proper advanced graphics settings?

(Smoochy) #1

anyone else find it frustrating how limited and completely ‘not advanced’ Brink’s ‘advanced’ graphics options are. they are so basic.

cant we be allowed to see what level of AA and FSAA we are using, or even worse, we are missing out on, stuff like particles could be turned on and off.

i personally dont trust the 3rd party apps to tweak all this stuff as i know some of the options are actually blocked anyway. SD also say not to use the 3rd party apps as they can cause conflicts too.

thoughts? looking at the quake wars options compared to brink’s you really see what is missing.

also - to the guys who like to say No to options that dont affect them, please dont say No if you dont understand what i wrote (as it wont affect you) or if you dont think it will benefit you. options are about giving people more freedom, if you dont have the intention to utilise that freedom

(FireWorks) #2

add a dont care option then?

(kilL_888) #3

i woul like more freedom to alter the depth of field and some other things. actually i find the graphics better without any postprocessing effects.

i know the flashbang and other effects are also depth of field specific, but there should be a variable to change the range the depth of field applies in the world, independend from the other depth of field effects.

btw. @smoochy. is your almighty 580gtx not powerful enough to render brink with everything cranked to the max? i mean, you could even use downsampling with your driver, if you know what i mean…

(Smoochy) #4

[QUOTE=kilL_888;358519]i woul like more freedom to alter the depth of field and some other things. actually i find the graphics better without any postprocessing effects.

i know the flashbang and other effects are also depth of field specific, but there should be a variable to change the range the depth of field applies in the world, independend from the other depth of field effects.

btw. @smoochy. is your almighty 580gtx not powerful enough to render brink with everything cranked to the max? i mean, you could even use downsampling with your driver, if you know what i mean…[/QUOTE]

:slight_smile: yes it is. but im not sure im getting the full potential. every other game is 16x AA etc but i dont know what is in brink, i have it set high in the 3rd party brinkconfig but how do you know what is and isnt supported or locked. ive read from SD that the 3rd party apps let you alter variables (cvars) that are locked so they dont actually alter anything.

i just think its quite unprofessional to not give us the options that seem to be in every pc game

also, it seems odd to have to exit a game to change settings. things like FOV should be in the menus and you shouldnt have to exit the game to play around with them

(kilL_888) #5

if the antialiasing concerns you i would seriously try downsampling. right now you cant change the antialiasing in brink. you can either turn it on or off. the anisotropic filter also doesnt workc since most of the textures are megatextures that use a different anisotropic method, that is also locked. (vt_anisotropy) i think i mentioned this in another thread.

anyways. i recently found something about a little thing called downsampling. this is currently only usable with nvidia cards. there is a trick to use it with ati, too, but i wasnt able to get it running.

with downsampling your card calculates the image in a very high resolution and downsamples it to your native monitor resolution. with this method the best possbile antialiasing+anisotrpic filter is achieved, because the whole image is processed, not only the edges. even the textures look sharper.

with your rig it should be no problem to downsample from 2560x1680 to 1920x1080 or 1680x1050, whatever monitor you use.

i actually ordered a nvidia card today and once i got it, i turn all the antialiasing and anisotropy filter off in brink and will use the downsample method. its actually one of the reasons i finally upgraded.

tutorial:

(Smoochy) #6

[QUOTE=kilL_888;358560]if the antialiasing concerns you i would seriously try downsampling. right now you cant change the antialiasing in brink. you can either turn it on or off. the anisotropic filter also doesnt workc since most of the textures are megatextures that use a different anisotropic method, that is also locked. (vt_anisotropy) i think i mentioned this in another thread.

anyways. i recently found something about a little thing called downsampling. this is currently only usable with nvidia cards. there is a trick to use it with ati, too, but i wasnt able to get it running.

with downsampling your card calculates the image in a very high resolution and downsamples it to your native monitor resolution. with this method the best possbile antialiasing+anisotrpic filter is achieved, because the whole image is processed, not only the edges. even the textures look sharper.

with your rig it should be no problem to downsample from 2560x1680 to 1920x1080 or 1680x1050, whatever monitor you use.

i actually ordered a nvidia card today and once i got it, i turn all the antialiasing and anisotropy filter off in brink and will use the downsample method. its actually one of the reasons i finally upgraded.

tutorial:

interesting - i will take a look.

had a look. amazed the borderlands cant do FSAA, thats ridiculous, especially for a cell shaded game

i actually use supersampling 4x or 8x in the nvidia options anyway.

im more than happy playing with all the eye candy on but i wasnt sure if i was missing something, but what you say about FSAA and AA in brink makes sense why there are no options in the menus.

