Nvidia tweaks to SH3/SH4

[Rubini]

(I also posted the same on SH3 general forum because i guess that this is really usefull)

Hi folks,

After some days in tests and with the help of our mates Periscope and mikaelanderlund, I finally finish my concise guide to enhance the image quality in SH3/4 using nHancer and Nvidia cards.
I tested these tweaks using a C2D E6850, Gigabyte P35, 2Gb, 8800GT 512, WinXp, Forceware 169.21 WHQL and nHancer 2.3.2
These tips probably will be also useful for owners of others Nvidia cards, and perhaps, also for others sims.
Sorry, no pics at this moment, I´m really short in time, busy RL ;(
I will try to add them later.

Let's start:

The problems:
- nVidia hardware is really good but the image quality "out of box" really don´t mach the one of the ATI cards. The main motive is that nVidia uses another type of AntiAliasing (MultiSampling - more FPS, worse AA result, more shimmering texture in general) that isn't so good as the one of the Ati cards (SuperSampling). IMHO, this is really a cheat that nVidia uses to show more FPS on the bench sites...

- nVidia drivers have some specific problems with some games and Silent Hunter 3/4 aren't an exception: the sun halo isn't visible if we use anything more than 4x Multisample AA or Gama correction, the AA isn't entirely applied to the entire scene (this is very noticiable for any game that renders objects at high distance like the flight sims, etc) and the smoke in general is also affected by the AA type.
- these issues are more or less evident through the drives, but always present in some degree. Also nVidia choose to have specific hidden adjusts for each game what frequently makes the quest for a good image quality really a problem in the player hands.

The Solution:
- nVidia stock drivers are really very limited on AA types (image quality) but others AA types and others options are hidden on the drivers.

- nHancer - www.nhancer.com (http://www.nhancer.com/) - shows to player (almost) all the hidden nVidia driver settings. The SuperSampling AA (SSAA) modes 4x4, 16xS or 32xS really shows the best image quality, the same of ATI out of box...but also brings a huge FPS hit and others small problems like the long dated sun halo absence and also making the smoke too tin. So, unfortunately this isn´t a choice for nVidia; the same ATI image quality will be never a true option for nVidia owners, because it isn´t completely bug free.

- to avoid the sun halo problem no more than 4x MultiSampling (MSAA) can be used and also the Gama correction can´t be used. To avoid smoke problems we need also to not use so much AA.

To finish - nHancer best settings for good image quality without any noticeable problem in SH3/4:
-in the main page at your right check Global, then in

- Enhancements page:
check MultiSampling 4x
check Super- Transparency AA
check AF 16x or 8x
check Vertical Sync Applicaion,

- Optimizations page:
check Texture filtering High Quality
check Tril. opt. Off
check Aniso sample opt. Off
check Neg LOd Bias Clamp
leave all the others settings unchanged

- Compatibility page:
choose AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games (this is what makes a huge difference in image quality, forcing the AA to be applyed to the entire scene. This is probably also the best solution for Flight sims)
leave all the others settings unchanged.
Then just close nHancer and you are ready to go (no "Ok" or "Apply" button on nHancer).

Last comments:
-nHancer have a very good manual on line http://www.nhancer.com/?dat=d_start which will teach you also on how to make profiles for each game. It´s very simple and powerful!

-But be warned that the last Nvidia drivers don´t allow to use profiles automatically. Anyhow nHancer provides the possibility to activate profiles manually what is also very useful and enough if you don´t want to adjust the global settings for each game each time that you play them. I hope that the next forceware driver will fix this annoying limitation.

-If you have any comment or any other tip to enhance the SH3/4 experience when using nVidia hardware please share it with us!

Good Hunting!:up:

Rubini.

[clayp]

Does NHancer over ride the NV control panel....I have a 8800ULTRA..Do you think this would make my pic any better? Its pretty nice now...The rest of the system

Core 2 Duo X6800 @3.24
Asus Motherboard P5BDELUXEWIFI
OCZ 2Gig 15-5-5-5 memory kit DDR2 OCZ2N1066SR2GK 2 x 2 gig kits
(4 gigs total)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra BFGE88768UE
Western Digital 160gig sata II 16mb
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer SB0730VP
Cooler master CM Stacker 830 Silver
OCZ Gamer extreme PS 1010wat OCZ1010GXSSLI
Samsung Optical (DVD/CDRW)
Windows XP Pro 32bit SP2

[capt_frank]

I create a Silent Hunter IV profile and use these settings:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=127452

Works good for me, excellent frames.

[Rubini]

I create a Silent Hunter IV profile and use these settings:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=127452

Works good for me, excellent frames.

Hi capt_frank,

I read your post...I really don't know if the 7900 card will also have any improvement when using the sttings that I write above. Anyhow the setting that really makes huge difference on image quality is this one:

- Compatibility page:
choose AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games (this is what makes a huge difference in image quality, forcing the AA to be applyed to the entire scene. This is probably also the best solution for Flight sims)

Try it and let we know if this also works on your cards.:up:

[Rubini]

Does NHancer over ride the NV control panel....I have a 8800ULTRA..Do you think this would make my pic any better? Its pretty nice now...The rest of the system

Core 2 Duo X6800 @3.24
Asus Motherboard P5BDELUXEWIFI
OCZ 2Gig 15-5-5-5 memory kit DDR2 OCZ2N1066SR2GK 2 x 2 gig kits
(4 gigs total)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra BFGE88768UE
Western Digital 160gig sata II 16mb
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer SB0730VP
Cooler master CM Stacker 830 Silver
OCZ Gamer extreme PS 1010wat OCZ1010GXSSLI
Samsung Optical (DVD/CDRW)
Windows XP Pro 32bit SP2
Yes, nHancer will override any settings on the nVidia control Panel. If you use Nhancer you don't need to use nVidia control panel to adjust 3D settings. I use it (with ntune) just for overclocking and general video settings.

[M. Sarsfield]

Good posts. I'll have to download nHancer and make some of these changes. I think my card is the 7600GT or 7900GT with 256MB memory. I usually get 30 fps rates unless it's stormy weather and I do get a sun halo and I'm pretty satisfied with the smoke. I probably have AA set to a low level, since it has given me problems in the past with other games... even with ATI cards.

[capt_frank]

Hi capt_frank,

I read your post...I really don't know if the 7900 card will also have any improvement when using the sttings that I write above. Anyhow the setting that really makes huge difference on image quality is this one:

- Compatibility page:
choose AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games (this is what makes a huge difference in image quality, forcing the AA to be applyed to the entire scene. This is probably also the best solution for Flight sims)

Try it and let we know if this also works on your cards.:up:

I don't have that compatability setting available, maybe it's not part of the selections due to the cards I use. So, I chose "general compatability" instead. I'll advise if my socks get blown off...

Thanks!

[Rubini]

Hi capt_frank,

I read your post...I really don't know if the 7900 card will also have any improvement when using the sttings that I write above. Anyhow the setting that really makes huge difference on image quality is this one:

- Compatibility page:
choose AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games (this is what makes a huge difference in image quality, forcing the AA to be applyed to the entire scene. This is probably also the best solution for Flight sims)

Try it and let we know if this also works on your cards.:up:

I don't have that compatability setting available, maybe it's not part of the selections due to the cards I use. So, I chose "general compatability" instead. I'll advise if my socks get blown off...

Thanks!
Thanks for the info mate.:up:
So, seems that not all cards have this option. For the 8xxx series this is the most important setting to acquire good image quality without others side effects or FPS hit.
Probably, old nvidia cards don't need it, as it is not available.:yep: :hmm:

[M. Sarsfield]

I bought the 7000 series card because it was cheap, it fit into a PCIe slot, and it has SLI capability. My plan is to buy a second one and hook them both up.

[tale]

Thanks for the advice, last night applied this changes and may be the quality of the graphics didn't improve so much largely because they already were quite good in my 8800GTX; but one thing has definitely improved, now my crew members have eyes and they are not ghosts any more, before I could see through them, scary! :o

[Rubini]

Thanks for the advice, last night applied this changes and may be the quality of the graphics didn't improve so much largely because they already were quite good in my 8800GTX; but one thing has definitely improved, now my crew members have eyes and they are not ghosts any more, before I could see through them, scary! :o
Thanks for the reply.
The more important workaround of this NhancerxNvidiaxSilentHunter issue is that now we have that old Sun halo and smoke problems correctly sorted and well know (max 4x MSAA) and we find a way to apply the AA to the entire scene using that 20000000:EA Strategy Games compatibility setting. This is what you can expect from the above.:up:

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

I got back those jaggies again after uninstalling mods. I even re-installed the game and still looks bad. I used this NHancer and nothing. :damn:

[Rockin Robbins]

Funny, I thought everything looked great. I'll try the nhancer and check back. :-?

Why in all our screenie postings do the nVidia cards consistently have better renderings than ATI cards. Time after time ATI owners say that even though they don't see the solar halo they like their images. I have never encountered an nVidia owner saying they have a problem with sun halo, and seldom with any of the other problems mentioned. Color me skeptic, but I'm checking anyway.

[tennozan]

Thanks for the nHancer guide and tips. My view looks like a movie / photo-realistic now. Running a GTX 8800 ultra OC w. Nvidia latest drivers. Again, thanks.

[Rubini]

Funny, I thought everything looked great. I'll try the nhancer and check back. :-?

Why in all our screenie postings do the nVidia cards consistently have better renderings than ATI cards. Time after time ATI owners say that even though they don't see the solar halo they like their images. I have never encountered an nVidia owner saying they have a problem with sun halo, and seldom with any of the other problems mentioned. Color me skeptic, but I'm checking anyway.
Hi mate,
I can't speak by others nVidia cards than my 8800GT, because before that I only had Voodoo3dfx and Ati ones. Then, at least the 8xxx series have the sun halo problem IF you use more than 4x AA or gama correction. Also the AA isn't applied at the entire scene by default. This is what is fixed using nHancer.:yep:

Ati cards in the other hand have a much better AA (SSAA) by default - what means better image quality and with good FPS - and until now I have noticed zero graphical problems in SH3/Sh4.

I'm not saying bad things about nVidia just the reality, is really hard to think that a so big company like nVidia have yet these type of problems /cheats in their drives. MSAA is really a true cheat, when we speak about image quality.:nope:

[Rubini]

Thanks for the nHancer guide and tips. My view looks like a movie / photo-realistic now. Running a GTX 8800 ultra OC w. Nvidia latest drivers. Again, thanks.
:up: :up: :up:

[Rockin Robbins]

It sure flys in the face of my experience and all the posts I've read and screenprints I've seen here over the past seven months, but I'd love to be wrong. Downloading nHancer now!:up:

Then I have to wait until tonight at home to try it out.:cry: I'll post some screenies to show real evidence of whatever is happening here. any guidelines on what to look for so I can develop the best evidence? This will be fun either way!

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

NVidia rocks! The jaggie problem may be my own fault in not doing something right. No one talked about the lack of Shader power in ATI Cards. They always seemed to lag behind NVidia in this regard.

[Doolittle81]

Rubini:

Thanks a lot! I'd "lost" my halo/flair at some point and I couldn't figure out why. Turns out I had WAY too much AA. I was running at Supersampling 16XS. Knocking it down to your suggested Multisampling at 4X returned the halo and flair...and at first glance I don't see any noticeable lessening in other visual aspects... Somehow this seems odd to me as I had thought "max'ing" out settings (such as AA)with my GTX8800 would prove the best results. Very Odd indeed.

[elite_hunter_sh3]

question: anyone know any good ATI video card tweaks???
i have a x1900xt :yep:

[Rubini]

Rubini:

Thanks a lot! I'd "lost" my halo/flair at some point and I couldn't figure out why. Turns out I had WAY too much AA. I was running at Supersampling 16XS. Knocking it down to your suggested Multisampling at 4X returned the halo and flair...and at first glance I don't see any noticeable lessening in other visual aspects... Somehow this seems odd to me as I had thought "max'ing" out settings (such as AA)with my GTX8800 would prove the best results. Very Odd indeed.

This is my feelings too. A so powerful card that don't allow me to use the best settings because it's bugged on the drivers...and the worst is that it is an old unfixed issue. Luckily the 4xMSAA is at least acceptable, but not in the same quality level of the SSAA (yet have some shimmering).

I in truth didn't played Sh4 yet (just installed it almost an year ago and just made a first glance). But after read some threads on SH4 forum I noticed that the ATI cards also have sun halo absence (this is true for nvidia in Sh3!!!). LOL!

So, sorry to just said that only Nvidia is the "culprit".:oops:

Anyhow, again, the main two directions of this tweak are these:
1. No more than 4xMSAA or gamma correction to preserve sun halo and dense smoke (true for sh3 at least) -Can someone confirm this too for Sh4?
2. Use nHancer to unlock that hidden compatibility seeting 20000000: EA Strategy GAmes to have AA on the entire scene. (again at least true for SH3 and some others sims) Again, can someone confirm this for SH4?

[Rubini]

It sure flys in the face of my experience and all the posts I've read and screenprints I've seen here over the past seven months, but I'd love to be wrong. Downloading nHancer now!:up:

Then I have to wait until tonight at home to try it out.:cry: I'll post some screenies to show real evidence of whatever is happening here. any guidelines on what to look for so I can develop the best evidence? This will be fun either way!
Hi mate,

Yes, you are right in truth. After read some posts here in SH4 forums I saw that ATI cards really have sun halo absence too, but only in SH4 (see my last post above).:up:

Sorry!:oops:

[Seadogs]

Rubini, great concise write up. I was fighting with the drivers and wondering what was up with the loss of halo with gammma correction AA. I was also unaware that over 4xAA would loose it as well. Thanks man.

Now if I can figure out why my old version of nhancer will not uninstall properly I will be set.:doh:

[ustahl]

quote
"The problems:
- nVidia hardware is really good but the image quality "out of box" really don´t mach the one of the ATI cards. The main motive is that nVidia uses another type of AntiAliasing (MultiSampling - more FPS, worse AA result, more shimmering texture in general) that isn't so good as the one of the Ati cards (SuperSampling). IMHO, this is really a cheat that nVidia uses to show more FPS on the bench sites..."
unquote

Not to offend anybody, but I'm puzzled why it is implied that nVidia does not perform at AA Supersampling.:-?
I have never had any problems with nVidia drivers (at present 169.21 WHQL) and AA Supersampling and good FPS. For my overclocked EVGA 8800GTS 640MB on a 22" wide screen at 1680 x 1050 I use following settings in the nVidia Control Panel:

"Manage 3D settings" > Global Settings (or game specific Program Settings):
Anisotropic filtering: 8x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: On
Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
Antialiasing - Setting: 16xQ
Antialiasing - Transparency: Supersampling
Conformant texture clamp: Use hardware
Error reporting: Off
Extension limit: Off
Force mipmaps: None
Multi-display/mixed_GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode
Stereo - Display mode: Use vertical interlace monitor
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: Off (greyed out)
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality: High quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization: Off (greyed out)
Threaded optimization: Auto
Triple buffering: On
Vertical sync: Force on

Although some time ago I took a look at nHanser, I decided I don't need it, as the above settings in the nVidia Control Panel provide what I want. Image quality is superb, textures crisp, beautiful sun halo, all photorealistic. As a previous ATI user I know abt image quality.:know:

In order to totally eliminate/prevent any jaggies in SH4 it is important (for me at least) to use "Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting". Any other alternative settings than "override" give me jaggies.

I use the Battle off Samar Single Mission to test graphic settings due to the very fierce action with simultaneous explosions etc., and my frames range between 20 and 60 fps (60 fps max. LCD native) with all maxed out in the game itself.:up:

These details are just to share my experience that correctly chosen driver settings in the Control Panel is all I need for optimal visuals. Additionally I use Riva Tuner 2.06 for OC only.

[Rubini]

quote
"The problems:
- nVidia hardware is really good but the image quality "out of box" really don´t mach the one of the ATI cards. The main motive is that nVidia uses another type of AntiAliasing (MultiSampling - more FPS, worse AA result, more shimmering texture in general) that isn't so good as the one of the Ati cards (SuperSampling). IMHO, this is really a cheat that nVidia uses to show more FPS on the bench sites..."
unquote

Not to offend anybody, but I'm puzzled why it is implied that nVidia does not perform at AA Supersampling.:-?
I have never had any problems with nVidia drivers (at present 169.21 WHQL) and AA Supersampling and good FPS. For my overclocked EVGA 8800GTS 640MB on a 22" wide screen at 1680 x 1050 I use following settings in the nVidia Control Panel:

"Manage 3D settings" > Global Settings (or game specific Program Settings):
Anisotropic filtering: 8x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: On
Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
Antialiasing - Setting: 16xQ
Antialiasing - Transparency: Supersampling
Conformant texture clamp: Use hardware
Error reporting: Off
Extension limit: Off
Force mipmaps: None
Multi-display/mixed_GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode
Stereo - Display mode: Use vertical interlace monitor
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: Off (greyed out)
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality: High quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization: Off (greyed out)
Threaded optimization: Auto
Triple buffering: On
Vertical sync: Force on

Although some time ago I took a look at nHanser, I decided I don't need it, as the above settings in the nVidia Control Panel provide what I want. Image quality is superb, textures crisp, beautiful sun halo, all photorealistic. As a previous ATI user I know abt image quality.:know:

In order to totally eliminate/prevent any jaggies in SH4 it is important (for me at least) to use "Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting". Any other alternative settings than "override" give me jaggies.

