How to configure an Nvidia video card? How to configure Nvidia video card drivers? Settings in games: with feeling, with sense, with arrangement

But really, how to set up games correctly? What graphics settings should we disable because they are useless? I came to this post at a time when my work laptop wouldn’t launch another game, forcing me to delve into the depths of strange options and switches. Even if your computer is powerful enough, why not increase the frame rate by sacrificing really useless settings!!! What I write about is a subjective opinion, which is based on my organoleptic indicators and only you can choose your path!!! Let's get started.

Dynamic reflections and a story about brakes in Overwatch

This story is based on personal experience. We will ignore the fact that a busy “business guy” still decided to install this time killer from Blizzard, but the fact remains a fact. Of course, my weak computer would hardly be able to run the game on high settings; even on medium it produced a measly 26 FPS. It took me a long time in the graphics menu before a light click turned off "Dynamic Reflections". You will be surprised, but my FPS immediately jumped by ~30%, and I was able to play with b O greater comfort than before.

Dynamic reflections allow you to see shadow and light reflections on surfaces that you would mostly not notice. Especially if it's a fast-paced game!

SSAA – Supersampling

This setting allows you to render frames with high resolution on your monitor with a lower one. We won’t go into technology, but as my personal experience- enabling SSAA does not have much effect on general impressions about the game. Yes, of course, the picture seems a little more natural than just with AA, but this option eats up huge amount resources. By the way, a huge number of console games save system resources precisely on this indicator. Ask console players:) Are they very upset?

Disabling Motion Blur is better than any blessing

To be honest, even at gunpoint I don’t understand those people who like Motion Blur. It irritates, blurs the picture, makes it less realistic! And at the same time, the bastard is eating resources!!!

This setting I turn it off even in racing, because it has little effect on the realism of what is happening.

Shadows wander near the house - various fairy-tale animals

In my entire life, I have only found one person who came up to me and actually (!) noticed that on my work PC the shadows looked a little pixelated. It so happened that I developed this habit since childhood. Then I first encountered the game on a low-power computer, and my research revealed that disabling shadows consistently added up to 10 FPS. All sorts of “deep shadows”, “very deep” and so on - have little effect on general feeling from graphics, but loads the system the most. The human brain is designed in such a way that it does not particularly notice such unimportant things - primarily focusing on the extravaganza of special effects and the character in the center of the screen.

Depth of field

This parameter is the distance between the near and far boundaries of space, within which all objects will be in focus, and the rest will appear blurry. This allows the gamer to feel a little more presence, for example, when looking out of the grass. But in fact, this effect only affects the frame rate, and according to a survey among my friends, it rarely draws even a little attention to itself.

Believe me, you can easily turn off everything above and you are unlikely to lose much. And I, as a person who myself suffers from troubles with a weak working PC, will gladly accept other advice in the comments!!

One of the most important parameters, affecting the playability of Online games, is FPS.

FPS stands for Frame per Second (number of displayed frames per second).

Why is this necessary? Correct setting graphics in World of Tanks, like in any other Online game significantly increases your chances of winning. FPS drops interfere with movement, make it difficult to aim, and usually end in “shots at nothing,” long reload times, and victory for the enemy.

FPS depends on your computer configuration. Good FPS starts from 35 frames per second and above. The optimal result is 50 frames per second and above.

To achieve good FPS, you must either have a high-performance gaming computer with a top-end graphics card, a large number RAM and a powerful processor, or try to customize the game as much as possible to suit your configuration. Weaknesses in the system can be compensated for by proper graphics settings in World of Tanks, which we will talk about now.

For convenience, we have divided the settings according to the degree of influence on graphics and FPS, using a color scheme

These settings can be adjusted “as your heart desires”. Does not affect FPS.

We recommend correcting it first. This is true for mid-level systems, when you want to see beautiful graphics and stable FPS, but resources do not allow you to set everything to the maximum. These settings do not greatly affect the gameplay.

Graphics settings that do not affect FPS

You can customize these settings as you wish without worrying about performance loss

Graphics settings affecting FPS

3D render resolution. Changes the resolution of 3D objects in the scene. Affects the depth of the 3D scene. Reducing the parameter improves the performance of weak computers.

You can adjust the 3D rendering while playing. If during a battle your FPS drops, use “right Shift -” to decrease the depth of the scene and “right Shift +” to increase it. Reducing the depth will increase FPS on the fly.

