Jaggies be Gone!

[Old Archie]

Well, knock me down I was wrong.... Days of tweaking my new system later, I could not fix my jaggies no matter what I did in FSX and Nvidia console, so in desperation I downloaded the latest Nhancer v 2.4.2 and hey presto, perfection, not one jaggie in sight!  I though that nhancer was obsolete with the latest nvidia console, but I read on the nhancer site that the latest version included support for the new GTX 2X0 series of cards, and WOW, did it make an immediate difference.  More than happy to have been proved wrong.    If you are not using nhancer with the latest nvidia drivers, give the latest version a go!

[Maurice_King]

Thats what some of us have been saying for a while now,  ditch the nVidia Console and use nHancer, I went from 15-18 to 25-30 depending on location too.

[Old Archie]

Well, it just goes to prove, you can teach an old dog new tricks, hey Mozz 

[Maurice_King]

Nah what ever gives you that Idea

[mmglads]

Interesting - I use nHancer without fail on my trusty 169.21 drivers & my 8800GT card. So on to another point - what do you set your NVida control panel to in terms of settings? I've found the best way to achieve AA in both full screen & windowed mode is to set the console to the 3rd option - viz: Use my preferences emphasising "quality". Don't know if this is correct, but it works for me. Any other setting seems to conflict with nHancer. (It's probably in the nHancer instructions somewhere, but I haven't read those!  ) Cheers, Malcolm.

P.S. Anyone tried any of the newer drivers on an 8800GT? I've tried a few & gone back to the old faithful.

[solareagle]

nHancer is just a different GUI for the driver, so making your selections with nHancer is absoultly no different than making them through the nvidia control panel, as it makes the same changes in the driver, so any claims of performance or image quality gains by using nHancer are only perceived.  The only difference between the two is nHancer allows you to activate Supersample AA, which nvidia removed access to from their CP. 

Since both nHancer and the nvidia CP control the same driver, making a selection in one or the other overrides the previous change.  So any change made in the CP will override nHancer, and any change in nHancer will override the CP. 

To get any benefit from nHancer you will need to use Supersample AA, with Combined 8xS being the best setting for users with an 8800 or better, which combines 1x2 supersampling with 4x multisampling.

[Maurice_King]

Yes you simply remove the nVidia CP and then use enhancer as it allows far greater tuneability without the software interfaceing which allos in turn the hardware to do the work for which it was designed.

[solareagle]

Both the CP and nHancer interface the hardware in the same way, so you are not removing any "software interfacing" by using nHancer.  If you choose indentical settings in either the CP or the nHancer, you get identical results as identical changes are made in the driver. If somebody told you using nHancer removes any element of software interfecing they are incorrect.  I've noticed a lot of misinformation in the flight sim community with regards to the use of nHancer, becuase every body tries to come off as an expert, and when they are wrong others don't know it and take what was said as fact.

[mmglads]

Hmmm... how do you remove the Nvidia CP guys? Seems part of the whole driver setup to me. I'm keeping nHancer - 'cause it works for me, but I hadn't thought about removing the NVidia CP. Advice appreciated. Ta, Malcolm.

[Old Archie]

nHancer is just a different GUI for the driver, so making your selections with nHancer is absoultly no different than making them through the nvidia control panel, as it makes the same changes in the driver, so any claims of performance or image quality gains by using nHancer are only perceived.  The only difference between the two is nHancer allows you to activate Supersample AA, which nvidia removed access to from their CP. 

Since both nHancer and the nvidia CP control the same driver, making a selection in one or the other overrides the previous change.  So any change made in the CP will override nHancer, and any change in nHancer will override the CP. 

To get any benefit from nHancer you will need to use Supersample AA, with Combined 8xS being the best setting for users with an 8800 or better, which combines 1x2 supersampling with 4x multisampling.

Thats probably why I noticed such a huge difference, I selected the combined (32xS I think it is?) and it made a huge difference through my GTX280 but it did drop FPS a bit.  I will try the combined 8xS as you have suggested solareagle, thanks for the info.  Would it be possible for you to provide us with the optimum nhancer settings for FSX and cards over 8800 if thats not too much to ask mate?

[}SkOrPn--7]

nHancer is just a different GUI for the driver, so making your selections with nHancer is absoultly no different than making them through the nvidia control panel, as it makes the same changes in the driver, so any claims of performance or image quality gains by using nHancer are only perceived.  The only difference between the two is nHancer allows you to activate Supersample AA, which nvidia removed access to from their CP. 

