Rehaunted is a first-person detective horror game that punishes sloppy hardware tuning. Because almost every scene takes place inside one cramped house lit by a UV flashlight, a few wrong choices in your Rehaunted settings guide can turn readable bloodstains into muddy smears and tank your frame rate during the chase sequences. This walkthrough prioritizes the settings that actually matter for the investigation loop, so you spend less time fiddling with menus and more time reading the evidence board.
Core Settings Overview
Before diving into individual toggles, it helps to know which categories carry the most weight. Rehaunted's engine leans heavily on dynamic lighting and post-processing for atmosphere, but those are also the biggest frame-time hogs on mid-range GPUs. According to the Rehaunted news hub on Steam store page, the recommended spec lists an RTX 2060 and 16 GB of RAM, with the UV flashlight and camera features being real-time rather than baked. That makes the render path very different from a typical horror title where shadows are static.
The most useful mental model is to treat your Rehaunted graphics settings in three buckets: readability settings (anything that affects how clearly you can see clues), comfort settings (FOV, motion blur, vignette), and performance settings (resolution, upscaling, frame cap). Splitting them this way prevents the common mistake of maxing every visual toggle and ending up with a slideshow during the second-act basement sequence. The table below shows which options fall into each bucket so you can prioritize your first 10 minutes of tweaking.
| Category | What It Controls | Settings Inside | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Readability | How clearly clues show on screen | Sharpness, Shadow Quality, Volumetric Lighting, Film Grain | High |
| Comfort | How your eyes and brain handle long sessions | FOV, Motion Blur, Chromatic Aberration, Vignette | Medium |
| Performance | How smoothly the game runs | Resolution, Upscaling (DLSS/FSR/XeSS), Frame Cap, Texture Quality | High |
If you only have 10 minutes, start with Shadow Quality and FOV. Those two alone decide whether hidden messages in photographs are legible and whether leaning around a doorway triggers motion sickness.
Graphics Settings Deep Dive
Graphics are where most players either waste time or find real gains. The first decision is resolution scale, and it is more nuanced than a simple "drop to 1080p" rule. Because Rehaunted's lighting is so dynamic, the game rewards a sharp image more than most first-person horror titles. A blurry UV beam can hide the very fingerprints you need to photograph, which is why the sharpening filter sits on the high-impact list.
Resolution, Upscaling, and Sharpness
Native 1440p is the sweet spot for most RTX 3060 Ti and above cards, while 1080p with DLSS Quality or FSR Quality looks nearly identical to native at normal viewing distance. Set the render resolution to 100% if your GPU holds a stable 60 fps; otherwise use Quality upscaling first, then Balanced if you still dip below 50 fps in the attic.
| Setting | Low-end GPU (GTX 1660 / RX 580) | Mid-range GPU (RTX 3060 / RX 6700) | High-end GPU (RTX 4070+ / RX 7800+) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Render Resolution | 1080p (100%) | 1440p (100%) | 1440p or 4K (100%) |
| Upscaling Method | FSR Balanced | DLSS Quality / FSR Quality | DLSS Quality / Native |
| Sharpening | 0.50 | 0.35 | 0.20 |
| Texture Quality | Medium | High | Ultra |
| Shadow Quality | Low | Medium | High |
| Volumetric Lighting | Off | Medium | High |
Texture Quality is one of the few settings with a flat VRAM cost. Rehaunted caches environment textures aggressively, so dropping from Ultra to High typically saves around 1.5 GB of VRAM with almost no visible difference inside the dimly lit house. Volumetric Lighting is the real frame killer: turning it from High to Off can recover 8-12 fps on a mid-range card, while Medium keeps the signature god-ray look without the heavy cost.
Lighting, Shadows, and Post-Processing
Shadow Quality directly affects how clearly you can spot subtle clues on the floor and walls. Low often produces blocky, aliased edges that mask bloodstain outlines, while High preserves the soft contact shadows that make a UV beam feel tactile. If you are on a GTX 1660-class card, Medium is the compromise that keeps most of the readability intact.
Film Grain and Chromatic Aberration are the two post-processing toggles that hurt investigation the most. They add character in cinematic cutscenes, but during active clue scanning they blur the edges of small text and handwritten notes. The Rehaunted - 7 Minutes of Gameplay (IGN) video shows how aggressive the film grain layer is by default, which is why most community testers turn it off on a second playthrough.
