Enhanced AA Settings?

What's the word on enhancing anti-aliasing? I've already added 8x sparse grid supersampling in Nvidia Inspector along with the in game 4x AA setting. Seems like it's not doing a ton of jaggie removal, though. Maybe I'm expecting too much. I've tried a bunch of other additional nvidia inspector settings with no improvement and I give up. I've also tried 4x DSR and honestly, I don't see what the fuss is about with DSR. I didn't see much improvement, and certainly not worth the GPU load it causes. Anybody have any recommendations?

Also, should nvidia inspector AA mode be enhance? I assumed yes.

Screenshot attached of my nvidia inspector profile. Currently getting 100 fps pretty easily on my GTX980.

SpMDL2RKfkaKJuoGzqSjhJ7pveyi00qAf_OBLp9cd1uj=w928-h819-no
 
The problem is the shadow...the aa work with inspector but the medium to distant shadows are flickering and gives the ilusion that aa doesnt work..

Also be aware that Sparse Grid Supersampling must be the same used in AA, like 4x both, or 8x both. You'll usually get weird results (or no results at all) if you mix things, i.e., 4x AA and 8xSGSS or vice-versa.
Cheers.
 
I'm trying all I can to find how to turn off shadows all-together. Should help a bit. But mainly, the flickering in the distance and the horizontal AA along the barriers, for example, drive me crazy. I'll try 4x SGSS and 4x AA in the meantime.

So far, for shadows, I've found in the main game files (in the steam folder, not my documents):

common > assettocorsa> system > cfg > "ig_config.ini" - this has some interesting settings:
"shadow_map_splits" settings that I think improve shadow draw distances.
- currently set to: SHADOW_MAP_SPLITS=0, 150.0, 500.0, 1000.0

also:
common > assettocorsa> system > cfg >"graphics.ini"
MIP_LOD_BIAS=-2 ; GO NEGATIVE (ie. -1) TO SHARP THE IMAGE
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_0=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_1=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_2=1.000000

The extra sharpness granted by -2 is kind of like using sweetfx, which I think works well. And so far setting the map bias to 1.0 has much less shadowing, but still there. Setting it to zero didn't do anything. It's really been all trial and error so far!
 
I'm trying all I can to find how to turn off shadows all-together. Should help a bit. But mainly, the flickering in the distance and the horizontal AA along the barriers, for example, drive me crazy. I'll try 4x SGSS and 4x AA in the meantime.

So far, for shadows, I've found in the main game files (in the steam folder, not my documents):

common > assettocorsa> system > cfg > "ig_config.ini" - this has some interesting settings:
"shadow_map_splits" settings that I think improve shadow draw distances.
- currently set to: SHADOW_MAP_SPLITS=0, 150.0, 500.0, 1000.0

also:
common > assettocorsa> system > cfg >"graphics.ini"
MIP_LOD_BIAS=-2 ; GO NEGATIVE (ie. -1) TO SHARP THE IMAGE
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_0=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_1=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_2=1.000000

The extra sharpness granted by -2 is kind of like using sweetfx, which I think works well. And so far setting the map bias to 1.0 has much less shadowing, but still there. Setting it to zero didn't do anything. It's really been all trial and error so far!
Two years later and that settings still matter!
Thank you very much for posting this! I didn't find anything about that Shadow Splits but here.
Shadows are smooth now, without that ugly transition in front of me. Also got a nice performance boost! :)
 
I finally cured flickering shadows on most tracks by using 4x AA and 4x SGSS, as suggested in this thread. I use a 1440p 60Hz monitor.
Assetto Corsa
Anti-Aliasing Samples 4x

NVidia Profile Inspector
SNkutQE.jpg


I first tried this some time ago, but it didn't work. I hadn't read the recommendations properly. Antialiasing - Mode in Nvidia Profile Inspector needs to be set to Enhance the application setting - not Override.