I use the Battle off Samar Single Mission to test graphic settings due to the very fierce action with simultaneous explosions etc., and my frames range between 20 and 60 fps (60 fps max. LCD native) with all maxed out in the game itself.:up:

These details are just to share my experience that correctly chosen driver settings in the Control Panel is all I need for optimal visuals. Additionally I use Riva Tuner 2.06 for OC only.
Hi mate,
Thanks to share your experience.
Note that 16xQ isn´t a SSAA, but a new multisample AA by nVidia called Coverage Sample AA, what isn´t yet like the SSAA (speaking in image quality). Also note that the Supersampling in your configuration above is just for transparency.:yep:

Even the MSAA 4x is good but if you look in more detailed way you yet will see some shimmering texture here and there. Only SSAA really get rid of all shimmering textures. I don´t have so much experience in SH4 tweaks (I´m yet in truth a SH3 player...for a while), so, at least for SH3 if you use a nvidia card with more than 4xMSAA the sun halo go away.:hmm:

[ustahl]

Hi Rubini, and thanks for your prompt response.
From my SH3 days I know of your modding skills and thus realize that your technical knowledge is superior.:know:
I have been blinded by the stunning visuals in SH4 that my above mentioned settings have given me so far, but your additional info tantalizes me to experiment some more with alternative settings. I just didn't think it possible there might be even better yet visuals in store for me with other ("lesser") settings.:roll:
Just like somebody else further above mentioned, I too thought that the highest possible/feasible settings would automatically give the best results. Now you made me think again, mate. For instance I did not know abt that 16xQ stuff you mentioned. I'm curious however, what I might lose in terms of transparency, if I go from SSAA to MSAA.:hmm:

As a sidenote, I haven't been playing SH3 (with GWX + several more mods) for some time, because the geometry is distorted on my 22" widescreen. With my earlier 21" CRT I virtually lived inside SH3.:arrgh!: GWX 2 being out, is a hint for a fix in this context permitted in this SH4 thread?

[Rubini]

Hi Rubini, and thanks for your prompt response.
From my SH3 days I know of your modding skills and thus realize that your technical knowledge is superior.:know:
I have been blinded by the stunning visuals in SH4 that my above mentioned settings have given me so far, but your additional info tantalizes me to experiment some more with alternative settings. I just didn't think it possible there might be even better yet visuals in store for me with other ("lesser") settings.:roll:
Just like somebody else further above mentioned, I too thought that the highest possible/feasible settings would automatically give the best results. Now you made me think again, mate. For instance I did not know abt that 16xQ stuff you mentioned. I'm curious however, what I might lose in terms of transparency, if I go from SSAA to MSAA.:hmm:

As a sidenote, I haven't been playing SH3 (with GWX + several more mods) for some time, because the geometry is distorted on my 22" widescreen. With my earlier 21" CRT I virtually lived inside SH3.:arrgh!: GWX 2 being out, is a hint for a fix in this context permitted in this SH4 thread?

Well, at least i openned the exact same thread on Sh3 general forum too...take a look there for the same Sh3 issue.:up:

I also have now a 26" wide LCD monitor. I´m yet able to play Sh3 in 4:3 even using this new monitor...at day light the image is soberb but...what is pissing me of is that the nights in LCD monitor are too dark and (if you just put more bright) the sea texture just isn´t good at night. I´m in the point that I will try to really make another ENV files (for night only) just to have better textures on a LCD pannel. Do you also have this "at night" colors/degrade problems/poor image on your LCD?:hmm:

Just a botton note: we in the GWX team already tried to port SH3 to a wide view (messing with the cameras FOV) but without success.:damn:

[Elder-Pirate]

Guess I don't much understand all that goes on here but here is some results of my Model T type computer. :lol:
I run an old Asus A7N8X Deluxe REV 2.0 MB, AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU, three 1 GB sticks of RAM ( 184-pin DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 Unbuffered ) by "Crucial Tech", Seagate Baracuda 120 GB 8MB Cache Serial ATA HD, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 speaker system, WIN XP Home w/SP2, 550 watt power supply and a good ole Nvidia 7800 GS OC 256mb AGP 8X video card.

My AA is set at 4X, rest is application controled.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Cardnumber2.jpg

Results of the 84.21 ( recomended by BFG nvidia mfg. ) drivers are not to bad a sunset IMHO. ;)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Abeautifullday.jpg

So why all the fuss about big bad video cards and top notch Nvidia drivers? http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/ponder21.gif

[Rubini]

Guess I don't much understand all that goes on here but here is some results of my Model T type computer. :lol:
I run an old Asus A7N8X Deluxe REV 2.0 MB, AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU, three 1 GB sticks of RAM ( 184-pin DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 Unbuffered ) by "Crucial Tech", Seagate Baracuda 120 GB 8MB Cache Serial ATA HD, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 speaker system, WIN XP Home w/SP2, 550 watt power supply and a good ole Nvidia 7800 GS OC 256mb AGP 8X video card.

My AA is set at 4X, rest is application controled.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Cardnumber2.jpg

Results of the 84.21 ( recomended by BFG nvidia mfg. ) drivers are not to bad a sunset IMHO. ;)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Abeautifullday.jpg

So why all the fuss about big bad video cards and top notch Nvidia drivers? http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/ponder21.gif
LOL
Thanks for the reply.
The problem is that some guys didn´t know about the max 4x AA for nvidia to avoid sun halo problems (again: at least on Sh3). BTW, i noticed that in your pic above you are missing some good image quality...yours wires lines are broken..this could be "fix" by using transparency SSAA for example. So this is just a crusade for the more perfect image that IMHO is one of the best things that these expensive cards have to offer for us, gamers.:up:

[Doolittle81]

I hope this thread keeps going so that folks can share their 'discoveries' of best settings for cards...

[Elder-Pirate]

LOL
Thanks for the reply.
The problem is that some guys didn´t know about the max 4x AA for nvidia to avoid sun halo problems (again: at least on Sh3). BTW, i noticed that in your pic above you are missing some good image quality...yours wires lines are broken..this could be "fix" by using transparency SSAA for example. So this is just a crusade for the more perfect image that IMHO is one of the best things that these expensive cards have to offer for us, gamers.:up:[/quote]


The lines you see broken are at quite a distance and during playing time you would never notice, unless you are really the rivet counter. Maybe you have those big dollars but I don't. I'll keep what I have and have just as a good game with plenty of eye candy as you.

Do you really tweak your computer down to the last bit just to see real life events? Doesn't make sense but what the hey everyone has their own way of doing things. :lol:

With all due respect you can have your Mercedes.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Mercedes.jpg

I'll keep my Chevy........er... Model T.:)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/ModelTFord.jpg

Have a good hunt Rubini. :up:

[Rubini]

The lines you see broken are at quite a distance and during playing time you would never notice, unless you are really the rivet counter. Maybe you have those big dollars but I don't. I'll keep what I have and have just as a good game with plenty of eye candy as you.

Do you really tweak your computer down to the last bit just to see real life events? Doesn't make sense but what the hey everyone has their own way of doing things. :lol:

Have a good hunt Rubini. :up:
LOL
No, I also don´t have money...i´m just a stubborn eye candy guy that was bought my last video card and rig almost 4 years ago. So, now with a shinning new rig...just imagine!:lol:

[Rockin Robbins]

Ok I'm trying your settings in my career, since I'm in a very interesting protracted battle with four merchies surrounded by five escorts. It's after midnight and no moon, so you can guess what I'm able to tell. I'm getting some funky blackout effects in the water at a certain range.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img2008-01-11_215714_441.jpg
This screenie is with your settings, so I'm quite sure it is a game artifact of some kind. I might have to reinstall. I'm going to check in the daytime first though. The shot is brightened but still retains its full range of hues.

I immediately noticed that with Rubini settings my fps went from my normal 25 in the bridge and external camera view looking at the submarine to 38, a significant increase! I don't notice any difference in image quality here in the dark but I'll wait to analyze that. Here's a moonlight scene with the old settings.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img2008-01-07_210510_590.jpg
And how about a nice nVidia sunset, old settings
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img2007-12-26_181637_391.jpg
Yeah, the new part of the antenna looks like I could play with that anti-aliasing. Never noticed that before playing the game. And...
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img18-11-2007_74435_37.jpg
I could at least wait until the boat rolls straight up and down before I take the shot! If I can just get electrolytic caps not to explode I love my graphics card, nVidia 7600GT, attempted SLI configuration when I finally get 2 cards working at the same time again!

You can just see leovampire in the beautiful colors of the sky. He wasn't just a tinkerer, he was an artist. A FINE artist.

Oh, on Capt Frank's settings I had the same old 25 frames per second and worse graphics. Oh well. It's all fun.

[rik007]

How can we correct the smoke texture? I agree that with Supersample 16x smoke is an issue. Specially burning ships look not too good. But the ships themself look fantastic! The wires are straight and the overal image is smooth and quiet. The sun isn't a problem at all except at sunset but you can disable AA runtime with shift+pageup/down.

[Doolittle81]

...The sun isn't a problem at all except at sunset but you can disable AA runtime with shift+pageup/down.

For non-tech types like me, what does that mean and what is the effect of such disabling?

[Rockin Robbins]

OK, here's a pic with Rubini settings:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img2008-01-12_172553_332.jpg
It's got the same thing going on with the wires as Elder Pirate's pics. I think it has something to do with the screen dump routine because I don't notice it in the game. Here's the settings:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/Rubinisettings1.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/Rubinisettings2.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/Rubinisettings3.jpg
And a final screenie using Rubini settings with a nice escort going down
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img2008-01-12_162543_238.jpg
So my final analysis is that my graphics are not visibly better but my frame rate went from 25 to 35. It was a fine result!

[Rockin Robbins]

At least as close as I can get without a sunset right now in the Formosa Straits.
I tried to duplicate my periscope shears shot without the sunset.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/Cruise%2014%20Formosa%20again/SH4Img2008-01-12_192818_941.jpg
So what do you think? I haven't seen it yet! Also you have to think we have a screen dump program and Photobucket resampling of unknown characteristics here. This is NOT a controlled environment. Nice pics though!

Edit: I'm going to say the antenna is a little better. We'll have to put it with a sunset behind it for a final appraisal but for now I'm going to say I see a VERY SLIGHT improvement! Opinions? Insults? Jokes? Better pictures?:yep:

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

Ah, now all the jaggies are gone. What I did wrong? I didn't set it to Global. Everything back to normal. Even that sun halo looks great!:up:

[Rubini]

Ah, now all the jaggies are gone. What I did wrong? I didn't set it to Global. Everything back to normal. Even that sun halo looks great!:up:
Good! It's important that you set nHancer in the Global page. The profiles aren't automatically working anymore since drive 169.xx IIRC (a nVidia drive fault, not nHancer). Anyhow it's possible to use profiles, but then you need to activate them manually using nHancer window's tool bar icon for an example. This is how I'm using it now. I made profiles for all my games and I activate them just before launch the game. When nVidia fix this problem the profiles will be activated automatically again. ;)

[Galanti]

I believe it's not all 169.xx drivers that are affected by the AA bug. IIRC 169.02 / 169.04 work fine.

There's not much doubt in my mind Nvidia AA is inferior to ATI's. And some of us have noticed for a while the general jaggedness of the wires/stays in SH4: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=123007&highlight=quality

Thanks for the tip about AA Compatibility, Rubini, I'm going to give it shot tonight!

[Rubini]

I believe it's not all 169.xx drivers that are affected by the AA bug. IIRC 169.02 / 169.04 work fine.

There's not much doubt in my mind Nvidia AA is inferior to ATI's. And some of us have noticed for a while the general jaggedness of the wires/stays in SH4: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=123007&highlight=quality

Thanks for the tip about AA Compatibility, Rubini, I'm going to give it shot tonight!
Hi mate,

You mean not AA but profile, no?:hmm:

Edit: i just finish to read the link above...like I said nVidia AA default implementation is far away in quality and speed from ATI. Ati have no issues with SSAA where nvidia just fall in compatibility and speed. Like i said for me this is just a cheat to show more FPs on the benchs.

Anyway the guys on that post didn´t discouvered that 2000000:EA strategy Games compatibility settings that is what solves the AA for distant ships applying the AA to the entire scene.:up:

[Galanti]

Yeah, I meant the profiles. But all I use them for is different levels of AA/AF!

So how big a difference is the EA Games compatibility setting? Will it fix the jaggy wires?

I think I'll rollback to 169.04 tongiht, like i said I'll almost 100% positive the profiles worked on those set.

[Rubini]

Yeah, I meant the profiles. But all I use them for is different levels of AA/AF!

So how big a difference is the EA Games compatibility setting? Will it fix the jaggy wires?

I think I'll rollback to 169.04 tongiht, like i said I'll almost 100% positive the profiles worked on those set.

Sorry...I just crossing our posts. I edited the post above about that compatibility setting. IIRC 169.04 yet have problems with the profiles...I'm using the169.21 (i'm playing Crysis and CD4 too!) and all is ok. I even tried 11 years old game (DID Total Air war) using a glide wrapper and it worked very well using this last nVidia drive.:up:

[Galanti]

Great news...any way to get that compatibility thing implemented without NHancer? Registry key perhaps?

I've tried nHancer, and while it seemed pretty good in terms of funtionality, I found it was a bit slow to load, and had three processes running in the background. I'm pretty stingy with my processes, I'm down to 15 only in WinXP SP2.

[swdw]

It sure flys in the face of my experience and all the posts I've read and screenprints I've seen here over the past seven months, but I'd love to be wrong. Downloading nHancer now!:up:
RR, the one thing mentioned in posts is that the default Nvidia water rendering is surrealistic, while the ATi water is more realistic.
Here's an example of the water with an ATi card:
http://www.kickinbak.com/posts/water.jpg

Thing is, some people like the surrealistic look better

[Rubini]

Great news...any way to get that compatibility thing implemented without NHancer? Registry key perhaps?

I've tried nHancer, and while it seemed pretty good in terms of funtionality, I found it was a bit slow to load, and had three processes running in the background. I'm pretty stingy with my processes, I'm down to 15 only in WinXP SP2.

Good question...LOL....I can understand you....I for example use nTune just to have OC features (and some fan control) that I should like more to see them enabled in the default nvidia control pannel by a register tweak without the necessity to install ntuner (my MOBO have a Intel chipset) - and I don´t need all that so deep features from Riva Tunner.

Now returning to your question...I also don´t know if it´s possible to enable this nHancer set with registry tweaks...anyhow, IMHO, nHancer unlocks so much hidden good features that I will left it installed on my system.:up:

[dean_acheson]

Using Vista 32 bit, and a 7800 GTX.

My computer was very very unhappy with this nhancer program. Wouldn't even run SH4... maybe I just set it up wrong, but I don't want to have to deal with that again.

Now I'm not sure why I just didn't stick with the control panel, it will let you fiddle with a ton of the settings.

[AVGWarhawk]

Here is a new one on me. I did not change a thing with my system. I use a 7800 gs. I fired up the game and was getting 12-14 FPS while looking at the sub or on the bridge view. Looking anywere else and I got 18 FPS. Normally on the bridge and outside view I get 25 FPS or more. I reinstalled the current Nvidia drivers that did no good. I eventually reduced by in game screen resolution and all was well. I was then getting 30+ FPS. I never experienced this before. Anyone else have this happen?

[Rockin Robbins]

RR, the one thing mentioned in posts is that the default Nvidia water rendering is surrealistic, while the ATi water is more realistic.
Here's an example of the water with an ATi card:
http://www.kickinbak.com/posts/water.jpg

Thing is, some people like the surrealistic look better

Any idea what the wind speed is in that shot? I'd be curious to match up an nVidia shot in the same conditions. Too bad we can't have two separate graphics cards, one ATI and one nVidia running SH4 together and compare the screenshots of identical scenes.

[swdw]

Here is a new one on me. I did not change a thing with my system. I use a 7800 gs. I fired up the game and was getting 12-14 FPS while looking at the sub or on the bridge view. Looking anywere else and I got 18 FPS. Normally on the bridge and outside view I get 25 FPS or more. I reinstalled the current Nvidia drivers that did no good. I eventually reduced by in game screen resolution and all was well. I was then getting 30+ FPS. I never experienced this before. Anyone else have this happen?
Might want to try Driver Sweeper, uninstall, clean and then reinstall to see if that helps.
http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=driversweeper

Is it possible something you installed recently is running a background task you weren't running before?


