Why does AC looks so good on other people's system?

[ThatRacingGuy]

Hi all,

I've got AC for quite some time now, always ran high settings reflections etc so everything ultra,

But when i look at some YT videos AC looks so much better,

(not using PP filters as it only makes my game sepia coloured)

Could that be it ^?

Please help me

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

AC is designed to be used with PP filters, so yes, that is likely a large part of it. Most are also using one of the various weather/PP mods, along with using DSR and/or SweetFX.

 

[RasmusP]

Yes, everything is pp Filters!
Few words towards that: you have the Filter ini itself with exposure, gamma, contrast etc.
And then you have the weathers, which contain more a less similar values.
So every graphic mod (natural, wagnum, etc) will use that two File Systems.

Aaand then there is sweetFX, which is used mainly for color modification and/or sharpening!

I was at the same point of thoughts as you: "why does my ac looks like crap and on other Systems like real life?!" well mine looks perfectly now. If you want more infos about that I will gladly post screenshots and an in depth explanation

Little hint: activate post processing in the visual options and uncheck motion blur and depth of field. Choose "natural" as the filter and it should be looking better already.

For changing the used Filter while on track: move The cursor to the very right and you will find the pp Filter App where you can change the Filters on the fly (and yes, there is a sepia one! And other crazy ones)

 

[ThatRacingGuy]

Yes, everything is pp Filters!
Few words towards that: you have the Filter ini itself with exposure, gamma, contrast etc.
And then you have the weathers, which contain more a less similar values.
So every graphic mod (natural, wagnum, etc) will use that two File Systems.

Aaand then there is sweetFX, which is used mainly for color modification and/or sharpening!

I was at the same point of thoughts as you: "why does my ac looks like crap and on other Systems like real life?!" well mine looks perfectly now. If you want more infos about that I will gladly post screenshots and an in depth explanation

Little hint: activate post processing in the visual options and uncheck motion blur and depth of field. Choose "natural" as the filter and it should be looking better already.

For changing the used Filter while on track: move The cursor to the very right and you will find the pp Filter App where you can change the Filters on the fly (and yes, there is a sepia one! And other crazy ones)

Yes please share some screenshots!

 

[RasmusP]

Will do in few hours, chilling in the Sun at the sea

Yes please share some screenshots!

 

[ThatRacingGuy]

Will do in few hours, chilling in the Sun at the sea

Awesome Have fun

 

[RasmusP]

As promised, here are my screenshots
They are nothing special, not edited in photoshop or nice camera angle, nothing. Just plain, pure, how I race! My goal was it to have the graphic pleasant to look at for hours but also be realistic. So no hard colours but the sun should be a bit flashing and driving in the trees shadows should be a bit dark.
But have a look your self and if you like it, I can upload my settings Weather is "mid clear" in all of them! Time is 17:00 with Lambo and LMP1, 12:00 with GT3 at Nordschleife.

 

[paracletus]

Don't know why, but on this system it now looks better with 1060gtx than it did with ati.

 

[RasmusP]

Don't know why, but on this system it now looks better with 1060gtx than it did with ati.

Must be some settings since it absolutely doesn't matter if a game runs on NVidia or AMD. Only if you change settings in their control panels there will be differences (small though like vsync, anisotropic filtering and anti aliasing).
Maybe AC changed some settings because it detected another card

 

[Stereo]

NVidia and ATI have slightly different algorithms for some AA/dithering afaik but it should just be pixel-level changes, not overall quality. So if you can see weird pixel effects in transparent objects(eg. on the skidmarks, or trees) that's sometimes the card but the general illumination and stuff should match.


"PP off" is only there to improve compatibility, if your hardware supports it, you should leave it on and tweak settings to get a look you like. Probably start with the 'natural' built in filter and fine tune from there.

 

[ThatRacingGuy]

As promised, here are my screenshots
They are nothing special, not edited in photoshop or nice camera angle, nothing. Just plain, pure, how I race! My goal was it to have the graphic pleasant to look at for hours but also be realistic. So no hard colours but the sun should be a bit flashing and driving in the trees shadows should be a bit dark.
But have a look your self and if you like it, I can upload my settings

Yes please share your settings. This looks beautiful!