I can now drive on the Nordschleife - in the sunshine!!!
Thanks to everyone for their help.


****** Shadows can still be disabled using Content Manager - unfortunately it creates a dark shadow area which moves in front of the car.
 
So that screenshot is your current settings with just sparesgrid x4 in inspector and then 4x AA ingame? And shadow flicker is now gone.
I have 8xAA using the experimental in content manager and AA is pretty good @4k but the shadows really bug me.
Why are the shadows in AC such a hard thing to improve?
That and the crappy looking paper trees.
 
@2stains my settings are the same so I will answer:
Sgssaa (sparse grid supersampling) is the only thing that really helps against flicker on "non solid things" like fences, shadows, smoke etc.
Even 64x msaa won't do anything, sadly!
But AC shadows are worse than in other games. Shadows are quite complicated, there are different ways to calculate them and Kunos chose a way that has flicker problems.

I can recommend the shadow Split and mip bias setting from above. Combined with 4x sgssaa AC is really smooth now. Gtx 1070 is around 60% load. 8x sgssaa (with 8x in content manager) looks 10 times better but you would need a gtx 1080.

I see you are using 4k. Natural screen or downsampling? With natural 4k screen you could try to put the shadow map to 8192 (Ultra+ you could call it) so you have less artifacts = less flicker.
If downsampling: go back to natural resolution and raise the sgssaa instead :)
 
So that screenshot is your current settings with just sparesgrid x4 in inspector and then 4x AA ingame? And shadow flicker is now gone.
I have 8xAA using the experimental in content manager and AA is pretty good @4k but the shadows really bug me.

Yes those are the setting I'm using. I've just tried 8 and 8 and the shadows are still good, although it's harder to see because the frame rate is low and the screen is juddering.

Two ideas
1. I've read that to get 8x AA to work, some people have to change AAQUALITY=0 to AAQUALITY=1 in
Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg\video.ini
Content Manager does this automatically.

2. When I was experimenting , I disabled SGSS (Off/Multisampling) in NVidia Profile Inspector. The shadows were still good!!! The SGSS setting seemed to be locked. I was only able to return to flickering shadows by signing out of Windows and logging back in.
You could trying signing out, after you change the NVidia settings.

Why are the shadows in AC such a hard thing to improve?
I've found that flickering shadows is a problem in several sims.
SGSS improves the shadows in rF2, but has almost no effect in Projects Cars.
 
Some tracks mods seem to show more tree shadow flickering. I think this partly depend on the ksAlphaRef setting the author has used.
See Fat-Alfie's post 7 in:
http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/tree-shadows-texture-or-solid-caster.43268/
Very detailed shadows seem to cause more flickering.

I have used 3DSimED to edit* the tree material in some mods from ksAlphaRef = 1 to ksAlphaRef = 0.5 and this has helped the flickering.
* For my own personal use.
 
2. When I was experimenting , I disabled SGSS (Off/Multisampling) in NVidia Profile Inspector. The shadows were still good!!! The SGSS setting seemed to be locked. I was only able to return to flickering shadows by signing out of Windows and logging back in.
You could trying signing out, after you change the NVidia settings.


I've found that flickering shadows is a problem in several sims.
SGSS improves the shadows in rF2, but has almost no effect in Projects Cars.
Strange, normally it's enough to restart the game...
Pcars: sgssaa doesn't work here, sadly. I got it working but then everything is heavily blurred :(
 
Some tracks mods seem to show more tree shadow flickering. I think this partly depend on the ksAlphaRef setting the author has used.
See Fat-Alfie's post 7 in:
http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/tree-shadows-texture-or-solid-caster.43268/
Very detailed shadows seem to cause more flickering.

