Nvidia tweaks to SH3/SH4 - Page 27

stanger · 07-12-12, 01:47 AM

ConteBlecio, with your graphic card you should be able to run SH4 with absolutely maximum settings (in game) and all "fireworks" turned on in nvidia control panel (even with your CPU being a bottleneck to that GPU). That means 16x AF (it makes the game look sharper and helps reducing aliasing), but 4xAA (if you want to retain sun halo) and ambient occlusion set to very high in inspector. Take a look few posts above for good inspector settings (AO and AA compatibility bits being quite important).
Try to turn off triple buffering - I know from my own experience it gives a lot of stutter. I also learnt that SH4 is, for some reason, very sensitive to vsync settings, so dont touch any of it, just turn it on (or off) in game, not in inspector (pointless).
There is also new setting in inspector (with 300 series drivers) that allows you to limit your fps to a value you want, I use 73 with 75Hz desktop refresh rate - help to reduce stuttering and mouse lag a little bit.
And, as usual, keep your system clean, defragmented, watch for overheating and dont run any unnecessary programs in background when playing.

artao · 07-12-12, 04:18 AM

First off, let me request please that someone update the first post in this thread to indicate CLEARLY that nHancer is NOT for cards newer than the 400 series. .. I almost went ahead and installed it, but fortunately read the installer readme .. then came back here to discover Inspector .. I've got a GTX560 Ti you see, with the 301.42 drivers. That coulda gone badly.

Secondly, I jumped to the end here after reading that first post. Glad I did. Soon to try Inspector here. I had no idea nVidia cards had these AA .. issues .. frankly I bought the card for CUDA and GPGPU rendering in 3D software. Gaming with it is just a bonus. =D

Thirdly, I gotta point out an error just a couple posts above: Orpheus said that "Anisotropic Filtering is a lighting effect." and I'm afraid that just is not true. I believe Orpheus must be confusing anisotropic SHADING with anisotropic filtering. Filtering is used in games to remove texturing errors, like moire lines in the distance on a regular grid. :: In general it comes with virtually no FPS hit, so you should generally have it set at 16x, unless that causes problems with any specific games. ::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering
Anisotropic shading, on the other hand, is "kinda" a lighting effect, in that it relates to how light reflects off a surface. It's the effect you get on, say, a flat disk of brushed metal: instead of a point-like specular highlight, you get an line of specular highlighting along the surface. It is generally not anything gamers need to concern themselves with, at it is primarily a setting in 3D rendering applications. Games use it, sure, but it's not a "setting" the player has any control over. :: http://www.3drender.com/glossary/anisotropic.htm

that is all ... except .. is there a thread specific to SH3 for this? or is posting here fine for SH3 on nVidia? ... Not realizing the intricacies of nVidia AA, I just set my brand new card right to 32x AA and was rather shocked to see nasty jaggies on ships in the distance and crawling on bright highlights (windows, waves, etc) D'OH!!! ... I would MUCH rather have AA over the sun glare. I can live without sun glare, but I gotta be able to make out as much detail as possible on ships 20km away

.. trying to determine angle on bow when you can barely even make out the masts is nigh impossible.

stanger · 07-12-12, 08:23 AM

nvidia is usualy good at updating their drivers with games profiles, but, except for SH3, there is no profile for SH4 and 5, so we need to create one manually. And even build in SH3 profile doesnt have AA compatibility bits, so that must be added too (with inspector). With right compatibility bits you can make AA to work in SH games (even 16xAA, thats max I can use on my GPU, so dont know about 32x). But, of course, you loose sun halo (and the smoke is thinner) with more than 4xAA and gamma correction - on. You can use 4xAA only and make up for it with FXAA (build in drivers) or SMAA (separate injector).

ConteBlecio · 07-12-12, 11:06 AM

Thanks again 0rpheus! Now is more clear.

@stanger: Now I go with the graphics settings to maximum.
AA=8x and AF=4x. The sun look small..it's ok? (see below)
Now run very good and I have no stutters. VSync is Force On. Triple Buffering is On.
believe it is appropriate to set them to OFF? They are the ones that cause flickering to some small parts of ships?
However also try your setting... just out of curiosity.
I'm obsessed about cleaning and defrag...

