Setting Up TSW with a single nvidia card, using nvidia Control Panel (NVCP) PLUS (optional) nvidia Inspector (NVI). Single Standard and GSync Monitor settings. Setting up DSR in TSW This is a guide to setting up TSW on a computer equipped with a nvidia graphics card and Intel CPU. Not all the menu items in NVCP will show in your system any not shown in the guide - Google their function Standard Monitor any non-gsync Monitor (does not include Free Sync Monitors). Some screenshots differ from current TSW, but they are still applicable. SLI video cards not covered nor AMD cards. Table of Contents Item Setting Up TSW with a single nvidia card, using nvidia Control Panel (NVCP) GLOBAL Settings ALL Monitor Page Nos 2-4 NVCP recommended settings for TSW incl GSync 5 Screen Settings in TSW - Graphics settings 6 TSW Settings explained and recommendations 7 TSW Advanced Settings 8-9 TSW Settings in NVCP (incl GSync) 10 TSW Settings in NVI (incl GSync) 11 NVI TSW Settings Explained 12-18 Setting Up TSW for DSR 19 20 Optional NVCP Settings 21-23 No settings for TV s but the guide may give general guidelines to follow. Pages 5 and 11 can be used to set up TSW visuals quickly. 1
Setting Up TSW with a single nvidia card, using nvidia Control Panel (NVCP) NVCP open and choose Manage 3D settings and then Program Settings If there is NO entry for TSW, then you have to create a profile for TSW by choosing the Add button. If we are using the override and enhance option, we need to set the AA/AF settings as high as possible in NVCP plus NVI if used. Using Application Controlled use minimum settings. Study http://www.tweakguides.com/nvforce_5.html Note the settings in the pictures below. Some of the options may differ depending on what components you have in your system. Highlight each option to display what the setting does. First: Setup NVCP GLOBAL Settings Important for best TSW results. Anisotropic Filtering AF: AF significantly improves texture quality at oblique angles. Anisotropic filtering generally comes in 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x settings, "AF can function with anisotropy levels between 1 (no scaling) and 16, defining the maximum degree which a mipmap can be scaled by. Try 4, 8 and/or 16. Anti-Aliasing (AA) FXAA: Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing see description above. Turn ON works well in TSW and improves image quality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fast_approximate_anti-aliasing 2
AA Gamma Correction: Turn ON. This setting is designed to adjust the brightness level of the image using Gamma Correction, so that any AA edges display with best level of contrast. No performance impacts. (ref tweak guide above.) AA Mode: Off ; Application Controlled ; Enhance the Application Setting ; Override any Application setting. For this example, choose enhanced. AA Setting: Application Controlled ; 2x, 4x, 8x; Custom (using NVI). Choose one to see which suits your card best. AA Transparency: OFF ; Multi-Sampling ; 2x SS ; 4x SS, 8x Super Sample Best set OFF to avoid compatibility issues but also choose one to see which suits your card best. CUDA GPU s: Best set to ALL This is for a single card remember? DSR Factors: Explained below: Tick the higher resolution(s) you wish to use in a game under the DSR - Factors setting. The resolutions are provided as multiples of your native resolution. See below. Options: OFF, 1.2, 1.5, 1.78, 2.00, 2.25, 3.00 or 4.00. Trial and error for your card. It may not be wise to use DSR if you intend to use a screen percentage >100 in TSW. If DSR is set top 4K then no other AA setting is required! DSR Smoothness: Simply, 0% on the slider will remove blurring and provide crisp images, but as we get close to 100% on the slider, the image become blurry and may lose detail. The default setting is 33% is not too bad, you need to experiment to see what suits your system. For TSW try 15-20%. Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: use 3D application Setting ; 1 ; 2 ; 3 ; or 4. Note 5, 6 and 7 available in NVI. See the tweak guide above. Windows default is 3 Note 1-4 reduces input lag and 5-7 smoother frame rates. Monitor Technology: It only shows if you have a GSync Monitor. Not important. Multi-Frame Sampling AA MFAA: only for >GTX 900 cards. Options: ON or OFF. TSW probably does not support MFAA so leave OFF! Open GL Rendering GPU: Not applicable to TSW leave at Auto-Select. Optimize for Compute Performance: OFF ; ON - Not applicable to TSW leave OFF Power Management Mode: Options Optimal Power ; Adaptive or Prefer Maximum Performance. I use Prefer Maximum Performance because of my GSync monitor, but Optimal is the default choice. Note: Set power options under Windows. Preferred Refresh rate: (may not be present in all systems). There are two options: "Application controlled" and "Highest Available". Try both.in some games application controlled gives better results. 3
