Sea of Thieves: Best GameUserSettings.ini for Ocean Waves

The “Ocean Fix” focuses on the WaterDetail setting. In Sea of Thieves, setting this to Cursed (0) makes the water look like flat plastic and actually makes it harder to time your cannon shots. We recommend a “Competitive Rare” setup that keeps wave physics accurate but simplifies the shader math.

File Path

The path depends on whether you are on the Steam or Microsoft Store (Xbox App) version.

Steam Version:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Athena\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\GameUserSettings.ini

Microsoft Store / Game Pass Version:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.SeaofThieves_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Athena\Saved\Config\UWP64\GameUserSettings.ini

Optimized “High-Fidelity Waves” Configuration Block

Copy these into your [ScalabilityGroups] section. This configuration prioritizes the WaterDetail while cutting the Lighting and Shadows which are recalculated every time a wave moves, saving massive GPU overhead.

Parameter	Recommended Value	Technical Purpose
sg.WaterDetail	2 (Rare)	Crucial. Provides the necessary wave height for naval combat visibility.
sg.LightingQuality	1 (Common)	Reduces the CPU-heavy calculations of light refracting through waves.
sg.ShadowQuality	0 (Cursed)	Disables dynamic shadows on the ocean surface; massive FPS gain in storms.
sg.TextureQuality	3 (Mythical)	If you have 8GB+ VRAM, this makes the foam and spray look crisp.
sg.EffectsQuality	1 (Common)	Simplifies the “Splash” and “Mist” particles when waves hit your hull.

[ScalabilityGroups]
sg.ResolutionQuality=100.000000
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=1
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=1
sg.ShadowQuality=0
sg.PostProcessQuality=1
sg.TextureQuality=3
sg.EffectsQuality=1
sg.FoliageQuality=0
sg.ShadingQuality=1
sg.WaterDetail=2

HowTo: Engineering the Ultimate Naval Stability

Follow these GameEngineer.net steps to ensure your ship-to-wave interaction is perfect:

1. Model Detail (The Loot Fix): Always keep sg.ModelDetail at 2 (Rare) or higher. If set to Cursed, treasure floating in the ocean will literally disappear until you are right on top of it, making “Loot Hauling” nearly impossible.
2. The “Tessellation” Trap: If you use an AMD GPU and see “flat” or “jagged” water, ensure Tessellation is set to “AMD Optimized” in your Adrenalin settings. Disabling it in the driver will break the Sea of Thieves wave engine entirely.
3. DirectX 12 vs 11: In 2026, DX12 is recommended for Sea of Thieves on most modern systems to handle the “Draw Call” heavy islands. However, if you experience “Video Driver Crashed” errors while sailing, switch back to DX11 via the in-game video menu.
4. Buffer Flush (Triple Buffering): Set Buffering to Double or Off in the settings. Triple buffering in SoT adds a layer of “input floatiness” that makes steering during high-tide maneuvers feel sluggish.
5. SSD Requirement: Sea of Thieves streams textures and wave PSOs (Pipeline State Objects) constantly. If the game is on an HDD, you will see “Low Res” waves and “Pop-in” islands even with Mythical settings.

Technical Explanation: FFT Simulation and Competitive Advantage

Sea of Thieves uses Deterministic FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). This means the server doesn’t “tell” your PC where every wave is; instead, both the server and your PC run the same math equation based on a “Global Seed.”

By setting sg.WaterDetail to Rare (2), you enable the Physics-Driven Mesh. At Cursed (0), the game uses a simplified mesh that may not match the actual collision box of the water. This results in “Ghost Shots”—where your cannonball looks like it hit the water but actually hit a wave that wasn’t rendered on your screen. Keeping it at Rare ensures your visuals match the server’s physics, while setting sg.ShadowQuality to 0 removes the expensive calculation of the “Wave-on-Wave” shadowing, keeping your frame rate stable during the Kraken or a Storm.