NVIDIA Graphics Card settings

Hi Mark,
The settings Ged suggested gave a massive improvement for me but I would guess a lot of that is what card you start with. As I run on a laptop, I think trying to change the nvidea card could be frought with difficulties.

It's impossible to take a grab of effect but as soon as you started to move a train, the shimmering was so bad the you couldn't even easily read the station names.

I've actually fiddled again with Nvinspector and am now using the 1st profile that it offers: _GLOBAL_DRIVER_PROFILE (Base Profile), (rather than the dedicated MSTS one). This seems to have got my routes running as they were before the problem got really noticeable.

Cheers
Clive

Thanks Clive.

I am comparing it with the GLOBAL_DRIVER_PROFILE (Base Profile), I have never used the Nvidia's own built in MSTS profile, so that probably explains why I'm not seeing any improvement.

Hi Mark,
Are you sure you've set the Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling ?
I found that is the one setting which had the most beneficial effect on the display, having removed almost all of the shimmering / moire effects.

Most of my testing was done with a GTX 650, but the one run I did with a 750ti gave very similar results.

Cheers,
Ged

EDIT : I thought the built in MSTS Profile was next to useless!!

I set them exactly as you did on the screenshot you posted Ged. just checked it again to make sure, I'll have another play around with it to see if it makes a difference, if not I'll just go back to the global setting.

I have just loaded up the profile and took a screenshot of the settings, I don't think I missed anything.



I clicked the apply changes button at the top right to set them in, do I need to do anything else?

Hi Mark,
It all looks OK, except for the Negative LOD bias which, as Clive discovered, is better when set to "Allow" instead of "Clamp" (especially when using the high intensity signal lights), but, I hasten to add, it has no effect on the shimmering/moire effects!

You've named the profile as "Microsoft Train Simulator - new" - have you linked that to train.exe in your MSTS installation?

If so, I can't think of anything else to suggest - Sorry!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged

No I have not linked it to train.exe, I'll go back and do that now and report back if it works or not.

Thanks, Mark.

Hi Ged.

Just had a quick run on Dorset coast out of London (no stuttering with this new card) and your suggestion worked, it looks a lot better now I knew I must have been missing something, I had to delete the association with the default MSTS setting before it would allow me to associate it with mine, now there is hardly any moire effect at all.

Thanks, Mark.

Hi Mark,
That's great - I'm glad we got there in the end !!

Cheers,
Ged

Thanks.

The Protrain Semmering route's dark brown track texture used to suffer badly with the moire effect, so much so it spoiled the experience of driving it, I have just given it a quick run and the track textures look perfect now,  I have just changed the setting from "Clamp" to "allow" as per Clive's suggestion so it should all be set up now.

Hi Ged

I've just used the Inspector for the first time but with mixed results and I just want to check a couple of things, please, if I may.

I've created a new profile based on the default one and set everything as Mark had it (except for Clive's unclamping). I've linked the profile to train.exe but I launch it from within Train Store. Should that work OK? I've got the Antialiasing - Setting set at 16xQ. Is that correct or should it be 8x?

Also, I've not really noticed the same dramatic improvement that Clive noticed with signal lamps and I'm getting a lot of shimmering on the posts for the semaphore signals in MT's LSE Gold. I'm wondering whether there's something I've missed or simply that I'm still using Win8.1 and it doesn't have the same impact.

sbowness wrote:Hi Ged
I've not really noticed the same dramatic improvement that Clive noticed with signal lamps

Hi,
You won't on most routes unless you use the modified ace file I use in my routes and edit the sigcfg file.

Cheers
Clive

Hi Clive

Ah, that would explain it.

Thanks

Hi All,

Having recently suffered major internet access problem I had to have my C: Drive rebuilt and I've reverted back to W7 I found I needed to reset my Nvidia Graphics settings. I opened my Nvidia Inspector 1.9.7.3 and found a message asking me to update to 1.9.7.6 which I duly did only to find that the toolbox box was missing  so I couldn't access the profile settings - be warned I re-installed the previous version and all is now well.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

...only to find that the toolbox box was missing

It's not missing, mate!  They have separated NV Inspector into two programs - nvidiaInspector.exe and nvidiaProfileInspector.exe; you want to run the latter and you'll see the familiar table.

Cheers,
Ged

Where would we be without Ged? He seems to b e able to solve all problems. We are lucky to have him on shed. Roderic

Hi Ged,

I noticed that but when I tried to run nvidiaProfileInspector.exe it opened and promptly crashed with the windows message nvidiaProfileInspector has stopped working whereas the nvidiaInspector opens ok.

As the old version seems to work all right I shall stick to that for the time being.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi,
Stephen : If you're using Vista or a later OS, try running nvidiaInspectorProfiles.exe as administrator.  It's not installed, as such, but make sure it's not in Program Files, Program Files (x86) or any other security sensitive folder.  It worked without any problem for me in Windows 7 and 10.

Roderic : Thanks, mate  It was fortuitous that I'd been running the 750ti last week, with the intention of making the change permanent, so avoiding the "faff" of getting the AMD card to work with Win 10, and I used the v1.9.7.6 version of NV Inspector to set it up.  As it turned out, I didn't like the best I could get out of it and have now reverted to the AMD HD 7850!!  

