RDR2 Tweaks

One of over 175 Game of the Year awards, Red Dead Redemption 2 (in short, RDR2), is an action-adventure game that tells the story of an outlaw. While the gaming community refers to it as brilliant, the game does come with a few technical particularities that some might not fully satisfy some users. The RDR2 Tweaks tools or, as advertised by its developer, the Red Dead Redemption 2 Tweak Tool aims to let you customize one of the game’s settings beyond the in-game limit.

The application requires no installation and is ready for use once you double-click on the executable file. The one-window interface makes RDR2 Tweaks pretty intuitive and simple. While you might expect it to provide many more settings to tweak at will, in fact you get a single parameter to modify, namely the sharpening intensity. In other words, RDR2 Tweaks is, in fact, a graphics tweak for the Red Dead Redemption 2 game.

TAA sharpening in RDR2 applies a sharpening filter when using TAA anti-aliasing. Should the image become too soft after enabling TAA, you should use this setting to sharpen it. Evidently, there is a limit for the in-game setting, but this limit can be bypassed easily using the RDR2 Tweaks application.   Unlike the in-game settings, the TAA sharpening level in the RDR2 Tweaks tool can be set between 0 and 5. You have a slider within the main window that enables you to make fine adjustments.

To use this application, you should first close the game. Then, create a copy of the “system.xml” file, just to be on the safe side of things. This file is usually located in the Settings folder in the game’s installation directory.

Once the value for the sharpening parameter is correct, you can commit the changes with the click of a button. While there is no need for a system restart, the game must be closed and open again if you want to modify this parameter.

RDR2 Tweaks is a simple utility with a single purpose in mind: allowing you to get the best graphics possible in the RDR2 game. However, the number of tweaks in the application is quite disappointing, considering its title.