NVCP Global Settings TSW Continued: Shader Cache: OFF ; ON use ON for TSW and store on fastest drive i.e. SSD Texture Filtering Anisotropic Optimization: OFF ; ON use OFF. Texture Filtering Negative LOD Bias: ALLOW or CLAMP choose ALLOW clamp no longer supported. Texture Filtering Quality: Best use High Quality. Texture Filtering Trilinear Optimization: OFF ; ON use OFF. Threaded Optimization: Settings AUTO ; ON ; OFF. Use AUTO in global settings but OFF in TSW Triple Buffering: OFF ; ON use OFF in Global & TSW - does not apply to DirectX games like TSW. Vertical Sync: Options: use the 3D application Settings ; OFF ; ON ; FAST ; ADAPTIVE ADAPTIVE HALF REFRES RATE. GLOBAL Set Vertical Sync to Use the 3D Application Setting. TSW try the various settings for your system Adaptive and limit fps via STEAM to say 30 fps possibly best option. For TSW using a GSync Monitor using FAST can give good results, but still probably best to use 3D application setting in Global. Virtual Reality Pre-Rendered Frames: Options: use the 3D application setting, 1, 2, 3 or 4. Set Global and TSW Use the 3D application setting or anything. This setting only affects those who have Virtual Reality hardware and is beyond my pay grade. 4
NVCP recommended settings for TSW incl GSync First add TSW to Program settings in NVCP: Navigate to \Steam\steamapps\common\Train Sim World\WindowsNoEditor\ TS2Prototype.exe TSW Resolution Settings in NVCP To your preference Windows default best 5
TSW Graphics settings Screen Settings in TSW - Graphics settings Screen Resolution - Native resolution is the same as Windows default (e.g. 2560x1440) Windows Mode Graphics pre-set Anti-Aliasing VSync Screen percentage 200% TSW DSR type option - use with higher card Always SAVE APPLY E key, any settings 6
TSW Settings explained and recommendations Screen Resolution: If NOT using DSR always choose the Windows Default Resolution. It takes less CPU resources. Choose a lower resolution if frame rates are poor. Windows Mode: Best is full-screen but try Windowed and Windowed Full Screen to see which is best. Graphics Preset: ULTRA, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Use Ultra and/or High with any card > GTX 960/970 Low with GTX 950 and lower. Start with Low move up in steps for best frame rates and quality. very demanding on PC. Antialiasing: TAA, FXAA, NONE Antialiasing: It's a method that can smooth jagged lines or textures by blending the colour of an edge pixel with the colour of the immediate pixels around it. The result is usually a smooth realistic appearance, with little or no flickering. AA Anti-Aliasing can be quite demanding, and you could turn down/off if TSW is not running smoothly. 4K resolution usually does not require anti-aliasing, due to the pixels being extremely small, hence, any aliasing effect applied has no benefit. Turn off AA settings in NVCP and/or TSW ( NONE ) when running DSR at 4K or using a 4K monitor. TAA: Temporal AntiAliasing is a very quick method that sadly results in blurriness particularly in TSW. TAA can reduce temporal aliasing (crawling and flickering seen in motion when playing games). It uses a down-sampling method so there may be interactions when using DSR. It displays better in 4K mode if your monitor supports it! It uses more resources than FXAA. looks good on fences and foliage as a train is passing. Note: I used enhance the application in NVCP/NVI and use SSAA options which seems to help. FXAA Fast-Approximate Anti-Aliasing: FXAA uses very little computing/video resources and it simply applies extensive blurring to obscure the jagged edges. The end result is unnoticeable performance impact but a generally blurrier image. Quite useful on low end PC s. SSAA better on high end systems. None: can result in flickering of edges. In that case try using the higher Screen Percentage 200% - my help. VSync (Vertical Synchronization) Stops tearing when panning around. For Standard Monitors Use Fast in NVCP and off in TSW. For GSync monitors, the VSync option in the NVIDIA Control Panel is a special type of G-Sync-aware VSync, which only kicks in at high framerates. NVIDIA has optimized this to work well with G-Sync. The best option is: to enable VSync in the NVIDIA Control Panel but disable it in TSW. I set this to FAST Sync in NVCP and turn off in TSW. Screen Percentage: A sort of TSW down-sampling, usually getting a better image approaching 200%. (Set lower on most mid-range system). A good ball park figure is 150 to 200%. If using NVCP DSR set at 100%. 7
TSW Advanced Settings Figure 5 TSW Advanced Settings explained and recommendations: Note: High and Medium Settings may work just as well as Ultra so be prepared to experiment on your rig. 1. Foliage Quality ULTRA, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Use Ultra and/or High with any card > GTX 960/970 Low with GTX 950 and lower. Low/Medium Foliage settings not too much impact on image quality. Displays trees, leaves, grass etc. This setting affects performance (frame rates), we need a mid/high end video card and enough video memory, for your screen resolution. Hence, reduce it on lower-spec machines. 2. Shadow Quality OFF, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Use High and/or Medium with any card > GTX 960/970 Low/Off with GTX 950 and lower. Setting the shadow quality high for your PC can affect performance. It is best to work from a low setting and increase it to monitor any performance effects. 3. Effects Quality OFF, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Use High and/or Medium with any card > GTX 960/970 Low/Off with GTX 950 and lower. This displays the amount of detail you see on the game surfaces, e.g. both on 8