Screen resolution. The higher the resolution, the higher the load on the video card. It is recommended to select a value that matches your monitor, otherwise the image will become blurred. On very old video cards you have to lower the resolution to get “playable” fps. We recommend lowering the resolution below the screen resolution as a last resort if other methods no longer help.

Vertical Sync And triple buffering. Vertical sync is the synchronization of the frame rate in the game with the vertical scan frequency of the monitor. Triple buffering avoids the appearance of artifacts in the picture. If your system produces less than 60 FPS, the developers recommend disabling both parameters (note: on modern monitors it does not particularly affect the picture).

Smoothing Removes jagged edges of 3D objects (ladder effect), making the picture more natural. It is not recommended to enable it when FPS is below 50.

Let's move on to the advanced graphics settings: "Graphics" menu, "Advanced" graphics settings tab.

"Graphics" Maximum influences the number of FPS produced by your video card.
Switching the graphics mode to "Standard" switches the engine to an old render with outdated effects and lighting. With standard rendering, most advanced graphics settings become unavailable. It is recommended to turn on weak computers.

Texture quality. The higher the quality of the textures, the more detailed and clearer the picture in the game looks. The higher this parameter, the more dedicated video memory is needed. If your video card has a limited amount of video memory, texture quality must be set to the minimum. (Maximum texture quality is only available when “improved renderer” is enabled and on a 64-bit operating system.)

Lighting quality. Unlocks a whole range of dynamic effects in the game: sun rays, optical effects, shadows from physical sources (trees, buildings and tanks). This parameter greatly affects the performance of the video card. If you have a weak video card, set the lighting quality to medium values or lower.

Shadow quality. Affects the rendering of shadows from objects. Reducing the quality of shadows does not have much effect on gameplay. If you have an old video card, the first step is to set the shadow quality to minimum.

Grass in sniper mode. Affects not only performance, but also gameplay. If your FPS in sniper mode drops below 40, you need to disable it.

Extra quality effects. Affects “special effects” in the game: smoke, dust, explosions, flames. By decreasing this parameter, you can reduce the number of particles in the frame and limit the distance at which they will be displayed. It is recommended to leave it at least “low”, otherwise explosions and other elements necessary for orientation in battle will not be visible.

Add. effects in sniper mode. They regulate the same thing, but in sniper mode. If during sniper mode your FPS drops, which undoubtedly affects your accuracy, it is recommended to reduce the parameter (not below the “low” level).

Amount of vegetation. Adjusts the density and distance of vegetation drawing in the game. When FPS is low, it is recommended to set it to minimum. This can free up precious megabytes of video memory.

Post-processing. Affects effects in the afterlife - shading and the effect of hot air from damaged cars and burning objects. If you are hiding behind a destroyed tank and your FPS starts to drop, it is recommended to disable this option.

Effects from under the tracks. They saturate the picture with the effects of scattered soil, splashes of water and snow. The setting does not affect performance much. By turning it off, you can free up video memory a little.

Landscape quality. The parameter determines at what distance the quality of the landscape begins to become simpler. This parameter heavily loads the processor. Attention! At the minimum setting, there is a strong distortion of the landscape, so you may not see some ledge behind which the enemy is hiding, and after the shot the projectile will hit the edge of the obstacle, and not where you were aiming. It is recommended to set the setting value to at least “medium”.

Water quality. This parameter adds wave effects, water vibrations when moving, and reflections from objects. If you have a weak video card, it is recommended to reduce the parameter.

Decals quality. Affects the drawing distance and detail of decals - detail textures that increase image quality (fallen leaves, traces of dirt, paving slabs and other sharp objects scattered across the map). When set to “off,” even shell craters disappear. The more decals, the more video memory is required to load them. If you are not bothered by the simplification of the landscape, it is recommended to set it to “minimum” at low FPS.

Object detailing. In the game, all objects have several models of different quality. Currently, buildings have 3 types of objects, tanks from five. The quality of object rendering greatly affects performance, and at large distances small objects will still not be visible. When an object is removed, its model changes to a rougher one. The parameter affects the distance at which drawing will be carried out over quality model. The lower the parameter is set, the shorter the drawing distance for high-quality models will be.

Transparency of foliage. Disables drawing of foliage at close distances. It is recommended to enable it on weak systems.

Tree detailing. The setting operates on the same principle as "Object detailing", but only for trees. If you experience drops in FPS when trees appear, it is best to set this parameter to a minimum (along with it, it is recommended to enable “Foliage Transparency”).

