Turning off HDR/PP

[Jambo107]

Though I love HDR/PP its a massive strain on my otherwise decent 7600GT. What I wanted todo is turn if off completely since im running a wide res (1440x900) turning to low only partially turned it off, making using ironsights difficult (20% drop in performance)

So this is what I did to turn off HDR completely, whever or not it disables all features I couldn't tell you, but this did increase my performance noticably, 10-20fps gain in places;

I went to My Doc's/ARMA - Inside theres various files, two where looking for is the name of the profile (Jambo in this case) and ARMA Config file.

First open your profile in notepad, cycle down to PostFX and make sure its set to the following - postFX=0; Save & Close.

Next open the ARMA config file again in notepad and make sure HDR is set to; HDRPrecision=0; Save & Close.

Should now have now no PP/HDR. Hope that helps

[blackdog~]

Thank you for posting this, HDR is one of the thing that definately is detracting from gameplay especially with the way that BIS has implemented it, where if you look at the sky for like two seconds you for some reason are temporarily blinded barely able to make out things 2 feet in front of you... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

[JackHorner]

Thanks for the tip.

I just tested this out and im sad to say that it didn't really improve my fps at all. Well I take that back it did boost it by 10 but frames still drop to 20 for a few seconds while zooming in, or spinning the view around. Im pretty sure this is a problem with the game constantly loading LOD models and textures (its not optimized very well). Also I wanna point out that HDRI is not entirely disabled, it still changes the brightness of the scene, though not as much as before but its still on.

http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

[Hudson]

Thank you for posting this, HDR is one of the thing that definately is detracting from gameplay especially with the way that BIS has implemented it, where if you look at the sky for like two seconds you for some reason are temporarily blinded barely able to make out things 2 feet in front of you... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

I still see spots when I close my eyes, I swear you blinded me with those flares last night. When I edit the PostFX setting it only works for 1 game session. After I close ArmA the game resets postFX to 8. What I would really like to see is a preferences launcher like in OFP. Its alot easier to use slider bars and drop down boxes for someone thats not that familiar with OFP/ArmA config settings. Some of the default config values are a bit high. After editing some things like 3d performance and scene complexity I effectivly doubled my frame rate. And yes, we need a way to turn the HDR lighting effects off.

[JackHorner]

Thank you for posting this, HDR is one of the thing that definately is detracting from gameplay especially with the way that BIS has implemented it, where if you look at the sky for like two seconds you for some reason are temporarily blinded barely able to make out things 2 feet in front of you... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

I still see spots when I close my eyes, I swear you blinded me with those flares last night. When I edit the PostFX setting it only works for 1 game session. After I close ArmA the game resets postFX to 8. What I would really like to see is a preferences launcher like in OFP. Its alot easier to use slider bars and drop down boxes for someone thats not that familiar with OFP/ArmA config settings. Some of the default config values are a bit high. After editing some things like 3d performance and scene complexity I effectivly doubled my frame rate. And yes, we need a way to turn the HDR lighting effects off.
Could you tell me the basics of "3d performance and scene complexity" in the arma config file? I have messed around with them a little but have no idea what they really do. Thanks.

[blackdog~]

Thank you for posting this, HDR is one of the thing that definately is detracting from gameplay especially with the way that BIS has implemented it, where if you look at the sky for like two seconds you for some reason are temporarily blinded barely able to make out things 2 feet in front of you... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/confused_o.gif

I still see spots when I close my eyes, I swear you blinded me with those flares last night. When I edit the PostFX setting it only works for 1 game session. After I close ArmA the game resets postFX to 8. What I would really like to see is a preferences launcher like in OFP. Its alot easier to use slider bars and drop down boxes for someone thats not that familiar with OFP/ArmA config settings. Some of the default config values are a bit high. After editing some things like 3d performance and scene complexity I effectivly doubled my frame rate. And yes, we need a way to turn the HDR lighting effects off.
Hahahaha, sorry http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/tounge2.gif

I looked in my config files and it doesn't look like these variables changed after launching, I'll try firing up ArmA again to see if I can reproduce this.

Kegetys has already released an ArmA launcher, perhaps he should be contacted about implementing these kind of things as preferences?

