The 16:9 vs. 16:10 question

[DennydD]

Being unhappy with my ability to spot dots I searched some threads and again stumbled across the suggestion to change the resolution of the game. My native screen resolution is 1080p and after reading into it I changed my game resolution to 1680x1050. After some testing I found it way more easy to spot dots. I'm not a master but somehow it seems more easy now.

The odd thing is that in the threads I read most of the 16:9 ppl complain while the guys with 16:10 seem to be fine. No need to mention that 1680x1050 is 16:10. While running this 1680x1050 resolution the game looks different. Even the stile of the text messages changed.

Thinking about this I came to this conclusion: CloD is "optimzed" for 16:10. Back when it was developed 16:10 was the thing to come but it turned out that 16:9 became prevalent.
Also there is this old thread http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=479643#post479643 that includes a funny dot test. (Note: the picture is 16:10!)

What are your thoughts? Is there a solution for 16:9 in CloD? What resolutions do you use in online battles? What does TF think about this?

:salute:

[ATAG_Bliss]

Hi DennyD,

It is very hard to spot contacts and that is a huge factor in the online world. Most people will probably laugh or flame, but my native resolution is 2650x1600 (30" monitor 16:10) but I usually run my online resolution at 1280x800.

I do this to spot contacts easier (well, really easy!) but I don't honestly lose that much eye candy. I want smooth gameplay and that allows me to crank every setting to the fullest and have a non-stop 60 FPS regardless of what happens. But I also run the SMAA injector that will smooth the jaggies out. It's a simple tool like Sweetfx that actually only adds a bit of AA. When you search for it you'll see clod screenshots as an example. I just run the ultra settings which is an easy edit in the .ini. The good thing about SMAA is its built for DX10 (doesn't crash my game and shouldn't yours either)

Regarding the 16:10 or 16:9 monitor, that should matter at all. The biggest thing when lowering your resolution is to make sure your resolution is the same aspect ratio as your monitor or you will get a stretched look.

The other must do thing is opening up your conf.ini and changing MeshloadLod=0 to 1. This draws the LOF at a further distance (albeit an FPS hit). But if you've lowered your resolution, especially as drastic as me, you will more than likely never dip below 60 FPS.

That's what I do. And if your struggling to see contacts online, then it should make a night and day difference. You'll see everything!!

Some people can't handle losing some eye candy. I can't handle not being able to see where the enemy is.

So to answer your question, it makes all the difference in the world. And when your game never ever dips below 60 FPS, the smoothness of it all makes it worth it to me.

Edit: If you use that SMAA tool, make sure you disable your AA settings in game and leave your AA video card settings to application controlled.

And a link to the SMAA tool: http://mrhaandi.blogspot.com/p/injectsmaa.html?m=1

[Tvrdi]

It is very hard to spot contacts and that is a huge factor in the online world. Most people will probably laugh or flame, but my native resolution is 2650x1600 (30" monitor 16:10) but I usually run my online resolution at 1280x800.
I do this to spot contacts easier (well, really easy!) but I don't honestly lose that much eye candy. I want smooth gameplay and that allows me to crank every setting to the fullest and have a non-stop 60 FPS regardless of what happens.

Interesting. I the past I tried with the 1680x1050 (native res of my monitor is 1920x1200) and it really doesnt look bad but a bit blurry...maybe Ill give it another go since I really like smooth performance (in MP) Im used to have in other games...Ill pick 1680x1050 and will crank up all the settings and will see what I will get...ofcourse this time I can fiddle with "sharpen" setting in SweetFX I didnt have before...For now Im only using AA....
my spec arent bad at all:
i7920 Oc to 3.65Ghz (def voltage)
6GB of RAM (1333mhz)
GTX 660Ti 2GB on default speeds and voltages

[ATAG_Bliss]

Interesting. I the past I tried with the 1680x1050 (native res of my monitor is 1920x1200) and it really doesnt look bad but a bit blurry...maybe Ill give it another go since I really like smooth performance (in MP) Im used to have in other games...Ill pick 1680x1050 and will crank up all the settings and will see what I will get...ofcourse this time I can fiddle with "sharpen" setting in SweetFX I didnt have before...For now Im only using AA....
my spec arent bad at all:
i7920 Oc to 3.65Ghz (def voltage)
6GB of RAM (1333mhz)
GTX 660Ti 2GB on default speeds and voltages

Just remember if you have the infamous windows update installed SweetFX will cause launcher crashes. The SMAA does not.

[Tvrdi]

Just remember if you have the infamous windows update installed SweetFX will cause launcher crashes. The SMAA does not.

Is that SMAA injector what we were using before sweetfx or its something completely different? I never update my wins nor I have SP1 for Win7. I dont like MS updates and how theyr messing up things...

