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Graphics Settings Guide

kaewon

By kaewon,
in F.A.Q and Tutorials

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kaewon

kaewon 221

Posted

I know those posts were 2 weeks ago but I don't pay attention to this thread anymore. But to answer the questions. Yes, the other settings cannot be overwritten. But old graphics card support essentially puts the game to minimum settings for gpus that are very weak. If you can turn on aa and shadows and have good fps, your gpu isn't that weak and there is no need to run on minimum settings.

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NectariaCoutayar

NectariaCoutayar 16,572

Posted

i am experiencing very blurry edges on mountains and planes.. mostly in a fog environment.

 

Is there any one with the same problems?

 

My pc is top and it could run max settings with 100fps prior to 1.31... please help!

 

I have this as well, but I blame certain settings like reduced cloud quality and such.

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N9NJ4

N9NJ4 0

Posted

thanks this was very helpful. I wanted to turn up the terrain draw distance so trees and fences would stop popping up. :)

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II_RED_II

II_RED_II 6,672

Posted

may thanks for this thread it helped a lot understanding what was doing what but i can't seems to get it straight

 

no mater the setting i chose I'm getting 30% fps drops at random. Nvidia experience is jut not helping I'm still getting fps drops ( from 80 to 30 while flying ) this game is absolutely not optimise and it has got to the point where it's just not enjoyable to play any more i give up trying to play with decent settings

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II_RED_II

II_RED_II 6,672

Posted (edited)

may u elaborate in what situations you get these drops?

How consistent are the benchmark values?

Do you experience these drops in a custom battle, or the mission editor too?

Do they happen more often in AB or in RB (FRB) games?

the easiest way for me to check these issues is to test fly us plane on pearl

it's simple i take off stabilise around 300m and start performing turns and low pass and at the same time i throw the camera around that usualy kill the FPS

 

the way it happen in game is quite similar ( i only fly in SB both mixed battle and random air battle ) during attack runs i often watch my 6 after strafing a target and immediately my fps drop by 30% sometimes 50%

FPS are generally much lower when i fly low over the battlefield in mixed battles ( around 50 )

other time it just happen for no reason  flying straight getting around 80fps  and then it drop to 45 for a couple sec then back to 80

 

in GF i play both AB and SB ( never RB ) it's usually the towns that kill my fps then ( and of course when there's a lot of explosion ) but most of the time it's not as violent as the plane

if i run the plane around 80 fps I'll get drops to 30

in the same setting for tanks i get around 50 fps with drops to 35

 

[attachment=124091:shot 2015.02.12 15.43.10.jpg]

benchmark plus settings i should be able to run ( as you can see i do not get below 60 during the benchmarks so theses test are really not worth anything )

i honestly don't know what to do even in low settings ( where i get around 180 fps ) i have drops bellow 60 while flying

 

screen from the test fly ( above 100fps in steady fly and then 45 during attack runs )

[attachment=124094:shot 2015.02.12 16.22.41.jpg]

[attachment=124096:shot 2015.02.12 16.21.49.jpg]

[attachment=124095:shot 2015.02.12 16.21.10.jpg]

Edited by II_RED_II
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Sharpe85

Sharpe85 342

Posted

Various sources on this forum state that I can turn off grass in scope and binocular view.

 

Possibly im thick, but how can I actually turn off grass in (only) these view modes?

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Nebelfeuer

Nebelfeuer 1,424

Posted

Various sources on this forum state that I can turn off grass in scope and binocular view.

 

Possibly im thick, but how can I actually turn off grass in (only) these view modes?

There is a checkbox regarding this matter on the right side of the options window in launcher and in the game - uncheck it.

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gotyourtail

gotyourtail 7,941

Posted

would be nice to have this updated.....even though most settings are described really well. 

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Tail_Tapper

Tail_Tapper 11

Posted

Some of you may not be so graphics inclined so here is a guide to what each setting does. These are just short simple explanations. If you want more in depth info, just google it. You can also put your mouse over the setting (the scroll bar or checkbox) as some of them have a tooltip. *Most everything in game also has a tooltip, not just settings.* I have also put in blue what hardware it most affects but this is general for all games, not specifically tested on WT.

Launcher Settings

At the top you will see resolution, fullscreen (or windowed and full window), vsync, sound and graphics presets. Next to the graphics presets you will see a button with a gear on it, this is how you get to advanced settings.

Vsync - Syncs your monitor's refresh rate with the game's refresh rate. I'd suggest only turning this on if you are experiencing tearing as it increases input lag.

Anisotropy - Texture quality dependent on range and viewing angle. The farther and steeper it is the lower the quality. (vram)
attachicon.gifanisotropy.jpg
Antialiasing - AA is used to get rid of jagged edges. This is multisampling AA. (gpu, vram. AA is probably the most taxing setting)
Extra AA - Just another AA type, this is FXAA. The difference is MSAA smooths only the edges of geometry while FXAA will smooth the whole screen. It is less taxing but also makes everything blurry.
Texture quality - Textures are the images on geometry, this will affect the level of detail of those images. Fyi geometry is the 3D model. (vram)
Shadow quality - Level of detail of shadows. (gpu. Shadows is one of the more taxing settings)
Background resolution - The background level of detail. Changing this will change the quality of everything farther away which is pretty much everything except your plane. Unless of course when you are landed. (everything)
Terrain resolution - The level of detail of the ground. Supersampling is similar to MSAA (which is a type of SSAA) but it doesn't seem to do anything. (everything)
Trees range - The distance at which tree geometry will show. (cpu, gpu)
Grass - The amount of grass shown. (cpu, gpu)
attachicon.gifshot 2013.02.18 12.45.29.jpg
Clouds resolution - The level of detail of the clouds.
attachicon.gifclouds.jpg