Since both nHancer and the nvidia CP control the same driver, making a selection in one or the other overrides the previous change.  So any change made in the CP will override nHancer, and any change in nHancer will override the CP. 

To get any benefit from nHancer you will need to use Supersample AA, with Combined 8xS being the best setting for users with an 8800 or better, which combines 1x2 supersampling with 4x multisampling.

Nvidia's nTune software allows for supersample to be active again along with a host of other goodies that can be activated. If your not using nTune then your not seeing all the hidden bits and pieces that gets unlocked within the nvidia drivers.

[NZ255]

Anyone know a program like this but for ATI?

[solareagle]

Thats probably why I noticed such a huge difference, I selected the combined (32xS I think it is?) and it made a huge difference through my GTX280 but it did drop FPS a bit.  I will try the combined 8xS as you have suggested solareagle, thanks for the info.  Would it be possible for you to provide us with the optimum nhancer settings for FSX and cards over 8800 if thats not too much to ask mate?

I use 8xS Combined Supersampling, Transparency Antialiasing set to Supersampling, Anisotropic Filtering set to 16x, and on the Optimizations tab I use High Quality

If you have the new version of nHancer there's now an 8xSQ setting, which is the next step up, and it uses 2x2 supersampling with 2x multisampling, as opposed to 1x2 and 4x with 8xS.  You might see a performance hit with this one though, and if you use it keep Transparency AA off to help with the performance hit. 

So the settings I use are:

8xS

16x AF w/High Quality

Transparency AA Supersampling

Vsync ON

For better quality try:

8xSQ

16x AF w/High Quality

Transparency AA OFF

Vsync ON

[Tailgunner]

Core Duo 6850

8800 GTS 512 OC

2 gig

178.24

I haven't yet seen anything to explain to a simple mind the tangible  benefits of installing Nhancer. Given my rig, what difference - if any - might I hope to see?

Installationwise, I've downloaded Nick Needham's graphic instructions. Can anyone confirm that they're OK?

Advice would be much appreciated....

[solareagle]

The benefit of nHancer is that you can enable supersample antialiasing, which is a superior form though due to the performance hit it's not practical in most modern games.  FSX is the exception because it's so CPU bound with so much GPU headroom.

Here's a comparison of the usual 16xAA with 4x4 multisampling, to give you an idea of how superior supersampling is.  The problem with the usual modes of multisampling and coverage sample AA is that they don't antialiase everything properly, as you can see.  So the benefit of supersampling is an overall cleaner and sharper image, and no shimmering on aircraft textures, ground textures, and distant autogen.

Nicks settings look fine to me, but there is no need to go that in depth.  If you set the four main settings as I noted above you will get the results you need.

[Butch]

Great to hear your getting sharp graphics now Dale.

I read up about the different versions of AA, Multisample ONLY applies AA to pixels at the edges of polygons, that is why the model looks sharp but the scheme has jaggies. Supersample on the other hand applies AA to the whole image.

The difference is Supersample is very hard on performance and if you run it a substantial setting its unlikely you can run FSX with many if any clouds. 'Combined' however is a compromise, it uses Multisample and Supersample combined, you can have resonable AA then on the entire scene without too much of hit on frames.

Of course you can go crazy with Combined as well

Hope this helps.

[Virtualwombat]

Anyone know a program like this but for ATI?

Maurice King put me onto Ray Adams Tray Tools. It has more options but nothing appears to provide the same result as SuperSampling AA with nVidia cards, at least for the Carenado C182RGII.

Be warned, the latest beta may not be completely stable on all systems; gave me BSOD.

Cheers,

Noel.

[Heiko Glatthorn]

I was very skeptical about nHancer because i had some major problems previously with my 8800 GTX. However, now with the 280 GTX, 177.79 driver and the latest nHancer version i get excellent results (using 8xSQ, 2x2 Supersampling with 2x Multisampling).

Cool...

[Maurice_King]

Noel I fiddled about with my X1600 for sometime and with the Tray tools and another ATI tool for directly accessing the GPU.

I got my system really cooking, the only reason I changed to a nVidia 8800 GTS 512 card was I could run 3840 X 1024 with the TH2GO where previously I was limited to 2400 X 800.

I'll find the software I was useing Noel and get back to you. 

