74 replies to this topic

[Lee200]

I recently bought a laptop as a secondary PC for travel.  This was my first experience with Windows 10, an ultra wide (1920x1080) screen, and a modern laptop.  Running GPL was a primary concern of course.  It's taken a lot of work, but thanks to posts here on the forum, I've finally gotten GPL running well.  Here are some notes about what it took which might help others if they have a similar laptop.

The laptop is an Acer Aspire 15 which has two graphics processing units (gpu); an integrated Intel ® UHD Graphics 620 and a separate Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card gpu.  What is cool about this configuration is that the PC always uses the Intel gpu for screen display, but can augment that with the MX150 gpu for 3D processing with programs such as GPL.  The PC is considered a "budget" laptop as it costs $600 U.S. and is not intended for heavy gaming.

Here are the steps I needed to run GPL:

A.  Windows 10 v1803:

Settings/System/Display/Graphics Settings.  Can choose individual programs and then set Graphics Specifications to Power Saving Mode for Intel ® UHD Graphics 620 or High Performance Mode for Nvidia GeForce MX150.  I set all GPL mod .exes to use the High Performance mode.
Settings/System/Display/Advanced Scaling Settings.  Let Windows Try To Fix Apps So They're Not Blurry--ON.  Eliminates nag screen on GPL start.
Settings/System/Focus Assist--OFF.
Settings/System/Notifications & Actions.  igfxEM Module--OFF.  Eliminates nag screen about Optimal Resolution Notification.
Settings/System/Power & Sleep/Additional Power Settings.  Allows Power Plan selection of Balanced or High Performance.  Have seen some posts that High Performance is needed to use the MX150 gpu so I selected that.
User Account Control.  When set at "default" setting (one notch down), starting GEM+ or GPL Setup Manager causes Windows to ask for permission to run the programs, but GPL itself runs OK when started from GEM+.

B.  GPL Menu Displays Using Intel GPU:

GPL Menus are 640x480 resolution and must be upscaled to fill a 1920x1080 resolution screen entirely.
Installed new drivers, v24.20.100.6170, for the Intel gpu which apparently also installed the Intel Graphics app.  The original drivers that came with the Acer were generic.  The Intel Graphics app (right click on desktop to access) has a Screen Scaling Setting with four options:

1.  Maintain Display Scaling--upscales GPL menus and driving and replay screens to fit screen in height, but not width.
2.  Maintain Aspect Ratio--upscales GPL menus and driving and replay screens to fit screen in height, but not width.
3.  Scale Full Screen--upscales GPL menus to fit the full height and width of the screen.  Driving and replay screens are the same and show both black bars.  Use this setting.
4.  Center Image--runs GPL menus at native 640x480 resolution with no upscaling so are very small.

C.  GPL 3D Displays Using Nvidia GPU:

Installed Nvidia Control Panel v8.1.940.0 (right click on desktop to access) by installing Nvidia GeForce Experience.  Nvidia drivers are v388.73.  This allows three major options all of which cause the MX150 gpu to augment the Intel gpu:

1.  Let The 3D Application Decide.
2.  Use The Advanced 3D Image Settings.  Has a link to set global 3D graphics settings for all programs.  Can set to use Nvidia graphics, Integrated graphics, or Auto Select.  Can also select and apply unique 3D settings to individual programs which override the global settings.  I set the GPL mod .exes to use Nvidia graphics and unique 3D settings.
3.  Use My Preference Emphasizing:
A.  Performance
B.  Balanced
C.  Quality

D.  Nvidia Card Settings:

I use Stefan's Nvidia settings which pretty much max out the gpu performance (https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...=45#entry134359).  Graphics quality is excellent and curved objects such as fenders are very smooth.
Get 30 fps at BoG which quickly increases to 36 fps after start with 1967 F1 and Sports Cars.  Produces a lot of heat though.

With Direct 3D7v2--Let 3D Application Decide, Use the Advanced 3D Image Settings, and Use My Preference Performance or Quality options all force MX150 gpu usage, but still only uses 5% or 6% of its capacity.  Intel gpu does most of the 3D processing at over 50%!  Also, fps cycles between 29 to 36 on a regular basis.  What would cause this?

With OpenGLv2--all options appear to use the MX150 gpu at 20% and the Intel gpu usage drops to 10%.  Also, fps is stable.

Conclusion--OpenGLv2 is the better rasterizer as it uses more of the MX150 gpu capacity and also provides more stable fps.

