Graphics Improvements - Downsampling and CloD

[UpsilonCrux]

Hi all,

Was trawling the web last night and came across this guide;

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509076

What this does is it runs games at a higher internal resolution than your monitor is outputting.
In effect, it renders the game at lets say double size, then squishes it back down to your monitor resolution.
The result is the most effective AA method possible. Now whilst it is the most effective, it is also the most demanding. The guide suggests a framerate drop of 1/n where n is the factor of downsampling applied.
So, if you set your ingame resolution to 3840x2160 on a 1920x1080 monitor, you are downsampling by a factor of 2.

If you have a good rig I highly suggest you try this out. As the guide says, it will not work for everyone, and you may have to experiment a little bit. I run an i5 processor at 4.2, 8Gb DDR3 and a GTX670OC on a 1080p 16:9 TV. I was able to enable resolutions as high as 3840x2160 with the custom settings described in the guide, and up to 2880x1620 without setting custom timings etc.

I have to say, Clod downsampled from 3840x2160 looks absolutely beautiful. The planes look silky smooth up close, and the cable which runs to the tail no longer looks like a tiny staircase!! (You know what I mean ;D
Here is a link to some shots I grabbed quickly (Running Sweetfx, SMAA ON, ingame AA OFF.
http://imgur.com/a/dcJQT/all
*Click the gear icon in top right of image overlay to view at full res or to download full res copy.

Note that they are displayed in full resolution as screenshots and thus the shots lose much of the effect visible ingame and in motion. Viewed at half size in fullscreen on a 1080 monitor should approximate the effect. But the best way to see is to try it out yourself.

*A note on performance: My test at 3840x2160 last night ran very well, and i didn't notice any slowdown from my previous res settings. I may however bump the res down slightly to say, 2560x1440, or 2880x1620, in the interest of framerate.

**This method obviously works for any game, one caveat I will oint out is the higher you go with the internal res, the smaller your ingame UI and text will get. Possibly problematic in some games, but with CloD this posed me no issues.

Hope this is of some interest or help to people.

Crux

[ATAG_Lewis]

Wow...I gotta try this..it looks amazing on the screenies...Anything that makes the AA better with little FPS hit is good...I use a post process thing (forget what its called) at the moment that I hit 'Pause/Break' to activate when I'm flying...It makes a slight difference but your screen shots look a whole lot better than my game does...and the ingame AA is so weak to me I'm not even sure if its actually working or not...

this is very exciting stuff dude..

Big Thanks Crux...I'm sure we will have more input on this subject shortly when our community boffs try it...

I'll keep close eye on this thread for their opinion...

[Roblex]

..Anything that makes the AA better with little FPS hit is good...

Hmmm not sure about 'a little FPS hit'. He was saying that if double the in game resolution you halve the fps :-)

[UpsilonCrux]

Thanks for the response lads,
This blew me away frankly and I just thought I'd share with you excellent gentlemen (and ladies?)

That's the theory anyway Roblex, I'm no expert, just from what the guide explains.

However, in many cases graphics cards are capable of running games at a much higher framerate than what is usually used.
For example, in my case, my monitor's refresh rate is 60Hz, effectively limiting games to 60Fps, with VSync. Turn off VSync, and in some games I may be able to push 100-120Fps, but with huge tearing.
In the case of downsampling it allows you to utilise more of cards processing power while remaining within your refresh rate.
So, if you could manage to get 120fps from a game without Vsync enabled, then you should be able to downsample by a factor of 2 and retain 60fps. So for those with cards whose power outstrips their monitors (read: anything past say, the Nvidia 600 series) they should be able to get some image quality enhancement without too much performance loss.

Now I'm not saying that you will get a fluid 60fps in CloD at 3840x2160, I was just quoting numbers for an example, but it's slightly more complicated than the "FPS = 1/n" equation at first implies.

As I said, it might not work for everyone, but for those who feel confident I do think it is worth a try, and as it is simply a custom resolution selected ingame; if performance is not to your liking it is a simple matter to revert back to your previous settings without any hassle.

[ATAG_NakedSquirrel]

Cool,

What does this do to the LoD drawing though? Usually if I run a lower resolution, the LoD "Dots" draw bigger, if I run at native res, they are really small and hard to spot. I imagine running at double native resolution would render no dot at all, or an even smaller one

[ATAG_Snapper]

I had heard of this down sampling technique but didn't really understand it, much less how to install it, until now. Followed your guide and successfully installed two custom resolutions in my system (specs below). 3840x2160 was a no - go (black screen when I tested), but 2560x1440 and 2880x1620 installed and tested fine.

In game I found 2880x1620 was giving me fps in the low 20's over terrain/towns, but 2560x1440 was in the low 30's fps over terrain/towns, so I decided to give it a whirl online. I changed MeshShowLod=0 (from 1) to ease the graphics load somewhat.

Definitely an improvement over my native 1920x1080 resolution in terms of overall sharpness and reduced shimmering of distant terrain. Quite a shock appearance-wise from the 1366x768 resolution I've been running currently. Was able to spot a 110 flying in the weeds near Lewes train depot and had no problem keeping it in sight as I closed to engage. Was also able to pick up fellow Spits at distance, even against terrain....the dots were tiny to be sure but crisper than the low res larger dots against shimmery terrain. I need to test further to see if I'm going to remain at this 2560x1440 down sampled res.

Thanks UpsilonCrux for providing his technique! :salute:

My specs: i7 920 @ 2.67 MHz, 12 gigs DDR3 RAM, GTX 680 2 gig VRAM, Win 7 64-bit

[Royraiden]

Im definitely trying this.Thanks for sharing.