[DennydD]

Since yesterday I run 1650x1050 and yeah, the game looks...nicer! I'll try out SMAA later that day -thx for the suggestion.

The main problem that arises is the different aspect ratio. I can life with a hardly oval gunsight (minimal) but the switch from main menu (16:9 aspect ratio) to game (16:10) and back causes problems. Sometimes I just loose the picture but this is nothing that can't be solved in a sec. I also think that the scaling into another aspect ratio is problematic (maybe FPS hit?) but I'd like to hear different opinions about that cause i'm not sure.

Mainly I think that 16:9 is not ideal for the game. Funny enough I never read about this, neither in the manual nor somewhere else. I continue looking into this and also try 1280x800.

[Tvrdi]

Since yesterday I run 1650x1050 and yeah, the game looks...nicer! I'll try out SMAA later that day -thx for the suggestion.

The main problem that arises is the different aspect ratio. I can life with a hardly oval gunsight (minimal) but the switch from main menu (16:9 aspect ratio) to game (16:10) and back causes problems. Sometimes I just loose the picture but this is nothing that can't be solved in a sec. I also think that the scaling into another aspect ratio is problematic (maybe FPS hit?) but I'd like to hear different opinions about that cause i'm not sure.

Mainly I think that 16:9 is not ideal for the game. Funny enough I never read about this, neither in the manual nor somewhere else. I continue looking into this and also try 1280x800.

Why dont you run 1680x1050? If thats a native res of your monitor, then you didnt save much, performance wise as you lowered res horizontaly only by 30 pixels...

[DennydD]

Sorry typo. I run 1680x1050 atm. The problem is not the loss or gain of pixels it is more the switch of aspect ratios. My monitor is 1080p (16:9 Full HD) and 16:10 is not the native aspect ratio. Additional to scaling the picture it must be edged from 16:10 to 16:9. You can see that with the slightly oval gunsight.

[Tvrdi]

Sorry typo. I run 1680x1050 atm. The problem is not the loss or gain of pixels it is more the switch of aspect ratios. My monitor is 1080p (16:9 Full HD) and 16:10 is not the native aspect ratio. Additional to scaling the picture it must be edged from 16:10 to 16:9. You can see that with the slightly oval gunsight.

Ahh I got it now....16:9 monitors are a no go for games IMHO.....Thers no 16:9 res in CLODs video options?

[Royraiden]

Hi DennyD,

It is very hard to spot contacts and that is a huge factor in the online world. Most people will probably laugh or flame, but my native resolution is 2650x1600 (30" monitor 16:10) but I usually run my online resolution at 1280x800.

I do this to spot contacts easier (well, really easy!) but I don't honestly lose that much eye candy. I want smooth gameplay and that allows me to crank every setting to the fullest and have a non-stop 60 FPS regardless of what happens. But I also run the SMAA injector that will smooth the jaggies out. It's a simple tool like Sweetfx that actually only adds a bit of AA. When you search for it you'll see clod screenshots as an example. I just run the ultra settings which is an easy edit in the .ini. The good thing about SMAA is its built for DX10 (doesn't crash my game and shouldn't yours either)

Regarding the 16:10 or 16:9 monitor, that should matter at all. The biggest thing when lowering your resolution is to make sure your resolution is the same aspect ratio as your monitor or you will get a stretched look.

The other must do thing is opening up your conf.ini and changing MeshloadLod=0 to 1. This draws the LOF at a further distance (albeit an FPS hit). But if you've lowered your resolution, especially as drastic as me, you will more than likely never dip below 60 FPS.

That's what I do. And if your struggling to see contacts online, then it should make a night and day difference. You'll see everything!!

Some people can't handle losing some eye candy. I can't handle not being able to see where the enemy is.

So to answer your question, it makes all the difference in the world. And when your game never ever dips below 60 FPS, the smoothness of it all makes it worth it to me.

Edit: If you use that SMAA tool, make sure you disable your AA settings in game and leave your AA video card settings to application controlled.

And a link to the SMAA tool: http://mrhaandi.blogspot.com/p/injectsmaa.html?m=1
Does that tool work better than Sweetfx to reduce the jaggies?

[Tvrdi]

@Roy - I think I found it :)

http://www.overclock.net/t/1296721/how-to-anti-aliasing-injection-fxaa-smaa-and-sweetfx

[Lensman]

Ahh I got it now....16:9 monitors are a no go for games IMHO.....Thers no 16:9 res in CLODs video options?

Clod runs fine at 720p (16:9), I use a 720p projector at 1280x720:thumbsup:

[Royraiden]

@Roy - I think I found it :)

http://www.overclock.net/t/1296721/how-to-anti-aliasing-injection-fxaa-smaa-and-sweetfx

I tried that a while a go but it didnt seem to work.Maybe I did something wrong.

