Great FPS and great visuals - settings for Nvidia users

[Chazz Ranger]

Getting avg 100+ FPS with dips no lower than 70 FPS on all tracks including Spa with 15 opponents on track.

Getting avg 80+ FPS with dips to 50-ish on the very resource intensive Donington Park GP Circuit mod track (the new version made by author "Brun", amazingly well done mod track, find it at www.racedepartment.com).

i5 4670K lightly O/C'd w/ superclocked GTX 770, 1920x1080 @144 Hz

The trick here is combining AC settings with Nvidia control panel/Nvidia Inspector settings for a big boost in AA performance. I know what you're thinking, but read on...

AC SETTINGS:

ANISOTROPIC FILTERING: 2 (this one is huge, it's very resource intensive on AC for some reason and doesn't improve visuals much at 8 or 16)

VERTICAL SYNC: Off (yes off, in order to acheive higher than 60 FPS, unless you're able to hit 120 FPS on a 120+ Hz monitor)

FRAMERATE LIMIT: I'm set at 100, but find a comfortable higher-end average FPS and lock it to prevent FPS jump/dip spikes from making the visuals jumpy

ANTI-ALIASING : 4

WORLD DETAIL: Very High

SHADOW RES: High

SMOKE: High (lower if you want for even more headroom, it eats tons of FPS)

POST PROCESS: Enabled, all on Normal (again, not enough visual difference at higher settings to justify the resourse loss)

MOTION BLUR: Off (another resource intensive setting, once you get the FPS up high enough, that sense of speed comes back great, you won't need motion blur)

GOD RAYS, HEAT SHIMMER, FXAA: all off

MIRROR RES: Normal

REFLECTION QUALITY: Medium
REFLECTION RENDERING: Medium (these 2 settings are best if you use bonnet view, otherwise setting lower or turning off altogether gives you even more headroom)

GO INTO NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL OR NVIDIA INSPECTOR AND SET:

Anisotropic Filtering: Application controlled
FXAA: On
Gamma Correction: On
AA Mode: Enhance application setting
AA Setting: 4x
AA Transparency: 4x (supersample)
Maximum Pre-rendered Frames: 4
Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Triple Buffering: Off
Vertical Sync: Off

Yes, Kunos says in the game to only use in-game AA settings, but I call BS.
Give these settings a try and tweak them as you need, but trust me, combining AC settings with the Nvidia settings just plain works.

Let me know how it goes!

Editted to reflect new settings since learning more about Maximum Pre-rendered Frames.

[JT_Adams -Gefreiter-]

Good work

[ErFatih]

After this settings just Close AC game and start tetris, there is no difernce.. Joke of course ;p hehe.. good setting for lower hardware.

[Jeo Nugu]

I run an i7 3770 and a GTX 760 (no overclocking on either one), but I can leave vertical sync on, AF at 16x, and pretty much every option at the maximum (except reflection updates) and the framerate stays locked at 60 fps at all times, regardless of track, with 20 opponents. Turning off motion blur looks like garbage and removes pretty much all sense of realistic speed, so if you turn of any eye candy, turn this one off last. It doesn't take away from framrate on my system anyway.

Unless you have a 120hz monitor, you're NOT seeing 100 fps. Your frame counter might SAY that, but it's still only going to show as many as your monitor is capable of and no more. All the rest get dropped.

[Chazz Ranger]

True that, forgot to include how important the monitor will be... I have a 144Hz and the difference between 60 fps and 100 fps is mindblowing. Above 90 fps everything is smoother than butter. If you're halways serious about your racing sims, a 120Hz or 144Hz monitor is a must. If you're not halfways serious, you're probably not playing AC anyway. The idea behind these settings is to get you ABOVE 60 fps (yes, IF your monitor can do it. But who doesn't have a 120Hz monitor these days?) and still retain good visuals. 60 fps is... well, console quality. It looks like crap compared to 90+.
Drop your AF to 2 and see how much fps increase you get compared to how little visual difference it strips away. Drop a couple opponents and see even more increase. As for motion blur, if you can hit 90+ fps, that sense of speed comes back quickly and looks so much better than motion blur. Motion blur just eats up too much fps.

[LithiumFox]

Originally posted by Gamezalot:

I run an i7 3770 and a GTX 760 (no overclocking on either one), but I can leave vertical sync on, AF at 16x, and pretty much every option at the maximum (except reflection updates) and the framerate stays locked at 60 fps at all times, regardless of track, with 20 opponents. Turning off motion blur looks like garbage and removes pretty much all sense of realistic speed, so if you turn of any eye candy, turn this one off last. It doesn't take away from framrate on my system anyway.

Unless you have a 120hz monitor, you're NOT seeing 100 fps. Your frame counter might SAY that, but it's still only going to show as many as your monitor is capable of and no more. All the rest get dropped.

