Poe - DX11 ambient occlusion and LOD bias | for NVIDIA GPUS

Edit 1.1: after testings, it looks like F1 2012 profile with PERFORMANCE quality setting looks the best with lowest amount of flicker/bugs. I recommend this setting.

Hi Guys, so i messed a bit with the " nvidia profile inspector " to enable AO and negative lod bias with the DX11 variant of the poe's executable, it works.

Disclaimer:
This post is not a technical HELP SUPPORT, it is for test purposes and to improve graphisms. There is no risks nor advantages to use thoses parameters.
IT MAY REDUCE FPS DRAMATICALLY.



You absolutely need a program called NVIDIA profile inspector

With nvidia profile inspector, we can force the usage of a direct X compatibility patch made by nvidia for others games



Ambient Occlusion : Adds shades of black and grey similar to shadows around the edges of objects and surfaces to improve the overall picture quality.

poe is not totally compatible with the necessary profile
Thoses shades may flicker, the screen can turn black sometimes randomly, the map can disappear!

profile used: F1 2012 (strong effect) or F1 2014 (ultra strong effect)
Other profiles will have not effect, can obliterate the fps or crash. F1 2012 and 2014 should be the best ones but you can test by yourself.



Negative lod bias : sharpen the textures, cleaner but can shimmer when the camera is moving, especially with shiny items like the gold "lightning" effect.


The dx11 MSAA 4x / 8x adds a bit of blurring on the picture, so negative lod bias counters it easily. A value of -1.5 for MSAA 4X and -2.5 for 8X looks good. I personally use -3.0, the maximum.


AO comparison

before

http://tof.canardpc.com/view/84e49b19-6fb3-4475-acf6-9e3107a15be9.jpg


after

http://tof.canardpc.com/view/04ec2696-2e4c-4889-8b1d-895531672269.jpg


Too subtle? open both links and compare them... the difference cannot be unseen!


How

Open nvidia profile inspector

first we add the x64 variant of POE to the native POE profile of NVIDIA

- Search "path of exile"

- click on the little green cross

- navigate the the install folder of poe and select the x64 variant: pathofexile_x64.exe

http://tof.canardpc.com/view/3b96718a-ae41-4f77-8534-8de6e284229b.jpg


Then modificate the lines in the redboxes as shown in thoses pictures

http://tof.canardpc.com/view/fc1f7f50-aef7-40dc-93b6-5dc63c369c8b.jpg


http://tof.canardpc.com/view/d1772813-49f5-475f-98ec-25ff40a0879d.jpg


DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK on APPLY CHANGE after the modifications

Anti aliasing transparency supersampling line : AA mode replay mode all allows the negative lod bias, lod bias cannot be modified without this setting

ambient occlusion setting :

- HIGH or HIGH QUALITY seems to have no difference, HIGH has less flickers maybe? dunno, try both if you wish. Both will turn the screen black sometimes and flicker a bit when walking on stairs.

- Performance setting is blurrier however it looks , to my taste, the best and is almost bug less.


The best setting seems to be FI 2012 with Performance quality setting.

Edit 1.1: after testings, it looks like F1 2012 profile with PERFORMANCE quality setting looks the best with lowest amount of flicker/bugs. I recommend this setting.

The only difference I see between before and after is that the after shot looks less saturated and a bit lighter. I prefer the before tbh.

Congrats you've introduced a ton of instability for a modestly imperceptible boost in image quality! 10/10

"

MonstaMunch wrote:

The only difference I see between before and after is that the after shot looks less saturated and a bit lighter. I prefer the before tbh.

It should be the opposite, havent you inverted the pictures in your browser?
Before looks lighter, with less shadows around all the surfaces. Compare both boats on both pictures, you will see the extra shadows. Same for the pillars of the bridges.

because AO adds "fake shadows", it always look a bit darker.

And tiem, well you are somehow right, but the image quality is really improved, i like the difference. The performance setting works decently, sometimes the grey shades flicker but it's not really disturbing.

Note: i had no crashes after 30 hours of gameplay with performance setting enabled. So it's stable.