SLIKnight
2014-09-09, 00:52:32
https://abload.de/img/new_master_thread_cla3fkvs.png
The full NVIDIA master list
I have been considering the idea of a combined thread for all your driver profile customization and game tweaking needs for a while now.
Due to the sheer size and scope of this undertaking, I have chosen to simply share the final result as a Google spreadsheet.
The master list itself consists of a very large table, which currently has 634 entries and 13 categories for each entry.
NVIDIA compatibility bits master list (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15UvZ6COCpaD8JJkMqB4KMTxBXoEfDuaDiiP--H4BJ-U/edit?usp=sharing)
MSAA+TrSSAA
MSAA+SGSSAA (Use TrSSAA instead of SGSSAA in OpenGL)
OGSSAA and post process AA (Includes DSR and ingame SSAA information)
OGSSAA hybrids (e.g. 16xS+4xSGSSAA)
DX8 and DX9 HBAO+
DX10 and DX11 HBAO+
Custom DX8, DX9 and OpenGL SLI
Custom DX10 and DX11 SLI
Essential tweaks (Includes gaming and system optimization tips)
Reference
Additional reference
Tweak guide
NVIDIA Inspector profile (Extract the .zip archive and import the .nip file using NVIDIA Profile Inspector (https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Orbmu2k/nvidiaprofileinspector/build/artifacts))
Newcomers to NVIDIA Inspector might want to take a closer look at the "NVIDIA Inspector profile" category in the far right column of the table.
Under this category you will be able to download already customized driver profiles for many games in .nip format, which can be imported using NVIDIA Inspector.
These profiles are mainly intended as templates, and should be further optimized for your particular hardware and personal preferences.
How to customize the driver profiles
All the options exposed by NVIDIA Inspector can be quite overwhelming at times, even for experienced users.
For this reason, I will include a few carefully selected examples of how to set up your NVIDIA Inspector profile, depending on whether you want to force SGSSAA or OGSSAA, enable HBAO+ or alternatively customize an SLI profile.
To make things perfectly clear, I have color coded each aspect of my examples in accordance with the master list spreadsheet.
Red is used for all variables related to antialiasing, green is used in the same way for HBAO+, while blue and yellow are used for respectively DX9 and DX11 SLI profiles.
Far Cry 3 with 4xSGSSAA forced and custom SLI profiles (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9577870&postcount=724))
http://abload.de/thumb/fc3_inspectorbrdye1asz4.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=fc3_inspectorbrdye1asz4.png) http://abload.de/thumb/farcry33_0x004010c1x6fom.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=farcry33_0x004010c1x6fom.png)
F.E.A.R. with 3x3 OGSSAA and HBAO+ forced (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9609522&postcount=3738))
http://abload.de/thumb/fear_hbao_3x3ogssaa_ixcsqg.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=fear_hbao_3x3ogssaa_ixcsqg.png) http://abload.de/thumb/fear_2014_02_16_15_034vu6j.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=fear_2014_02_16_15_034vu6j.png)
Mirror's Edge with 8xSGSSAA and HBAO+ forced, and a custom DX9 SLI profile (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10331833&postcount=1638))
http://abload.de/thumb/mirrorsedge_inspectoruls1c.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=mirrorsedge_inspectoruls1c.png) http://abload.de/thumb/mirrorsedge1_8xsgssaa4au5j.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=mirrorsedge1_8xsgssaa4au5j.png)
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation with 8xSGSSAA and HBAO+ forced, and a "special" custom DX9 SLI profile (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10244712&postcount=5904))
https://abload.de/thumb/pkhd_combined_inspectz5kkl.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=pkhd_combined_inspectz5kkl.png) http://abload.de/thumb/pkhd1_8xsgssaa_2fm6uxd.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=pkhd1_8xsgssaa_2fm6uxd.png)
Just Cause 2 with 2.25xDSR and 4xMSAA enhanced with 4xSGSSAA (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10221720&postcount=84))
https://abload.de/thumb/jc2_combined_settingsfcsi5.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=jc2_combined_settingsfcsi5.png) http://abload.de/thumb/jc2_ssao_high_resizede4k07.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=jc2_ssao_high_resizede4k07.png)
NVIDIA Profile Inspector menu
https://abload.de/img/inspector_menu_templam5pj1.png
Overview of driver AA modes in different APIs
http://abload.de/img/revised_aa_overview_tgrj8l.png
With the above examples, I have tried to cover most of the basics of how to customize your driver profiles using NVIDIA Inspector.
