Top Tip - Anti Aliasing

[deltic009]

One problem is that the screenshots taken in game do not fully capture what effects are being processed due to the way the game is doing it's thing. Those of you who may have tried tweaking with Nvidia Inspector and selected the SSAA modes and got the grid of images will have noticed that although you get multiple 'boxes' of the game, things like smoke, lights and the overhead wires all only appear once in their proper position as if you had one screen, rather than the grid of littler screens that are showing. This game engine messes with some things and it limits a lot of the options normally open to options from the Control Panel or nVidia Inspector.

With that in mind I have found something which can alleviate this via downsampling, but this is not the method previously outlined for nVidia GPU owners only. This can be used by ANYONE with a powerful enough GPU and I will outline what I know below - those of you with a HIGH POWER GPU will be able to downscale from some pretty unbelievable resolutions. I am going to get some screenshots with 100% crops to help demonstarte what I mean, and a little guide as to what you need to do. I am learning this method myself from scratch since 01:00 this morning and have been to work since so bear with me.

STEP ONE
Go to [url]hhttp://www.kegetys.fi/forum/index.php?topic=2123.0[/url] and download the x86 version of the file located at http://www.kegetys.fi/dl.php/SoftTH208balpha.zip

Please note this is a now halted piece of software, but one that get's the job done and it works with TS2015 (for me at least)

STEP TWO
Inside the zip file is a readme and a file d3d9.dll, extract this .dll file into the directory where your Railworks.exe is kept. Now run Railworks.exe (or via the Steam menu) and it should pop up with the following message.

Config file <C:\Program Files
(x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Railworks\config.SoftTHconfig>
not found.

Create default configuration?

Select 'Yes'

You should now get another pop-up message that confirms it has made the config file, usually for 1 monitor (I haven't tried it across 2 which it was designed for) with your native resolution displayed.

After you hit OK it will start up the sim. Quit the sim as soon as it has started.

STEP THREE
Navigate to the folder above (it will differ to wherever your TS install is) and open the config.SoftTHconfig file with WordPad so that it keeps the formatting of the document.

At the top is a line:
renderResolution=1680x1050

This is what you change to whatever resolution you want to downscale from - it would make mathematical sense for downscaling to be done at multiples of 2 so start with double your native resolution (3360x2100 in my case) or even 4 times if you have a high end GPU (6720x4200 for me). Now, double takes my 650Ti enough, but it is the older non-boost model and only has 1Gb of memory. Unlike the downscaling through nVidia drivers, there is NO limit to what resolution you choose, only the power of your GPU and whether it produces competent framerates to play the sim at.

You also need to scroll down to the line:
sourceRect=0,0,1680,1050

and change the two numbers to match the resolution you're downscaling from, but leave the line below, basically you are telling it how much it is squeezing down to the size of your native monitor resolution.

STEP FOUR
Now start TS2015 and when you go to the graphics settings, whatever resolution you chose to downsample from should be at the bottom of the list. Select this and restart the sim (those of you competent in editing the PlayerProfiles.bin file in the Content directory can change the resolution manually and skip starting and restarting TS2015 in this way).

This is a rough guide that I have prepared entirely myself, I haven't messed with other settings and I do NOT know what any of them mean, guides are thin on the ground online but do post if you find any other guides that you think may be useful in this thread.

NOW FOR SOME SCREENSHOTS
Right, now to demonstrate what you are actually getting (apart from a BIG framerate hit) here are some screenshots AND 100% crops to show you the difference in what is produced. If you have something you want to show of intricate detail of then this is the way for you to do so, textures and text etc will appear much clearer than before in your native resolution.

Native resolution 1680x1050 (click for larger)
2014-10-15_00008 by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

NVidia downsampling 2520x1575 (1.5x) (click for larger)
2014-10-15_00009 by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

SoftTH downsampling 1 3360x2100 (2x) (click for larger)
2014-10-15_00010 by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

SoftTH downsampling 2 6720x4200 (4x) (click for larger)
2014-10-15_00011 by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

Now EVEN at the forum reduced screenshot sizes you can see minor improvement, click on the images to follow them to Flickr and just compare them at fullscreen on your monitor. Below are 100% crops to show the differences in detail. All are roughly 500x500 full size from each image above, using Paint only at the minute so precise cropping wasn't available.

