Ever watch Pirates of the Caribbean when you were younger, and fall in love with the setting? Did you too have fantasies of grand naval battles, finding hidden treasures and exploring the high seas? While the underrated Pirates Online MMO may no longer run, there’s still great pirate experiences available. Look at Sea of Thieves for one. We promise, as long as you have an Xbox or an powerful enough PC, you’ll get sucked right in.
The game has certainly come a long way from its initial release in 2017. No longer do players complain of an absence of content or general bugginess. Now, you get a fully-realized, seriously fun multiplayer experience. This PvP-based AAA title pairs superb physics with lush graphics to provide an unmatched tropical maritime sandbox. Packed with several destinations, riddles, puzzles and loot ripe for the taking, Sea of Thieves awaits all gamers.
To best enjoy Sea of Thieves, an optimal video experience can make all the difference
There’s gaming on a simple 1080p screen, then there’s gaming on a 4K panel with HDR. The devil is definitely in the details when it comes to AAA games. Not to mention the fact that Sea of Thieves is visually stunning. The rippling waves, vibrant scenery and even the player models all pop. Running this game at low graphical settings or the wrong display options is a terrible waste. That’s like owning a PC with a Ryzen 5 5600X and an RTX 3080 and not playing Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K with raytracing as the gods intended.
Not only does the art style of the game encourage better resolution displays, but the competitive advantage is also important. A PvP game like this means players need to constantly best their opponents in combat. Whether its spotting far off enemy ships, scanning your environment for loot mid-combat or observing the enemy’s tactics, you’ll need eyes on at all times. A small panel, or a low contrast screen can sorely affect your experience. A game as richly detailed and fluid as this one needs a crisp, colorful, high resolution display.
For this reason, it pays to know and understand the nature of your hardware. As a gamer, you’d do well to learn the ropes about graphics settings, display options and finding the balance between framerate and visuals. For this reason, we have taken the liberty to show you just what you can do to get the optimal Sea of Thieves graphical options.
1) On PC, make sure your in-game graphics settings are set to the highest your PC can comfortably run
The main drawback of console gaming is the lack of settings options. On PC, Sea of Thieves players can adjust any major graphical setting as they please. This includes everything from draw-distances to texture quality. You can put everything to the maximum if your rig can handle it. Or, if you feel your PC straining to push decent framerates, turn them down to match the performance. For example, a brightly-lit game like this one may not require high Shadow resolutions. Turning this option down will yield you more frames per second.
That is exactly why PC owners should fully understand the limitations of their hardware. While a player with an RTX 3080 can expect high framerates at max settings, an older GTX 1050 might require 720p resolution just to hit a stable 60 FPS. Here is the official recommended requirements for running Sea of Thieves:
2) Disable visually useless options from the in-game menu
Both Xbox and PC players can benefit from turning off some annoying, counter-intuitive settings. In the in-game menu, go to the graphics settings. Here. you can find options like Motion Blur, Depth of Field and Film Grain. If you find any option along the lines of these, we urge you to turn them off. Not only do they eat away at precious GPU memory, but they also make the display look unnatural and distorted. While their initial purpose was to add a cinematic effect to games, now they should go obsolete.
3) Work your GPU settings to set the balance that suits you best
Both AMD and Nvidia GPU’s allow users to fine-tune their gaming settings. Using the AMD and Nvidia Control Panels, you can do away with useless features. This may help your graphics card run better, keep lower temperatures and make the overall video fidelity nicer.
Several players report turning down or completely off settings like tessellation and anisotropic filtering. According to them, this helped boost performance with little to no change in video fidelity. Meanwhile, players with more high-end rigs can try turning these settings up. Some popular settings include This will allow for more visually appealing, striking graphical options like Shading, Texture Quality, etc.
4) For PC, make sure you have up-to-date game drivers
To make sure your PC is running games correctly, your game drivers come in to help. These downloadable software packets contain new bug-fixes, updates and stability improvements to specific games. Depending on the brand of GPU you have, your drivers may come from AMD or Nvidia. These drivers often boost resolution and performance boosts, so they’re worth your while. You can get official AMD drivers here.
For Nvidia drivers, its best to check the GeForce Experience app whenever possible. There you can find and install the legal patches of Sea of Thieves. Check back here regularly for new drivers!
5) Optimize your television display options
For both Xbox and PC gamers, the television is the last uniting force. With several 4K 120 FPS televisions out there, you should know what you have. If you have your remote close by, you’re one step closer to optimizing your TV. Access your TV menu, and search for a built in Game Mode. This mode serves to reduce input lag while still leaving your visuals clear.
if your television does not have Game Mode, you can often customize your own new gaming profile. Change the values to; contrast (100%), color (50%), backlighting (100%) and sharpness (0%). Your display image can look gorgeous while still ideal for graphics-oriented games. It is also important to steer clear of any accessory features and options, keeping them disabled by default.
In the meantime, make sure your Xbox is running at the same resolution as the television. Failure to do this may lead to screen-tearing, which you don’t one. For instance, if you have a 1080p television, your console’s display settings should also match that.