For more details, you will have to read and follow the instructions in the posts linked under "Reference", "Additional reference" and "Tweak guide" in the spreadsheet.
Since there seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding the various driver AA modes in different APIs, I have also put a small overview table together.
The calculated DSR resolutions in this table are based on a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.
Motivation and other threads
My main incentive for starting this thread is to put things in one place and gain some overview.
To demonstrate what I mean, I have made a list of all the major threads created on the topics of custom AA, AO and SLI profiles in the last few years:
Date started|Forum|Thread name|Abbreviation and link
2 September 2010|3DCenter|Antialiasing - Kompatibilitätsbits – Sammelthread|3DCenter AA thread (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=490867)
1 December 2010|3DCenter|Ambient Occlusion im Treiber – Kompatibilitätsliste|3DCenter AO thread (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=496760)
31 December 2010|Rage3D|Nvidia AA flags|NVIDIA AA flags (http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33972293)
16 January 2011|Guru3D|Nvidia AA guide|NVIDIA AA guide (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=336854)
21 June 2011|3DCenter|SLI - Kompatibilitätsbits – Sammelthread|3DCenter SLI thread (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=509912)
29 January 2012|Guru3D|NVidia Anti-Aliasing Guide (updated)|Guru3D AA thread (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=357956)
21 May 2013|GeForce|Petition for DirectX 11 Anti-aliasing driver profiles|GeForce DX11 AA Petition (https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/544701/geforce-drivers/petition-for-directx-11-anti-aliasing-driver-profiles/)
28 July 2013|Guru3D|NVidia SLI Guide|Guru3D SLI thread (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=379960)
3 March 2014|Guru3D|HBAO+ Compatibility Flags Thread|Guru3D HBAO+ thread (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=387114)
14 April 2014|PCGH|[Sammelthread] HBAO+ Kompatibilitätsbits|PCGH HBAO+ Kompatibilitätsbits (http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/grafikkarten/328894-sammelthread-hbao-kompatibilitaetsbits.html#post6336308)
11 May 2015|Guru3D|Nvidia Profile Inspector introduction and Guide|NVIDIA Inspector guide (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=403676)
The goal of my thread is not to replace any of the above threads, or in any way negate the excellent work still being done there.
The basic idea is however to gather relevant information from each thread, edit or remove certain problematic entries, and hopefully make it easier for everyone to find what they need.
Since writing game specific tweak guides is a big passion of mine, I will also include useful posts and other relevant information for some games, even if no driver profile customization is needed.
Background information
Ever since NVIDIA released the 8800 GTX back in November 2006, it has been possible to force traditional MSAA alongside Shader Model 3.0 HDR in certain games (e.g. Far Cry and Oblivion).
However doing so required a custom AA profile to hack the driver, and tell it how to render the final image with both HDR and driver AA enabled.
Later on custom DX9 AA profiles also became necessary to force MSAA in games using deferred lighting or shading methods (e.g. Unreal Tournament III and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl).
Then in April 2009, NVIDIA included support for driver forced SSAO (185.68 BETA).
This again required a separate custom AO profile for each game to achieve the optimal shadow depth effect.
And finally with the release of the Fermi architecture in March 2010, it became possible for GTX 480 and GTX 470 owners to enhance ingame DX10 and DX11 MSAA settings with driver SGSSAA or TrSSAA, something that had never been possible before (e.g. Aliens vs. Predator DX11 and Just Cause 2):
GeForce GTX 480/470 with unmatched image quality in modern games (PCGamesHardware.com) (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,745901/Geforce-GTX-480/470-with-unmatched-image-quality-in-modern-games/Reviews/)
In May of the same year the 256 driver series was released (257.15 BETA), which meant that the traditional driver profile customization tool Nhancer seized to work.
Eventually all the functionalities (albeit not the great user interface) of Nhancer was replaced by the GeForce 3D Profile Manager (http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2625/~/after-updating-my-display-driver,-i-no-longer-see-nvapps.xml.-did-something) and NVIDIA Inspector (http://orbmu2k.de/tools/nvidia-inspector-tool).