(kilL_888) #7

hey. so, i finally got my nvidia, too. im curious though. supersampling is for antialiasing transparency in the nvidia control panel.

changing this or the “normal” antialiasing doesnt have any impact on the game whatsoever. maybe you could create some screenshots for comparison and upload them to imgshack?

i doubt though, that brink supports driver forced antialiasing. or is there a workaround other than the downsampling?

(DarkangelUK) #8

[QUOTE=Smoochy;358477]anyone else find it frustrating how limited and completely ‘not advanced’ Brink’s ‘advanced’ graphics options are. they are so basic.

cant we be allowed to see what level of AA and FSAA we are using, or even worse, we are missing out on, stuff like particles could be turned on and off.

i personally dont trust the 3rd party apps to tweak all this stuff as i know some of the options are actually blocked anyway. SD also say not to use the 3rd party apps as they can cause conflicts too.

thoughts? looking at the quake wars options compared to brink’s you really see what is missing.

also - to the guys who like to say No to options that dont affect them, please dont say No if you dont understand what i wrote (as it wont affect you) or if you dont think it will benefit you. options are about giving people more freedom, if you dont have the intention to utilise that freedom[/QUOTE]

We’ve heard them say a lot of stuff was affected by lack of UI artists, so I’m guessing there wasn’t time or people available to create the interface for an advanced settings section. Just my guess, not an excuse.

(Smoochy) #9

why was this moved? its 110% a PC issue!

i guess you could say things like FOV might be nice to consolers to access?

(Smoochy) #10

not buying that. only an hours work max. and didnt the game come out a WEEK EARLY?

(Crispy) #11

[QUOTE=Smoochy;359799]why was this moved? its 110% a PC issue!

i guess you could say things like FOV might be nice to consolers to access?[/QUOTE]This thread does not require technical assistance; it’s a PC feature request. I need to keep the Tech Support forum for people who have an issue and need urgent attention.

The survey is also more valid if it’s open to everyone to vote on, not just those who view the Tech Support forum.

(Smoochy) #12

[QUOTE=Crispy;359803]This thread does not require technical assistance; it’s a PC feature request. I need to keep the Tech Support forum for people who have an issue and need urgent attention.

The survey is also more valid if it’s open to everyone to vote on, not just those who view the Tech Support forum.[/QUOTE]

ah, ok mate. no worries

(dazman76) #13

If you force settings in the driver, I don’t think the application has any choice but to obey them :slight_smile: If it could choose to ignore them, they wouldn’t label the option as forcing.

(kilL_888) #14

yea, right. but some games dont support driver enforced anti aliasing…

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=346325

read the first few paragraphs if you dont believe me… :wink:

(dazman76) #15

I’m afraid you’re reading too much into those comments, or mis-understanding what’s being said :slight_smile: When he/she says “games that don’t support AA” they simply mean the game itself has no AA options. They do NOT mean that the game somehow sidesteps the driver-forced AA and still comes out with no AA, and they don’t say anything to that effect - at least in the first few paragraphs. This “Nvidia inspector” has nothing to do with driver-forced settings either, it’s a tool for modifying the game itself.

Basically - if the driver is set (in NV control panel) to force AA for a game, that game will be rendered with AA. It simply cannot stop it - because the game asks the GPU to render a frame, and the GPU does so - including applying AA if you’ve told it to :slight_smile: This is exactly what they refer to when they say “brute-forcing AA in UE3 games”. The same applies to pretty much every option in NVCP - games request rendering with either OGL or D3D, and the GPU has the final say about what effects are applied to that frame - including forcing AA, AF, and a whole load of other things.

(kilL_888) #16

[QUOTE=dazman76;359878]
Basically - if the driver is set (in NV control panel) to force AA for a game, that game will be rendered with AA. [/QUOTE]

im sorry, but thats just wrong. im not making stuff up here. if i set “override application setting” for aa in nvidia control panel, i dont see any difference in brink either with 4x aa or 16x.

i cant explain why this is the case. all i can say is that some games dont support the driver override antialiasing.

i have version 275.50 installed btw.

(gooey79) #17

I’m not to fussed about more ‘advanced’ settings. The game looks decent in motion but the majority of the graphics are fairly poor quality - even on the highest settings.

Given the choice, I’d say ramp up the graphics quality.

(TheG4mer) #18

No advanced graphic settings needed. It will always look like a titel from 2007, even worse if you compare it to ETQW.