Project Motor Racing often looks blurry due to aggressive anti-aliasing implementations, lower rendering scales from upscalers like FSR, and an unremovable cockpit windshield texture that mutes visual clarity. Running temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) softens distant objects, while DLSS or FSR can add ghosting, shimmering, and smearing across track lines and fences. Fine-tuning in-game post-processing, upscaling modes, and display profiles restores critical sharpness for braking zones and racing lines.
This guide covers verified visual behavior, community tests across PC, Steam Deck, and consoles, and specific graphic adjustments to clear up the blurriness in Straight4 Studios' simulation racer.
Why Does Project Motor Racing Look Blurry?
Several independent factors combine to produce an indistinct, soft image in Project Motor Racing across different hardware configurations:
- Aggressive Anti-Aliasing (TAA): The default temporal anti-aliasing effectively removes jagged lines from fences and curbs, but it naturally softens fine details, distant track markers, and horizon geometry.
- Upscaling Softness and Artifacts: AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR 1 and FSR 3) renders the scene internally at a lower resolution before scaling up. FSR 1 creates an intensely pixelated, low-fidelity result, while FSR 3 can produce boiling artifacts, ghosting behind cars, and severe image softness.
- Cockpit Windshield Layering: The internal cockpit camera includes a scratched, hazy Lexan windshield effect. Unlike sims that present a completely transparent viewport, this filter mutes color vibrancy, reduces contrast, and makes driving views look foggy even when external cameras look clearer.
- Console and Display Resolution Constraints: On PS5, players report a noticeably lower baseline resolution compared to high-end PC setups, leading to distant blur. Lowering console output to 1440p does not bypass this inherent rendering softness.
- VR Rendering Limitations: In virtual reality (such as on Meta Quest 3S or HP Reverb G2), players report that DLAA does not operate properly and TAA blurs distant track markers heavily, prompting users to disable anti-aliasing entirely for sharpness despite the extra aliasing.
Best Graphics Settings to Reduce Blur on PC
If your GPU maintains a stable frame rate, running at native resolution while disabling aggressive upscalers produces the sharpest image. For mid-to-high tier hardware (such as RTX 3070, RTX 4070, or Radeon RX 6800 and above), apply the following graphic settings in the display and graphics menus:
| Setting Category | Recommended Value | Impact on Visual Clarity |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware Profile | Custom (derived from Ultra) | Base preset for overall asset detail. |
| Post-Process Anti-Aliasing | TAA or None | TAA softens jaggies with slight blur; None provides raw sharpness at the cost of jagged edges. |
| FSR 1 (FidelityFX Super Resolution 1) | Off | Drastically reduces blur; FSR 1 severely degrades pixel clarity. |
| FSR 3 (FidelityFX Super Resolution 3) | Off (unless GPU bound) | Prevents resolution downscaling blur and boiling shimmering. |
| DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) | Off (or Quality) | Native resolution (Off) avoids ghosting behind cars; Quality mode provides moderate sharpness if extra FPS is needed. |
| DLSS / FSR Frame Generation | Off | Eliminates AI frame latency and visual edge smearing. |
| Object Draw Distance | 150 | Ensures trackside signs, markers, and banners render at full detail far down the track. |
| Level of Detail (LOD) Distance | 150 | Delays switching to low-detail car and environmental meshes. |
| Texture Resolution | Ultra | Keeps track surfaces, paint, and cockpit textures crisp (requires 8 GB+ VRAM). |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 8x or 16x | Keeps angled surfaces and far-ahead racing lines sharp. |
| Depth of Field | Off | Removes intentional background blur across menus, pit stops, and camera pans. |
| Atmosphere Quality | High or Very High | Reduces heavy atmospheric haze without tanking lighting depth. |
| Volumetric Fog Quality | High | Minimizes dense visual fog layers that obscure corner entries. |
How to Apply the Sharpening Adjustments
- Open Options from the main menu and select Graphic Settings.
- Navigate to Post-Process settings. Set anti-aliasing to TAA or disable it completely if you prefer raw pixel sharpness over edge smoothing.
- Verify that FidelityFX Super Resolution 1 and FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 are set to Off.
- Set Anisotropic Filtering to 16x to keep track lines distinct in the distance.
- Disable Depth of Field so backgrounds and track borders do not artificially soften.
- Open Display Settings and adjust the Frame Rate Limiter to match your display refresh rate (e.g., 60, 120, or uncapped) to maintain stable frame pacing.
Platform-Specific Fixes and Known Limitations
Steam Deck and Handheld PCs
Testing on Steam Deck running SteamOS demonstrates severe visual and performance bottlenecks:
- Ultra Default Issue: The game automatically defaults to Ultra settings on launch because it lacks an automatic hardware profile detection script for the handheld.
- Settings Reverting: Players have documented a bug where changing settings (such as lowering atmospheric quality, volumetric fog, or reflections to Low or Off) causes the menu to reset them back to Medium or Ultra upon saving.
- Frame-Tied Physics: Steam Deck framerates typically sit between 20 and 30 FPS under FSR 3 Quality or Ultra Performance. Because frame pacing appears tied to game simulation speed, dropping below 60 FPS creates extreme slow-motion gameplay and severe input latency on steering and braking. Handheld play remains heavily blurred and unoptimized in current builds.
PlayStation 5
- Resolution Softness: Players note the PS5 release exhibits visible blurriness and jagged edges compared to PC, resembling lower native rendering resolutions.
- Lack of Display Presets: As confirmed in community discussions, console menus lack toggleable "Quality vs. Performance" graphics toggles on PS5 and PS5 Pro.
- System Display Output: Changing the PS5 system output from 4K to 1440p does not correct the in-engine softness.
Triple Screen Setups on PC
- In patch 2.3, attempting to initialize triple-screen mode at 1440p (2K) on certain configurations can result in an instant crash.
- Crash Recovery: If the game crashes on startup after changing monitor modes, navigate to
Documents/My Games/and delete or rename theProject Motor Racingfolder to reset configuration files. - Community testing indicates triple screen stability is currently limited to 1080p resolutions; running a single central monitor remains the most reliable way to avoid crashes and aspect-ratio stretching blur until patched.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Project Motor Racing support FSR 4?
No. Current PC builds only feature AMD FSR 1, AMD FSR 3, and Nvidia DLSS upscaling options. FSR 4 is not available in the graphics menu.
Why do cars and tracks look like they have a gray or clay film over them?
Visual testing and user reports highlight that the lighting engine struggles with mid-to-high spectrum brightness balance, resulting in washed-out black levels and overexposed surfaces. Distant tree shadow pop-in and the cockpit windshield scratches further mute natural color contrast. Setting Anisotropic Filtering to 16x and testing outside noon, clear-sky lighting provides the best visual clarity.
How do I fix blurriness in VR headsets?
Players testing patch 2.2 on headsets like the Oculus Quest 3S and HP Reverb G2 report that DLAA is broken and TAA creates severe distortion on distant objects. The most effective community workaround is setting anti-aliasing to None and increasing the SteamVR render resolution slightly to compensate for jagged edges.
Why does my cockpit camera move on its own or look too close?
In-game cockpits feature a customizable seat adjustment tool inside the in-session pause menu under Cockpit Setup. However, settings currently do not save globally and must be re-applied across different car classes. Additionally, Direct Drive wheel users (such as Simagic Alpha bases) have encountered an issue where unmapped directional arrows cause the camera or cursor to drift automatically; navigating to the controls menu and clearing arrow bindings resolves this movement.