consists and on the landscape. It is processor dependent so start off low and work your way up to High. Low end PC s turn OFF. 4. Post Process Quality ULTRA, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Use Ultra and/or High with any card > GTX 960/970 Low with GTX 950 and lower. This is used to process certain graphical effects such as fog and bloom. PPQ needs good on video card performance and memory (VRAM), and the resolution of your monitor. On lower end PCs, it is probably best set to LOW. It cannot be turned off in TSW. Setting this to low can remove motion blur or use the following Navigate to: Documents\My Games\TS2Prototype\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor Open Engine.ini in your favourite text editor Add these two lines to the bottom: [/script/engine.renderersettings] r.defaultfeature.motionblur=false Save the file. Now, when you load the game, motion blur is disabled completely. 5. View Distance Quality ULTRA, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Choose the best for your system. This option sets how far ahead of your consist is displayed. This option needs mid to high system performance, so users of less powerful PCs should reduce it to Medium or Low. The value in the engine.ini file is a round 2, change to 3 better quality good fps, 4 to 20, good v little popping, but has an effect on fps/ From a post on the DTG Forums by Daniel Bloch: Apparently you can change this in the engine.ini add these 2 lines and the popping sleepers are gone: \Documents\My Games\TS2Prototype\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor [/script/engine.renderersettings] r.viewdistancescale=4 6. Texture Quality ULTRA, HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW Use Ultra and/or High with any card > GTX 960/970 Low with GTX 950 and lower. Low/Medium Texture Quality not too much impact on image quality Note: Texture quality generally enhances TSW quality by rendering better textures. Ultra-Texture is the highest setting requiring a high-end system and will probably change all the textures in TSW. Ultra/High should give sharper and less-blurry images. 7. Max FPS: Choose between 20 and Unlimited to obtain smooth results. GSync Monitors use Unlimited with i5/i7 processors with SSD s. That s it now re-open TSW and see if the settings are to your liking? ph Sept 2018 9
TSW Settings in NVCP (incl GSync) NVCP TSW Settings Upper NVCP TSW Settings Lower 10
TSW Settings in NVI (incl GSync) Note NVI available from: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-inspectordownload.html Reference: http://wiki.step-project.com/guide:nvidia_inspector Important Note: Make any changes to TS 2018 settings in nvidia Control Panel First NVI will override those settings - any changes to TS 2018 settings must be made in NVI last, otherwise they will be lost. Part 2 cont... 11
NVI TSW Settings Explained: NVI TSW Frame Rate Limiter NVI TSW GSync Requested & Application States 12
NVI TSW Max Pre-Rendered Frames NVI TSW Refresh Rate 13
NVI TSW VSync NVI TSW Behaviour Flags 14
NVI - TSW AA Gamma NVI TSW AA Mode 15
NVI TSW AA Settings NVI-TSW AA Transparency & Multi-Sampling 16
NVI-TSW AA Transparency SS NVI TSW MFAA & FXAA Settings 17
NVI TSW Texture Filtering Note: Quality: TF - Anisotropic Sample Optimization is set to Off, & TF - Trilinear Optimization is set to On. High Quality: TF - Anisotropic Sample Optimization is set to Off, & TF - Trilinear Optimization is set to Off (it shows as being On but is ignored by the driver). NVI TSW - Common 18
Setting Up TSW for DSR Needs reasonable spec nvidia card (GTX 970 upwards with at least 2GB VRAM onboard up to 24 monitor (more VRAM for larger monitors). Use 100% or less Screen Percentage in Screen settings TSW. Right click on the desktop and choose nvidia control Panel see below. Open NVCP and first use Manage 3D Settings and Global Settings. The settings her can be anything that suits you. We are going to concentrate on DSR Factors and smoothness. DSR good article here: https://techreport.com/review/27102/maxwell-dynamicsuper-resolution-explored and https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3587/~/how-to-enabledynamic-super-resolution-in-games. Steam article: nvidia: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=926768944 and AMD https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=907171634 19
Setting up DSR This can only be done in Global Settings DSR smoothness set to 12 18% i.e. the lowest % that eliminates shimmer as higher smoothing (>65%) settings tend to blur textures. If using 4.00x and/or 4K monitor, try 0% in DSR Smoothness Note DSR factors range from 2x default/native resolution of your monitor to 4x (4K). Also, Google Downsampling. https://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/454383-aliasing-begone-how-downsample-pc-games/ ph August 2018 20
Nvidia Control Panel Miscellaneous settings These settings are optional but may make a difference depending on your Monitor, Video card, etc. Adjust Video Image Settings Ref https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hqv-2-radeon-geforce,2844-3.html Use the nvidia Setting Option Effect Setting Edge enhancement Sharpens the detail of edges 0-25% Noise reduction Reduces speckles 25 60% De-interlacing - Inverse telecine Smooth Accurate Playback Enabled 21
NVCP TSW Adjust Video Colour Settings Dynamic Range: Monitor: 0-255 range. NVCP TSW Adjust Desktop Colour Settings 22
NVCP TSW Display Change Resolution 23