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

this method is not simple enough yet.

I wrote this very basic guide for a friend a while ago, maybe this could help. It's not as detailed as corky's though, his is a fantastic guide.



1: Right-click on desktop and go to Nvidia Control panel.

2: Under the 'adjust desktop size and position tab', select GPU for the 'perform scaling' option. Also tick the 'override scaling etc' box. Apply. 

3: Now go to the 'change resolution tab and select customise. Tick the 'enable resolutions not supported by this display' box and then click 'create custom resolution'

4: Now up the top you will have both a horizontal and vertical pixels box which you can increase/decrease. Because you have a 16:9 display you will want a resolution that scales properly. So select 2560 for horizontal and 1440 for vertical. Click test.

5: Everything will be scaled so all the images etc will look smaller and sharper, but once this is saved you will go back to your 1920x1080 resolution. You aren't using this higher res for day to day use, it's only for games really, so use your normal res. 

6: Now when you load up a game (Space Marine for example), the 2560x1440 option will be selectable under resolution settings. You now have a sharper image and can possibly reduce AA settings if you need extra performance.
 
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.

Downsampling is the purest form of SGSSAA thought right?

-getting rid of aliasing and textuer shimmering is better with a higher res on a smaller dot pitch of your monitor's max res, a one-size fits all solution.
-than doing the same with a post processing filter on top of the low res image(AA) that needs to be tweaked precisely to attain the same effect, which isn't always compatible.

So wouldn't down-sampling be the purest form of removing AA? Think of how it works when you down-sample a screenshot. It works then, and why shouldn't it be superior in motion?

Please don't hurt me, screenshot gods.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Downsampling is the purest form of SGSSAA thought right?

-getting rid of aliasing and textuer shimmering is better with a higher res on a smaller dot pitch of your monitor's max res, a one-size fits all solution.
-than doing the same with a post processing filter on top of the low res image(AA) that needs to be tweaked precisely to attain the same effect, which isn't always compatible.

So wouldn't down-sampling be the purest form of removing AA? Think of how it works when you down-sample a screenshot. It works then, and why shouldn't it be superior in motion?

Please don't hurt me, screenshot gods.

I don't actually think Durante means SGSSAA is better looking than SSAA in terms of image quality as SGSSAA per definition takes less samples from fewer grids (?). I think he means it's better in the sense that when it works as intended, it gives an image quality VERY close to that of SSAA but at a smaller performance hit - thus making it the "better" AA - method.


Or maybe I'm just wrong , fuck everything.

Perfect, I got decent results on my monitor and on my tv. nice guide, thanks.

Great, mind sharing the settings you went with and the gpu/monitor/tv you use ? Thanks <3
 

HTupolev

Member
I don't actually think Durante means SGSSAA is better looking than SSAA in terms of image quality as SGSSAA per definition takes less samples from fewer grids (?). I think he means it's better in the sense that when it works as intended, it gives an image quality VERY close to that of SSAA but at a smaller performance hit - thus making it the "better" AA - method.
It might be more direct to say that he's saying that at the same performance hit, it gives better results; the point is that taking samples in a weird pattern can give better results than taking samples in a regular grid pattern. This is why if you go into the b3d resolutions thread, it lists the MSAA sample patterns as looking like this, all staggered and rotated funny.
 

legacyzero

Banned
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.
So much THIS!

I havent fucked with inspector since I started DSing.
 
I tried this out a few months ago but gave up because I was having a scaling issue. Everything looked smaller and somewhat narrowed. Followed the same instructions too

Any idea what the problem is?
 

MarkV

Member
OGSSAA alone doesn't eliminate completely aliasing, even if using very high resolution. The problem is the filtering used to downsampling, a simple box filter. I think SGSSAA is still superior in term of IQ when is applied correctly, but I also find my perfect spot with OGSSAA(~1,5x)+SMAA. I use this in all games since i discover it.
SG/RGSSAA also handle horizontal and vertical aliased edge better then Ordinated Grid.
 