 

[magzire]

I always found AC looked better without PP
But missing some eye candy.

 

[Rob Fitness]

being new to AC, i too am working towards getting it to look nicer... i do prefer the look of it With no PP but want the brake lights to look proper so was informed that that is part of the PP process, I also hate the FPS hit with PP turned on LOL... if i could get brake lights bright without PP id be a happy camper. currently trying out Wagnums PP is generally better BUT seems pretty dark in places, like if the car is sun on one side the side is shadow looks way to dark

 

[RasmusP]

Yes please share your settings. This looks beautiful!

1. Download Wagnum's Graphics Mod: LINK
2. I did it manually because I don't like this JSGME.exe!
How to install:
Go to your Assetto Corsa folder \steamapps\common\assettocorsa
In system you will find cfg and in there is the ppfilters folder which contains all of the filters!
Now open the Wagnum zip and go to system\cfg\ppfilters and extract the A-Wagnum.ini in the ppfilters folder of your game folder! (I edited the filter, later more to that!)

Now go (in the zip) to MODS\Wagnum Weather\content\weather and replace the 8 folders in your game folder (steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\weather).
Now you have my pp filter and my weather

After that you need to put the clouds in.
zip: MODS\Peter Boese Clouds\content\texture -> put the cloud folder in the texture folder of your game (\assettocorsa\content\texture\clouds). (There is no Clouds folder before that!)

Short version of HOW TO INSTALL: pp filter, wagnum weather and Peter Boese Clouds in the same folders as the game
Do NOT use the Reshade in the zip. It didn't work for me!

Finally you will need SweetFX (optional but for me it is important!)
I am very sorry but I have absolutely no idea where I downloaded my version. There are so many out there and some are crashing the game etc. so if you want my SweetFX files I will send it to you via PM to not violate any copyright!
Nevertheless, here are my SweetFX SETTINGS:
Lumasharpen:
#define sharp_strength 0.85
#define sharp_clamp 0.027
pattern 2, offset_bias 1.0
Lift Gamma Gain:
#define RGB_Lift float3(0.970, 1.000, 1.000)
#define RGB_Gamma float3(0.970, 1.000, 1.000)
#define RGB_Gain float3(0.970, 1.000, 1.000)

So the game is really crisp but not TOO crisp and the reds are reduced a little bit which makes the overall image a bit more realistic!

I said above that I edited the Wagnum pp filter. Here is what I edited: (open in Notepad++ for best "experience")
[AUTO EXPOSURE]
MIN=0.185 to 0.215
MAX=0.335 to 0.385
TARGET=0.25 to 0.29
Makes the image a bit brighter. Use PAGE UP/DOWN keys to adjust it to your liking!

[COLOR]
CONTRAST=0.975 to 1.0 (was too washed out for me!)
WHITE_BALANCE=6400 to 6500 (gives you a slightly warmer image!)

And now I will post my InGame settings to complete it
Display:

Effects:

View:

Reflections:

If you wonder why Anti Aliasing is off: I changed it to 8x in the video.ini in \Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg
AASAMPLES=8
AAQUALITY=1

Just to round it up: I forced SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Super Sample Anti Aliasing) with the NVidia Inspector. It is the BEST AA out there, but blurs the image slightly (that's the lumasharpen for!).


Ah before I forget: IMPORTANT SETTING!!
\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg -> open graphics.ini and change MAXIMUM_FRAME_LATENCY=1 (default is 0 I think?). This settings costs zero to maybe a few fps but reduces the input lag massively! (It's how many frames can be pre-rendered)
Normally I force this setting via the Inspector but if the game can do it itself, better use that!

MAYBE you will get Micro Stuttering. That can have 2 reasons:
1. V-Sync has hick-ups! (I use Riva Tuner, which comes with MSI Afterburner to limit the fps to 60. V-Sync has some weird unsteady frametimes. Going up to 61 fps and dropping down afterwards to 59 -> Micro Stutter!)
2. Too less performance overhead from CPU or GPU. If you get more than about 95% on one of them only ONE pre-rendered image won't be enough. You can try maximum_frame_latency=2.

