Graphics Tweaks

[MattyO]

I know this is old, but I still need it every so often, and I am sure other people still look for these settings every now and then too. Any other tips and tricks for better graphics in NR2003 feel free to add them.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season Graphics Tweaks

Open up your "C:/Papyrus/Nascar Racing 2003 Season" directory (this is the default path, modify as needed if installed elsewhere).

Open your CORE.INI file with Notepad and make the following changes:

[FileLRUCache]
Cachesize=4194304

Just put a 1 in front of the number. It should read:

[FileLRUCache]
Cachesize=14194304

Next, look for the:

[Memory]
Maxblocksize=131072

You'll have to calculate the amount of RAM you have. Just multiply your RAM by 1024.
(Example: 512x1024=524288)

Then insert that number so it reads:

[Memory]
Maxblocksize=524288

Save the CORE.INI file and close it.

Next, open the REND_OGL.INI (if running in OpenGL) or the REND_DXG.INI (if running in Direct3D) with Notepad.

Look for the line that reads.

TextureSetSize= "number"

The "number" is what you want to replace. There is a formula for this...

( MB of video RAM) x (1048576) - ( 4 x Screen Width) x ( Screen Height) x (BPP) Bits Per Pixel, use (2) for 16bit or (4) for 32bit color.

NOTE: 16bit color will be less of a performance hog then 32bit color

HUH! WHAT THE?

The proper settings are listed here. Just look and match up your resolution with your color depth and you'll find the answer to the formula for your TextureSetSize.

32mb video card running in 16bit "Don't even try 32bit, it'll be a waste of your time"
640x480= 31096832
800x600= 29714432
1024x768= 27262974
1152x864= 25591801
1280x960= 23724032
1600x1200= 18194432

64mb video card running in 16bit
1024x768= 60817408
1152x864= 59146240
1280x960= 57278464
1600x1200= 51748864

64mb video card running in 32bit
1024x768= 54525952
1152x864= 51183616
1280x960= 47448064
1600x1200= 56388864

128mb video card running in 16bit "Crank it up"
1024x768= 127926272
1152x864= 126255104
1280x960= 1246387328
1600x1200= 118857728

128mb video card running in 32bit "Crank it up"
1024x768= 121634816
1152x864= 118292480
1280x960= 114556928
1600x1200= 103497728

256mb video card running in 16bit "It'll happen"
1024x768= 262144000
1152x864= 260472832
1280x960= 258605056
1600x1200= 253075456

256mb video card running in 32bit "It'll happen"
1024x768= 255852544
1152x864= 252510208
1280x960= 248774656
1600x1200= 237715456

Then look for the,

AnistropicLevel=8

Change the 8 to a 0 so that it reads:

AnistropicLevel=0

Save these changes and close the file.

Then, in your players directory (C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2003 Season\players\<lastname>__<firstname> is the default).
Open the PLAYER.INI file in Notepad.

Look for the line that reads

[Graphic Options]
texture_quality= -1

Change this number to a value between -1 and 100 for a increase in picture quality. This will give some performance hit, but the increase in eyecandy is well worth it.

[Graphic Options]
texture_quality= 100

There's a few more general things to keep in mind. The number of cars you draw ahead and behind will affect your FPS. The draw distance and mirror detail will affect FPS along with anisotropic filtering, lightmaps, reflections and shadows from cars or sturctures. Last but not least, Maximum Sounds Played has an effect on FPS. Lowering this to 8 seems to really help on many machines. These changes can be made under your options menu in the sims main menu screen. To tweak the most out of your system you'll want to play around with these settings until your happy with your FPS.

You can also take control of your Virtual memory settings. Under: Settings/Controlpanel/System/Performance/Virtual memory Select "let me Specify" Ignore the Windows warning. Then set your minimum and maximum to the same setting. Let's say, at least 500mb each or if you can spare it 1000mb minimum and maximum. This will prevent your HD from resizing it's memory Swap file during racing and eliminate some stuttering that occurs during game play.It's best to defrag often or even partition your HD with a 1gig partition and assign your virtual memory to that.

 

[TheEgg]

What about 512mb and 1gb video cards?

I have a 512mb card but I used the 256mb setting and it appears to work fine.