Preface

Progress is inexorable - every year the quality of graphics in games is closer to what we see in reality and in films.

Will we ever reach a point where games are completely indistinguishable from movies? Absolutely yes.

But what to do with old games? Remained on the sidelines of history, they can still, as they say, touch the soul. Graphics are not important if the game is interesting, but a feeling of regret creeps into the heart. Luckily, there are ways to make older games look better.

No, this is not a photograph. Craftsmen modified the game GTA IV (released in 2008, by the way!). The ENBSeries addition played a significant role.

Developers rarely update their old games. If this does happen, then the changes are minimal: they add the buzzword “HD” or “ Enhanced Edition"(Extended Edition), they put clearer textures and... that's it. For example, this is what it looks like Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition compared to the regular version:

Improved textures (left), of course, are good, but the implementation is so-so. The textures are still not clear enough to hide the flaws.

Even this modification is for the better. What if there is no HD version of your favorite game? Fortunately, this is fixable.

Ways to improve graphics in games

There are several ways to improve the game's graphics.

1. Own game settings

In the style of Captain Obvious, I inform you: every computer game has its own graphics settings. This is done so that you can comfortably play on low-performance computers. Who wants to see beautiful rays of light from the sky at dawn, reflected on the dew drops of roadside grasses on the roads of Tamriel, realistic shadows and glare from the fire, and so that all this does not slow down, take a more powerful computer or go outside. If your computer is “office” level, you will have to give up the beauties and set the settings to minimum - everything is blurry and primitive, but the game works without freezing.

Doesn't the game slow down at maximum graphics settings? Congratulations - the video card and processor can cope with the load, you can improve the graphics using third-party tools.

2. Video card driver settings

By using nVidia Control Panel (in Russian “Panel nVidia control»), Catalyst Control Center or Intel Graphics and Media Control Panels(it all depends on the video card manufacturer) you can force some game settings if they do not change in the game itself or there are no such options at all. Unfortunately, the options are limited. We have access to settings for pixel smoothing, anisotropic filtering (clearness of distant textures) and mip bias (also responsible for the clarity of textures and objects), and some others. In practice, the only useful thing is to force antialiasing on if the game does not have such an option.

3. SweetFX - filter set

Imagine that the game image is a video recording on which you can apply effects. This is roughly how SweetFX works.

Most amateur graphics patches for games end up just being tweaked by this thing.

SweetFX(FXAA Post Process Injector, alternative - FXAA Tool) - a set of filters (so-called shaders) applied on top game pictures. With SweetFX you can't make water more realistic or make characters cast normal shadows, no. But you can apply a number of effects that improve the picture in general:

Enable pixel anti-aliasing even in games that generally do not support it (FXAA and more advanced SMAA methods). The pixels on the screen will no longer be noticeable.
Make the picture clearer with the sharpening filter.
Add a “vignette” effect - darkening the picture at the edges of the screen. This technique concentrates the gaze on the center of the screen and adds a volume effect.
Adjust the brightness, contrast, color scheme of the picture. If the game annoys you with some shade, just remove it.
Add a “bloom” effect - a glow around bright light sources.
Make a pseudo-HDR picture - when the dark and light areas of the picture are equally detailed, which is more natural for our vision.
Using a combination of different filters, you can achieve the same effects as, for example, photos on Instagram.

The most important thing is that all this does not slow down! That is, in principle, this puts a load on the processor and video card, but it is insignificant if everything is configured correctly.

Update from 08/06/2018: Now instead of SweetFX they use . There are more possibilities, it’s easier to configure (right in the game).

4.ENBSeries

high-quality pixel smoothing,
realistic reflections,
believable shadows,
lighting effects (beautiful light halos around lamps, the sun, high-quality bloom, rays of light in foliage, and so on),
the effect of adaptation to light, imitating the reaction of our eyes - when leaving a dark room into the light, the picture will be bright for a few seconds and vice versa,
focusing effect - when looking at close objects, the background will be blurred.

All effects are customizable in detail. You can add your own if you know how to create shaders.

ENBSeries has a capacity of a wagon and one hundred trolleys. Unfortunately, ENB heavily loads the computer’s video card, so all effects can be enabled at once only on modern computer with an expensive video card.

5. Patches for games and manual editing of settings

Sometimes developers themselves turn off some effects. For example, the popular game Watch Dogs caused a real stir at E3 in 2012 with its revolutionary graphics. At E3-2013, the game got rid of some of the effects, and in 2014, players were in for an unpleasant surprise - the game looked even more faded. Here's a year-by-year comparison of the game, from exhibitions to the final version on modern game consoles:

True, there is another opinion - they say that the most impressive moments of the game were shown at exhibitions, in the final version in exactly the same situations (coincidence of time of day, weather, location) the game looks exactly the same as in 2012.

