Unfortunately the bad implementation of anti-aliasing (the thing that smooths out sharp edges) the game uses is applied to the low graphics preset since patch 3.2.1[deadbydaylight.fandom.com] too which lets the game look like you smeared Vaseline[en.wikipedia.org] over it because the smoothing is working too aggressively.

Here a forum post[forum.deadbydaylight.com] with the stream of the developers addressing it.

(But like we all know it will take years until this will be a thing in-game.
So we have to help ourselves in the meantime).

If you want a sharper and overall better looking aesthetic that you can tune to your hearts content I got you covered!

The software we will be using is called ReShade (formerly known as SweetFX).

It applies post-processing shaders you can easily enable or disable.

The software can be used independently of the graphics card you use.

If you have an NVIDIA card you already have this baked in to the driver under the name NVIDIA Freestyle.[www.geforce.com]

To address the most asked question right at the beginning:
This is not bannable as EasyAntiCheat knows of this software.

Please keep in mind that new ReShade versions might not work right away as they have to get whitelisted manually by EAC.

Support the creator of ReShade[www.patreon.com].

- Close Dead by Daylight.

The game has to be closed!

- Download the executable from the official site[reshade.me]





or use the repository if you need an older version:

https://www.mediafire .com/folder/8ar1jhh1809cl/ReShade_Repository

(Unfortunately Steam is blocking mediafire links so you need to manually copy the link and remove the space between mediafire and .com).



- Open the downloaded executable.



- Select the first button that says: Click here to select a game and manage its ReShade installation.

The following window should open:



- Click on the search field and search for Dead by Daylight.



If you see results that have a Dead by Daylight icon proceed with step 5.
If you should not see desired results, proceed with step 4.1.

- Click on Browse and open the folder where you installed Dead by Daylight to.



If you have trouble finding the Dead by Daylight folder proceed with:
Finding the Dead by Daylight folder.

Don't select the DeadByDaylight.exe it is not the right one!

- Open the DeadByDaylight folder.
- Open Binaries.
- Open Win64.

Proceed with step 5.

- Open Steam and select Dead by Daylight in your Library.
- Right click it and open Properties....



- In the next window click on LOCAL FILES and then on Browse....



It should now look similar to the example below.
The Dead by Daylight folder (opened through Steam) is to the left and the ReShade selection window is to the right.



- Copy the file path from the left window.
(by selecting it and then holding ctrl key and taping the c key on your keyboard
or by opening the context menu with a right click and selecting copy).



- Paste the file path into the navigation bar of the window on the right side.
(Either by holding ctrl and tapping v or by right clicking and selecting paste in the context menu).

Proceed with step 4.1

If you manually browsed to the Win64 folder:

- Select DeadByDaylight-Win64-Shipping.exe



(You will not have all the other files you see in the screenshot.
These are the ones that ReShade will put there after its successful installation).

If you searched for the keywords in the ReShade installer:

- Select the DeadByDaylight-Win64-Shipping.exe.

(The window might seem like it did reset itself after you clicked the entry as the searched Dead by Daylight icon disappears and you are confronted by the long list again. But do not hesitate as you can see, the right path to your Dead by Daylight executable is now written in the search field where you typed your keywords a moment ago).



- click on the button titeled Use selected application.

- Click on the entry Direct3D 10/11/12

(Dead by Daylight is using DirectX 11).



- In the effect package selection click on Uncheck all.
- Now click on the at the same location appeared button Check all.

You know it worked if all checkboxes are ticked.



- Confirm with a click on OK.

- Select Edit ReShade settings.



- Tick the boxes with Performance Mode and Skip Tutorial.

(The Performance Mode dials in some default values that are enough for our purpose. If you want to tinker with individual values leave the box unticked.
Skip Tutorial removes the need to absolve a so called tutorial where ReShade is forcing you to click through its menus when opening the UI for the first time once in-game. If you think you are missing out on something [you aren't trust me] leave the box unticked).



- Confirm with a click on OK.

After confirming the last step with OK ReShade will bring you back to the menu you saw in step 8.

- Close the window by clicking the X in the top right corner.

