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RAGE Patch Release Notes - October 8th 2011
RAGE defaults to lower video settings to allow the game to work on a wide variety of hardware and software configurations. Unfortunately, it is not possible to anticipate all possible graphics driver issues in combination with unique end user hardware and software configurations. For this reason RAGE does not automatically increase video/graphics settings as this could result in negative side effects on specific hardware and 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 and graphics options, this patch updates the video settings menu and exposes several quality and performance settings. However, not
everyone may be able to increase the settings due to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs.
VSync
The new "VSync" option in the video settings menu allows you to remove screen tearing. There are three options: ON, OFF and 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 and you miss the synchronization to the vertical retrace of your monitor then you will miss a whole frame and 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 and 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 and 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 and you set VSync to SMART in the video settings then RAGE will automatically fall back to turning VSync OFF and you may experience screen tearing. The "swap-tear" extension is brand new and 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 and selecting the "<Vendor> 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
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 and 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 and 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 and revert these changes if you notice undesirable side effects.
To change the paging file management on Windows Vista and Windows 7, first press the "Start" button, then right-click on "Computer" and 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 and press the "Settings" button under "Performance". Select the "Advanced" tab on the "Performance Options" window that shows up next and press the
"Change..." button under "Virtual memory". Now uncheck the option "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" and 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" and then select "Properties" from the popup menu. Select the "Advanced" tab on the "System Properties" window that is displayed and press the "Settings" button under "Performance". Select the "Advanced" tab on the "Performance Options" window that shows up next and 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
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 ëoní 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.