I found a new way to make BfV look better

[DenalDouglas]

Hopefully I'm not making an idiot out of myself by bringing up something that's already common knowledge, but I found a really odd way to make BfVietnam look better. As strange as it sounds, if you go into your "Video" settings in the game and adjust the "Graphics" slider at the top of the screen to the "Lowest" setting, it actually makes a drastic improvement.

^ This is what the game looks like with the graphics slider set to "Highest". Note how shiny the AK-47 model is, including the wooden furniture, to the point where the texture begins to blur out.

^ This is with the graphics slider on "Lowest". Again, look at the AK-47. The unnatural shine is gone, allowing the model's true textures to show through, especially on the receiver/metal parts. Other than the "Graphics" setting, I didn't do anything at all to make this change. In both images, lightmaps are on, shadows are on, and the gamma, contrast, and brightness sliders are at their default (center) positions, while the Geometry Quality and Texture Quality are at their highest settings.
I believe this is caused by the engine's (relatively) primitive lighting capabilities, which are intended to give the models a slightly glossy look as if they're reflecting the sun or sky but instead end up overwhelming the texture and giving a washed-out look. Lowering the graphics setting tells the game not to do this, which reduces the reflectivity of the models, allowing their textures to show properly.

 

[DenalDouglas]

No, it doesn't lower the texture. That's clearly obvious when looking at the stock. It's just as detailed in the second image as it is in the first, and it shows up more clearly. If it lowered the texture, it wouldn't look as good. There's also no noticeable difference in any other texture in the game as far as resolution goes, apart from a slight softening of some textures that were too sharp to begin with. I did notice a difference in the texture of a nearby sandbag bunker, in that with the higher setting, the texture looked sharper to the point where the bags had a jagged, pointed edge along one side-not a good look. Please note that even though I'm bringing this up now, I've been playing with my game on this setting for YEARS. You can see it in every one if the videos I've made for my mod. And I was unable to get rid of the gloss by changing any of the other settings, therefore it MUST be the graphics slider.
Edit:
Another way you can tell it doesn't lower the texture resolution appreciably is by looking at the soldier's left sleeve. It's clearly not a lower quality in the second image. The primary difference is that it's darker and the details are more refined. If there is a reduction in texture, it's not a bad thing. The only major thing that changes is the excessive gloss. And by the way, it took me about ten seconds to open up winRFA and figure out exactly what line causes that gloss effect, so I could easily remove it from my mod, but it can't be done in the vanilla game.
Oh, and as far as the bolt being on the wrong side of the AK-47, if anyone can point me to someone who still knows how to do modeling and animations for BfV, I'd be extremely grateful. I have limited abilities in both regards, and switching a weapon's bolt from one side to the other is beyond me, especially the animation. But I've wanted to fix that for a while.
Edit 2: I think what you're talking about as far as changing textures is the "Texture" slider in the menu, not the "Graphics" slider. I just tried playing around with the settings and yes, the texture slider does make a massive difference in texture quality, while the graphics slider only makes a very slight change.