I've gone from an amd 5850 card to an evga ftw 670 2GB card.  On my old 5850 I had this same issue, where in that case, if using CCC and setting AA settings, I really would see no change in FSX at all.. flash forward to the FTW 670, same deal.

 

I'm out of ideas as i've tried just about everything.  I've gone through the dx10 how to guide, ran the shader updates etc..

 

I'm using nvidia driver 314.22 and Nvidia Inspector 1.97.1.. here are the inspector settings i'm using and the fsx.cfg file as well.

 

I have AA checked in FSX and Anisotropic set as well (its my understanding that at least for dx10 mode, AA needs to be checked in FSX, but in dx9 mode, this isnt true necessarily if using gpu settings to override)

 

When I was playing around with dx10 I had AF mode = used defined/off and AF setting =16x other than that should be fine

Try this one, TSITL: make your SGSS 8, if you wish, and I believe (I'm getting old) that SuperSampling does not work in FSX, but MultiSampling does. I read this in one of the graphics articles, or another post, but - anyway - try it. Also be sure that the two MultiSample settings within the [Graphics] section in the fsx.cfg are the same as the settings within NI.

 

The last part is "-1" for LOD Bias, and Frame Rate Limiter set as you see, but still keeping 30 set inside the sim. 

 

This setup, using 4xM, 4xSGSS, etc., +color vibrance, some Gamma and HDR adjustments (but no AA changes) from SweetFX, gives me the most perfect appearance of any that I have used before. Certainly no shimmering at all, either water or trees - which were the two "pains". Your cfg looks pretty good, BP could well equal "0" with the 670 and 4.8-gig:

I think your TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40 is way too low, and would be better at 80 or even 120 (which is where mine is, having a similar setup.

 

Let us know how this works.

 

All the Best,

"Also be sure that the two MultiSample settings within the [Graphics] section in the fsx.cfg are the same as the settings within NI."

 

Paul what do you mean by this please

Try this one, TSITL: make your SGSS 8, if you wish, and I believe (I'm getting old) that SuperSampling does not work in FSX, but MultiSampling does. I read this in one of the graphics articles, or another post, but - anyway - try it. Also be sure that the two MultiSample settings within the [Graphics] section in the fsx.cfg are the same as the settings within NI.

 

The last part is "-1" for LOD Bias, and Frame Rate Limiter set as you see, but still keeping 30 set inside the sim. 

 

This setup, using 4xM, 4xSGSS, etc., +color vibrance, some Gamma and HDR adjustments (but no AA changes) from SweetFX, gives me the most perfect appearance of any that I have used before. Certainly no shimmering at all, either water or trees - which were the two "pains". Your cfg looks pretty good, BP could well equal "0" with the 670 and 4.8-gig:

I think your TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40 is way too low, and would be better at 80 or even 120 (which is where mine is, having a similar setup.

 

Let us know how this works.

 

All the Best,

 

Shall give this a shot..

 

so for the graphics section, since the dropbox example has 4x.. would this imply a matching setting of these:

 

 

MultiSamplesPerPixel=4                     

MultiSampleQuality=4

 

or would the bottom value still be 8

 

 

EDIT: initial run using your dropbox settings Paul.. wow, big difference (dx10 mode).. slight shimmer in a bridge or two, but otherwise fine.

 

I'll have to look into Sweetfx? another tweak tool i take it?

 

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

 

"Also be sure that the two MultiSample settings within the [Graphics] section in the fsx.cfg are the same as the settings within NI."

Paul what do you mean by this please

The two settings that Mark mentions in his post, Richard. This is the only way to get AA in DX10. These two entries must exist in the [Graphics] section, and "should" agree with the NI settings.

[Graphics]

MultiSamplesPerPixel=4 // Must have for good AA. Using 8 is a huge performance killer for a very small improvement
MultiSampleQuality=4 // Can be 4 for better performance. Can use up to 32x AA

@ Mark - It's a "colored version" of FXAA, ENBSeries and the like. I'm thoroughly glad it's helped you.

Get it here, and try these settings. It's one of the tools that made the (my) Maddog useable at night.

Vibrance settings for e.g.:-

#define Vibrance 0.12 // 0.15 //[-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

Bloom settings:-


#define BloomThreshold 26.00 //20.25 //[0.00 to 50.00] Threshold for what is a bright light (that causes bloom) and what isn't.
#define BloomPower 0.80 // 1.446 //[0.0000 to 8.0000] Strength of the bloom
#define BloomWidth 0.0100 // 0.0142 //[0.0000 to 1.0000] Width of the bloom

HDR Settings:-


#define HDRPower 0.99 // 1.28 //[0.0 to 8.0] Strangely lowering this makes the image brighter
#define radius2 0.87 // 0.87 //[0.0 to 8.0] Raising this seems to make the effect stronger and also brighter

Just fabulous control! The first figures in all cases, are my figures, the second is the default setting. There are more settings - I've just shown these three - generally most default seem too much "in your face", so I softened them dow a fair bit. The ability to adjust bloom is very good: same with HDR (general brighness and contrast). Some pics: KORS Concrete , bit of a PNW mix.

PM sent Paul - thanks

"Also be sure that the two MultiSample settings within the [Graphics] section in the fsx.cfg are the same as the settings within NI."

 

Paul what do you mean by this please

The sgssaa algorithm needs a "reference" point. If the msaa-settings in the fsx.cfg (8 e.g.) are the same as the sgssaa-setting in NI (8 too in this case) you get the best result of aa-quality because the "reference" point of both is the same........