Thank you!

So I use the same settings for SH3 .... right?
Although it is less resource hungry.

The screenshot is resized

stanger · 07-12-12, 05:48 PM

Set anisotropic filtering (AF) to 16x, a antialiasing (AA) to 4x, turn on FXAA and transparency AA, turn off gamma correction, vsync (set to app controled) and triple buffering. SH4 has its own vsync setting, so turn it on instead, you can also turn on fps limiter in inspector. AA and AF (with your GPU) should be the last things to turn down, as a last resort if the stuttering wont go away. Oh, and set negative lod bias to 'clamp' for better quality.

The sun on your screenshot is a result of 8xAA. Set it to 4x and turn off gamma correction. But, of course, its your choice, if it (flat sun) doesnt bother you too much, go for 16xAA.

And remember about compatibility bits for AA, the ones from Rubinis post at first page are still the best for SH4:
20000000: EA Strategy Games.

artao · 07-13-12, 01:19 AM

Ahhhhh much better. So glad to have found this thread. Now, mere pixel-wisps of smoke are discernible in-game. Flat tiny sun? yep .. oh well .. i've got it set at 4xSSAA, and 4x transparent AA.
The tip on AO was awesome!! Probably never would've tried turning that on for SH3 otherwise. Thx!!

stanger · 07-13-12, 03:26 AM

Just in case: it was Nicolas who first attempted to use AO with SH4 (post #377), so its him who should be decorated

MRV · 08-31-12, 08:41 AM

Hey,

is there any way of using an SMAA or similar injectors together with a widescreen mod? As far as I can see they both use a d3d9.dll file so you always have to choose between one of them?

I run SH3 with 4x AA but I think it doesnt look pretty good especially on distant ships...

stanger · 09-01-12, 10:54 AM

You can always use nvidias build in FXAA, its pretty good since 300 series drivers, maybe even better than SMAA injector (it wasnt updated since last year, so its fell behind). Other possibility is "flawless widescreen" (google it), but its plugin based, and if there is no plugin for SH, then its useless until someone writes one.

Dorjun Driver · 11-13-12, 08:33 AM

Perhaps one of you nVidia gurus can help me out. I’m running SH4 1.5 with a GTS 450 (overclocked to 930x2075) w/1024 MB dual monitor rig. The box is running Win7 64-bit Pro on top of an AMD II x4 975 w/8 GB. Prior to running SH4, I disable the secondary monitor via Realtime Soft’s Ultramon and use the 1920x1080 primary.

Installed mods are TMO 2.5, 3000 Yard Bearing Tool, and Bigger Better Protractors.

My problem is severe color banding. The banding is most noticeable at night with clouds, moon, and/or light fog.

Are there any tweaks available through nVidia Inspector that might alleviate the issue, or does the GTS 450 simply not have enough umph.

Thanks,
Dorj

Dorjun Driver · 11-13-12, 10:11 AM

The screen shot doesn’t do the problem justice. I’ve increased the gamma a bit to highlight the issue.

She-Wolf · 02-13-13, 06:45 AM

aha! so pleased to see this thread. I used nHancer in SH3 and found it a great treasure, but as artao has mentioned, it ceased to be useful for later cards, and me not really understanding about graphics settings ( though TweakGuides did help), I have not dared to 'fiddle' with graphics properties since. Now I discover Nvidia Inspector ( thank you DD!) and am keen to try some of the suggestions offered here - but is there a 'return to default setting' option if I get unexpected results do you know? I ask because I got some very weird effects when I fiddled with SH4 after it first came out, and had to re-install as I could not find a way to get rid of them.

Overall I am pretty happy with how the game looks on my machine ( 64bit, Geforce GTS 250), and the only bit that bothers me a tad, is the effect of 'birds in the rigging', where the straight lines of the rigging get broken up into blocks or dashes. It isn't a huge bother in SH4 - and compared to how Vanilla SH3 looked before any tweaks, hardly noticeable - but I DO notice and it spoils the immersion a bit. Can you please tell me which setting I need to change to address this particular issue? Thank you!

