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Downsampling, a simple method for making your pc-games look better.

NBtoaster

Member
I can't get past 2880x1620 on a 1080p AOC monitor over HDMI, but I can get 3200x1800 on a 900p acer over DVI.

Anyway, here's what 2880X1620 can do for Crysis 2 with SMAA:

iqmrkf8.png
 

Wanny

Member
I cannot go much higher than 3200x2000 here. When I try higher, the screen display a message saying "not optimum mode", no matter the timings or manual settings.

:(
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Do you have a list of games that support it?

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=357956

edit : that's not a conclusive list, and not all games do support it but that thread is step one for finding games that support SGSSAA and how you do it with an nvidia card.

I cannot go much higher than 3200x2000 here. When I try higher, the screen display a message saying "not optimum mode", no matter the timings or manual settings.

:(


Don't fret too much 3200x1800(2000) is quite the high resolution to begin with :D
 

Hawk269

Member
Can someone list higher resolutions that are 16x9? I am going to try this out and I have a killer rig, so I want to see how high I can push it, but also make sure that it is 16x9. I game on a 55' Sony 1080p HDTV...GTX690 and i73930k CPU.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
so what could it be? i have the latest nvidia drivers, dual link dvi, graphics card capable of up to 2560x1600

This will sound stupid and redundant but did you make sure that you had the override boxes checked and have scaling set to GPU? ( the reason I ask is that when the monitor says "this isn't supported" at "lower" resolutions the main culprit is that the scaling options are correctly set ).

Can someone list higher resolutions that are 16x9? I am going to try this out and I have a killer rig, so I want to see how high I can push it, but also make sure that it is 16x9. I game on a 55' Sony 1080p HDTV...GTX690 and i73930k CPU.


All those resolutions are 16x9, I don't think anyone of them are standard other than 2560x1440 and 3840x2160. However, that doesn't matter as long as the resolution you choose has a 16:9 aspect ratio.

So you can try the listed ones, 2560x1440, 2880x1620, 3200x1800, 3600x2025, 3840x2160.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
Can someone list higher resolutions that are 16x9? I am going to try this out and I have a killer rig, so I want to see how high I can push it, but also make sure that it is 16x9. I game on a 55' Sony 1080p HDTV...GTX690 and i73930k CPU.

It's simple to do it yourself.

You have a 1080p monitor, so the best thing to do is multiples of 1080p.

1920 x 1080

multiply by 1.5

2880 x 1620

or

multiply by 2

3840 x 2160

etc etc etc. Keep going until it works.

Alternatively, multiply (16) (x) for your width and (9) (x) for your height.
 

Piggus

Member
I've been doing this for a few months and it makes a huge difference, especially in games like GTAIV that have really terrible AA solutions.

AC3 at 2560x1440 downsampled to 1080p with 4xMSAA is pretty damn beautiful. And with the framerate locked at 30fps, it's consistent.
 

Xanadu

Banned
This will sound stupid and redundant but did you make sure that you had the override boxes checked and have scaling set to GPU? ( the reason I ask is that when the monitor says "this isn't supported" at "lower" resolutions the main culprit is that the scaling options are correctly set ).

yes i did 100% of everything in the guide, ive had this problem for a while btw, i can go to stupid a stupid res like 1940x1100 but any more than that it cant display it
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Managed to push my 1400x900 screen to 1080 in the end, far sharper! Thanks!

Awesome! Make sure to share your potential solutions so it can help others avoid and overcome similar hurdles.

yes i did 100% of everything in the guide, ive had this problem for a while btw, i can go to stupid a stupid res like 1940x1100 but any more than that it cant display it

Sorry to hear, hopefully the more people try and fail/succeed at this we will have more data to actually understand what makes certain resolutions work for some while it doesn't for others who similar setups.
 
OK so i followed the guide and tested the custom resolution and it displayed fine, although the text and Nvidia control panel were small. So now I just leave the desktop display resolution at 144x900 and choose 2880x1800 inside games?
 
Awesome! Make sure to share your potential solutions so it can help others avoid and overcome similar hurdles.

Ah right yeah, I switched 1400 to 1920 and my 900 to 1080.
Basically the OPs base settings.

Was surprised it just pops up in game too, no need to change overall resolution, just go to your in game settings and chose the new res.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
So now I just leave the desktop display resolution at 1440x900 and choose 2880x1800 inside games?

