Black Myth: Wukong — best graphics settings (2026)

Typical impact 0-5% · 4% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Texture Quality at High (4% fps cost).

Controls the maximum mipmap resolution loaded for surface textures. Higher levels stream larger texture maps (2K/4K) from disk into VRAM via the texture streaming pool. The GPU samples these during fragment shading using the currently bound sampler state. The FPS cost is minimal when VRAM is sufficient because texture fetch latency is hidden by the cache hierarchy, but exceeding VRAM capacity triggers page-faulting and hitching as textures are swapped between system RAM and VRAM.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Wukong's texture streaming pool draws on Nanite's virtualized geometry system alongside conventional surface textures. At Ultra, temple surfaces, rock detailing in the Yellow Wind Ridge, and fabric on boss costumes load full 4K maps — expect 10–12 GB VRAM consumption at 1440p+. Medium is visually close at half the VRAM footprint. Dropping below High produces noticeable mudding on character close-ups during cutscenes.

Typical impact 8-25% · 10% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Shadow Quality at High (10% fps cost).

Controls shadow map resolution, filtering method, and cascade count for dynamic shadows. The engine renders the scene from each light source perspective into depth-only shadow map textures. Higher settings increase shadow map resolution (1024 to 4096 texels), add more cascaded shadow map splits for the directional light (improving near-field resolution), and enable softer PCF or PCSS filtering which requires more depth comparison samples per pixel during the lighting pass.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Controls cascaded shadow map resolution and cascade count for the directional sun light used across all six chapters. At Ultra, four high-resolution cascades cover the expansive outdoor sections of Black Wind Mountain without visible cascade seams. Low cuts resolution aggressively and reduces cascade count to two, producing visibly pixelated contact shadows under foliage — particularly jarring in the Bamboo Forest sections. Moving from Ultra to High saves roughly 8–12% frame time.

Typical impact 20-50% · no measurable cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, the recommended preset leaves Ray Tracing off — little visual loss for the frames it returns.

Enables hardware-accelerated ray tracing via DXR or Vulkan RT extensions, dispatching rays from the GPU RT cores through a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) acceleration structure built over scene geometry. Depending on the implementation, RT may cover reflections (tracing reflection rays from glossy surfaces), shadows (tracing shadow rays toward light sources for pixel-perfect hard/soft shadows), ambient occlusion (short-range visibility rays), and global illumination (multi-bounce path tracing). Each feature adds its own ray budget — a single pixel might dispatch 1-8 rays. BVH traversal and ray-triangle intersection testing occur on dedicated RT hardware, but shading the hit points runs on standard compute units.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Full RT mode activates Lumen HW RT for GI + reflections. At 4K Ultra RT, even an RTX 5090 gets ~86 FPS. DLSS Performance mode essential.

Typical impact 15-40% · 12% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Global Illumination at High (12% fps cost).

The most comprehensive indirect lighting system, simulating full multi-bounce light transport. Modern implementations include UE5 Lumen (software screen-space radiance cache with optional hardware RT acceleration), path tracing (stochastic ray tracing with multiple bounces per pixel), and hybrid systems combining screen-space probes with signed distance field tracing. Lumen software mode uses a screen-space radiance cache updated via compute shaders plus SDF traces, while hardware RT mode dispatches actual ray tracing calls through RT cores. This is typically the single heaviest setting in any game.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Uses Lumen with optional hardware RT. Software Lumen is 15% cheaper than HW RT Lumen. Both produce excellent results — software recommended for sub-RTX 4070 GPUs.

Typical impact 3-20% · 5% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Reflection Quality at Medium (5% fps cost).

Controls the method and fidelity of surface reflections. Low settings use pre-baked cubemap probes — a single texture lookup per pixel. Medium enables screen-space reflections (SSR) that ray-march through the depth buffer to find reflected geometry. High uses higher-resolution SSR with more march steps. Ultra may enable planar reflections (re-rendering the scene from a mirrored viewpoint) or RT reflections (hardware-accelerated rays). The cost escalation from cubemaps to SSR to RT is dramatic — cubemaps are nearly free, SSR costs 3-8%, and RT reflections cost 15-25%.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Governs the transition from baked cubemap probes (Off) through screen-space reflection ray marching (Low–High) up to Lumen-driven reflections (Ultra) that query the same radiance cache used for GI. Glossy stone floors in the First Prince of Flowing Sands arena and wet surfaces during rain sequences in Chapter 4 are the most affected. SSR at Medium provides solid reflections on puddle surfaces with tolerable edge-clipping artifacts. Ultra Lumen reflections add 10–15% GPU cost but correctly handle off-screen reflected geometry that SSR misses entirely.