I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 16-BIT AND 32-BIT...so I have it set to 16-bit to save FPS (I'm not sure 32-bit is even costing me fps bc I don't even see it making a difference)

 

[Snoopy0626]

I have no idea where I found the this graphic tweaker form, it was so long ago more that like the site has gone

nrtweak.zip.zip

I find it does all the work for you

 

[Benzer]

this site here will calculate your card
NR2003 Graphics Tweaker By 2Quick4u

 

[Josh Mertz]

Thanks for that Benzer!

 

[Alan Harkleroad]

Learned something today.

With windows 7 using direct x 11 it changed some of the ways it did the grafix tweaks. I dont fully understand it yet. But i hope this helps anyone who needs it and uses windows 7.

I have a 512 meg video card so the Texture setting in the rend_dxg file for me is this: 520085504

The NRTweak utility tried to make me use this:251650048

Also it wants the pool or block size to match that value. This took me from 100 FPS to 1 FPS. Dont do it. You can use your texture at the setting for your card and resolution. Regardless of the 256 card recognition limit. But dont touch the pool number. If you increase that one with the texture maxed out it will kill your FPS.

Now i am back to clean and clear.

see what i mean with the proposed pool size. Stick with the little one and max out your texture set and you will be rolling.

 

[Johnson #48]

Anyone rememeber the reflections twek that switched them from CPU to GPU

 

[Alan Harkleroad]

never heard or read about that. Didnt know you could do that.

 

[Alan Harkleroad]

would be awesome if you could incorporate NVIDA's physx system into the game for dirt debri etc. Looks great in Batman and COD MW2 so i think it would make NASCAR bad azz!

 

[Johnson #48]

Think it had something to do with carmegashader

 

[darian8]

Nr2003 Frames Per Second Unusual Problem

When i play nr2003 i have about 20 frames per second and have done everything to try to get them up but it doesnt work. anyway when i play the game it stays steadily in that area and then every let say 30 seconds it slows down. the game will go in slow motion and the frames will drop a little. have enditall and everything. please help me

 

[overdose]

When i play nr2003 i have about 20 frames per second and have done everything to try to get them up but it doesnt work. anyway when i play the game it stays steadily in that area and then every let say 30 seconds it slows down. the game will go in slow motion and the frames will drop a little. have enditall and everything. please help me

Maybe try configuring your NR2003 from OpenGL to Direct3D or vice versa?

 

[Fernando]

I've done the tweaks above, and installed the Bullring COT mod, but the game doesn't work anymore (even with i putting the settings as 512mb RAM, but i have 3GB). What i did wrong?

 

[quadmaster]

Just wondering if someone could give me the original numbers in the rend_dxg.ini. was fooling around trying to get cockpit mode to not look so blurry ; changed some numbers and now forgot originals to start over!!

 

[S1RBubu]

delete or move the current one, then start NR2003, and it supposed to generate a new rend_dxg.ini for you automatically.

 

[Simcut]

*ignore dupe*

 

[Simcut]

Learned something today.

With windows 7 using direct x 11 it changed some of the ways it did the grafix tweaks. I dont fully understand it yet. But i hope this helps anyone who needs it and uses windows 7.

I have a 512 meg video card so the Texture setting in the rend_dxg file for me is this: 520085504

The NRTweak utility tried to make me use this:251650048

Also it wants the pool or block size to match that value. This took me from 100 FPS to 1 FPS. Dont do it. You can use your texture at the setting for your card and resolution. Regardless of the 256 card recognition limit. But dont touch the pool number. If you increase that one with the texture maxed out it will kill your FPS.

Now i am back to clean and clear.

see what i mean with the proposed pool size. Stick with the little one and max out your texture set and you will be rolling.

Hey man,

How on earth did you get NR Graphics Tweaker to work on Windows 7? it fails during install for me, doesnt want to register one of the .dll files, or did you click 'ignore' on that message?

Please let me know

 

[Flozz]

these helped out a lot, made the logo's on the cars a lot smoother

 

[SpinDragun]

i used the nr graphics tweaker and think i did something wrong. i have 64mb of video ram, and when i used the NGT, it will cause nr2k3 to crash after the papyrus loading screen. so i used original core and rend_dxg to restore them (leaving player.ini alone) and the game loaded fine but the car still looks like this:

what should i do?

 

[Mo Neenja31]

hey do i put Maxblocksize=524288 or my ram???