[DX11] Help regarding Nvidia Profile Inspector (NPI)

[SMN]

@SMN

If that's the problem NPI will get an update soon! I haven't installed
that driver yet, I have as a philosophy NOT to use the latest driver
version, as sometimes there's a fix released after a short while.
I suggest you go back to an earlier release as a solution!

EDIT: According to that drivers release notes, there are certain
problems including Image sharpening. Link to release notes:

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/4 ... -notes.pdf

All 440 versions has Image sharpening problems...
I will go to 436

[BenganJ]

@SMN

Yes, I've noticed that too now! Thanks for the reports! I use Nvidia Freestyle
and the Smart_Sharp filter, which I have installed from the SuperDepth3D
pack of shaders!

[JHTrucker]

@Gravesteyn - Perhaps i should dust off my vacuum cleaner and use it more often!
Hope delay isn't too long for you.

EDIT: ISN'T!!!!

[black-coffee]

I use the 442.74 Nvidia driver and have no problem with sharpening. But as was previously said here, with this AA in ETS2 and ATS it looks better with sharpening off. Furthermore, if you want a sharper image in combination with the AA here, you should use Negative LOD bias, I use a value of -1.5000 which gives a sharper image without the shimmering effect that the Nvidia driver Sharpening filter introduces. The Nvidia Sharpening is nice for most games but not for ETS2 and ATS which unfortunately have a old game engine in combination with a unfortunate choice of textures prone to aliasing issues...

[BenganJ]

@black-coffee

Yep, negative LOD bias I've always used and actually I started this thread BEFORE any
AA patterns were discovered, just to be able to use the neg. LOB bias. Historically it
has been coupled to the level of AA, but there I'm not sure, probably just suggested
values. At least in DX9 I used Smart_Sharp always, using it with ReShade at that time,
but as I'm not very fond of Nvidia GeForce Experience, I have more or less dropped it
now as it has to be used as Freestyle filter.

EDIT: Well, I'm running the 442.19 driver and I can set the Image sharpening params,
BUT I don't feel I get any effect out of it now! It was much more active earlier, I think.
How about you?

[black-coffee]

just tried it again, works as it should, very sharp when ON and set to 1 and soft image but not blurry when OFF. Works when enabled from NPI or Nvidia driver settings. Like some of us established already, in this case within these games it looks better OFF because the AA softens the "edge" of textures as it should.

[BenganJ]

@black-coffee

Okay, I'll check my setup too then, as I haven't used it lately!

EDIT: There is a slight difference, but my feeling is still that it was
much more effective earlier. Two images.

NPI Image sharpening On, VALUE = 1.0:


NPI Image sharpening Off:


Here's a video showing the range I get with Smart_Sharp! One advantage with it is that I can adjust it LIVE! :D
Sadly YouTube filtered it slightly when processed, so range is a bit wider.

[black-coffee]

I think we are getting slightly sidetracked with the whole sharpening thing, yes to a certain degree it's a nice feature to have and play with, but to take full advantage of it you also need good textures, and let's face it, many textures in SCS games are dreadful shit, sure in the past year or so they've made significant improvements. The crap textures issue is also a thing in map mods, including Promods.
RECAP: SCS games look best with a 4x SGS AA without any sharpening, the image obtained that way has the right balance of soft and sharp at the same time. Sure some people have personal preferences and biases but my experience after 8 years playing SCS games is that the Sparse Grid Supersampling AA is the ONLY one who can sort out SCS games in terms of image quality.

[BenganJ]

@black-coffee

I really agree with you regarding SCS textures and sadly they are still in many maps that haven't
been updated fully for some time now, only FIXED to work on the new versions! I just showed
the difference I have with those two ways of using Image sharpening, nothing more. For me I
think I need a bit of sharpening after that heavy AA processing blurring things. The advantage
with the MSAA + SGSSAA scheme is, that it works to some extent in the 3D world, not like the
postprocessing ones, SMAA, MLAA and such, which only work on the more or less finished image.

[black-coffee]

yeah, that's the conundrum I think many in the gaming industry have, something like SGS AA looks very good and can be used virtually for every game but it is a brute, raw force AA implementation which requires very powerful hardware at higher resolutions. These days, Nvidia is pushing hard DLSS, a AI based AA which is supposed to be a good compromise between quality and performance. BIG downside however, it works ONLY if implemented by developers in the games...