Using VISSCALE to improve the view

[Shenanigunner]

Just a quick note/reminder that the default view can be improved by setting the 'visual scale' factor higher. It would be a non-issue if the persistent default wasn't 1, which means nearly every step your alt takes makes new map element fade into view in several stages. (I find that VERY distracting.)

 

Use /visscale n, where n is 1 to 20. A setting of about 5 gives good results, 10 is better if you have some video horsepower, and 20... well, 20 pretty much hammers even powerful video cards down to a ratchety framerate. Experiment to find the optimum on your system.

 

And then put the command on a convenient keybind, such as /bind SHIFT+F10 "visscale [your number here]" — something that will be needed, since the game resets to the default of 1 in every session, regardless of whether you save options, window settings, or anything. Arrgh.

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Shenanigunner

[Glacier Peak]

Nice tip!

 

I did /macro_image "Tem_Frostbite" "visscale 3".

 

I never realized it reset each time, I appreciate this. 

[Shenanigunner]

Yeah, I dunno why it's not persistent, or at least saves with Options. Grmbl.

[Sovera]

Holy necromancer.

 

I had read about visscale reseting but never paid attention to it. Now that I decided I want it always on I googled if it did reset and this thread confirms it.

 

I quickly made a bind for it: /bind w "+forward$$visscale 5"

 

I'll leave it here in case others google it like I did and find this thread.

[AboveTheChemist]

You can set it in your launch parameters too (see screenshot below, lower right) although I have a pair of commands in my personal popmenu to raise/lower it on the fly.

 

[Shenanigunner]

Visscale is frustrating because it and some of the other visual controls have gone in and out of being persistent. I simply give each alt a bind that sets all of these; one whack at the beginning of a session makes sure I have the visuals I want:

 

F10 "visscale 15$$dofweight 0.5$$fsaa 4$$lodbias 2$$texaniso 16$$usedof 1"

 

Command line arguments are okay, but a hassle to set and update, at least comparatively.

[Perfidy]

No idea what you're referring to. I looked in the Graphics tab - there's no setting for Visscale. 
 

[gameboy1234]

It's World Detail and it only goes up to 2 (200%) in the UI Options dialog.

 

[Sovera]

21 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

Visscale is frustrating because it and some of the other visual controls have gone in and out of being persistent. I simply give each alt a bind that sets all of these; one whack at the beginning of a session makes sure I have the visuals I want:

 

F10 "visscale 15$$dofweight 0.5$$fsaa 4$$lodbias 2$$texaniso 16$$usedof 1"

 

Command line arguments are okay, but a hassle to set and update, at least comparatively.

 

I've incorporated that into the keybind I made, though I'll be honest that I did not notice a difference other than the visscale, but since my FPS were not complaining I left it in.

[Shenanigunner]

14 hours ago, Sovera said:

I've incorporated that into the keybind I made, though I'll be honest that I did not notice a difference other than the visscale, but since my FPS were not complaining I left it in.

 

The defaults are mostly acceptable. Visscale is the big one that gets set to a low value and needs kicking back up.

 

LODbias controls the complexity of characters at distance and is often set too low, so you get that annoying "remapping" as they move closer. (For a hoot, set /dofweight=0 /lodbias=0. You get broken stick figures.)

 

DOFweight sets the distance blurring effect and is very much a user preference. A little distance blurring goes a long ways towards a more "realistic" feel, IMO.

 

FSAA 4 seems to be the best compromise between lower and FPS-killing higher. (Newer engines seem to be able to tolerate 8 or even 16, but CoX's core doesn't like higher settings.)

 

And texaniso controls the texture/detail mapping and can be maxed without an FPS hit.

 

Set everything low - say

/bind ALT+F10 "visscale 2$$dofweight 0.1$$fsaa 0$$lodbias .1$$texaniso 2$$usedof 1"

 

and look around a while before correcting with the original bind. You'll see.

 

Edited February 23 by Shenanigunner

[Shenanigunner]

8 hours ago, Perfidy said:

No idea what you're referring to. I looked in the Graphics tab - there's no setting for Visscale.

 

As noted, it's mapped to control with a completely different name, and limited in adjustment there.

 

Lots of controls are either available only as slash commands, or can only be adjusted across a limited range with sliders. You can do a lot with the visual/fx/video system commands. Sometimes, bad things. 🙂

[LKN-351]

I tried this bind and I was surprisingly dissatisfied. I took a pretty big FPS hit and moving through a zone is horrible now and I'm still having the shader issue which is why I tried the bind in the first place.

