[B3.1][Stadium] Graphics performance/quality

[Pedal]

I am a Little "confused" as i am having problems running Stadium 2 with good framerates. I was experiencing the same with Canyon.

I have quite a powerful PC, even though it starts to get outdated, see spec at the bottom, and i run all other games on highest settings with good, playable fps, above 50 fps avg. This include Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3.

With Maniaplanet B 3.1 Stadium, i run the game with the settings below and i get around 30 fps avg. The game is generally sluggish, wich is to be expected at this fps, but i also find the general quality of the Graphics to be sort of grainy, as in blurry, and "unclear". I feel it is not good on my Eyes and i really can't play for more than half an hour at a time Before i need a break and let my Eyes rest for a while.

On the good ole' TMF, Everything is crystal clear and Sharp and i can play for hours, this ís also the thing with other games i play.

Speaking to other people online, i hear many run 100+ fps and have no problems with grainy Graphics and they feel the game look awesome and regard it as a big improvement over TMF.

Of course i realize that this is a beta, but i would like to ask if the dev's are "aware" of this and if Graphics improvements are to be expected?

To go a Little bit more into details and specifics:

My PC spec incl. drivers/settings:

MOBO: EVGA X58 Classified 3
CPU: Intel i7 950 3.0 GHz OC to 3.7 GHz.
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 580 SSC+ 1,5gb in 2SLI (WHQL driver 314.07)
DDR3: 12 gb Corsair Dominator GT
HDD: 2x Corsair Force3 128 gb Sata 3/6 SSD in Raid 0
PSU: Corsair HX1050W
MONITOR: Dell u2711 27" 2560X1440 res.
OS: Win 8 Pro (fully patched and updated)
Monitoring programs: Evga Prescision 4.0 and Fraps

I have no problems with crashes or freezes or any other strange or unwanted behaviour of my PC or programs.

My games settings, fps, GPU-memory usage and SLI-usage/performance:

MP TM2 Stadium:
Avg. FPS: +/- 30
GPU Mem: +/- 850 mhz
SLI Usage: +/- 90% (both cards)
Settings: See screenies below

TMUF
Avg. FPS: +/- 60
GPU Mem: +/- 1100 mhz
SLI Usage: +/- 60% (both cards)

Settings:
Resolution: 2560x1440
AA: SLI 32x Q CSAA
VSync: ON
All else on highest Graphics quality settings

Far Cry 3
Avg. FPS: +/- 50
GPU Mem: +/- 1350 mhz
SLI Usage: +/- 90% (both cards)

Settings:
Resolution: 2560x1440
MSAA: 4
SSAO: HDAO
VSYNC: OFF
Very high preset, DX11

CRYSIS 3
Avg. FPS: +/- 50
GPU Mem: +/- 1400 mhz
SLI Usage: +/- 90% (both cards)

Settings:
Resolution: 2560x1440
MSAA: Medium 4
VSYNC: OFF
Very high preset, HD Textures ON

Now, with the above in my, i am able to run other games known for high Graphics quality at basically maxxed settings and i really wonder why TM2 runs so poorly on my machine.

I know there where some SLI-issues with Maniaplanet/Canyon, but those should have been resolved by now?

Personally i am leaning towards what might be a completely wrong theory, and that is that the game is not optimized for my 2560x1440 resolution, which is quite high...????

As for my settings below, any comments or tips will be appreciated. Also any other comments on this and other users experiences. Thanks.

[Gswe81]

I have only one GTX580 card and use full HD settings.
I have no problems whatsoever finding good and fluid settings with 60fps at all times.

I would suggest changing ur shadow settings with lower "shader quality" and "shadows"
When I tried with highest "shader quality" I also found it totally unplayable.

[zarexz]

When I tried with highest "shader quality" I also found it totally unplayable.

That's probably because with high shader quality the FXAA anti aliassing kicks in.

[Pedal]

Thanks for the replies guys,

When I tried with highest "shader quality" I also found it totally unplayable.

That's probably because with high shader quality the FXAA anti aliassing kicks in.

Does FXAA kick in automatically by default when on "very Nice" shader quality?

As per my settings above, i run shaders at "Very Nice" but has set Antialising to "none".

Does this not disable FXAA and AA as supposed to?

I will though either way try to lower the shader quality.