This brings up another "WTF?" for BIS: what the hell happened to the external "preferences" program? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/banghead.gif

[DM]

You know, you can always set the preference file to "Read Only" after you've set the HDR and PP values. That'll stop ArmA re-setting them to default after closedown http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif

Note: This could be seen as cheating online, so be careful...

[JackHorner]

Ok lol it doesn't have to be blackdog, please anyone tell me the basics of configuring "3d performance and scene complexity" in the arma cfg. I'm in a tweaking mood.

[Hudson]

I cut my scene complexity and 3d performance settings in half, almost doubled my frame rate but I was having bad crashes in multiplayer tonight when around buildings. Dont know if it has to do with the config edit but I put the default values back in.

[JackHorner]

Never mind I figured it out and doubled my fps http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

[Howser]

Never mind I figured it out and doubled my fps http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
By altering which settings in which files?

[JackHorner]

Never mind I figured it out and doubled my fps http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
By altering which settings in which files?
The key to this tweak is cutting down the radius of scenery complexity.

Heres how you do it.

Goto your my documents folder and find this folder if you have made your own profile in arma.

"ArmA Other Profiles"

or this one if you are still using the default profile.

"ArmA"

Next step is to open "Jack.ArmAProfile" in notepad. Yours will be named a little different.

Go to where it says "sceneComplexity" and change the settings like so.

sceneComplexity=75000.000000;

75000 is the number I have so far found to be the best, as it gives a nice balance of FPS and view distance on my system. What this setting controls is how far objects will render from you, so the less the number the closer you will have to be to an object for it to render. A setting of 1000 makes objects like trees, buildings and everything else dissapear like 30 feet from you, so test out different numbers to find the best for you.

The last step is saving the file and going into its properties and selecting "read only" so that the game will not change it back to defaults.

Thats it! Enjoy your nice FPS.

[Suma]

First open your profile in notepad, cycle down to PostFX and make sure its set to the following - postFX=0; Save & Close.

Next open the ARMA config file again in notepad and make sure HDR is set to; HDRPrecision=0; Save & Close.
Setting postFX=0 does exactly the same as setting Postprocess to Low in Video options.

HDRPrecision=0 is exactly the same as HDRPrecision=8 (there is no lower precision than 8b possible). You could try setting HDRPrecision=16 to get somewhat better color precision, with some more performance hit and FSAA not possible on almost any card. We did not enable this in the UI, as we did not see the quality difference significant enough.

[Suma]

This brings up another "WTF?" for BIS: what the hell happened to the external "preferences" program? http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/banghead.gif
Someone fired satchel under it and it went "poooff". http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

There should be no need for it now. All options can now be set directly in the game options.

[JackHorner]

Well is there any way to turn post effects and HDRI off completely? Every other game Ive played gave users the option to turn these GPU hogging features off.

Also since you coded arma can you give us any performance tweaks that you know of? It would be greatly appreciated.

[Maddmatt]

Well is there any way to turn post effects and HDRI off completely? Every other game Ive played gave users the option to turn these GPU hogging features off.

Also since you coded arma can you give us any performance tweaks that you know of? It would be greatly appreciated.
Disabling HDR would be cheating online, since other players would be blinded by the sun and you wouldn't be. You wouldn't have to worry about you eyes adjusting to the dark either.

Also on a 7600, HDR isn't that much of a performance drain. The 7000 series cards handly HDR pretty well.

[UNN]

Quote[/b] ]Also on a 7600, HDR isn't that much of a performance drain. The 7000 series cards handly HDR pretty well.

When the sun is low and sitting over a tree line I can get an annoying stobe effect, if I move the view. Plus it's a little odd, seeing the full strength of the suns glare, being supressed by a couple of leaves  on tree.

I can't see much in the way of eye sight adjusting to light and dark areas. It just seems to increase the overall brightness, relative to the suns position. Perhaps thats all it's supposed to do? It's just a bit misleading when it's compared to the real world.

I'm using a 7600 BTW.

[jhorror]

well i was goin to try this tweak but i dont have scene complexity in my arma profile,any ideas?do i add the line?

