Why can't I get high-resolution graphics/textures?

[jack shite]

I have every single one of my graphics settings set to high or ultra and have every possible graphics option turned on. Still, I am getting very gritty, blobby, blotchy, and blurry (four more elves!) renderings, especially with small and distant objects. See screenshots that show enlarged regions of the screens to illustrate lack of detail.

I also have Steam set to save lossless PNG screenshots because I don't like how Steam butchers the JPGs. Those PNGs are the source of these screenshots, so it's not Steam's compression that resulted in this low quality.

Is this just the way the game is or do I need to do something else to unlock the higher-res graphics?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639510461
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639512640
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639510949

[Fury6]

Originally posted by Robinicus:

It's blurry on my 486 machine too, but it is a DX with a VooDoo II 3DFX card, it should rock....

You should upgrade to the Voodoo III 3500, it's awesome. And has a built in rf tuner.

[jack shite]

Originally posted by Agima:

In the game graphics options, under the Advanced graphical settings, what is the scaling value you are using?

The more the better quality the game will look. I've set mine to 400%.

I didn't even know this went above 100%. I changed it to the max value of %400 and it really improved the rendering by a noticeable amount. However, I took a hit to my FPS, so I put it to 200% and it seems pretty smooth. Distant objects look much better. I also rolled back the manual edits I made to my config and also removed launch options that someone else recommended.

After this current job I am on, my next step is to remove the hood mirrors since you apparently can only do so at a shop. I think your solution to raise scaling may be the answer here. Perhaps not many people know that scaling can be turned up because 100% seems like a maximum setting.

[jack shite]

Originally posted by room217au:

The GTX680 is a 256-bit card and should deal with most you can throw at it, but in reality it is now a low-range card.

I don't think this game is too taxing on my card which was released in March 2012. ATS was released in February 2016, so my card would have only been 4 years old. Plus, Euro Truck 2 came out in 2012 and it looks like ATS uses the same rendering engine, so it's possible my generation of GPU is just right for the game.

Originally posted by room217au:

If you have a decent CPU (like i7) and at least 16gb ddr4 ram, then can I suggest adding:

-mm_max_resource_size 80 -mm_max_tmp_buffers_size 960

to your launch options.

I tried this and didn't notice any difference. Per another user, raising the scaling helped a lot. Going to finish this long job and remove my hood mirrors to see if that helps with the FPS drop.

[Blackcobalt]

I wondered the same thing and I have a 1080 and the game looks like it was built with windows XP

[jack shite]

Originally posted by Blackcobalt:

I wondered the same thing and I have a 1080 and the game looks like it was built with windows XP

My expectation is that, even if I get the game to look as good as it's going to get, it will probably still look terrible given the year it was released. I don't think visuals were a top priority with this game. When I see small teams of independent developers release an FPS game with stellar visuals, it makes me wonder what anyone else's excuse could possibly be to set the bar any lower.

[Atomicdogg1]

I only use hood mirrors I zoom my cabin view until only the hood mirrors are on the screen the game will get more frames per second without having to display all those mirror images all at once and if you set mirror resollution and quality to high and mirror draw distance to ultra the hood mirrors are very good

[jack shite]

Originally posted by room217au:

Also, lose the hood mirrors.

Confirmed that hood mirrors are a drag on FPS. Once I removed them, everything was moving smoothly, especially having increased the scaling.

[Atomicdogg1]

thats because you still have your side mirrors showing or your graphics card isnt fast enough

[Agima]

Originally posted by jack ♥♥♥♥♥:

Originally posted by Agima:

In the game graphics options, under the Advanced graphical settings, what is the scaling value you are using?

The more the better quality the game will look. I've set mine to 400%.

I didn't even know this went above 100%. I changed it to the max value of %400 and it really improved the rendering by a noticeable amount. However, I took a hit to my FPS, so I put it to 200% and it seems pretty smooth. Distant objects look much better. I also rolled back the manual edits I made to my config and also removed launch options that someone else recommended.

After this current job I am on, my next step is to remove the hood mirrors since you apparently can only do so at a shop. I think your solution to raise scaling may be the answer here. Perhaps not many people know that scaling can be turned up because 100% seems like a maximum setting.

I'm glad I could help. Scaling make things look way better, but sure drag your FPS down.

Additional mirrors too. You can also lower the settings of the quality of the reflexion of the mirrors too. It will help a lot from an FPS standpoint.

I'm pretty sure it is the source of your degraded graphics since the game look very bad at 100% scaling.

You can always try at 400% with minimum settings and try each option to see how it affect your FPS, and the the right balance between performance hit and the quality of the visuals.

Try a lower scaling if nothing works. I'm sure after some tests you'll find something that will work for you.

[Robinicus]

Don't forget to reboot the game after making each graphics settings change. Sometimes things can look like it hurt FPS by adjusting something if you don't reboot.

I found grass and vegetation make no difference to how immersive the game is yet take up a lot of FPS for example. Also, don't be afriad to try higher resolutions....until 1.33 I had pretty much accepted I was going to be stuck at 1920 and now am running 3440 with better FPS and smoother play.

[Atomicdogg1]

also if you can do without shadows it will help alot if you disable them

[room217au]

Originally posted by Sandhill:

Originally posted by room217au:

Essentially, the calculation is:
max_tmp_buffers_size / max_resource_size = number of temp loading buffers - 1
I don't know why the result is 11 and not 12.

from back in your High-End Config Optimization thread, post #170, Komat gave us

"Because there are upper limits on both parameters. Maximal value of -mm_max_resource_size is 100 and for -mm_max_tmp_buffers_size it is 1000. Also there is some additional overhead for each buffer so for 100 and 1000 you will get 9 buffers instead of 10 you would expect.

Ah yeah. I forgot about that discussion lol
I think at the time I thought he was meaning overhead for using 100/1000 values. Shrug.

[Stooge]

Originally posted by Agima:

Additional mirrors too. You can also lower the settings of the quality of the reflexion of the mirrors too. It will help a lot from an FPS standpoint.

^this

The mirrors are pretty much useless in general for anything other than checking if a lane is clear. Once you get to your destination and start backing that thing in ... well no matter what I set my mirrors to they were absolutely useless. I also go to the outside camera view. So no need for all the mirrors.

If you're getting good FPS then it is not the cause of any resolution issues as someone already stated.

[jack shite]

Originally posted by Stooge:

I also go to the outside camera view. So no need for all the mirrors.

I used to use third-person camera, but have since begun using in-cab view because I like the challenge and also the satisfaction of backing in to a tight space. The only time I use third-person view is if I have minutes left on the clock and don't have time for casual backing in.

[The Marathon Man]

Originally posted by room217au:

Originally posted by jack ♥♥♥♥♥:

[..]getting very gritty, blobby, blotchy, and blurry (four more elves!) renderings, especially with small and distant objects[..]

Take a look at your config.cfg file (the main one in your ATS documents folder)
About 100 lines down - give or take - you should see:

uset g_lod_factor_parked "X"
uset g_lod_factor_traffic "X"

where "X" is an integer. What number do you have for both of those?

Nope, don't see one in mine. Should I add them?