DGvoodoo2 guide: the best the old engine can be!

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besaidaurocks
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DGvoodoo2 guide: the best the old engine can be!

Post by besaidaurocks »

Right to start this guide off, this going to be my attempt to explain how to run old engine for maximum FPS and Quality. It is possible to get more frames out of the old engine and get pretty decent AA (anti-aliasing) with artifacting (like hotbars artifcating that can be present when forcing via nvidia panel).

This also meant as last guide you will need, the offical github for DGvoodoo2 say it is no longer being devloped. So this in thoery should be final setup you need you won't get newer versions.

As example of the pontential performance, I can see a steady 80fps in AI event raids with more 60+ people on screen where before i might see 40 FPS even in the old engine. This with decent modern hardware (5900x, AMD 6800xt).

So first why did I bother write this guide, aren't there other videos guides up? yes there are. However, with newer versions of dgvoodoo2 they added some settings that will tank your fps down 5 or 10 if go through ICC or LE mission area making unplayable in those zones, the workaround is to turn on phong lighting (this somehow bypasses the issue) but this breaks lighting and is unacceptable!! Since I know a have better way.
It is worth noting that some my settings fix transparent fringin at the edge of window with Anstropic filtering on.

I found alot of these setting with hundreds of hours of testing and relog.

First here is screenshot of what the game can look with proper settings and reshade on top.

All these settings in the screenshots were taken in Directx 12 mode, the Directx11 mode is okay but does provide the same FPS increase. DIRECTX 12 CAN DO 100FPS in ICC with average CPU. Also worth noting when open snippet for screenshot alot fps overlay stop reporting included the below with ingame counter to show ICC FPS.

https://ibb.co/zJzjw1F

ICC can be the place where Frames go the Trive, Not to die!!

Here is screenshot of Old engine running no tweaks or NVidia panel tweaks (AMD In my case)

https://ibb.co/pPXz9qS

The below is the end result of my tweaks
https://ibb.co/q0hhh5L

The below is my reshade settings (HDR optional i don't have on that often)
https://ibb.co/f8fQYGr

First you must navigate to the DGvoodoo2 website (http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/) download version 2.78.2. We need this version for 2 spefic reasons:

1: any earlier a version and it will report double FPS back to GPU. So as an example if your in-game FPS counter says 100FPS then what is reported back to GPU is 200 FPS on any overlay or in GPU software. This is not strictly bad but if you gysnc this might confuse the system and push out of Gsync range assuming you are using 144 hertz monitor.

2: any later a version and there is a spefic option called "specialized shader" that the toggle for is removed and On by default (can't be disabled) that we simply can not have.

Once downloaded and extracted to your preferred location. Then you simply need to drag drop all files in MS-->x86 folder in your AO installation main folder (The Contents only Not the folder). Also copy and paste the Control panel and Control panel Config files into your AO installion (this just keep config nice and clean).

Once you have done this open the control panel exe in the AO installion and it should bring up a program we will need change some settings on (the Dgvoodoo2 Control Panel). I will provide screenshots for those changes below and breif reasoning as to why but before that you must right click on blank space near the tab and click show all tab configuration options (something worded to that effect).

Now for the main settings, there are 3 main tabs we are care about here. That is the general, the directX and directX Ext tab. Please see the following settings for each.

General settings:

https://ibb.co/FY9SYCM

The important one on this tab is the directx12 selection, it is only one of wrapper options that give Multi-core enhancement as this built into directx12, using directx 11, I found gave no measurable performance increase by comparison. Dirextx11 also broke some monitoring overlays like RTSS. As point of comparsion see below:

Directx 11 ICC: 30-50 FPS
Dirextx 12 ICC: 80-100 FPS

Directx settings:

https://ibb.co/TPryWMs

There are few key settings here, the first is if your are using anistrophic filtering of any kind use the "force filter only if not point sampled" this will stop some weird transparent fringing at the edge of windows. One other key setting is Vram Set as high as you GPU allows, ideally 4096Mb of Vram. Then the last is "Fast video Memory Access" this just help fps and smoothness of gameplay. Disable mipmapping also helps with poor quality texture but i personally didn't see much of change but might just be my system.

DirectxExt Tab:

https://ibb.co/QmHnxHb

Please note before going forward that if you DON’T do the setting directx ext tab you will experience extreme stutter in few zones like MItaar. This a Critical section of guide.

To access to the Direct Ext tab you notice there is empty space where other tabs are right click here. You should get dropdown that present you with 2 options. One will default all setting and other will show the hidden tabs. Please show hidden tabs then make changes as guide shows below



Below is a screenshot of the tab that enable the directxext tab

https://ibb.co/tqC3Bcg

Now this is big boy tab where the most critical changes happen. First ensure that "dithering", "depth buffer" and "N-Patch Tessellation" tabs are seting to App Driven I found this gives best performance without effecting the colors or graininess of textures. Ensure the "Max vs Count Register" is set to 256, this another big performance setting though you will only really notice in high load scenarios like big ai events.

Now the big change setting is you MUST ENSURE IS DISABLED is "enabled Speclised Shader". It must be unticked and off. This setting break the FPS In ICC and LE mish to point it drops down 5 becomes unplayable. This setting was not in early dgvoodoo2 version like one in calooss video (which also good guide mind but made out of date by the newer verison now) (but doubling of FPS reported back to you gpu is) and it is this setting that missing but defaults to on (can't be disable) in the new versions. This is main reason we need 2.78.2.

If you followed all above you should see notable FPS improvment particular in ICC and increased use of cores if you have newer CPU. One major upside of this is now old engine is running as directx12 we can run reshade, with setting I linked above I get very close in feel to new engine.

Hope this was helpful, in ironing out some quirks of dgvoodoo2 and help anyone who updated to newer versions, only to get worse experience.

Also ensure when you next boot into anarchy online, hit settings and under the visual tab and rendering device, ensure you see dgvoodoo2 in the name that is good indicator it is running and you haven't misssed a file.

On a side note I tried this on new engine to see if I could optimize the game a bit but sadly directx12 will instant crash the new engine and directx11 which i got working does not show performance increase.

If this was helpful let other know so they can get the best out of it.
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Noorb
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Re: DGvoodoo2 guide: the best the old engine can be!

Post by Noorb »

Downloaded the 2.78.2 version of DGvoodoo2 and ran through this guide.
I do not see DirectxEXT as an option within the control panel??
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besaidaurocks
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Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 3:12 pm

Re: DGvoodoo2 guide: the best the old engine can be!

Post by besaidaurocks »

Hi Noorb,

when control panel is open if click on any blank space area, with right click you see in drop down and opition called "show all sections of the configurations" this will enable the Directext tab.

Make sense?
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Noorb
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Re: DGvoodoo2 guide: the best the old engine can be!

Post by Noorb »

Got it!

thank you!

=)
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