[hemorad]

Crux, I'm not sure about your performance tweak suggestions (haven't tried it) but your avatar is about the greatest I have ever seen!

Still giggling,
Hemo

[Ohms]

Hi Crux
I tried what you posted, I would have to say I had the same results as Snapper. THX for posting.

[TWC_SLAG]

Crux,

Would this also work for a projector? I have one that is 1280x800. If I could just double that, I would have a better picture than my present 1920x1080 TV/monitor.

Thanks,

binky9

[UpsilonCrux]

Haha thanks hemorad

:lecture: Ridicule cuts sharper than any sword. Aristophanes

Totally not a real quote:)

Binky I can't say for certain, I imagine it will work, however, it will still be at 1280x800, but running 2360x1600. It will look better than it normally would on the projector I'd hazard, but whether it will be a better image than your 1080p monitor, I can't say.

@Snapper + ohmie, glad to hear you both had good results, and maybe this will go someway to answering your question Squirrel. I still havent had a chance to do extensive testing, and to be quite honest I don't think I know the game well enough to see a difference in the dots. Hopefully though, with the next TF patch looking to sort the LOD issues out this will be less of an issue.

Glad I could help, although I only really linked a website essentially, all credit to the guy who wrote the guide and all:salute:

[ATAG_Naz]

I just tried it for a couple of sorties on ATAG using Snapper's settings on a HD TV (1920/1080 Native). Definitely looks better and I am not seeing any FPS degradation. I do have a bit of a monster rig though (4770k OC to 4.6, GTX 780, SSD drives etc).

I did have more trouble spotting contacts however, so I have gone back to my native resolution for now. Once the next TF patch goes live I will definitely give this another go though.

Thanks a lot for the heads up UpsilonCrux ...nice find :thumbsup:

Oh, and....nice Avatar :)

[ATAG_Knuckles]

I'm with Naz here: I went to the res of 2880 X 1620 from my native of 1920 X 1080, Problem I have is any text i.e. enemy radar call out, are so small there are hard to read. Circled the ships for about 7 minutes chasing low flack, never spotted an aircraft, went to 20, 000 and had the call from the Br 20 over Cologne, chased them by vectors from radar all the way to England, and never did spot them . I actually landed at Hawking as their bombs were exploding,


Hummmm guess I'll go back to native !!

[Mattias]

Tried it and it looks amazing! Do come with a quite hefty fps hit on my poor system though :)

Cheers/m

[ATAG_Colander]

Because of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillrate

[Katdog5]

Thanks for the easy guide. Gave it a shot, but staying native. A notch up murdered my fps with my 670

RIP people who want to ever fly with clouds again

[hnbdgr]

tried it, looked nice but too much of a drop on my gtx660.

One thing to watch out for even on high end gpu's will be increased input lag, it has to do with nvidia set to gpu scaling as opposed to "display - no scaling". so word of warning:)) you'll get a crisper image but it might be at the expense of your reaction time.

[Brewnix]

Hi all,

Was trawling the web last night and came across this guide;

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509076

What this does is it runs games at a higher internal resolution than your monitor is outputting.
In effect, it renders the game at lets say double size, then squishes it back down to your monitor resolution.
The result is the most effective AA method possible. Now whilst it is the most effective, it is also the most demanding. The guide suggests a framerate drop of 1/n where n is the factor of downsampling applied.
So, if you set your ingame resolution to 3840x2160 on a 1920x1080 monitor, you are downsampling by a factor of 2.

If you have a good rig I highly suggest you try this out. As the guide says, it will not work for everyone, and you may have to experiment a little bit. I run an i5 processor at 4.2, 8Gb DDR3 and a GTX670OC on a 1080p 16:9 TV. I was able to enable resolutions as high as 3840x2160 with the custom settings described in the guide, and up to 2880x1620 without setting custom timings etc.

I have to say, Clod downsampled from 3840x2160 looks absolutely beautiful. The planes look silky smooth up close, and the cable which runs to the tail no longer looks like a tiny staircase!! (You know what I mean ;D
Here is a link to some shots I grabbed quickly (Running Sweetfx, SMAA ON, ingame AA OFF.
http://imgur.com/a/dcJQT/all
*Click the gear icon in top right of image overlay to view at full res or to download full res copy.

Note that they are displayed in full resolution as screenshots and thus the shots lose much of the effect visible ingame and in motion. Viewed at half size in fullscreen on a 1080 monitor should approximate the effect. But the best way to see is to try it out yourself.

*A note on performance: My test at 3840x2160 last night ran very well, and i didn't notice any slowdown from my previous res settings. I may however bump the res down slightly to say, 2560x1440, or 2880x1620, in the interest of framerate.

**This method obviously works for any game, one caveat I will oint out is the higher you go with the internal res, the smaller your ingame UI and text will get. Possibly problematic in some games, but with CloD this posed me no issues.

Hope this is of some interest or help to people.

Crux


This worked good for me I actually used to play on a 1920X1600 28inch monitor. I retro'd to a 40" LCD tv with a VGA port so I can get a bigger picture but suffered at the price on the lower res. I personally am totally about the eye candy. I was bummed about having to down grade the res just to get a bigger screen for flying. But it was necessary. 30" panels with 2560x1600 was just to expensive. I just wanted to say thanks for posting this little trick. I have my 40" LCD panel set to 2560x1440. Every thing looks great no input lag that I can see and with my GTX770 my FPS is pretty good. Back to high res gaming.... Thanks!!