[Tvrdi]

Clod runs fine at 720p (16:9), I use a 720p projector at 1280x720:thumbsup:

Cool but with 16:10 monitor you have more space vertically...

[ATAG_Snapper]

I felt it worthwhile quoting your post below once again. Admittedly an eye-candy addict, I've resisted dropping my resolution down from its native 1920x1080 because everything looks so danged good. My GTX 680 vid card has no problems maintaining good frame rates at native res. Gameplay was suffering badly for me, though, as I squinted vainly for contacts that my wing mates were calling out with ease. Most of my dogfights seemed to start with tracers flashing by my canopy by the unseen approach of a 109 (yes, unheard, too -- I keep my canopy closed). Frequently checking six never seemed to spot the danger. Not fun.

As you say, once you get used to the lower-res look, it's not so bad. I miss the beauty, I must admit. But having reduced my resolution to 1280 x 720, my gameplay enjoyment has increased immensely. :thumbsup: I feel distant contacts, be they single planes or bomber formations, are now readily visible at what, to me, seem realistic distances. It's still easy to miss them, especially trying to spot them against the terrain at the higher alts we're flying now. Now, at least, I feel I have a realistic chance of spotting danger (or a victim) with a reasonable chance of developing a tactic.

I'm going to have to uninstall that dreaded Windows update. Although I think it gives me a little better frame rate and seems to make things smoother, it's the culprit, I'm sure, behind some glitchy stuff going on (TrackIR temperamental, launcher crashes with SMAA about 20 minutes into gameplay, Action recording utility a little goofy, etc). We'll see.

It would be wonderful if someday the distant LOD visibility at native resolutions could match the lower resolutions! :D


Hi DennyD,

It is very hard to spot contacts and that is a huge factor in the online world. Most people will probably laugh or flame, but my native resolution is 2650x1600 (30" monitor 16:10) but I usually run my online resolution at 1280x800.

I do this to spot contacts easier (well, really easy!) but I don't honestly lose that much eye candy. I want smooth gameplay and that allows me to crank every setting to the fullest and have a non-stop 60 FPS regardless of what happens. But I also run the SMAA injector that will smooth the jaggies out. It's a simple tool like Sweetfx that actually only adds a bit of AA. When you search for it you'll see clod screenshots as an example. I just run the ultra settings which is an easy edit in the .ini. The good thing about SMAA is its built for DX10 (doesn't crash my game and shouldn't yours either)

Regarding the 16:10 or 16:9 monitor, that should matter at all. The biggest thing when lowering your resolution is to make sure your resolution is the same aspect ratio as your monitor or you will get a stretched look.

The other must do thing is opening up your conf.ini and changing MeshloadLod=0 to 1. This draws the LOF at a further distance (albeit an FPS hit). But if you've lowered your resolution, especially as drastic as me, you will more than likely never dip below 60 FPS.

That's what I do. And if your struggling to see contacts online, then it should make a night and day difference. You'll see everything!!

Some people can't handle losing some eye candy. I can't handle not being able to see where the enemy is.

So to answer your question, it makes all the difference in the world. And when your game never ever dips below 60 FPS, the smoothness of it all makes it worth it to me.

Edit: If you use that SMAA tool, make sure you disable your AA settings in game and leave your AA video card settings to application controlled.

And a link to the SMAA tool: http://mrhaandi.blogspot.com/p/injectsmaa.html?m=1

[DK_]

Hi DennyD,
....
The other must do thing is opening up your conf.ini and changing MeshloadLod=0 to 1. This draws the LOF at a further distance (albeit an FPS hit). But if you've lowered your resolution, especially as drastic as me, you will more than likely never dip below 60 FPS. ...


Hi, I edited your qoute because I have a question. I looked in my conf.ini and I can't find
"MeshloadLod" that you stated.

I have
MeshFirstLod=0
and
MeshShowLod=1

Is that the one you refer to or have I not found the correct "Mesh" file to change?

Also, is the ini file to be modded the one in this path?
Program Files X86>Steam>steamapps>common>il-2sturmovik cliffs of dover

or is it in documents?

I get confused with all the different paths and clouds and such these days (old age is kicking in I guess).

What about MeshFirstLod=0


Thank you!

[Mastiff]

Yes I believe he ment meshshowlod=1

[jcenzano]

Following some advice in this thread, I tried to switch my res from my native 1920x1200 to 1680x1050.


The problem is that if I try to do it with full screen enabled, what i get is a 1680x1050 window over a 1920x1200 desktop. It looks like full screen is not kicking in, and I get no scaling at all.

If I enable pseudo full screen, scaling is working, and I get normal scaling (BTW you were right and it looks not bad at all).

