Greeting Operator!

My name is Eric "Aherys" Rajot, I'm a french pro rainbow six siege player.



As I'm french, a lot of spelling and grammar error will be present, but I will try my best to be comprehensive. This guide will try to help you to configure Rainbow Six Siege to have the best competitive experience.

You can check my victories on liquipedia[liquipedia.net], my live stream[twitch.tv] or my twitter.

Rainbow Six has a lot of graphical settings, we're gonna go through them, because FPS *and* visibility is very important for the game.

But, it can be counter-intuitive, settings depend of your configuration. To begin, let's starts with "FPS" and some theory.


FPS means frames per second, this is the number of pictures your graphical processor (GPU) will generate for one second. In theory, the higher your FPS is, the smoother the game. To have more FPS, you need (in theory, but it's not true at 100% on Rainbow Six Siege) to lower your graphical settings.

How do I check my FPS and how many do I need?
To display the FPS, you need to go in settings -> gameplay -> display game info [on]. A little bar in the bottom left corner will appear, and this is the number encircled in red.


So now... how many fps do you need?


Don't panic, it's easy. The Hertz of your screen is the number of pictures per second your screen can display. So, to understand better, it works like this:

Your GPU generates X pictures per second, sends it to your screen by a cable, and your screen displays Y pictures per second. The screen hertz is a fixed number and depend on your screen. If you have no idea how much hertz your screen can display, just check in the menu - the highest value you can have is there (settings -> display)


Here, for me, it's 239 hertz. So now, how many fps do you need? Higher than this value.

So personally I need to have at any time, at least, 240 FPS. If you have a 60 Hertz screen, you need to have at least, in any time, 60 FPS. What you should avoid (but it will happen cause R6 is pretty heavy) is what we call FPS drop. By that we mean, when you gonna move the camera fast or there there is a explosion, you have a huge loss of FPS (140 to 80 for example).

Take a look to your FPS counter, if he go below your hertz rate, you gonna have some graphical artifact, and the feeling to have a unsmooth experience. It's what happen when you say "it's laggy". Also, you'll get "tearing" - which is not the worst, but also not nice to have (more on that in the V-Sync section).


In theory, the lower your settings are, the higher is your number of FPS. While this is true for most games, R6 uses a lot of CPU (processor) and, according to Ubisoft, some quality option can force the game to render with your GPU or the CPU. If you don't understand, don't worry about it.

BUT, what is important to know, if you have a powerful and expensive graphical card, changing some setting will not affect the number of your FPS, cause it needs more from your CPU, than the GPU.

For example, this is my case.

Ok, let's go!

So you need to go to settings -> graphic.


Texture Quality: If you have a GTX 790 or lower, stay on low.
This option costs a lost of FPS, but if you have a powerful GPU, you can switch to medium or very high.

Texture Filtering: Other games call this "anisotropic filtering". It is an calculation to avoid blurry effect on the inclined plane. Practically speaking, this means long-distant textures are less blurry.
It doesn't cost a lot of FPS (1-2 fps?). You can go x16 if you don't have a potato as PC.

LOD Quality: LOD means Level of detail and you should prioritize this setting, it's one of the most important. Beware: It can cost a lot, depending of situation. If you go on low, players or objects far away will draw in low poly mod (that means ugly). For example, heads turn into gray triangles. You really don't want that.
I advice to put it on Ultra. and never go below medium.

Shading Quality: Shading is the shader, it's an eye candy effect, go on low if you don't have a high end PC. Doesn't seem to be costly.

Shadow Quality: Shadow is important for competitive as it can help to spot ennemies, BUT: it's very costly on the CPU. If you need FPS, go on low (it will turn them off) and you will gain around 20 FPS. If you have a high end PC you can go on very high. The first value to get player shadows is medium, so go on medium if you have enough to turn on shadow, but not enough to go on very high.

Reflection Quality: Go on low, doesn't look costly in term of FPS. This is the resolution of minmap texture (For example, reflection in windows, on the ground, in water...). Go high if you have a high end PC.

Ambiant Occlusion: Turn off, very costly and useless (but eye candy). It adds shadows to small objects and shelves.

Lens Flare: It's a lightning effect and if you turn it on, you will spot Valkyrie cameras and drones easier, but it will also add a lot of particle effects during explosions and a glow effect to the ACOG (You can see it in Macie Jay's Stream/YT videos). I recommend to put it off.

Zoom in depth: Adds a blur effect around your weapon when you aim. Put it off, it's ♥♥♥♥.