I have used 3DSimED to edit* the tree material in some mods from ksAlphaRef = 1 to ksAlphaRef = 0.5 and this has helped the flickering.
* For my own personal use.
Very interesting! Thanks for the link!
To "more details = more flicker I wrote a long post in this thread:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...-race-dlc-released.135891/page-8#post-2480640
Stefano of Kunos answered him self and a few other guys and the 4k problem gets also discussed :)
 
Very interesting! Thanks for the link!
To "more details = more flicker I wrote a long post in this thread:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...-race-dlc-released.135891/page-8#post-2480640
Stefano of Kunos answered him self and a few other guys and the 4k problem gets also discussed :)
Thanks for the very excellent link.

I saw this in the thread:
Or nvidia could take a look at how knunos is treating their customers and bring back the clamped lod bias setting. Would stop all the flickering in every damn game but nope :rolleyes:
Do AMD GPUs still have the clamped lod bias setting - less tree shadow flickering?
I'm thinking of upgrading to Vega when it's finally released.
 
Last edited:
@2stains my settings are the same so I will answer:
Sgssaa (sparse grid supersampling) is the only thing that really helps against flicker on "non solid things" like fences, shadows, smoke etc.
Even 64x msaa won't do anything, sadly!
But AC shadows are worse than in other games. Shadows are quite complicated, there are different ways to calculate them and Kunos chose a way that has flicker problems.

I can recommend the shadow Split and mip bias setting from above. Combined with 4x sgssaa AC is really smooth now. Gtx 1070 is around 60% load. 8x sgssaa (with 8x in content manager) looks 10 times better but you would need a gtx 1080.

I see you are using 4k. Natural screen or downsampling? With natural 4k screen you could try to put the shadow map to 8192 (Ultra+ you could call it) so you have less artifacts = less flicker.
If downsampling: go back to natural resolution and raise the sgssaa instead :)
I have all setting maxed out (PP settings glare and the other one (lol) medium) @ 4k (3840x2160 screen) and 8x in control panel and get a very solid v-sync with a little drop off the line due to smoke but still do have flicker from the rear end of some cars and fences and shadows .
I really need a walk through for this stuff because i cant get any change ingame after using inspector other than a huge performance drop .
I use a GTX 1070 , i5 6600k both with high OC and 16GB ram .
 
Thanks for the very excellent link.

I saw this in the thread:

Do AMD GPUs still have the clamped lod bias setting - less tree shadow flickering?
I'm thinking of upgrading to Vega when it's finally released.
AMD never had this clamp setting, well at least not that simple. Afaik did nothing change (nvidia didn't change anything too, but it broke...).
I don't have a amd gpu so just google for AMD lod bias clamp :) for dx9 there is a modified DLL for nvidia (Google guzz lod hack) which works wonders. Found it in a rfactor thread!

I have all setting maxed out (PP settings glare and the other one (lol) medium) @ 4k (3840x2160 screen) and 8x in control panel and get a very solid v-sync with a little drop off the line due to smoke but still do have flicker from the rear end of some cars and fences and shadows .
I really need a walk through for this stuff because i cant get any change ingame after using inspector other than a huge performance drop .
I use a GTX 1070 , i5 6600k both with high OC and 16GB ram .
Well if the frames are dropping the setting works. sparse Grid and normal AA in the Game have to match in numbers. So use 4 with 4 or 8 with 8.
I think for 4k you need to raise the shadow map, also try to use the shadow mip bias on 1.000 and the split values. Worked wonders for me!
I did a little video for comparison in Rocket League, it has a little "cutting bug", don't wonder and you have to download it (150mb) because Youtube's quality is not high enough for flicker comparison!
Here is my Dropbox Link: LINK
 
AMD never had this clamp setting, well at least not that simple. Afaik did nothing change (nvidia didn't change anything too, but it broke...).
I don't have a amd gpu so just google for AMD lod bias clamp :) for dx9 there is a modified DLL for nvidia (Google guzz lod hack) which works wonders. Found it in a rfactor thread!