Any idea what the wind speed is in that shot? I'd be curious to match up an nVidia shot in the same conditions. Too bad we can't have two separate graphics cards, one ATI and one nVidia running SH4 together and compare the screenshots of identical scenes.
between 12-15, sun at 40-50 degrees above the horizon

[Rockin Robbins]

Here is a new one on me. I did not change a thing with my system. I use a 7800 gs. I fired up the game and was getting 12-14 FPS while looking at the sub or on the bridge view. Looking anywere else and I got 18 FPS. Normally on the bridge and outside view I get 25 FPS or more. I reinstalled the current Nvidia drivers that did no good. I eventually reduced by in game screen resolution and all was well. I was then getting 30+ FPS. I never experienced this before. Anyone else have this happen?
Why would your 7800 have lower fps than my 7600GT? I thought they were supposed to be faster.

Your fps might change based on the number of background programs and processes you are running. Yesterday, mine fell to 19 until I rebooted and then was back to 38 again. I was back and forth between SH4, Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat, Thunderbird, Firefox and a big huge java applet (is there any other kind of java applet?) for the EVGA website applying for my RMA on my second detonated graphics card. Bad electrolytic capacitor again.

[Doolittle81]

Some water pics...real or surreal, I don't know:
http://members.cox.net/doolittle80/Seas1.jpg

http://members.cox.net/doolittle80/Seas2.jpg

http://members.cox.net/doolittle80/Seas3.jpg

[Doolittle81]

I like the wires to be almost invisible from a distance, as in real life:

http://members.cox.net/doolittle80/Sunsetwire.jpg

http://members.cox.net/doolittle80/Sunsetwire2.jpg

http://members.cox.net/doolittle80/Sunsetwire3.jpg

All above pics with Rubini nHancer settings and GTX8800

[AVGWarhawk]

Here is a new one on me. I did not change a thing with my system. I use a 7800 gs. I fired up the game and was getting 12-14 FPS while looking at the sub or on the bridge view. Looking anywere else and I got 18 FPS. Normally on the bridge and outside view I get 25 FPS or more. I reinstalled the current Nvidia drivers that did no good. I eventually reduced by in game screen resolution and all was well. I was then getting 30+ FPS. I never experienced this before. Anyone else have this happen?
Why would your 7800 have lower fps than my 7600GT? I thought they were supposed to be faster.

Your fps might change based on the number of background programs and processes you are running. Yesterday, mine fell to 19 until I rebooted and then was back to 38 again. I was back and forth between SH4, Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat, Thunderbird, Firefox and a big huge java applet (is there any other kind of java applet?) for the EVGA website applying for my RMA on my second detonated graphics card. Bad electrolytic capacitor again.

Not sure RR. My kids and wife were on the computer most of the day. Playing all sort of stuff. I went to play and my FPS dropped for no good reason. I cleaned up internet junk. Cleaned up the registry and defrag as it said it needed it. Reboot and still the same. Usually doing that does the trick. I reinstalled the drivers and still the same 18 fps. It seemed locked on 18 fps. I reduced the in game resolution by one notch and I was looking at 30+ FPS in outside view. It was a steady 30+ also. Very strange. I'm cool if it stays at 30+ FPS. I will see what happens tonight.

[cmdrk]

LOL
I'll keep my Chevy........er... Model T.:)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/ModelTFord.jpg



Based by the above screen shot, you need some AA or something. Doesn't look real at all. And those clouds, :doh: ----------------- :D

[Anvart]

ATI R9800 Pro, driver 7.12, during 5...6 sec:

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2725/ati5secxp6.jpg

[Elder-Pirate]

LOL
I'll keep my Chevy........er... Model T.:)





Based by the above screen shot, you need some AA or something. Doesn't look real at all. And those clouds, :doh: ----------------- :D


Wadda want for a 1941 Brownie box camera with Kodak color deluxe film ( brand new film for 1941 ). :rotfl:

[Rockin Robbins]

Marvelous shot, Anvart!

[cowboys98]

hi,i got nvidia 7600 gs,i updated to the latest driver,i d/l the enhancer and put the settings suggested for sh3/4 .when i started the game,this is how it look,also im running all the reflections of the water mods.any suggestions on how to fix this?




http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3708/sh4img20080120002629421qv7.th.png (http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080120002629421qv7.png)
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/4153/sh4img20080120002613078dp6.th.png (http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080120002613078dp6.png)

(http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080120002629421qv7.png)
[img=http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/4153/sh4img20080120002613078dp6.th.png] (http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080120002613078dp6.png)



[IMG]http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8892/sh4img20080120002629421vc6.th.png (http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080120002629421vc6.png)



http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9352/sh4img20080120005224359nd7.th.png (http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080120005224359nd7.png)

[Laffertytig]

i currently have over 40 processes running on my task manager. does anyone have any info on how i can optimise my system somewhat?

[AVGWarhawk]

Cowboy,

Do you have the most updated DX9 files?

[AVGWarhawk]

i currently have over 40 processes running on my task manager. does anyone have any info on how i can optimise my system somewhat?


What I do is click the start menu and then click RUN. A small box will open. Type in msconfig and enter. A page will pop up that will show all you computers innards on it. The last tab is system start up page. Click on that. You will see a list of programs that are started when you turn you rig on. Run down the list and uncheck programs you really do not need running when you start your computer. Things like MSN messenger, printer programs, yahoo messenger, MS office, etc. If you do not know what one of the programs is, you can do a search in google of what the program is on the list. Once you find out, you can shut it off if it is a program you really do not need when you start the computer. Basically I have my start up programs set for antivirus and Nvidia control panel. Once you have deselected these programs for the start up, it will prompt a reboot. You will notice the your computer will reboot much faster as it is not loading these programs anymore at start up. You will notice you 40 some process will diminish quite a bit.

[java`s revenge]

Guess I don't much understand all that goes on here but here is some results of my Model T type computer. :lol:
I run an old Asus A7N8X Deluxe REV 2.0 MB, AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU, three 1 GB sticks of RAM ( 184-pin DIMM 128MX64 DDR PC3200 Unbuffered ) by "Crucial Tech", Seagate Baracuda 120 GB 8MB Cache Serial ATA HD, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 speaker system, WIN XP Home w/SP2, 550 watt power supply and a good ole Nvidia 7800 GS OC 256mb AGP 8X video card.

My AA is set at 4X, rest is application controled.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Cardnumber2.jpg

Results of the 84.21 ( recomended by BFG nvidia mfg. ) drivers are not to bad a sunset IMHO. ;)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Abeautifullday.jpg

So why all the fuss about big bad video cards and top notch Nvidia drivers? http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/ponder21.gif


I have the same configuration as you have only i do have a nvidia 6800gt 256mb card.

Thanks for letting everybody see that the older systems still can run shiv with the row mods great!!!

:up:

[alexoscar]

Thanks for this post mate. These ones are much apreciated for me. Some advices can improve our game a lot.

Regards.

[alexoscar]

Maybe this topic should be fixed as sticky... :yep:

[Rockin Robbins]

Maybe this topic should be fixed as sticky... :yep:Any buried thread that resurfaces like this more than once has enduring value.:yep:

[ATR-42]

"Manage 3D settings" > Global Settings (or game specific Program Settings):
Anisotropic filtering: 2x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: Off
Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
Antialiasing - Setting: 4x
Antialiasing - Transparency: Supersampling
Conformant texture clamp: Use hardware
Error reporting: Off
Extension limit: Off
Force mipmaps: None
Multi-display/mixed_GPU acceleration: Single display performance mode
Stereo - Display mode: Use vertical interlace monitor
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: Off (greyed out)
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality: High quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization: Off (greyed out)
Threaded optimization: Auto
Triple buffering: On
Vertical sync: Force on

I wanted to say thanks for this post and thanks for this thead. I used all the above settings with one exception... Anisotropic filtering: 2x Antialiasing - Setting: 4x. everything else as is above, and i put it on both global and SH4 profile. it made a WORLD of difference for me.

i was getting FPS jumpies on exterior it would rapidly flux from 55-60, once i made the above changes with 4x AA it made an amazing difference in picture quality and smoothness.

Thank you!!

:up:



8800 GT > 24" wide screen

[AVGWarhawk]

A sticky of this might be nice, yes.... being that I have refered to this thread numerous times with my new Nvidia card, I think I will sticky. Besides.....I can:smug:

[DrBeast]

Maybe this topic should be fixed as sticky... :yep:Any buried thread that resurfaces like this more than once has enduring value.:yep:
A sticky of this might be nice, yes.... being that I have refered to this thread numerous times with my new Nvidia card, I think I will sticky. Besides.....I can:smug:

Ask and ye shall receive ;)

[ustahl]

Hey guys, I got a MSI GF 8800GTS 640MB.

I changed some settings in my nvidia control panel and then when I started the game and got to the loading screen the screen just turned pitch black.

I figured out exactly what setting it was that did it and but I dont remeber wich it was now. So I could tweak some settings without the screen turning black.

Well the problem is that right now I cant see the loading screen at all, no matter how I change the nvidia settings, I've even reinstalled the game but it didnt help.

Someone got any idea how I could fix this?
If you made a clean reinstall of the game, maybe something of your "wrong" Control Panel settings is still causing the problem. I would try resetting the default values in the nVidia Control Panel. If doing that is a problem, I would uninstall the video driver (& use Driver Cleaner to eradicate all remnants) and make a clean reinstall of the driver (the newest 169.21 is fine). Then, with both the reinstalled game at stock settings and the video driver at default values you should be back in square one, everything working again. Then work your way up again towards more sophisticated settings in small enough steps easy to be remembered and reversed, if necessary.

[steelbill]

Cowboy 98 wrote: hi,i got nvidia 7600 gs,i updated to the latest driver,i d/l the enhancer and put the settings suggested for sh3/4 .when i started the game,this is how it look,also im running all the reflections of the water mods.any suggestions on how to fix this?

Cowboy-- I have the exact same card and the exact same streaky clouds. I tried a few other set ups with nhancer and on the card software--- no luck yet. I am running a few basic mods--like the run silent run deep sound files...I dont think thats the problem. We're missing a video setting somewhere.......steelbill

[Meridian]

hi,i got nvidia 7600 gs,i updated to the latest driver,i d/l the enhancer and put the settings suggested for sh3/4 .when i started the game,this is how it look,also im running all the reflections of the water mods.any suggestions on how to fix this?


Its caused by the Anti-Aliasing Compatibility Option on the Compatibilty tab of NHancer. "EA Startegy Games"

Did the same thing with me.

Turn it off and try again.

I'm running a 7900GTX, just for the record.

[steelbill]

That did it. Mr Bledso, you have the con.

[AVGWarhawk]

That did it. Mr Bledso, you have the con.

Glad it is sorted Steelbill! Now, with your new found knowledge, please pass it on to anyone who shows up with the same ills as you experienced :up:

Thanks in advance.

[ReallyDedPoet]

It was a custom profile in nhancer, I thought it would be removed if I uninstalled nhacner. Anyways I just installed nhancer again and fixed it:) It was the anistropic filtering 16x, I just moved it down to 4x and its working great
Welcome to SUBSIM :up: napdev


RDP

[cowboys98]

What Exactly Did You Do To Turn It Off,well It Shows Auto On So I Cannot Turn It Off?

[Meridian]

If it's only showing auto and the box in the top left doesn't have a check mark in it, then it's already turned off.

[LukeFF]

One thing I've noticed about Anti-aliasing with the 8800-series cards is that the effect goes away in bad weather (e.g. rain/fog) in all other weather states it works fine. Anyone else experience this?

[Rockin Robbins]

The monster went into surgery tonight for the first stage of the conversion. Out came the mondo slow Athlon 64 3700+. Someone mentioned that a machine may be either processor-bound or graphics card-bound. How do you know? Well, by pure dumb luck I'm in a position to find out.

Configuration before: Motherboard, Asus A8N32-SLI DeLuxe. Processor, Athlon 64 3700+. Memory 2 gig go fast OCZ. Graphics, EVGA 7600GT. No overclocking on anything. This is no state of the art machine. It runs SH4 fine, wide freakin' open. 1152 x 864 millions of colors (that's Mac talk in case you want to pause to be impressed. I thought not:down:) . External camera, looking at the sub, 19 fps. Not too shabby and very playable. Wouldn't want to see half that though, it would be nasty!

I switched for that beautiful Opteron 175, no other changes. Outside view looking at the sub is now a solid 30/31 fps! So, was this computer graphics or processor bound? I'd say we have a solid case of choking on the processor there! What's that mean for any SLI tests I might have been able to make? I most likely would have said SLI didn't gain me much because my processor couldn't handle one graphics card, much less two!

Results: Athlon 64 3700+ to Opteron 175 = 58% improvement in frame rate with the same 7600GT graphics card.

Ouch. There goes a lot of seemingly rock hard conclusions about relative performance under SLI. Looks like a good processor might be necessary to see big improvements.

I'm going away now to tear my computer apart again and install the 7900GS. Nothing can beat what I just did..........can it?:rock:

[Rockin Robbins]

It's disaster time. Let's take a look at original configuration
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/SH4Img2008-01-31_191143_800.jpg
EVGA 6500GT and Athlon 64 3700+ 19 FPS. Nice and playable but we always want better so...
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/SH4Img2008-01-31_204324_062.jpg
Opteron 175 plus 7600GT 29-32 fps. Much better!!! 58% improvement with the new processor. Can't wait to see the 7900 GS strut her stuff!!!!!!!!! (is that insipid enough?)
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/SH4Img2008-01-31_222454_125.jpg
Yup, you guessed it, one frame per second increase and funky stripes everywhere. This is a disaster!:damn: Any ideas? Rubini? Help?............ check out this sky:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/SH4Img2008-01-31_222512_171.jpg
Oh, and the water. How do you explain that? Interior views look OK. Everything else looks good: text, photos, movies, etc. I can't explain it. Any ideas?

[Meridian]

I posted the cure for this in post 74 of this thread.

[Rockin Robbins]

I posted the cure for this in post 74 of this thread. I tried it both ways. No change. I still have the funky stripe camouflage and the water still has the synchronized parallel waves.

Test results: I can fix the funkiness, although it grows on you after awhile :o

Here's the orginal Rubini settings with no changes except for inserting the 7900GS card. This has 200000000: EA Strategy Games Anti-aliasing compatibility on.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/offon.jpg
Well, that's a no-go. But we already knew that. Let's turn that EA compatibility off by unchecking the box:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/offoff.jpg
Looks like the stripes might be a bit more contrasty, but no joy in Mudville here. It's time to explore nHancer and find out what I can make worse.:arrgh!: I'll spare all of you the gory details. Then!
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/Enhancein-gameAAsettingon.jpg
Normally nHancer just bulldozes (technical term) the game setting with its own. Infrequently this causes weirdness (another technical term). Checking this box uses your settings within the parameters set by the game! Looks promising, so:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/onoff.jpg
Yessssssssss!:rock: I have my sub back. Let's pop on that EA compatibility setting we thought was the problem to begin with:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/EAon.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/FPS%20comparison/onon.jpg
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeyes!!!!!! We're back to all of Rubini's gains using the EA compatibility and no tiger boat. Now my only problem is that I have no frame rate gain from my 7600GT and if I had two of them I'd SLI them and have better fps than the 7900GS. Why? Inquiries are in to EVGA.

[Fishie]

I posted the cure for this in post 74 of this thread.
I tried it both ways. No change. I still have the funky stripe camouflage and the water still has the synchronized parallel waves.


Hmmm. I'm sure I'm probably repeating the obvious, but I have had a similar case, so here goes-

Check AS and AA filtering- make sure they are not set any higher then 2x. Anything above that results in strangeness (like a rainbow colored nav map W00T! :ping: )

Another thing is it could be tearing, so check your v-sync and make sure it's selected both in SH and in your Nvidia control panel (force on).

I'm assuming you have the new 169 drivers from the website, right?

What you could also be facing is a probable heat issue. I know my old 7800 did that kind of thing quite a bit when my cooling wasn't up to par.

All things to keep in mind.

[Rockin Robbins]

Nope, 4x multi-sampling works fine. FPS also went from 30 to 45 to 52 with Photoshop running in the background! All screenshots were at that setting. One failed test from someone else's video follies:
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/Silent%20Hunter%204/YellowSubmarineAttack.jpg
OK, I added the Yellow Submarine. All together now! We all live in a yellow sumarine.....

[capt_frank]

Ah yes, Peter Max at his best!

Pretty kewl graphics when video cards start their slow spiral of death...:p

[Faamecanic]

Funny, I thought everything looked great. I'll try the nhancer and check back. :-?

Why in all our screenie postings do the nVidia cards consistently have better renderings than ATI cards. Time after time ATI owners say that even though they don't see the solar halo they like their images. I have never encountered an nVidia owner saying they have a problem with sun halo, and seldom with any of the other problems mentioned. Color me skeptic, but I'm checking anyway.

Back in the day when I "upgraded" my ATI 7800 PRO to a NVIDIA 6800, I noticed waves in the distance shimmered and were jaggy. I bet this is why... (the compatability mode).

