RAGE Fix,settings

Some tweak for RAGE to get constant 60 fps,without stutter,better visuals and to reduce delay for texture streaming or even elinimate it.
It remids me to Crysis 1 where they did terrible default hidden options, visuals looked awful and run badly.
You dont need strong PC for RAGE its very optimized engine, but has some bugs and issues with some drivers and third party programs or even with some specific cards etc....You can play easily on Radeon as well.My experimental+collected tweaks from other articles.

RAGE ingame settings

First load up your game (if You want to play with 64bit exe allways launch it from steam library not from folder exe,otherwise wont work properly, I recommend not using administrator rights on either exe, it cause :resetting settings and commands etc...even if you dont use custom settings) and apply the ingame settings you want to use, after this exit from the game.The 64-bit version can be a bit buggy with some drivers.(I only had problem with radeon card on 64 bit, but not with geforce however)
The 32-bit config file can be found in: steam***RAGE/base/default.cfg (this is used by 64-bit as well mainly)
Now do a safe copy if you want from this original default.cfg, and just keep in a created folder somewhere

Creating cache file:
enable invisible files to see Appdata, then go to:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\ create a folder called id software , new folder called rage.(C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\id software\rage).

Ingame Options:
Antialiasing: dont use 16x, it blurs the image, without AA wires looks bad or you cant even see it.
Vsync:off/on/smart, smart doesnt drop your fps to 30 when you cant maintain 60 fps and when it happens there is a chance to see screen tear.With off I have strong screentear when I look at the floor and move.
Texture Cache: set this allways to large,otherwise You will see texture "pop-in" streaming constantly with delay and lower quality textures also.Needs VRAM.After You enable 16k textures later on you will see small here displayed, but dont bother with that.
Texture Detail:Can affect fps a lot, also makes the game looking terrible and unnatural at close-mid range,long range textures are already unmatched dont need this.(rocks and road might look better for someone, but everything else is ugly, even the baked shadows)Experiencing huge fps drop with 16k textures or pop-in? disable this feature.
Anisotropic filter: keep at High or low, read below for more details
GPU transcode: Disabled. This works only with Geforce cards with cuda,this helps to stream textures faster (faster GPU,faster streaming) otherwise CPU will stream the virtual textures.Can affect fps with weaker cards.Well this is pretty useless in someway.This option was made for geforce users with slow CPU back in the time I guess(remember long development time for RAGE), no wonder the newer Idtech5 games doesnt have it in the options(however could be enabled as hidden feature for both card manufacturer, but havent found any proof about this).We can play RAGE without texture pop-in with any CPU + any kind of VGA, it just matter of tweaks.64bit RAGE doesnt support gpu transcode, however cpu "transcode" is 1.5x faster. I set it off even if I have geforce.(measured by inbuilt benchmark)

Configfile settings and launch parameters

RAGE still lacks important settings, but You can do it via config file editing.
The main thing We need in idtech5 games are better textures without pop-in. In RAGE this setting is 16k textures with maxppf of 8 (ppf sets the amount/speed of data will load into memory, lower value is better) if You can have this problem is solved.
Launch parameters:
+com_skipIntroVideo 1 +logfile 0 +fc_maxcachememoryMB 1024
these:skips the intro,reduce the loading times for 64bit,and use 1GB cache memory once you create the cache folder as well

Now open up default.cfg file, edit and add new lines (steamapps\common\RAGE\base)
Pls note the Multiplayer config file is separated (steamapps\common\RAGE\mp\base)