It's a huge part and you need to understand what this is.

Anti-Aliasing (AA) is a technique to avoid pixel stairs in game. In real life, a line is a line, on a screen, a line, is a succession of square (pixel):



And in game, it looks like this:



To avoid this, we have a lot of anti-aliasing, some are post-effect (so the picture is created first and AA is applied after), some use transparency, some use a higher definition...

In Rainbow Six, we now have 5 choices of anti-aliasing :


For a low end PC, this is the best solution. It can help to have more FPS, but it will add a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ blur to far objects. You can adjust the blurriness AND the definition with this setting:



On (1) (render scaling) the more you are on the left, the higher your FPS will be, BUT also your picture will be... blurry.

On (2) this is a sharpness filter which is gonna help you remove (a bit) of the blurriness, I recommend to let it on 100.

If you want comparison pictures for (1) and (2) and T-AA x2/x4, take a look here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12khvQujqwbnB8U6wF-Yqtq-05mmoiJds

So in-game you need to play with the slider (1) to see when your FPS are descent (don't stay stactic when you try it, go on Terrorist-Hunt, on solo, and play a bit, watch your fps).

T-AA looks like it helps reduce screen tearing.


Good and the best setting for competitive players, it will not modify the image at all. Costs a bit in FPS (compared to T-AA).


If you have a high end PC, you can go on this, but be careful, it can cost a lot. Don't go too high.


Works well to remove aliasing, but... adds a ghost on your crosshair, never use FXAA.

I don't have enough fps! -> T-AA
I have enough FPS -> Off or T-AA
I have a lot of FPS -> TAA x2

BUT using AA is never good, because it will cause some trouble when you're looking into some surfaces like barbed wire, like grills or murder holes, it's why "Off" is the choice of many pro players.

Display setting are fun and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ important.

Resolution: This is the resolution of your game, the default resolution should be good, but if you have HUGE FPS issues, you can go for a lower resolution (but give T-AA a try first).

Refresh Rate: You need to go on the highest value your screen supports. BUT, and it's very important, you need to check in Windows, if you put the correct refresh rate in too.

Right click on desktop -> Display parameters



Then scroll down, and go for "display property"



then go on screen. Change refresh rate to the highest and apply.



Now, it's done.

Aspect ratio: Funny setting. Auto is the default mode, and what is what I use, but a lot of players change this setting. Changing aspect ratio will change the ratio of the picture. The more you go on left, the more the picture will be stretched.

So, why change this? It can help to spotting enemies and makes them bigger (but faster too). It's totally up to you what you want.

Some "good" and common values are 4:3, 3:2, 16:10 and 16:9. Here is a picture to help you to understand how it works:


It's a fake screen, but gives you an idea how the default aspect ratio looks vs a modified (like 16:9 vs 4:3)

A side effect of aspect ratio is a different mouse speed from left-right (X axis) and top-down (Z-Axis).

V-Sync: V-Sync is a setting which helps reducing screen tearing (it's a graphical glitch, not hard to understand, basically your monitor shows two different images at the same time - one at the top, one at the bottom).
The negative effect of V-Sync is added input lag and it caps the frame rate, which is why you should turn it off.

Widescreen letterbox: Adds blackbars... seriously, who wants this? Let if off.

Field Of View: This is the number of degree of the field of view in game... and it's up to you what you choose. Every competitive player has a different Field of view, mine is on 64. The lower the value, the bigger the enemy, but your overall vision is lower then. Common values are: 70, 75, 82 and 90.



Hint: FOV will not change in drone view, changing FOV has the side effect to change your sensitivity (bigger FOV = lower sensitivity), don't panic, it's normal but know it.

If you change the aspect ratio, I recommend to go on a high FOV value like (4:3 -> fov 90).

Calibration: Luminosity in game, important setting and depends on you and your screen. I recommend to go on a value between 60 and 70.

Use the same as me:




It's what I use, it will lower some sounds like gunshots, explosions and lets you hear footsteps over them.


Stay on 100, you will hear less sound if you lower this value (This is a bug and will be fixed next season).

I will not explain keyboard configuration, it's up to you, and your comfort. Just please, don't use arrow keys to move, use WASD (depends on your keyboard configuration of course).

Mouse Horizontally and Vertically: This is your hipfire sensitivity (when you don't aim).

Aim Down Sight: it's a multiplier of your hipfire sensitivity, it gives you the ability to reduce or add sensitivity depending of the level of zoom of your optic. 50 is a good start value.