[gwolb]

Just downloaded and tried Nhancer again, using latest version 2.4.2 and used the super sample settings, and it fixed all jaggies.  I never had any luck with this before, but now it looks amazing.  Thanks for the info about this, glad I tested again, makes all planes look much better and did not even suffer a single fps drop in the process.

Thanks for the info.

[randy]

Nicks Tweaks work with NHancher. I did not use it and followed it to the letter and all my jaggies are gone. When using the NV cp no matter what I did could not completely eliminate them. The jaggies would be gone on the aircraft body but the paint would have them. Now all I do is fly around down under.....with Orbx.... with this mediocre system and having the time of my life waiting on my i7 920 build to arrive.

[ThrottleUp]

Wow Im gonna try this nHancer right now. Admittedly I had it before but never really paid attention to it. I will try it with the latest drivers and if that doesnt work I will have to roll back to ancient drivers. In case you are wondering what my problem is: I dont get any AA in windowed mode on FS9 with the later (and latest) nVidia drivers.

waiting on my i7 920 build to arrive.

Oh dude FSX is gonna rock on that system! Lucky!

[solareagle]

A member PM'ed me requesting an easy to follow nHancer tutorial, so I figured I would post it here in case any others are interested.  I recommended 8xS in this write up for an 8800 user, but 8xSQ can be used if you have a top of the line card....

nHancer might seem like a hand full but it's really quite simple.  First of all any selections you make in nhancer are applied automatically and instantly.  You can leave nhancer running, or you can close it, which makes no difference.  If I'm testing settings and such I'll just leave it open, otherwise I close it. 

The resolution you use can make a difference, but generally speaking these settings will work great on an 8800 or better.

nHancer is as simple as opening it up, selecting FSX from the applications list, and then making your selections under the settings column to the right.  No need to select the executable or mess with anything on the left side of the program. 

After you have FSX selected in the application list begin selecting your settings.  Put a checkmark in the Anti-Aliasing box, which tells nHancer to activate those selections, then click Combined to open up the combined supersample settings.  Then click 8xS, which enables 8xS supersampling.  If you were to open FSX at this point 8xS supersampling would be enabled in game. 

After you have selected 8xS, put a checkmark in the box below there that says Enhance in-game AA setting.  Some games have special instructions for the use of AA, so by selecting this box you tell nhancer to use those special instructions rather than totally overriding the game AA.  When you select the choice to enhance in-game AA you need to have AA enabled in game, so if you already have in game AA enabled you can leave it like that. Also put a checkmark in the Gamma correction box, which enables gamma adjusted AA.

The next setting to look at is the Transparency AA setting.  The choices there are Multi- and Super-.  This enables either multisample transparency AA or supersample transparency AA.  Supersampling is the superior mode, though it takes more power to run than mutlisample transparency AA.  You should have enough power with an 8800 so put a checkmark in the Super- box to enable it.

Next up is Anisotripic Filtering, so put a checkmark in that box to make the filtering options available, and then select 16x, which will give the sharpest textures.  Lower levels of Anisotropic Filtering can leave your ground textures looking blurry, especially in the distance, so choose 16x.  nHancer will override  the in game filtering automatically, so it doesn't matter what your in game filtering is set to.

As the final setting on this page you can put a checkmark in the Vertical Sync box, and set that to On.  This setting won't affect performance, as it simply syncs the in game frame rate with your monitor refresh rate.  Having V-sync off can produce "screen tearing", so I always leave it on. 

After these are set click the Optimizations tab at the top.  From here just put a checkmark in the Texture Filtering box, and then select High Quality below there.  This tells the driver to use the highest quality anisotropic filtering.  Since we selected 16x on the previous screen, it will use 16x High Quality.  16x Quality would peform better, and 8x High Quality would perform better still.  Since your card should have the needed power, you can use 16X High Quality filtering.

And then you're done, so all other settings can remain as they are.  So to recap the settings to use are:

Combined 8xS antialiasing

Enhance in-game AA Setting

Gamma Correction

Supersample Transparency AA

16x Anisotropic Filtering

V-Sync on

High Quality Texture Filtering

Once these are set you are good to go.  You can either close nHancer or leave it open, and then fire up FSX.  If you want to make any changes you can just drop FSX into windowed mode, make your changes in nHancer, and then take FSX back to full screen, and the new settings will be applied.  So it's real quick and easy to test differenct settings.

[Old Archie]

Thanks Solareagle, that's great mate!