Shadows - The plane's cast shadow. (gpu)
Self Reflection - The plane's reflection onto itself. (gpu)
Objects shadows - Other objects shadows which is everything except your own plane. (gpu)
Water reflections - Reflections on the water. (gpu)
Advanced Shore - Waves near shores. (gpu)
Motion Blur - Blurring when moving. (gpu)
Haze - Atmospheric effect as objects are farther in the distance, they become foggy. Note that there still is haze with it off. (gpu)
Soft particles - Softens particles when clipping. Particles are effects like smoke, fire, dust, etc. Clipping is when geometry intersect. (cpu)
attachicon.gifsoftparticles.jpg
FX reflections - Reflections of effects. (gpu)

Terrain far details - Higher detail terrain in the distance.

JPEG screenshots - Save screenshots as jpeg as opposed to tga.
Old videocards support - For if you have an old video card that is showing graphic anomalies or is very weak. The most noticeable difference is low settings you will still notice everything on the ground still has a shadow and this will turn those shadows off. That is probably the biggest change in performance. Other noticeable changes are significantly lower ground textures, water is no longer transparent, and less haze. 

These debug settings are really more for debugging.
Render - I thought this would change directx version but it doesn't on my windows 7. Since it is under debugging than it is safe to say that that is what it is for.
Instancing - Many objects, especially trees, use the same geometry and textures so get "duplicated" to save resources. If it is off, each one uses its own resources even though they are still "duplicates." It may not make sense, but it's more of a coding thing. I'd suggest leaving it on auto unless it is causing graphic issues.

In Game Post FX Settings

You can see these settings easily in game (preferably test flight), just set it to its minimum and then maximum for the most noticeable effect or click the arrows through the various selections. *For the ones with a bar, you can also double click and hold to drag up and down.* These are really just for video editing and don't have much affect on performance, except for FXAA, so I will not go into detail. If you are a video editor you should understand these.

Vignette - A black "glow" on the outer edges of the screen.
FXAA - Same as extra aa in launcher settings.
Sharpen (TPS [Third Person Shooter], Gunner, Bomber, Cockpit) - Sharpens the whole image shown on screen.
LUT texture - Color schemes.
Tonemapping mode - Levels, similar to brightness and contrast.

(You will notice most settings affect the gpu as most games are gpu bound. The cpu just needs to be fast enough to feed the gpu. So this blue represents what is most affected since in raising gpu usage, it also raises cpu usage. In other games the cpu does some graphics calculations. I suspect ai calculations to be done by the cpu like other games so cpu should affect fps more in single player missions. Cpu should also deal with other players location/direction tracking, and physics but this is also dependent on internet since it has to sync with the server. If you lag even your own plane will jump/teleport or be uncontrollable.)

Here's a comparison of low vs custom (true max) settings. You can't truely max the game unless it is custom. Max or movie presets are not really max. Really the most noticeable differences is just textures and cloud resolution. **You can also see the other graphic options that I didn't post a picture for.** (There wasn't much difference in cpu usage, 5% increase at most. But gpu usage was 50% on low and 100% on max.)
attachicon.giflowvsmax.jpg

 

Here's min vs low.

attachicon.gifminvslow.jpg

 

By editing the config file you can get high res clouds, textures, and AF x16 with "old videocard support" on. But everything else is still overridden to min even though the config says they are on. Some ground textures are still ultra low. Just open the config.blk in notepad and change:

graphicsQuality:t="user"

compatibilityMode:b=yes

Then start the game from aces.exe. If you use the launcher, the config file gets overwritten. 

*Thanks Al3xander*

***
Useful links -
Hierarchy charts for when they release requirements or at least compare specs for now.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html Gpu hierarchy chart (mostly desktop models, updated monthly)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html Desktop cpu hierarchy chart (updated monthly)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html Mobile gpu hierarchy chart (can show some desktop models but I find those are not accurate in comparison to mobile models)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html Mobile cpu hierarchy chart
*I have played the game on an intel hd 3000 which is about the minimum for low (just a personal opinion for now).


***
The available graphics settings has changed over the versions so this is subject to change. Hopefully I might find out what everything does exactly and what exact hardware it affects pertaining to WT. If something isn't clear enough just say so.

**Posting in general discussion because flight academy is for gameplay and this is not a technical issue for graphics. It really belongs in FAQs which no one can post in. It would be nice to resurrect the old FAQs threads and put them in there as well. But then again FAQs should be pins in general discussion, not its own section.**

 

Great post 3 stars:).


Great post, 3 stars:).

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SMS_Elbing

SMS_Elbing 7,052

Posted
i found out
dx render affects it a lot
with the current clouds when i did dx-9 render
i got 15fps
when i set that to dx-11 i got 30....
btw for setting render on the render option on the launcer
press down arrow you will get a blank box
if you press down once its dx-11
2 times dx-9
idk what 3 times down is though
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