Older PCs can make it difficult to find the best Elite Dangerous settings for Odyssey graphics. This guide will help players achieve an acceptable performance and quality for some commanders in Odyssey on current hardware.
 

Why Use This Guide?

I spent some time searching for settings that would make Elite Dangerous: Odyssey work well enough on my secondary computer. My standards may be lower than those of younger gamers. I have been gaming since Pac-Man, and C64 graphics looked great. I am not going to compromise on quality and performance.
 
 
Horizons DLC runs surprisingly smoothly on the same machine. It was shocking to see how performance dropped when switching to ED.Odyssey update 13. This guide may help you find the best settings for ED: Odyssey on an older PC if you are experiencing similar issues.
 
 
A word of caution: It is currently not possible to get ED.Odyssey look the same as ED.Horizons in the older machines.
 
 
 

Goal

My system is very close to the minimum requirements for ED.Odyssey AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor (6 CPUs) / Nvidia GTX 780 / 16 GB RAM . This guide was written for ED:Odyssey Update 13.
 
 
I set a realistic goal to achieve close to 30 frames per second on Full HD resolution while docking at stations, but the actual reality is closer than 25. Although not very pleasant, it is manageable. Although 30 fps seems to be achievable with lower texture settings, this is a compromise I don't want to make.
 
 
I'm not interested in on-foot gameplay as it causes the most performance problems. I hope that FDev continues to make performance improvements for the game.
 
 
 

Settings

Display Settings for ED-Odyssey

 

Setting:	Value:
Resolution	1920 x 1080
Vertical Sync	OFF
Frame Rate Limit	60 HZ This is an old habit that keeps your "cockpit" cool.

 

Quality Settings for ED-Odyssey

 
While I value quality more than performance, there seems a wide gap between medium and higher textures. Unfortunately, texture choices can have a significant impact on performance.
 
 
preselect MID settings could be used as a starting point in order to adjust Model Draw Distance or Field Of View to appropriate levels.
 
 

Setting:	Value:
Texture Quality	HIGH (Medium for Performance)
Texture Filter Quality	TRILINEAR (anisotropic X2 (if you can afford it))
Directional Shadow Quality	MEDIUM
Spot Shadow Quality	LOW
Bloom	OFF
Blur	OFF (or OFF – I don’t notice any difference.)
Anti-Aliasing	FXAA or SMAA (
Supersampling	X1.0
Upscaling	NORMAL (It is possible to adjust this one first in order for Supersampling (X1.0) to work.
Ambient Occlusion	OFF (LOW for better) quality
Environment Quality	MEDIUM
FX Quality	MEDIUM
Quality of particle effects	MEDIUM
Depth of Field	MEDIUM
Material Quality	MEDIUM
Galaxy Map Quality	MEDIUM
Terrain quality	MEDIUM
Terrain LOD Mixing	HIGH
Terrain Material Quality	MEDIUM
Terrain Sampler Quality	MEDIUM
Jet Cone Quality	HIGH
Volumetric Effects Quality	MEDIUM

 
 
 

Conclusion

Although Odyssey was still playable without any hardware upgrades, I would like to see Odyssey with lower graphics settings that are more compatible with the minimum system requirements. I will continue testing various aspects of the game-play, possibly making some adjustments in the guide, and adding a few more reference photos to the appendix.
 
 
 

Appendix: Screenshots

 
 

 
 

 
 
Here we come to an end for Elite Dangerous Odyssey DLC & Graphics Settings hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!