Protome

Member
This guide is great! My computer isn't that great, but i've been downsampling higher than my monitor can achieve at least to good results. The only downside i've experienced is that Steam in-game chat is now incredibly tiny and unusable.
 

vazel

Banned
I get this when I try to test higher resolutions. :(

VB7F7KV.png
 
IIRC OGSSAA isn't as good as SGSSAA when it comes to reducing aliasing. Both have IQ benefits beyond that (e.g. 4xSSAA multiplies your effective anisotropic filtering by 4)
 

Dennis

Banned
When do people stop seeing any further noticeable improvements?

My limit is 4x SGSSAA combined with 4x MSAA on a 100.63 PPI (0.2524mm dot pitch) monitor.

To my eyes anything above that is wasted. I can't see the difference. At least with moving images. Maybe in a screenshot I don't know.
 
Damn I just tested with Dota 2 and Steam chat is useless. And I'm only running that game at 1.500 of my desktops native resolution. I wonder if there is a fix for that.
 

Kukuk

Banned
Downsampling is a godsend for those of us who's monitors only support 1440x900. Even at 8xAA, I was hitting the limit of image quality, but now I can see some pretty amazing stuff. I've been playing at 2160x1350 for most of my games, though I lower it to 1920x1200 for games that don't run at that resolution, or for games that generally do, but slow down too much for smooth gameplay (I'm looking at you, Crysis 2).
 

iNvid02

Member
When do people stop seeing any further noticeable improvements?

My limit is 4x SGSSAA combined with 4x MSAA on a 100.63 PPI (0.2524mm dot pitch) monitor.

To my eyes anything above that is wasted. I can't see the difference. At least with moving images. Maybe in a screenshot I don't know.

there are no limits, you keep going until you can cook eggs on your gpu

4x sgssa or 2160p downsampling

Will this decrease my FPS at all?

if it didnt the world would be a wonderful place
 

Aselith

Member
Will this decrease my FPS at all?

Yes, you'll probably see a framerate drop unless you're getting framerates at a very high level like if you normally get 80 to 100 ish FPS I doubt you'd notice if it goes down to 60 but you'll almost certainly notice if it drops from 60 to 40 or whatever.
 
2880x1620 the highest I could go. That's fine, I tend to value performance over Dennis Standard™ 9sps(screenshots-per-second).

Thanks Corky, but don't think this changes anything between us. My hatred of Blanka still burns with the intensity of a thousand suns.
 

Seance

Banned
My games never render the custom resolutions I set :/. They try for several seconds before reverting back to 1080p (AMD cards, HD 7850 CF)
 

BearPawB

Banned
GPU needs to be able to run a resolution natively for scaling to work.

haha i think its pretty clear i have no idea what im doing, im just letting others who dont know what they are doing know what the problem is.

The gtx 295 is a weird card. It is old as hell, but i still run most games pretty damn well. According to that toms hardware hierarchy it still isnt worth upgrading to anything that is near affordable

Discrete: GTX 690
~~~
Discrete: GTX 590
~~~
Discrete: GTX 680
~~~
Discrete: GTX 670
~~~
Discrete: GTX 580, 660 Ti
~~
Discrete: GTX 295, 480, 570, 660
Go (mobile): 680M

So i would basically have to get a 680 to see any real change? Wanted to get a 660ti but from what i have heard i wouldn't really notice an improvement.
 
haha i think its pretty clear i have no idea what im doing, im just letting others who dont know what they are doing know what the problem is.

The gtx 295 is a weird card. It is old as hell, but i still run most games pretty damn well. According to that toms hardware hierarchy it still isnt worth upgrading to anything that is near affordable

Discrete: GTX 690
~~~
Discrete: GTX 590
~~~
Discrete: GTX 680
~~~
Discrete: GTX 670
~~~
Discrete: GTX 580, 660 Ti
~~
Discrete: GTX 295, 480, 570, 660
Go (mobile): 680M

So i would basically have to get a 680 to see any real change? Wanted to get a 660ti but from what i have heard i wouldn't really notice an improvement.

Can you link us to the exact model of your GPU? I see a discontinued one from a few years back on newegg that would support the resolution you are trying for, but it has 1792 mb's of memory, so I doubt that is the model you have.

To put it simply a videocard has limits on how high a resolution it will support.
 