E.  GEM+:

Can select Direct 3D, Open GL, Direct 3Dv2, or Open GLv2 rasterizers.
Rasterizer button allows custom resolution of 1920x1080 to match the screen resolution.
Graphics button resolution is blank with Direct 3Dv1 and both Open GL rasterizers.  Initially, can select 1920x1080 resolution only with Direct 3Dv2 rasterizer!

1.  Select Direct 3Dv2 or OpenGL v2 rasterizer.
2.  Set 1920x1080 in Rasterizer button custom resolution.
3.  Select 1920x1080 in the Graphics button for Direct 3Dv2.  Cannot select this resolution in OpenGLv2 initially so select 1280x1024 or just leave blank for now.
4.  Optional--Select 88 degree FOV for Sports Car mod, 78 degree FOV for others, or set as desired.

F.  GPL .EXE File:

If a setting other than 100% is used in the Windows Settings/System/Display/Scale And Layout (Windows recommends 125% for my display), then the player's driving and replay views are distorted.  The display will be offset in width and the bottom black bar won't show.  Also, round objects such as the steering wheel will be oval shaped.

Here is the fix:
1.  Right click mod .exe file
2.  Select Properties/Compatibilities
3.  Select Override High DPI Scaling Behavior
4.  Select Scaling Performed By Application

Do this for each mod .exe, but once done, Windows apparently remembers the setting for subsequent mod .exe rebuilds.
See here:
https://support.micr...rams-compatible
https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde....n scaling&st=0
https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...screen +scaling

A small issue is that the driver position will still be offset slightly from the center of the steering wheel.  Perhaps use GPL Shift to adjust view position slightly?

G.  GPL:

Select Options/Graphics resolution to 1920x1080 for Direct 3Dv2; 1280x1024 for OpenGLv2 if 1920x1080 is not available.  After running GPL with Direct 3Dv2, you can select 1920x1080 with OpenGLv2...weird!

[ginetto]

Thank you Lee.

Very detailed tutorial.



Pinned

[M Needforspeed]

Lee,


after the step B 3 setting you are using, the black bars are shown. But does the setting in GEM to display GPL with the black bars hidden work ?


Thank you for your step by step cristal clear tutorial.

Edited by M Needforspeed, Oct 11 2018 - 02:27 PM.

[Lee200]

Yes.  If you use my Letterbox patch, then the black bars will be hidden.  

Edited by Lee200, Oct 11 2018 - 03:33 PM.

[Lee200]

Others may already have a laptop with a similar configuration.

I've been testing the various settings to get the best possible image quality and fps with various mods.  The '67 F1 "mod" always provides 36 fps at all tracks.  What is weird is that with the more graphics intensive Sports Car mod, I'm seeing 30 fps at the BOG which quickly goes to 36 fps after race start.  This happens at all tracks though...even old tracks where the graphics aren't that great.

What would cause this?

I've read that some laptops throttle the cpu/gpu back under some circumstances...like when the the processor overheats, but I'm seeing this behavior when the PC first starts and the cpu/gpu processors are still cool.

My Acer doesn't have any BIOS settings for controlling throttle backs.

[M Needforspeed]

Thanks Lee, and also to remind me you did the great Letterbox patch.

The sport car mod cars textures are the more demanding of all the mods, but other than that on my home PC, I experience the same drop in fps at the BOG with this mod, whatever track I select ( Win 7);With quite all the tracks and the others mod, I get 36 fps.

Edited by M Needforspeed, Oct 12 2018 - 09:06 AM.

[Lee200]

That's interesting.  Apparently the Sports Car mod cars are much more graphics intensive than the tracks.  Before my tests, I assumed that the track graphics would have some effect on fps, but I'm not seeing it with this mod.

I'm still learning how a laptop with two gpus works and have been using Windows 10's Task Manager to monitor the cpu and gpu work loads while GPL is running.  What's weird is that at 30 fps, the cpu and both gpus are running at less than 20% capacity.  I would have thought that at 30 fps, one of them would be maxed out at 100%.  Apparently something else is limiting the fps.

Edited by Lee200, Oct 12 2018 - 11:00 AM.

[M Needforspeed]

Thanks to you for your analysis as you are monitoring the gpu and cpu, which I never did.

What I also remember is the number of cars on the grid incidence on the BOG fps.It was when with Sky at the repository we tested the GPL incidence on the VRAM memory use at Spa67.Afaik, the most demanding GPl track at the BOG.
With the others mod I tested ( never tried with the Can Am 71) at he fps hungry Spa67 track, with 8 AIs or 19 ais on the grid, there was an effect ( 32/33 Fps instead of 36 ).