Well if the frames are dropping the setting works. sparse Grid and normal AA in the Game have to match in numbers. So use 4 with 4 or 8 with 8.
I think for 4k you need to raise the shadow map, also try to use the shadow mip bias on 1.000 and the split values. Worked wonders for me!
I did a little video for comparison in Rocket League, it has a little "cutting bug", don't wonder and you have to download it (150mb) because Youtube's quality is not high enough for flicker comparison!
Here is my Dropbox Link: LINK
Shadow map ? What numbers do i use for this ?


I did this and everything went grainy and looked like rF2 .lol
From post #5 of this thread :
common > assettocorsa> system > cfg >"graphics.ini"
MIP_LOD_BIAS=-2 ; GO NEGATIVE (ie. -1) TO SHARP THE IMAGE
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_0=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_1=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_2=1.000000

Not sure what happened there but put defaults back in and its just normal (obviously) .
 
Edit: my English in this post is awful. Written on my Phone so please don't bother :inlove:
Shadow map ? What numbers do i use for this ?


I did this and everything went grainy and looked like rF2 .lol
From post #5 of this thread :
common > assettocorsa> system > cfg >"graphics.ini"
MIP_LOD_BIAS=-2 ; GO NEGATIVE (ie. -1) TO SHARP THE IMAGE
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_0=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_1=1.000000
SHADOW_MAP_BIAS_2=1.000000

Not sure what happened there but put defaults back in and its just normal (obviously) .
I will try to explain it but I have no real knowledge if this is correct, sorry! :(
First: try the values again, but let the mip_lod_bias on ZERO! And don't forget the Split values!

What is LOD (-bias)?
If you create anything in a game you have to do LODs or you will get every GPU to it's knees.
That means you say "if the car in front of you is 0-20 meters away, take the full texture", "if the car is 20-100 meters away, take this, a bit crappier texture (and polygons etc)".
So you get different "Levels Of Detail" and tell them when to use which.
"common > assettocorsa> system > cfg > "ig_config.ini" - this has some interesting settings:
"shadow_map_splits" settings that I think improve shadow draw distances.
- currently set to: SHADOW_MAP_SPLITS=0, 150.0, 500.0, 1000.0 "

These settings put the "splits" for the different LODs further away from you. So you will have "better shadows" even in further distance.
It eliminates this cutting detail line in front of you.
Additional info: perfect LODs are reached when you don't see it :)

What is the Shadow Map Size?
The shadow map size is how big the FIRST texture of you LODs will be. I don't know what is big and what is not but the highest inGame setting is 4096, high is 2048.
On 1920x1080 I can tell the difference. Especially when you are in the pits and look at the shadow under the roof of the garages you see the artifacts in the shadows. It should be a straight, dark line but it's these... strange looking strobe things:O_o:
If you raise the map size this should go away, because the shadow calculation has "more points". It's heavy on the GPU!
For 4k you have to render everything in a higher resolution, sadly the AC shadows seem to need be raised separate. In theory you would need 4x the value of fullHD, so 4096*4= 16384.
I would say: f*ck it and type this value in, look at the shadows if it's better, I really have no clue :unsure: But you will only get 1-20fps:roflmao::speechless:

What are the shadow mip bias?
Again, I have no correct knowledge of this, but it's how I understand it:
The shadow mip bias is how detailed the SPLITS are. The lower the value, the more detail!
As linked to my long post before, if you have too much details in a too little area, the "pixels will start to crawl" because the "details can't decide on which pixel they should be displayed".
That problem can be solved but heavy Anti Aliasing like 8x SGSSAA.
You can imagine the SGSSAA like a discussion with the details, how they should be displayed and that will stop the crawling/aliasing/flickering. That's why it's so heavy on the GPU. MSAA only "discusses with solid objects".

Let the MIP_LOD_BIAS=0. The sharper (lod-bias on negative values sharps through more details = more flicker!) a imagine, the more flicker! Some people like it, I clearly don't! (But SGSSAA blurrs a bit so I put LITTLE sharpen through SweetFX, the LOD_BIAS sharps on a render level, SweetFX is a post effect!