 

... not a sophisticated explanation, but maybe understandable....

and certainly better than my explanations... or understanding, no matter how much I read...  :lol:

You need to hang around here more often, Tiberius!  :biggrin:

So i tried the first dropbox settings..

 

I used fsmark07 and 120 sec test with fraps as baseline.

 

I only got around 24 fps for the test using those settings (and fsx set to 30 fps with the 58 fps etc)

 

Then I stumbled onto Word Not Allowed's article/guide. (it wont let me link to the guide it seems)

 

I tried the nvidia settings there and lowered it to 4x not 8x.  He notes that sparse grid supersampling is high quality but hard on the system, with the 4x being better as I modded the settings to this:

 

 

 

 

Now using those i set fsx to unlimited and 30 fps in the NI.. repeated the same dx10 test and hit 28.8 for fps.

I can still still see slight shimmering in the distance with the airport runway area and a bridge or two on the left as the fsmark plays on, but no worse than before i dont think, much improved though.

 

The issue I had was the same settings in dx9 resulted with 25 fps or 24 fps.. i did uncheck AA in fsx as well (have aa checked for dx10).  Not sure why its different.

 

It may not matter if I stick with dx10, but I guess that depends on addon compatibility overall.

 

I found that using app controlled for AF is a bit better on frames.. unclear on what the -1.0 LOD does for things in the dropbox original settings?

 

I've stuck with 4x for now and set both values in fsx to 4.

update to the dx9.. i think there was a rogue process chewing up 10% cpu, causing it to appear to be 4-5 fps less.. so therefore.. dx9 and dx10 both doing well.. dx10 has minor flashing/flickering off in distance.. dx9 has very little / minimal.. both at acceptable levels I think.

 

Certainly at least in dx10 (havent tried dx9) with this gtx 670 and wind/rain/heavy clouds it holds up well.. 24 fps worst case, whereas before it was around 17 worst case (seatle, orbx).. win.

 

In summary:

 

DX10 with the screenshot i posted (fsmark07 120sec fraps):  28.8 fps at 4.6ghz 

*i had to drop to 4.6 to figure out some bsod issues and possibly causing fsx to crash randomly (not sure if worth trying for 4.7 or 4.8 at this point)

 

DX10 with same settings: 28.8 fps at 4.6ghz

 

by comparison:

 

Dx9 at 3.5ghz on the i7 2600k i'm getting 24.95 so only a gain of 4 fps, the less gain may be due to locking frame rate, in past I didnt and gained about 9-10 fps at 4.7ghz anyway).

 

Thanks for all the help.. next is to fix the OC and try some of the sweetfx and other tweaks

The two settings that Mark mentions in his post, Richard. This is the only way to get AA in DX10. These two entries must exist in the [Graphics] section, and "should" agree with the NI settings.

 

[Graphics]

 

MultiSamplesPerPixel=4 // Must have for good AA. Using 8 is a huge performance killer for a very small improvement

MultiSampleQuality=4 // Can be 4 for better performance. Can use up to 32x AA

 

@ Mark - It's a "colored version" of FXAA, ENBSeries and the like. I'm thoroughly glad it's helped you.

 

Get it here, and try these settings. It's one of the tools that made the (my) Maddog useable at night.

 

Vibrance settings for e.g.:-

 

#define Vibrance 0.12 // 0.15 //[-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

 

Bloom settings:-

 

 

#define BloomThreshold 26.00 //20.25 //[0.00 to 50.00] Threshold for what is a bright light (that causes bloom) and what isn't.

#define BloomPower 0.80 // 1.446 //[0.0000 to 8.0000] Strength of the bloom

#define BloomWidth 0.0100 // 0.0142 //[0.0000 to 1.0000] Width of the bloom

 

HDR Settings:-

 

 

#define HDRPower 0.99 // 1.28 //[0.0 to 8.0] Strangely lowering this makes the image brighter

#define radius2 0.87 // 0.87 //[0.0 to 8.0] Raising this seems to make the effect stronger and also brighter

 

Just fabulous control! The first figures in all cases, are my figures, the second is the default setting. There are more settings - I've just shown these three - generally most default seem too much "in your face", so I softened them dow a fair bit. The ability to adjust bloom is very good: same with HDR (general brighness and contrast). Some pics: KORS Concrete , bit of a PNW mix.

 

Gave SweetFX a try, but so far fsx will launch then disappear (crash basically).. still researching as to why..

 

Have you compared this to shade (with shade I thought the defaults without shade actually looked better, particularly with lights and dusk settings, so i dumped shade)?

I believe it uses either 2008 or 2010 vcredist_32 & 64, TSITL. I think I had this happen, too - after I removed VB2010 and 2012. 

I believe it uses either 2008 or 2010 vcredist_32 & 64, TSITL. I think I had this happen, too - after I removed VB2010 and 2012. 

 

Strange.. ill look into again tonight perhaps.. i have vb 2012.. pretty sure those redist. are installed

(snip)

unclear on what the -1.0 LOD does for things in the dropbox original settings?

 

In your posted NI settings, having "Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias" set to "Clamp" effectively disables the "Texture Filtering - LOD Bias" setting of "-1". For using negative values, "Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias" must be set to "Allow". What this stuff does is coerce the texture filtering algorithm to use a higher detailed version of a texture than it would normally use for the given viewing distance (LOD - level of detail).

 

And BTW, I've found that setting this negative LOD value really enhances ground texture visuals and reduces tree shimmer. I now consider using this setting as necessary as using 4xGSAA (or 8xGSAA) to enhance visuals -- really good stuff!!!!