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Film Grain: Off for investigation-heavy sessions, On for atmospheric replays
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Chromatic Aberration: Off (causes eye strain during long walkie-talkie dialogues)
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Motion Blur: Off (turns quick camera pans into smears during chase scenes)
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Bloom: Medium (Ultra blows out the UV flashlight highlight)
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Vignette: Low or Off (already heavy by default in the engine)
FOV and Camera Settings
FOV is the single most personal setting in any first-person game, and Rehaunted is no exception. The default sits around 75 degrees, which feels claustrophobic in the narrow hallways but cinematic in the wide attic shots. Detective work involves leaning around corners, peeking through door cracks, and tracking moving shadow silhouettes on the periphery, so a slightly wider FOV is genuinely useful even if it costs a little of the "trapped in a house" feeling.
Finding the Right FOV Value
A practical way to dial in your Rehaunted FOV settings is to start at 80 and move in 5-degree increments. Stand in the upstairs hallway and look at the framed photo on the far wall. If you can read the date stamp at the bottom without leaning, your FOV is in the right zone. If the edges of the screen warp during a quick turn to face a door, drop back down by 5. Most players on desktop monitors land between 80 and 90, while ultrawide users often push to 95-100 to compensate for the extra horizontal space.
| Monitor Type | Recommended FOV | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 16:9 1080p / 1440p | 80-85 | Balanced for both investigation and chase scenes |
| 16:9 4K | 85-90 | Larger screen needs wider FOV to match perceived speed |
| 21:9 Ultrawide | 90-100 | Fills the wider aspect ratio without fisheye distortion |
| 32:9 Super Ultrawide | 95-110 | Prevents tunnel vision on the extra-wide display |
FOV also interacts with head bob. The default head bob is tuned for a 75 FOV and feels exaggerated once you widen the camera, which causes motion sickness in longer sessions. Lower the head bob multiplier to 0.3-0.5 if you plan to play for more than 90 minutes at a stretch, and consider keeping camera shake at the default 1.0 because the game uses it deliberately to punctuate story beats.
Depth of Field, Camera Sway, and Mouse Acceleration
Depth of Field is the silent culprit behind "why is everything blurry" complaints. The default blurs the periphery aggressively, which sounds artistic but actually hides small environmental details that turn out to be clues in the third act. Turn it off completely, or if you prefer some focus effect, restrict it to Very Low and only during dialogue scenes. Mouse acceleration should always be Off for precise photography aiming, because the evidence-photo scoring system rewards pixel-perfect framing.
Performance Optimization
Performance tuning in Rehaunted is half in-game, half Windows-level. The engine uses DirectX 12 by default and supports Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling on Windows 10 20H2 and newer. Turning that on in the OS settings, combined with a clean in-game preset, is what most launch-week players missed in the Cauchemar official website performance FAQ. The same flag cuts idle-frame latency in half on the 4K @ 120 Hz path our Speedrun Guide benchmarks were captured under, so anyone chasing sub-3-minute splits should pair the scheduler toggle with the preset notes in that walkthrough to avoid the timing inconsistencies we saw on launch.
In-Game Performance Levers
| Lever | Typical FPS Gain | Visual Cost | Recommended For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow Quality: High → Medium | 6-9 fps | Slightly blockier shadows | All mid-range GPUs |
| Shadow Quality: Medium → Low | 4-6 fps | Noticeable aliasing on edges | Low-end GPUs only |
| Volumetric Lighting: High → Off | 8-12 fps | Loses atmospheric god rays | Frame-rate first priority |
| Texture Quality: Ultra → High | 1-2 fps | Negligible inside dim rooms | VRAM pressure scenarios |
| Render Resolution: 100% → 75% (DLSS/FSR) | 15-25 fps | Slight softness in fine details | Anything dipping below 50 fps |
| Frame Cap: 60 → 30 | 12-18 fps | Half the motion smoothness | Last-resort for legacy hardware |
A good baseline target is 60 fps at native resolution with Medium-High settings, then step down per the table above if you cannot hold it. Anything above 90 fps is overkill for a slow-paced investigation game, so consider locking a frame cap at 60 to free up thermal headroom and reduce coil whine on RTX 4000 series cards.
Operating System and Driver-Level Tweaks
Below the in-game menu, three OS-level settings make a measurable difference. First, set the Rehaunted executable to High Performance in Windows Power Options, which prevents the laptop power profile from dropping clocks mid-investigation. Second, disable full-screen optimizations for the same executable, which fixes the alt-tab stutter some players reported on the Steam community hub. Third, if you have an Nvidia card, make sure Low Latency Mode is set to On rather than Ultra, because Ultra can introduce micro-stutter in the UV flashlight's pulsing animation.
VRAM usage also spikes when the game streams in the basement and attic sections, because those rooms are the most geometry-dense. Closing Chrome and Discord (or at least their hardware-accelerated video features) before launching the game frees up 1-2 GB of VRAM, which is the difference between Ultra textures loading cleanly and hitching every 20 seconds.
