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Pro Tips for PC Gaming (like a Pro)

Snuggler said:
ps3padxm52.png


I find myself recommending MotionInJoy very often on these boards since many posters don't seem to realize that their PS3 pad can be used in place of a 360 pad in any game with native support. It'll save you a good $40 or so if you don't own already own a 360 pad. It's also worth noting that you can fully remap the buttons using the program, so you'll never be stuck with using the mushy triggers for aim/shoot.

It's fairly easy to install, all you need is your pad, it's USB cable, and a functioning brain. It also can be used wirelessly if you have a blue tooth dongle.



If this thread hangs around I'll try to make a step by step guide for the program.

can someone who already has this up and running on Bluetooth recommend a cheap and easily (ordered) Bluetooth adapter for this thing? I spent around 40 bucks on three different Bluetooth devices and non worked, you need a specific type I think.

it'll be really cool to provide an Amazon or something link to a 100% compatible and reliable Bluetooth adapter
 
Learn to hate all other platforms and have an insane and unsubstantiated sense of entitlement

Please be good to yourself and run in a redundant RAID mode! Performance increase aside, save yourself the regret when a device decides to die :(
 
Nabs said:
radeoniyfr.jpg

http://www.radeonpro.info/en-US/

It's a great tool to manage your ATI graphics settings on a per-game basis. Don't bother with CCC again.

This is a very good program. Especially useful is the "Driver Compatibility" function, without it I couldn't enable AA(even forced through CCC) on games such as NFS: Hot Pursuit or Oblivion on my HD6970 and the latest Catalyst drivers. I now use the Catalyst 10e drivers for both those games and AA works perfectly.

Here's the guide - http://www.radeonpro.info/en-US/Manual/36/Mastering-Driver-compatibility
 
EricHasNoPull said:
can someone who already has this up and running on Bluetooth recommend a cheap and easily (ordered) Bluetooth adapter for this thing? I spent around 40 bucks on three different Bluetooth devices and non worked, you need a specific type I think.

it'll be really cool to provide an Amazon or something link to a 100% compatible and reliable Bluetooth adapter


Not from Amazon but this is the one that was recommended for use with Motionjoy that I ordered:

http://www.gameaccy.com/bluetooth-dongle-for-motioninjoy
 
I think this is a good thread to ask this question.

Is there a program that lets me use the wiimote for FPS games?, specifically Battlefield:BC2 and COD:BO
 
Sinatar said:
Yes, RadeonPro's triple buffering is sketchy at best, it doesn't work with most games.
That said, Nvidia's driver triple-buffering only applies to Open-GL titles (which 95% of titles aren't).

However, when you do encounter an Open-GL game, you have to use this instead of D3Doverrider for obvious reasons.
 
Yasae said:
I also found out that you have to run it as admin to get the compatibility frame. Very important when forcing AA on certain games (Dead Space, Mass Effect 2 etc.)

Why do you need to run in compatibility mode for these games? And which option do you select from the drop menu?
 
jim-jam bongs said:
Good stuff so far. As a companion to Nabs' post about Radeon Pro, I recommend Nvidia Inspector for people on the Geforce side of the fence.

One important thing about Nvidia Inspector: when you open the application it's not immediately apparent where you need to go to adjust settings per game, so if you're having trouble it's just here:

nvidia-inspector.png

Is there a beginners guide for this? I'd like to optimize my 570 but don't understand all the different AA setting and what not.
 
I have a bit of a noob question. Let's say I have my GPU overclocked using MSI Afterburner right now. What would happen if I switched to EVGA Precision and changed my overclock settings there? Would it cause a conflict between the two programs?
 
When using MotioninJoy, are you able to assign the dpad to certain functions(like showing the map in BFBC2) and use the left analog to move?

I'm having that problem currently with my PS2 controller while using my converter to my PC and the last time I tried to use MotioninJoy
 
Awesome thread. One question, is Nvidia inspector better than Nhancer? The later is the application that I downloaded for use, yet I didn't really use it much.
 
Rekubot said:
What's a recommended FOV for 1920x1080 resolution? Does it vary from game to game?

I always use 75 at that res, some people say higher is better but much higher and it starts to look like tunnel vision imo.
 
lowrider007 said:
I always use 75 at that res, some people say higher is better but much higher and it starts to look like tunnel vision imo.

FoV isn't the same for all games, I believe some get the number "vertically" and others "horizontally", so take that as you will.
 
Hulud said:
I have a bit of a noob question. Let's say I have my GPU overclocked using MSI Afterburner right now. What would happen if I switched to EVGA Precision and changed my overclock settings there? Would it cause a conflict between the two programs?

As long as you uninstall Afterburner, it should be fine. It's a software overclock so it shouldn't conflict as long as the MSI afterburner isn't operational while the EVGA is. But you should use Afterburner anyway.

Eltacoman said:
Is there a beginners guide for this? I'd like to optimize my 570 but don't understand all the different AA setting and what not.