Another big milestone to NVIDIA IQ enthusiasts was automatic driver LOD adjustment in DirectX with forced or enhanced SGSSAA, which was finalized in January 2013 (313.95 BETA).
The last major improvements to driver forced AA and AO must be the introduction of the TF2 AA fix (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9766133&postcount=4226) in May 2013 (320.14 BETA), and the upgrade from SSAO to HBAO+ (http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-331-40-beta-drivers-released) in September 2013 (331.40 BETA).
It is also worth mentioning, that NVIDIA brought their official downsampling feature Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) (http://techreport.com/review/27102/maxwell-dynamic-super-resolution-explored) to the Fermi and Kepler architectures in October 2014 (344.48 WHQL).
Previously this functionality was limited to GTX 980 and GTX 970 users, since the introduction of these second generation Maxwell cards (GM204) in September 2014.
Some final remarks and the changelog
The information in the master list spreadsheet is the result of several years of hard work by various users on especially the 3DCenter, Guru3D and GeForce forums.
This thread would not be possible without the help of the dedicated people from these gaming and hardware communities.
Special thanks go to aufkrawall (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=35798), Blade II (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=14273), Blaire (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=12085), MrBonk (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=33158), stereo3D (https://forums.geforce.com/member/1796382/) and others for their contributions.
Rebuilding all of the contents from existing AA, AO and SLI threads into one coherent database has been a big challenge from start to finish.
In this process I have both modified and removed some of the original entries, as well as added new information as I came across it.
All of this was done to achieve the best possible overall result, while trying to prevent the size of the final master list and the amount of information in it from exploding.
I will try to keep the list as updated as possible, using both the above AA, AO and SLI threads as well as other reputable sites across the web.
Any major additions or changes made to the spreadsheet or the OP will be included in the changelog below.
Finally it should be noted, that I have also posted a version of this thread in the Guru3D (http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4908843&postcount=1) forums, which will be updated alongside its 3DCenter counterpart.
Changelog (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sw9cILgZzE9-NIc1ZF51_P1cm8O9xCf8_VNcfhSLLvg/edit?usp=sharing)
The full NVIDIA master list
I have been considering the idea of a combined thread for all your driver profile customization and game tweaking needs for a while now.
Due to the sheer size and scope of this undertaking, I have chosen to simply share the final result as a Google spreadsheet.
The master list itself consists of a very large table, which currently has 634 entries and 13 categories for each entry.
NVIDIA compatibility bits master list (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15UvZ6COCpaD8JJkMqB4KMTxBXoEfDuaDiiP--H4BJ-U/edit?usp=sharing)
MSAA+TrSSAA
MSAA+SGSSAA (Use TrSSAA instead of SGSSAA in OpenGL)
OGSSAA and post process AA (Includes DSR and ingame SSAA information)
OGSSAA hybrids (e.g. 16xS+4xSGSSAA)
DX8 and DX9 HBAO+
DX10 and DX11 HBAO+
Custom DX8, DX9 and OpenGL SLI
Custom DX10 and DX11 SLI
Essential tweaks (Includes gaming and system optimization tips)
Reference
Additional reference
Tweak guide
NVIDIA Inspector profile (Extract the .zip archive and import the .nip file using NVIDIA Profile Inspector (https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Orbmu2k/nvidiaprofileinspector/build/artifacts))
Newcomers to NVIDIA Inspector might want to take a closer look at the "NVIDIA Inspector profile" category in the far right column of the table.
Under this category you will be able to download already customized driver profiles for many games in .nip format, which can be imported using NVIDIA Inspector.
These profiles are mainly intended as templates, and should be further optimized for your particular hardware and personal preferences.
How to customize the driver profiles
All the options exposed by NVIDIA Inspector can be quite overwhelming at times, even for experienced users.
For this reason, I will include a few carefully selected examples of how to set up your NVIDIA Inspector profile, depending on whether you want to force SGSSAA or OGSSAA, enable HBAO+ or alternatively customize an SLI profile.
To make things perfectly clear, I have color coded each aspect of my examples in accordance with the master list spreadsheet.
Red is used for all variables related to antialiasing, green is used in the same way for HBAO+, while blue and yellow are used for respectively DX9 and DX11 SLI profiles.
