Игры

RAGE Patch Release Notes - October 8th 2011

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RAGE defaults to lower video settings to allow the game to work on a

wide variety of hardware аnd software configurations.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to anticipate all possible graphics

driver issues in combination with unique end user hardware аnd software

configurations. For this reason RAGE does not automatically increase

video/graphics settings as this could result in negative side effects

on specific hardware аnd software configurations. The original release

of RAGE does not expose many video/graphics options for people to tweak

because some of these settings, although desirable from a quality

perspective, simply will not work on specific configurations either due

to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs. Due to popular demand for

more video аnd graphics options, this patch updates the video settings

menu аnd exposes several quality аnd performance settings. However, not

everyone may be able to increase the settings due to hardware limitations

and/or driver bugs.



VSync

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The new "VSync" option in the video settings menu allows you to remove

screen tearing. There are three options: ON, OFF аnd SMART.



When VSync is turned OFF you may experience screen tearing.



When VSync is turned ON you should not see screen tearing. However,

any time your frame rate drops below 60 frames per second you will

get a sudden more severe drop to 30 frames per second. This is how VSync

inherently works. If your computer cannot maintain 60 frames per

second аnd you miss the synchronization to the vertical retrace of

your monitor then you will miss a whole frame аnd synchronize to

the next frame instead.



Some graphics drivers now support a so called "swap-tear" extension.

You can try using this extension by setting VSync to SMART.

If your graphics driver supports this extension аnd you set VSync

to SMART then RAGE will synchronize to the vertical retrace of

your monitor when your computer is able to maintain 60 frames per

second аnd the screen may tear if your frame rate drops below 60 frames

per second. In other words the SMART VSync option trades a sudden drop

to 30 frames per second with occasional screen tearing. Occasional

screen tearing is usually considered less distracting than a more

severe drop in frame rate.



If your graphics driver does not support SMART VSync аnd you set VSync

to SMART in the video settings then RAGE will automatically fall back to

turning VSync OFF аnd you may experience screen tearing. The "swap-tear"

extension is brand new аnd may still present some issues on certain

graphics hardware. If you experience any problems using SMART Vsync

then set VSync to either ON or OFF. We are actively working with the

graphics hardware vendors to improve the "swap-tear" extension.



If changing VSync in the RAGE video settings menu does not appear to

make any difference then make sure you are not overriding the VSync

setting in the graphics vendor control panel. You can find the

graphics vendor control panel by right-clicking on the Windows desktop

аnd selecting the " control panel" option from the pop-up menu.



If you force VSync to the on setting in the graphics vendor control

panel then you should not see any screen tearing in RAGE but you may

get a more severe drop in frame rate if your computer cannot maintain

60 frames per second.



If you force VSync to the off setting in the graphics vendor control

panel then you may experience screen tearing no matter what setting you

use for the VSync option in the RAGE video settings menu.



Texture Cache

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The new "Texture Cache" option in the video settings menu allows you

to increase the texture cache size to keep more texture data in

video memory.



If the Texture Cache is set to LARGE then RAGE will keep more texture

data in video memory. This may not only significantly reduce blurry

textures аnd texture popping, it will also allow complex scenes to be

rendered with more texture detail.



However, this may not work on computers that do not have enough system

or video memory, or you may experience a significant drop in performance.

If you experience issues due to hardware limitations you will have to set

the Texture Cache back to SMALL.



If after changing the Texture Cache to LARGE you experience a crash or

texture corruption (like a partially or completely blue world) then

the graphics driver may have run out of memory.



We are actively working with the graphics card vendors to resolve

any crashes.



If you do not experience a crash but you see texture corruption then you

may be able to get the large Texture Cache to work by accepting the change

аnd restarting the game. If you still experience texture corruption after

restarting the game you will have to set the Texture Cache back to SMALL.



You may also be able to improve the memory situation on your computer by

changing the Windows paging file management. Note that making changes to

the Windows paging file management may change the performance characteristics

of your computer. Any changes you make to your system configuration are

at your own risk. Always make backups of your system аnd revert these

changes if you notice undesirable side effects.



To change the paging file management on Windows Vista аnd Windows 7, first

press the "Start" button, then right-click on "Computer" аnd then select

"Properties" from the popup menu. Then select "Advanced system settings"

on the window that appears. Select the "Advanced" tab on the

"System Properties" window that is displayed аnd press the "Settings"

button under "Performance". Select the "Advanced" tab on the

"Performance Options" window that shows up next аnd press the

"Change..." button under "Virtual memory". Now uncheck the option

"Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" аnd make

sure that the option "System managed size" is selected on the

"Virtual Memory" window. Confirm the change by pressing the "OK" button

on each window. After making this change you will have to restart your

computer for the change to take effect.