Then when I bought my new rig with twin 8800GTs I still have the crappy wave shimmer/jaggies in the distance, as well as now with SH4 I have a HALO around my sub.

[Meridian]

Yeah, I have that luminus white halo at night and just can't get rid of it. Bloody annoying and looks terrible, almost looks as if the subs been lit up with a flare.

Tried the fix that was posted elsewhere in the forums but it didn't work.

[Rubini]

Funny, I thought everything looked great. I'll try the nhancer and check back. :-?

Why in all our screenie postings do the nVidia cards consistently have better renderings than ATI cards. Time after time ATI owners say that even though they don't see the solar halo they like their images. I have never encountered an nVidia owner saying they have a problem with sun halo, and seldom with any of the other problems mentioned. Color me skeptic, but I'm checking anyway.

Back in the day when I "upgraded" my ATI 7800 PRO to a NVIDIA 6800, I noticed waves in the distance shimmered and were jaggy. I bet this is why... (the compatability mode).

Then when I bought my new rig with twin 8800GTs I still have the crappy wave shimmer/jaggies in the distance, as well as now with SH4 I have a HALO around my sub.

Yes, this is what I have tried to say with this thread: the guys that already had an ATI card note the difference in image quality at the first moment that they start the game with a Nvidia card: jaggies and impossible to have the same quality than we had with ATI (even because if you try to use the same very good type of AA you will end in poor FPS or little bugs).

[Faamecanic]

Funny, I thought everything looked great. I'll try the nhancer and check back. :-?

Why in all our screenie postings do the nVidia cards consistently have better renderings than ATI cards. Time after time ATI owners say that even though they don't see the solar halo they like their images. I have never encountered an nVidia owner saying they have a problem with sun halo, and seldom with any of the other problems mentioned. Color me skeptic, but I'm checking anyway.

Back in the day when I "upgraded" my ATI 7800 PRO to a NVIDIA 6800, I noticed waves in the distance shimmered and were jaggy. I bet this is why... (the compatability mode).

Then when I bought my new rig with twin 8800GTs I still have the crappy wave shimmer/jaggies in the distance, as well as now with SH4 I have a HALO around my sub.

Yes, this is what I have tried to say with this thread: the guys that already had an ATI card note the difference in image quality at the first moment that they start the game with a Nvidia card: jaggies and impossible to have the same quality than we had with ATI (even because if you try to use the same very good type of AA you will end in poor FPS or little bugs).

Actually it was a 9800Pro that I had...and Still have in an old system. Just for grins I loaded SH3 on it and even though that card is 3 yrs old, it STILL makes SH3 look 1,000% better that my 2 8800GTS'es in SLI....

Wish I would have thought of that before I built this system...but at the time I wasnt playing SH3 anymore :nope:

Needless to say my next PC will have ATI card(s).

So basically there is no cure for the distant "shimmering/jaggy water"? I tried the recommended optimizations here and it still looked poor. I even tried Supersampling (and did not notice a huge fps hit).... looked the same to me. Or is SSAA 4X4 and Supersampling with 4XAA different? EDIT: Ooops...reread your post rubini and forgot to set the EA strategy game mode ....need to try that next.

[Doolittle81]

Just a thought: have you tried using just one card and NOT trying to run SH4 in SLI?? I have a single Nvidea 8800GTX 768Mb and have never had a problem with Jaggies or the other problems mentioned.

[Faamecanic]

at day light the image is soberb but...what is pissing me of is that the nights in LCD monitor are too dark and (if you just put more bright) the sea texture just isn´t good at night. I´m in the point that I will try to really make another ENV files (for night only) just to have better textures on a LCD pannel. Do you also have this "at night" colors/degrade problems/poor image on your LCD?:hmm:

Just a botton note: we in the GWX team already tried to port SH3 to a wide view (messing with the cameras FOV) but without success.:damn:

Rubini...I have the same problem with my LCD (Dell 2001FP I bought like 3 yrs ago). The night is so dark I can barely see my WATCH OFFICER..let alone a ship 500+m in front of me. I have been begging for an alternative night time fix or SH3Commander fix for 2 yrs now...

And to change any settings for night, makes daytime look washed out and terrible.

[Faamecanic]

Just a thought: have you tried using just one card and NOT trying to run SH4 in SLI?? I have a single Nvidea 8800GTX 768Mb and have never had a problem with Jaggies or the other problems mentioned.

Yep... noticed the ocean in the distance didnt look good back when I had a single Nvidia 6800.

[prologos]

Hello all!
I have a slight problem. When I am in port and also yesterday when I played a single mission involving a big naval battle my fps drop from 75 to 10-15. If I Alt-tab and then reenter the game the fps go to 25 but again there is a very big difference beetwen 75-25. Do you have any ideas? I tried setting the affinity of SH4 to 1 core but the situation is the same. I also run nHanser with the settings posted by rubini in the first post of this forum.
My rig is:
intel core duo 4400
2GB mushkin RAM interleaved (2x1 GB)
XFX 8800 GTS 320MB
Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS
WD 300 GB HD + Maxtor 80GB HD
I run the game at 1280x1024 at a NEC 19" CRT

[hachiman]

I have a 8600GT and quite a hi spec rig.
But i find the graphics in SH4 seem quite grainy.
It's like the screens dirty(Which it's not!!).

Any ideas why?

Thanx

[AVGWarhawk]

I have a 8600GT and quite a hi spec rig.
But i find the graphics in SH4 seem quite grainy.
It's like the screens dirty(Which it's not!!).

Any ideas why?

Thanx

Do you have the Post Process Filtering checked? If so, this creates the grainy effect.

[col_Kurtz]

-If you have any comment or any other tip to enhance the SH3/4 experience when using nVidia hardware please share it with us!

Good Hunting!:up:

Rubini.[/quote]

So... A few words, just a few;)
My graphic card is: ATI Radeon X1300 - 1550 Pro, 256MB, I heard, that is really bad card, but... I change nVidia (7300 LE - that`s really sh..e card!) and... what a surprise! SH 4... settings highest and patch 1.3, them 1.4 - great, lovely. I`m not sure FPS, but it looks really good, amazing and I really love taht game, for sunshine, sunrise, ocean... and, what more? Well, for ships and battle - of course, magnat for me and I can`t wait for U-boat Expansion pack - it will be great adventure.
So, I don`t know better nVidia, but, I heard about problems with that card, shaders and I think... ATI is bit better for that :D
I found this link after installation GWX2... Hum. SH4 is fantastic, SH3...:hmm: No comments. Good game, but...

Thanks

[bratwurstdimsum]

(I also posted the same on SH3 general forum because i guess that this is really usefull)

Hi folks,

After some days in tests and with the help of our mates Periscope and mikaelanderlund, I finally finish my concise guide to enhance the image quality in SH3/4 using nHancer and Nvidia cards.
To finish - nHancer best settings for good image quality without any noticeable problem in SH3/4:[/B]
-in the main page at your right check Global, then in

- Enhancements page:
check MultiSampling 4x
check Super- Transparency AA
check AF 16x or 8x
check Vertical Sync Applicaion,

- Optimizations page:
check Texture filtering High Quality
check Tril. opt. Off
check Aniso sample opt. Off
check Neg LOd Bias Clamp
leave all the others settings unchanged

Good Hunting!:up:

Rubini.


THANK YOU THANK YOU

You turned a slightly laggy game into a smooth simulated fighting machine!

Not sure what everyone else is grumbling about, but at least my game is a game again not just a beautiful postcard.

[Doolittle81]

(I also posted the same on SH3 general forum because i guess that this is really usefull)

Hi folks,

After some days in tests and with the help of our mates Periscope and mikaelanderlund, I finally finish my concise guide to enhance the image quality in SH3/4 using nHancer and Nvidia cards.
To finish - nHancer best settings for good image quality without any noticeable problem in SH3/4:[/b]
-in the main page at your right check Global, then in

- Enhancements page:
check MultiSampling 4x
check Super- Transparency AA
check AF 16x or 8x
check Vertical Sync Applicaion,

- Optimizations page:
check Texture filtering High Quality
check Tril. opt. Off
check Aniso sample opt. Off
check Neg LOd Bias Clamp
leave all the others settings unchanged

Good Hunting!:up:

Rubini.

What about your previously recommended selection of "20000000:EA Strategy Games" on the compatibility page?

[1480]

DL8, I've been running what he suggested since the 1st post, including the EA2000000000000 setting and looks great, 8600gt.

[Rockin Robbins]

Only exception being the 7900 GS or any card that gives you the zebra effect in my previous post. Even there do not turn off the "20000000:EA Strategy Games" compatibility setting, just check the "enhance in-game AA setting" box like I did and all Rubini's improvements will work for you too.

You can ignore all the stuff about not exceeding 2x AA and all. Trust Rubini and you'll love the results.

[ATR-42]

Hi fellow NV users , I run a 8800GTX and finally managed to get sun flare back while running FSAA x4 ....... DISABLE GAMMA CORRECTION under FSAA and ALSO
ENABLE MULTISAMPLE TRANSPERANCY ANTIALIASING in NV control panel settings .

good luck , and happy hunting

Toastman out .....

Ref post here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=800092&postcount=3407

Are there any advantages to Multisampling over Supersampling?

[filefool]

I downloaded nhancer, installed OLC environment, applied all the settings you recommended and got those strange squares when i view my boat from certain angles:

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/2338/sh3img1732008203521703qr4.th.png (http://img264.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img1732008203521703qr4.png)

It's always there, but the effect is best seen in heavy seas.
Any idea what causes this?

BTW i got a geforce 7900 GTO with the latest nvidia drivers.

[hcwolf9]

OK all. Read all the posts and fixed all your issues.

To finish - nHancer best settings for good image quality without any noticeable problem in SH3/4:
-in the main page at your right check Profile then select the sh3.exe and add sh4.exe

- Enhancements page:
check Anti-Aliasing - Supersampling 8xs
check Super- Transparency AA
check AF 16x or 8x
check Vertical Sync off,

- Optimizations page:
check Texture filtering High Quality
check Tril. opt. Off or unchecked
check Aniso sample opt. ON (This removes Jaggies and removes the while lines you get around models and waves and rivits etc. If you are running 1920x1080 like me)

check Neg LOd Bias Clamp
leave all the others settings unchanged

- Compatibility page:
choose AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games (this is what makes a huge difference in image quality, forcing the AA to be applyed to the entire scene. This is probably also the best solution for Flight sims)
leave all the others settings unchanged.
Then don't close nHancer go to Tools > Activate Profiles > Sh3 (select the sh3/4 profile).

now minimise nhancer and play.

In SH4 unchek post processing in graphics settings to remove grainy look.

ok my specs and I get min 60fps(big battles) max 200+ (sky) avg 110 FPS. general play.

my specs Q6600 (3ghz) , SLI x2 EVGA 8800GT's 512MB (not OC). 4gig 800 ram My winxp only recognises 2.5Gig Ram. 32" LCD screen Hdmi 1920X1080 75hz. oh and Evga 680i SLI Motherboard.

this will give you good settings. if it is slow then back down your supersampling to the multi x4.

Let me know guys but this does fix all your issues i have read so far. the big fix is check on the Aniso sample opt.

Happy Sailing from Hells Circus. HC Wolf.

[col_Kurtz]

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9331/sh4img20080318232144093qx0.th.png (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080318232144093qx0.png)
This my firts uploaded .jpg, I hope I did it well.
It`s a Rad X1300 Pro, 2.66Ghz, 1GB RAM... SH4 and some addons, sunhold etc. I know, this not nVidia, but at this moment... nVidia is so far for me:-? Anyway, game is lovely, postcard, or not, should be looks well and nice, I think, isn`t? Ocean is ocean, sky is blue... Ship is a ship, warship, and you know, what I mean, I suppose. For me this is very good game:yep:
T`ca mates...

[JoeCorrado]

NVidea GeForce 7600 GT 512mb AGP

Had the same problem with the streaky clouds. Your solution; disabling the EA compatability option fixed it.

However, a better solution (described here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=800089&postcount=103)) is to leave the EA Compatability selected AND to check the box under 'enhancements' titled "enhance in game aa setting" - the result gives you the best of both worlds.

If you enable the option "Enhance in-game AA setting", AA will only be applied as defined by the game - so you have to enable AA in the game as well. But the driver still controls which AA mode is applied, which gives you the best results: optimal compatibility and efficiency while still being able to use all the new modes offered by nVidia.

hi,i got nvidia 7600 gs,i updated to the latest driver,i d/l the enhancer and put the settings suggested for sh3/4 .when i started the game,this is how it look,also im running all the reflections of the water mods.any suggestions on how to fix this?

Its caused by the Anti-Aliasing Compatibility Option on the Compatibilty tab of NHancer. "EA Startegy Games"

Did the same thing with me.

Turn it off and try again.

I'm running a 7900GTX, just for the record.

[Charlie901]

Anyone found a Nvidia setting to eliminate the white dots all over the railing/wires when sub is underwater, at periscope depth?

[hcwolf9]

Charlie901 Read my post two above yours... I had your problem my settings fix everything in all these posts for Nvidia cards

check Aniso sample opt. ON (This removes Jaggies and removes the while lines you get around models and waves and rivits etc. If you are running 1920x1080 like me)


Cheers!

Hc Wolf

[Charlie901]

Charlie901 Read my post two above yours... I had your problem my settings fix everything in all these posts for Nvidia cards

check Aniso sample opt. ON (This removes Jaggies and removes the while lines you get around models and waves and rivits etc. If you are running 1920x1080 like me)


Cheers!

Hc Wolf


Tried it but I still got 'em at 1024x768... :hmm:

[hcwolf9]

Charlie best if you give us your full Spec's on here, you graphics setings and rig setup. Maybe look at my old post a few above this, copy it and then fill in the bits where your setup is diff.

Are you using Nhancer as well? that is a big help. I am sure we can fix this for you. But I need your full system setup.

HCWOLF

[Charlie901]

I'm going to try some older drivers....

Currently using Official 169's

I'm using a 7600gt card

Here are some examples of what I'm referring to:

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9593/sh4img20080323000949109ce2.png

and...

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/8376/sh4img20080323000204218zk1.png

[bracer]

Hey mates!
Does anyone know how the multicore support option in nHancer works with SH3/4? I run a quadcore and have tried the option both on and off with no difference ingame!? Which setting is the optimal??
//Bracer

[jahlmeen]

Tja bracer, SH4 kan bara använda 2 kärnor (tror jag), kanske därför du inte märket någon skillnad

[lancerr]

Was running my old stock dell drivers for my 7900 GS and was getting lots of lag with the Rubini settings.

Finally upgraded to the latest Forceware drivers and with the recommended settings and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Take a look. (still not sure why the water appears as bands but the sub is what I was concerned about)

I kept it at the 1680 res because resizing the pictures was introducing artifacts

http://id.iit.edu/%7Esriramt/Misc/sh42.jpg
http://id.iit.edu/%7Esriramt/Misc/sh43.jpg

[M. Sarsfield]

Is anyone running SLI with this game? If so, how have you changed Rubini's settings to take advatage of it? I'm using two EVGA 7600 GT cards.

[Schlendrian]

I have the same problem that Charlie901 describes, white lines or dots around every object that is submerged when viewed from above the surface.

Specs:

Core2Duo E8200, 4GB Corsair Twinx4096 C5 Ram (800 MHz), Zotac Geforce 8800GT Amp edition 512 MB Ram, I am using the latest Nvidia Drivers and nHancer setup exactly the way hcwolf9 described a few posts up

Any ideas?

[hcwolf9]

HI ALL Read my post a few up from this one. describes all my SLI settings.

Also to get rid of the white lines etc all around the sub and rivits, read my last post I tell you all how to fix it by turning on the Aniso or something. sorry forget what I wrote but read it. All SLI settings and graphics settings explained in my last post.

[M. Sarsfield]

check Anti-Aliasing - Supersampling 8xs

hcwolf9, I saw your post and I think my global settings are configured to what you have, except for the Supersampling. '8xs' was not an option that popped up for me. Maybe I need to see if nHancer has an update. I downloaded my version back in January.

[M. Sarsfield]

hcwolf9,

I think I remember there being a vertical sync option in the graphics menu of SHIV. Did you disable that option to correspond with nHancer?

[col_Kurtz]

question: anyone know any good ATI video card tweaks???
i have a x1900xt :yep:
Yop...

Try this: ATITOOL, but be sure, that is for your x1900, `cause I`m not. Guru3D site http://guru3d.com/, or techPower http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Tweaking/ http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=733. But! important, you should read about it, but I can`t find it at this time.
That soft supported many ATI`s, but I don`t remember well, wich excluded.
I`ve got x1300/1500 and I`m trying right now. This not good card, but I`m going to buy HD3650 by Asus, maybe TOP.

Best regards and good hunting for... ATITOOL:)
There is Nhancer too for nVidia men ;)

[hcwolf9]

M. Sarsfield,

I will go back and look at every setting I have for SH4, my windows, system setup etc and I will post on here. But in all my testing I found it was mostly due to the Aniso setting, but i will confirm for you later today. I will also post a pic or two for you all.

