Settings, let's talk about TGC Quality Settings!

[FaultyClubs]

With all the people buying expensive hardware in order to get super-duper image quality in TGC I thought it was time for a thread discussing how to actually achieve this!

It would be nice to buy a top-end graphics card and turn all the settings to the max but in TGC that's a sure fire way to get terrible results. There are actually 9 quality related settings in TGC and one needs to understand them all for the best results.

I spent one looong evening once playing with the settings. After all that work I thought it would be good to post so others wouldn't have to re-invent the wheel. There's actually a lot to cover so it will be uber long but hopefully it covers all the basic information needed to optimize the video quality settings.

Since it's long, I'll split it into multiple posts. They'll cover:

1) What to look for when adjusting image quality
2a) TGC settings that affect quality - the easy ones
2b) TGC settings that affect quality - the tricky ones
3) How to tune HQ Tree Count, HQ Tree Distance and Object Detail
4) Quick tip for seeing the effect of Tree Count, Tree Distance and Object Detail visually
5) Suggested TGC settings

If you have something to add or I've gone horribly wrong somewhere please feel free to post up!

Posts to follow...

[p3eps]

I hope someone makes this a sticky. Very informative and very helpful - thank you.
I'll try following some of this at the weekend and see if I can optimise my settings.

[Ookie]

Thanks for sharing.

I have a monster PC (Skylake, 32GB RAM, 1080Ti). Going to try and see how far I can go with it.

[FaultyClubs]

Cleaning up my files and thought I'd post some pictures showing typical differences between Object Detail 1 and 3.

Below is Sawgrass hole #17. The first image is using OD1 and the second OD3 (everything else is on max).

OD1



OD3



The images are while standing on the tee. I've highlighted areas of typical differences.

With OD1 the building has less stuff on it (objects such as windows trim etc), the planted bushes to the left of the green are missing shadows, and various markers are missing.


Another example would be the planted grass in TPC Boston hole #3. The first image is OD1 and the second is OD3.

OD1




OD3




Note that as one moves closer the extra detail seen in OD3 becomes visible even in OD1. This means everyone gets a great picture as they get closer but it also creates the "popping in" side-effect I discussed in the original posts.

[FaultyClubs]

A quick note on stuttering.

There are many possible causes for stuttering. It may be inherent in the game design itself, inherent in the graphics hardware, buggy drivers, overly ambitious user settings, too many or poorly behaved background processes/services, vsync (on or off) side-effects, and even Windows itself since it isn't a realtime operating system. Some you can affect, others you cannot. But if you experience stuttering with otherwise good frame rates it is worth checking these factors.

At the very least, make sure you have the latest graphics drivers and avoid changing default settings without a thorough understanding of their impact.

And check that programs being loaded at startup aren't the culprit. Nowadays it seems every program wants to insert itself into your Windows experience. Occasionally Windows becomes confused and tries to load the same program twice. Virus scanners, Windows updates, MS office, Shadowplay etc...all part of your "rich Windows experience" but not necessarily conducive to smooth play! If you are investigating the source for stuttering it is worth vetting all additional programs.

Also understand the FPS you see with FRAPS, Shadowplay, Steam etc is a heavily averaged number. So if you've been adjusting your quality settings based on a minimum frame rate it may actually be temporarily dropping to a much lower number. If you suspect this is the case then reduce quality settings for a higher overall frame rate and see if that helps. Checking the actual frame times for each frame is always good practice if you know how.

[keither5150]

Well done FC! It is also worth mentioning that certain courses are harder on the GPU than others. When you find one of these courses, dial back the trees a bit to keep your FPS up close to 60.

[Wyzyguy]

Wow.. great thread.. thanks for the info...

[Thinman]

Bump & thanks

[Misike]

Great post. Maybe I'm missing the very obvious, but where in TGC are these settings. Looked last night, and couldn't find them anywhere. I'm sure it's obvious once you find them, but I didn't see them in any of the option menus....

[mthunt]

Settings, display for settings or low, med, high at startup.

[Misike]

Settings, display for settings or low, med, high at startup.

Yeah. Found the low, med, high at startup. Couldn't find the tree count, water, object detail, vsync, etc. Will look again next time I'm over there.

[ProTee United]

SETTINGS->DISPLAY ... then SCROLL DOWN the options.

[aeroburner]

its in the options after you start up TGC and get into the game

[Tonyd9366]

Rrally cool faulty. I was able to make some adjustments and the game looks better. appreciate it..

[richdmb]

i need help!!!

i am about to chuck my computer out of the window (good thing it's in the basement).

i have a new gaming computer I had built. i was troubleshooting getting protee/TGC working, but it all connects and everything now.

i just started to adjust quality settings last night, i put the settings to what seems to work well for others on this thread:
OD 3
water quality max
tree count 1000
tree distance 300
anti-aliasing on
depth of field off
VSync on

but, everything is choppy and stutters. flyovers are slow and stuttering.

i thought the specs of my computer would be enough to handle these settings.
I have:
intel core i7-7700, 3.6 ghz
16 gb ram
GTX 1080
1 TB Harddrive
250 gb SSD

i'm looking at youtube videos of people doing flyovers are nice and smooth and quicker than mine. my geforce experience isn't allowing me to turn sharing on so i can't do the framerate overlay, so i don't know what my frame rate is, but based on my PC specs compared to some others, i thought it should be able to handle these settings.

any suggestions?

please help!

[inorkuo]

Get an adapter to convert from hdmi to vga. I think they run about $5.00.

[richdmb]

cool. thanks for the suggestion!

[richdmb]

So i found that if i go tondisplay setting and set to "extend" the screen, i can run TGC on my projector thru the graphics card while playing youtube videos and whatnot on my monitor connected to the regular integrated processor via vga cable. However, if i click on the monitor screen, then the full screen TGC on the projector will turn to windowed. Anyone know how to prevent that?

Also, i found, with my system, that i can max out the quality settings in tgc, like increase OD to 5 and up the tree settings and everything still runs smoothly! But i dont visually notice much difference. Part of that may be my 16:10 native projector tho. Should have went with a 1080p projector, dangit

[ProTee United]

Did you install the latest NVidia Graphics card drivers from nvidia.com ?

[richdmb]

yes, i installed it last night through the geforce experience program

[G4zzel]

Great stuff FaultyC! I was fiddeling round with the settings but didnt find any good setting for my computer. Now i will try this! Thanks!
I have a 1060 3GB card.