Here you have my conf.ini


[BOB]
EpilepsyFilter=0

[window]
DepthBits =64
StencilBits=16
DrawIfNotFocused=0
SaveAspect=1
Render=D3D10_0
width=1680
height=1050
posLeft=0
posTop=0
ColourBits=32
FullScreen=1
ChangeScreenRes=1
Frequency=60
StereoMode=0

[NET]
speed=100000
localPort=27015
serverName=My Server
serverDescription=IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover
serverInfo1=
serverInfo2=
serverInfo3=
serverInfo4=
VAC=1
maxPlayers=255
socksEnable=0
socksHost=
socksPort=1080
socksUser=
socksPwd=
host=216.52.148.29
port=27016

[Console]
IP=20001
UseStartLog=1
WRAP=1
PAUSE=1
HISTORY=1024
HISTORYCMD=1024
PAGE=20
LOG=0
LOGTIME=0
LOAD=console.cmd
SAVE=console.cmd
LOGFILE=log.txt
LOGKEEP=0

[rts]
; 0 - not use, 1 - show cursor and not capture, 2 - not show cursor, and capture
mouseUse=2
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
joyUse=1
; 0 - not use, 1 - use if hardware exist
trackIRUse=1
ProcessAffinityMask=255

[rts_mouse]
SensitivityX=1.0
SensitivityY=1.0
SensitivityZ=1.0
Invert=0
SwapButtons = 0

[rts_joystick]
FF=1

[core]
RandSeed = 0
TexQual=3

Here are my specs
Intel i7-2600K // Asus Maximus IV Extreme Rev3 // 2xGTX580-3GB (SLI'ed when able) // 16 GB DDR3 // SSD // HDD WD 10K // Win7 x64 // LG monitor 24'' 1920x1200 res

FYI I run TF patch AND IT ROCKS!!! Thank you all TF
thanks in advance for your help

[trooph]

My god. I cant believe what im seeing. Few pixels taken from full hd and i can see contacts.. A lot of contacts! Also my overall fps stability increased after meshshowlod=1 :) today im a happy bunny even thou im ill:)

[E-69 Siegfried]

My god. I cant believe what im seeing. Few pixels taken from full hd and i can see contacts.. A lot of contacts! Also my overall fps stability increased after meshshowlod=1 :) today im a happy bunny even thou im ill:)

meshshowlod=1.

Can you explain that please? I dont know where write that or its utility.

[DennydD]

Hey Siegfried,

navigate to ...\Steam\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover and open the conf.ini with notepad or something similar.
You should find:



[core]
RandSeed = 0
TexQual=3
TexFlags.PolygonStipple=0
Shadows=1
SpecularLight=2
DiffuseLight=2
DynamicalLights=1
MeshDetail=1
LandShading=1
LandDetails=1
Sky=3
Forest=2
VisibilityDistance=3
LandGeom=2
DrawCollisions=1
Water=-1
Effects=1
EffFlags.Light=1
EffFlags.SpriteRender=0
Grass=3
CordEffect=1
UseFog=0
UseLandCube=1
UseLandConnectedObject=1
LinearObjectManager=1
Roads=1
Sun=1
Clouds=1
EffFlags.LightSpritesProj=1
ShadowMapSize=5
TexFlags.AsyncLoad=1
TexFlags.ShowTexture=0
SimpleMesh.SWTransform=0
SimpleMesh.QuadTreeClip=1
SimpleMesh.InstancingHW=1
EffFlags.LightContextSprites=1
CloudsFlags.Detailed=1
TexFlags.CreateHDR=1
Decals=1
EffFlags.SWLight=0
TexFlags.CockpitOnePass=0
MegaTexture=0
TexFlags.Reflection=0
RenderTargetQual=3
MSAA=0
MeshStatics=1
MeshStaticsDetail=2
SimpleMesh.QTNoCompose=0
MeshFirstLod=0
MeshShowLod=0
SpawnHumans=1

An change this from 0 to 1. Voila.

regards

[E-69 Siegfried]

Thanks, but i was thinking that the "real" conf.ini was in my users directory... no the steam directory.

[Tvrdi]

Thanks, but i was thinking that the "real" conf.ini was in my users directory... no the steam directory.

Correct. The one from the users is the right one. Target folder of conf.ini should be something like this:

C:\Users\GeekySimmer\Documents\1C SoftClub\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover - MOD\

[Hood]

Is there a sweet spot for the resolution for each monitor e.g. 24" monitors with 1920 x 1200 native are best at 1280 x 800 for spotting? Or is even lower better?

Hood

[Tvrdi]

Is there a sweet spot for the resolution for each monitor e.g. 24" monitors with 1920 x 1200 native are best at 1280 x 800 for spotting? Or is even lower better?

Hood

Lower is better for spotting but its uglier ofcourse.....pick your sweet spot....just use the same aspect ratio...