Dorjun Driver · 02-13-13, 08:22 AM

Once you’ve developed a profile you like—or don’t—with Inspector, you can set things back to “normal” by simply removing the sh4.exe application from the profile. Or if you really hate what you’ve done, delete the entire profile.

I wish I were able to recommend some settings for your GPU, but I haven’t the foggiest notion what I’m doing with the damn thing. Using input from this thread and dumb luck, I've hit on a combination that works for me. So far.

GTS 450 (with some overclocking)
Driver r310_00-222

She-Wolf · 02-13-13, 09:04 AM

thank you DD. I got brave and changed some of the settings as recommended on this thread - and it all looks good, so I am happy

Kapitän · 02-18-13, 03:59 PM

Hi, 27 pages of this thread ... I wonder if someone can help me:

I currently run CCoM 9.0 with the h.sie-patch, have a Windows 7-64 bit HW and the following graphic card and monitor:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650, Version 310.90, Graka und TFT-Screen 55 cm (21,5") 16:9 Iiyama, ProLite E2273HDS-B1 2ms LED (Sp/DAH/Full-HD/5.0/bk), Resolution 1920 x 1080.

I have three issues:

1. The oval shape of round objects, such as gauges.

2. Sun Halo.

3. Some trees are shaped as black sails.

Does anyone here have similar problems and/or a solution for them?

Thanks a bunch, Kapitän

07-12-12, 04:18 AM	#392
artao Officer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 238 Downloads: 144 Uploads: 0	First off, let me request please that someone update the first post in this thread to indicate CLEARLY that nHancer is NOT for cards newer than the 400 series. .. I almost went ahead and installed it, but fortunately read the installer readme .. then came back here to discover Inspector .. I've got a GTX560 Ti you see, with the 301.42 drivers. That coulda gone badly. Secondly, I jumped to the end here after reading that first post. Glad I did. Soon to try Inspector here. I had no idea nVidia cards had these AA .. issues .. frankly I bought the card for CUDA and GPGPU rendering in 3D software. Gaming with it is just a bonus. =D Thirdly, I gotta point out an error just a couple posts above: Orpheus said that "Anisotropic Filtering is a lighting effect." and I'm afraid that just is not true. I believe Orpheus must be confusing anisotropic SHADING with anisotropic filtering. Filtering is used in games to remove texturing errors, like moire lines in the distance on a regular grid. :: In general it comes with virtually no FPS hit, so you should generally have it set at 16x, unless that causes problems with any specific games. ::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering Anisotropic shading, on the other hand, is "kinda" a lighting effect, in that it relates to how light reflects off a surface. It's the effect you get on, say, a flat disk of brushed metal: instead of a point-like specular highlight, you get an line of specular highlighting along the surface. It is generally not anything gamers need to concern themselves with, at it is primarily a setting in 3D rendering applications. Games use it, sure, but it's not a "setting" the player has any control over. :: http://www.3drender.com/glossary/anisotropic.htm that is all ... except .. is there a thread specific to SH3 for this? or is posting here fine for SH3 on nVidia? ... Not realizing the intricacies of nVidia AA, I just set my brand new card right to 32x AA and was rather shocked to see nasty jaggies on ships in the distance and crawling on bright highlights (windows, waves, etc) D'OH!!! ... I would MUCH rather have AA over the sun glare. I can live without sun glare, but I gotta be able to make out as much detail as possible on ships 20km away .. trying to determine angle on bow when you can barely even make out the masts is nigh impossible. __________________ l8r, artao

07-13-12, 01:19 AM	#396
artao Officer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 238 Downloads: 144 Uploads: 0	Ahhhhh much better. So glad to have found this thread. Now, mere pixel-wisps of smoke are discernible in-game. Flat tiny sun? yep .. oh well .. i've got it set at 4xSSAA, and 4x transparent AA. The tip on AO was awesome!! Probably never would've tried turning that on for SH3 otherwise. Thx!! __________________ l8r, artao

11-13-12, 10:11 AM	#401
Dorjun Driver Loader Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: The Upper Left Edge Posts: 81 Downloads: 77 Uploads: 0	The screen shot doesn’t do the problem justice. I’ve increased the gamma a bit to highlight the issue. Last edited by Dorjun Driver; 11-20-12 at 09:54 AM.