[M. Sarsfield]

Thanks.

[hcwolf9]

M. Sarsfield,

on my laptop at the moment I will check the vsync options, but I generally always have it off in games. If I posted above that it is on in Nhancer then that is correct, but I have it unchecked in SH4 graphics settings.

[hcwolf9]

M. Sarsfieeld my Nhancer is version 2225 or something. whatever the latest one is. I only downloaded it and started using about a weeke or two ago. Ok I am off to gym and then lunch. later today I will post my stuff. I am in Melbourne Australia so you understand the time zone I am in.

[M. Sarsfield]

No problem. The latest version is 2.3.2, but it's the Beta version.

In your instructions you had v-sync in nHancer turned off, which is what I did, also. I'll turn it off in the game the next time that I play.

[M. Sarsfield]

Okay, I made the recommended changes that hcwolf9 gave us and I got insanely high fps on the bridge in rough seas - I used the S-44 single mission as a test bed. Frame rates ranged from 60 to over 100. I got zebra stripes on everything when I had "enhance in-game AA settings" turned OFF, though. Turning it ON was a huge improvement, which also gave me the high fps.

When I installed PE2 or Environmental Effects 4.0, my fps on the bridge dropped to the low 20 range when looking forward. The interior dropped to the low to mid 30 range - both mods had the exact same impact on fps. I did a lot of playing with the anti-aliasing settings, the anisop. filtering settings, and the SLI settings and they had very little impact, regardless off the changes that I made. So, I will have to install a lower res version of PE2.

Here is what I decided to stick with using version 2.3.2 of nHancer and with the latest nVidia driver:

Enhancements:
AA: Super-sampling 2x2
"Enhance in-game AA setting" box: ON (VERY IMPORTANT... for me, anyway)
"Super-transparency AA" box: ON
Anisop. Filtering: 4x
V-Sync: OFF (Off in game, too)

Optimizations:
Text. filtering: Quality
Trilinear Opt.: OFF
Aniso. Sampling Opt.: ON
Neg. LOD Bias: Clamp

Compatibility:
Anti-aliasing Compatibility box: ON with "20000000: EA Strategy Games" in drop-down box

SLI Mode:
SLI Mode box: ON w/ "Auto" selected and no Compatibility flags checked.
(Make sure SLI is enabled in nHancer. It should ask to enable it once it detects your hardware setup.)

In game I have most graphic slider bars in the middle and everything but V-sync and PPF turned ON. I like the fog and environmental effects, despite the fps hit.


I created this profile from scratch, rather than modifying the SHIII profile. I may increase some of the settings after I install a lower res version of PE2, if there is a considerable fps increase. The environemntal mods are big resource hogs.

[Doolittle81]

FWIW, I am using the latest Beta nHancer, 2.4.0Beta, with no problems to speak of. It seems to me that a lot of changes have been incorporated in these latest Beta versions which might help with your problems. I don't have a SLI setup, but I note in the Readme that new SLI modes have been added.

According to the ReadMe:
Version 2.4.0 (Beta 5)
• Added new SLI modes (AFR Bloom, AFR 3-way and 4-way).
• Added support of 9600 cards (remember: You can add support of new cards yourself by editing nhancer.exe.config!).

Version 2.4.0 (Beta 4)
• Replaced the nHancer logo with the great new logo made by Eberhard Klauke. Thanks a lot Eberhard!
• Redesigned the “About”-Dialog. It now has a fancy animation. The graphics were done by Eberhard as well.
• The initialization of nHancer has been moved to a separate thread. This fixes the problem that in extreme cases, the OS would mask the nHancer splash screen as “non responding”, which screws up the window with an ugly window frame. The splash window will stay up exactly 5 seconds now and you can dismiss the splash screen with a mouse click as was originally intended.
• The “do you want the tray icon?” message box is no longer displayed during nHancer’s first start. TrayIcon and AutoStart are now enabled by default, if you don’t like these features, you have to disable them in the Options menu.
• Fixed the “Add executable with path” option. It offered completely wrong path elements. Nobody ever seemed to notice that this function has been broken for ages…

Version 2.4.0 (Beta 3)
• Detects G96 (D9M) correctly.
• Additional new chips can now be configured manually by altering the file nHancer.exe.config. This way it’s no longer necessary to update nHancer each time nVidia releases a new chip family.
• Bugfix: When importing profiles, only customized profiles will shown in cyan color, not all profiles as before.
• Profiles with conflicting executables are now listed regardless of the profile filter.
• Customized profiles are now selected automatically when auto-importing profiles after installing another driver.

Version 2.4.0 (Beta 2)
• Allows overriding of the “prevent_cpl..” flags in nVidia’s profile list. If “Allow override predefined options” is active, you can now even change a AA or AF setting even it was explicitly disabled by nVidia.
• By request, I added the OpenGL multi monitor / multi-GPU settings to nHancer.
• Added several new AA compatibility flags.
• nHancer can now run without the nHancer support service, but for this to work it needs to be started with administrator rights.
• Bugfix: Positioning of some of the new buttons was wrong as soon as the user resized the “Description” pane.
• Bugfix: Changes in the profile description text or in some of the options weren’t possible, because the entered text was captured by the new profile text filter.
• Added some missing option descriptions.

Version 2.4.0 (Beta 1)
• Detects new 8800 GTS (512MB) and 8400 (G98) cards correctly.
• Completely reworked the internal profile management.
• Removed a load of superfluous code generated by VisualStudio’s UI designer. This should increase the performance of the user interface slightly.
• Added a text filter to find a profile very quickly. Just type ahead to use the filter.
• Added a sophisticated filter tool to select the profiles shown in the list. Use the new filter icon to change the filter settings.
• Redesigned the user interface for the management of profiles and their executables.
• Using the “Delete” button on a profile which has been predefined by nVidia will now revert the profile to its original state (since deleting a predefined profile is not possible).
• The user can now directly change any predefined setting in a predefined profile (if the option “Allow override of predefined options” is active). nHancer will automatically create a separate profile for that game which overrides the original profile (which cannot be changed). The original profile is not listed. Those special new profiles are called “Shadow profiles” and they have their own color (blue) in the list of profiles.
• Using the “Delete” button on an shadow profile will now reactivate the original profile which was overridden by the shadow profile.
• Added new menu function “Profile->Reset all profiles”. This function will remove all user made profiles and restores all other profiles to their original, predefined state. I.e. this function restores all profiles to the state after the driver installation.
• Added several Anti-Aliasing modes for G8x and G9x cards:
o 8xSQ – 2x2 Supersampling + 2x Multisampling. A very useful AA mode discovered by Heiko “Blaire” Zühlke. Thanks Heiko!
o 2xQ – The old quincunx mode, reactivated for the new cards (only visible if “Show experimental modes” is active).
o 4x 9-tap – The old 9-tap mode, reactivated for the new cards (only visible if “Show experimental modes” is active).
• To make room for the additional AA-modes, the categories for the various modes have been changed for G8x and G9x cards.
• Many bugfixes

[M. Sarsfield]

I might give the Beta 5 a try. I still think that it's mainly the environmental add-ons. I got quite a boost with nHancer in stock format. I never had 100 fps on the bridge before in rough seas.

I installed the modified PE2 with the FPS boost to see if it made much of a difference and I got maybe a 1 fps boost.

[M. Sarsfield]

I downloaded the Beta 6 version of nHancer with little improvement to performance. I then uninstalled every mod and played around with settings in "vanilla". Still too slow for my liking, I decided to uninstall nHancer and use the nVidia settings. I noticed an improvement, but it still wasn't fast enough for SLI configuration, in my opion. So, then I decided that maybe the game was corrupt from making so many modifications to it. I decided to reinstall my graphics driver, reinstall 1.5, and then use IOBit Smart Defrag to clean up the drive.

I'll start running tests with the clean vanilla copy on Monday evening and see what that does. I'll probably leave nHancer out of the picture, since the latest nVidia controls seem to do a pretty good job.

[TheBlobThing]

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything but...

I recently bought an 8800GTS so I could get that sweet sun halo, but now I get the halo even when the sun is behind something (my boat, my crew etc.). Anyone else had this problem?

[Maltro]

Hi, I was disapointed cause I was not able to seen sun glare AND force AA with my new GPU (an Nvidia 8800GT) and I have discovered nHancer. I have just try it and I am happy cause I have found how to have the both effects ON.
So thank you very much for this thread.
But I have (unfortunatly another problem...)

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/maltro/SH4Img2008-04-06_211252_265.jpg

Do you see "white water" on the border of the sub? I have the same one all around ships at the limit between water and vessels... and please don't tell me it is foam! :rotfl:

Another things more annoying :

Submerged lines often have this problem (white borders) It appear only when there is sunlight and only on certains point of view... and I can't find any mean to solve this problem.

Do you know if there is a setting to check in nHancer wich could solve my problem please? I have already try a lot of change but no mean...

Thanks!

[Doolittle81]

...Another things more annoying :

Submerged lines often have this problem (white borders) It appear only when there is sunlight and only on certains point of view... and I can't find any mean to solve this problem.

Do you know if there is a setting to check in nHancer wich could solve my problem please? I have already try a lot of change but no mean...

Thanks!

See this thread for discussion of the white lines:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134260

[Maltro]

Thanks you for reply. I have read all the topic, try the "nHancer method" but no mean to fix this "bug". It is a shame... but thank you!

:arrgh!:

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

With the latest NVidia drivers you cannot set the graphics on global using NHancer. It's already pre-defined. I had to resort on using a profile for SH4 instead.

[M. Sarsfield]

I ditched nHancer and downloded the latest nVidia Beta driver. I really like the 3D setting improvements, including a new option to have the CPU pre-render frames before going to the GPU(s). I also ditched nTuner, since it didn't seem to like SLI mode very much.

[PhantomLord]

It was time to retire my ATI 9550

New Nvidia 7600GT arrives.... and all the beautiful things in SH4 turned into crap :doh: With the old ATI everything was very slow but faultless.

Here´s what i see now

[img=http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/7015/sh4img20080409161920234il4.th.png] (http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080409161920234il4.png)

[img=http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/2694/sh4img20080409161942937qv1.th.png] (http://img229.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080409161942937qv1.png)

[img=http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5206/sh4img20080409164658359ih1.th.png] (http://img229.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080409164658359ih1.png)

Running Windows XP
2Gig RAM
Nvidia 7600GT (AGP) - latest drivers installed.
SH4 unmodded, Version 1.4

I´ve played bit with some settings in control panel - no changes
I´ve tried nHancer - no changes

Maybe i´ve overlooked something... anybody who have a hint?

[M. Sarsfield]

If you are using nHnacer, "Enhance in-game AA setting" box should be ON (VERY IMPORTANT... for me, anyway). I think that fixed the texture maps and got rid of the lines in the sky for me.

I recommend downloading the 175 beta driver from nVidia and scrapping nHancer. I think it does a better job.

[PhantomLord]

I´ve tried this... same effects.

[DeepIron]

PL, M.Sarsfield and I have been discussing some issues over here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134683 as well. Might be worth a read if you haven't already...

[M. Sarsfield]

I´ve tried this... same effects.

Are you making changes to global settings in nHancer or did you create a new profile?

[PhantomLord]

No nHancer active right now. Beta 174.74 only

Fixed that problem.

There must be a faulty setting in the SH4-profile. With all settings "driver standard" in this profile every thing looks good. All textures available, sky is clear :D

[M. Sarsfield]

I didn't use any preset profiles.

[DeepIron]

I didn't use any preset profiles.Same here... created a profile from scratch as well.

[PhantomLord]

Anyway... it works. Thanks for efforts.

[modisch]

If you are using nHnacer, "Enhance in-game AA setting" box should be ON (VERY IMPORTANT... for me, anyway). I think that fixed the texture maps and got rid of the lines in the sky for me.

I found that this kills the antialiasing for me. The way I checked my antialiasing was to go to the bridge and give myself a good, angled view of the three metal plates the TBT is mounted on. At least I think it's the TBT (the mounted binocs).

With this setting on, I get jagged edges on the straight edges of the square plates. With this off, I get nice antialiasing.

I'm using the most recent non-beta drivers (169.21 I think), and no environment mods (just TM+RSRD over 1.5).

-m

[Schlendrian]

Ahh - so THAT's where my antialiasing went!! I switched to "override in game settings", and suddenly it all looks beautiful again.

Another thing I seem to have noticed, the white lines around submerged parts of the sub seem to appear only after I install TMO, I am using latest drivers (169.21) and TMOv1.5 + SP1c + SP2b + PE2, no nHancer (the nvidia control panel seems to do the same job). Anyone else noticed that - any viable reason for that?

I do seem to be missing the halo now, though. Strange, have to find out what I did to lose it, probably the AA settings too high. However, when I do get the halo, it does go through everything, ie through solid parts. Is there a workaround for it?

I have of course read and implemented hcwolf9's settings, but they didnt seem to do anything for me. Not the Aniso sample optimization either.

Btw, using Geforce 8800GT here

Cheers!

[schurem]

Maybe this thread is not the right place for it, but ever since i upgraded to windows Vista, my graphics driver seems to have severe difficulty (to the point of crashing) when large explosions happen. I'm running the latest nvidea driver, vista and the latest release of Trigger Maru. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Oh yeah, the gfx card is a 8800gts320

[brommer66]

Hi boatsmen

I installed SH4 yesterday and at first I am VERY disappointed with it. Comparing with the wonderful SH3 (GWX) that I have been playing for a while this game seems to be one, if not several steps back instead of forward. However I also understand that there maybe ways to improve the slow and mediocre graphics and response that I am experiencing on my PC. I have installed nhancer and am looking for possible profiles that work with my nvidea NX7100GS card. Could it be that my PC may not be powerful enough to run SH4 properly? I have 'just' 1GB or RAM too, which has always been more than sufficient for SH3 though.

OK thanks guys, tips, hints, experience by other NX7100GS users, profiles perhaps, etc. will be much appreciated.:cool:

[Doolittle81]

Maybe this thread is not the right place for it, but ever since i upgraded to windows Vista, my graphics driver seems to have severe difficulty (to the point of crashing) when large explosions happen. I'm running the latest nvidea driver, vista and the latest release of Trigger Maru. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Oh yeah, the gfx card is a 8800gts320

Try the newest beta drivers, 174.93
If you are speaking about SH4 1.5, try turning off "Post Processing" in the Game Graohics Options.

[Doolittle81]

Hi boatsmen

I installed SH4 yesterday and at first I am VERY disappointed with it. Comparing with the wonderful SH3 (GWX) that I have been playing for a while this game seems to be one, if not several steps back instead of forward. .....:cool:

Install the 1.4 patch, then enable the Pacific Environment MOD (for starters).

[brommer66]

Install the 1.4 patch, then enable the Pacific Environment MOD (for starters).

Thanks Doolittle for your response. I did what you suggested and the game already runs better. Need to look further into this though.

Thanks again:up:

[PropSpin]

NHancer works great on Silent Hunter IV but am having an issue in that the mouse works erratically and the response time when clicking on the event item reacts too slowly. Loaded Silent Hunter III with nHancer working and it is just superb! Any fixes to the slow down on my system? Could there be a nHancer setting that I am missing? It would be great if SHIV would work just like SHIII. Many thanks!:damn:

[richardphat]

Hey guys do you think my computer might be able to run sh4? Here are some descriptions of my pc.
My pc has a NVIDIA 6150 Le + ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_6_Series )
Motherboard: AMD 64 Live Dual Core (2,6Ghz)
Memory Ram= 2x1056 Ram
Sound driver with Realtek Codec (7.1)
Well i can say about my pc , is a HP 5200+.
So does any of you has ever tried to test it on a similar computer?
I have also tried at can you run it but since it is not very accurate i cannot know whether it is true or wrong about the test.

[CptNase]

Hello everyone,
I'm new here but i've been watching this forum for longer time now.
I have a GeForce 8800 GT which suceeded my old ATI X1950. Now I have all the eyecandy of ROW, except one issue: The smoke of the ships seems too thin, although I have followed this tweak guide. I'm running SH IV all maxed out, Vsync ingame off with newest nHancer and the optimised nHancer settings from the first post.
Installed Mods:
KGMB Honolulu
Radio Saigon French Music Vol I
TYPE IXD2 bubbles
'Destroyer in Attack Run' Sound Man Voice Fix v1.01a
Uncensored German Textures
interior damage effects
RSRDC_V355+Patch4_for_V15
ASW_9.0_RSRD_355_1.5
ClassicBetterScopes_NomoGraph_V15b1
John Hamm's Uniform Mod V2.2
Install_PE2
ROW PE2.1 clouds
Install high quality
Install Tree Mod V1.1
Install Flag Mod - Textures V1.0
diverate_mod
LESS WATER LIMBER HOLES
ROW Sound Effect v_9
Historical 4 bladed props

Does someone know how to fix it ?

[M. Sarsfield]

Your picture is difficult to read. In JSGME there is a tool to export your mod list to a text file. It's easier to do that and paste the list into your post.

