[DX11] Help regarding Nvidia Profile Inspector (NPI)

[JHTrucker]

NPI is just a tool to make changes to the driver settings that NCP doesn't allow.
It doesn't interact with any game.
Just ensure your NPI version is compatible with your driver version.

1.49 works ok. It might break with 1.50?
OR
Use the new TAA method (single monitors only!).
OR
Wait for 1.50, perhaps there'll be actual AA you can use within game so there's no more need for workarounds...

[Gabe777]

Thanx for all your work, but I'm astounded how badly optimised this sim is.

I don't know of any other game or sim that has no proper AA implementation.

There is no excuse. But while people keep throwing money at them they just don't give a damn.

With 4K native and 4xMS + 4xSGSS... necessary to get rid of 98.5 percent of the jaggies and shimmer, I am still maxing out my GPU... and the fps will drop into the 50s... at night, at junctions with Ai traffic around. And that's 0.3 Ai traffic... one third of default.

Guess what ? I have a bloody RTX 4080.

I KNOW !

[JHTrucker]

I don't know of any other game or sim that has no proper AA implementation.
There is no excuse...

Actually, there is an excuse...

They can't add proper AA now as the current 'deferred' rendering doesn't support it.
Years ago SCS Max said something like this:
A design decision for ETS2 was to have real time truck shadows (if you add bullbars, beacons etc they also become part of the truck shadow).
That needed deferred rendering to do it but that doesn't support proper AA and hence why scaling is used to compensate for the lack of AA.

The "new" game engine, update 1.50, will perhaps fix that?

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But based on the comments on the SCS forum regarding TAA, I think you'll have better visuals & performance with that method.
I haven't used it as I don't have an "always on" internet connection plus I only drive in game version 1.41 and TAA only works for game versions the creator chooses to support.
Note: I do test new game versions to check this NPI AA still works but the performance impact of rebuilt map areas (Austria for example) is too great for my old hardware, hence 1.41 for me.

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SCS are basically developing their console truck game and using the pc players to fund it via DLC's as well as test it with regular updates, regardless of beta update or not, this game's a constant WIP beta.
Official bug reports and social media comments will all be taken into account.

For it to be successful on console, SCS have to:
Improve gameplay, graphics, sound etc.
Rebuild old base map areas.
They are not doing that work for free and giving to the pc players (like some would have you believe), they have to do it anyway, so why not let the pc players test it for them...

[hecatonchires]

Thank goodness this thread is still available. The so called TAA mod has gone paid so back to the greatness of this again.

[jakeazazel]

Just out of curiosity, does using 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling and 8x Multisampling have any demerits? I get significantly better quality with those options compared to 4x, and dont see any loss in performance either.

[punk]

It seems to me I lost my experience in years:) Tried to set up NPI on new driver 551.76 with latest NPI 2.4.0.4 available on Github. Reproduced all familiar steps and a fiasco awaited me. Blurred dashboard, plates and billboards. I guess I missed something.

[JHTrucker]

@jakeazazel

In regard to 8xAA, I really don't think anything above 4x does anything other than 4x. This was tested back in 2020 when this AA became functional, perhaps something has changed in newer drivers that I can't test now as Nvidia has long since stopped supporting my GTX760!

The test is simple, take a screen shot at 2xMSAA & 2xSGSS - 4xMSAA & 4xSGSS - 8xMSAA & 8xSGSS
Now look at the files size for each screen shot, 2x is half the size of 4x and 8x is the same size as 4x.
Conclusion, forcing MSAA in DX11 will only give a max of 4x regardless of higher settings as 8x should really be double the file size of 4x.
You could also compare both 4x and 8x screen shots side by side and zoom into the same area and see if you can see a difference in the way the AA looks or as you say you can already see a difference while driving, then just be happy.
But if 8x really does work then you should see increased gpu load and/or lower fps.

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@punk

Things to try, from the first post:

Q - My game screen is now blurry.
A - RE-CHECK NPI "Texture filtering - LOD Bias (DX) -0.5, -1.0 or -1.5.
Negative values increase sharpness, positive numbers blur.

Q - AA is working but somethings are blurry, for example, notifications.
A - Some Nvidia freestyle filters can cause image problems.

Q - Can i use MFAA with this AA solution?
A - No, it is not compatible, as we use SGSSAA in this scheme.

Rename or delete global config.cfg and start the game to generate a new one.
Now make the "basic" changes only - STEP 3.

Reinstall the current Nvidia driver making sure to select "clean install" option.
Start again from STEP 1.

In NPI restore global settings to default to ensure there isn't a setting being forced on to all game profiles, that shouldn't be.

Always do steps 1/2/3 first and check AA is working before doing the 'advanced' stuff.

[Pit-O-Matic]

First of all thank you so much for this, I was so sick of all that flickering and this removed almost all of the aliasing.

Any good options to help with the framerate during night time? Right now I have a constant 50-70fps during daytime, unless it's a heavily wooded area, where it drops to 45, not ideal but still okay for me, however as soon as night time falls and you see the yellow/orange lights around cities and highways, the game drops down to 35, all the way down to 20 if there's a lot of cars around you. Funnily enough, changing the camera to anything other than the 'inside camera' jumps up to 50-60 again. (In fact the roof camera gives me 110fps! lmao) I tried various in-game settings but nothing seems to help.

[JHTrucker]

@Pit-O-Matic - You can try the TAA method, lots of people raving about that on the SCS forum, until it got kicked off for turning into a paid mod.

With every game update the game becomes more demanding to run, SCS increase the games requirement statement, but never bother to make the game actually use all of your available hardware, new high end pc or old pc like mine, it doesn't matter, we all have multicore cpu's but the game continues to use, primarily, just 1 of them.

The interior cam is the must demanding due to it's changing lighting levels, animated dash, hanging objects and multiple mirrors, each mirror is a simpler rendered view that's added to the rendered driving view, lots of visible mirrors, lower fps. Mirror distance set to low should help.
The roof cam suffers from none of the above and also has a much lower draw distance, therefore higher fps.

If you previously ran the game on ultra with 400% scaling with acceptable fps then you should be able to use 100% 4xMSAA 4xSGSS.
If not try 2xMSAA 2xSGSS, it's not as good but you should double your low fps.

Turning off 'secondary lights' helps around traffic as their indicators and brake lights will no longer project their coloured light on to surrounding objects... but... you'll also lose yours as well, which makes backing into dark areas even harder.

Reduce the distance in front of you that street lights and beacons etc illuminate their surrounding:
Global config.cfg - uset g_light_distance_factor "0.25" <- Any value between 0.0 to (1.0 Default) - lower = higher fps

Turn off flashing beacons:
Your Profile - config.cfg - uset g_disable_beacons "1" <- Default "0" (off)
1 = Beacons pulse without lighting up their surroundings with coloured light.
2 = Beacons disabled.

Any further help would really require a game log so I can see exactly what settings you use, but really its down to SCS to improve their game performance.

[Pit-O-Matic]

I came to this method because of the mod going paid lmao. But you know what? The dropping down to 2xMSAA 2xSGSS really helped, and the aliasing isn't that bad on it, not nearly flickering as using the in-game AA. Now I can max everything and only drop below 60 on a spaghetti junction at night. Thanks a lot man!

And I agree, I wish SCS would prioritize performance before adding detail, ridiculous that it still uses only 1 core... I might stop the game updates until they actually start optimizing.