Conclusion: I am pretty proud of how my AC looks now. It was a lot of work and time consuming but worth it! I get rock stable 60 fps (vsync on) with my GTX 1070 and GPU Load goes from 45-75% while Racing. With a GTX 1060 I would recommend to use 4x AA in the game settings and only force 2x SGSSAA in the Inspector. Should already reduce the flickering massively

A lot of text, I hope it's more or less well to understand and clear enough.
If you have any questions I am happy to answer you!

PS: everything important is BIG so if you are applying my settings while reading the post on your smartphone you don't have to scroll and search. Sorry for the hickup-reading-style

 

[ThatRacingGuy]

1. Download Wagnum's Graphics Mod: LINK
2. I did it manually because I don't like this JSGME.exe!
How to install:
Go to your Assetto Corsa folder \steamapps\common\assettocorsa
In system you will find cfg and in there is the ppfilters folder which contains all of the filters!
Now open the Wagnum zip and go to system\cfg\ppfilters and extract the A-Wagnum.ini in the ppfilters folder of your game folder! (I edited the filter, later more to that!)

Now go (in the zip) to MODS\Wagnum Weather\content\weather and replace the 8 folders in your game folder (steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\weather).
Now you have my pp filter and my weather

After that you need to put the clouds in.
zip: MODS\Peter Boese Clouds\content\texture -> put the cloud folder in the texture folder of your game (\assettocorsa\content\texture\clouds). (There is no Clouds folder before that!)

Short version of HOW TO INSTALL: pp filter, wagnum weather and Peter Boese Clouds in the same folders as the game
Do NOT use the Reshade in the zip. It didn't work for me!

Finally you will need SweetFX (optional but for me it is important!)
I am very sorry but I have absolutely no idea where I downloaded my version. There are so many out there and some are crashing the game etc. so if you want my SweetFX files I will send it to you via PM to not violate any copyright!
Nevertheless, here are my SweetFX SETTINGS:
Lumasharpen:
#define sharp_strength 0.85
#define sharp_clamp 0.027
pattern 2, offset_bias 1.0
Lift Gamma Gain:
#define RGB_Lift float3(0.970, 1.000, 1.000)
#define RGB_Gamma float3(0.970, 1.000, 1.000)
#define RGB_Gain float3(0.970, 1.000, 1.000)

So the game is really crisp but not TOO crisp and the reds are reduced a little bit which makes the overall image a bit more realistic!

I said above that I edited the Wagnum pp filter. Here is what I edited: (open in Notepad++ for best "experience")
[AUTO EXPOSURE]
MIN=0.185 to 0.215
MAX=0.335 to 0.385
TARGET=0.25 to 0.29
Makes the image a bit brighter. Use PAGE UP/DOWN keys to adjust it to your liking!

[COLOR]
CONTRAST=0.975 to 1.0 (was too washed out for me!)
WHITE_BALANCE=6400 to 6500 (gives you a slightly warmer image!)

And now I will post my InGame settings to complete it
Display:View attachment 192407

Effects:View attachment 192408

View:View attachment 192409

Reflections:View attachment 192410

If you wonder why Anti Aliasing is off: I changed it to 8x in the video.ini in \Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg
AASAMPLES=8
AAQUALITY=1

Just to round it up: I forced SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Super Sample Anti Aliasing) with the NVidia Inspector. It is the BEST AA out there, but blurs the image slightly (that's the lumasharpen for!).
View attachment 192411

Ah before I forget: IMPORTANT SETTING!!
\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg -> open graphics.ini and change MAXIMUM_FRAME_LATENCY=1 (default is 0 I think?). This settings costs zero to maybe a few fps but reduces the input lag massively! (It's how many frames can be pre-rendered)
Normally I force this setting via the Inspector but if the game can do it itself, better use that!

MAYBE you will get Micro Stuttering. That can have 2 reasons:
1. V-Sync has hick-ups! (I use Riva Tuner, which comes with MSI Afterburner to limit the fps to 60. V-Sync has some weird unsteady frametimes. Going up to 61 fps and dropping down afterwards to 59 -> Micro Stutter!)
2. Too less performance overhead from CPU or GPU. If you get more than about 95% on one of them only ONE pre-rendered image won't be enough. You can try maximum_frame_latency=2.

