LOD bias clamp for addon tracks

Some of the addon tracks I have been using have a very high negative LOD bias, which is causing lots of pixelation.
Found this fix, which works for GSCE and my nVidia 337.88 drivers. (Have not tried it in rF2, as I know some people were trying to do the same in that game as well)

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...clamp-negative-lod-bias/post/4288741/#4288741

You can use this patcher to clamp negative LOD bias - Nvidia Display Driver Patcher.exe
Patcher should work with 275-337 series driver.
  • Download it in folder "C:\123\"
  • Copy file - nvd3dum.dll from "Windows\SysWOW64\" in "C:\123"
  • Run patcher and click "Patch"
  • Copy patched nvd3dum.dll from "C:\123" in game folder where you want to get clamped negative LOD bias.
Nvidia Display Driver Patcher.exe - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26773310/Nvidia Display Driver Patcher.exe
 
Interesting. I was just using this d3d9.dll with this "tweak" already applied. Seems to work well with any driver version (I'm using the latest one). As I don't like the "map" feature inside GSCE, I just rename the original d3d9.dll to something else and put this one instead (rename it to d3d9.dll):
https://mega.co.nz/#!gJ0z3IZZ!bHhiABeAOJDO87ripPn2F4xaCQiXCskuDevg8CLqnXE

For those using the Wombat's Fix d3d9.dll (which causes less stuttering and more FPS), they can rename this "clamped version" as d3d9_2.dll and it will be loaded too.
 
What initially caused this was, I had made the recommended change to
ObjDetail=3
TexDetail=3

That actually makes the tracks look like crap.
I changed it back to the default
ObjDetail=0
TexDetail=1

and now the tracks look much better.

I am wary about using all these new dll patches etc with this game, although I know it is rF1 based, I would hope some of the optimizations they used would not require all this tweaking, as was done in rF1!
 
Interesting. :)

Best graphics and performance are obviously on opposite camps. The higher the graphics, the more likely it is for a simracer to face performance problems (I mean of his/her computer, naturally).

That's a given, even today's multi-core cpu and gpu's.

As for
ObjDetail=x
TexDetail=x

this comes from time to time, it gets explained and some time later the same questions pop up again.

From the good ol'days of RSC, the advice is as follows (IIRC, speed12 or Gjon confirmed this):

<aaa>Detail goes from 1 to highest setting 5.

Higher detail is obviously at 5. You downgrade this from 5 when performance is a concern.

So, if your machine can handle it, max it out at 5, and the same should be applicable to cpurating.

The config executable was originally coded with XP in mind, so often does not produce the best results in other OS's.
 
has anyone tried this lately?

im right in thinking gsce doesnt use the 64x version even if your on a 64x OS?

Hi,

I am on Win7 x64 and I can find only one copy of nvd3dum.dll (in the SysWOW64 folder) on my system and therefor I would assume that GSCE is using the patched DLL that I placed in the game folder to clamp the LOD. I don't think there is a 32 bit version of the DLL if thats what you mean.

Now I haven't tested with known problem tracks or tried to use any tools to confirm which DDL's are being used but I feel like there has been an improvement on my GTX 970.

When I get a idea of what my optimum graphics look like on the stock content then I can give a better opinion. I am a bit diss'ed buy the overall quality of the nvidia AA, but that is offset by the spectacular performance I am getting.


Thanks to dsuspense for the heads up on the patcher tool.
 
ive been using this since i posted above and its fine on all gsc tracks (gtx970 MSI). With nvidias DSRx4 it really looks a beauty!!>.

This pic actually shows the difference using the clamped ddll.
w8ug54.jpg
 
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I am on Win7 x64 and I can find only one copy of nvd3dum.dll (in the SysWOW64 folder) on my system and therefor I would assume that GSCE is using the patched DLL that I placed in the game folder to clamp the LOD. I don't think there is a 32 bit version of the DLL if thats what you mean.

I wanted to follow up on my comment after some time to (re)discover how win x64 works with regards to D3D and getting the clamped DLL to work.
So as I have discovered "nvd3dum.dll" (basically the video driver) is a 32 bit DLL and it has a 64 bit edition called "nvd3dumx.dll" that would be loaded in case you are using a 64 bit game / application (whatever).

So. GSCE is a 32 bit application and it uses the 32 bit driver to deliver graphics... and if you have a patched nvd3dum.dll and place it together with your gsc.exe then you will load the patched DLL and get clamped LOD.

Now I am sure that this is not a eureka moment for many, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to point this 64bit / 32 bit DLL thing out.

The clamped DLL works well for newer nvidia graphics cards, and I was using it with rF1 and GSCE with no problems, so I was getting a bit worried when I could not get it to work with rF2. With some trouble shooting I discovered that to get the clamped DLL to load I needed to force rF2 to launch in 32 bit mode. That makes sense of course, once you understand that nvd3dum.dll is a 32 bit driver.

The guy that designed the patcher has 32 and 64 bit versions, so if you want a clamped LOD on nvidia graphics the the patched DLL must match the application or game (ie 32 bit or 64 bit)

I patched the DLL's for the latest nvidia driver (347.52) and all seems to work as expected.

For the 32 bit patch tool
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...clamp-negative-lod-bias/post/4217639/#4217639

For the 64 bit patch tool
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...clamp-negative-lod-bias/post/4308251/#4308251
 
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I have uploaded the tools here to make them available. I am currently using a patched driver on v352.86 with good results. For whatever reason my AV (bitdefender... don't buy BD it sucks) is not happy with the x64 patcher and I need to disable AV in this case) I can confirm that using this tool to patch your nvidia driver is safe, however of course I take no responsibility for any fails that you (may) experience :)

Nvidia Display Driver (enable lod clamp) Patcher x86-x64 -Guzz

http://www.filefactory.com/folder/764936214a5348fd
 
I have uploaded the tools here to make them available. I am currently using a patched driver on v352.86 with good results. For whatever reason my AV (bitdefender... don't buy BD it sucks) is not happy with the x64 patcher and I need to disable AV in this case) I can confirm that using this tool to patch your nvidia driver is safe, however of course I take no responsibility for any fails that you (may) experience :)

Nvidia Display Driver (enable lod clamp) Patcher x86-x64 -Guzz

http://www.filefactory.com/folder/764936214a5348fd

Thanks. With this, do I now disable supersampling, or still keep settings as is?
 
If I understand correctly the patcher will simply enable "lod clamp". For what ever reason this feature can not be turned on/off from the control panel by design. The lod clamp is functional in the driver but needs to be forced on to make it work.

I use super sample filters. Other driver features are available and unaffected (to my knowledge) by forcing lod clamp.
 

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