Using 8xSSAA+FXAA rendering

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

Maybe someone has done and posted this before, but I read a lot of this and haven't seen it mentioned.

 

Last night I was playing around with renderings, and went into the basic Nvidia Control Panel/Manage 3D Settings area, and decided to turn on (It is off by default) Antialiasing - FXAA.

 

When I went back to flying, I found higher FRs and tried turning on the 8xSSAA+FXAA setting.

 

Normally, this would kill my FRs, but this time it had almost no effect, but gave me a shimmer-free environment.

 

I have since tried it with several aircraft and it seems to hold up with all of them.

 

So simple, and so helpful.

 

Again, I apologize if this is a known visual aid, but I hadn't seen it mentioned before, and it is working for me, so I wanted to pass it on and see if it would help anyone else as this has been a regular complaint.

 

Thanks,

 

John

[MSFS Ralf 149]

Thank you, I'll try that too.

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

turned my FPS in 1/2! :-( 

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

turned my FPS in 1/2! :-( 

8xxx is a killer..has always been, even on beefy systems.  I use 4xxx for that reason, and don't go past it.

 

I'm certainly going to give this tip, a try...but if it doesn't pan out on my system...still 4xxx is no dog show !

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

turned my FPS in 1/2! :-( 

No guarantees, but if it doesn't work, just go back and click on NO.  My i7-4700 (note - not overclockable) with 16 GB DRAM and a 770 4 GB video card is turning 39-40 in heavies, except on the tarmac watching the ground handling equipment.  I went to my D1900 Carenado, which is the hardest I have on FRs and it is holding about the same.  What works for one obviously doesn't work for all, but it did for me and I'm trying to share my experience.  Other than trees, traffic, and water, my settings are relatively high.

 

John

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

No guarantees, but if it doesn't work, just go back and click on NO.  My i7-4700 (note - not overclockable) with 16 GB DRAM and a 770 4 GB video card is turning 39-40 in heavies, except on the tarmac watching the ground handling equipment.  I went to my D1900 Carenado, which is the hardest I have on FRs and it is holding about the same.  What works for one obviously doesn't work for all, but it did for me and I'm trying to share my experience.  Other than trees, traffic, and water, my settings are relatively high.

 

John

 

do you use vsync or 1/2 refresh rate? I have to use that otherwise its not smooth for me, but I know I can achieve greater FPS! 

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

No, the only other thing I have changed is Threaded Optimization, which is OFF.

 

Runs smoothly on my machine even with NOAA weather updates.

 

John

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

I would love to turn 1:2 refresh rate off and also vsync but the screen tearing becomes too much

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

Have you tried it lately?  The latest Nvidia drivers seem to be behaving nicely.

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

yeah, but I can get up to 40-50 even 60 FPS easy, problem is its not smooth, screen tears or its jittery. on a 27" 60HZ Monitor. 

[Jimmy RFR 406]

I think screen tearing can be worse / more noticeable depending on the monitor.  I'm not sure if that's purely subjective, but I do know that I sure can notice even the slightest bit of tearing on my 32" 60Hz monitor.   So, yes, I absolutely need to run some sort of VSync, and adaptive 1/2 is generally the best. 

 

(Interestingly enough, and I have no idea why, I can also run standard 1/2, and I can still smoothly go down to 27 or 28 without any major jumps downward in the fps.  I didn't think that should be, but ??)

 

I've been running 8xSSAA + FXAA with FXAA turned on via NI.  About 95% of the time, it's really smooth, and I get great fps.  However, if I try to fly with that setting into anything but light clouds, my framerates tank.  As noted above, 4xSSAA + FXAA does a fairly good job, without the possible performance penalty.

 

I just had a thought - is the current SSAA level settable via a dataref??  I'm thinking it could be, since nothing reloads when you change the setting.  I'm then thinking that it could be dynamically adjusted to keep a certain FPS, the same way that the LOD can be, with a Lua script.

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

I would use 4xSSAA+FXAA as it maintains my 30FPS except when I look out of the left window of the Carenado PC12! So I have to put up with shimmering and 2x setting :-(

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

Speaking of monitors, I, last week, bought and replaced my 24" monitor with a 32" Vizio TV.  I knew and worried that I would have to reduce my 1920x1080 (I think) resolution and found that I, in fact did.  The highest it would allow, even on its "computer" setting with HDMI, was 13 something x 7 something.  Surprisingly, it did not appreciably change the clarity of the display - just made everything bigger.  That alone raised the FRs maybe 10%.  But the improvement discussed earlier was from the setting and FR on that monitor and maybe the lower resolution is the factor, but it is still very clear, readable, and no shimmers and no tearing (which I had on the smaller monitor).  I had wanted to buy a 4K set, but they were only available in sizes that I could not use (space limitation), not to mention that they were really expensive.  I really don't think it would have served any better than what I was able to buy for $189.  

 

So, maybe THAT is the difference, but whatever it is, my experience is great.  Maybe ..... less is better!

 

John

[Jimmy RFR 406]

Speaking of monitors, I, last week, bought and replaced my 24" monitor with a 32" Vizio TV.  I knew and worried that I would have to reduce my 1920x1080 (I think) resolution and found that I, in fact did.  The highest it would allow, even on its "computer" setting with HDMI, was 13 something x 7 something.  Surprisingly, it did not appreciably change the clarity of the display - just made everything bigger.  That alone raised the FRs maybe 10%.  But the improvement discussed earlier was from the setting and FR on that monitor and maybe the lower resolution is the factor, but it is still very clear, readable, and no shimmers and no tearing (which I had on the smaller monitor).  I had wanted to buy a 4K set, but they were only available in sizes that I could not use (space limitation), not to mention that they were really expensive.  I really don't think it would have served any better than what I was able to buy for $189.  

 

So, maybe THAT is the difference, but whatever it is, my experience is great.  Maybe ..... less is better!

 

John

 

If you enjoy your experience, that's what really matters in the end!

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

Update...

 

I took my Vizio back this morning and upgraded for the 1920 x 1080 format.  No change in FRs and sharper picture.

 

John