Typical impact 8-20% · 12% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Hair Quality at High (12% fps cost).

Controls strand-based hair rendering systems such as UE5 Groom, TressFX, or proprietary solutions. Higher settings increase the number of simulated hair strands (potentially 30,000-100,000), each rendered as a screen-space line or tessellated tube. The GPU cost comes from per-strand physics simulation in compute shaders, heavy overdraw from thousands of semi-transparent primitives requiring order-independent transparency sorting, and dedicated per-strand shadow map generation.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Wukong uses UE5 Groom for strand-based hair/fur on every boss and the protagonist. Ultra renders 50,000+ strands with full physics. One of the heaviest single settings — 15-20% FPS cost.

Typical impact 3-15% · 8% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Effect Quality at High (8% fps cost).

Controls the visual fidelity of gameplay effects including explosions, weapon impacts, ability VFX, and environmental interactions. Higher settings increase particle emitter counts per effect, use higher-resolution flipbook or mesh particles instead of simple sprites, enable GPU particle simulation via compute shaders, and add dynamic lighting from effects (each explosion spawning a temporary point light). The cost is highly variable — intense combat with multiple overlapping effects can produce 4-8x overdraw from layered transparent particles.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Controls particle density, GPU simulation complexity, and dynamic lighting for combat VFX — the Pillar Stance shockwaves, Spell casting auras, and the dense fire particle systems in the Zhu Bajie chapters. At Ultra, each large explosion spawns a short-lived dynamic point light that re-evaluates Lumen indirect lighting. In Wukong's heaviest combat encounters with overlapping spell effects, Ultra effect quality produces 4–6x particle overdraw. Lowering to Medium caps emitter counts and removes dynamic VFX lighting contributions, recovering 8–12% frame time in dense fights.

Typical impact 3-12% · 4% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Ambient Occlusion at Medium (4% fps cost).

Computes soft shadowing in crevices and where surfaces meet by estimating how much ambient light is occluded at each pixel. SSAO samples the depth buffer in a hemisphere around each pixel, testing for nearby occluders. HBAO+ uses ray-marching along the depth buffer horizon. GTAO uses a multi-directional horizon search with cosine-weighted integration for physically correct results. Each method runs as a fullscreen compute or pixel shader pass — higher quality modes increase sample count from 4 (SSAO) to 32+ (GTAO Ultra), directly scaling the per-pixel ALU cost.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Runs as a GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) screen-space pass layered over Lumen's GI contribution. In Wukong's detailed rock formations and dense architectural geometry — particularly the Lingxu Hollow and Buddha statues — AO adds critical contact shadowing detail that Lumen's radiance cache resolution misses. High uses a 32-sample horizon search per pixel. Off removes the pass entirely, producing visibly washed-out crevice shading in stone temple interiors. The cost difference between Low and High is modest (~3–5%), making Medium a solid default.

Typical impact 3-12% · 8% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Level of Detail (LOD) at High (8% fps cost).

Governs the distance thresholds at which objects transition between LOD tiers. The engine uses screen-space projected size or distance-based heuristics to swap between high-poly and simplified meshes. Higher settings push these transition distances further, keeping detailed geometry on screen longer. This increases total triangle count, draw calls, and vertex buffer memory. In UE5 titles using Nanite, this controls the aggressiveness of the virtual geometry streaming system.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Controls Nanite's virtual geometry streaming aggressiveness and the fallback distance thresholds for non-Nanite assets like vegetation and props. In Wukong's outdoor chapters — particularly the vast open terrain approach to the Yellow Wind King's arena — Ultra LOD keeps high-density rock clusters and decorative props at their highest cluster granularity at distance. Low forces aggressive Nanite simplification and swaps foliage to billboard imposters much closer, producing visible pop-in at 30–40m. Ultra vs. High has a 5–8% cost difference; Low saves 10–15% but meaningfully degrades background detail.