Far Cry 3 with 4xSGSSAA forced and custom SLI profiles (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9577870&postcount=724))
http://abload.de/thumb/fc3_inspectorbrdye1asz4.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=fc3_inspectorbrdye1asz4.png) http://abload.de/thumb/farcry33_0x004010c1x6fom.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=farcry33_0x004010c1x6fom.png)
F.E.A.R. with 3x3 OGSSAA and HBAO+ forced (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9609522&postcount=3738))
http://abload.de/thumb/fear_hbao_3x3ogssaa_ixcsqg.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=fear_hbao_3x3ogssaa_ixcsqg.png) http://abload.de/thumb/fear_2014_02_16_15_034vu6j.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=fear_2014_02_16_15_034vu6j.png)
Mirror's Edge with 8xSGSSAA and HBAO+ forced, and a custom DX9 SLI profile (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10331833&postcount=1638))
http://abload.de/thumb/mirrorsedge_inspectoruls1c.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=mirrorsedge_inspectoruls1c.png) http://abload.de/thumb/mirrorsedge1_8xsgssaa4au5j.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=mirrorsedge1_8xsgssaa4au5j.png)
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation with 8xSGSSAA and HBAO+ forced, and a "special" custom DX9 SLI profile (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10244712&postcount=5904))
https://abload.de/thumb/pkhd_combined_inspectz5kkl.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=pkhd_combined_inspectz5kkl.png) http://abload.de/thumb/pkhd1_8xsgssaa_2fm6uxd.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=pkhd1_8xsgssaa_2fm6uxd.png)
Just Cause 2 with 2.25xDSR and 4xMSAA enhanced with 4xSGSSAA (Full reference (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=10221720&postcount=84))
https://abload.de/thumb/jc2_combined_settingsfcsi5.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=jc2_combined_settingsfcsi5.png) http://abload.de/thumb/jc2_ssao_high_resizede4k07.png (http://abload.de/image.php?img=jc2_ssao_high_resizede4k07.png)
NVIDIA Profile Inspector menu
https://abload.de/img/inspector_menu_templam5pj1.png
Overview of driver AA modes in different APIs
http://abload.de/img/revised_aa_overview_tgrj8l.png
With the above examples, I have tried to cover most of the basics of how to customize your driver profiles using NVIDIA Inspector.
For more details, you will have to read and follow the instructions in the posts linked under "Reference", "Additional reference" and "Tweak guide" in the spreadsheet.
Since there seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding the various driver AA modes in different APIs, I have also put a small overview table together.
The calculated DSR resolutions in this table are based on a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.
Motivation and other threads
My main incentive for starting this thread is to put things in one place and gain some overview.
To demonstrate what I mean, I have made a list of all the major threads created on the topics of custom AA, AO and SLI profiles in the last few years:
Date started|Forum|Thread name|Abbreviation and link
2 September 2010|3DCenter|Antialiasing - Kompatibilitätsbits – Sammelthread|3DCenter AA thread (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=490867)
1 December 2010|3DCenter|Ambient Occlusion im Treiber – Kompatibilitätsliste|3DCenter AO thread (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=496760)
31 December 2010|Rage3D|Nvidia AA flags|NVIDIA AA flags (http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33972293)
16 January 2011|Guru3D|Nvidia AA guide|NVIDIA AA guide (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=336854)
21 June 2011|3DCenter|SLI - Kompatibilitätsbits – Sammelthread|3DCenter SLI thread (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=509912)
29 January 2012|Guru3D|NVidia Anti-Aliasing Guide (updated)|Guru3D AA thread (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=357956)
21 May 2013|GeForce|Petition for DirectX 11 Anti-aliasing driver profiles|GeForce DX11 AA Petition (https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/544701/geforce-drivers/petition-for-directx-11-anti-aliasing-driver-profiles/)
28 July 2013|Guru3D|NVidia SLI Guide|Guru3D SLI thread (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=379960)
3 March 2014|Guru3D|HBAO+ Compatibility Flags Thread|Guru3D HBAO+ thread (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=387114)
14 April 2014|PCGH|[Sammelthread] HBAO+ Kompatibilitätsbits|PCGH HBAO+ Kompatibilitätsbits (http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/grafikkarten/328894-sammelthread-hbao-kompatibilitaetsbits.html#post6336308)
11 May 2015|Guru3D|Nvidia Profile Inspector introduction and Guide|NVIDIA Inspector guide (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=403676)
The goal of my thread is not to replace any of the above threads, or in any way negate the excellent work still being done there.