[zarexz]

I don't really know. In performence nothing changes for me when I toggle FXAA or none on nice or very nice shader settings. It just performes bad. The only time when it is noticable and makes a difference is when making screenshots with the render engine. I have all 3d-gamesettings in AMD control center set to "let the game decide"...

[Pedal]

I just changed the shader quality to "Nice" from "Very Nice", all other settings as Before, no real change in fps or "looks" of the game.

I will try lowering it some more to see....

As you, i run all settings from the game, nvidia CP is set to "application controlled".

[Pedal]

There is definately something strange going on with the shaders as between "Very Nice" and "Nice" there is basically no performance or Visual difference, BUT, changing to "Fast" boosts the fps more than 300% up to +/- 120 avg. fps.

The Visuals are also kind of strange and especially the shadow of the car is very "strange" in lack of a better Word.

Nevertheless, i really hope the dev's knows about this and that improvements will come as the game develops. One thing is for sure and that is that i really see a potential of this game as it develops

[tm2_stadium_beta]

As for the "grainy, as in blurry, and unclear" graphics. Try to be more specific. Please, add some screenshots and maybe even highlight "problematic", in your opinion, areas. It would help developers a lot.
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... as between "Very Nice" and "Nice" there is basically no performance or Visual difference ...

As for the visual difference you are wrong.

Sunrise: Nice vs Very Nice
Day: Nice vs Very Nice
Sunset: Nice vs Very Nice
Night: Nice vs Very Nice

I guess there is a quite noticeable difference on those screenshots below.

Though performance difference between Nice and Very Nice shaders is really small, indeed. For example on HD7750 in 1440x900 I got 43 fps no Very Nice and 46 fps on Nice shaders. Everything else was maxed out during testing.
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Not that it's my business but why on earth you bought monitor with ultra-high resolution? Do you need such a high resolution for your professional needs (programming, graphics design, video editing, etc.)? Because for regular purposes (gaming, web browsing, watching movies) WQHD doesn't have any advantage over Full HD.

[Pedal]

Thank you for taking the time to reply and doing comparisons.

I really struggle to explain it in another way than "grainy", "blurry" or "unclear". Another explanation would be "unfocused", as in if you zoom in on a Picture just above it's original size, you start to see it getting "grainy", "blurry" or "unclear", at least thats how i would describe it.

Also this occurs only when i am driving, when at a standstill all is "Clear" again, and could be a result of the fps-dropping when at that setting.

With regards to Your Pictures, yes there are some slight differences, but i must admit i must really, really look in order to see them.

With shaders now at "fast" the fps for me are ok, the game is playable. However, there are People out there that for the sake of it invests in high-end hardware to be able to run their games With all "eye-candy" at their Maximum settings so it is something that i am sure we will see improvements on.

As for my 27" wqhd monitor, i like a big Picture and as detailed and Sharp as possible. The biggest advantage for me is the increased desktop-Space. I am very happy With it. My son has a 27" full HD 1920x1080 and there are for sure differences that i regard as advantages for me, thank you.

[tpower]

Try this:

Set FPS limiter to 0 instead of 150.
Set background quality to medium.
Particle quality of cars to High-medium opponents.
Light from maps to none (also, you can test difference with My car only).
Set geometry details to fast.
Set bloom to medium (it looks better, i saw it is none in your settings).

You can also untick texture decals 2D, and 3D (not sure about impact tho..).

That should make big difference in frame rate without losing graphic quality, game will look pretty much the same. Only difference in GQ will be if you set "Light from maps" to "none", but only on car in some areas (it still looks decent tho).

Try it, you can do one by one and see difference. I reported "bug" where my FPS was dropped by 30% when FPS limiter is on 150 compared when i set it to 0.

EDIT: You can also try to disable "D3D9Ex", i had to disable it because custom resolutions/refresh rates. From MS documentation:

"This topic describes Windows 7's added support for Flip Mode Present and its associated present statistics in Direct3D 9Ex and Desktop Window Manager. Target applications include video or frame rate-based presentation applications. Applications that use Direct3D 9Ex Flip Mode Present reduce the system resource load when DWM is enabled. Present statistics enhancements associated with Flip Mode Present enable Direct3D 9Ex applications to better control the rate of presentation by providing real-time feedback and correction mechanisms. Detailed explanations and pointers to sample resources are included." (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 85%29.aspx).

Not really needed for TM.

Test it and report back .