7 replies to this topic

[BrunoB]

Tuning NR2003/GTP for higest graphical quality in Vista/W7
After building a system that is running NR2003/GTP at the highest settings (graphics and sound) I have tested following settings that garantee that this sim runs with highest quality.
Check out if your own settings are uptodate or if they need further optimizing.

As introduction serves a refreshing view about AA/AF taken from the german magazine PC Games & HW (my bible:-)
Because conserning both AA(AntiAliasing) and AF(AnisotropicFiltering) then HW forced settings (settings made in the driver menu) establish the ground,
but SW settings (settings made in the game) can sometimes lower these settings by a kind of negative codependence.

Conserning solely AF then there is a difference between how the Geforce and Catalyst transfer HW and SW settings:
AF: Geforce HW(Off) + SW(On) = Off
AF: Catalyst HW(Off) + SW(On) = On. IE SW settings are able to overrun and alter HW settings on Radeon systems!
Conclusion: Force the AF settings only in HW to be sure. If set too in SW then check by benchmarking. If the fps is now higher then its an indication of a negative SW "optimization".

Advanced driver settings for NR2003/GTP.
Start by checking your Radeon Catalyst settings out.
Maximum quality graphic settings:
AA(Anti-Aliasing)
Unticle Use application settings
Level 8x(max)
Filter Edge-detect = Samples: 24x(max)
AF(Anisotropic Filtering)
Unticle Use application settings (Be aware that eventhough unticled application settings still do influence!!)
Per pix samples 16x(max)
Catalyst A.I.
Disable Catalyst A.I. (from Help info: Disable per application video driver optimizations!(Euphemism:-)
Mipmap Detail Level
Quality
Wait for vertical refresh
AllwaysOff(Performance) (for V-refresh ON see below)
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing
Enable Adaptive Anti-Aliasing
Quality
OpenGL Settings
Unticle Triple buffering(unless you run OpenGL with V-refresh ON see below)

AA(AntiAliasing)
Conserning AA in NR2003 then it can only be set in the driver. If you have a potent Radeon card then max AA settings is 8x + HW(EdgeDetect) = 24x CustomAA.
Note: EdgeDetect is absolutely the best/sharpest and Box is the poorest setting. Its very easy to show if you make a PrintScrn with different settings.

AF(AnisotropicFiltering)
Conserning AF is quite another story. Accepting the general remarks above then do force the max AF settings only in the driver menu and set AnisotropicLevel=0 in rend_dxg.ini.
I have been benchmarking a lot of different combinations using a mix of both HW and SW AF settings. Conclusion: Adding a SW value of anything else than 0 makes it uncertain which settings are really used.
And using Fraps for benchmarking with repeatedly the same replay file! its very easy to proof that there actually is an odd codependency between using both HW and SW settings. Feel free to prove me wrong:-)

Before going further and do the manually editing of SW settings (the ini-files) check in the NR2003>Options>Graphics that everything is enabled and set to highest settings.
And then leave the more advanced SW settings to the the following ini-editing.
Be aware that its the setting Texture Filtering Quality to Extreme in the NR2003/GTP menu that allows Anisotropic Filtering to be used.
Feel free to decide the values for Maximum Opponents Drawn Ahead/In Mirror. I use some rather conservative values of 25/7.
If you dont want to know the reason why the different settings are as they are (and you have a system equal the i7/HD4870 presented),
then just copy the values from Total collection of optimized ini-values to your different ini-files. And you are ready to roll.

Optimized MaxBlockSize/PoolSize=(total ram 6144Mb * 1024) = 6291456 > = 524288 Check my post underneath: 1 single re-revision. Sorry.