Be that as it may, enthusiasts find disabled options in the game code and enable them, making the graphics more realistic. I won’t provide a link to the patch for Watch Dogs for obvious reasons, I’ll just say its name: TheWorse Mod for Watch_Dogs.

You can always use Google to find patches and tips to improve graphics for your games. I also draw your attention to the WideScreen Gaming website, dedicated to ways to run games on modern widescreen monitors and multi-monitor configurations. Simply put, there is a database of patches that allow you to run old games in modern screen resolution.

SweetFX

The simplest and most interesting method for improving game graphics is to use SweetFX.

Install SweetFX

Let's start improving the graphics. Let's start with something simple - installing SweetFX.

Perhaps since this article was written, it has come out new version, so you can look at the official website.

Step 1. Unpack the downloaded archive SweetFX-Configurator_standalone_with_SweetFX_1.5.1.7z to any folder. The easiest way is in the “Documents” folder.

If the archive does not open, it means that you do not have an archiver program installed. I recommend 7-zip.

Step 2. In the unpacked folder we find the program SweetFX_config.exe.Create a shortcut for it on the Desktop so that you don’t have to open the folder every time.

Click right click mouse according to the program - Properties. On the tab Compatibility put a check mark next to the item Run this program as administrator:

Step 3. To implement effects into the game, finally launch SweetFX_config and click Add new game:

Using the window that opens, select the exe file of the game. If you do not know where the game folder and its executable file are located, you can select the corresponding shortcut on the Desktop. However, this may not work if the game is installed via Steam, Origin or Uplay - the shortcut may not lead to what we need.

In which folders can you find games:

Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\ or C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\

Origin: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\ or C:\Program Files\Origin Games\

Uplay: C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games or C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games

These are just speculative locations. You may have different folders, especially if you haven't changed your settings. As a last resort, there is a search using Windows. If you can't find the game folder, put this instruction aside for later, because... Now you don’t have enough knowledge.

Step 4. After selecting the game executable file, a line will appear in the SweetFX configurator list:

For clarity, I decided to refine an old but interesting game GTA: San Andreas. After adding it to the list, install SweetFX using the “ Add SweetFX". All necessary files copied to the game folder, the following settings will appear in the window:

To save settings automatically, check the box " Automatically save on changes«.

Each effect is enabled by checking the box. Everything is customizable in detail: just select the filter with the mouse - a list of its settings will appear below.

Some tips for setting up each effect:

The description contains the minimum and maximum values of the parameter.
The description in square brackets shows the standard value of the parameter.
The value is set manually, and you can also enter a fractional value using period (not comma!).

You do not need to restart the game to view the changes. You can collapse it, edit the settings in SweetFX Configurator and expand it again - the effect is applied immediately. If something is wrong, the keyboard's Pause/Break button will manually reset the settings. And “Scroll Lock” turns SweetFX on and off.

Description of SweetFX filters

If you know English, great. If not, below you will find the translation of each name.

1.SMAA Anti-Aliasing: image smoothing using the SMAA method.

To show what pixel smoothing is, I have prepared for you a visual animation using the example of a game GTA San Andreas (by the way, SweetFX also works with GTA 5):

Individual pixels are almost invisible, sharp lines are smoothed out.

The standard (and popular) MSAA anti-aliasing method works clumsily, but efficiently: the game image is calculated by the video card at a resolution several times higher than the resolution of your monitor, and then reduced. High quality - pixels are not visible, the picture is clear - is achieved through a huge number of calculations, which not every video card is capable of performing.

In order not to overload the video card once again, they came up with methods for smoothing the image without scaling - FXAA and the more advanced SMAA. Unfortunately, SweetFX smooths out the entire image on the screen at once, so all the inscriptions are slightly distorted. If you select the SMAA line and set the SMAA_CORNER_ROUNDING parameter (corner smoothing strength) to the maximum value of 100, this distortion will be very noticeable, but the picture will become very “smooth”.