Correctomundo.


Ah right yeah, I switched 1400 to 1920 and my 900 to 1080.
Basically the OPs base settings.

Was surprised it just pops up in game too, no need to change overall resolution, just go to your in game settings and chose the new res.

Ah, yeap that's how we want it to work, as simply as that.
 

Hawk269

Member
Corky, what is your setup again and are you able to get 60fps in most of your games? And I guess another dump question, using this, I assume you turn off any in-game AA setting or do you leave that turned on as well for even better IQ?
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Corky, what is your setup again and are you able to get 60fps in most of your games? And I guess another dump question, using this, I assume you turn off any in-game AA setting or do you leave that turned on as well for even better IQ?

I'm using a 2600k@4.6 now and a 670@1300.

Honestly it depends but I get 60 fps in most games using 3200x1800 and high to max settings. There are definitely outliers but a game like BF3 for example can maintain a decent 60 fps using all settings max except MSAA which I set to off.

Whether or not I turn off AA depends on if I have 60 fps ( or 30 fps in the few games I settle for 30 capped, like modded crysis 2 ). Take Mirror's edge for example, a game that you can easily push high res and ingame AA - in cases like that I leave ingame AA on and set to some moderate setting like 4xmsaa.

You'll have no problems maintaining 60 fps downsampled in most games on your setup :)
 

Smirk

Neo Member
Custom resolutions do not appear in Dota 2 in-game options. Is there any way to force the downsampling? Or may it be something as simple as a PC restart needed after creating custom resolutions?
 
Because your TV is 720p, I would recommend you set the custom resolution to

2560 x 1440 @ 60hz. See if that works.

Okay I tried playing FC3 for a few minutes at that resolution and Fraps showed the framerate hovering from 30-60fps. It was 40-60 in indoor places but it went down to around 30 when out in the field.

I'm sure that's pretty darn good for a GTX 550 TI and FX 4100 OC'd to 4.1GHZ.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Custom resolutions do not appear in Dota 2 in-game options. Is there any way to force the downsampling? Or may it be something as simple as a PC restart needed after creating custom resolutions?

Did you actually save your new custom resolution/s? If you succeeded in creating new high resolutions then those should very much show up in Dota 2, like this :

dota2013-01-2000-54-0jxroh.png


Okay I tried playing FC3 for a few minutes at that resolution and Fraps showed the framerate hovering from 30-60fps. It was 40-60 in indoor places but it went down to around 30 when out in the field.

I'm sure that's pretty darn good for a GTX 550 TI and FX 4100 OC'd to 4.1GHZ.


When you dip under 60 fps too often you can just cap the framerate 30 fps via nvidia inspector.
 

legacyzero

Banned
DAMMIT I want resolutions higher than what I'm getting. But I need to find the best monitor for the best price. Without getting TOO big of a monitor.
 
Thanks for the guide Corky. Made 3 custom resolutions at 2.000, 1.750, and 1.500 of my screens native rez and all of them work fine. Tried doing this via 3rd party programs before but it never worked until the durante fix and now this.


Custom resolutions do not appear in Dota 2 in-game options. Is there any way to force the downsampling? Or may it be something as simple as a PC restart needed after creating custom resolutions?

Are you using resolutions that are a divisor of your monitors native resolution? I only tested this with Dota 2 and all 3 showed up for me under the 16:10 aspect ratio.
 
Dota2 you might have to change from 16:10 to 16:9. They are not all together.

I currently have an issue with source games running and also not closing (not responding to end process neither), but this may be unconnected to this issue.

Other games seem 100% fine.
 

legacyzero

Banned
Thanks for the guide Corky. Made 3 custom resolutions at 2.000, 1.750, and 1.500 of my screens native rez and all of them work fine. Tried doing this via 3rd party programs before but it never worked until the durante fix and now this.

This.

I wish games had downsampling built in. Doesn't Witcher 3 have that??
 

Durante

Member
Guild Wars 2 has built-in downsampling. I agree that all games should have it, it's completely trivial to implement.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
This.

I wish games had downsampling built in. Doesn't Witcher 3 have that??

The ubersampling in TW2 is based on some form of Supersampling.

And yeah, I'd kill for Durante Souls-esque form of resolution options in all my games. If I want to play a game at 16900 x 9000 then by God let me!
 
The ubersampling in TW2 is based on some form of Supersampling.