The basic idea is however to gather relevant information from each thread, edit or remove certain problematic entries, and hopefully make it easier for everyone to find what they need.
Since writing game specific tweak guides is a big passion of mine, I will also include useful posts and other relevant information for some games, even if no driver profile customization is needed.
Background information
Ever since NVIDIA released the 8800 GTX back in November 2006, it has been possible to force traditional MSAA alongside Shader Model 3.0 HDR in certain games (e.g. Far Cry and Oblivion).
However doing so required a custom AA profile to hack the driver, and tell it how to render the final image with both HDR and driver AA enabled.
Later on custom DX9 AA profiles also became necessary to force MSAA in games using deferred lighting or shading methods (e.g. Unreal Tournament III and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl).
Then in April 2009, NVIDIA included support for driver forced SSAO (185.68 BETA).
This again required a separate custom AO profile for each game to achieve the optimal shadow depth effect.
And finally with the release of the Fermi architecture in March 2010, it became possible for GTX 480 and GTX 470 owners to enhance ingame DX10 and DX11 MSAA settings with driver SGSSAA or TrSSAA, something that had never been possible before (e.g. Aliens vs. Predator DX11 and Just Cause 2):
GeForce GTX 480/470 with unmatched image quality in modern games (PCGamesHardware.com) (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,745901/Geforce-GTX-480/470-with-unmatched-image-quality-in-modern-games/Reviews/)
In May of the same year the 256 driver series was released (257.15 BETA), which meant that the traditional driver profile customization tool Nhancer seized to work.
Eventually all the functionalities (albeit not the great user interface) of Nhancer was replaced by the GeForce 3D Profile Manager (http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2625/~/after-updating-my-display-driver,-i-no-longer-see-nvapps.xml.-did-something) and NVIDIA Inspector (http://orbmu2k.de/tools/nvidia-inspector-tool).
Another big milestone to NVIDIA IQ enthusiasts was automatic driver LOD adjustment in DirectX with forced or enhanced SGSSAA, which was finalized in January 2013 (313.95 BETA).
The last major improvements to driver forced AA and AO must be the introduction of the TF2 AA fix (http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=9766133&postcount=4226) in May 2013 (320.14 BETA), and the upgrade from SSAO to HBAO+ (http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-331-40-beta-drivers-released) in September 2013 (331.40 BETA).
It is also worth mentioning, that NVIDIA brought their official downsampling feature Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) (http://techreport.com/review/27102/maxwell-dynamic-super-resolution-explored) to the Fermi and Kepler architectures in October 2014 (344.48 WHQL).
Previously this functionality was limited to GTX 980 and GTX 970 users, since the introduction of these second generation Maxwell cards (GM204) in September 2014.
Some final remarks and the changelog
The information in the master list spreadsheet is the result of several years of hard work by various users on especially the 3DCenter, Guru3D and GeForce forums.
This thread would not be possible without the help of the dedicated people from these gaming and hardware communities.
Special thanks go to aufkrawall (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=35798), Blade II (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=14273), Blaire (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=12085), MrBonk (https://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/member.php?u=33158), stereo3D (https://forums.geforce.com/member/1796382/) and others for their contributions.
Rebuilding all of the contents from existing AA, AO and SLI threads into one coherent database has been a big challenge from start to finish.
In this process I have both modified and removed some of the original entries, as well as added new information as I came across it.
All of this was done to achieve the best possible overall result, while trying to prevent the size of the final master list and the amount of information in it from exploding.
I will try to keep the list as updated as possible, using both the above AA, AO and SLI threads as well as other reputable sites across the web.
Any major additions or changes made to the spreadsheet or the OP will be included in the changelog below.
Finally it should be noted, that I have also posted a version of this thread in the Guru3D (http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4908843&postcount=1) forums, which will be updated alongside its 3DCenter counterpart.
Changelog (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sw9cILgZzE9-NIc1ZF51_P1cm8O9xCf8_VNcfhSLLvg/edit?usp=sharing)