Gadget Deployment: To be competitive, you need to go Advanced. Advanced lets you interrupt an action like when you put a breach on a wall. Very important.

Aim: Go for HOLD.

Lean: Go for Toggle.

To be competitive, you absolutely need two things: a good mouse and a good mouse pad (it's useless to have the latest Zowie if you play on a book as mouse pad).

Only pick a Gamer Mouse. It's up to you, but one of the better brands for me are Zowie, followed by SteelSeries.

For a good mouse pad, Steelseries with QCK Heavy is the best. Never go for a "control mouse pad", it's for RTS (games like League of legend, Dota, Starcraft...) not for First Person Shooter (FPS). For a FPS you need a Speed Mousepad.


DPI is a good question, it's the sensitivity of your cursor and how many pixel you gonna move with one movement. Basically, it's like a second sensitivity, and it's added to the in-game sensitivity.

It's up to you, but don't go too high. Most of pro players are on 400-800 DPI, some are on 1600 DPI, but don't go above: it's suicide.


If your mouse lets you select the mouse rate, go with the highest you can (even 1000 Hz). We are in 2018 ffs, of course your i7 8700k can handle ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 1000 Hz.

If you have the money, go for a 144 Hz screen (BenQ is the best brand for me). 240 Hz are excellent, I'm on it, but if you are not a top player, it's too expensive for nothing.

If you ask yourself if 144 Hz is a big deal compared to 60 Hz... yes, it is. If you doubt it, try it, and you will never look back. But, as I explained before, if you go at 144 Hz, be sure you can stay on 144 fps in game.

If you're looking for a good headset, HyperX Cloud II or Alpha are... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome.
Sennheiser Game Zero are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great too (but you maybe need a sound card if sound is too low). Logitech's are good too, but watch out with no wire headset, can be annoying with battery.

Don't go for ♥♥♥♥ brands like Razer, Tritton, Roccat...

If you have a high end computer, go on Nvidia Inspector Panel (right click on desktop), and go in 3D Parameter.


Look for "Maximum pre rendered frame" and set to one.

You will have less FPS, but less input lag. Don't touch anything else.

If you're looking for how the mouse sensitivities are calculated, take a look athere.


Look at https://www.mouse-sensitivity.com/ (yep, it's working).
Also, try to use the same sensitivity in every shooter you play. Yes, this means you should use your R6 sensitivity in PUBG.


We spend a lot of time:
- We train a lot in Terrorist Hunt (Lone wolf - Hard or Normal)
- Aim booster[www.aimbooster.com] for some players

It's a long road, but we ALL come from the same road, first of all, follow this rules:

• Everybody can reach it, with time and work
  
• Don't drop your studies, "pro" on video game is not a safe road, and you need to have a B Plan
  
• Give yourself time to progress

You will need to find a team (twitter, seek team, and many discords are a good way to find one) and start participating in cups. The Go4 from ESL[play.eslgaming.com] is a good entry door, you will face a lot of defeats in the first time, but never stop trying.

Practice a lot with your team, you need to practice at least 4 time / week (it's a min).
Try to do participate at LAN events.

Watch proleague, challenger league stream, look how players play, listen what the caster says. Watch a lot of pro players stream (but not "star players", star players have a ♥♥♥♥♥ good aim, but R6 is not a AIM game, it's a brain game. So Star players stream is for eyes candy, but where you gonna studies is on pro players stream), look on video for murder hole or tricks (Serenity?), even us, look a lot of youtuber video cause sometime they find good fireline or good tricks.

And when you are ready, the first step to reach proleague, is the challenger league. Every six months, you have the chance to qualify, go for it, win it.

Look at your CPU usage (ctrl + alt + suppr -> look the stats). If R6 takes 100% of your CPU you are doomed, sorry. This is a know bug, and Ubisoft are aware of it, but they try to fix it since long time.

This bug look like it happens more often on the i7 7700k than on any other processor, but it can affect everybody. Look here.

Hint: V-sync can help by capping your fps, you are allowed to turn on V-Sync if you suffer from this bug.


I'm a system developer and a pro gamer (for Millenium), BUT I'm not Jesus and I can say/do mistake. Don't hesitate to engage discussion with me in the comments (I check them very often) and I will fix if something is incorrect.
You can also contact me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GW_Aherys

(Grammatically corrected by KurtXTRM, who is not quite a pro player, but does his best. He's an IT specialist as well.)