====================================================================================================================================================================
Total collection of optimized ini-values:
Core.ini MaxBlockSize/PoolSize=524288, Cachesize=14194304(orig false value= 4194304)
rend_dxg.ini TextureSetSize=-1, AnisotropicLevel=0(use only forced by driver 16x)
gtp_settings.ini TextureSetSize=-1, ForceMaxTexture=1, Override_TextureSetSize=1(to accept max TextureSet value), Override_MipmapLODBias=1(to accept best MipmapLOD value of -0.5)
player.ini filtering_level=2(Ani), reflections_on_cars=1, reflections_on_structures=1, draw_ahead_distance=100(Max), draw_behind_distance=100(Max), enable_CarMegaShader=1, enable_ShadowVolumes=1,
render_speed_weight=0(quality), texture_quality=-1(Auto), world_detail=2, import_textures_with_compression=0.
====================================================================================================================================================================

Remarks:
TextureSetSize=-1
Revision: In my former "Graphical Tweaks" I advocated the standard calculation for TextureSetSize based on the amount of G-card ram.
This is completely obsolete! From the FSBracing forum I have instead got an absolutely stunning advice!
Instead of the standard calculation you just enter TextureSetSize=-1 into rend_dxg.ini/gtp_settings.ini.
I must admit that entering the -1 value into gtp_settings.ini doesnt look much different to me. But its this negative value in rend_dxg.ini that changes the graphics completely!
But for conformitys sake(between rend_dxg.ini/gtp_settings.ini) remember that any changes via the GTP Launcher will overwrite the negative value in the gtp_settings.ini.
But a more urgent advice is to check the TextureSetSize value after any use/run of the graphic util Config.exe. Because this program replaces the negative value with something else!

enable_CarMegaShader=1
This moves cars reflection rendering CPU > GPU  and gives about + 5-7% more fps.
But because of some anomaly/bug you have to set all reflections and all shadows ON in the NR2003/GTP Graphic Options.
Othervise you will get some flickering/shadowing(?) inside the cockpit come and go (often after a replay) and/or sometimes the reflections/shadows on the car comes and go too.

enable_ShadowVolumes=1
This also moves shadowing rendering CPU > GPU  and gives about + 2-3% more fps. But the shadows are rendered much more realistic.
The only downside is the possibility of some small black "nosepicks" now and then in front of the car dependent of the track (example from Silverstone).

Activating VSync with Radeon cards
People who hasnt tried to run a game with VSync enabled are up to a surprice.
The picture on the screen is much more "steady and calm" without all the irritating tearing and stuff.
But until now I havent seen a post from someone who has succeded in activating VSync in the GTP mod. Maybe because its impossible to do via Catalyst Control Center.
You have to use the ATI Tray Tools auto oc mode and then create a game profile with VSync and Tripple Buffer(!) enabled in Direct3D Tweaks.
Then this game profile has to be activated by the GTP_Launchers alter ego: tmp.exe.
Note: Tmp.exe is as the name suggests a temporary file only in existence as long as NR2003/GTP is running.
But when you make your ATT profile activated by this tmp.exe you have automatically VSync and Tripple Buff enablet when you start GTP up.

Drawing Distance
Changing the draw_ahead_distance=70>100(Player.ini) reduces the fps about 7%.
Changing the draw_behind_distance=70>100 (Player.ini) raises the fps about 0.5% (on my system:-)

HiRes textures
For those who import car/crew templates through the Opponent Manager menu then changing import_textures_with_compression=1>0 (Player.ini) allows HiRes 1024x1024 to be imported uncompressed.
Be aware that its only your future imports that get uncompressed:-)

BrunoB ‎20-‎08-‎2011

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Edited by BrunoB, Aug 30 2011 - 01:43 AM.

[John Woods]

Thanks, BrunoB,
Lots of words there, and things to do!
I'll check it out, slowly, to get things right I hope.
But I use XP, so we'll see I guess.

[BrunoB]

Hey John
Is it that bad?:-):-)
But its worth the effort.
And you will probably be up for a nice surprise when you enter the negative -1 value.
Even in XP:-)

[Burnsy865]

Thanks BrunoB  

[jgf]

Setting TextureSetSize=-1 is the "auto" setting;  rather than a fixed memory allocation, this allows the OS and GPU to negotiate the size dynamically based on texture sizes, screen resolution, etc.  The calculations for the set values were done ages ago when systems had less ram, vid cards had less memory, monitors were smaller and ran lower resolutions, and wide screen formats were virtually unknown for home PCs.  There is a small amount of cpu/gpu overhead involved when using the automatic setting but most modern PCs can easily run N2003/GTP anyway so this is inconsequential.