[CptNase]

Anyone can help ? Maybe this is the wrong thread ?

[M. Sarsfield]

There is a smoke mod that you need to search for in the Mods forum. I recommend it. I think that they are going to come out with a second version that varies the thickness of the smoke, depending on the age of the ship and whether it's a merchant or a warship.

[CptNase]

I found it, but AFAIK it's incompatible with PE2/ROW because it overwrites a file.

[M. Sarsfield]

That's okay. You want it to overwrite that file. I've used the smoke mod with the weather mods and nothing crashed.

[CptNase]

Ok, thx. I'll check it out.

[brommer66]

NHancer works great on Silent Hunter IV but am having an issue in that the mouse works erratically and the response time when clicking on the event item reacts too slowly. ..... It would be great if SHIV would work just like SHIII.....

I have the same problem. This lagging makes game hard to handle. Does somebody have a clue what causes this and possibly a solution?

Thanks mates!:cool:

[Jsbl]

Maybe this thread is not the right place for it, but ever since i upgraded to windows Vista, my graphics driver seems to have severe difficulty (to the point of crashing) when large explosions happen. I'm running the latest nvidea driver, vista and the latest release of Trigger Maru. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Oh yeah, the gfx card is a 8800gts320

I've been having similar problems with 8800gts320 and Vista. Every torpedo impact puts my graphics card to its top limits and even makes an occasional ctd. I have, however, been running SH4 under Vista since I bought it and the problems started only two days ago, when installed u-boat addon, latest TMO, PE and RSRD.

[DeepIron]

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

If you have an nVidia card, you may be interested in the Rivatuner application. I've been tweaking my 7600GS 256M AGP card and so far have gained about 15-20 fps over the stock game settings.

WARNING: THIS PROGRAM WILL ALLOW YOU TO DO SOME VERY LOW-LEVEL TWEAKS AND COULD RUIN YOUR VIDEO CARD! BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING! RTFM!

I leave all my stock nVidia Control Panel settings alone and use just the Rivatuner to overclock and tweak my video card ONLY for SH4. That is to say, I created a game profile and use the Rivatuner launcher to start SH4. When SH4 is closed, my video settings return to their "normal" WinXP values. This prevents my video card from running in an overclocked and tweaked mode during normal desktop operation.

[Doolittle81]

I've been having similar problems with 8800gts320 and Vista. Every torpedo impact puts my graphics card to its top limits and even makes an occasional ctd. I have, however, been running SH4 under Vista since I bought it and the problems started only two days ago, when installed u-boat addon, latest TMO, PE and RSRD.

Have your read my earlier post in this thread for the possible solution to your problem? I also had no probs with VISTA and SH4 1.4, but the CTD's began occurring with 1.5. Drivers 174.93 solved my problems.

[Jsbl]

Have your read my earlier post in this thread for the possible solution to your problem? I also had no probs with VISTA and SH4 1.4, but the CTD's began occurring with 1.5. Drivers 174.93 solved my problems.

Yes, I read it and I have been thinking whether I download that driver yet or not. I'm a little suspicious to BETA releases and I usually wait for the release version. But maybe I could give it a try, thanks for your help.

[brommer66]

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

If you have an nVidia card, you may be interested in the Rivatuner application. I've been tweaking my 7600GS 256M AGP card and so far have gained about 15-20 fps over the stock game settings.

Hi DeepIron.

I am experimenting a bit with the Rivatuner you mentioned. I have no experience with overclocking though. I have a NVidea 7100 GS card with a standard core clock of 350 MHz/max 525 MHz, and memory clock of 500 MHz/max 750 MHz.

2 questions:
- How far can I increase the clock speeds 'safely' before they become critical?
- Which of the two has most (positive) impact on the FPS rate; or do I have to overclock both?

Thanks:ping:

[DeepIron]

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

If you have an nVidia card, you may be interested in the Rivatuner application. I've been tweaking my 7600GS 256M AGP card and so far have gained about 15-20 fps over the stock game settings.
Hi DeepIron.

I am experimenting a bit with the Rivatuner you mentioned. I have no experience with overclocking though. I have a NVidea 7100 GS card with a standard core clock of 350 MHz/max 525 MHz, and memory clock of 500 MHz/max 750 MHz.

2 questions:
- How far can I increase the clock speeds 'safely' before they become critical?
- Which of the two has most (positive) impact on the FPS rate; or do I have to overclock both?

Thanks:ping:Hi Brommer66...
The "recommended" way of overclocking is to increase the core by say 5 points, then test. If things are ok, no instabilities, increase the memory clock by 5 points and test. Repeat this process, 5 points on one, test, 5 points on the other, test, until you start to have "issues" or instabilities. It's a long process but the 'safest' and most recommended. Once you get to the 'maximum' safe settings, back them off by say 5 points each for a safety margin.

Both settings will affect your frame rates so it's a good idea to increment them as outlined above.

The 'safety' aspect varies from machine to machine and has a lot to do with cooling and voltage levels. Incrementing the clocks as I've described above "should" give you suffiecient warning if you push the card too far...

My 7600GS card clocks normally at 400/350. I'm currently running SH4 at 500/450 and it gets a "little warm". I ONLY overclock while I play SH4. The rest of the time, I return the card to 400/350.

Don't forget to tweak your settings in the game itself. I seldom have everything running at maximum levels because even with overclocking, the card can handle only so much processing.

Hope this was helpful.

[brommer66]

Hi DeepIron

Thanks for the tips. I overclocked the core from 350 to 361 for a start, that is before i read your response, and all went well with just a bit of improvement already. I found that the framerates are different depending on the location you are at, with the maps having the highest and all outside views having the lowest fps rates and cause most of the trouble. Anyway let's see what happens when I slowly increase the clocks. Hope I do not burn up my graphics card!:shifty:

:cool:

[DeepIron]

Hi DeepIron

Thanks for the tips. I overclocked the core from 350 to 361 for a start, that is before i read your response, and all went well with just a bit of improvement already. I found that the framerates are different depending on the location you are at, with the maps having the highest and all outside views having the lowest fps rates and cause most of the trouble. Anyway let's see what happens when I slowly increase the clocks. Hope I do not burn up my graphics card!:shifty:

:cool:You bet! You're right about location, the map screen has less "dynamics" to process so you'll see better frame rates there.
I think you'll also find that before you max-out your overclock settings, that the framerates will reach a point and simply not increase any further. This is due in part to the shading code and the fact that the video card has only so many pipelines and processes it can handle anyway...

Good luck! :up:

[Jsbl]

Have your read my earlier post in this thread for the possible solution to your problem? I also had no probs with VISTA and SH4 1.4, but the CTD's began occurring with 1.5. Drivers 174.93 solved my problems.
Yes, I read it and I have been thinking whether I download that driver yet or not. I'm a little suspicious to BETA releases and I usually wait for the release version. But maybe I could give it a try, thanks for your help.

Now I tried it. It didn't fix the problem, though. On explosion I'm getting a black screen which results in a complete system freeze where the reset button is the only soluton.

[Doolittle81]

Have your read my earlier post in this thread for the possible solution to your problem? I also had no probs with VISTA and SH4 1.4, but the CTD's began occurring with 1.5. Drivers 174.93 solved my problems.
Yes, I read it and I have been thinking whether I download that driver yet or not. I'm a little suspicious to BETA releases and I usually wait for the release version. But maybe I could give it a try, thanks for your help.

Now I tried it. It didn't fix the problem, though. On explosion I'm getting a black screen which results in a complete system freeze where the reset button is the only solution.

From my own experience....try disabling Pacific Environment 2 (or the just today released PE3) and using instead the W_Clear's Environment 4.3.

See my post here in the Pacific Environment thread:


It is with HUGE regret that I must now report that I also have the Crash to Black Screen of Death at the first explosion, even just the first minor shell hit on my Sub from a DD...(and even though I am only in periscope view, not external view of an actual explosion...which somehow leads me to think it is NOT a graphics issue at all). I had this prob some time ago shortly after installing SH4 1.5 and thought after much experimentation that I'd cured it by installing the Nvidia 174.93 drivers. However, I realize now that I was not observant or scientifically precise in my research methodology. I had also been playing around trying out W_Clear's Environment MOD at the same time.

I now conclude that I cannot run PE3 (nor the earlier PE 2) with SH4 1.5. I tried PE3 with all in-game graphics Options ON, and also with Each and all of PP and Envronment FX and Volumetric Fog turned OFF, singly and/or enmasse. Always the Crash to BSOD. BUT, when I re-enable Environ4.3 instead of PE3, everything runs just fine with all Graphics Options ON.

As I said, I very much regret not being able to use PE3 with SH4 1.5. Not a MODder myself, but isn't there some way to discover what files differ between the W_Clear Environment MOD and PE3...to help determine what might be causing the supposed extra strain on 8800GTX 768MB cards (seemingly the only card effected) or any other cause of the BSOD only with PE3 plus SH4 1.5, not with Environ 4.3??....and again it is only with PE plus 1.5 as there is absolutely no problem with PE2 or PE3 enabled with SH4 1.4.

PE3 and all its options and with all in-game graphic options maxed out, works just lovely with SH4 1.4.

Go figure. It's way over my head to decipher.

[Laffertytig]

i have nhancer installed so does this mean that it runs alongside the default nvidia driver? the reason i ask is cos ive been told that to optimize my core duo processor i should select "threaded optimization" on the nvidia control panel. i dont see such an option on the nhancer control panel.

it is better to use either the nvidia contol panel or the nhancer one?

[Defiance]

Hiya's,

Hmm not exactly a SH tweak as such

But if you're running vista ........With Duo/Tri/Quad

Get into msconfig (start/type in msconfig or use run if you enabled it)

Goto Boot tab/Click Advanced/Check number of processors, and add your number of cores

Get's vista to boot faster, So in a way it does tweak SH as you get to play it that bit sooner :)

Ciao

Def

[Laffertytig]

does the above post work for xp as well, and does it only improve load times?

and how do programs like nhancer work? if i start nhancer and change settings, does this override nvidia control panel?

[Defiance]

Hiya,

As far as i know the different boot/core allocation is vista/windows 8 onwards so not an option in XP

(not sure about xp64 though ? )

Yeah it speeds up vista boot time (also when vista is 1st installed it takes a week or so and speeds itself up as it learns, handy l'il HAL ehh lol)

As for Nhancer, You best ask here solely about it, Or someone more use to it may answer

Yeah it allows options that maybe hidden etc in standard nvidia control panel

Have Fun

Ciao

Def

ps: Did you get the vista 177.26 drivers sorted ok ??

[Arclight]

does the above post work for xp as well, and does it only improve load times?

and how do programs like nhancer work? if i start nhancer and change settings, does this override nvidia control panel?
Nope, no such thing in XP, even doubt it's in XP64, since it's still just XP.

Nhancer does the same as Nvidia control panel, you're changing the same entries. If you change something in Nhancer, you'll see those changes reflected in the Nvidia control panel next time you start it; so yes, Nhancer basically overwrites those settings. Nhancer just offers a lot more options, Nvidia probably left those out to make the default panel more fool-proof. But fools shouldn't be messing with their settings in the first place. :lol:

Nhancer has an "CPU Multi Core support" option, under the "compatibility" tab. Setting this to "Multi core" allows games to benefit from multi core CPU's, even if the game originally doesn't have such a feature. Disable only (set to "single core") if you're experiencing trouble caused by multi core CPU in a game. If you're having such trouble, you might also try opening up "Task Manager" (ctrl+alt+del), go to "processes" tab and find the process for the game (while it's running offcourse, in this case SH4.exe), right click on it and select "set affinity...". Now disable all but one core to force the process to use just one core.

A nice tweak is actually to do this for all processes that allow it and set everything to run on one core, and set your game to run on the other(s). That way you can make sure the game has almost exclusive excess to that core. ;)

These settings are not stored, they are reset when a process ends, Rebooting will obviously end all running processes, so I wouldn't get in to it unless you're experiencing regular stutters because some process in the background keeps demanding CPU cycles. A better thing to do in this case would be to disable said process through either "msconfig" or "services.msc".

Hope it helps. ;)

[Laffertytig]

ok great in info but one more non tech savvy question.

does nhancer have to be actively runnin to work or is it ok to run it, make the changes then close it down?

[Arclight]

As far as I know the changes are stored in registry, so you don't have to keep it running. Just tested SH4 with Nhancer closed and still had MSAA.

[Doolittle81]

ok great in info but one more non tech savvy question.

does nhancer have to be actively runnin to work or is it ok to run it, make the changes then close it down?

It does not have to be running.

[Schwuppes]

To get rid of texture shimmering one should use 32x S hybrid AA. Like the name sugests its a hybrid between multi sampling and super sampling AA.
Alternatively one could use 4x4 Super sampling. Both modes Look great in SH3.

With SH4 Im not sure but one may have to go down to 8xSQ which is still really nice.

Pure Multisampling is a bit better for softening edges but does not reduce texture shimmering at all.

[Arclight]

I think it's worth mentioning again that anything above 4x MSAA removes the sun halo and possibly thins out smoke in SH4, even 8x or 16x CSAA, which uses a normal 4x MSAA component. Combined modes using even a 2x MSAA component give the same result. Supersampling is fine, but very costly in performance.

Well at least on a 8800GTS 512, using PE3 + NSM.

Schwuppes, I'm guessing you own either a SLI or Crossfire rig? :hmm:
Using max anti-aliasing in SH4 will give any single card a good run for it's money. At least in dense scenes, like Pearl Harbour.

*never mind, just noticed your sig. :lol:

[Schwuppes]

Hi Arclight!

Yes I just have a single 8800GTS G92.
I havent tried SH4 yet, still addicted to SH3 and GWX right now. And in stock res of 1024x768 I can even use 32xS AA with with very smooth gameplay.

When I use the res fix to play in 1680 res I have to drop it back down to 8xSQ.

[Arclight]

Hey dude, :)

Yeah, SH3+GWX is awesome, really love it as well. But the 3D damage in SH4 won me over (for now), nothing like blowing a gaping hole in a freighter. Just a sucker for eyecandy I guess. That, and I have a thing with the Pacific. Guess it's because I played P.T.O 1&2 an awfull lot in the past.

You never noticed the sun halo disappearing? Just a detail, but I can't stand the idea of missing some visuals... Geez, I really am a sucker for eyecandy, aren't I? :lol:

Btw; E6750, P35 MoBo, Kingston memory, 8800GTS... I'd say we have the same taste. :lol:

[CaptainNemo]

Wrong thread, plz delete.

[TopcatWA]

Can you tell me if there are any tweak settings in nHancer when running 2 video cards in SLI Mode? Do I leave it in the auto settings as I see EA Games SH4 is not listed in the Compatibility flags section?

[Ripper]

- Optimizations page:
check Texture filtering High Quality
check Tril. opt. Off or unchecked
check Aniso sample opt. ON (This removes Jaggies and removes the while lines you get around models and waves and rivits etc. If you are running 1920x1080 like me)


The last two options are always disabled when you have texture filtering set to high quality, so setting them has no effect.

If you are using nHnacer, "Enhance in-game AA setting" box should be ON (VERY IMPORTANT... for me, anyway). I think that fixed the texture maps and got rid of the lines in the sky for me.

I found that this kills the antialiasing for me. The way I checked my antialiasing was to go to the bridge and give myself a good, angled view of the three metal plates the TBT is mounted on.

Same experience here. The description of "enhance in-game AA setting" seems to contradict the purpose of the "20000000:EA Strategy Games" compatibility setting so it's no surprise.

[Kloef]

Thanks for the tweak!

I've been trying different things out,and made a profile especially for SH4,the jagged edges are ok(4xAA).

Only thing i cant resolve is that i think the wake behind my boat is too dark,and the sky keeps moving quickly after i did a time acceleration,still sorting that out..you can make it stop by accelerating time and go back to time x1 a couple of times,and they go back in sync,looks really weird.

But all in all i am very happy,especially the AA makes the simulation so much better looking!!

[PappyCain]

I am running these settings - if there is better I am all ears but this is giving me good results:

Anisotropic Filtering = Application controlled
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction = On
Antialiasing = 16XQ
Antialiasing - Transparency = off
Conformant Texture Clamp = use hardware
Extension Limit = Off
Force Mipmaps = bilinear
Multi-Display/mixed-GPU acceleration = single display performance mode
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization = On
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias = Allow
Texture filtering = Quality
Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization = On
Triple Buffering = Off
Vertical Sync = Force On

[Arclight]

For anyone using Nhancer;

Click Tools > Activate Profile > Best Quality (no speeed optimizations). This will set the global profile to... well what it should be IMHO. Now select your game profile and make the tweaks you want.

For SH4;

Set anti-aliasing as desired. DO NOT use enhance in-game settings, as SH4 does not have AA, so there is nothing to enhance! Anything above 4x MSAA will remove the sun's halo and has some more negative effects. You can use transparency AA (multi -or super-) without losing anything... well, beside a little performance. DO NOT enable "Gamma correction".