For those who don’t care about the clarity of fonts in games (like me), I recommend the following recipe: turn off standard anti-aliasing in the game (to reduce the load on the video card and increase the frame rate), turn on SMAA, set the effect parameters to maximum:

SMAA_THRESHOLD: 0.05
SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS: 98
SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS_DIAG: 16
SMAA_CORNER_ROUNDING: 100

This will save our eyes from contemplating sharp lines and pixels sticking out everywhere, but will make the picture a little blurry. Turn on the sharpening effect LumaSharpen- excessive blur will disappear.

To be fair, I note that immediately after installing SweetFX, these effects are enabled. I only recommend setting the anti-aliasing settings to maximum and turning off the built-in anti-aliasing in the game so that the frame rate remains high.

2. FXAA Anti-aliasing: ancestor of SMAA smoothing. Blurs the image more, smooths edges less effectively. Forget about this point.

3. Explosion:“explodes pixels.” The effect's only parameter, Explosion_Radius, controls the strength of the effect.

Why it is needed - I don’t know.

4.Cartoon: hand-drawn picture effect. The final result is highly dependent on other effects (SMAA, CRT, Bloom, HDR and Lumasharpen):

If desired, you can give any game a “hand-drawn” style. The effect has two settings - the strength of the effect and the intensity of the black stroke.

5. Advanced CRT: SweetFX effect for those who are nostalgic for old tube TVs:

The filter has many settings, but I won’t translate their descriptions - it’s unlikely that anyone will tinker with it.

6.Bloom: all light areas of the image begin to glow. With the default settings the effect is not noticeable; for the example we had to increase the BloomPower parameter to 5:

The SweetFX Bloom effect has three parameters:

BloomThreshold - the lower the value, the darker areas are captured by the effect. At zero the screen is almost entirely white.
BloomPower (from 0 to 8) - glow strength.
BloomWidth (from 0 to 1) - glow width.

I most often set the values to 40, 8 and 1 - the picture becomes bright and “juicy” in overly dark games.

7. HDR: pseudo-HDR effect. The effect allows you to see the outlines of very bright and very dark objects. The default settings barely change the image:

To enhance the effect, I increased the HDRPower parameter by one:

Theoretically, light areas should become darker, dark areas lighter. But since this is pseudo-HDR, the picture simply becomes more contrasty. This effect useful in games where the picture does not have high contrast.

8. LumaSharpen- sharpening effect. Enabled by default. It has two parameters - sharp_strength and sharp_clamp. The first is the strength of the effect, the second is the limiter of the effect. Standard values quite optimal - a little clarity without fanaticism.

9.Levels- an effect that adjusts the brightness of the image. It is useless because it works clumsily, unlike the same effect in Photoshop.

10. Technicolor- an effect that allows you to simulate shooting with an old camera. Useful if you need to add some color to the image. At default settings, it slightly reduces color and gives black a blue tint.

11. Cineon DPX- an effect similar to the previous one simulating camera shooting, but implemented differently. You can also give any shade to the image, but there are more settings.

12. Monochrome- makes the picture black and white.

13. Lift Gamma Gain- a useful filter that allows you to separately adjust the brightness of light, dark and intermediate tones of an image. If you want to add some color to your image, try this tool first.

14. Tonemap- a set of filters for adjusting gamma, exposure, color, bleach and defog.

15.Vibrance- SweetFX filter, enhancing the color of faded tones:

The Vibrance filter can be enabled in almost all games by setting the Vibrance parameter (the effect and its parameter at the bottom of the SweetFX Configurator window are named the same) to “0.70”. This is enough to make the game shine with new colors without going overboard with bright colors.

16.Curves- curves. Those who use Photoshop will understand what it is. In short, this is a powerful tool for adjusting brightness and contrast.

17. Sepia- by default gives the image a brown tint (sepia). You can choose any other shade and adjust its strength.

18. Vignette- vignette effect. Darkens or lightens the edges of the image.

19. Dither- judging by the description, the effect allows you to show more shades on the monitor than it can show. In practice, no difference is noticeable.

20. Border- adding black stripes along the edges of the screen to give a “cinematic” effect. In practice it is useless, because the player needs to see as much as possible playing space, an embrasure slot is not needed here.

21. Splitscreen- split screen to compare pictures without effects and with them. For example:

22.Custom- if you know how to create shaders, this item enables them.

Storing different SweetFX effect settings for one game

It's easy to apply settings to see them in game: just press a button Save new config(unless you checked the “Automatically save on changes” box).

But what if you want to have several sets for one game? There is a button for this Save / Load configuration, which will open the presets window:

To transfer settings to another game, you need to create settings in this window (enter a name in the field Name and press New preset), select it in the list at the top and click Export preset- the settings will be saved as a regular text document. Button Import preset will allow you to load such a settings file.