There's an interesting debate over this at:

https://www.simracing...rr-issue-3.html


As an inveterate tweaker I've played with these settings over the years on different computers, XP and Vista, GeForce and ATi cards, and unless I went to extremes didn't see any great difference (under some circumstances the Sauber cockpit is absolutely horrible).  As the above thread points out, any setting may give excellent graphics on one mod and be blurry on another, or may give unacceptable results on a couple of tracks and not on others.  

I think this is a situation of final results being dependent on the arcane interaction of numerous system components and settings.  (Like the sound in GPL on my Vista system;  mediocre at best with two different audio cards, it suddenly became quite acceptable when I changed the vid card!)

[BrunoB]

jgf, on Aug 25 2011 - 06:31 AM, said:

Setting TextureSetSize=-1 is the "auto" setting;  rather than a fixed memory allocation, this allows the OS and GPU to negotiate the size dynamically based on texture sizes, screen resolution, etc.

Yes I know. Or at least I discovered it when I reserched a bit of why I got so big improvement using the -1 value on my rig.
By the way. I have found an single analogue further graphic improvement for the Player.ini:
texture_quality=100(max) > -1(Auto)

Conserning how big improvement is possible on some systems I have stolen:-) 2 pics Before/after the change to -1 in the rend_dxg.ini.(from the FSB Racing forum)
Check the lattice to the left and the front grille where the improvement is obvious.
BrunoB

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Edited by BrunoB, Aug 26 2011 - 03:06 AM.

[BrunoB]

Oh by the way jgf
Thank you for the link.
Im just digging my way through it:-)

[BrunoB]

BrunoB, on Aug 26 2011 - 03:10 AM, said:

1 single re-revision. Sorry.
The only re-revision on the advices above is conserning the calculation of Core.ini (maxblocksize/PoolSize).
Digging deeply into this issue tells me now that the old NR2003 advice of not going higher than 512Mb ram * 1024 = 524288 its probably right.
1 month ago I got a completely nonexpected PC crash after a 1½ hours GTP race in the FSB legue.
Im not lying but 50 m after the finish line I got black screen. 5o m!:-)
And when I read the Liable post underneath something was ringing.
Now I use maxblocksize/PoolSize=524288

But this is the only value I have changed!
I still insist that all the other advices are the best you can get:-)
BrunoB

dcoral, on Aug 26 2011 - 03:10 AM, said:

https://www.simracing...rr-issue-3.html
-In addition to TextureSetSize, A safe adjustment regardless of the amount of Phyiscal Memory your machine has is going into your core.ini Memory Section and set the MaxBlockSize+PoolSize both to 524288.
Although most Machines these days have a ton of Physical memory, sometimes figures other than these will throw curve balls at how NR2003 performs...
these Figures are Safe, and Fool Proof Proven for any system regardless of it's hardware configuration.

Smetzler19, on Aug 26 2011 - 03:10 AM, said:

https://www.fusion-si...php?f=25&p=2107
I found that the only setting that caused issues on my PC () was the maxblocksize setting in core.ini.
I have 3GB of system RAM () so i figured I would definitely improve the system if I changed that setting to match the 3GB of RAM installed.
If I moved it from the default of 524288 to almost any other value I experienced issues where my frame rate would intermittently drop to 5-10 from 70-100 with all eye candy enabled.
Changing options in the game (reflections, lighting, drawing distance, # of cars, etc.) had zero effect.
Only returning the maxblocksize setting to 524288 resolved the issue.
I have found that the setting that has the biggest effect on the clarity of the graphics () is texturesetsize in rend_dxg.ini.

Liable, on Aug 26 2011 - 03:10 AM, said:

https://www.teamslm.c...?showtopic=4176
You can mess with maxblocksize for a long time before getting a significant increase without the game crashing, and even then, there is very little performance gain
(I never noticed a benefit with 1024+768 megs).
The game may even run 99% of the time after an adjustment and then bomb on the last lap of a major race. It's happened to me more than once... just not worth it.

Also "maxblocksize" isn't referring to the amount of RAM you have, but a chunk of RAM in the memory model itself that Papy uses.
() The poolsize is also related to that, and I never mess with it either.