////////////////////////////////////////////

vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly2 "16384"---no texture pop-in,8192/4096,more "pop-in"
vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly "16384"
vt_pageImageSizeUnique "16384"
vt_pageImageSizeVmtr "16384"
com_videoRam "1024"---Your video ram amount,only if experiencing troubles,not rly needed
com_allowconsole "1"---console enabled
g_showPlayerShadow "0"---playershadow is disabled by default, dont enable if it is bugged
g_fov "90"--- default is 80 fov, higher value deforms view, +makes zoom unbalanced
(if you experiencing fov changing during gameplay you can set it via console command ingame)
g_AimAssist_Disable_All "1"---disable aim assist, default value is 1,0 add aimassist
vt_nopreload "0"---Forces virtual texture preloading
vt_maxPPF "8"---very important "8" gives smooth streaming,no pop-in or stutter (16/32/64/128) higher values are worse,on high end CPU 16 may work better than 8.Also if You have SSD you can try higher values.
vt_maxaniso "4"---Rage doesnt support more of 4x AF, also resets to 2 or 1 after loading screens...(i put it back sometimes with ingame console)
image_anisotropy "4"---default is 16, use 2-4 connected with vt_maxaniso above
vt_minlod "0"---"-2" for better image quality
vt_lodBias "0"---"-2" for better picture
vt_feedbackLodBias "0"--- "1" blurier distant textures (less pop-in), "-1" sharper (more pop-in+loading time)
vt_vmtrcompression "none"---Sets texture compression method for best
mt_genCompression "none"---Sets texture compression method for best
s_reverb "1"---adds feel of 3d sounds
s_useCompression "1"---compresses sound
r_skipDynamicLighting "0"--- "1" disables dynamic lighting,may improve fps on very slow cards
r_skipDimShadows "0"--- "1" disables real-time shadow
r_skipEmissiveGlare "0"--- "1" lowers some post-process effect "quality", but doesnt disables it
r_skipGlare "0"---1 disables all post-process effects inlcluding the low DoF on zooming,dark colored tones,heat haze, strong motion blur effects from explosions,HDR almost gone (big fps gain on slower cards) RAGE looks better when this is disabled, but the heat haze and explosions effects are missed a bit.Its worth to try out.(go test at indoor area where You see "green shadow/fog/grain" at default)
m_smooth "0"---disables mouse smoothing

vt_restart
r_forceVmtrReload "1"---I guess this 2 makes sure, all commands loads, when entering new area after every loading screen

with 16k textures+maxppf 8, pop-in should be gone (even with 8k textures,pop-in is not annoying anymore,almost gone, especially with the other commands together, if You still have strong texture pop-in with 8k Your PC is weak)
My screen res is 1366*768 2xAA 16k texures:32-bit RAGE use 900MB VRAM,8k textures use about 500Mb (tried out the same spot on a different PC later on:16k textures used up 1.6 GB from my 4GB VRAM and its not even the most demanding area,which means my 1GB card was bottlenecked)
If you have massive fps drop with 16k textures, disable Texture detail from options (should be disabled anyway,that feature is fail)

With 2GB+ card try texture sizes with 32768,mine is only 1GB and I got pink textures, I am curious is it possible to have 32k^^, as I know 16k is the max.

Windows settings and BIOS etc...

Radeon users needs to enable catalyst A.I. if you see this problem


RAGE is sensitive for third party programs
Do not limit your frames by third party program, not even from nvidia inspector.It cause stutter.Game is using its own 60 fps limit anyway.
If You have msi aferburner close the tray icon.It cause huge fps drop and stutter after playing some time and it is totally unplayable.
If You have nvidia card make sure threaded optimaziation is set to off or auto to avoid problems.

OK. I just copy pasted this from my ARMA 3 guide, if someone needs it.
These settings can have the most impact for gaming in general
Nvidia control panel:

Ambient occlusion:off
Multidisplay/mixedgpu: set this to single display performance mode if You have 1 monitor/GPU.
power managment mode: default is adaptive, or You can set maximum performance.I use usually adaptive cos I can have 100% gpu load in games I dont have any problems, but if You have, You can try max performance for lucky fps increase.
vsync and tripple buffering-off all times for Me, if You want vsync on set tripple buffer on as well.
Texture filtering- this is very important feature I use this on high quality always.You can lower this for more fps but the visual quality will be worse.
threaded optimaziation-this is opengl feature for old games/new games.If they didnt changed it.RAGE -off or auto. On, cause stutter on 64-bit, and might have problem on 32-bit as well.
I highly suggest using this as "off" all the time. What it does is, shifting gpu related tasks to be handled by the cpu, and thats never really a good thing.
texture negative lod bias: set this from allow to clamp when You use aniso filter for games
maximum prerendered frames ahead: set this to 1 or 4, You decide.Prerendering is done by CPU/driver. Not by GPU.Can give more fps , but more input lag.
Anti Antialiasing: set this application controlled


