nVidia Control Panel settings ignored by TS2014

[deltic009]

Pretty much as it sounds. It doesn't matter if I use global settings, or setup a profile for the executable, none of the settings apply. I found this out by setting my global and program settings to 32xQSAA antialiasing and having the in game settings for AA set to none and lo and behold I have no in game anti aliasing, so presuming other stuff like texture filtering etc are being similarly ignored.

Does any one have any suggestions?

[smarty2]

Steam roller? Sledge hammer? Dynamite??? Even with "override any application setting"?

[wacampbell]

When you run in TSX mode, Railworks uses an advanced graphics technique called deferred shading. This technique is not compatible with many of the NVidia control panel AA overrides and most of them are disabled. Also, the only 'in game' AA settings that function in TSX mode are the ones using the SSAA technique.

[deltic009]

Steam roller? Sledge hammer? Dynamite??? Even with "override any application setting"?

I must be being a bit silly bit I can't find an option that says override any application setting, which sounds like what I'd need.

Thanks for the additional information wacampbell, that will explain why most of it is being ignored then.

[DaveDewhurst]

I must be being a bit silly bit I can't find an option that says override any application setting, which sounds like what I'd need.

Its under Anti Aliasing

Dave

[deltic009]

I must be being a bit silly bit I can't find an option that says override any application setting, which sounds like what I'd need.

Its under Anti Aliasing

Capture.JPG

Dave

Thanks for that Dave.

[crumplezone]

I've found a happy medium with the anti-alias, but its no way true anti alias and never will be while TS2014 still has the TSX engine and its quite annoying infact.

Anyway if you haven't already make the railworks.exe profile in the custom profile area.

Next, but this depends on card I have a GTX 660 for example, set AF to a higher setting, this I found out after some reading effects some straight edge and grid patterns, I've got it at 8x.

Next Anti-Alias FXAA, toggle that on.
Next set anti alias mode to enhanced the application, I didn't find it work on override.
Next after that is anti alias x8
Next after that setting you want anti alias transparency to 8x supersample.

I then set texture quality to high quality, trilinear to on and triple buffer to on.

Ingame is then setup to SSAA 2x2 but it can also work on 2x1, but I will make note that it will run slower due to SSAA mode and fps will be lower than usual, however I've found it is pretty close to true anti aliasing which used to be around in railworks 2 before we swapped over to the new engine.

I will state though you will need a pretty decent graphics card and system to keep things smooth, so if you don't have a fairly powerful system then I wouldn't advise using the above unless you are absolutely sure. Unfortunately RSC doesn't give two toots about anti alias anymore, I've brought it up plenty of times with them and they are ignored it so I'm not expecting anything at this point.

Hopefully that will help some folks.

[deltic009]

Thanks crumplezone, heading home soon and I'll try a few things out, I will probably go for a combination of AA and downsampling as I found the latter to generate less of a frame rate hit for me (on a 650Ti).

[JustRight]

Hopefully that will help some folks.

Indeed yes! I've been using 2x2 SSAA for some time at 2560x1600 native resolution, but only using the internal FXAA anti-aliasing that the game offers. This was 'OK' sort of, but I think it was the resolution that really made the difference.

Using your suggestions in the nVidia Control Panel has made a marked difference to the overall AA quality. Without much of a hit in my case as I was already using 2x2 SSAA.

Thanks

PS: I am using a GTX 690 with SLI enabled, which goes a long way to helping me run such an enormous resolution along with AA.

[crumplezone]

Glad to hear its doing something for others to. I can't say I have a "uber" computer system but it does handle on those settings at around 25-30fps which is actually quite smooth ingame. I had been fiddling with graphics settings for awhile as I had always been annoyed with how anti-alias stopped working in the true sense and had found about AF for one effecting quite a few things but also the fact Nvidia's FXAA could overlap what is already ingame. Adding 2x2 or 2x1 SSAA also works to smooth or more should we say "blurr" the edging so it looks smoothed.

Its a shame really, but when dx 11 came out alot of games started to inherently lose the ability to apply anti alias correctly. MSAA and the likes seemed to dissapear from options and alot now adopt FXAA as a option for anti alias but its still not true anti aliasing which was available back in DX9 era which gave you full smooth edging on anything. We now get the issue where for example trackwork gets circular zigzag disortions which can be reduced alot with my above settings but not completely eliminated.

I've always argued that you should have proper anti aliasing in a game which features so many straight edges and grill patterns on both rolling stock and scenery items, but RSC seems to be just happy to stick with a graphics engine which did away with anti alias support in the more true sense so one has to normally apply additional tweaks to get better results.

Sometimes I find it quite silly the fact the shader engine TS2014 is using is incompatible with driver level forced settings and nvidia cards. If you speak to people in the gaming community who build and tweak their own machines you will find most will have a Nvidia card due to the usually better performance at the cost of higher heat temperatures, so to me it seems illogical for RSC to adopt a graphics engine which would effect a larger part of the userbase, but suppose whatever works works, the engine is fine but it has its draw backs in the AA department.

[deltic009]

I've used my own version of these settings and can now quite happily bowl along at some high fps, so thanks crumplezone.

However, as always, sort one thing and then get surprised by another - I left the games AA settings well alone for trial purposes, and although it looked very nice whilst playing the game, if I take a screenshot via Ctrl+S there seems to be nome of the AA that I am seeing applied by the nVidia settings. Its as if the nVidia stuff is a post process applied to the display output but the core of the game is still running with nothing and that is where the screenshot is taken from.

I hope that makes sense, I've rewritten it twice and I still can't seem to get it to say what I would like.

[DaveDewhurst]

I was always under the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that it depended on how you took the screenshot.
I was sure that using the in game screen shot function produced different results to using the steam function or an external program like fraps.
Its like, as you say its an overlay and the screen shot is being taken at a different level.

Dave

[deltic009]

I was always under the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that it depended on how you took the screenshot.
I was sure that using the in game screen shot function produced different results to using the steam function or an external program like fraps.
Its like, as you say its an overlay and the screen shot is being taken at a different level.

Dave

That is exactly it, I am going to see if I can do a video capture and a screenshot at the same time so that if I do a few grab it helps show the difference. It makes sense in some ways that it is taken at a different level as it doesn't show the mouse pointer or the HUD - but it will show the F5 display or any other white text, which is annoying.

[chrisonline]

In my naivety, I didn't realize there are different ways to take a screenshot, or at least that they behave differently. I always click on the HUD camera for screenshots, before cropping and editing to PNG for loco thumbs, and DDS for route thumbs.

Is this saying that some methods produce better results than others? What is the preferred (best results) method?

Chris

[deltic009]

In my naivety, I didn't realize there are different ways to take a screenshot, or at least that they behave differently. I always click on the HUD camera for screenshots, before cropping and editing to PNG for loco thumbs, and DDS for route thumbs.

Is this saying that some methods produce better results than others? What is the preferred (best results) method?

Chris

I am just about to conduct a test to find out which works better. But Ctrl+S certainly isn't it or would seem. Keep your eyes open for an update which shall include 100% crops due to forum image limits too.