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

I am using W7, it's not in Program Files or Program Files (x86) and I tried running as administrator before posting the problem. As I stated the old version works so I'll continue to use that.

Thanks for your help,

Stephen

Hi Chaps,
At about monthly intervals, I start up my Windows 10 system in order to update it and to check that MSTS still works OK. Today was that day and, instead if just seeing if MSTS would start, I ran a default route in Explore mode. It appeared that the AA and AF settings had been "lost", so I used NV Inspector to set them up again. When done, MSTS failed with the "Stopped working" message!!

I eventually tracked it down to the Anti-aliasing setting : 16xQ [ 16x CSAA (8color + 8 cv samples)] The same occurred with the similar 8xQ setting. Using the 8xS or 16xS settings allow MSTS to function again.

Up to now, I haven't checked out any other settings, but considered it worth posting in case others had the same problem. It's possible that it's an NV Inspector problem and the situation might not occur if you don't need to run that program.

MSTS is now working correctly with the latest Win 10 NVIDIA drivers - 382.33 (21.21.13.8233) dated 17/05/2017. I obtained these from the NVIDIA site and NOT Windows Update!!

Cheers,
Ged

Ged, having set the MSTS parameters as you recommend in NVIDIA Inspector, what do I need to do for these to used by NVIDIA when I run MSTS?  I currently have settings for MSTS set up in the "Manage 3D Settings" tab of NVIDIA Control Panel.

Thanks.

Hi David,
The NV Inspector settings override whatever you've set in the "normal" NVIDIA Control Panel, unless ....

If you've set the NVIDIA Control Panel values to apply to train.exe only and the NV Inspector values to "Global", it might not override them. I suggest you set both the same, either Global or train.exe

Cheers,
Ged

slipperman12 wrote:Hi David,
The NV Inspector settings override whatever you've set in the "normal" NVIDIA Control Panel, unless ....

If you've set the NVIDIA Control Panel values to apply to train.exe only and the NV Inspector values to "Global", it might not override them.  I suggest you set both  the same, either Global or train.exe

Cheers,
Ged

Thanks Ged.  I have the NVIDIA Control Panel settings set for train.exe.  How to I set the NVIDEA Inspector to train.exe and save it the this setting?

Hi David,
To be honest, I don't know!!

I can appreciate that if you're running several different games, you might wish to have a different setting for each, but as I only run MSTS (and occasionally, OR), I set the Global setting to the MSTS values and leave it at that.

Since you posed the question, I've had a look at NV Inspector :
1. There is already a "profile" for Microsoft Train Simulator, but the settings are nothing like those specified earlier!
2. Having already brought up the MSTS profile, make all the required changes, then click "Apply changes".
Note that whenever you change profile, "Apply changes" must be clicked.  To revert to the Global settings, click the house icon; to select the MSTS settings, click the down arrow next to the house icon and click on Microsoft Train Simulator.
IMPORTANT - Without deleting the existing profile, you cannot set up a NEW profile for MSTS as train.exe is already linked to the supplied profile.

Cheers,
Ged

<Bump>
I've just upgraded all of my hardware, including a Nvidia GX1650 card.
I'm having great difficulty in running msts. The program runs sort of ok aspect wise, but the vertical black bars appear wider than before. This results in only the immediate left edge of the F5 display showing. I'm obviously missing something simple but would welcome some pointers if at all possible.
Cheers
T

Hi Terry,
If I've read your post correctly, part of the right-hand side of the MSTS display is within the black border.

I'm assuming that, in the NVIDIA Control Panel, you've set the aspect ratio scaling to be performed by the GPU and not the monitor

I don't have that card, but wouldn't think it'd operate any differently to my old faithful 750ti. If you have one of the super-high resolution monitors, I've seen reports that it's difficult to get MSTS working on them. The only other thing which comes to mind is the train.exe Properties > Compatibility settings - none of the video settings should be used and neither should the high DPI settings.

Sorry I can't give a definitive answer, but it's the best I can do!

Cheers,
Ged

Thanks Ged,
You are correct, the right-hand side of the MSTS display is within the black border, which does appear to be too wide. The left black border seems to be of similar dimensions.
The aspect ratio scaling is controlled by the GPU, and no matter how I toggle the various display options available to me :-(Aspect ratio, Full screen, No scaling, Integer scaling) the problem remains. In fact in full-screen mode, the resulting stretched image filling the screen still has the F5 commands cropped, which has me completely baffled.
My monitor hasn't changed (about the only thing I haven't upgraded!), and my train.exe properties are as they should be.
All in all a true head scratcher!
I'm actually contemplating downloading an earlier set of GXxxx drivers, if all else fails, and IF I can pluck up the courage!
Cheers
T

I have "perform scaling" set to "Aspect ratio" and "Display" with no problem. Have you tried this?

Ever felt a chump!!?
Relaxing with a Sunday beer, I realised that with my extending longevity, my myopia was also increasing exponentially , and as such I'd set my Windows scale and layout to 125%. Dropping it back to 100% resolved the problem! D'Oh!
Thanks again for your input Ged & David. Appreciated  
Cheers
T

Hi Terry,
I'm pleased you were able to sort it out
I never thought of that, but as I'm finding it difficult to read the screen sometimes, I might have to use 125% myself very soon!!
Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Cheers.
Ged