Large Framerate Boost w/ Practically No Image Quality Loss

Trying to run rFactor 2 with maxed-out graphics settings but just can't do it? Try the following:

These settings (especially #2, #3, and #4) are "golden" and have transformed my gaming experience. They do not change the visual quality - to me - from fully maxed-out graphics settings, yet really boost my framerates, and therefore the overall experience, so much! Thanks to these settings, I can keep everything else absolutely maxed-out.

1. Anti Aliasing (Nvidia) - 8xCSAA instead of 4xAA / 16xCSAA instead of 8xAA - Slightly better performance AND image quality. If setting from the Nvidia Control Panel or Nvidia Inspector, then make sure to also set "antialiasing mode" to "override application settings" instead of "application controlled", and make sure the antialiasing in the rF2 configure screen is set to "None". If using AA from rF2 itself, then I believe Lvl 2 = 4xAA, Lvl 3 = 8xCSAA, Lvl 4 = 8xAA, and Lvl 5 = 16xCSAA, but don't quote me on that, plus, it may be different with different GPUs (780 Ti, here).

2. Shadows
- "High" (4/5) - Visually speaking, you will hardly notice a difference between this setting and "Max". I don't notice it, I would need to do side by side comparisons to notice, but you sure do get better framerates (especially overall consistency around the track).

3. Shadow Blur
- "Fast" (2/4) - Of course not as nice as "Quality" (lvl 4/4), but it also helps very nice with framerate and is hardly noticeable when you're actually playing (unless you play from an exterior cam eg. chase cam). Oddly enough, Fast (2/4) actually looks slightly better than "Optimized" (3/4) according to previous tests (from a build or 2 back).

4. Anisotropic Filtering
- "8x" (6/7) - You almost certainly will not notice a visual quality difference between 8x and 16x (you will with 4x, though), and you also will most likely not get a framerate improvement when lapping on your own, but testing shows good framerate imrpovements when multiple cars are on screen (especially at the start, during the first couple laps, lots of cars on screen at once during a replay, etc.).

Those settings are the difference between my framerate dropping and stuttering to as low as 45 fps/eye (total 90 fps - I use Nvidia 3D Vision 2), and having them at 60 fps/eye (total 120 fps). Maybe some rare drops to 58 fps/eye (116 total) or something, but hardly. That's a pretty massive gain for 3 settings that literally make no image quality difference to me, at all - and that's while using triple screens w/ multiview!


If you still want to raise your framerates without lowering any in-game graphics then you have 2 more options (I recommend to everyone to do #5, regardless!).

5.
Pre-Rendered Frames - "1" - In the Nvidia Control Panel (or Nvidia Inspector, I recommend Inspector since it has more adjustments and settings) select your rF2 profile, then change the setting (don't forget to hit Apply/Save/O.K.). Apart from gained fps in rF2, this will also decrease input lag for most users

6. I
n Nvidia Inspector set the following (I believe you can only adjust two of the following in the standard Nvidia Control Panel, however it may give the same result - fps-wise - but I'm not 100% certain, so I use Nvidia Inspector just to be safe):
- Texture filtering - Anisotropic filter optimization: ON
- Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: ON
- Texture filtering - Quality: HIGH PERFORMANCE
- Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization: ON


Still want more framerates while hardly affecting image quality?

7. Circuit Detail - "High" - May achieve a higher and more consistent framerate around the track or at specific points around the track where you may be experiencing framerate drops. You may notice some far-away trackside objects not showing anymore, but it is a very small amount of stuff, and usually far off into the distance rather than actual track-side stuff. It is a very, very small image quality decrease for the amount of potential framerate increase it may bring on certain PCs and certain tracks.

8. Opponent Detail - "Medium" or "High" - May improve framerates when racing against other opponents, including possible large framerate improvements when racing against many opponents.


These improvements will give you a very, very nice boost in rFactor 2 framerates without hardly affecting the image quality at all.