Crop of native resolution 1680x1050
2014-10-15_00008 crop by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

Crop of nVidia Control Panel downsampling 2520x1575 (1.5x)
2014-10-15_00009 crop by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

Crop of SoftTH downsampling 1 3360x2100 (2x)
2014-10-15_00010 crop by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

Crop of SoftTH downsampling 2 6720x4200 (4x)
2014-10-15_00011 crop by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

The results speak for themselves really (You can even read the unit number on the 365 on the 4x version!!) Now, a few words of caution. I am now wizard but I have known TS for a while and am quite competent in messing around here. DON'T DO ANYTHING YOU DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH. Backup things before messing and save stuff you don't want to lose, just incase. At 6720x4200 my system was running the sim at 3FPS, so it wasn't playable for me and I don't know what other more powerful GPUs may be able to achieve, this could be limited by the game or not, I really don't know so it is over to you lot to help find out. I haven't messed with other settings but you're welcome to make a backup of that config and tweak away and try and learn what is going on and share any results here, be they negative or positive.

The biggest error I have noticed manifest itself using this plugin is that the 'gfancy' headlights twinkle on and off when using it, but I think (note THINK) this also happened when I was downsampling under the nVidia Control Panel method too, to a lesser extent.

I hope this mpost proves useful to those who are nosy enough and want to try to push things that bit further, after all, where would we be if we were just happy with what we already have?

Also, just to point out what settings I had TS set to throughout this entire process:
AA was FXAA+4xMSAA
Anistropic Filtering 4x

And then in nVidia Inspector:
NVI settings by MJ Wilson, on Flickr

[gptech]

Interesting Matthew; how was the text size in the menus and dialog boxes using this?---when I tried the method using the nVidia control panel I got some pretty good results but the text was rather tiny to say the least.

[deltic009]

Interesting Matthew; how was the text size in the menus and dialog boxes using this?---when I tried the method using the nVidia control panel I got some pretty good results but the text was rather tiny to say the least.

The text was ridiculous, I think that's the appropriate word. However, if someone were able to figure out how to counteract that, and they happened to have two Titans running in SLi then it may well be handy LOL.

It also seems to do it's own thing with regards to anti-aliasing as the screenshots looked less smooth than with the nVidia Control Panel downsampled one, albeit at a better available resolution.

Just ti carry out my own update, I have found a link to a tool that provides a user interface for editing the Config file created by SoftTH and you can get it from here - http://www.mechatronics4you.com/wp-cont ... .php?id=13

It is just an .exe, extract it anywhere, run it and point it to your config within Railworks and then edit and save away.

[Thugsy]

Since purchasing the West Highland Line route, I noticed for the first time the so called 'rubber banding' effect on the track sleepers.

I've got a fairly poweful PC and not seen it on other routes so I was somewhat suprised and disappointed to see this. No amount of messing around with the in-game settings cured the issue. I noticed a post buried in one of the threads which suggested altering the anti-aliasing setting in your graphics card control panel and setting it to the maximum of 32.

I've got a fairly high end Nvidea card but found that in the control panel it was set to 16. After altering the setting to 32 I'm absolutely staggered to discover that not only has it cured the rubber banding issue but it's improved the overall graphics in game by an incredible degree. It almost looks photo-real in places. It's like having a new simulator and with no adverse effect on frame rates either.

In all my time with this sim (day one of Rail Simulator) I never knew about this setting and its impact so I thought it worthy of a thread so that others might be able to improve their experience also.

I just want to pass on my thanks for this top tip. I never had the banding effect but following your advice my performance has greatly improved even though I had a high spec machine like you I never realised this option would so improve things. Thanks again for taking the trouble to post this.

[smarty2]

I have to admit that framerates have climbed significantly with this simple setting.

[peterfhayes]

Matthew
Very Interesting - are they static screen shots or were they taken with the trains in motion.
In my set up I only see Moire (rubber banding effects on switches and fences and shimmering on OHW) when the train is moving. I did not have much luck with downsampling in the past so this looks an interesting way to go.

Have you tried this effect on the Manchester Liverpool route where the Moire pattern effect (on switches/points) is the worst I have seen so far.

Interestingly for its new Maxwell video cards, NVidia have introduced a new AA effect MFAA which is a sort of MSAA and this works well on my GTX750TI - "dynamic stuff OFF" in reducing Moire and shimmer on most routes, including Manchester to Liverpool.

With the launch of Maxwell we are introducing the world to Multi-Frame Anti-Aliasing (MFAA). This new, Maxwell-exclusive anti-aliasing technique improves edge quality with a minimal performance cost, and helps you enjoy anti-aliased games at ultra high resolutions like 4K.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/mfaa

pH

[rkk01]

Certainly transforms WHLE (GTX660)

Haven't tried any other routes yet. Will try Shap next