With the Sport Car Mod, whatever the number of Ais (between 6 or 14, that is the max with the historical mod) I got the same number ( 27/28).
So the fps drop is not so much AI's related.Only a few Ais cars  using Sky 1024 X1024 mixed with 2048X2048 skins, and the fps drop to 27.

I have not the knowledge  to relate the drop to the high resolution cars skins factor. it is only my observation.

Edited by M Needforspeed, Oct 12 2018 - 11:50 AM.

[t3r]

This is most useful, Lee .  Thank you for the detailed information.

My Windows 7 desktop is becoming very old and I shudder at the thought of getting GPL to work on a new Windows 10 machine.

Eddie

Edited by t3r, Oct 16 2018 - 08:54 PM.

[Lee200]

Glad to help.  I too shuddered at the thought of changing operating systems, but found that there still is life in GPL after Windows 98, XP, and 7.  

Edited by Lee200, Oct 17 2018 - 04:50 AM.

[John Woods]

M Needforspeed, on Oct 12 2018 - 11:45 AM, said:

I have not the knowledge  to relate the drop to the high resolution cars skins factor. it is only my observation.

Yes, and graphics around S/F are by necessity and for accuracy loaded up with tons of hi-rez detail on buildings, cars, and track.

Way in the past thought thru-put speeds, between gpu, cpu, memories, etc was major issue as typically the speeds are all different and there will be points where one piece of hardware is faster than the input or output of another.

Maybe that's no longer the case?

If you think the grid area at Spa67 is loaded up, for fun try reducing trackside objects in the GPL Menu and get an idea of how loaded up, how complex, and how amazing the work of editors can be. (Warning - track might not load up at all so just keep that in mind if you try).


Thank you Lee.

Edited by John Woods, Oct 17 2018 - 07:31 AM.

[leon_90]

Thanks Lee, very detailed and informative! Thanks for taking the time to write everything down

[Evil Fuzzy]

Thank you Lee. This was very helpful as I migrated my GPL install to a new laptop.
Everything seems to be running great. I did notice one odd thing that I can't get my head around on the new system: GEM now always rebuilds all the mod exe's, whereas on my previous setup it only rebuilt the exe's that I made changes to

Hoping to do some laps later. Unfortunately without manual clutch as windows 10 decided not to recognize the clutch pedal of the G27

[Lee200]

Glad to help...I too notice that GEM+ usually rebuilds the mod .exe even though there hasn't been changes made.  It's just a minor bug and we're lucky that GEM+ still works as well as it does considering that it was written in VB6 which now a dead language.

[ginetto]

To me GEM+ always worked that way; every time I push the green or red button it rewrites all the exes of the mods I 've installed.
This happened  a decade ago in XP and still now in win 7.

[Stuntman Daz]

Aha, thanks for this. I had to run it in 1280x720 to make it fill the screen properly, but after changing the high DPI setting for every single .exe it now fills the screen properly in 1920x1080

[lorenzo]

Thanks Lee!

One remark for those who want to run GPL on Intel HD GPUs: Use an fps or recording overlay (e.g. FRAPS) in order to be able to run OpenGLV2 rasterizer. There is a thread somewhere here on this. Out of curiosity I tried GPL on my Laptop with Intel HD5500 chipset. It ran only with Direct3DV1 but menu screens were lagging and frame rate was fluctuating a lot. D3DV2 chrashed and OGL V1 and V2 gave black screens although the game was running. With FRAPS (fps overlay must be enabled) it runs with OGLV2 at a rock solid 36fps at back of the grid in Monza. Haven't tried the more demanding tracks yet. I expect not too much at Spa67 or Monacane.

Best!

JLo

[lorenzo]

Here's the topic I am referring to:

https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...showtopic=12715

[nelson83]

Thanks Lee for this very informative tutorial! I recently bought a HP8570 laptop which I run in dual Win10 / Win XP configuration. I have planned to install GPL on the Win XP partition as this seems more easy than on the Win10. Anyway, the screen resolution is 1920 x 1080 so I will also have to make it fill in height with black fields to the sides. Can I use a similar function in XP as described for Win10 in the tutorial, to specify the resolution for a specific program (i.e. GPL)? Many thanks for any advice on this.

[Lee200]

You're welcome.  

Yes, XP and 10 share the same methods for setting the driving screen resolution.  You'll be able to run 1920x1080 without problem.

Edited by Lee200, Dec 26 2019 - 03:15 PM.