[jantenner]

another vote for an option to turn hdr off.
and grass on/off

so on MP all ppl can play with grass and hdr off = more fps, better game. those that prefer hdr and grass can still leave it on

[jantenner]

Disabling HDR would be cheating online
it would be no cheating.
otherwise it would be cheating too if i buy some super computer with gf8800 768 mb ram so i can play with 100fps at 1600x1200, giving much greater advantage in firefights than getting rid of the weakly implemented hdr effects

[Maddmatt]

Disabling HDR would be cheating online
it would be no cheating.
otherwise it would be cheating too if i buy some super computer with gf8800 768 mb ram so i can play with 100fps at 1600x1200, giving much greater advantage in firefights than getting rid of the weakly implemented hdr effects
Did you not read the rest of my post? Having "100fps at 1600x1200" is not much of an advantage, lower spec pcs can turn down graphics options anyway. Read the rest of my post that you quoted, no point repeating myself.

[jantenner]

getting blinded by sun is heavily overdone in game, as if i would be blinded if i look just in general direction of the sun. thats not the case. you get blinded by sun if you look directly look into it. its just poorly implemented in the game, so we better turn it all off, when theres an option. the other slight brightness changes when turning around are no advantage, disadvantage, they just annoy a bit.

and 100 fps at 1600x1200 is an advantage over 20fps at 1024x768 in multiplayer. so hdr should be an option to turn off for especially for lower end pcs, like you say.

[Hudson]

It wasnt long ago that there were people saying using 3rd person is a cheat. If its supported by the game how can it be a "cheat"?


I like that MP switch idea. This couldnt be to hard to code should it? Would be nice if HDR could be set by the server the way viewdistance and terrain grid size are.

[Suma]

Well is there any way to turn post effects and HDRI off completely? Every other game Ive played gave users the option to turn these GPU hogging features off.

Also since you coded arma can you give us any performance tweaks that you know of? It would be greatly appreciated.
If I would know any magic performance improvement, it would be included straight in the game.

As for turning off HDR completely, this is not possible in ArmA, because the lighting levels really use the high dynamic range (the reason is the same why you cannot have one universal setting for the camera aperture in real life).

[Dudester]

another vote for an option to turn hdr off.
and grass on/off

so on MP all ppl can play with grass and hdr off = more fps, better game. those that prefer hdr and grass can still leave it on
You Sir are having a Laugh, come back when you can keep a straight face.

So you get to turn the grass off to see all the players that are using it for cover. Times have moved on from the ofp cheaters.

Also since Suma wrote here does this mean we cannot look forwards to anymore performance tweaks.

[WhoCares]

....
So you get to turn the grass off to see all the players that are using it for cover. Times have moved on from the ofp cheaters.

Also since Suma wrote here does this mean we cannot look forwards to anymore performance tweaks.
It is more like you can also see them while prone as opposed to have an obstructed view while the enemy perfectly sees you when he's crouched/standing/not laying in grass.

What Suma says is that there is no mojo magic hidden switch that boosts performance. It does not mean that they will not keep optimizing the code if they see an opportunity to do so. Who knows, this might also turn into additional config switches...

[Dudester]

Bis put grass in the game to improve the look of the game, now people moan and want it to go back to the old looking crap that OFP is now. What next? maybe remove most of the buildings then it could really look like ofp again.

[Placebo]

Bis put grass in the game to improve the look of the game, now people moan and want it to go back to the old looking crap that OFP is now. What next? maybe remove most of the buildings then it could really look like ofp again.
Well to my mind the complaint is more about the fact that currently the grass serves no use at all because it doesn't hide you from a distance, so what use is it beyond harming performance?

Which I think is a pretty valid complaint.

[Dudester]

Bis put grass in the game to improve the look of the game, now people moan and want it to go back to the old looking crap that OFP is now. What next? maybe remove most of the buildings then it could really look like ofp again.
Well to my mind the complaint is more about the fact that currently the grass serves no use at all because it doesn't hide you from a distance, so what use is it beyond harming performance?

Which I think is a pretty valid complaint.
Ok see where your comming from now, so how come somthing like this could be over looked by BIS. I thought i was actually concealed when i was in the grass, but i havn't been working on the game aslong as BIS have to notice this. Also now you see it as a problem does that mean we are of to have the option to switch grass off, wich btw i think is pretty crap. But ok if there is nothing else that is going to increase FPS. Why not get rid of the Grass and bring in some cornfields, Corn is alot higher and you wouldn't have to spread it all over the map.