close all useless programs like: skype,torrent downloaders,hamachi,firewall programs... everything.
disable windows7-8 aero and all fancy stuff (from win xp era)
disable steam overlay
Delete your windows cache files every month ( tpye in at windows run startup this: %temp% and delete all files You see, when a meassage pops up asking something click on skip this file)
update your monitor,motherboard drivers etc...

Install Your games on different HDD then windows os, and dont just make other partition on the same HDD drive, You need to do this with a real 2. HDD/SSD.
todays PC performance is bottlenecked by our old school HDD.
You need 2 HDD or 1 HDD 1 SSD and install games separated from Windows.(or 2 HDD)
EDIT Do not disable page file (this is true only for Win 7/8 maybe, I disabled it on xp and vista all the time, but not in win 7 after I saw improvements from having pagefile enabled, most times you dont rly see fps differences, but windows/games runs smoother): set Your pagefile on third HDD for ideal. (Pagefile size setting: read and set what the system recommends for You, if out of memory pops up, raise the max. number.(set minimum and max size as same amount)
interested more?
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx
When You have only 2 HDD like me: 1.OS+Games 2.Storage+Pagefile or Games on the 2,Pagefile 1.


also turn Your windows system to high performance profile, You dont want energy saving,
this will help to load Your cpu and using core(s) effectively.
Amd user? install this 2 hotfix http://www.techpowerup.com/158534/new-windows-7-bulldozer-patches-available.html
or older AMD: http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3116-amd-dual-core-optimizer.html

read this about core parking, cpu core parking occur mostly 4 cores above (virtual cores counts as well)
Do not unpark Your cores, if using CPU-s integrated graphics!


http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php
http://www.xtremehardware.com/eng-reviews/core-parking-on-windows-seven-winrar-performance-with-sandy-bridge-201111226092/
i prefer to use this program(another program about parking) : http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

Changes in Bios

disable hpet in bios, it cause high latency.http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
disable hyperthreading if You have more then 2 cores (for better gaming performance) however dual cores with hyper are very good.-I dont have hyper threading so I didnt had to disable it :)
Edit: You can test hyperthreading after You succesfully disabled the core parking issues (see above), maybe HT will work better in games after that (I highly doubt), I read somewhere once there was a guy with I7 8 threads , but the 4 virtual cores (HT) didnt work until he used the core parking tool/tweaks.Note: Crysis 3 runs faster with HT enabled, pretty much the first game ever :)

turn off all kind of power savings in bios, (these helps overall performance like windows load up faster as well etc..) These changes helped a lot
I have msi, I turned off:
-EUP 2013
-Cpu Phase control
-C1E
-C-State
-I also disabled the Power management under cpu features
(also these settings above can fix Your soundcard problem if You had)

-in the cpu overclock settings I disabled EIST/turbo boost

I did set my cores from 4 to 3 and ,overclocked' my cpu by multipliers.(I can use more multipliers with 1-2-3 cores then 4.)
so choose 3 cores all cores on 3200Mhz now and it is faster then 4 cores on 2800Mhz(this was max Ghz on 4 cores), and not in just arma.
So I disabled EIST, and set everything manually.Now My idling speed is 3200Mhz but who cares, it is on 0%-1% workload.This change give Me nice fps increase.And this is how gaming pc should be set anyway.

32-bit vs 64-bit

savegames
32-bit saves are in: C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\id Software\Rage\base\savegame\

64-bit saves are in your steam folder: steamapps\common\RAGE\SAVES\base\savegame\

Only autosaves are compatible with both versions, generating an autosave is easy, just go out or in town/new area.