Thanks for supporting rFactor 2 and ISI (Image Space Incorporated)! Happy racing! :)


Here's an example of great results :)

oHOWEo;324489 said:
Gave me a nice boost, just the 3 settings.
from 45 to 58-60 at the start
from 70 to 88-90 during the race.
Noting that the previous (40 & 70) was with my card overclocked, the 58-60 & 88-90 is with my card underclocked as low as possible.
(I believe the three settings being referred to are #2, #3, and #4)
source -->http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.p...ad-of-tripples?p=324489&viewfull=1#post324489
 
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@Spinelli ,

You are using "Override application settings" for AA and AF in the Nvidia controle panel.
I think it's worth mentioning. ;)


Just a warning for people who want to experiment with Nvidea inspector:
I've had visual bugs due to nvidia inspector settings. (Sorry mate)
- Heat haze becomes a weird sphere
- transparant spooky trees
- weird rain/spray effects
- ...

I use the in-game settings after experimenting with the Nvidea controle panel video.
Since i left the the rF2 nvidia profile default and use the rF2 in-game graphic settings, i've no problems. :cool: ==> click here


The Nvidea Inspector is a fun tool to experiment with but not all settings work for everybody...
 
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I stated that you can probably set the AA in rF2 if you desire, and even mentioned the levels :). However, I did edit the post and mention the "override application settings" part.

AF is still set in-game, not from the control panel. I never mentioned anything about setting it from the control panel.

If your heat-haze is a weird sphere, then I believe it's not due to using "my" settings (MSAA and CSAA) but other settings such as certain combined-modes of AA (eg. 12xS, 16xS, etc. combinations of supersampling, etc.).

Inspector shouldn't cause issues relative to using the Nvidia control panel. Are you making sure to pull up the rF2 profile in Inspector? I hope you're not using the global profile.
 
I've tried every setting under the sun in the last month, including yours and others from the isi forums. Then I read somewhere on here that just to use the in game settings and since then it's been fine. Also, having shadows on means I get to see the fence and railings going with me around the track and it's very off putting.
 
Ya Jim, I'm not saying my graphics settings fix every single bug or issue with rF2. They are just settings for people who are trying to run maxed-out gfx but would like a boost in framerates while having everything still looking like the game's gfx are fully maxed-out since they hardly effect image quality at all while definitely giving quite a boost in framerates.
 
- Texture filtering - Anisotropic filter optimization: ON
- Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization: ON
- Texture filtering - Quality: HIGH PERFORMANCE
- Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization: ON

I tried it, it worked... :thumbsup: But only these in the nvidea inspector. I could go up a level AA. i could do level 6 now. Very thing els ingame max.
 
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@William Wester

Read the first post.

I was a bit sceptic at first. Fooling around with nvidia inspector.
It won't double your fps. :whistling: But more constant fps and no big fps drops.

I had some bugs experimenting with AA stuff. But that was my fault.
I have seen this OP before but that was with my GTX 780, I will go over this again to see if I can improve the look and frame rate now with my 980. Thanks
 
Sorry for the late reply guys. Yes, I run triples too. Setting the shadows and circuit detail from max to high, AF to 8x instead of 16x, and shadow Blur to "fast" instead "quality" made such a massive difference in frames for me, especially considering the fact that I A. Use triple screens (59xx x 1080), B. aim for either 100fps @ 100Hz, 120fps @ 120 Hz, or play in 3D - 60fps/eye (120fps total), and D. use "Multiview" (of course! ;))

The differences that options 1-5 and 7 have done are mega. Sometimes I'm locked at 60fps x 2 (SLI 780 Ti) but other times I get fps drops to as low as 45-ish fps. For example, going down the 2nd last straightway at Monza, especially the first half before you go under the bridge - slowdowns there. Many areas of many tracks though, not to mention when other cars come into the picture. But with #s 2-4 and 7 (everyone should do #5 regardless of fps), it's literally 60fps x 2 locked all the way around the track, even with opponents. There may still be some drops here and there, maybe in heavy rain spray??? I mean - don't forget - other than these few small tweaks, the overall GFX settings are still 95% maxed-out :)

Nvidia GTX 900 Series Owners (Regarding CSAA)
With regards to #1, Nvidia has apparently dropped CSAA for the GTX 980 (and I'm guessing the entire 900 line??). that's probably why some have issues; I don't think it works on those cards. That's probably also why 9xx series card owners (well, atleast the 980) can only find CSAA in Nvidia Inspector, whereas the CSAA modes are right in the stock Nvidia control panel for pre-900 series card owners, well, atleast with the 700 series, I'm not sure how far back CSAA support goes, I'm guessing atleast the 500 series card, but that's just a guess.

