like Elden Mod Engine. That is a heavier lift but gives you a cleaner slate. One issue I ran into that took a while to figure out: chromatic aberration and film grain combined at ultra settings create a muddy image that compresses badly. Most recorders don't handle high-frequency noise well. I turned both of those off in the display settings and the resulting file was noticeably smaller and cleaner. This is counter-intuitive because you are reducing some of the visual fidelity, but for recorded output it actually improves the final result. You lose a bit of atmosphere, but you gain clarity where it matters. Another thing worth noting is that Elden Ring has a known issue with vertical synchronization on certain AMD GPUs. If you are on an RX 7800 XT or similar, turning VSync on causes frame pacing problems that are visible in recordings as micro-stutters. Disable VSync and instead cap your frame rate through Nvidia Inspector or amdhsa driver settings. I cap mine at 60 for recording purposes. This keeps the game stable and makes the output look consistent rather than variable.

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ELDEN RING NG+1 Walkthrough GAMEPLAY Part 1 (FULL GAME) (4K 60fps PC) ULTRA No Commentary - YouTube
ELDEN RING NG+1 Walkthrough GAMEPLAY Part 1 (FULL GAME) (4K 60fps PC) ULTRA No Commentary - YouTube

The camera angle is another consideration. The default camera in Elden Ring is a bit too close in many indoor environments and can clip through walls. I recommend switching to third-person view and adjusting the camera distance slider to the maximum. This gives a wider field of view that works better for viewers who are watching on a phone or smaller screen. Audio is simple since there is no commentary. You just need to make sure your capture device is picking up the game audio properly and not accidentally recording system sounds or mic bleed. I use the Stereo Mix option in Windows sound settings and route the game directly into the capture source. Music volume should be left at default or slightly reduced so that ambient sounds like weapon clashes and enemy roars remain prominent. File size management is a real concern here. A ten-minute clip recorded at ultra settings with these recommendations comes out around 2.3 gigabytes in raw form. Using the H.264 encode with the settings I mentioned reduces that to roughly 800 megabytes without any visible quality loss. HandBrake works well for post-processing if you need to compress further before uploading.

Finally, be aware that the game sometimes crashes when using certain ultra settings combined with mods. The most common crash point is during loading screens when transitioning between areas like the Divine Bridge. I resolved this by disabling the HDR toggle in-game and ensuring my GPU drivers are up to date. Using the latest version of the game is also important because FromSoftware released several patches addressing performance issues that directly affect recording stability.