Graphics Improvement

In this guide I will show you how to get the best possible graphical quality for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Soulstorm.

Introduction

In this guide I will show you how to get the best possible graphical quality for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Soulstorm. Please note that some parts of this guide can be repeated for just about any other game, including the other installments to the Dawn of War series, to improve their graphical quality also. A major part of this guide requires software exclusive to NVIDIA GPU users. I will only cover how to improve the graphics for NVIDIA users simply becuase I am one myself and am familiar with the progams used to configure graphics on NVIDIA GPUs.

Part One - Configuring Local.ini and Launch Options

The first part is to make your way into the game's directory and open the configuration file named: Local.ini. Click on the end of the line that reads "force_watch_movies=1" and hit enter. In the new line, type: fullres_teamcolour=1. Click File, Save, and close the configuration file

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/965356740268037192/5BF42A7259DC644F512E5004F0A1301EF2844862/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside%7C256%3A*

Afterwards, right click on Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Soulstorm in your Steam library and select "Properties". In the "General" tab, select "Set Lauch Options" and type -forcehighpoly in the text field that appears.

Part Two - Configuring NVIDIA Inspector

Next, click on the following link then download and install the NVIDIA Inspector program.

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-inspector-download.html

Once it is installed, follow the file path: NV-Inspector-[Guru3D.com] -> Guru3D.com then open nvidiainspector. Once NVIDIA inspector is opened, click on the little wrench and screwdriver icon on the far right center of the window.


https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/965356740268037469/B5474EE831CB53D88900B96C0A7AAAB0271AD2B9/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside%7C256%3A*

In the top search bar, type: Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Soulstorm should appear in the list of titles below. Click it to continue.

Now, read the settings I have below and make sure that your settings match mine.

Sync and Refresh
Vertical Sync - Force off

Antialiasing
Gamma correction - on
Mode - Enhance the application setting
Setting - 32xS [Combined: 2x2 SS + 8x MS]
Transparency Multisampling - Enabled
Transparency Supersampling - 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
Toggle FXAA on or off - Off

Texture Filtering
Anisotropic filtering mode - User-defined / Off
Anisotropic filtering setting - 16x
Anisotropic filter optimisation - off
Anisotropic sample optimisation - off
Negative LOD bias - Clamp
Quality - High quailty
Trilinear optimisation - Off

Click on apply changes on the top right and close the program.

All of the other settings you can just leave as default or tweak as you please. Also, you do not have to have the exact same settings as I do. You can change them as you see fit but these settings I have provided should result in some greater graphical quality.

Part Three - Configuring NVIDIA Control Panel

Lastly, open the NVIDIA control panel by going to the desktop, right clicking and selecting NVIDIA Control Panel that appears in the list.

Select "Manage 3D settings" on the drop down list on the top left corner. In the list of settings, ensure that you are in the Global tab then find "DSR - Factors". Choose 4.00x (native resolution) and leave "DSR - Smoothness" as 33% if you wish. You can also go into the "Program Settings" tab to change the same settings as we did in NVIDIA Inspector. It is recommended to just use NVIDIA Inspector as it has a greater array of configurative options.

Conclusion

Well this pretty much marks the end of the guide. Thanks for reading and I hope you managed to unlock some considerably improved graphics for this fairly dated game.

Click on the following link to basically see what we did with NVIDIA Inspector in the form of a video. It will also show AMD users how to unlock improved graphics with similar software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zny3xXvAdoU&t=318s

I took the idea of making a guide on how to use NVIDIA Inspector for graphics improvement from the YouTuber, DAKNAP, who created the video above. I bothered making this guide to spread awareness on this method of graphics improvement while also diffusing the name of the YouTuber, DAKNAP, who originally showed a guide similar to this in the video linked above. I also wanted to include a couple of other aspects like the configuraiton for Local.ini (previously shown by another Steam user named jeding) and the NVIDIA Control Panel to make somewhat of an all-in-one guide.

That is all, and again, thanks for reading my guide.

[blinx_timesweeper05]

I wonder if there is a guide for us Radeon users.
I'm using an XFX Radeon RX 6700XT Speedster Swift 309 12GB GDDR6. I know my GPU is beyond overkill for this game and really wish I knew how to reconfig this game to run better on my GPU. Nearly every single guide I've seen so far is Nvidia GeForce based and rarely ever mentions Radeon if at all. The only guide I did find was a quickfix for the Radeon HD 4770 and all it did was framerate adjustments to fix input lag with the mouse cursor while screen scrolling. I can't find that guide or comment thread anymore,... was it deleted?

[tynian87116]

I REALLLY wish that Steam allowed comment edits in guides... Anyone caught on where Local.ini is located, run the graphics config wizard first and it'll generate.

The dev that's maintaining Profile inspector has moved to github, the updated link is below, this version doesn't show your pc specs, but, is just the profile editor, so, basically, it's the part of the app that'd happen if you clicked the wrench and gear in the OG version. It's portable too, so, you don't need to run an installer thankfully, everything else is the same to what OP submitted, for the most part, just minor wording changes in the app itself.

[tynian87116]

Also, for inspector, the dev that's maintaining it moved it to github: https://github.com/Orbmu2k/nvidiaProfileInspector/releases

[Techpriest Marx]

Sorry for the late reply, but there is another way you can access the same settings configured in NVIDIA Inspector.

If you right-click on your desktop, NVIDIA Control Panel should show up in the Context Menu. Once you're in NVIDIA Control Panel, look over to the left of the interface and you should see a list of sections for different settings. What you wan't to look out for is Manage 3D Settings. Click on Mange 3D settings and select the Program Settings tab. You'll have to click on the drop-down list and look for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War Soulstorm. Once you have Soulstorm selected you can then configure just about all of the same settings from NVIDIA Inspector. Don't forget to click apply in the bottom right hand corner once you're done.

[Eternal Solitude]

Somehow I don't have the little wrench and screwdriver icon in NVIDIA inspector

[hobo_with_a_gun]

for windows ten and possibly below you can fix the text by going the the .exe properties, Compatibility TAB, change high DPI settings, at the bottom click HIGH DPI SCALING OVERRIDE settings and set to SYSTEM ADVANCED. this has set the scaling for text to the correct size for me in 4k though the mini map seems slightly askew with this method, works with the base game as well

[robcabob1]

Full Credit to....

Vthis userV
ROBOT-ROB

has Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm Apr 30, 2017 @ 1:34am
Reposting my follow-up from the original thread.

"Thanks very much for posting this fix, Hokunin. For anyone still having trouble:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwFP08L2ToUzVkVrY2V4TUpoQzQ/view?usp=sharing

Unzip it into your Steam > Steamapps > Common folder and let it overwrite whatever it needs to. It's the font files (in a zip) adjusted for 4k, and also includes a fix to make the mouse cursor visible."

If you're using something lower than 4K you may want to edit the values in the .fnt files it extracts. You can do this by simply right-clicking them, click open with.. and select notepad. Most font sizes are set to around 100ish, so for 2560x1440 for example.. You might want around 70-76.

Edit, Add the missing files to the correct folders and bam. the text is slightly oversized in 4k. it's way to oversized for 1080p.

[Techpriest Marx]

Two known settings that make text difficult to read are FXAA and the resolution being above 1920 x 1080. If you haven't already, I would suggest turning of FXAA in NVIDIA inspector and changing the resolution to 1920 x 1080.

[Novochrono42]

works except for the text its unreadable

[Techpriest Marx]

Cheers, mate. Glad it worked out.