Regarding #8 (Opponent Detail)
The only thing the really makes a difference in my OP - image quality wise - is opponent detail. When racing opponents, especially with a realistic FOV, you can tell that the skins are all very low-resolution if set to "medium" (not sure about "high"). It can look quite bad when battling other cars closely. I may remove the "opponent detail" tweak in my guide because it can really affect IQ, and my goal with the guide is to have a just-about-maxed-out-image-quality-while-having-much-better-than--maxed-out-framerates experience; setting "opponent detail" to "medium" may interfere with that experience.


P.S. If someone is really struggling with fps, then this may not solve their problems. The setting tweaks came about from me being fairly close to being able to play with GFX maxed-out. Having said that, I urge everyone to try the following: set the game to absolutely fully maxed-out. Note the fps around a lap (press Ctrl-F to see framerates, or use a free program like Fraps to report them). Then do the exact same test but with my suggestions instead (especially #s 1-5 and 7, or #s 2-5 & 7 for Nvidia 900 series card owners), I bet you'll see almost literally no drop in image quality, but just wait until you do another framerate test :)
 
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Thanks @Spinelli , applied for SCE too. For rF2, as I'm new to it, can you clarify some items:
1. Are #s 2-4 done in player.json? I couldn't find a setting for AF in there.
2. As I don't have CSAA in my maxwell card, what would be the next option to 8xCSAA, 8xQ?
3. OT:
a) Is there a way to set Minimum Force to remove dead center in my G27 (like Min.Force in AC)?
b) Is there a High-res mirror mod, like in SCE?
 
You're welcome :). Yes, I have almost the same thread for SCE here --> http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...st-w-practically-no-image-quality-loss.97304/)

1. AF in RF2, as well as SCE, is in the in-game graphics settings. The shadow Blur setting is either "off" or "on" in SCE.

2. 8xQ = regular 8xMSAA. If you don't have CSAA then I guess just use regular MSAA. You can also experiment with Nvidia DSR. Also, the Maxwell cards have a new AA mode which, I'm assuming, sort of took the place of CSAA, however, I'm not sure if you can add-in this type of AA to any game, or if the game has to have specific in-built support for it. There are many types of higher quality more demanding forms of AA (like the "XxS settings, the SGSSAA + MSAA settings, etc.) that you can choose in Nvidia Inspector, but those are really demanding.

3, A. Yes, RF2's minimum force can be set. The line is called "Steering Torque Minimum". Try small values first like 2%, 3%, etc. for 3% type in "0.03", 4.5% = 0.045, 10% = 0.10, and so on. (You may also want to add a bit of smoothing for the G27, maybe a few % but I'm not sure, the smoothing can be set in-game.). There are 4 or 5 other lines that can make quite a difference for some Here's a fantastic thread where you can get a ton of help with FFB questions --> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.p...ings-for-rFactor-2-Applies-to-ALL-wheel-users

3, B. Not that I'm aware of (yes the high-rex mirror mod is great :)) but I can't say for certain. If you can't find anything in these threads maybe give the official RF2 forum a try.
 
I believe he's referring to the recommended settings, if they can be adopted too for AC and PC.

@Rolf Just, FWIW, if you're using a GTX970 (like I do), I learned that CSAA no longer works with Maxwell, which is why I guess I couldn't run SCE with CSAA. OTOH, I didn't have problems running AC, with these CSAA settings, though I'm not sure how AC was handling AA.

For info, with PCars, the in-game MSAA setting includes transparency supersampling, so there's no need to set it in Inspector.
 
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