Method 1
- Follow the instructions until step 6

If you had already installed ReShade you will (instead of seeing the window shown in the picture of step 7) see the following window:



Here you can update ReShade

(just open the Dead by Daylight executable with the new ReShade version and ReShade will update itself without messing with your preferences you set in-game).

Or delete it.

(Keep in mind that this only deletes the ReShade instance for Dead by Daylight and not for other games you installed ReShade on).

Method 2
- Open the Win64 folder in your Dead by Daylight installation folder and delete all files
except: DeadByDaylight-Win64-Shipping.exe.

Shortly after opening the game from now on you will see the following message at the top of your screen for a short duration to show you that ReShade got successfully / is installed.



This is how it looks like when there is a new version available.



To open the Overlay press the home button located above the arrow keys on your keyboard.



You will see the following list of shaders. Currently none are active.

Click on the search bar to search for effects by name.

You can save presets above the search bar with the + button and select them by clicking on the row next to the + button or by clicking the left and right button on the left side of the preset row.



You can resize and drag and drop the window if you don't like its current position or size.







Use the tab menu at the top to switch to the Settings tab.
Here you can change things like the shortcut to open the overlay, to disable the effects and so on.



I highly encourage you to tinker around and to test things out!

But I can tell you what I use all the time:

• Colourfulness
  
• AdaptiveSharpen
  
• LumaSharpen

Click on the Active on top button to show you the ones you selected in one spot.












(Please keep in mind that your results may vary.
I am playing on the low graphics preset so your result could be different on other settings, hardware and so on).

If you want to get technical you can disable the Performance Mode to dial in all the settings for an effect yourself.

The program called Dead By Daylight Icon Toolbox is a neat little program from a community member that renders the install routine of custom icons pretty convenient.

Icons are the pictures that are used by perks, offerings, items, add-ons and character portraits.

The big question at the beginning: is changing the in-game icons bannable?
The developers stance is that they won't ban for that but EAC might.
EAC said this in an e-mail regarding this.

This all is possible because the icons are (mostly) stored outside the game files.

Support the creator of Dead by Daylight Icon Toolbox[www.patreon.com].

Download the tool from the official site[dbdicontoolbox.com].



- Click on Download[dbdicontoolbox.com] in the navigation section of the site.



- Open the .exe or .msi you downloaded.
(depending on which one you choose - it shouldn't matter really)



You should see the following warning by Windows:



- Click on More info to get an option to run the file despite the warning.



It isn't.
Here the official stance about it from the developer:



If you still have doubts look no further.
There is a website called VirusTotal[www.virustotal.com] that you can use to scan any suspicious files before running them.
The site takes your file and runs it through the scans of different antivirus software.



Here the results[www.virustotal.com]:



- Click on Run anyway.



In the following installer window you have to choose if you want to install the program system-wide

(in the C:\Program Files\Dead By Daylight Icon Toolbox folder - note that you need administrative access to the PC for that:
Either by opening the installer on an admin account or by knowing the password for the admin account)

or

only for you.

(If you choose this option you won't need administrative privileges and the install data will be saved at: C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Programs\Dead By Daylight Icon Toolbox).



Here you can change the installation folder to something else if you want.



- Click on Install if you got everything set up.

Wait for the installation process to finish.
This shouldn't take very long.



- Remove the ticked box if you want to open the program later or leave it as is to immediately open the program after confirming with Finish.

- Open up the Dead by Daylight Icon Toolbox.

(There should be a new entry for it in the start menu under Recently added or under the letter D and a desktop icon you could use too).

After a short loading period,



you should be greeted with a short message from the developer of the application.
I encourage you to read through it as these messages always change and have some interesting news in it.



(The link in the picture[forum.deadbydaylight.com])

Your screen should look like the following image.



You start at the Featured Packs selection.
(The navigation is on the left side).

- To browse all available packs, change to the All Packs view.



Now take a closer look at he search section.



Here you can filter for desired options.

The filters show you packs that contain the checked option(s) too.
It does not show the packs that only contain the checked option(s).

This means that if you select the Portraits filter the search is showing you all packs that at least contain portraits - they can have icons for perks and so on too.