Conclusion: I am pretty proud of how my AC looks now. It was a lot of work and time consuming but worth it! I get rock stable 60 fps (vsync on) with my GTX 1070 and GPU Load goes from 45-75% while Racing. With a GTX 1060 I would recommend to use 4x AA in the game settings and only force 2x SGSSAA in the Inspector. Should already reduce the flickering massively

A lot of text, I hope it's more or less well to understand and clear enough.
If you have any questions I am happy to answer you!

PS: everything important is BIG so if you are applying my settings while reading the post on your smartphone you don't have to scroll and search. Sorry for the hickup-reading-style

Well... this is going to take a while

 

[RasmusP]

Well... this is going to take a while

If you want the easy way you can PM me and I will just send you a folder to "copy paste". Won't do it in public though

 

[Rob Fitness]

I think with my noobness to AC and all this PP stuff that I may have screwed things up... if I wanted to put everything back to default install in the folders itself, how would be the best way to go bout that so I can start again, as I have a ton of PP stuff to choose from in the dropdown box and now I'm not sure if they even do anything. Thanks. So I can then Do your walk through above... BTW thanks for such a detailed post too.

 

[RasmusP]

I think with my noobness to AC and all this PP stuff that I may have screwed things up... if I wanted to put everything back to default install in the folders itself, how would be the best way to go bout that so I can start again, as I have a ton of PP stuff to choose from in the dropdown box and now I'm not sure if they even do anything. Thanks. So I can then Do your walk through above... BTW thanks for such a detailed post too.

I had the same problem some time ago!
I backuped my content folder (to not lose mods! yes, 40GB is huge Oo) and then just deleted the system folder. Run the integrity check from Steam and all should be back to default I am not sure if Steam overwrites edited files!
So I would suggest to delete the system folder and maybe the weather folder but nothing else. Or did you screwed up with textures etc?

Or I could send you my system,weather,clouds etc. folder packed so that you only have to integrate ONE folder to your system and it would overwrite everything with my settings

 

[whyper]

If you want the easy way you can PM me and I will just send you a folder to "copy paste". Won't do it in public though

I know... it's been three years since you made these comments but, can you still help me with that "easy copy paste" method? I had some insane graphics with tons of mods installed and it almost looked like the exact copy of your graphics but my pc died and now I can't find which mods I used and my game looks like Minecraft with cars added.

 

[RasmusP]

I know... it's been three years since you made these comments but, can you still help me with that "easy copy paste" method? I had some insane graphics with tons of mods installed and it almost looked like the exact copy of your graphics but my pc died and now I can't find which mods I used and my game looks like Minecraft with cars added.

Hi,
sadly not really..
I reinstalled AC completely as I screwed up with too many mods...

Now I'm using:
Custom Shaders Patch latest version (Content Manager only)

SOL: (currently not installed but I plan to!)

Sol

DOWNLOAD Sol: MODSFIRE: https://modsfire.com/UW0f92464a69wYc MEGA: https://mega.nz/file/4fkFiLLR#BC0qSAL1mA-Ohj11lsZjBYc5wLTyB17OB6qO58XUXZcMEDIAFIRE: !!! Sol needs CSP 1.76 or later !!! I recommend to use CSP 1.79 Sol does not bring Rain...

www.racedepartment.com

Natural Graphics mod: (only using the PP filter, "natural mod")

Natural Mod Filter

Attempt to replicate what the eye sees (without sunglasses) rather than a camera, to get the best onboard view for driving rather than create photo-real external screenshots. No chromatic aberration, lens flares or erratic autoexposure. Post...

www.racedepartment.com

I disabled everything fancy in custom shaders patch (CSP) though as I'm only racing in the club on Racedepartment and that means always dry and daylight.
So I disabled the lighting, rain etc.

Here's a Screenshot how my AC is looking during a standard race:
(SOL not installed currently but I love it so I listed it)

And these are my settings: for me it's the optimum between quality and performance. No aliasing (thanks to the awesome TAA from CSP) but maximum details. Shadows are very smooth thanks to CSP and reflections are fluid enough.

And the various CSP settings:
Everything that's grey on the left is disabled, every setting that is white is default, every setting that's RED is changed from default (mostly just disabled).

The settings that aren't shown in the screenshots are default.