02-13-13, 06:45 AM	#402
She-Wolf Watchdog Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Hampshire UK Posts: 971 Downloads: 152 Uploads: 0	aha! so pleased to see this thread. I used nHancer in SH3 and found it a great treasure, but as artao has mentioned, it ceased to be useful for later cards, and me not really understanding about graphics settings ( though TweakGuides did help), I have not dared to 'fiddle' with graphics properties since. Now I discover Nvidia Inspector ( thank you DD!) and am keen to try some of the suggestions offered here - but is there a 'return to default setting' option if I get unexpected results do you know? I ask because I got some very weird effects when I fiddled with SH4 after it first came out, and had to re-install as I could not find a way to get rid of them. Overall I am pretty happy with how the game looks on my machine ( 64bit, Geforce GTS 250), and the only bit that bothers me a tad, is the effect of 'birds in the rigging', where the straight lines of the rigging get broken up into blocks or dashes. It isn't a huge bother in SH4 - and compared to how Vanilla SH3 looked before any tweaks, hardly noticeable - but I DO notice and it spoils the immersion a bit. Can you please tell me which setting I need to change to address this particular issue? Thank you! __________________

02-13-13, 09:04 AM	#404
She-Wolf Watchdog Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Hampshire UK Posts: 971 Downloads: 152 Uploads: 0	thank you DD. I got brave and changed some of the settings as recommended on this thread - and it all looks good, so I am happy __________________

07-12-12, 01:47 AM	#391
stanger Engineer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Poland Posts: 200 Downloads: 84 Uploads: 0	ConteBlecio, with your graphic card you should be able to run SH4 with absolutely maximum settings (in game) and all "fireworks" turned on in nvidia control panel (even with your CPU being a bottleneck to that GPU). That means 16x AF (it makes the game look sharper and helps reducing aliasing), but 4xAA (if you want to retain sun halo) and ambient occlusion set to very high in inspector. Take a look few posts above for good inspector settings (AO and AA compatibility bits being quite important). Try to turn off triple buffering - I know from my own experience it gives a lot of stutter. I also learnt that SH4 is, for some reason, very sensitive to vsync settings, so dont touch any of it, just turn it on (or off) in game, not in inspector (pointless). There is also new setting in inspector (with 300 series drivers) that allows you to limit your fps to a value you want, I use 73 with 75Hz desktop refresh rate - help to reduce stuttering and mouse lag a little bit. And, as usual, keep your system clean, defragmented, watch for overheating and dont run any unnecessary programs in background when playing.

07-12-12, 08:23 AM	#393
stanger Engineer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Poland Posts: 200 Downloads: 84 Uploads: 0	nvidia is usualy good at updating their drivers with games profiles, but, except for SH3, there is no profile for SH4 and 5, so we need to create one manually. And even build in SH3 profile doesnt have AA compatibility bits, so that must be added too (with inspector). With right compatibility bits you can make AA to work in SH games (even 16xAA, thats max I can use on my GPU, so dont know about 32x). But, of course, you loose sun halo (and the smoke is thinner) with more than 4xAA and gamma correction - on. You can use 4xAA only and make up for it with FXAA (build in drivers) or SMAA (separate injector).

07-12-12, 11:06 AM	#394
ConteBlecio Seaman Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 34 Downloads: 428 Uploads: 0	Thanks again 0rpheus! Now is more clear. @stanger: Now I go with the graphics settings to maximum. AA=8x and AF=4x. The sun look small..it's ok? (see below) Now run very good and I have no stutters. VSync is Force On. Triple Buffering is On. believe it is appropriate to set them to OFF? They are the ones that cause flickering to some small parts of ships? However also try your setting... just out of curiosity. I'm obsessed about cleaning and defrag... Thank you! So I use the same settings for SH3 .... right? Although it is less resource hungry. The screenshot is resized