You can sort the packs for different stats too.



Or you can increase the amount of packs shown per site.





(Unfortunately these settings are reset after changing the view - for example from All Packs to Featured Packs or after closing the application).

You can filter packs by chapter.

- To do that click on the chapter name in the pack description to show packs that fall into the category.





By author is possible too.

- Click on the author's name for that.



- Click on View Packs.





The navigation has still some options to offer.



Here you can install the default icons.

(It is advised to do that before trying out a new pack as there could be leftovers from an old pack if the new pack is not overwriting all icons the old one replaced).



Here you can change various preferences.

You can:

• see the installation path.
  
• activate the viewing of content that is marked as not safe for work.
  
  
  
  
• write the currently installed pack name and author to a text file in a predefined folder
  
  (Use the mouse to hover over ? symbols to get more information).
  
  
  
  
• reset the options to their default values
  
• open logs (for troubleshooting)
  
• clear the cache and reopen the application.

If you selected an option but didn't save it the Save button will remind you of that with an asterisk attached to it.



This section has a video tutorial in it, shows you where you can get help and honors some helpful people.





After signing in to Steam you will notice a Show Favorites star above the filters and a star symbol in the corner of every pack.



- Click on the star icon above the filters to open your saved favorites.

You can always add more by setting a star or remove some by removing the star.

(This feature only works when logged in to Steam).



Packs show you a lot of information on its preview already.

• Starred - not starred
  
• The icons for: Spine Chill, Balanced Landing, Hex: Ruin and Dark Devotion
  
• Pack name
  
• Author name
  
• Total downloads
  
• Supported chapter
  
• Last update
  
• Which icons it replaces.

- If you click on Details you are granted with the full view of all icons categorized by icon type.

(Only categories that the pack supports are shown).



Dead by Daylight has to be closed for this action!

- After you've searched for the pack you like click on Install.

The next window will give you the option to only install specific parts of a pack.

(Can be useful when for example someone is only interested in the character portraits of a pack).



- Confirm with Confirm to install the desired pack.

- Wait a moment until the action finishes.



Congratulations - you've made it.



(Don't scratch your head when looking at the pack name of the final picture.
I didn't install the one I used in the former pictures as I have this one already installed and therefor only needed to overwrite the files I already had).

Unfortunately not all custom icon packs can be found in the Dead by Daylight Icon Toolbox.
As it is a tedious process I will only show you the minimum you need to know.
Therefore I will only show how to install custom character portraits.
But this should be enough to know to work with full packs too.

- Find a pack you like.
For example here.



I will use this one[nyorominimus.tumblr.com].

Nyorominimus' Tumblr[nyorominimus.tumblr.com].



- Download the zip file from the file sharing service the creator provided.





- Unpack the zip file with the in-build windows tool, winrar or 7zip.







- Navigate to your Dead by Daylight folder.

(If you don't know where it is please refer to the Finding the Dead by Daylight folder part of the ReShade installation).

- Open the subfolder DeadByDaylight --> Content --> UI --> Icons.

- Place the currently open Icons folder on one side of the screen and the Downloads folder (or wherever you saved your downloaded icon pack) on the other side to make drag and drop easier.

- Open the folder of your downloaded icon pack you want to copy (in our case CharPortraits).



- Open the same named folder on the side where Dead by Daylight's files are.



Pro tip
Use the thumbnail view to make life easier.





Mark and copy all items of the left window and copy them to the right side to overwrite the icons.

If there isn't a CharPortraits folder for you create one yourself.

As of the latest patches the game is storing character portraits in the game files - but if you create the folder yourself the game will prefer the ones outside the game files.

Beware: Some icon packs contain folders that contain alternative icons that shouldn't be copied into the Dead by Daylight folders because Dead by Daylight only accepts folders and contents that have the exact same names as the originals.
Before copying look for these outliers.
The icons in those folders have to be copied handpicked.

Unfortunately the game has no easy to access in-game option to uncap the FPS and to disable V-Sync.

It was always possible to do these things in the settings files but as of 3.2.2 it isn't possible without a special script.

That this is still possible (just a little bit different), is thanks to this post[forum.deadbydaylight.com].