FPS still matters as the simulation is usually tied to FPS. Having a higher FPS also can improve FFB response time, as well as increase user response time. Just because you're not SEEING 100fps doesn't mean it doesn't fill in the gap. Along with the fact that you should always set your FPS away from your monitors refresh rate to prevent repetitive tearing (tearing in the same spot)

Not only that, Motion Blur is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ graphical gimmick that offers no true sense of speed. In fact, I run my FOV incredibly low as i would prefer being able to see 1:1 size ratio of vehicles and objects around me. :)

But sadly, you will argue with me on that point so I reaaaaally don't care. Just wanted to let everyone know if you're getting higher than 100FPS, it actually can still be a good thing even if you don't see the actual frames >_> ESPECIALLY in simulations.

[quf]

What's the difference between 60hz refresh rate and 60 fps (or 64 to avoid some tearing) and 60hz with 100 fps?

What matters is the monitor refresh rate and if the fps matches that refresh rate. 120hz with 120fps is better than 60hz and 120fps.

[rallysmo]

right now i have to put AA 2x and look ok, i have similar settings but rear mirrors on high with shadows to medium after read a guide on racedepartment, there say shadows have a huge impact on performance and mirror quality dont, i can say this is true.

btw where is the god rays i dont find anywhere

[rallysmo]

btw what program add to nvidia control panel

acs.exe
or
assetto corsa launcher

[rallysmo]

forget about it fxaa "Not suported for this application"

[quf]

Originally posted by rallysmo:

btw where is the god rays i dont find anywhere

The sun rays were more intense at 1.0.0 rc, but then several updates after they got turned down, I guess they are tweaking and balancing the sun rays, and will maybe re-release them in another update.

[Chazz Ranger]

Originally posted by Snake:

Originally posted by Gamezalot:

I run an i7 3770 and a GTX 760 (no overclocking on either one), but I can leave vertical sync on, AF at 16x, and pretty much every option at the maximum (except reflection updates) and the framerate stays locked at 60 fps at all times, regardless of track, with 20 opponents. Turning off motion blur looks like garbage and removes pretty much all sense of realistic speed, so if you turn of any eye candy, turn this one off last. It doesn't take away from framrate on my system anyway.

Unless you have a 120hz monitor, you're NOT seeing 100 fps. Your frame counter might SAY that, but it's still only going to show as many as your monitor is capable of and no more. All the rest get dropped.

FPS still matters as the simulation is usually tied to FPS. Having a higher FPS also can improve FFB response time, as well as increase user response time. Just because you're not SEEING 100fps doesn't mean it doesn't fill in the gap. Along with the fact that you should always set your FPS away from your monitors refresh rate to prevent repetitive tearing (tearing in the same spot)

Not only that, Motion Blur is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ graphical gimmick that offers no true sense of speed. In fact, I run my FOV incredibly low as i would prefer being able to see 1:1 size ratio of vehicles and objects around me. :)

But sadly, you will argue with me on that point so I reaaaaally don't care. Just wanted to let everyone know if you're getting higher than 100FPS, it actually can still be a good thing even if you don't see the actual frames >_> ESPECIALLY in simulations.

THIS.

AC's physics are so damn good, everything just looks and feels so much better and tighter at higher FPS. As for motion blur, I was all for it at first, but once I got the FPS up and turned off motion blur, couldn't believe the difference. Movement looks so much more real.

Originally posted by rallysmo:

btw what program add to nvidia control panel

acs.exe
or
assetto corsa launcher

Ya, don't bother doing a specific Program Setting, you'll need to just use Global Settings, and change back to whatever you want when not running AC. Kind of inconvenient, but worth it.

[Mukatahren]

You lost me at: VERTICAL SYNC: Off

[YIELD]

You should consider making this OP into a guide - it's far better produced than many than currently exist - nice work

[delirivmcordia]

Originally posted by Chazz Ranger:

Originally posted by rallysmo:

btw what program add to nvidia control panel

acs.exe
or
assetto corsa launcher

Ya, don't bother doing a specific Program Setting, you'll need to just use Global Settings, and change back to whatever you want when not running AC. Kind of inconvenient, but worth it.

Why on Earth would you tell someone to "[not] bother" doing Specific Program Settings; and in the same breath say that it's inconvenient, as if you aren't given the choice?
They literally built in that functionality to make it convenient - and you're simply not using it, for some unknown reason.

rallysmo, acs.exe is the one you want the settings linked to.
Assetto Corsa Launcher is just the main menu (if you alt+tab, you'll see that the menu and the sim are seperate applications).

[Mukatahren]

Originally posted by mr munkee:

Originally posted by Mukatahren:

You lost me at: VERTICAL SYNC: Off

It should always be off. I don't use it in any game, the input delay destroys any fun in any game.

Well then, since you don't use it in any game I suppose that means that anybody who does use it is just plain wrong. It's easy to rectify input delay, do some research.