- last edited on by
ROGBot
Hello guys!
Since me and many other people have been waiting for the glorious NVidia DSR feature to come to our mobile GPU's as well, I have thought that giving some info's about an alternative method would make some people happy.
So, during this last week, together with the release of Witcher 3, I have chosen to start playing Witcher 2 as I saw that the games are quite related and the story is continued in each game (in comparison with many other games which don't have that continuity inside the story ). Since Witcher 2 was released in 2012 I was looking for different methods to boost the graphics to the maximum in order to further enjoy the landscapes and all the elements of the game. I was also looking for something different from the Ubersampling option which is still a power hungry feature that kneels my GTX 980m (Yeah... a freaking 2012 game can kneel a high end GPU from 2014 with just an aliasing option).
Since Ubersampling was thought as a more aggressive anti-aliasing feature I searched different ways of improving the image with methods that don't have such a great impact on performance. This way I have found a thread about Downsampling and I'm quoting the user on the other thread:
Basically, downsampling is the best solution for reducing aliasing and increasing the sharpness of the image. It pretty much does the same thing as NVidia DSR but since we do not have access to DSR at the moment, we can manage with this solution.
You can find more info's about Downsampling and how to set your custom resolutions using NVidia Control Panel's options, over here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509076
PS: After settings the custom resolution, you DO NOT have to use it for your desktop as well. You can use the 1920x1080p as your desktop resolution and just choose the higher custom resolution within the game settings (be aware that you shouldn't play in windowed mode if you have custom resolution enabled).
As for my personal experience, I have only tested the 3K (2560x1440) and 4k (3840x2160) but I've sticked to 3K because the 4K resolution has crashed when I tested it. There was just a sign with "Resolution not supported" and the resolution has reverted back. But I only tried at 60Hz refresh rate so you guys can go further and test at lower refresh rates if you wanna aim for 4K downsampling.
Ok, so, as a conclusion I can say that now I am playing The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition at 2560x1440 downsampled to 1920x1080 and with the settings cranked to maximum but without the ubersampling feature which is more of a performance hog than it improves the graphics. The results aren't that mind blowing but the image has clearly improved and frankly, I don't know if the Ubersampling feature could have done a much better improvement to the image quality than this downsampling does (keep in mind that with Gtx980M I can use the 2560x1440 and the AA setting withing the game which further increases the smoothness of the elements).
You guys can also try this and post here your opinions on how it works for you on different games.
Here are my settings, so you can see which resolution I am using for the desktop and for the game. You can also see there, in the NVidia Control Panel, the custom resolution at 2560x1440.
And you can find some In-game screenshots just below, with Downsampling enabled from 2560x1440. To be honest, the game looks pretty damn good even for 2015. I don't expect to get to play The Witcher 3 on these settings but I'm definitely eager to see the differences in graphic performance :D.
Acess this link as the forum doesn't allow me to upload images at 2560x1440 (maximum is 2000x2000). Sorry!
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=f29db39ae83cbe6d!882&authkey=!AKqEVz126yFSJyE&ithint=folder%2c...
As you can see in the last 2 pictures, in the forest, the FPS has dropped a bit due to very intense image processing (3K resolution + AA enabled + Sharpening + Ambient Occlussion + Light Shafts (those light beams that look so amazing) + etc. )
Since me and many other people have been waiting for the glorious NVidia DSR feature to come to our mobile GPU's as well, I have thought that giving some info's about an alternative method would make some people happy.
So, during this last week, together with the release of Witcher 3, I have chosen to start playing Witcher 2 as I saw that the games are quite related and the story is continued in each game (in comparison with many other games which don't have that continuity inside the story ). Since Witcher 2 was released in 2012 I was looking for different methods to boost the graphics to the maximum in order to further enjoy the landscapes and all the elements of the game. I was also looking for something different from the Ubersampling option which is still a power hungry feature that kneels my GTX 980m (Yeah... a freaking 2012 game can kneel a high end GPU from 2014 with just an aliasing option).
Since Ubersampling was thought as a more aggressive anti-aliasing feature I searched different ways of improving the image with methods that don't have such a great impact on performance. This way I have found a thread about Downsampling and I'm quoting the user on the other thread:
What is downsampling
Downsampling, also called OGSSAA : Ordered Grid SuperSampling AntiAliasing, is in this case the concept of rendering the game at a much higher, custom made, resolution than your monitor is capable of displaying and subsequently having the GPU rescale the image ( as in downsample ) to that of your monitor's native resolution to which the end result is a "cleaner", sharper and less aliased image.
Basically, downsampling is the best solution for reducing aliasing and increasing the sharpness of the image. It pretty much does the same thing as NVidia DSR but since we do not have access to DSR at the moment, we can manage with this solution.
You can find more info's about Downsampling and how to set your custom resolutions using NVidia Control Panel's options, over here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509076
PS: After settings the custom resolution, you DO NOT have to use it for your desktop as well. You can use the 1920x1080p as your desktop resolution and just choose the higher custom resolution within the game settings (be aware that you shouldn't play in windowed mode if you have custom resolution enabled).
As for my personal experience, I have only tested the 3K (2560x1440) and 4k (3840x2160) but I've sticked to 3K because the 4K resolution has crashed when I tested it. There was just a sign with "Resolution not supported" and the resolution has reverted back. But I only tried at 60Hz refresh rate so you guys can go further and test at lower refresh rates if you wanna aim for 4K downsampling.
Ok, so, as a conclusion I can say that now I am playing The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition at 2560x1440 downsampled to 1920x1080 and with the settings cranked to maximum but without the ubersampling feature which is more of a performance hog than it improves the graphics. The results aren't that mind blowing but the image has clearly improved and frankly, I don't know if the Ubersampling feature could have done a much better improvement to the image quality than this downsampling does (keep in mind that with Gtx980M I can use the 2560x1440 and the AA setting withing the game which further increases the smoothness of the elements).
You guys can also try this and post here your opinions on how it works for you on different games.
Here are my settings, so you can see which resolution I am using for the desktop and for the game. You can also see there, in the NVidia Control Panel, the custom resolution at 2560x1440.
And you can find some In-game screenshots just below, with Downsampling enabled from 2560x1440. To be honest, the game looks pretty damn good even for 2015. I don't expect to get to play The Witcher 3 on these settings but I'm definitely eager to see the differences in graphic performance :D.
Acess this link as the forum doesn't allow me to upload images at 2560x1440 (maximum is 2000x2000). Sorry!
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=f29db39ae83cbe6d!882&authkey=!AKqEVz126yFSJyE&ithint=folder%2c...
As you can see in the last 2 pictures, in the forest, the FPS has dropped a bit due to very intense image processing (3K resolution + AA enabled + Sharpening + Ambient Occlussion + Light Shafts (those light beams that look so amazing) + etc. )
