Battlefield 3 command console revealed, graphics settings explained

DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson aka repi spoke at Geforce LAN 6 yesterday about PC-specific technology in Battlefield 3, revealing some key information which should please enthusiasts.

Firstly, the game supports a command console; hitting the tilde key (~), will bring it up, at which point you can enter one of a few commands (some are restricted to prevent cheating). Render.Drawfps 1 will display the average FPS over the last second, while Render.PerfOverlayVisible 1 will bring up graphs depicting specific CPU and GPU information which can aid in determining trouble spots, like outdoor vs. indoor performance, or a CPU bottleneck.

Other commands are not yet known, though Andersson notes on Twitter the ability to hide the HUD will likely be added later on for the purposes of machinima and such, and there's a possiblity for network stats and other items as well.

Next is graphics options. Low is explained as having "similar visuals to consoles" with "lots of stuff disabled" (though essentials are there to keep multiplayer fair); Medium has the important stuff; High is "what the game is designed for" and includes all the key items excepting MSAA; Ultra, finally, is intended primarily for multi-GPU owners, though of course, future single GPUs should be able to handle it fine, and those now better with future drivers. It's noted the difference between High and Ultra is far from massive -- consider it a nice bonus if you've invested in the extra gear.

You can hit the source if you like for the full talk in video form, though we warn you the audio is near unlistenable. A better recording as well as the slides should hit soon, at which point we may have some more information to share here.