To do all the things necessary we need to mess with some .ini files the game stores somewhere different than the Dead by Daylight installation folder.

Don't worry: As these files aren't in the locked game files it won't get flagged by EAC.
Think about them like hidden settings.

- Close Dead by Daylight!

- Hold the Windows-Key on your Keyboard and press the R -Key to open the Run dialogue.



- Paste the following in it and confirm with OK or with Enter on your Keyboard:

%localappdata%\DeadByDaylight\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor


We will be navigating to the following folder:
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\DeadByDaylight\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor

- Copy the path and paste it into the navigation bar in a folder window.
- Replace the YOURUSERNAME with your username.

You can get your username by opening the start menu and hovering over the user picture.






If you installed Windows in another language than English or on another drive than C: copying is not possible.

In that case you can do two things to get to the right folder:

Method 1 - environment variables
- Open the explorer / folder window.

- Copy the following into the navigation bar: %appdata%.
You will land in the Roaming folder.

- Use the navigation bar to jump back to AppData.



Jump ahead to the the Method 2 picture where the picture shows the AppData folder.

Method 2 - manual browsing
- Open the explorer / folder window.
You should have a shortcut pinned to the Taskbar.



If you never messed with the folder settings in Windows you should start at your Quick access.



- Change to This PC via the folder tree at the left.



- Open the drive you installed Windows on.
The drive has a little Windows symbol attached to it and should be named Local Disk if you didn't change it.

- Choose the folder Users next.
(Look for the translated equivalent if not using a Windows that was installed in English).



- Open the folder that contains your Windows username.



- Open the AppData folder.
(Pro tip: Change your view to thumbnails to make your life easier - can be done with ctrl+shift+2 on your keyboard or by changing it in the right bottom corner).

Most likely you won't find the AppData folder.
It is hidden in Windows by default.
You need to show hidden items.
To do that open the View option in the top of the folder and check the box at Show/Hide Hidden items.



- Open the Local folder.



- Open the DeadByDaylight folder.



- Open Saved.



- Open Config.



- Open WindowsNoEditor.



The two files we are interested in are Engine.ini and GameUserSettings.ini.

- Open GameUserSettings.ini with Windows' Notepad
(or a Notepad alike program like Notepad++, Sublime Text, Atom).

To do that right click the file and select Properties at the bottom of the context menu.



- Click Change... and select Notepad.
- Confirm with OK.
- Confirm the entire action in the properties with Apply and then with OK.



- Search for the entry FrameRateLimit= .
(Default value is 0.000000)

Here you can limit your FPS to a desired value.

Use the spot before the dot to insert your value and leave all behind the dot alone.

Values over 120 will not work as there is a hard cap at 120 in place.
As long as we don't insert a special script into the Engine.ini (more on that later on).



As of supposedly patch 5.1.0[forum.deadbydaylight.com] (referring to this and this reddit post), there is no way to force the game via the .ini files to surpass the 120 FPS cap.

If you don't want to intentionally limit your FPS leave as it is / make sure it is set at 0.

- Search for the entry bUseVSync= .
(Default value is True).

Here you can disable VSync to unbound the frame rate from your monitor's refresh rate - or enable it to tie your frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate.

- Open the Engine.ini

We will copy this into it:

[/script/engine.engine]
bSmoothFrameRate=False
MinSmoothedFrameRate=22
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=62

Before you copy something out of the internet into your Dead by Daylight files I want to explain what this is and how you can customize it yourself.

• bSmoothFrameRate is the parameter that is responsible for capping the frame rate at 120 FPS.
  
  As of patch 4.2.2 this function behaves weirdly.
  It seems to be on all the time even when not explicitly managed in the Engine.ini.
  
  But if you actually use the script and set the parameter to True the game will delete the option in the file after starting the game next time.
  
  Normally the smoothed frame rate technology is a middle way between VSync and uncapped FPS in terms of frame rate stability.
  
  If the technology behind the option behaves in Dead by Daylight like it is supposed to and on par with other games is unclear to me.
  Read more about that here[answers.unrealengine.com]).
  