BearPawB

Banned
Can you link us to the exact model of your GPU? I see a discontinued one from a few years back on newegg that would support the resolution you are trying for, but it has 1792 mb's of memory, so I doubt that is the model you have.

To put it simply a videocard has limits on how high a resolution it will support.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500094

I'm less concerned about the downsampling honestly, and just wating for a card worth upgrading to that isn't $500
 
1920 x 1080

Try 2400 x 1270. Even upscalling your monitors rez by double is outside of your videocards range. This actually works best for people with good cards but shitty low rez monitors like me. You have a decent resolution monitor so you dont have much higher to go to downscale.
 

Durante

Member
Downsampling is the purest form of SGSSAA thought right?

-getting rid of aliasing and textuer shimmering is better with a higher res on a smaller dot pitch of your monitor's max res, a one-size fits all solution.
-than doing the same with a post processing filter on top of the low res image(AA) that needs to be tweaked precisely to attain the same effect, which isn't always compatible.

So wouldn't down-sampling be the purest form of removing AA? Think of how it works when you down-sample a screenshot. It works then, and why shouldn't it be superior in motion?

Please don't hurt me, screenshot gods.
I don't actually think Durante means SGSSAA is better looking than SSAA in terms of image quality as SGSSAA per definition takes less samples from fewer grids (?). I think he means it's better in the sense that when it works as intended, it gives an image quality VERY close to that of SSAA but at a smaller performance hit - thus making it the "better" AA - method.

There's some confusion here, I hope I can make it more clear.

Both SGSSAA and OGSSAA (which ~= downsampling) are SSAA (supersampling) methods. That means both deal with aliasing in all its forms (normal edge aliasing, subpixel aliasing, alpha aliasing and shader aliasing). And both increase the temporal stability of the picture.

SSAA methods use multiple samples per pixel (instead of 1 sample without AA) and combine them to form the final color of each pixel. The performance hit for all SSAA method is large and should be the roughly same at similar sample count (that is, 4xOGSSAA has the same performance hit as 4xSGSSAA).

Where OGSSAA and SGSSAA differ is in how they place these samples within each pixel. In OGSSAA, they are placed on a regular grid, while in SGSSAA the are placed on a sparse grid (think N-queens with N being the number of samples). Thus, with the same sample count, SGSSAA achieves a better reduction in aliasing artifacts. How much better depends on the angle of the aliased edge, but the difference is most pronounced at almost horizontal (or almost vertical) lines, which are usually also the ones with the most visible aliasing, particularly in motion.

To understand why this is the case, think about the sample patterns, and how each sample falls on the edge. With an ordered grid and a near-horizontal edge, the upper two and lower two samples will almost always be either both covered or both not covered, so you only get a single intermediate step (neither upper nor lower row covered, one row covered, both rows covered). With a sparse grid, each sample has a different position in the Y dimension, so you will get 3 intermediate steps (no sample covered, lowest sample covered, 2 samples covered, 3 samples covered, all samples covered).

If you google "AA sampling patterns" you can find some illustrations of the sampling patterns used on current GPUs.
 
This might be a stupid question but if my monitor is 1920x1200 does this change anything when setting the custom resolutions? I assume since the card is down sampling back to that res anyway I shouldn't have to do anything different.
 
I think the point of the downsampling is to keep your desktop at 1920x1080 (or whatever) and then just have your games run at the higher resolution. Or at least that's how I'm doing it. So if you're talking about tweaking your desktop, you should be fine..

As far as anything with the monitor, I don't know (I doubt it, since the thing is being redone to 1080, just with more pixel data). I don't have to do anything with mine, runs perfectly fine, I'd assume you'd be the same.
 
Thanks for the guide, appreciate it. The highest I could go on my 560 ti was 3200x1800 at 59hz or 2880x1620 at 60hz. I'm shooting for 60fps so I've mostly been using 2x SGSSAA or 4x MSAA + supersampling TRAA up until now, but I'll give this a shot.

Do I have to select a custom resolution before starting a game and changing it back to 1080p when I'm done every time if I want readable text?

Edit: Nevermind, I'm dumb! It actually adds the custom resolutions as selectable options in the game and I can keep my desktop at 1080p. Didn't know that.
 
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