Again, AFAIK SH4 does not have anisotropic filtering, so set it as desired, not application.

Set anti aliasing compatibility mode to "20000000: EA Strategy Games". This is to get AA working properly, but how and why this works exactly is beyond me.

If you're having frame rate issues, you can reduce your AA / AF settings, and / or enable some or all optimizations to gain some performance. Disabling / reducing in-game graphic options will also gain you performance. How you balance things out is up to you...



So Pappychain, since you asked :) ;

Anisotropic Filtering = Application controlled > set as desired, not "application controlled".
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction = On > off. You can adjust gamma in-game if needed.
Antialiasing = 16XQ > no halo, thin smoke, but it's your choice.
Antialiasing - Transparency = off > multi- or super-
Conformant Texture Clamp = use hardware > normally "on", set to "off" if your having anomalies.
Extension Limit = Off > normally "off", set to "on" if your having anomalies.
Force Mipmaps = bilinear > only use for old games that don't use mipmaps. Probably better to disable.
Multi-Display/mixed-GPU acceleration = single display performance mode
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization = On > off for better graphics, it's a speed optimization.
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias = Allow > clamp for better graphics (if a game uses negative bias).
Texture filtering = Quality > high quality to automatically disable all speed optimizations.
Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization = On > off for better graphics, it's a speed optimization.
Triple Buffering = Off > on if you're using / forcing V-sync.
Vertical Sync = Force On > SH4 has a V-sync option, I suggest you use that (set to "application").

I'm not saying you have to set it like that, but you can improve graphics a lot. Things like setting "force mipmaps" either does nothing at all or cause conflicts with a game like SH4. If you aren't already, I suggest you use Nhancer; it gives more info on options and provides additional links with info.

Hope it helps. ;)

[PappyCain]

Thank you sir - I will give it a try! S'

('PappyChain' .. I resemble that remark!)

[Arclight]

:-? could have sworn I used copy-paste?! Sorry mate, just a typo, I swear it. :lol:

I don't know if the difference is all that noticeable, but you certainly got the horsepower to settle for nothing but the best, graphically. I hope it works out for you. :up:

[IronPerch]

... i'm feelig a bit lazy :88) :

has anyone tuned an optimum solution to run SH4 with Nvidia's 7950GT (512MB) and Vista (Ultimate). Vista's performace rating is round 5 (cpu)? Currently i'm not quite happy with the antialiasing...

[Arclight]

I'd say set for max quality, and tune down if you need more performance. Max 4x MSAA if you don't want to lose the sun halo. First post and my # 191 should tell you all you need to know.

Optimum solution doesn't just depend on your card, memory and CPU also come into play.

[IronPerch]

Thanks Arclight, now the game looks great!!!:sunny: And i didn't have to spend more than a minute for optimizing. The skyline still gives a feeling time to time that there is "large pixels" in the smoothly changing colors, but water, interriors and sub's are great. My black Porpoise has newer been so pretty during sunset :oops:

Here are my settings for 7950 GT:

Anisotropic Filtering = 16
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction = Off
Antialiasing - Setting = 4x
Antialiasing - Transparency = Multisampling
Conformant Texture Clamp = use hardware
Extension Limit = Off
Force Mipmaps = None
Maximum prerendered Frames = 5
Multi-Display/mixed-GPU acceleration = single display performance mode
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization = Off (can't change at all)
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias = clamp
Texture filtering = High Quality
Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization = Off
Triple Buffering = Off
Vertical Sync = Application

I get round 30 - 40 fps while inside the boat and 40 - 50 at deck/outside the ship. Map gives 60.

:up:

[Arclight]

I'm glad it's working out for you. But leave it up to me to find something to nag about :rotfl: ;

Noticed you have prerender limit at 5. Maybe you did this on purpose, i don't know. Copy from Nhancer:


"During the rendering of scenes, the driver usually accepts commands for more than a single frame. This way the GPU doesn't stall the CPU until it's absolutely neccessary.

If the GPU accepts the command for too many frames ahead, additional mouse lag can be introduced, though. That means that there is a very slight delay between the moving of the mouse and the actual reaction on the screen. Using this setting, you can limit the amount of frames the driver accepts ahead of the currently displayed frame. This should be left at the default value (3) to get the best performance.

You can get a faster reaction on your mouse movements in some games by lowering the limit. This might also cause a loss in framerate, though."


Maybe you can get a little boost in performance by setting it back to default, 3 (but maybe not :lol: ). Might be something to tweak a bit to get that optimum solution. ;)

BTW I think you can't change "Anisotropic sample optimization" and "Trilinear Optimization" because "Texture filtering" is set to high quality. Setting it to quality would allow you to enable those (speed) optimizations and gain a little performance at a minimal loss in quality. Just a note.

[IronPerch]

I'm glad it's working out for you. But leave it up to me to find something to nag about :rotfl: ;

Noticed you have prerender limit at 5. Maybe you did this on purpose, i don't know.... Copy from Nhancer:


"During the rendering of scenes, the driver usually accepts commands for more than a single frame. This way the GPU doesn't stall the CPU until it's absolutely neccessary.

If the GPU accepts the command for too many frames ahead, additional mouse lag can be introduced, though. That means that there is a very slight delay between the moving of the mouse and the actual reaction on the screen. Using this setting, you can limit the amount of frames the driver accepts ahead of the currently displayed frame. This should be left at the default value (3) to get the best performance.

You can get a faster reaction on your mouse movements in some games by lowering the limit. This might also cause a loss in framerate, though."


Maybe you can get a little boost in performance by setting it back to default, 3 (but maybe not :lol: ). Might be something to tweak a bit to get that optimum solution. ;)

BTW I think you can't change "Anisotropic sample optimization" and "Trilinear Optimization" because "Texture filtering" is set to high quality. Setting it to quality would allow you to enable those (speed) optimizations and gain a little performance at a minimal loss in quality. Just a note.

Thanks for naging :lol: . I raised the the prerender limit in purpose and i didn't notice any kind of lag, but maybe i should test the setting again with a convoy scene or something. I also like the quality, so if possible let it be High Quality :rock::up:

[skookum]

I would like to know if anyone has solved this white line around submerged objects bug yet. I am running an Nvidia Geforce 8800GS. I get the white garbage around the submerged edges of my vessel no matter what settings I pick in Nhancer. Really irritating.

MODS:
TMO
TMO S-boat engine fix
RSRD
RSRD patch

[Arclight]

No fix that I know of. IIRC Nisgeis or Kriller2 where working on a fix, but this either didn't work out or is still being worked on. Don't think it's something you can tweak out in nHancer or something.

[skookum]

If it helps any, the artifacting only showed up after I installed TMO. Previously I was running RFB and Environmental 4.X with no issues.

[skookum]

Okay, so I am back to RFB with PE4. The white outline underwater went away. now I have a different problem. The volumetric fog shows up on top of my crew, so as to make my bridge crew appear transparent. I have heard of this problem before. Is there a solution and what is it?

Also, the clouds are moving way faster that they would in reality.

[Arclight]

Err, far as I know, transparant crew is something you have to live with. Could try setting "AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games" in nHancer, but don't know if that will do anything if you aren't using AA. :-?

Cloud speed is something that is changed by PE4 (as far as I know). If it goes screwy, it could be because of high TC. Don't exceed x2048 TC.

Haven't been playing much lately, kinda awaiting new RFB release. Let's hope someone who is more up to speed on these issues has any suggestions. (wink wink) :D

[Hylander_1314]

Well, I've tried everything here to fix the graphics for SH4. I'm running two EvGA GeForce 8800GTS 512s in SLI, and the only way I can get the sun flare and other things to look right is to turn off AA completely. Which then looks like **censored**. It really sucks as I built this rig with SH4, SH3, BoBII, and CFS3+O.F.F. in mind. The other three games work fine except SH3 which looks kinda weird on the 28 inch LCD widescreen, as I can't get the widescreen workaround to work right.

I had been running the stock 169.44 drivers that came on the disk for the vidcards, and updated to the 178.13 drivers today. The drivers work fine but seem to cap the frame rates at about 60 fps no matter what screen I'm in.

So if I play with AA on, the screen looks like a 16bit application running on a 32 bit monitor. As the colors look blocky, like Red Baron 3D on a modern system without glide mode. Or I guess the best way to explain it, as the sets below the horizen, you can see the colr bands in the sky as it changes from light to dark. As an example, there's a patch of light grayish blue then a darker band, and a darker band, and so on until the black of night. About 10 to 12 bands of color, as opposed to the smooth transition of color as some pics show.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[kwbgjh2]

Well, I've tried everything here to fix the graphics for SH4. I'm running two EvGA GeForce 8800GTS 512s in SLI, and the only way I can get the sun flare and other things to look right is to turn off AA completely. Which then looks like **censored**. It really sucks as I built this rig with SH4, SH3, BoBII, and CFS3+O.F.F. in mind. The other three games work fine except SH3 which looks kinda weird on the 28 inch LCD widescreen, as I can't get the widescreen workaround to work right.

I had been running the stock 169.44 drivers that came on the disk for the vidcards, and updated to the 178.13 drivers today. The drivers work fine but seem to cap the frame rates at about 60 fps no matter what screen I'm in.

So if I play with AA on, the screen looks like a 16bit application running on a 32 bit monitor. As the colors look blocky, like Red Baron 3D on a modern system without glide mode. Or I guess the best way to explain it, as the sets below the horizen, you can see the colr bands in the sky as it changes from light to dark. As an example, there's a patch of light grayish blue then a darker band, and a darker band, and so on until the black of night. About 10 to 12 bands of color, as opposed to the smooth transition of color as some pics show.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.
I assembled my rig in Sep 2007 just for SH4. Everything was great.
I dont know anything about SLI systems-- i have a single nvidia 8800 GTX. Just 2 comments:

:know::know:
1.) The Monitor thing is easy to explain. If you are like me the owner of a digital monitor, no matter if LCD or TFT, the FPS are limited to the monitors manufactured refresh rate which is always 60 hertz. If you would have a low budget graphic card you may see 25fps or so but you could use the worlds best graphic card---60 fps is the limit.


2.) Since 1.5 (U-Boat Misssions) i always had a crappy ingame graphic when i activate a mod. Sometimes i had CTD, sometimes the game was frozen, sometimes no chance to load a savegame. :damn::damn: I installed EVERY nvidia driver that was released no matter if it was only beta. And four weeks ago i hit the jackpot, the beta driver 177.79 solved my problems. I sweare as long as i have this graphic card or the SH4 game i will never change this driver. :up:

My advice: Download all nvidia drivers you can get and test them one by one. If you have Vista use the option to remove all driver software in the deinstall window before you test the next driver. I wish you all luck.

[Doolittle81]

... I installed EVERY nvidia driver that was released no matter if it was only beta. And four weeks ago i hit the jackpot, the beta driver 177.79 solved my problems. I sweare as long as i have this graphic card or the SH4 game i will never change this driver. :up:...

I will say exactly the same...though in my case it was the 177.26 drivers, released a couple/few months ago, which solved ALL my problems. I've not tried any drivers since then..no need to do so!

I also agree that a Set FPS rate (usually 60 FPS, as in my case) is what you'll get with LCD...(I have a 24" Samsung widescreen Monitor). Actually, I've never understood why people insist on having FPS above 60 anyway, other than for benchmarking bragging rights. Does it really make a difference in any game? In an academic sense, I'm curious.

You'll lose the sun flare, etc, if you go above 4X AA....but I don't find any significant improvement above 4X anyway.

My other suggestion is to run SH4 with SLI disabled. I've read somewhere that SLI is not all it was expected to be, doesn't work well with some games (SH4??), and that the new cards (8800, 9800) match or even exceed SLI visuals.

[kwbgjh2]

I also agree that a Set FPS rate (usually 60 FPS, as in my case) is what you'll get with LCD...(I have a 24" Samsung widescreen Monitor). Actually, I've never understood why people insist on having FPS above 60 anyway, other than for benchmarking bragging rights. Does it really make a difference in any game? In an academic sense, I'm curious...
And to me the main joke is the following: Disable the vertical sync option in SH4 and hit ctrl+F8 and if you system is strong enough u may see 100 fps+ but that is only the number of frames the card sends to the monitor. The monitor is still limited to 60 hertz what means max 60 fps. Beleaving in any higher number of fps displayed on LCD is just self-deception. ;)

[Hylander_1314]

Thanks for the replies! FPS isn't that big an issue to me, as long as I'm not looking at a slide show. Too there is a maximum of how many fps the human eye can actually "see" anyways.

I will try the 177.xx drivers, and I will also try the disabled SLI configuration too. This is also my first LCD setup with a powerhouse graphics system, and enough horsepower to push it along at a nice poke. So I was just thinkin' when I bought all these cool components, and assembling them, that I'll finally for the first time have a powerful enough rig and not have to cut back on anything, or say well, that's good enough, when it really isn't.

Thanks again guys! I'm off to test some stuff!

[Hylander_1314]

Well fellas I tried about 10 different driver versions, and I get the same issue, the only time the sun has that nice corona around it is when I disable the darn AA. If I set it to 2x, 4x, 8XQ, 8x, 16X, or 16XQ, I lose the nice lighting effects, and the rest of the picture looks like it's running in 256 color mode.

So it's a tossup, nice picture with jaggies, or substandard picture with no jaggies.

What a pain.:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:

[Rubini]

Well fellas I tried about 10 different driver versions, and I get the same issue, the only time the sun has that nice corona around it is when I disable the darn AA. If I set it to 2x, 4x, 8XQ, 8x, 16X, or 16XQ, I lose the nice lighting effects, and the rest of the picture looks like it's running in 256 color mode.

So it's a tossup, nice picture with jaggies, or substandard picture with no jaggies.

What a pain.:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:
Do you have nhancer? if so limit your AA to 4x Multisampling and make sure that your gamma correction box is unchecked; these two maintain your sun halo and also a good smoke effect. Also try the 20000000: EA Strategy Games on AA compatibility to have a better overall AA.
All these three are the main settings to have the best AA possible on Sh3/Sh4 for nvidia cards (well, i tested them only on a single 8800GT512 since the first post date).

If this don´t work on a SLI, then, #$%@, nvidia really needs to look at their drives.:nope:

Somebody knows if the new ATi 48x0 series also have these problems with AAxsun halo&smoke?:hmm:

Cheers,

Rubini.

[Aniuk]

Im using Forceware 177.26 on my Nvidia 8800 gts (640 MB). Thanks to this forum. But once in a while I see a flickering while running TMO, PE4 and some smaller mods. Everything else is running smoothly. Should I consider the new 178.13 drivers to get rid of this?

I'm hesitating, maybe it is to much to ask and maybe I should live with the occasional and rare flickering of the sea :nope: :hmm: anybody?

[Arclight]

Go for it. With every new driver you should see an improvement in performance, satbility and compatibility. That's the purpose of improving the things. Of course this is a (very) idealistic view. :roll:

The 177.xx drivers saw some changes, particularly under XP they changed the way shaders were handled. AFAIK the 178.xxs should be building on that and offer an improvement.

Only way to find out is try them. Easy enough to roll back. ;)

[Aniuk]

Go for it. With every new driver you should see an improvement in performance, satbility and compatibility. That's the purpose of improving the things. Of course this is a (very) idealistic view. :roll:

The 177.xx drivers saw some changes, particularly under XP they changed the way shaders were handled. AFAIK the 178.xxs should be building on that and offer an improvement.

Only way to find out is try them. Easy enough to roll back. ;)

Ok thanks. convincing!! I'll go for it. Like I did last time, Large Task Force in the Sea of China, only 4 DD's. Had to roll back to a saved game then. Didnot stand a change :rotfl:

happy hunting,

Aniuk

[Hylander_1314]

Well fellas I tried about 10 different driver versions, and I get the same issue, the only time the sun has that nice corona around it is when I disable the darn AA. If I set it to 2x, 4x, 8XQ, 8x, 16X, or 16XQ, I lose the nice lighting effects, and the rest of the picture looks like it's running in 256 color mode.

So it's a tossup, nice picture with jaggies, or substandard picture with no jaggies.

What a pain.:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:
Do you have nhancer? if so limit your AA to 4x Multisampling and make sure that your gamma correction box is unchecked; these two maintain your sun halo and also a good smoke effect. Also try the 20000000: EA Strategy Games on AA compatibility to have a better overall AA.
All these three are the main settings to have the best AA possible on Sh3/Sh4 for nvidia cards (well, i tested them only on a single 8800GT512 since the first post date).

If this don´t work on a SLI, then, #$%@, nvidia really needs to look at their drives.:nope:

Somebody knows if the new ATi 48x0 series also have these problems with AAxsun halo&smoke?:hmm:

Cheers,

Rubini.

I've tried nhancer twice, but I didn't really care much for it. I was hoping to find a solution without it. Can't say why I don't care for it other than all the extra tweaking to get it going, and then changing it for my other simulators needs, I guess would be the best reason.

I still have it in my downloads folder, so I may have another go at it later.

