Nvidia users: Better visuals at the same performance? Yes! And YOUR help is needed!

Bump because there are a lot less posts in the Nvidia forums than in this thread.

Please guys, read the first post. YOUR help is needed! We need EVERY single voice!

Thanks.

 

single voice added
thx man!

 

Added my voice.

Thanks to Robert for bringing this to our attention.

 

Another BIG thankyou Robert, I tried the DLL last night and I had no concept of how much performance I was losing using those other methods to give satisfactory image quality. Initially my fps jumped to over 200 (triple screen!) then I realized in amazement that it wasn't even triggering the boost clock! I have turned so many things up now it looks like a completely new game.

I will register and add my voice today.

So will the dll still work with a new driver or will we have to rely on that Guzz fella making a new one each time?

 

Hi Murtaya!

Glad it works for you.
And no, we will not need the dll or a custom driver in the future if Nvidia fixes their official driver revisions. Guzz was simply showing that it is possible to fix the drivers pretty easily, now it's Nvidia's turn to listen to us simracers and make that setting available again in their new driver revisions.
So telling them in their forum (link to the thread provided in the first post of this thread) that we want the "Clamp negative LOD bias texture filtering" back will do the trick if we get enough attention by flooding their forum.

Greez Rob

 

And another +1 added, thanks Robert for getting the ball rolling , really hope this happens...

 

Yes but if they don't listen because it seems like they have been alerted about it before, when they bring the next driver out will that dll still work or will we need a new one?

I hope they listen and your tireless effort to bring this to our and their attention is vindicated, despite people on that thread trying to shout you down (and now disappearing once the proof shows they were wrong!)

But if they don't listen do you know how he came up with that dll or made the modified driver or do we need to learn it?

 

The dll will most probably work in any DirectX 9 application, no matter which driver version / game version. Just copy it into the same folder like the game's executable and you should be fine.
I sure hope though that the drivers will get fixed and we won't need to do anything again, just like in the old days with the graphics cards which still read that setting!

 

Is this the file "Guzz" provided at the NVIDIA Forum under the name nvd3dum.dll?

If not please provide a source for download. Thanks in advance

EDIT: added my voice to the NVIDIA post as well.

 

I believe they are the same file just renamed. I am using dum

Guzz does indicate in one post that the dll will only work with the current drivers which is why I asked about future releases.

 

Oh this one, yeah, this one won't work anymore if you update the drivers. I thought you guys were talking about the d3d9.dll. This one will work in the future even when updating the drivers.

 

Added my post to the petition. Thanks Robert for bringing this to our attention - and pointing us to a fix.

I can see the difference in rFactor and Game StockCar but I still need to use 8x Multisampling to get rid of the white line jaggies on the side of the road.

In rFactor2 it doesn't seem to work. Using Alt-M I can still see differences.

It's just a matter of copying the dll into the main game folder, correct?

 

Sorry but at the moment I don't have the time to read all the thread, I just saw the the news on Belgian Sim Racing and this is what I know...

This bug exists since the introduction of the optimized drivers for Titan cards (branch R313).
The drivers up to branch R312 do not have this bug, it was introduced with the branch R313.

Here is a list of drivers and branches:

Code:

Driver -> Branch -> build date

310.90 -> r310_00-222 -> 12/29/2012
311.60 -> r310_00-415 -> 04/29/2013
311.66 -> r310_00-437 -> 05/14/2013
311.70 -> r310_00-449 -> 05/24/2013
311.91 ->  -> 07/04/2013
311.93 -> r310_00-509 -> 07/08/2013
311.97 -> r310_00-523 -> 07/17/2013
312.29 -> r310_00-545 -> 07/30/2013
312.30 -> r310_00-548 -> 07/31/2013
312.32 -> r310_00-560 -> 08/07/2013
312.42 -> r310_00-581 -> 08/24/2013
312.54 -> r310_00-610 -> 09/12/2013
312.63 -> r310_00-641 -> 10/04/2013
312.69 -> r310_00-669 -> 10/28/2013
312.70 -> r310_00-672 -> 10/31/2013

312.33 -> r311_85-7 -> 08/07/2013
312.65 -> r311_85-20 -> 10/07/2013

312.07 -> r312_00-129 -> 02/25/2013
312.56 -> r312_00-352 -> 09/20/2013

313.93 -> r313_00-177 -> 01/19/2013 <- SimBin games flickering bug returns, also on XP!
313.96 -> r313_00-186 -> 01/25/2013
314.14 -> r313_00-236 -> 02/28/2013
314.22 -> r313_00-263 -> 03/14/2013

The list continues up to nowadays drivers, I personally tested all of them.

The bug involves the texture filtering, basically anisotropic filter doesn't work properly and it creates a lot of texture corruption, flickering and shimmering.

I and my forum mate T@kER discovered it almost a year ago and as far as we know it affects all the games based on gMotor engine (rFactor 1 & 2, SimBin games from GTR up to Race 07 and other titles like Reiza Studios' GSC & FTruck) and Eagle Dynamics' flight simulators (Lock On FC2 & DCS World).

Check these threads for screenshots, some videos and links to the latest drivers based on R310/311/312 branches.
http://www.news3d.eu/index.php/topic,66873.0.html
http://www.news3d.eu/index.php/topic,66451.0.html

I was the one designated to report the bug on NVIDIA forum but I never had the time, I always told me "I'll do it tomorrow..." and in the end I never did it, so shame on myself.

 

Added my post to the petition

 

So, forgive my ignorance, the new .dll does the same as alt-m but in an automatic way? Or does it go further?

 

No, it needs to be in the same folder as the application's executable. In rFactor 2's case it's "rFactor2\Core".

It's not exactly the same. Clamp just sets all negative LOD bias to 0.0 while leaving all positive ones intact, Alt+M sets everything to 0.0, regardless which if the custom value is negative, neutral or positive.

When Nvidia fixes their drivers, we will get the clamp functionality back which is slightly different compared to Alt+M, but the issues with the jaggies will be gone for good.

 

I couldn't get it to work for me and Guzz confirmed why today. The DLLs are OS specific... the one for Win 8.1 doesn't work with Win 8 (which I use). I didn't really want to upgrade the OS but this may be enough to push me that way.

 

Voice added
d3d9.dll really works fine.

 

It really does, I'm pleased with the results. Using the dll in GSC as well.

 

I will repeat what I said in that forum here, because everyone is whining but no one used the appropriate channel to report this and I am too lazy to do it myself:
Do the developers read the forums?
I didn't update my drivers and seeing this problem I will not update them.
So, someone of you that has the updated drivers and is experiencing the problem, please report it here:
http://nvidia-submit.custhelp.com/app/answers/list
I searched there but couldn't find it reported or answered, so someone has to create the report.
If someone creates it, then maybe we could vote or register for that report or maybe we just need to all report the same problem again and again, I don't know how their support system works...
Thanks!!!