07-12-12, 05:48 PM	#395
stanger Engineer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Poland Posts: 200 Downloads: 84 Uploads: 0	Set anisotropic filtering (AF) to 16x, a antialiasing (AA) to 4x, turn on FXAA and transparency AA, turn off gamma correction, vsync (set to app controled) and triple buffering. SH4 has its own vsync setting, so turn it on instead, you can also turn on fps limiter in inspector. AA and AF (with your GPU) should be the last things to turn down, as a last resort if the stuttering wont go away. Oh, and set negative lod bias to 'clamp' for better quality. The sun on your screenshot is a result of 8xAA. Set it to 4x and turn off gamma correction. But, of course, its your choice, if it (flat sun) doesnt bother you too much, go for 16xAA. And remember about compatibility bits for AA, the ones from Rubinis post at first page are still the best for SH4: 20000000: EA Strategy Games.

07-13-12, 03:26 AM	#397
stanger Engineer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Poland Posts: 200 Downloads: 84 Uploads: 0	Just in case: it was Nicolas who first attempted to use AO with SH4 (post #377), so its him who should be decorated

08-31-12, 08:41 AM	#398
MRV Frogman Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 294 Downloads: 88 Uploads: 0	Hey, is there any way of using an SMAA or similar injectors together with a widescreen mod? As far as I can see they both use a d3d9.dll file so you always have to choose between one of them? I run SH3 with 4x AA but I think it doesnt look pretty good especially on distant ships...

09-01-12, 10:54 AM	#399
stanger Engineer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Poland Posts: 200 Downloads: 84 Uploads: 0	You can always use nvidias build in FXAA, its pretty good since 300 series drivers, maybe even better than SMAA injector (it wasnt updated since last year, so its fell behind). Other possibility is "flawless widescreen" (google it), but its plugin based, and if there is no plugin for SH, then its useless until someone writes one.

11-13-12, 08:33 AM	#400
Dorjun Driver Loader Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: The Upper Left Edge Posts: 81 Downloads: 77 Uploads: 0	Perhaps one of you nVidia gurus can help me out. I’m running SH4 1.5 with a GTS 450 (overclocked to 930x2075) w/1024 MB dual monitor rig. The box is running Win7 64-bit Pro on top of an AMD II x4 975 w/8 GB. Prior to running SH4, I disable the secondary monitor via Realtime Soft’s Ultramon and use the 1920x1080 primary. Installed mods are TMO 2.5, 3000 Yard Bearing Tool, and Bigger Better Protractors. My problem is severe color banding. The banding is most noticeable at night with clouds, moon, and/or light fog. Are there any tweaks available through nVidia Inspector that might alleviate the issue, or does the GTS 450 simply not have enough umph. Thanks, Dorj

02-13-13, 08:22 AM	#403
Dorjun Driver Loader Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: The Upper Left Edge Posts: 81 Downloads: 77 Uploads: 0	Once you’ve developed a profile you like—or don’t—with Inspector, you can set things back to “normal” by simply removing the sh4.exe application from the profile. Or if you really hate what you’ve done, delete the entire profile. I wish I were able to recommend some settings for your GPU, but I haven’t the foggiest notion what I’m doing with the damn thing. Using input from this thread and dumb luck, I've hit on a combination that works for me. So far. GTS 450 (with some overclocking) Driver r310_00-222

02-18-13, 03:59 PM	#405
Kapitän The Old Man Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Frankfurt, Germany Posts: 1,580 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 0	Hi, 27 pages of this thread ... I wonder if someone can help me: I currently run CCoM 9.0 with the h.sie-patch, have a Windows 7-64 bit HW and the following graphic card and monitor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650, Version 310.90, Graka und TFT-Screen 55 cm (21,5") 16:9 Iiyama, ProLite E2273HDS-B1 2ms LED (Sp/DAH/Full-HD/5.0/bk), Resolution 1920 x 1080. I have three issues: 1. The oval shape of round objects, such as gauges. 2. Sun Halo. 3. Some trees are shaped as black sails. Does anyone here have similar problems and/or a solution for them? Thanks a bunch, Kapitän __________________ KSDII-Ace/GWX 3.0 Gold/CCoM 10.0 + h.sie-patch; Windows 7 (64-bit); NVIDIA GeForce GTX650 (310.90) Last edited by Kapitän; 02-18-13 at 04:47 PM.