Where can I get ready-made SweetFX settings?

In the settings window described above, using the button Import preset You can load the settings of other players.

ENBSeries - a graphics revolution

Unlike SweetFX, ENB does not always work. But the result is impressive:

Please note: a shadow has appeared from the central palm tree, the sidewalk has begun to shine a little.

Depending on the ENB settings and game capabilities, the effects will vary. For example, for Skyrim games came up with many ENB options. Some of them:

You don’t have to mess with the settings, but simply turn on everything and adjust the color scheme - even this improves the quality of graphics:

ENBSeries, unlike SweetFX, improves graphics by adding high-quality reflections, realistic shadows and generally improves the picture by changing the algorithms for working with lighting.

How to install ENB

How to install this miracle?

2. The archive is unpacked into the game folder.

3. After starting the game, information about the ENB version should appear in the upper left corner.

How to set up ENB

How to set up this cool thing?

The first versions of ENBSeries were configured by editing the file enbseries.ini by using text editor(a standard Notepad will do). The file is located in the game folder. You can do this now, but you will have to restart the game to see the changes.

More modern way- after installing ENB and starting the game, click Shift+Enter- Settings will appear on the left side of the screen. Using the checkboxes you can both enable the effects themselves and their options in the corresponding sections.

The universal version of ENB for all games and special ones have different sets of settings. Therefore, do not be surprised if you do not see any items in the .ini file or menu.

Information about all settings:

ENBseries for GTA 4. Documentation - here there is information about setting up ENB for GTA4. In my opinion, everything is chewed there in as much detail as possible.
How to configure ENBSeries: part 1, part 2, part 3 - here we talk about the old version of ENB, with settings through editing enbseries.ini.

Ready-made ENB builds that improve graphics:

The largest repository of modifications for games - the Nexus mods website - has an “ENB Presets” section for a number of games. Follow this link, select your game (if it is there, of course), then menu Files - Categories and look for the item ENB Presets. If there are normal ENB builds for the game, then they are there. For example, from there I tried about fifty ENB assemblies for the game Skyrim.
Also, no one canceled Google. I don’t think I need to tell you how to use the search. For example, on the Internet there are a lot of ENB assemblies for games in the GTA series.
For fans of GTA IV and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, pay attention to the A State of Trance website - there the author talks (in English) about best mods to improve the graphics of these games.

Advice: often the archive with ENB settings does not contain the actual ENB files (and this is correct - the author of ENB prohibits the distribution of his creation in the form of assemblies). Therefore, you will have to first download and install the ENB version for your game from the official website (or the universal one, if there is no special one), then unpack the settings for ENB there. Read the instructions!

How to combine SweetFX and ENB

Both modifications work by replacing the same file - d3d9.dll. Making them work together is quite simple:

Step 1. Install SweetFX.

Step 2. In the game folder, rename the file " d3d9.dll" in, for example, " d3d9-sweetfx.dll«.

Step 3. Install ENB (SweetFX will not work yet).

Step 4. Open the file with Notepad enblocal.ini in the game folder, correct the beginning of the file like this:

EnableProxyLibrary= true InitProxyFunctions= true ProxyLibrary= d3d9-sweetfx.dll

I've highlighted what you need to fix.

Step 5. You can customize ENB and SweetFX.

ENB and SweetFX will work together.

Which games can improve graphics?

Unfortunately, SweetFX and ENB do not work with all games. To explain why this happens, we need to explain a little theory.

The image from the game that we see on the screen can be drawn in different ways. The most popular:

1. GDI- a graphics output method that first appeared in Windows 95. It practically does not use the resources of the video card, so outputting three-dimensional graphics is impossible. SweetFX and ENB are not supported for a simple reason - games that use this method are primitive in terms of graphics (for example cards, checkers, chess). SweetFX and ENB do not work with GDI.

2.GDI+- more modern method output of two-dimensional graphics, used in modern programs. For 3D it is still not practical to use because... Using GDI+, any complex graphics will take a long time to draw. SweetFX and ENB do not work with GDI+.

3.OpenGL- a method for displaying three-dimensional graphics, used not only by games, but also professional programs like 3DS Max. There are quite a few games that use OpenGL, especially older ones. SweetFX and ENB do not know how to improve graphics in OpenGL games, but you can cheat by transferring graphics to DirectX “rails” using QindieGL or GLDirect. UPD: It seems like they have already learned how to work with OpenGL.