[Aniuk]

Installed the new forceware and it is running smoothly with the preferred setting mentioned earlier in this thread. 60 fps all the way, exploding torps, etc. no flickering of the sea so far. Thanks Arclight.:up:

[Nisgeis]

Actually, I've never understood why people insist on having FPS above 60 anyway, other than for benchmarking bragging rights. Does it really make a difference in any game? In an academic sense, I'm curious.


Some people say that games that simulate physics do a better job at a higher frame rate. Increasing the frame rate above the sync rate of your monitor will result in tearing of the display when moving the camera, especially noticable when rotating the camera sideways. It's not a good look.

[Arclight]

You're welcome Aniuk. :)
Not that I really did anyting. :lol:


Playing games at 60fps or higher also gives you a bit of a buffer for framedrop without introducing stuttering. Say you're playing a first person game and you're getting low 30s fps. You quickly turn around, the video card quickly needs to render an entire new scene and the fps drops. Not always desirable.

Just that little bit extra can make sure it's smooth all the way. fps above 60 won't make any visual difference, but it can smooth out the general experience.

Personally I can't resist cranking up the quality. I don't play games where that "super-silky-smooth" stuff is needed anyway. (like a first person shooter) :D

[Hylander_1314]

Hey guys / girls,

Well, of all the stupid little things to have to do, is turn off the gamma control only in the nvidia display settings. All other settings are default settings except AA which is set to 4x, which is fine for my other simulators too. And it doesn't interfere with my other games or require any other tweaking between games. Yeah!

Soooooooooooooooooo, if this ever happens to anyone else, going through what I did, have them try turning off the gamma control only, and go from there. It requires no other video programs.

[StarLion45]

:D Hi everyone:D
I see somebody is complaining 'bout "nHancer":o
I don't understand why? It works 100% on my game:yep:
If you all read and follow those instructions that Rubini wrote
is not gonna be any problems.
I tryed it out on my SH4+add-ons and it worked 100%
But I uninstalled it, and installed SH3 instead:smug:
I have NVIDIA GE force 8600 GT 512MB Ram , it works 100%
with that card:lol: So somebody do something wrong I guess:hmm:

[I'm goin' down]

I deleted my question after rereading the original post. The first time I followed the instructions the map was unreadable and the sonar and hydrophones where to dark to see. Then I tried an alternate recommendate posted above and I got the same result. Then I went back the orignal post and followed it. I may have selected different options than previously used when the instructions provided more than one choice. It worked. The pictures are fantastic!! WOW! Now I know how the great copyies of screen shots get posted. Major thank you for this contribution to my game!

[Arclight]

Hey guys / girls,

Well, of all the stupid little things to have to do, is turn off the gamma control only in the nvidia display settings. All other settings are default settings except AA which is set to 4x, which is fine for my other simulators too. And it doesn't interfere with my other games or require any other tweaking between games. Yeah!

Soooooooooooooooooo, if this ever happens to anyone else, going through what I did, have them try turning off the gamma control only, and go from there. It requires no other video programs.Turning of Gamma correction is detailed in the first post, the option will interfere with SH4 for some reason. I'd also advice setting AA to "application controlled" and use profiles for individual games that need AA through the drivers. AA generated by the game engine generally looks/works better at less of a performance hit.

Also, when forcing AA through drivers on a game that has AA itself, use "enhance ingame setting" mode and enable AA in the game (doesn't matter what you set it to, the driver will override the setting). That way you get the AA you want while still using the games "AA method" (better performance/compatibility).

[Griffon345]

Dunno if its the right place but as its an Nvidia 8800gtx with nVidia 180.43beta driver giving me this screwy display:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/3227/sh4img200811202246ws0.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img200811202246ws0.jpg)http://img139.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/8051/sh4img200811202300cj9.th.jpg (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img200811202300cj9.jpg)http://img246.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/715/sh4img200811202301xq0.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img200811202301xq0.jpg)

It seems to be a double 'halo' around the camera. The inner shows more sea surface transparency than the outer with no surface transparency outside of the halo (see the first shot). It disappears with height above the sea resulting in no surface transparency at all. These shots are from the training and single missions.

I've tried all the tips with nHancer and reinstalled from scratch with the same results using stock 1.5 or any MOD.



Thanks in advance for the HELP!?

[Orion2012]

Dunno if its the right place but as its an Nvidia 8800gtx with nVidia 180.43beta driver giving me this screwy display:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/3227/sh4img200811202246ws0.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img200811202246ws0.jpg)http://img139.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/8051/sh4img200811202300cj9.th.jpg (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img200811202300cj9.jpg)http://img246.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/715/sh4img200811202301xq0.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img200811202301xq0.jpg)

It seems to be a double 'halo' around the camera. The inner shows more sea surface transparency than the outer with no surface transparency outside of the halo (see the first shot). It disappears with height above the sea resulting in no surface transparency at all. These shots are from the training and single missions.



I've tried all the tips with nHancer and reinstalled from scratch with the same results using stock 1.5 or any MOD.



Thanks in advance for the HELP!?

I have an alpha OC 8800GT and with the same version on nforce I don't get that result.

Try the latest stable nforce version. Also did you disable everything in nhancer before you updated drivers? In some cases nhancer will effect driver installs due to the changes they make in the registry.

[Griffon345]

Thanks for the suggestion Orion2012. It set me thinking to reset nHancer. Once that was done and then the settings re-done, I got the transparency back. Cheers

[Griffon345]

Does anyone see a 'shimmering' effect when the view is rotated. Occurs through sections of the viewing arc as if there is a FPS slowdown but the ctl F8 display shows steady at 60fps or more. I see it during the Navigation training voyage through 9 o'clock clockwise to 1 o'clock.

MODS:
#1 PE4 Install main
#3_PE4_c_Submarine_Stock_caustics_rolllpitch_deepe r
#4 PE4 Ship_debris_SH4_with bodies
#5_PE4_real_reflections_for_harbour_and_objects
RFB_v1.52_102408
RFB_v1.52_Patch_111608
RSRDC_RFBv15_V396

[punkmaster98]

all of a sudden my sh4 1.5 starts shuddering during gameplay. i recently updated to the most recent nvidia driver

[Hylander_1314]

Which drivers are you using?

[punkmaster98]

honestly im not sure. its the latest one that just came out. how do i find it?

[Very Jerry]

Last year I bought a new computer and added a PNY Gefoce 8500 GT. The game worked at 30fps most of the time. I thought it worked fine, but had no way to see what a 8800 card would look like. Then today I picked up a geforce 9600 GT card and WOW the fps doubled and the definition was terrific. Paid the same $100 for both cards. I'm using driver 178.24, which works great.

I didn't buy a 8800 or 9800 card because I already upgraded the power supply when the computer was new and didn't need that expense again. Of course I should of upgraded to 500 or 600watts instead of the 430watt PSU (original PSU was 250 watts).

Any one else go through the same mess to get to a suitable setup? Next computer will be a custom rig I will put together myself.

[abchirk]

hey

I read the hold topic and tried to follow those instructions for NVIDIA cards..

I have a 7950GT (512mb RAM)
a 2x3,0Ghz CPU
and 4gigbyte RAM
winXP 32bit.

But I get not more than 18fps, also with minimum graphics settings.
What can I do? Please help. The game doesn't run smooth.

[abchirk]

hm noone who is able to help?
I am about to pack in all!

please help... I am really desperated

[abchirk]

hm ok
didn't solve the problem with the nvidia...
But I changed the the NV to a ATI x1800xt, now I got 100fps in lowest graphics and 30fps in High Quality! :rock:
ok

Now I can begin to play! :)

[SH999]

Guys, if you play SHIII and:

1. Have a large (24'') wide screen monitor;
2. Have a nVidia video card;
3. Hate the distorted round shapes in the game due to the wide screen as much as I do;
4. And you still want to benefit from the large screen of your monitor;

you can do the following:

1. Go to your nVidia's driver settings:
2. Go to scaling section of the driver (I'm on a language OS, so in english it may sound different)
3. Check the radio button: "Use nVidia's scaling at the fixed aspect" - or similar
4. Go to change the resolution and set it @ 1600 x 1200 (you'll get black unfilled stripes on the sides of the screen)
5. Go in the game and make sure the Full screen option is checked.
6. Make sure to use the nHancer's settings started by Rubini (and developed by other guys) in this thread - thanks!

What I get is that I have the original aspect of 4:3 GFX in the game and the game's GFX fill out the full height of my large screen (with the blank bands on the sides though). I've got a very slim all black monitor, so the black sides don't catch my eye in the game at all. And I don't have to do the dll tweak btw, for a higher resolution. Which is the best solution for me till the game will be fully retrofitted (if ever) to 16:10 aspect.

Hope somebody will benefit from the above as much as I have. And sorry if it was all covered somewhere already.

Cheers,
SH999.

[tater]

I have an 8800gts, and everything is fine unless I turn on any AA at all (with environment mods installed, BTW). Turn on AA, and my ctrl-f8 alternates between 60, and 0, 1, or sometimes 2.

60, 1, 60, 1, 60, 0, 60, 1, etc

In some screens it's pushing 200 alternating with 1.

AA off, no problems.

[Elder-Pirate]

I've just a 19" LCD wide screen using a GeForce 7800 GS 256 MB AGP with win XP Home.

At first the monitor autoed the res to 1024 X 768 ( but FULL screen ) and everything looked horrible, then I looked at the option screen under resolutions and 1360 x 768 85.48 with different HZ were highlighted so I took the 75 HZ and it is the best for both my graphic card and monitor. Not perfect but good enough.

Here are a few screens taken just for these shots at submarine school.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/resolutionstwo.jpg

As you can see it starts out at the normal SH res at 1024 X 768 and the computer set it this way and at 60 HZ, then when I scrolled down a little is when I saw the 1360 X 768's with diff HZ were highlighted. Now why didn't the computer set it this way in the first place?
I tried ( for the heck of it ) all the res listed and this one at 1360 X 768 is the best for my rig.

Round objects are a little squished but I can live with it.
But the entire 19" screen is full for the game.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Highlightedat1360x7688548.jpg

:oops: Sorry for the large two pics on top, I sized the others down.


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Loadingup.jpg

Game loading screen.




Oh jeez, aircraft and ships spotted already..oh that's right its just school craft. :sunny:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Readyforbattle.jpg


Dials aren't to egg shaped and I can live with it.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Dialsnottobadshapewise.jpg




http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/oleman/Takingthedayoff.jpg

So here is the old girl taking the day off not to far from the beach. ;)

I like my 19" monitor a lot and it sure beats my old bulky 17" CRT. :woot:

[AGOSTINO]

What are the best settings for SH4 with GeForce 8600 GTS, in the nVidia Control Panel?? :hmmm:
Thanks in advance!!! :salute:

[tater]

^^^ read first post.

[Webster]

What are the best settings for SH4 with GeForce 8600 GTS, in the nVidia Control Panel?? :hmmm:
Thanks in advance!!! :salute:


just a reminder, when you use black colored letters, anyone who uses the default "smartdark" skin on this site when we look at your post we only sees this:



:hmmm:
:salute:



and thats it

[Webster]

i was wondering about the brand new drivers invidia just put out, does it fix any of these tweaks so you dont need them anymore? do they still work the same?

[Elder-Pirate]

What are the best settings for SH4 with GeForce 8600 GTS, in the nVidia Control Panel?? :hmmm:
Thanks in advance!!! :salute:


just a reminder, when you use black colored letters, anyone who uses the default "smartdark" skin on this site when we look at your post we only sees this:



:hmmm:
:salute:



and thats it


True, but all that you need to do is "Highlight" those words to read with no problem. :DL

[kstanb]

Hi, first post!
does anyone plays SHIV with older video cards?
I have a GeForce 7300 (my PC is relatively old >- 2006), I have no issues with SHIII (runs smoothly) but just recently bought SHIV and the frame rate is horrible, it gets a little better with the lowest resolution, but it is still a poor gaming experience compared to SHIII, mouse moving and clicking is frustrating, (sometimes I need to click more than once to get it)

I want to know if tweaking will significantly help, or if it is time to buy a new video card

thanks!

[Arclight]

Welcome aboard. :up:

Tweaking is more likely to get rid of visual glitches then improve performance. For better performance, overclocking is gonna yield more results, but that isn't gonna help getting a 7300 moving. It's pretty low spec. For some decent performance I'd look to a 7600/8600/9600 or better, or an ATI equivalent.

For the moment, you could try turning of graphic options in-game and playing at low res, but a graphics upgrade is gonna be desirable.

Hope it helps. ;)

[kstanb]

Welcome aboard. :up:

Tweaking is more likely to get rid of visual glitches then improve performance. For better performance, overclocking is gonna yield more results, but that isn't gonna help getting a 7300 moving. It's pretty low spec. For some decent performance I'd look to a 7600/8600/9600 or better, or an ATI equivalent.

For the moment, you could try turning of graphic options in-game and playing at low res, but a graphics upgrade is gonna be desirable.

Hope it helps. ;)

Yes, thanks a lot, but what is overclocking?

I guess it is time for shopping

[AVGWarhawk]

Yes, thanks a lot, but what is overclocking?

I guess it is time for shopping

Set aside overclocking for the moment. What are the specs of the RAM and CPU?

[kstanb]

Set aside overclocking for the moment. What are the specs of the RAM and CPU?

specs are:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 4200+ 2.2GHz

2 GB Ram

[Arclight]

That's not too bad, right? Definitely enough to support a better card. If you want to enjoy SH4 properly (or should I say visually), IMO a graphics upgrade is in order.

If you don't want to upgrade just for SH4, or don't have the money, stick with SH3. A lot of people feel that it is more immersive anyway. Biggest bonus from SH4 is (arguably) the updated graphics. ;)

[kstanb]

That's not too bad, right? Definitely enough to support a better card. If you want to enjoy SH4 properly (or should I say visually), IMO a graphics upgrade is in order.

If you don't want to upgrade just for SH4, or don't have the money, stick with SH3. A lot of people feel that it is more immersive anyway. Biggest bonus from SH4 is (arguably) the updated graphics. ;)

thanks a lot, really appreciate your help

I will probably buy a better card since prices are not that bad for 9 series or equivalents

[Arclight]

Just don't go lower then a x4xx card, geforce 9400 for example. That is if you're a casual gamer. For more enjoyment (smooth gameplay, good quality) I'd suggest 9600 or better. Do your homework and do a little research on which card to get. Ask some questions on forums with people who have some hands-on experience. Those cards are expensive and it sucks to realize you made the wrong choice afterwards. ;)

Good luck. :salute:

[captziggy]

I found out that my power supply was not good enough for my graphics card. You need at least 500 watts of power to drive any of the decent cards. You should also think about your computer chip as part of the package. I run a AMD5000+ chip, 550 watt power supply, And a Nvidia 8800gt OC. The graphics card comes overclocked from the factory, But I used their Ntune software to push it to the limit. The game runs with all the bells and whistles at 1280x1024 resolution. Has not failed yet. captziggy:salute:

[captziggy]

Just one more thought on computer building. I forgot (Too much beer!) to say you should have at least 4 gigs of ram and a decent LCD flatscreen to go with the system.:88)

[mheil]

I agree with arclight. There's a lot of good cards out there that aren't that expensive. Look around these forums and review each card before you buy. The first card I got was an impulse buy and it was crap. Second card was a Geforce 9400 - lower end but I can run SHIV full out w/o my casual use eyes being offended.

[Arclight]

Just one more thought on computer building. I forgot (Too much beer!) to say you should have at least 4 gigs of ram and a decent LCD flatscreen to go with the system.:88)I have 2GB and run all the latest games with it, 4GB is not strictly nescesary but advisable if you have Vista. Something to keep in mind when you purchase 4GB RAM is that you need a 64-bit OS to support it (and a 64-bit system, but that goes without saying).

*oh, and my old CRT is perfect for gaming. Fast respons, high natural contrast and colour true. But I agree that on a LCD you need to do some research as well. Look for the 3 things I mentioned and pay attention to it's native resolution; an LCD looks crappy on any res other then that. If you buy a 1600x1200 LCD and plug it into a geforce 6200 it's not gonna perform (card can't handle the high res). Try to "match" your screen and card: High native res needs a high-end card.

[Webster]

Hi, first post!
does anyone plays SHIV with older video cards?
I have a GeForce 7300 (my PC is relatively old >- 2006), I have no issues with SHIII (runs smoothly) but just recently bought SHIV and the frame rate is horrible, it gets a little better with the lowest resolution, but it is still a poor gaming experience compared to SHIII, mouse moving and clicking is frustrating, (sometimes I need to click more than once to get it)

I want to know if tweaking will significantly help, or if it is time to buy a new video card

thanks!


i used to run sh4 with a pentium 4 single core 2.8ghz cpu, 2gb ddr400 ram and a gs7600 and it did ok most of the time except things like the midway mission where AI stuff was going on everywhere, then it got real slow.

just make sure you keep the event window turned off because that will relly drop fps to nothing. :salute: