this would be a nice feature: run game at a huge res, let gpu scale down

[plonk420]

so i'm a graphics and screenshot whore ... and games like Crysis 2 and BF3 (and i guess like GTA4? (with mods)) definitely deserve good screenshots.

i'm assuming there's no way to do this currently? e.g. run a game at 3840 x 2160 and then let the GPU scale the image down (kind of like what it does when you adjust overscan options).

 

[tweakboy]

Holy resolutions Batman. That resolution will have to be spanned across monitors.

What you doing SLI ? Yes use Fraps. You can take screenies and it will adjust it for you. To fit proper format. thx gl

 

[plonk420]

single screen. however, mainly for the purposes of screenshots.

 

[tviceman]

so i'm a graphics and screenshot whore ... and games like Crysis 2 and BF3 (and i guess like GTA4? (with mods)) definitely deserve good screenshots.

i'm assuming there's no way to do this currently? e.g. run a game at 3840 x 2160 and then let the GPU scale the image down (kind of like what it does when you adjust overscan options).

This is essentially what super sampling anti-aliasing is doing. 2x SSAA will render twice as many pixels that the screen resolution is set to and 4x SSAA would render 4 times as many pixels.

 

[plonk420]

can't really get those pixels back, i don't think.

 

[Insomniator]

This is essentially what super sampling anti-aliasing is doing. 2x SSAA will render twice as many pixels that the screen resolution is set to and 4x SSAA would render 4 times as many pixels.

Jesus do those modes crush gpus?

 

[boxleitnerb]

There is, it's called downsampling. You can add a custom resolution that is higher than your native one and your monitor will scale down, providing OGSSAA basically. I have a 1280x1024 monitor and I play in 2560x2048@1280x1024. Also works great with screenshots. Here is a nice comparison between native 1080p and 3840x216@1080p:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,8...-in-Crysis-2-Mit-Bildbeweis/Grafikkarte/Test/

This is possible via driver only with a Nvidia graphics card (every API, but only Win7) and via the SSAA tool from tommti (only DX10/11), although the tool can be buggy, doesn't alyways work and is no longer being improved/supported.

Current drivers are a bit lacking. Before it was often possible to achieve 3840x2160@57Hz (never at 60, though) with certain monitors. Nvidia knows that the enthusiast community appreciates downsampling and said it will get better in a future driver branch. It was messed up unintentionally in 280.x drivers. Also, there is the possibility that they will provide native support for that, because currently it is quite tricky and not always successful, because it all depends on the monitor as of now.

btw, GTA 4 is perfect for downsampling (either via driver or mod). Ever heard of ENB series? You can play GTA 4 in up to 4x (or 16x, depending on how you look at it) the native resolution, having 4x4 OGSSAA. Extremely demanding, though. I can barely play it in 3840x3072 with a overclocked GTX580 3GB SLI.

 

[toyota]

boxleitnerb, you have a 3gb gtx580 and you play games on a 1280x1024 monitor? I don't care how many fold you increase the resolution, your horrific 5:4 aspect ratio will still mean you are missing out on 1/3 of the field of view. I would literally stop gaming if my only monitor option was a claustrophobic 5:4 screen. even my old 4:3 crt makes me feel a little queasy in games after being used to 16:9.

 

[boxleitnerb]

I'm planning on getting a 24" 1080p screen next year. However, I don't want to risk not being able to downsample. There are so many games where you cannot force antialiasing, so I want to retain the possibility of having 2x2 OGSSAA. I will switch to a bigger screen only when Kepler arrives and when the current driver mess is fixed. I know, my monitor is not optimal, but aliasing is worse for me, so it's the lesser of two evils.

 

[plonk420]

thanks for the threadjacking, toyota

i'll have to check out downsampling link, boxleitnerb!

thankfully, i have an nvidia as i thought my ati had broken</lolcanofworms> so i can try this out

any other input on the OP from anyone would be appreciated!

 

[boxleitnerb]

Another useful link might be this one, but it's also in German. Still, there are videos that explain how to make a custom monitor driver/EDID (this has been necessary in the past, but at least for me right now, it isn't. Depends on your monitor and the resolution you're aiming at I guess):
http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=454129

Also keep in mind, that some games require ini tweaking to allow for larger resolutions. Some games detect only 60hz resolutions, so you might be out of luck sometimes.

If you need a translation, just ask. I'm glad to help.

 

[plonk420]

i'm assuming they support 50hz, too. mine's usually in that mode as i watch a fair bit of british tv.

 

[destrekor]

boxleitnerb, you have a 3gb gtx580 and you play games on a 1280x1024 monitor? I don't care how many fold you increase the resolution, your horrific 5:4 aspect ratio will still mean you are missing out on 1/3 of the field of view. I would literally stop gaming if my only monitor option was a claustrophobic 5:4 screen. even my old 4:3 crt makes me feel a little queasy in games after being used to 16:9.

makes you wonder how we ever got by gaming on old monitors before widescreen became a popular format, eh?

Imagine this, some pro gamers still use 5:4 monitors. Crazy shit eh?

fwiw, I do game with widescreen. In games that support it properly, I'll probably be gaming in ultra widescreen (tri-monitor). It's awesome in games. Though I am starting to wish I hadn't decided on the monitors I did (Asus PA238Q, decently-fast 8bit IPS panels. Mild blur noticeable in some ways, but plenty fast for my eyes unless I'm focusing for no reason other than to nitpick)... and that's because they are 16:9. What I'd give for these exact monitors to be 16:10. A little more vertical real estate would be great in some games.

There are pros and cons to all display ratios/formats. Task and preference should determine which is most suitable.

16x9 is nice because there are no black bars on 16x9 videos. And smaller black bars for most modern widescreen movies compared to 16x10. But that's about it.

 

[destrekor]

thanks for the threadjacking, toyota

oops sorry I think I just encouraged it too.
poor form... I apologize.

 

[toyota]

makes you wonder how we ever got by gaming on old monitors before widescreen became a popular format, eh?

Imagine this, some pro gamers still use 5:4 monitors. Crazy shit eh?

fwiw, I do game with widescreen. In games that support it properly, I'll probably be gaming in ultra widescreen (tri-monitor). It's awesome in games. Though I am starting to wish I hadn't decided on the monitors I did (Asus PA238Q, decently-fast 8bit IPS panels. Mild blur noticeable in some ways, but plenty fast for my eyes unless I'm focusing for no reason other than to nitpick)... and that's because they are 16:9. What I'd give for these exact monitors to be 16:10. A little more vertical real estate would be great in some games.

There are pros and cons to all display ratios/formats. Task and preference should determine which is most suitable.

16x9 is nice because there are no black bars on 16x9 videos. And smaller black bars for most modern widescreen movies compared to 16x10. But that's about it.

I do not know what you are rolling your eyes about. just because we used to have 4:3 being common has little to with modern games that are now designed for widescreen. and again 5:4 is even worse which means a worse gaming experience from a field of view perspective. I don't care what res a pro gamer plays at as I do not want 1/3 of my view taken away. its claustrophobic and very unnatural feeling once you are accustomed to playing in widescreen.

 

[boxleitnerb]

This really has nothing to do with this thread.

 

[toyota]

This really has nothing to do with this thread.

its a forum so people will comment on what others say. it happens all the time and the thread will survive so you and the OP need not worry. its not like we are discussing bicycles or anything else completely off topic.

The aspect ratio of modern monitors has nothing to do with the OP's thread. You may as well be discussing bicycles. Go get your own thread.
-ViRGE



EDIT: oh good grief so I now I cant comment on anything someones says if its not the exact topic? if so then you better go through every thread in this forum and take care of the hundreds of posts that might have done the same thing. even in my own threads people have gotten slightly off topic but so what???... this is a forum.

and if you take 10 seconds and actually look at what I said here, it is somewhat related. aspect ratio is not some far off topic and I was just simply asking why he would worry about making the res so much higher yet still have an awful aspect ratio. he answered that so it was all good. yet you still feel the need to come in here and act like I have done something wrong? but you say nothing to destrekor, who clearly tried to stir up things a bit with his eye rolling and smart remarks.

again what I said was a direct comment to someone and was somewhat related to the topic. it was not threadjacking.

 

[plonk420]

so the SSAA tool will work with pre 280 drivers?

 

[SHAQ]

I've been using 3200x1800 @55hz for awhile now. I set it at auto timing as well so it took all of 10 seconds. It has worked on the last 2 driver releases. I'm using a VK278Q monitor.

 

[toyota]

I've been using 3200x1800 @55hz for awhile now. I set it at auto timing as well so it took all of 10 seconds. It has worked on the last 2 driver releases. I'm using a VK278Q monitor.

can these non native refresh rates not damage monitors over time though?

 

[Idontcare]

There is, it's called downsampling. You can add a custom resolution that is higher than your native one and your monitor will scale down, providing OGSSAA basically. I have a 1280x1024 monitor and I play in 2560x2048@1280x1024. Also works great with screenshots. Here is a nice comparison between native 1080p and 3840x216@1080p:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,8...-in-Crysis-2-Mit-Bildbeweis/Grafikkarte/Test/

That was awesome, thanks for linking that up :thumbsup:

 

[SHAQ]

can these non native refresh rates not damage monitors over time though?

Not sure to be honest, but it lowers the refresh rate to compensate for the increased pixel clock. The pixel clock is raised only about 10% over default. The scaling is done by the GPU so I doubt it would harm the monitor if done correctly. If it is done manually and clocked to its limits then it might damage it. I did it manually at first and ran it at the max and had insane flickering and color artifacts. I haven't seen any problems since lowering it or running it on auto. The image is slightly less clear than running it at 1080 though.

If it is similar to OC'ing a CPU/GPU then some overhead may be available where it wouldn't hurt it at all. Time will tell I guess. I mostly use it on old games and games that don't have AA.

 

[boxleitnerb]

so the SSAA tool will work with pre 280 drivers?

The SSAA tool (not to confuse with Nvidias own SSAA tool that provides SGSSAA, though) works with all drivers and all cards (also AMD and Intel). It was written by tommti who also did the 3danalyzer some years ago.
It needs a signed driver, otherwise you would have to disable driver signing in win7. There is a version out there which has one included (from a German magazine called PC Games Hardware). I had it once, but cannot find it anymore. I will go look.

The SSAA tool comes with a GUI and you can set the SSAA factor and have to add the path to the game exe to a configuration file. Then the higher resolution will appear ingame. In my experience, the tool was a bit buggy. SSAA did not always work and sometimes the mouse coordinates got messed up. Personally I don't use it because the driver does it all for me, but if you have 1080p, you might want to try it out.

That was awesome, thanks for linking that up :thumbsup:

You're welcome
Do you think there is interest here for an advanced image quality thread that could be pinned here in the forums or something? It would help the cause if more gamers would be made aware of what they can do with their hardware to improve quality. Most people - even most enthusiasts with SLI/CF - don't know what SSAA is or have never seen it in action.

 

[plonk420]

so, i've figured out how to get it as high as 2560x1600 (on a 1440x900 monitor) ...are there any ways of going any higher on a single monitor (that doesn't support 50hz)?



V

 

[boxleitnerb]

What card, what display?
With a 580 I can do this:

With a 120Hz display and/or Kepler (GTX600) you can reach 3840x2160@60Hz.
2880x1800@1440x900 should be perfectly doable with any card. Question is if the monitor will play along.