4.DirectDraw- another method for displaying graphics. Many good old games work through DirectDraw. Unfortunately, SweetFX or ENB will not be able to improve the graphics in them.

5.DirectX- what is this, I’ll already cover it in another article. In short, this is a set of functions and algorithms that allow you to use the capabilities of a video card as efficiently as possible for rendering graphics. OpenGL solves a similar problem, but no one has yet developed SweetFX and ENB for OpenGL.

Games work with DirectX primarily through the d3d9.dll software library, located in the Windows system folder. Both SweetFX and ENB need to monitor rendering functions in order to work, changing them according to their algorithms. To do this, the d3d9.dll file is placed in the game folder, which contains functions for improving graphics and further redirecting commands to the original d3d9.dll file. Therefore, if you suddenly decide to replace d3d9.dll in the Windows folder with such a file, instead of improving graphics in games, you will get, at best, a set of glitches, and at worst, an inoperable operating system.

So can SweetFX and ENB work with DirectX games? DirectX happens different versions- from 1 to 11.1 at the moment (not counting intermediate ones). SweetFX and ENB can work with DirectX version 9. There is a DirectX 8 -> DirectX 9 converter from the author of ENB, but it does not always work. So many games that use an older version of DirectX remain in the dust (for example, the Mech Commander series of strategy games).

There is also no converter from DirectDraw to DirectX 9. But there are converters from OpenGL to DirectX. I recommend using QindieGL and

If you don't know English and/or don't want to read the instructions, don't try to download the above-mentioned converters, you'll just waste your time.

In the future, they will probably add support for 10-11 versions of DirectX, as there are more and more games supporting these technologies.

Graphics improvement - myths and reality

Myth one: animation and other features of old games

Ennoble appearance games are possible. It’s especially great when the game officially supports modifications (for example, TES4: Oblivion, Skyrim, MineCraft) - this can significantly improve graphics and gameplay.

But the graphics are a beautiful wrapper, nothing more. Inside, the game will remain old, no matter how you look at it. Characters will have constrained animations, you will not be able to kick/move objects where it was not intended, you will not be able to break through walls where they were not supposed to be broken through, and so on.

Does this mean SweetFX and ENB are useless? My opinion is that they make it possible to get the most out of games that they are capable of, so their use is justified. Just don't expect miracles. Interactivity they won't add.

Myth two: modern games have the coolest graphics at the moment

Every year, developers use more and more technologies to attract the player's attention. The wrapper must be beautiful to be purchased. Accordingly, sales increase and game publishers get richer.

However, truly impressive innovations are extremely rare. Why? Firstly, this extra expenses- Until the technology is implemented, the game will become obsolete. Secondly, the players they still buy games, even if their graphic design is quiet horror (for example, the Call of Duty series of games is famous for this).

To understand what technologies have been invented to enhance realism in games, I advise you to read some very interesting articles:

After the knowledge gained, you will understand that today's games are not nearly as good as they could be in terms of graphics. Moreover, it becomes obvious that the developers are lazy. They promise something unimaginable without using even a tenth of what can actually be achieved.

Myth three: good game must have cool graphics

If you like to play games solely for the realistic graphics, I have bad news for you - you missed out on the release of an absolutely amazing game called Life.

Games are not films. They captivate with their plot, features, and gameplay. Graphics play an important role, but often rough sketches are better than realism (Another World is a prime example).

Bottom line

We don't play old games because of the graphics. Strong feeling nostalgia, pleasant memories of that time, an interesting plot or some little thing that will stay with a person through the years - graphics here do not occupy the most prominent place.

Tip: trying old wardrobe fit into a modern interior, do not forget about Narnia in it.

Anisotropic filtering. When a certain texture is not displayed on the display at its true size, pixels are added or removed from it. This is called filtering. In other words, filtering removes aliasing and blur in the image. The most advanced type of filtering is anisotropic filtering. Has a filtration degree setting (2x, 4x, 8x, 16x). The higher the degree, the more realistic the picture looks. A degree of 4x and 8x is quite enough, and it’s even better to set it to maximum. There is no point in turning off filtering, because... it does not in any way affect the number of frames in modern video cards.

Step 2

Anti-Aliasing(Smoothing). Antialiasing works like this. Frames are rendered in increased resolution before being displayed on the screen. After this, the result is reduced to the desired size. As a result, the “ladder” along the edges of the picture becomes less noticeable. The higher the degree of smoothing (2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x), the better the image. It makes no sense to disable Anti-Aliasing for the same reason as the previous setting.