[JackHorner]

Well is there any way to turn post effects and HDRI off completely? Every other game Ive played gave users the option to turn these GPU hogging features off.

Also since you coded arma can you give us any performance tweaks that you know of? It would be greatly appreciated.
If I would know any magic performance improvement, it would be included straight in the game.

As for turning off HDR completely, this is not possible in ArmA, because the lighting levels really use the high dynamic range (the reason is the same why you cannot have one universal setting for the camera aperture in real life).
Thanks for getting back to me and explaining this, I understand now. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/biggrin_o.gif

[Placebo]

Ok see where your comming from now, so how come somthing like this could be over looked by BIS.
It wasn't overlooked, it was/is simply something that's work in progress, to find a way that the grass provides concealment without compromising gameplay, without compromising performance etc. etc.

[Millenium7]

1 way of emulating grass at distances could be to spawn invisible grass in a very short radius around players but acts like the windows in the game in that it blocks out players but not the terrain. Obviously you don't want to block out the player completely so only those areas covered by the grass are blocked out. You then need a zoom:distance ratio that removes grass from around the local player and spawns it in the distance where you are looking so zooming in on a player doesn't look really dodgy

Thats just 1 suggestion, theres obviously a lot more experimentation to be done

[Heatseeker]

Shorter grass that doesnt obstruct the view of a prone unit would be the better solution i guess, i like what was shown of it and how it makes the ground look better, removing it would make no sense though i havent tried Arma yet.

If BIS would cut down every grphical enhancement to improve performance they might aswell remove everything and put OPF models and textures back in, low resolution textures and low poly models would really make it run better in less powerfull systems http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/icon_rolleyes.gif .

If the HDR/PP isnt working very well improving it would be better than removing it, the ability to disable it sounds like a cheat to me.

[Dudester]

I belive if you are going to keep the grass the only fair way would be below.

1: You see the player as clear as he sees you in the grass. Or the grass conceals you and he sees as much of you as you do of him.

I paid money for this.

[Big Dawg KS]

I belive if you are going to keep the grass the only fair way would be below.

1: You see the player as clear as he sees you in the grass. Or the grass conceals you and he sees as much of you as you do of him.

I paid money for this.
It's not that easy man, it's hard to find a good solution that won't kill performance. Just because you paid money for it doesn't mean they have to be able to solve a problem that many games suffer from. And that's not exactly a good attitude, BIS doesn't have to meet your standards just because you paid money for it.

[Deady]

Give me an option to turn off the grass - it killed my performance in oblivion, and its killing my performance here.

[tex]

hi !

i am an owner of a geforce 7900gtx video card. it makes me wonder that arma seems to be the ONLY game that provides both hdr and anti aliasing simultaneously for my videocard . in other new games ( splinter cell double agent, rainbow six vegas and gothic 3 for example it is not possible to turn on both at the same time, hdr and aa.

that brings me to the question : is it really hdr that arma is using or is it some other sort of "hdr emulation" ?

[stisoas]

Give me an option to turn off the grass - it killed my performance in oblivion, and its killing my performance here.
haha nuub http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/rofl.gif

oblivion grass tweak V2 + low poly grass = smooth game on 6800GT

[Placebo]

haha nuub http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/rofl.gif
Such comments are not necessary and are tantamount to flamebaiting.

[MAsta_KFC]

Well to my mind the complaint is more about the fact that currently the grass serves no use at all because it doesn't hide you from a distance, so what use is it beyond harming performance?

Which I think is a pretty valid complaint.



Well, I don't know much about programming so I'm not sure if this is implementable, but I'm hoping BIS will add the following set of options in the upcoming patch(es).

1) All grass on-Just like it is now, both short and long.
2) Long grass only-You get a fps hit in long grass, but at least it provides concealment, esp in MP. Short grass rendering is disabled.
3) All grass off-Exactly what it says. For those who prefer performance over graphics or just want smoother gameplay. Might be useful for those with slower machines.

These options could be server enforced in MP.

[Darkreaper]

2) Long grass only-You get a fps hit in long grass, but at least it provides concealment, esp in MP. Short grass rendering is disabled.


Like said before (u didnt read the thread, did you?), grass is only rendered around ownplayer position



A possible solution could be to make models semi transparent (or change color) when they go prone on grass textures... (dunno if the engine checks what texture ur on)