Typical impact 2-15% · 3% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Anti-Aliasing at TSR (3% fps cost).

Smooths jagged edges (aliasing) on geometric boundaries. FXAA is a single-pass edge-detection blur — cheap but softens the image. TAA accumulates multiple frames using motion vectors, sampling sub-pixel jitter offsets to reconstruct smoother edges — moderate cost with potential ghosting. SMAA uses pattern-matching edge detection with a more intelligent blend. MSAA runs the rasterizer at 2x/4x the sample count, evaluating coverage for each triangle edge — expensive because it multiplies ROP work and render target memory, but produces sharp geometry edges without blur.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Wukong offers TAA and UE5's Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) alongside a no-AA option. TSR is superior — it uses UE5's built-in higher-quality temporal reconstruction with better sub-pixel detail retention than standard TAA, and it pairs cleanly with DLSS/FSR when those are active. Raw TAA produces noticeable ghosting on rapidly moving boss projectiles and fast camera swings. Disabling AA entirely produces severe edge aliasing on Wukong's strand hair geometry. If using DLSS or FSR, their internal temporal accumulation replaces the need for a separate AA pass — set this to TSR only when running native resolution.

Typical impact -30-80% · no measurable cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, the recommended preset leaves NVIDIA DLSS off — little visual loss for the frames it returns.

Deep Learning Super Sampling — NVIDIA's AI-based temporal upscaling that runs on dedicated Tensor Core hardware. The engine renders at a lower internal resolution and feeds the reduced-resolution frame, motion vectors, and depth buffer to a neural network that reconstructs a high-resolution output. DLSS 3+ adds optical flow-based frame generation on Ada/Blackwell architectures. The FPS gain comes from rendering fewer pixels — Quality mode renders ~67% of native pixels, Performance ~50%, Ultra Performance ~33%.

In Black Myth: Wukong: DLSS 3 is natively integrated, supporting Quality through Ultra Performance presets plus Frame Generation on Ada/Blackwell hardware. Because Lumen's radiance cache, Nanite streaming, and Groom hair all scale with internal resolution, DLSS Quality (rendering at ~67% of native) delivers outsized gains — Lumen traces fewer rays, Nanite streams less geometry, and the Groom OIT resolve covers fewer pixels. At 4K DLSS Quality, an RTX 4080 can sustain 60+ FPS with High global illumination settings, which is otherwise unachievable at native 4K.

Typical impact -25-70% · no measurable cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, the recommended preset leaves AMD FSR off — little visual loss for the frames it returns.

FidelityFX Super Resolution — AMD's upscaling technology available on all GPUs. FSR 2.0+ uses temporal accumulation similar to TAA — it combines multiple jittered lower-resolution frames using motion vectors and a depth buffer to reconstruct a higher-resolution output via a multi-pass compute shader pipeline. The pipeline includes depth clip detection, motion vector dilation, luminance instability detection, and a reconstruction pass with Lanczos-based resampling. Unlike DLSS, FSR runs on standard compute units rather than dedicated AI hardware, working vendor-agnostically.

In Black Myth: Wukong: FSR 2.2 is supported for AMD and non-NVIDIA users, using temporal accumulation with motion vector dilation and Lanczos reconstruction. In Wukong's high-contrast environments — sun-drenched temple exteriors and the phosphorescent mushroom caves — FSR's reconstruction holds well at Quality mode but introduces shimmer on fine Groom hair strands and foliage edges at Balanced or lower. Because FSR runs on standard compute rather than Tensor Cores, the upscaling pass itself costs slightly more GPU time than DLSS, but the pixel reduction benefit to Lumen and Nanite is equally significant.

Typical impact -25-65% · no measurable cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, the recommended preset leaves Intel XeSS off — little visual loss for the frames it returns.