And yeah, I'd kill for Durante Souls-esque form of resolution options in all my games. If I want to play a game at 16900 x 9000 then by God let me!

Pretty sure it is just normal supersampling... games like PLanetside 2 have built in OGSSAA which is awesome... even if it is somewhat daunting hardware wise
 

Smirk

Neo Member
I've found the problem. Dota 2 custom reses appear only when using fullscreen mode. I was on borderless window.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
I've found the problem. Dota 2 custom reses appear only when using fullscreen mode. I was on borderless window.

Ah I should've mentioned this in the OP, you can't downsample using windowed mode UNLESS your desktop is set to that very same resolution.
 

legacyzero

Banned
The ubersampling in TW2 is based on some form of Supersampling.

And yeah, I'd kill for Durante Souls-esque form of resolution options in all my games. If I want to play a game at 16900 x 9000 then by God let me!

ih47Hw9n8p4bZ.jpg


I've found the problem. Dota 2 custom reses appear only when using fullscreen mode. I was on borderless window.

EVERY game will do that do you. I was wondering for like 2 days why Far Cry 3 was doing that shit. It's cause I was on borderless.
 
I can't get past 2880x1620 on a 1080p AOC monitor over HDMI, but I can get 3200x1800 on a 900p acer over DVI.

Anyway, here's what 2880X1620 can do for Crysis 2 with SMAA:

Downsampling + SMAA is definitely the new hotness. Much much better results than SGSSAA, from both a performance and quality point of view.
 

Tattooth

Member
I tried this a few months ago and whenever I chose a higher resolution, blacks would appear a lot darker, is this normal? I doesn't make games look worse, it's just a bit odd compared to how games would normally look on my tv.
 

Valtýr

Member
mirror's edge doesnt seem to see the extra resolutions. it works fine in other games like witcher 2, bioshock, devil may cry 4. but not mirror's edge.
 

Durante

Member
Downsampling + SMAA is definitely the new hotness. Much much better results than SGSSAA, from both a performance and quality point of view.
Nothing is "much better than SGSSAA" in terms of quality. Performance, sure.

I tried this a few months ago and whenever I chose a higher resolution, blacks would appear a lot darker, is this normal? I doesn't make games look worse, it's just a bit odd compared to how games would normally look on my tv.
This most likely means your GPU driver is getting funky and using limited range RGB at 1080p/720p, but not at other resolutions.

See here
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Valtýr;46643217 said:
mirror's edge doesnt seem to see the extra resolutions. it works fine in other games like witcher 2, bioshock, devil may cry 4. but not mirror's edge.

Are you using a resolution with <60 Hz? Some games won't work/show resolution options that aren't 60 Hz.
 

Durante

Member
Downsampling avoids the horrible blur often associated with SGSSAA and which is difficult to accurately correct. That alone is a huge positive.
If there is "horrible blur" with SGSSAA, then it's not being correctly applied or supported. That shouldn't be used to evaluate the technique. When SGSSAA is used correctly, it gives the best quality (per sample) out of any AA method.
 

Durante

Member
I think what makes downsampling so convenient is that, once you set up your custom resolutions, getting in-game AA is simply a matter of choosing one of them from the menu.

There's no need to mess around with Nvidia inspector compatibility profiles or settings on a per-game basis.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
I think what makes downsampling so convenient is that, once you set up your custom resolutions, getting in-game AA is simply a matter of choosing one of them from the menu.

There's no need to mess around with Nvidia inspector compatibility profiles or settings on a per-game basis.

Exactly, I'm a big proponent of Nvidia Inspector and SGSSAA in general but the simplicity of creating a resolution and having it work across 99.99% of the games just by using that resolution in game like any other ingame setting/toggle. Whereas just finding the right AA-bits for a game to use in Inspector can be plenty time consuming in and of itself.
 
Thanks for the guide Corky - coincidentally this week I decided that I finally wanted to give downsampling a shot after gaping at some of the screens in the PC shots thread. Sadly I couldn't find good guides that towed the right line between "choose some numbers" and "here's 5 pages on the technical side of what this is doing and why it works".

You hit the main points well and the screenshots of the Nvidia tool helped reassure me I was on the right track. Turning down graphics options to maintain a good FPS felt weird but I managed to get my monitor up to 150% of its native resolution which looks great in Far Cry 3.
 
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