To change the paging file management on Windows XP, first press the

"Start" button, then right-click on "My Computer" аnd then select

"Properties" from the popup menu. Select the "Advanced" tab on the

"System Properties" window that is displayed аnd press the "Settings"

button under "Performance". Select the "Advanced" tab on the

"Performance Options" window that shows up next аnd press the "Change"

button under "Virtual memory". Make sure that the option

"System managed size" is selected on the "Virtual Memory" window.

Confirm the change by pressing the "OK" button on each window.

After making this change you will have to restart your computer for

the change to take effect.



Anisotropic Filter

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The new "Anisotropic Filter" option in the video settings menu allows

you to increase the anisotropic texture filtering.



Anisotropic filtering is a method to enhance the image quality of

textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles.



The anisotropic texture filtering in RAGE defaults to a low value to

accommodate for low-end graphics hardware. However, the anisotropic

filtering can be increased for high-end graphics hardware by setting

the Anistropic Filter option to HIGH in the video settings menu.



Do not force anisotropic filtering to the ‘on’ setting in the graphics

vendor control panel because this may cause rendering artifacts in

the game.



Note that increasing the anisotropic filtering may improve the

texture quality while it may also decrease the frame rate.



Patch Changes / Fixes

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- Implemented workaround for AMD driver crash right after intro cinematic

on Win 7 32-bit systems.

- Disabled UBOs because they are causing animation issues with AMD drivers.

- Dont allow swap-tear to be enabled on AMD while the extension is not

exposed because it may crash.

- Support for new video settings: "texture cache", "vsync" аnd

"anisotropic filter"

- Automatically adjust vt_maxPPF based on the number of available cores.

- Improved performance for SLI cards when GPU transcode is enabled.

- Fix for GPU Transcoding option being disabled after exiting gameplay.

- Added safe mode to restore video settings to default values.

- Allow g_fov to be changed from the RAGE launch options in Steam.

- Server now forwards text chat from clients to all other clients while

in-game.



Known Graphical Issues

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The following issues were found using NVIDIA graphics hardware with

the GeForce R285 Driver or AMD graphics hardware with the AMD Catalyst

11.10 Version 2 Preview Driver.



- If you turn up both the screen resolution аnd anti-aliasing settings

to high values in the video settings menu and/or you enable

"GPU Transcode" then the screen may no longer update on some hardware

configurations. This means your system does not have the necessary

video memory to run with these high settings. You can re-enter the video

settings menu аnd lower your settings to restart screen updates.



- If you turn up both the screen resolution аnd anti-aliasing settings

to high values in the video settings menu you may experience a crash

if your system does not have the necessary memory to run with these

high settings. To avoid this problem you will have to re-enter the

video settings menu to lower the settings. If you can no longer launch

the game after changing the video settings to high values you can add

the following to your RAGE launch options in Steam:



+com_safemode 1



The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam

аnd selecting "Properties". Then click on "Set Launch Options" in

the dialog that pops up. Adding this option will reset your video

settings to the default values the next time the game is launched.

When the game is launched in safe mode the game will show "safe mode"

in the corners of the screen. Do not forget to remove the safe mode

launch option after launching the game once to make sure you do not

lose your video settings each time you launch the game.



- Using a NVIDIA graphics card on Windows XP 32-bit or XP 64-bit, you

may experience a crash or hang when changing the screen resolution in

full screen mode or switching from windowed mode to full screen mode.

This has been identified as a graphics driver problem. We have spent

significant effort trying to work around this problem аnd were

successful in reducing the frequency of occurrence but a driver update

is necessary to completely fix the problem. We are actively working with

NVIDIA to make a solution to this problem available as soon as possible.



- Using an AMD graphics card, you may experience black flickering

artifacts on flags, banners аnd zip-lines if you run in full screen

mode. This has been identified as a graphics driver problem. We are

actively working with AMD on a solution to this problem.



- Using an AMD graphics card, you may experience black grid lines on

some graphical user interface (GUI) elements like the in-game mini-map.

This has been identified as a graphics driver problem. We are actively

working with AMD on a solution to this problem. If you find the grid

lines particularly distracting, you can add the following to the RAGE

launch options in Steam as a temporary workaround.



+vt_maxAniso 1



The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam

аnd selecting "Properties". Then click on "Set Launch Options" in

the dialog that pops up. However, note that adding this setting will

lower the general texture quality in the game.



- If you have an AMD graphics card with a dual core CPU system you may

experience severe hitching аnd low frame rates. This has been

identified as a driver problem. We are actively working with AMD on

a solution to this problem. As a temporary workaround you may add the

following to the RAGE launch options in Steam:



+jobs_numThreads 0



The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam

аnd selecting "Properties". Then click on "Set Launch Options" in

the dialog that pops up.



- If you are running RAGE in full-screen mode аnd you ALT-TAB to a

different application you may lose your VSync setting. When you

switch to a different application VSync stops functioning.

RAGE detects that VSync is no longer working аnd automatically switches

back to synchronizing to real-time to make sure the game time advances

in a consistent manner. We are actively working with the graphics

vendors on a solution to this problem.