nVidia's Ambient Occlusion .....better than AA

R

rouge34rtw

Charter Member
I just learned how to force Ambient Occlusion (the newest 3D setting from nVidia for GF 8xxx/9xxx/200/300 series GPUs) to work on applications like CFS3 which do not natively support it.... it requires Forceware 190.xx or newer drivers, a supported GPU, and nHancer (www.nhancer.com a freeware 3D settings tweak utility for nVidia GPUs) Basically, you enable AO in the nVidia control panel, then set nHancer to allow overides of pre-set game profile settings, create a custom profile for your CFS3 installation, and use one of the ambient occlusion pre-sets in the new CFS3 profile you created....I used the COD 4 compatability setting with mine......and nHancer will force the driver to use ambient occlusion to enhance your 3D images.....There is a much better set of directions at 3dguru.com in the forums...... I should mention that unless you own a new GTX 300 series card you cannot use ambient occlusion and anti-aliasing together, the hardware will automatcally default to the AA and ignore the AO so turn AA off in both nHancer and in CFS3 config/display options. I noticed a slight decrease in my FPS over cities and when lots of birds are in view (70 to 80 FPS with AA 16xQ, 60 to 70 FPS with AO instead of AA, but the graphics detail improvement is well worth it......I am running a Core2Duo E6600 + GeForce 9800GTX 512Mb + 4 Gb DDR2 800Mhz RAM....and I am just amazed at the increased level of detail I am seeing with the ambient occlusion forced into the mix....its awesome, the tiny pieces of airplane raining back on my bird and sparks from the bullet hits are incredible....the smoke trails are more realistic, the terrain and scenery detail has doubled in my opinion.....I love it.... Basically, AO is just a better way of shading and shadowing to really highlight and define 3D images....and it works. Makes me want to buy a new game realease that has AO support in its engine just to see what that is like...I will grab some screenies next time I am winging it over France or N Korea and post them here.....its really incredible.
 
Ambient Occlusion shading must give the same effect as AA, I didn't lose any 3D detail when I turned AA off and used OA instead. Whats ENB.dll? I am not familiar with that.....
 
This description is for other MS Flight Sims, but it works just fine in CFS3.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?threadid=14995

It replaces your d3d8.dll (or d3d9.dll depending on what the sim uses) in combination with an enbseries.ini file to set all the parameters. (The modified dll goes in your main game directory. Please don't mess with the one in your System files.)

For example:
[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=0
InitProxyFunctions=1
ProxyLibrary=
[GLOBAL]
UseEffect=0
AlternativeDepth=1
AllowAntialias=1
BugFixMode=3
SkipShaderOptimization=0
QuadVertexBuffer=0
[EFFECT]
EnableBloom=1
EnableOcclusion=0
EnableReflection=0
EnableMotionBlur=0
EnableWater=0
EnableShadow=0
DepthBias=0
[INPUT]
KeyUseEffect=08
KeyBloom=30
KeyOcclusion=09
KeyReflection=40
KeyCombination=16
KeyShadow=119
KeyWater=20
[REFLECTION]
ReflectionPower=12
ChromePower=10
UseCurrentFrameReflection=0
ReflectionQuality=2
ReflectionSourceSpecular=50
ReflectionSourceTFactor=50
UseAdditiveReflection=0
ReflectionDepthBias=0
UseLowResReflection=0
ReflectionSinglePass=1
[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=10
BloomFadeTime=1600
BloomConstantDay=1
BloomQuality=0
BloomScreenLevelDay=40
BloomCurveDay=2
BloomPowerNight=25
BloomConstantNight=5
BloomCurveNight=0
BloomScreenLevelNight=20
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=80
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=10
BloomAllowOversaturation=1
[SSAO]
UseFilter=1
OcclusionQuality=0
FilterQuality=0
DarkeningLevel=100
BrighteningLevel=5
IlluminationLevel=5
AdditiveIlluminationLevel=5
UseAmbientOcclusion=1
UseIndirectLightning=1
[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=14
ScreenLevelDay=40
ScreenLevelNight=20
DarkeningAmountNight=20
GammaCurveDay=0
GammaCurveNight=2
ColorSaturationDay=1
ColorSaturationNight=3
UsePaletteTexture=1
[PLUGIN]
WeatherMod=0
[WATER]
UseWaterDeep=0
WaterDeepness=20
WaterQuality=2
[SHADOW]
ShadowFadeStart=40
ShadowFadeEnd=80
ShadowAmountDay=60
ShadowAmountNight=30
ShadowScreenLevelDay=60
ShadowScreenLevelNight=20
ShadowQuality=2
UseShadowFilter=0
FilterQuality=2
[ENGINE]
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=0
MaxAnisotropy=16
ForceDisplayRefreshRate=0
DisplayRefreshRateHz=60
[MOTIONBLUR]
MotionBlurQuality=0
MotionBlurVelocity=100
MotionBlurRotation=100
 
I hadn't heard of the ENB software yet, but it looks like it does a really great job on 3D effects. I just downloaded it, my hope is that it might possibly make the AA work with the ambient occlusion on my GF 9800GTX......that would be pretty spiffy I think....either that or I have to spend the cash on a GTX 300 series GPU.......and I really like the whole free software idea much better....thanks for the heads up on this Major
 
I was just reading thru the .ini file that goes with the .dll, and I am pleasantly surprised to find ambient occlusion enabled in it.....so, fingers crossed, I might just find both AA and AO working together here.....WOOHOO!!!!
 
I tried to follow your instructions to get AO working through nHancer, but I don't see any effect in CFS3 at all. I've got a GTX 285 running with the latest 195.94 drivers, and have AA turned off. Do you have a link to the Guru3D help thread you mentioned?
 
The link I read on using AO for an unsupported game is here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=311035&highlight=ambient+occlusion
I used the COD4 preset in the ambient occlusion setting drop down menu when setting up the ETO profile in nHancer. You might be right, it could be the fact that you are runing XP, but I am not for sure on that. I have to say though, I installed the EMB.dll and its .ini file, turned off the forced profile in nHancer (went back to global settings of 16xQ AA/ supersampling transparency AA/ 16x AF/ vertical sync off/ and check the use AO box) and I think the results are far better than the forced profile I was using. It looks to me like AO is working to some degree.....the explosions, clouds, and smoke look much better. Thanks for the tip on that bit of freeware....:applause::ernae:
 
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