 

I changed it around a bit based off your last post describing the functions and it didnt help any.

 

"visscale 15$$dofweight 0.2$$fsaa 4$$lodbias 1$$texaniso 8$$usedof 1"

 

since my stab at it didnt do any good, what else can I change? I usually run at about 60fps and I was getting down into the 20s even after I changed it.

[Mr_Enigma]

1 hour ago, LKN-351 said:

I tried this bind and I was surprisingly dissatisfied. I took a pretty big FPS hit and moving through a zone is horrible now and I'm still having the shader issue which is why I tried the bind in the first place.

 

I changed it around a bit based off your last post describing the functions and it didnt help any.

 

"visscale 15$$dofweight 0.2$$fsaa 4$$lodbias 1$$texaniso 8$$usedof 1"

 

since my stab at it didnt do any good, what else can I change? I usually run at about 60fps and I was getting down into the 20s even after I changed it.

Visscale 15 is pretty freaking high, and high visscale is the factor most likely to crush your framerate, I believe.

 

My rig is not bleeding edge or anything, but it's pretty beefy (liquid-cooled i7 13700, 32 gb DDR5 ram, a liquid-cooled 12 GB vram RTX 3080, and a 1440 resolution monitor) and I don't go much beyond visscale 5 or 6, depending on the zone. More than that and I start seeing too much choppiness for my taste when rotating my camera quickly (I am an insufferable framerate snob, though, lol).  Considering that the World Detail slider in the GFX options only sets visscale to a max of 2, setting it even to 4 makes a big difference.  Try knocking it down a bit from 15 and see if it gives you a better balance between render distance and performance.

[BlackSpectre]

2 hours ago, LKN-351 said:

I tried this bind and I was surprisingly dissatisfied.

Try this bind:

visscale 2$$dofweight 1$$fsaa 4$$lodbias 2$$texaniso 4$$usedof 1"

This will set your graphics at the higher end of normal, while still maintaining FPS (frames per second). 
 

If you want even better quality, move visscale and lodbias up by 1, then see how it goes. If still good move it up again. Test and you’ll find out your computer’s limits, and then settle on what you  like.  Personally, NPCs turning into cone heads with disappearing clothes bothers me more than building geometry changing as I get closer to it (visscale), so my lodbias is set a little higher. 

You can head over to the wiki for more info and also more options.  
 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Vis_scale_(Slash_Command)

 

 

Edited February 24 by BlackSpectre
Typo

[Shenanigunner]

As noted, visscale can hammer your FPS.

 

Just as a general reply, each player should experiment with each of these adjustments separately, to find the optimum balance between visuals and framerate. City's engine is outdated and settings that might work fine with newer games even on modest video hardware will choke the life out of Paragon City. FSAA in particular is bad; anything over 4 has a disproportionate FPS affect for me and always has, across multiple "good but not uber" video cards.

 

Let's break it down:

• visscale sets the visual distance scale and greatly improves the look and view; it's worth some FPS to carry it high, for me. If max FPS is your thing, leave it at 2.
• FSAA smooths diagonal lines and jaggies: try 4 or higher, settle for 2.
• texaniso controls texture definition and blurring: 16 doesn't have any FPS affect on my system but you can back it down in even numbers.
• DOFweight controls distance blurring (when UseDOF is set to 1). Start with 1 and adjust up and down across a detailed city vista to find the balance between nice "realism" (e.g. things 500 feet away should not be in sharp focus...) and FPS. I carry it at 0.5 most of the time.
• LODbias controls toon detail. Zero is hilarious, 1 is normal, up to 4 (I think) increases detail on characters at distance. Select between visual preference and FPS.

And then write those values into the bind string so you can reset your video no matter how or when the game resets/changes it.

[LKN-351]

Gunner really didn't go much into detail on the visscale part so I left it alone. I have a feeling I could probably run everything else from the first bind he listed but lower the visscale. I'll play with it now that I know a bit more and see what I come up with. Thanks guys.

[Sovera]

10 hours ago, LKN-351 said:

Gunner really didn't go much into detail on the visscale part so I left it alone. I have a feeling I could probably run everything else from the first bind he listed but lower the visscale. I'll play with it now that I know a bit more and see what I come up with. Thanks guys.

 

Reiterating, 15 is crushing. 5 is the norm for those who use the command to see more. Few to none use it higher than 5 for regular use.