Graphics 32 vs 64:


64-bit has "new" shaders and lighting and the real-time shadow is different also when tweaked: characters,cars and weapons are affected mostly.(pls note the red texture glitch which was caused by my custom config file, however i didnt listed that command in this guide to avoid problem)
with default settings both games will have same graphics, but 64-bit can be improved, 32-bit doesnt support a lot of command lines.The screenshot shot shows the difference, and i used same custom config file for both games.

64bit will use the default.cfg config file from 32 bit, you can add some lines to 64-bit config file which will be generated after first 64-bit launch/exit.
Adding lines will reset most of the time and still use 32-bit configs a lot of times sadly, be careful :p. (or still need to use ingame options for changing things)
The automated config file is under:
steamapps\common\RAGE\SAVES\base and called rageConfig.cfg

Achievements are working in 64-bit or with enabled console, dont worry about that. (or was i just lucky? I dont know xD )
also for last I found that RAGE has some kind "bunny hopp"
run ahead 2-3 sec (to gain full speed), and start jumping, dont need double tapping, but use jump when landing.This is very useful since you can go faster and You can even reload weapons, unlike while sprinting, which even use stamina.

[It's yo boi Spiderman]

@FLENG did you run into any problems with memory?

[FLENG]

How do I disable aim on the gamepad?

[FlamBoris]

Awesome guide, works like a charm! I just wish you included how to increase framerate cap 60 hurts my eyes on my 240hz monitor.

[SolivaN]

heres the double-shadow private lighting in 32bits:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2377423793103235734/40DE7F32CEBF7925CD1E6D08A46EE67FFB9ABE6F/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[SolivaN]

you say: ""64-bit has "new" shaders and lighting and the real-time shadow""

in 32-bits the "double-shadow private lighting" shader is present too.
i've tested right now with idtech5 tweaker

is very sadly see this shader buged. i think this was an incomplete implementation before release the game. john carmack really wants to help to make this game look great, but not was possible.

only makes these fake texture detail "bicubic-upsample+detail" 1. thats was fine, but is not that we really want.

1. https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rage-john-carmack-promises-that-the-upcoming-update-will-resolve-all-texture-blurriness/

anyway, it seems the "double-shadow private lighting" is correctly implemented in Wolfenstein The New Order, but i've no tested yet.

it will great some day idtech 5 beign open source under GPL, but with the microsoft acquisition it will be impossible to happen :C

[Rostovmyhome]

It's amazing how many subtleties in this game.

[Rostovmyhome]

Reinstalled the game and noticed the following. At 32-bit launch, the cache returns to small, although the first inclusion was done without intervention in default. That is, after the settings in the game itself, I made changes to the default file, I launch the shortcut with the necessary parameters, and in the settings again the small cache is installed.

[Rostovmyhome]

If I understand correctly, the settings for 64 bits cannot be made larger, that is, the settings for the 32 bit system are wider and are saved in the default.cfg file. I'm running 64 bit from a shortcut in the directory of the game folder. I don't have a steam version.

[Rostovmyhome]

It's strange that the added lines in the rageConfig file really disappeared after the game was exited. It's always like that ? That is, you need to copy and paste data every time? Only the following data is saved:
////////////////////////////////////////////
win_ypos "0"
win_xpos "0"
in_joystick "0"
r_windowPosY "31"
r_windowPosX "8"
r_windowHeight "2160"
r_windowWidth "3840"
r_fullscreen "1"
r_mode "7"
vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly2 "16384"
vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly "16384"
vt_pageImageSizeUnique "16384"
vt_pageImageSizeVmtr "16384"
image_anisotropy "4"

What needs to be done so that the data does not disappear? Perhaps the data disappeared because I changed the settings in the game itself?

[Rostovmyhome]

Do I need to remove the entered data from the default.cfg file in order to run only the settings for the 64 bit client? I enter the data in rageConfig and so that there is no conflict between the settings.