So the map bias: you put every LOD to 1.0 so you won't get any detailed shadows, but they also WON'T CHANGE IN DISTANCE.
In the end, you will have just "grey areas" that are smooth and don't flicker.

In my understanding that would cancel out the higher shadow map size but again: I have no real knowledge :/

My final 2 cents:
Raise the map size, put the map bias(es) to 1.0 and increase the split distance values.
For me this gives me a smooooth experience on FullHD with 4x SGSSAA.
 
Last edited:
Edit: my English in this post is awful. Written on my Phone so please don't bother :inlove:

I will try to explain it but I have no real knowledge if this is correct, sorry! :(
First: try the values again, but let the mip_lod_bias on ZERO! And don't forget the Split values!

What is LOD (-bias)?
If you create anything in a game you have to do LODs or you will get every GPU to it's knees.
That means you say "if the car in front of you is 0-20 meters away, take the full texture", "if the car is 20-100 meters away, take this, a bit crappier texture (and polygons etc)".
So you get different "Levels Of Detail" and tell them when to use which.
"common > assettocorsa> system > cfg > "ig_config.ini" - this has some interesting settings:
"shadow_map_splits" settings that I think improve shadow draw distances.
- currently set to: SHADOW_MAP_SPLITS=0, 150.0, 500.0, 1000.0 "

These settings put the "splits" for the different LODs further away from you. So you will have "better shadows" even in further distance.
It eliminates this cutting detail line in front of you.
Additional info: perfect LODs are reached when you don't see it :)

What is the Shadow Map Size?
The shadow map size is how big the FIRST texture of you LODs will be. I don't know what is big and what is not but the highest inGame setting is 4096, high is 2048.
On 1920x1080 I can tell the difference. Especially when you are in the pits and look at the shadow under the roof of the garages you see the artifacts in the shadows. It should be a straight, dark line but it's these... strange looking strobe things:O_o:
If you raise the map size this should go away, because the shadow calculation has "more points". It's heavy on the GPU!
For 4k you have to render everything in a higher resolution, sadly the AC shadows seem to need be raised separate. In theory you would need 4x the value of fullHD, so 4096*4= 16384.
I would say: f*ck it and type this value in, look at the shadows if it's better, I really have no clue :unsure: But you will only get 1-20fps:roflmao::speechless:

What are the shadow mip bias?
Again, I have no correct knowledge of this, but it's how I understand it:
The shadow mip bias is how detailed the SPLITS are. The lower the value, the more detail!
As linked to my long post before, if you have too much details in a too little area, the "pixels will start to crawl" because the "details can't decide on which pixel they should be displayed".
That problem can be solved but heavy Anti Aliasing like 8x SGSSAA.
You can imagine the SGSSAA like a discussion with the details, how they should be displayed and that will stop the crawling/aliasing/flickering. That's why it's so heavy on the GPU. MSAA only "discusses with solid objects".

Let the MIP_LOD_BIAS=0. The sharper (lod-bias on negative values sharps through more details = more flicker!) a imagine, the more flicker! Some people like it, I clearly don't! (But SGSSAA blurrs a bit so I put LITTLE sharpen through SweetFX, the LOD_BIAS sharps on a render level, SweetFX is a post effect!

So the map bias: you put every LOD to 1.0 so you won't get any detailed shadows, but they also WON'T CHANGE IN DISTANCE.
In the end, you will have just "grey areas" that are smooth and don't flicker.

In my understanding that would cancel out the higher shadow map size but again: I have no real knowledge :/

My final 2 cents:
Raise the map size, put the map bias(es) to 1.0 and increase the split distance values.
For me this gives me a smooooth experience on FullHD with 4x SGSSAA.
Wow and then wow again for all you typing .
Many thanks and now for some testing .
Cheers and i will report back how much my GPU cries .lol
 

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