Overview
Counter-Strike 2 has substantial performance degradation when HUD blur effects are enabled. This issue results in frame rate drops of approximately 100-150 FPS, severely impacting gameplay fluidity and creating a competitive disadvantage. This post outlines the problem, affected components, and a potential solution, urging Valve to implement a user-accessible disable option.
Problem Description
CS2 HUD blur drops FPS by 100-150. The blur effect, applied to multiple HUD elements, appears to be the primary cause of this issue. The scoreboard also exhibits similar FPS drops when blurred.
Affected HUD Elements
The following HUD components are impacted by the blur effect:
- CSGOHudHealthAmmoCenter
- CSGOHudHintText
- CSGOHudRadar
- CSGOHudAlerts
- CSGOHudProgressbar
- CSGOHudDeathNotice
- CSGOHudDeathPanel
Technical Analysis
The performance issue is likely tied to the use of a computationally intensive Gaussian blur algorithm. In contrast, alternative blur methods, such as mipmapgaussian, are known to be less resource-demanding. Notably, fastgaussian, a more efficient option, is only available in CSGO’s Panorama UI and not implemented in CS2.
Proposed Solution
- Immediate Workaround: Introduce a settings toggle to disable HUD blur entirely, allowing players to prioritize performance.
- Long-Term Fix: Transition HUD blur to mipmapgaussian, which offers a better balance of visual quality and performance.
Conclusion
The HUD blur’s impact on FPS is a critical issue that demands attention. A disable option or optimized blur implementation would significantly enhance gameplay for the CS2 community. Please upvote for visibility and share your insights below to help drive a resolution.
TL;DR: CS2 HUD blur drops FPS by 100-150 across elements like health, radar, and scoreboard. Using mipmapgaussian blur or adding a disable toggle could resolve this. Share your experiences and fixes!
Original report : https://github.com/ValveSoftware/csgo-osx-linux/issues/4026 ( u/vMcJoh has been aware since the beginning of the month. No fix released yet.)
7 Comments
This is a nice finding. There’s a reason why Windows has those blur/acrylic effect toggle for decades.
Also noticed one of the dev replied in the GitHub issue last month.
When does your HUD get blurred during gameplay?
Aaaaah so is this the reason why your fps drops by a million on certain maps when you hit TAB?
My FPS is almost the same, but for some reason, disabling the HUD (`cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1`) makes the game feel much smoother. That’s why I’ve bound it to a key, so I can turn it off during deathmatch where the HUD isn’t really necessary.
I also wish they would add a performance-friendly scoreboard without transparency and blur effects. Pressing tab noticeably drops FPS, and I don’t understand why a lightweight scoreboard still isn’t an option. Why would you need a transparent Scoreboard anyways ?
Sounds like an easy fix. Fingers crossed they get it sorted.
This needs more attention because this game’s UI acts as a bottleneck. I hope Valve will do something about it.
Many times when I open scoreboard it makes frame time spike and mini freeze. Its not too bad but why it does that? It is annoying.. Never died because of that but my brain cracks little bit every time it happens.