Step 3

V-Sync(Vertical sync). This setting synchronizes game frames with the monitor's vertical scan rate. The point is that the calculated frame is displayed on the display at the time the information is updated. The next frame will appear strictly after the previous one, etc. But keep in mind that when this option is enabled, the frame rate in the game should not exceed the vertical scan frequency of the display. If the FPS is lower, then you need to enable triple buffering in the video card driver settings. On weak computers, it is recommended to turn off vert. synchronization, this will slightly improve gaming performance.

Step 4

Tessellation. This option increases the number of polygons several times, which helps to increase image detail. To use tessellation, the game must support DirectX 11. It is better to set the options to moderate or normal. On weak video cards, image artifacts are possible. If the computer is normal, you don’t have to turn it off.

In version 9.0, new graphic effects have been introduced into the game, designed to make tank battles even more beautiful and spectacular.

However, it is important to understand that these innovations will also affect the performance of the game. For this reason, the first time you launch the game after installing update 9.0, the graphics settings will be automatically determined on each account.

In most cases, this is enough for a comfortable game, but if after installing the update you experience a drop in performance, we recommend taking a few minutes to fine-tune the client manually.

Select the graphics quality from those offered in the drop-down menu or use the “Recommended” button - the system will automatically select the most suitable graphics quality for the game, based on the parameters of your computer. Graphics Quality settings affect the settings in the Advanced tab. Select a value in the Graphics Quality field if you do not want to configure every option on the Advanced tab.
3D render resolution. Decreasing the parameter value can improve game performance on computers with weak graphics cards.
Selecting the size of the game window. If “Full Screen Mode” is enabled, the field name changes to “Screen Resolution”. Mismatch established resolution in full screen mode with the current monitor resolution may distort the image. Increasing the parameter increases the load on the video card and can reduce the performance of the game. You can reduce the load on the video card by adjusting the 3D rendering resolution.
Enabling full screen mode expands the game onto your entire computer monitor.
Limit frame rate to 60 frames per second. Used when the image on the bottom of the screen is shaking or lags relative to the top.
When this setting is enabled, the edges and edges of objects become smoother.
Angle of view. The normal viewing angle for humans is about 95°. The smaller the angle, the closer objects become, but the peripheral view is reduced. Does not affect game performance.
A mechanism for adapting the color palette for people with color blindness.
Monitor refresh rate. You can view your monitor's refresh rate in the settings of your monitor or its driver. Please note that the displayed values depend on the current monitor resolution. Install monitor drivers to display supported values.
If the set aspect ratio does not match the current aspect ratio of the monitor, the image may stretch or shrink horizontally. The setting allows you to equalize the proportions on monitors with non-square pixels.
Here you can select a monitor for the game if you have several connected to your computer.
Change the brightness of the image. Works only in full screen mode. IN windowed mode The current operating system settings are used.
The color filter allows you to select the visual design of the game from the proposed options.
Moving the slider changes the visibility of the selected color filter in the interface. The picture above shows the changes.

If you need more fine settings charts, go to the “Advanced” tab. Please note: Most of the settings below are only available for the Enhanced Graphics renderer.

Some settings and their values are not available for standard graphics.

Settings that significantly affect the performance/performance of the game are placed in a separate block “Significantly affecting performance”. In the image they are indicated by numbers 3–7 and 12–16.

Lowering or disabling these settings can significantly improve game performance.

It is important to pay attention to some points here:

By choosing from the two proposed graphics quality options, you predetermine the choice in the remaining categories in this tab.
The quality of textures does not depend on the performance of the card, but it is demanding on video memory.
Game performance with this setting depends on the power of the video card.
Shadow quality is highly dependent on overall system performance, affecting both the video card and the CPU.
It is recommended to disable this option if performance decreases in sniper mode.

Here you can adjust the display of smoke, dust, sparks, flames, explosions, etc. All these objects depend not so much on the video card, but on the central processor.

Various additional graphic effects: air refraction, bloom effect, etc. Strongly depends on the performance of the video card and moderately on the amount of video memory.

Points 8–19, 21 slightly affect the performance of the game, which means that when setting values, you should be guided by your own wishes for the quality of each element (water, trees, landscape, etc.).

Many users will find it useful in paragraph 20 “Dynamically changing the quality of effects” - automatic simplification of effects when system performance drops.

Enabling the option will allow the game to adapt to the speed of your computer.