  
• MinSmoothedFrameRate is telling the game to disable the smoothing when the frame rate dips below the threshold.
  Default should be 22.
  
  
• MaxSmoothedFrameRate is telling the game to disable the smoothing when the frame rate jumps over the threshold.
  Default should be 62.

- Copy the script at the end of the document as shown in the following picture:



- Save the document by holding ctrl and pressing s on you keyboard or by opening the File option and clicking on Save.



You can activate a frame rate overlay via Steam to see your current frame rate.

- To do this open the Steam settings.



You find the setting for the FPS overlay in the In-Game tab.



I suggest to tick the box at High contrast color.



In the dropdown you can set the position for the overlay.



This is how the overlay looks in-game:

• bUseVsync=True + FrameRateLimit=0.000000 - the game will run at 62 FPS.
  
  
• bUseVsync=True + FrameRateLimit=30.000000 - the game will run at 30 FPS.
  
  
• bUseVsync=True + FrameRateLimit=120.000000 - the game can exceed 62 FPS and will run at your monitor's refresh rate (in my case 75 Hz).
  
  
• bUseVsync=True + FrameRateLimit=144.000000 - the game can get to values over 62 FPS and will top out at your monitor's refresh rate , but won't exceed 120 FPS (even with a 144 Hz Monitor).
  
  
  
• bUseVsync=False + FrameRateLimit=0.000000 - the game will run at 62 FPS.
  
  
• bUseVsync=False + FrameRateLimit=30.000000 - the game will run at 30 FPS.
  
  
• bUseVsync=False + FrameRateLimit=120.000000 - the game will run at 120 FPS.
  
  
• bUseVsync=False + FrameRateLimit=144.000000 - the game won't surpass, but will run up to 120 FPS.
  
  
  
• bSmoothFrameRate=True + bUseVSync=False + FrameRateLimit=0.000000 - the game will run at 62 FPS.
  (To allow the game to take the bSmoothFrameRate=True into consideration, I had to lock the containing engine.ini file into Read-only mode to prevent its removal).
  
  
• bSmoothFrameRate=True + bUseVSync=False + FrameRateLimit=144.000000 - the game will run at 120 FPS.
  
  
• bSmoothFrameRate=False + bUseVsync=True + FrameRateLimit=0.000000 - the game will run at your monitor's refresh rate and can get to 120 FPS.
  
  
• bSmoothFrameRate=False + bUseVSync=False + FrameRateLimit=144.000000 - the game will run at 120 FPS.
  
  
• bSmoothFrameRate=False + bUseVSync=False + FrameRateLimit=0.000000 - the game will run at 120 FPS.
  
  (In terms of frame stability the last option works the best for me).

This is a neat little tool made by the YouTuber Ardetha.



In this video, he announced the second revision of the tool.



Download can be found in the description of the video, or by clicking here[www.dropbox.com].



If you want to honor his work, consider tipping him on his streamlabs[streamlabs.com].



I won't go into much detail on how to use, as the accompanying video he made explains it pretty well.
Beside that some options are not working anymore or are implemented a tiny bit sloppy for my taste.
So I like to change the values myself in the config files.
Because the files change often (to be expected from a live service game) and old values get just pushed down in the config file when you click a button to let the tool change a value for you.
I like my config files nice and tidy.
So this isn't a set and forget option for me.

But maybe it is for you! Feel free to try it out and watch what it does.

I wanted to mention it primarily, because (before knowing of this tool) I hadn't found a way to control the Anti-Aliasing outside of using a third-party tool like ReShade.
And to its credit, it teached me some inner workings of the config files I wasn't aware of.

- Open the Engine.ini used to formerly insert the script to unlock the FPS.

If you can't find it, please refer to the the section Find the files under the Uncap FPS - Technical section.

[/script/engine.garbagecollectionsettings]
r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=

• r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=2
  Is the highest and default value which delivers us the smeared look we don't want.
  
  
• r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=1
  Is the lower variant that is less aggressive.
  
  
• r.DefaultFeature.AntiAliasing=0
  Disables it completely.

Look for yourself what suits your taste (especially with the added sharpness of the ReShade shaders you may have already applied).

