Ready or Not: Best Engine.ini for Tactical Lighting Clarity

The goal of this tweak is to remove the “Vaseline” smear caused by default post-processing. By disabling Grain and Chromatic Aberration while slightly boosting sharpening, we make silhouettes sharper in low-light environments. This is especially critical for maps like 213 Park Homes or Coyote, where shadows are used strategically by AI suspects.

File Path

Ready or Not stores its configuration in the local AppData directory. Ensure the game is fully closed before editing to prevent the Steam Cloud from reverting your changes.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\ReadyOrNot\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Engine.ini

Technical Note: If you are playing the latest 2026 build on a newer system, the folder might simply be named Windows instead of WindowsNoEditor.

Optimized Lighting Configuration Block

Add these lines to the bottom of your Engine.ini. This configuration forces the engine to render a “clean” frame without the simulated camera lens artifacts.

Parameter	Recommended Value	Technical Purpose
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization	0	Completely removes film grain/noise for a crystal-clear image.
r.SceneColorFringeQuality	0	Disables Chromatic Aberration (color bleeding at the edges).
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen	1.2	Counteracts the blur of TAA/DLSS without causing “halos.”
r.Tonemapper.Quality	0	Disables additional post-process layers like Vignette.
r.MaxAnisotropy	16	Ensures floor and wall textures remain sharp at grazing angles.

[SystemSettings]
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
r.Tonemapper.Quality=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen=1.2
r.MaxAnisotropy=16
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
r.MotionBlurQuality=0

HowTo: Enhancing Tactical Readability

Follow these steps on GameEngineer.net to ensure your visuals match your tactical intent:

1. Anti-Aliasing Choice: If using DLSS, set it to Quality and ensure the in-game sharpening is turned off, as our Engine.ini handles it more precisely. If not using DLSS, use TAA but keep the r.Tonemapper.Sharpen value at 1.2 to fix the TAA blur.
2. Gamma & Brightness: After applying these tweaks, the game may appear slightly darker because the “Grain” and “Bloom” layers are gone. Increase your in-game Gamma to 2.4 for better shadow detail.
3. Shadow Quality: Keep Shadows on Medium or High. Setting them to “Low” can remove “Contact Shadows,” making characters look like they are floating and making it harder to judge distances in dark hallways.
4. Mirror Quality: In 2026, Mirrors remain a heavy performance drain. Set them to Low or Off. This doesn’t affect your tactical visibility but keeps your frame rate stable during room clears.
5. Read-Only: Once saved, right-click Engine.ini, select Properties, and check Read-only. Ready or Not is notorious for overwriting config files during small patches.

Technical Explanation: Chromatic Aberration and “Black Crush”

Ready or Not uses Chromatic Aberration (r.SceneColorFringeQuality) to simulate a real-world lens, which shifts colors at the edges of the screen. In a tactical shooter, this “fringe” effect can make an enemy’s arm or weapon appear doubled or blurry if they are in your peripheral vision.

By disabling this and setting r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0, we remove the mathematical “dither” that the engine adds to dark areas. Usually, this dither is meant to hide color banding, but at high refresh rates, it just looks like moving static. Removing it allows the Unreal Engine 4 renderer to display solid blacks and sharp highlights, significantly improving your ability to “ID” targets in a split second.