Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Players Need To Change This Setting For A Key Advantage

Published Oct 19, 2026, 6:17 AM EDT

James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is finally rolling out to players in a staggered release that should allow everyone to come on board as and when they wish. The campaign is now live for those who took the time to pre-order, with the game's open-world extraction shooter mode DMZ set to do the same tomorrow, October 20.

All of that comes before the full global launch goes ahead on October 23, with multiplayer and everything else available at that point. That portion of proceedings will undoubtedly be the biggest, with the game's multiplayer modes often being where previous releases have lived and died in the eyes of increasingly discerning fans.

If you are planning to jump into the game's multiplayer modes to take out a few enemies, there are some settings that you might want to experiment with, including one that you'll definitely want to change as soon as possible.

Change This Setting In Modern Warfare 4

One of the ways that game visuals have come along in recent years is with the addition of high-quality shadows and lighting that make the whole experience a lot more realistic for the most part. Ray Tracing and other technologies have allowed those of us with beefy enough hardware to finally have natural light behaviors and interactions with objects in the game world.

As brilliant as that is, it isn't necessarily the most helpful thing in the world if you're playing Call of Duty. This is particularly true in the multiplayer modes, where the absolute smallest of margins matter, because that extra time you need to discern a player hiding in the shadows could be the difference between life and death.

As such, one thing you'll definitely want to do (as first reported by IGN) is set your shadow and lighting settings to low (or off where possible). The higher your settings in the game for those elements, the more chance they have of obscuring enemies, and it could easily make the difference in competitive lobbies.

Outside of that, you'll want to prioritize performance more generally if you're planning on heading into any of the game's multiplayer modes. Higher FPS and faster rendering are always a good thing if you need a split second advantage, and dialing visual settings up can see your average frame rate drop significantly and cause lag spikes that could harm the experience.

In reality, most players will want to experiment with exactly what works for them, but removing shadows will certainly help you to stay competitive. At the same time, it's worth having them on and dialed-up for the campaign, as it does look quite spectacular in those moments that are more heavy on story or action.

Modern Warfare 4 Could Be Huge For The Franchise

For those in charge of the franchise, it's also going to be a case of waiting to see how this latest entry in the beloved series lands. The Modern Warfare games are already beloved in many ways, so if they can drop a competent experience that delivers on most fronts, then it could be a return to form that is long overdue for the series.

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