Supersampling Guide for DK2 - 1440P Resolution! (VIDEO)

Milamber · Dec 2, 2014

Hi guys

I've noticed that several members have been commenting on the lack of clarity of the HUD and the text in game, so I made a video which shows you how to improve this using the DK2, it uses a technique known as supersampling.

Supersampling is the process of forcing the game to render at a resolution HIGHER than what you monitor can display, and then that higher resolution image is downsampled to your monitors native resolution.

[video=youtube_share;cM7PPv7mmdA]http://youtu.be/cM7PPv7mmdA[/video]

Gelt Vaughn · Dec 2, 2014

Thanks for that, always useful for people to have a video guide. I have been doing this since Beta 3.x and has been working well. However, I upgraded to a GTX980 and with the Gamma releases this mode introduces a bit of lag, real same as I liked the quality of this super sampling mode.

[VR] Mad Mike · Dec 2, 2014

thanks.... so if i wanted to run at the medium persistence mode of 72hz, do i select that in the control panel as well, or can i pick 1440 option and then select 72hz in the game still?

(i find 72 to be ok still and runs a bit better on my current rig over 75hz, so thinking the same may be true on my 980.)

grodenglaive · Dec 2, 2014

cool, thanks. How does that compare to DSR, performance wise?

Armon · Dec 2, 2014

I'm trying to find how to do this on ATI cards. So far no luck. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

RobinsonUK · Dec 2, 2014

Armon said:
I'm trying to find how to do this on ATI cards. So far no luck. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I don't think you can do it. At least I've not been able to find anything on this.

tinimark · Dec 2, 2014

This seems a long way around to do this. If you go to Nvidia settings, you can enable DSR buy ticking the boxes in the DSR dropdown.
Then go to ED and select the resolution you want to Supersample from. But it does hit performance. My GTX980 can just about manage 2560x1440 but i have to have most of the settings on low and no AA.
It does make a good difference, especially to the readability of text.

Milamber · Dec 2, 2014

tinimark said:
This seems a long way around to do this. If you go to Nvidia settings, you can enable DSR buy ticking the boxes in the DSR dropdown.
Then go to ED and select the resolution you want to Supersample from. But it does hit performance. My GTX980 can just about manage 2560x1440 but i have to have most of the settings on low and no AA.
It does make a good difference, especially to the readability of text.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with this option the ability to specify the device (RIFT) isn't an option and you cant enable "GPU Scaling" to the RIFT. The last thing you want is for the RIFT to do the processing of supersampling.

tinimark · Dec 2, 2014

Milamber said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but with this option you mentioned the ability to specify the device (RIFT) isn't an option and you cant enable "GPU Scaling" to the RIFT. The last thing you want is for the RIFT to do the processing of supersampling.

Im not 100% confident but I don't think those extra resolutions show up in the game settings unless you either enable DSR or do it your way by adding custom resolutions. It probably is the same thing.

I don't think the rift can do that sort of processing, it's just a screen and I don't think it can accept resolutions higher than 1920 x 1080p.

I believe what is happening is the game is rendered internally by the gpu at the higer res and then scaled down to 1080p and sent to your rift.

Milamber · Dec 3, 2014

tinimark said:
Im not 100% confident but I don't think those extra resolutions show up in the game settings unless you either enable DSR or do it your way by adding custom resolutions. It probably is the same thing.

I don't think the rift can do that sort of processing, it's just a screen and I don't think it can accept resolutions higher than 1920 x 1080p.

I believe what is happening is the game is rendered internally by the gpu at the higer res and then scaled down to 1080p and sent to your rift.

Thats correct, the sub pixels are still unaffected by the super-sampling due to the limitation of the rift output being 1080P, but the anti-aliasing from the higher resolution (1440P) sharpens the edges of text, the HUD and planets.

tinimark · Dec 3, 2014

Last night I spent some time fine tuning the settings by basically setting to 1440p everything on low and gradually increasing quality settings until I noticed significant judder in a station. Got it all looking pretty nice in my eagle but then jumped back in my sidewinder and found the judder came back. I've not checked frame rates but I'm guessing some ships need a little more horse power than others to get a smooth experience.

i also noticed how much easier the text on the side screens in the eagle are to read and I think that's becuase they appear to be closer. Found myself having to lean in to read them with my sidewinder.

One thing that did get a bit annoying was using the commodities market, looking up and to the left to read the item names seems to trigger the comms panel (or something). Would be good if there was a way to disable to auto popup of these screens. That would also help when you want to do some stargazing in your ship.....sometimes I just want to look through the side windows without accessing those panels.

Quietman · Dec 3, 2014

Armon said:
I'm trying to find how to do this on ATI cards. So far no luck. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

RobinsonUK said:
I don't think you can do it. At least I've not been able to find anything on this.

You used to be able to do this on AMD cards a few years back using a tool called AMDdownsamplingGUI, but it hasn't worked with AMD drivers for at least the last 12months.

I haven't kept up to date, but a quick Google found nothing new; so I assume the status quo is as it was.

Logical Viking · Dec 9, 2014

New AMD Omega drivers and supersampling

I was excited to read that the new drivers would allow supersampling on the AMD cards. I have a 290x so it fully supports all features of the omega drivers. It will supersample my cheapo monitor but not the rift. I have selected all the relevant boxes in CCC to do it just like the monitor but I can't get the higher resolutions to become an option on the rift in either windows or elite. The highest res available is still 1920x1080. Strangely, I can select higher res in iRacing though. Anyone get it to work?

Mazhurg · Dec 9, 2014

Are you using the Rift display in direct or extended mode? (Direct mode bypass the drivers).

Logical Viking · Dec 9, 2014

Extended.

Dooguk · Dec 9, 2014

Tried this too. Rift stuck on it's default 1080p resolution. Not really sure who this benefits.

tinimark · Dec 10, 2014

Is it's anything like Nvidia's DSR then you have to first enable it in the driver settings and then that opens up a load of new resolutions which you have to choose one in Elite's graphics menu *change resolution"

Logical Viking · Dec 10, 2014

No, it's not like that. You check some boxes and then it's supposed to allow the game to offer the larger res in game menu. Elite and Windows resolution setting doesn't do it. Strangely, iracing does do it but not sure that it's made a difference because I haven't done enough testing yet. Didn't look much different at first try.

As said, monitor works fine in games and Windows.

tinimark · Dec 10, 2014

My personal experience using DSR is that the difference did not immediately jump out at me. It was the text in the menus that was easier to read and the fact the frame rate decreased... a lot!

2STEAKS · Dec 16, 2014

Sli, Crosfire required for supersampling ?

Thinking of upgrading my 2 ice-q 7970's for a couple of 970's
just wondering if this will be a worhwhile purchase of is it worth waiting till the next gen ?
supersampling not working for me at the moment

any advice appreciated..