If your Engine.ini looks similar to the following picture, you should be good to go.

I found this corresponding reddit guide while searching for a way to lift the 120 FPS hard lock.

The guide is a neat and quick optimization with some ideas on how to improve performance.

But here is the highlight: I don't know when this was added to Dead by Daylight (because I tried it in the past without any success), but it seems that at least since the Epic Games Store Version of Dead by Daylight has surfaced, you can force the game to use the low-level API DirectX12[www.hardwaretimes.com] instead!

The second thing that might help some people gaining some performance is to change the fullscreen-mode of the game from a borderless-window to exclusive-fullscreen, which hands over the entire rendering to the game.
More on this topic here[support.unity.com].

- Add the following launch parameter to the launch options for Dead by Daylight:



-dx12



If you encounter worse performance, just remove the text out of the launch options and you will be using DirectX 11 from the next game start on.



For exclusive-fullscreen, change the default values from one (1) to zero (0).



Exclusive-fullscreen has a performance advantage, but often comes with reduced convenience especially for multi-monitor setups and can have its own quirks as the implementation is on the developers hand.

(For me it has less stability as my monitor flickers whenever I switch from DbD to the second screen and back.
Probably the wacky AMD driver of my Vega 64 and my passion to dial every option possible XD)

This is still Dead by Daylight and we know the Devs. :D

Don't forget to blame McLean if something isn't working (even though he isn't working at BHVR anymore ^_^).

Unfortunately Dead by Daylight is one of the few horror games that didn't bother to implement a brightness slider to account for different needs and tastes.
We will fix that.

Please don't whine in the comments about how this would be cheating and other weird things that fall in conjunction with basic video game settings.

Here is a video about that topic to consider.
Still not convinced? Look no further.

- Hold the Windows key and press the r key on your keyboard one time to open the Run dialogue.
(Need help? Use this).



- Type the following sequence into the text box: dccw.exe
and confirm with OK.

After confirming the administration privilege window you will see the following open up:



- Click on Next until you reach the Adjust gamma settings (3 clicks needed).



Here you can adjust your monitor's gamma to increase or decrease the brightness.

Keep in mind that you have to have the window open all the time for the settings to be active.
After closing the settings will return to normal.

If you want to keep the desired setting forever keep on clicking Next until you see this window (8 clicks needed):



Uncheck the checked checkbox (damn) and close with Finish.

I personally don't use this regularly as for me Dead by Daylight is bright enough.

But you might sit in a room that is especially lit up and therefor the game could be too dark for you.

There is one exception: Summer.
I always use this in the summer time if the sun is shining through the window and making the room bright.

Bugs or too dark toned maps can be a good reason to use this.
But for this scenario the ReShade filters should have some options that better fit the needs for subtle brightness increases.
The Clarity named filter could come in handy for this.

Tired of waiting until you will be able to look at statistics about yourself (or others) in Dead by Daylight?

There is a neat little website: https://dbd.tricky.lol/
https://dbd.onteh.net.au/
that is showing you all the statistics the game is already harvesting about you.



How?
The achievements don't stop collecting progress when you achieved them.
This is why you can see these statistics on the website.

Support the creator[dbd.tricky.lol].

To see someones or your own statistics do the following:

- Open your Steam profile in a browser.



- Copy the address in your address bar.



- Open this site: https://steamid.io/



- Paste your formerly copied steam profile URL into the text box and click on lookup.



- Copy the steamID64 and paste it into the search field.

- Click one time on one of the tracked statistics to start the search.
For example on Bloodpoints Earned.



- Click on the Steam name to open a detailed view.





Here you can see various statistics.
To save yourself some time add a bookmark for entries you open regularly.

There are similar website doing the same.
With a quick search engine search, you should find other ones to choose from.

• You can use the page up / page down keys on your keyboard to switch between the perk sites.
  
  
  

I would appreciate a like and maybe a Steam award if you still have some points left and you found this guide helpful :)




"This is the end, my only friend the end..."

<< Jim >>

The line.

The picture.




Please keep the comments in English and don't spam.
I will delete non English and advertising connoted comments.