Best Settings by Hardware Tier
Different rigs need different baselines, and there is no shame in starting from a preset and tweaking up. The configurations below were compiled from launch-week community data, so treat them as starting points rather than gospel. The fastest way to validate any preset is to load the first-act crime scene and check whether the timestamp on the polaroid photograph is readable from two meters away; if it is, your readability settings are in the right zone.
Budget PC (GTX 1650 / RX 5500 XT, 16 GB RAM)
Run Rehaunted at 1080p with the in-game Low preset as a floor, then push individual toggles up. FSR Balanced upscaling is mandatory at this tier, and you should keep Volumetric Lighting and Depth of Field off permanently. The good news is that Rehaunted's art direction still reads well at Low because the lighting design is so strong, which is reflected in the official minimum spec listing a GTX 1060.
| Setting | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Render Resolution | 1080p (100%) | Use FSR Balanced if under 45 fps |
| Texture Quality | Medium | High causes stutter on 4 GB VRAM cards |
| Shadow Quality | Low | Acceptable aliasing in dim rooms |
| Volumetric Lighting | Off | Biggest single fps recovery |
| FOV | 80 | Compensates for the cramped default feel |
| Frame Cap | 60 | Locks thermals and reduces stutter |
Mid-Range PC (RTX 3060 / RX 6700, 16 GB RAM)
This is the sweet spot for Rehaunted, and the recommended spec listed on the Steam page. 1440p with DLSS Quality or FSR Quality is the default, and you can afford to push most visual settings to High without breaking a sweat. Keep Ray-Traced Reflections off unless you have an RTX 40-series card, because the cost is steep and the gain is subtle in such a dark environment.
| Setting | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Render Resolution | 1440p (100%) | Native is fine; use DLSS Quality as backup |
| Texture Quality | High | Ultra is a VRAM trap, not a quality trap |
| Shadow Quality | High | Clue readability is noticeably better |
| Volumetric Lighting | Medium | Keeps the atmospheric god rays |
| FOV | 85 | Standard for 16:9 monitors |
| Frame Cap | 60 or uncapped | Uncap if you have a high-refresh display |
High-End PC (RTX 4070+ / RX 7800+, 32 GB RAM)
At this tier, max out everything and let DLSS Frame Generation or FSR 3 handle the residual load. The only setting worth tweaking is Film Grain, which can look heavy on a 4K panel because the grain size is resolution-relative. Set it to Low instead of Ultra to keep the image clean during clue scanning, and turn on Ray-Traced Reflections if your card can hold 60 fps with them enabled.
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Resolution: 4K native or 1440p with DLSS Quality
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Shadow Quality: Ultra
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Volumetric Lighting: High
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Ray-Traced Reflections: On (RTX 40-series only)
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FOV: 85-90 depending on monitor size
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Frame Cap: 120 if you have a 120 Hz display, otherwise 60
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best Rehaunted settings for a low-end PC?
For a GTX 1650 or RX 5500 XT, run the game at 1080p with FSR Balanced upscaling, Shadow Quality on Low, Volumetric Lighting off, and Texture Quality on Medium. Lock the frame cap at 60 to avoid thermal throttling. These Rehaunted best settings should hold 50-60 fps in the heavy attic and basement sections.
Should I turn Film Grain on or off in Rehaunted?
Turn it off for a first playthrough. The default Film Grain is tuned for cinematic trailers and adds noise that hides small text on photographs and notes. Set it to Low or Off inside the Rehaunted graphics settings menu, then revisit it on a second playthrough if you want the extra atmosphere.
What FOV should I use in Rehaunted?
Most players on standard 16:9 monitors land between 80 and 90 FOV. Start at 80 and increase by 5 until leaning around doorways stops feeling cramped. Ultrawide users should push to 90-100, and super-ultrawide users to 95-110, to keep the perceived speed consistent with the wider aspect ratio.
Does Rehaunted support DLSS and FSR?
Yes. According to the Rehaunted Steam news hub, the launch build supports DLSS 3.5, FSR 2.2, and XeSS 1.3, along with frame generation on RTX 40-series cards. Use DLSS Quality if you have an Nvidia RTX card, FSR Quality on AMD or older Nvidia hardware, and XeSS on Intel Arc GPUs.
How much VRAM does Rehaunted need?
The minimum spec lists 8 GB of RAM, but community testing suggests 6 GB of VRAM is the practical floor for High textures and 8 GB for Ultra. Drop Texture Quality to Medium if you have 4 GB of VRAM, and close background apps like Chrome before launching to free up the rest.