Intel Xe Super Sampling — a temporal upscaling technology that uses machine learning inference to reconstruct high-resolution frames from lower-resolution input. On Intel Arc GPUs, XeSS runs on dedicated XMX (Xe Matrix Extensions) AI accelerator hardware. On non-Intel GPUs, XeSS falls back to a DP4a (dot product of 4 8-bit integers) shader implementation that runs on standard compute units. The neural network takes the current low-resolution color buffer, motion vectors, depth, and responsive masks as input. Quality mode renders at ~77% of native, Performance at ~50%.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Intel XeSS is available as a third upscaling path. On Intel Arc hardware, XeSS uses XMX matrix accelerators for its inference pass and quality is competitive with FSR at Quality mode. On NVIDIA and AMD hardware, XeSS falls back to a DP4a shader implementation — functional but with softer reconstruction than DLSS or FSR 2.x. Wukong's fine geometric detail from Nanite and strand hair are the areas where the DP4a path shows the most softness versus native. A viable option for Arc users who want the XMX quality tier.

Typical impact -30-80% · no measurable cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, the recommended preset leaves Frame Generation off — little visual loss for the frames it returns.

Synthesizes entirely new intermediate frames between real rendered frames using optical flow analysis. DLSS Frame Generation (NVIDIA Ada+) uses the Optical Flow Accelerator hardware to compute per-pixel motion between consecutive frames, then a neural network generates a synthetic frame by warping and blending the two surrounding real frames. AMD FSR Frame Generation uses a software-based optical flow compute shader implementation. The generated frame is inserted between real frames, effectively doubling perceived framerate. The trade-off is approximately 1 frame of additional display latency and potential artifacts on fast-moving objects where optical flow estimation fails.

In Black Myth: Wukong: DLSS Frame Generation (Ada/Blackwell only) synthesizes intermediate frames using NVIDIA's Optical Flow Accelerator between each real rendered frame. In Wukong, where boss encounters can drop frame times to 25–30 ms even on high-end hardware, Frame Generation can sustain 100+ displayed FPS from 50 real FPS. The trade-off is approximately one additional frame of display latency — NVIDIA Reflex (also supported in Wukong) partially compensates by reducing pre-render CPU queue depth. Artifact risk is elevated during the rapid camera-spinning dodge animations that are central to Wukong's combat loop.

Typical impact 1-5% · 2% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Motion Blur at High (2% fps cost).

Applies directional blur to moving objects based on per-pixel motion vectors. The engine writes a motion vector buffer during the G-buffer pass — each pixel stores a 2D velocity derived from the difference between current and previous frame positions. The post-process shader samples the color buffer along each pixel's motion vector, averaging multiple taps to produce directional streaking. The cost is a single fullscreen pass with 8-16 dependent texture fetches per pixel. Many competitive players disable this for image clarity.

In Black Myth: Wukong: Per-pixel motion vector-driven blur applied during the post-process composite pass. At High, Wukong applies strong per-object blur to fast boss limbs and the Wukong staff spin attacks — the 16-tap velocity sample buffer produces cinematic streaking. For action RPG play where reading boss attack animations is critical for dodge timing, Low or Off is strongly recommended regardless of GPU headroom, as the blur actively obscures hitbox-relevant motion on incoming strikes. The FPS cost of any blur level is minimal (1–3%), making this a pure visual-clarity preference.

Typical impact 2-8% · 1% fps cost

In Black Myth: Wukong, we recommend Depth of Field at On (1% fps cost).

Simulates camera lens focus by blurring pixels based on their distance from a focal plane. The depth buffer is sampled to determine each pixel's circle of confusion (CoC). A Gaussian or bokeh blur is applied with kernel size proportional to CoC. Higher quality modes use physically-based hexagonal or circular bokeh shapes via a gather pass. Cinematic mode may use separate near-field and far-field blur with smooth transitions. The cost scales with maximum CoC radius — large blur kernels require 32+ texture taps per pixel.

In Black Myth: Wukong: A binary toggle activating UE5's cinematic bokeh depth of field during in-engine cutscenes and certain scripted gameplay moments — notably the close-up dialogues with the Yellow Wind Sage and the Chapter bosses. The CoC-based gather pass uses a physically-based hexagonal bokeh shape. During active gameplay, DoF only triggers for specific scripted environmental sequences. Disabling it has no impact outside those moments. Players who find the bokeh blur distracting during story beats should disable it; there is no meaningful performance reason to toggle it during open combat sections.