Optimizing Nvidia for HaloCE

Patrickssj6 · Post by **Patrickssj6** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:12 am

I just felt like doing this </reason>

(Fake Bloom Not Included)

Please read carefully and don't skip any parts unless you know what you are doing.

You can do this tutorial if...

-you have a Nvidia card that is capable at running Halo at highest settings and at a high framerate (>50fps) usually -7,-8 series.
-tearing issues (Halo runs faster (sometimes you don't even notice this); massive lag)
-Nvidia camouflage problem

What do I need?

Latest Nvidia Driver/Control Center
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

DXTweaker (my settings included)
http://files.filefront.com/DXTweakerrar ... einfo.html

MapManager (with DXtweaker support)
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=2758

A brain/2 eyes/at least 1 hand/opt. ePenor/ePuss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal

Installing DXTweaker

Extract the archive (I recommend into the HaloCE directory). Open up DXTweaker and make sure the existing configurations for HaloCE (which I included) are correct (paths etc.) and that's basically it.

Configuring Nvidia

Open up the Nvidia Control Panel.

Now for the settings...I'll try to explain as much as possible (I actually just quote Wikipedia)

Every time you change a settings from it's original state it will be bold.

Anisotropic Filtering

"...is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles..." - Wikipedia

I set this to 16x...even though I'm not sure if this has a direct effect in HaloCE since I don't know how Nvidia affects these settings or how it cooperates with HaloCE in the first place.

Texture Filtering - Quality

"In computer graphics, texture filtering is the method used to determine the texture color for a texture mapped pixel, using the colors of nearby texels (pixels of the texture)." - Wikipedia

I set this to very high, I'm pretty sure this doesn't have a direct effect in HaloCE though.

Threaded Optimization
If you have multiple CPU's, use this.

Now for the vital parts:

Triple Buffering

"In computer graphics, triple buffering is a variant on double buffering, a technique for drawing graphics that shows no (or less) flicker, shearing, and tearing artifacts." - Wikipedia

As you can see, this can help us with the tearing. Set this to "On".

Vertical Sync

"Vertical synchronization (v-sync, vbl-sync) refers generally to the synchronization of frame changes with the vertical blanking interval." - Wikipedia

This will defiantly help us with our tearing. Set this to "Force On".

MapManager

If you configured everything correctly, this should work perfectly. No more camo errors, no more tearing in VSync / No VSync.

Credits:

DXTweaker - nonatainment
Camo Fix Tutorial - IcebirdCE
MapManager - Skyline & Patrickssj6

This Tutorial - Patrickssj6

Cryticfarm · Post by **Cryticfarm** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:12 am

Oh yayz, and me and you have the same graphics card so umm... High five lol.
EDIT: Yayz, it works, thanks man.

TomClancey · Post by **TomClancey** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:01 am

I remember having to search on GBX to find the tutorial solely for DXTweaker, but it did the Camo fix.

Though, nice tutorial, would help a lot.

Daemon · Post by **Daemon** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:41 pm

Your graphiocs look higher quality than mine in your screenshot and i gots a 8800GTS... so i better try this out, get back to you when i do.

Edit: i never had the camo problem but it stopped the tearing and stuff... thanks

DrJaul · Post by **DrJaul** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:49 pm

i did this tutorial and it fixed the tearing problem but now i get like teh awful frame rates. i have 2 sli-ed geforce 8400 gs cards and i get less than 30 fps, on halflife 2 i get like 40-50 fps. how does that work?

Cryticfarm · Post by **Cryticfarm** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:35 am

DrJaul wrote:i did this tutorial and it fixed the tearing problem but now i get like teh awful frame rates. i have 2 sli-ed geforce 8400 gs cards and i get less than 30 fps, on halflife 2 i get like 40-50 fps. how does that work?

Go into the settings and check if the framerate says 30 fps. If it does, change it to vsync or novsync (novsync for highest fps).

DrJaul · Post by **DrJaul** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:00 am

long story short it wasnt the vsync. i went on a journey through the bowels of the nvidia drivers and and wound up just setting my computer back to the original way it was back when i had the low framerate and suddenly, magically, it worked. 50 frames relatively consistently. thanks for the help with the tearing.

Cryticfarm · Post by **Cryticfarm** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:29 am

DrJaul wrote:long story short it wasnt the vsync. i went on a journey through the bowels of the nvidia drivers and and wound up just setting my computer back to the original way it was back when i had the low framerate and suddenly, magically, it worked. 50 frames relatively consistently. thanks for the help with the tearing.

Thats odd, I have only one 8600 GT and I can get over 300. 2 8400 should be around the same.