It's the general rule of thumb to use the in-game AA first but if that's absolutely crap or you want something better, go from MSAA (Multisampling AA) to SSAA (Supersampling AA) to SGSSAA (Sparse Gride Supersampling AA). You should realistically have 4x at most and anything more will cost you more performance rather than making it look better. Just research the AA options for your desired game to make it work via Nvidia Inspector.


PS. Is the Motionjoy software/driver working with the 64bit version of W7 without having to go through driver signature bs?
 
Reuenthal said:
Awesome thread. One question, is Nvidia inspector better than Nhancer? The later is the application that I downloaded for use, yet I didn't really use it much.
Yes it is. It's formatting of options is a lot more straight forward.
 
Want to record games and not suck on the FRAPS tit of sluggish performance and barely any settings? http://www.bandicam.com/ is where you want to be. Small, lightweight, plenty of options ( Can even choose exactly the resolution you want to record at ), barely takes 10FPS off FPS when recording and you actually get smooth video output and compressed files. Yes, it costs money but it's in the same range as FRAPS but the trial is miles better, 10 minutes recording, any size you want but has a watermark, just like FRAPS.

It also has the usual display of FPS, screenshots in various formats and it'll even record in continuous streams i.e no splitting of files but you can select that manually on the side, split files by size / length.
 
Sethos said:
Want to record games and not suck on the FRAPS tit of sluggish performance and barely any settings? http://www.bandicam.com/ is where you want to be. Small, lightweight, plenty of options ( Can even choose exactly the resolution you want to record at ), barely takes 10FPS off FPS when recording and you actually get smooth video output and compressed files. Yes, it costs money but it's in the same range as FRAPS but the trial is miles better, 10 minutes recording, any size you want but has a watermark, just like FRAPS.

It also has the usual display of FPS, screenshots in various formats and it'll even record in continuous streams i.e no splitting of files but you can select that manually on the side, split files by size / length.

That sounds like FRAPS successor from your description. Will try it out, thanks!
 
iNvidious01 said:
c/users/localdisk/documents/appdata/roaming/porn/user/user/local/game/pc/bin/savedata

is it so hard just to put all save data in my documents
and while im on it, fuck you chrome. installing yourself in some hidden folder in appdata somewhere, whats wrong with program files, everyone else uses it
Chrome installs to the user folder so it doesn't have to worry about needing admin permission to auto-update
 
Sethos said:
Want to record games and not suck on the FRAPS tit of sluggish performance and barely any settings? http://www.bandicam.com/ is where you want to be. Small, lightweight, plenty of options ( Can even choose exactly the resolution you want to record at ), barely takes 10FPS off FPS when recording and you actually get smooth video output and compressed files. Yes, it costs money but it's in the same range as FRAPS but the trial is miles better, 10 minutes recording, any size you want but has a watermark, just like FRAPS.

It also has the usual display of FPS, screenshots in various formats and it'll even record in continuous streams i.e no splitting of files but you can select that manually on the side, split files by size / length.

That looks like a really nice Fraps alternative, but is there a reason all of their demo videos are at 720/800p? How does it do at full HD?
 
I tried Bandicam in AssCreed 2 and it lagged like hell to 20s. Tried fraps and it was smooth.
 
so I am in the process of getting rid of mouse acceleration.So I go to my mouse settings and turn off enhanced pointer precision, and it seems to have changed the way my pointer moves, but do I also have to turn off mouse acceleration in windows 7?

Edit: Also after installing d3d I now hear a ding when I launch games. I am guessing this means it is working?
 
BravesCountry said:
Edit: Also after installing d3d I now hear a ding when I launch games. I am guessing this means it is working?
Yeah, that sound happens every time the overrider is used.

Just to clarify, if I force triple buffering and vsync on D3D do I disable them in the game?
 
TheBothersomeMan said:
Yeah, that sound happens every time the overrider is used.

Just to clarify, if I force triple buffering and vsync on D3D do I disable them in the game?
Yes, but you should be fine with triple buffering alone. I'm not sure what the purpose of vsync and triple buffering simultaneously would be.

I have d3doverrider set as a windows event to boot up at launch, that way I don't have to worry about disabling uac to prevent authorization messages every time it tries to run. It now simply launches at boot and behaves like a windows service.
 
Crunched said:
Yes, but you should be fine with triple buffering alone. I'm not sure what the purpose of vsync and triple buffering simultaneously would be.

I have d3doverrider set as a windows event to boot up at launch, that way I don't have to worry about disabling uac to prevent authorization messages every time it tries to run. It now simply launches at boot and behaves like a windows service.
Okay thanks, how would I get it to run as a windows event? The only reason I was forcing vsync is that it was recommended by the OP in the original triple buffering thread.
 
TheBothersomeMan said:
Okay thanks, how would I get it to run as a windows event? The only reason I was forcing vsync is that it was recommended by the OP in the original triple buffering thread.

He's flat out wrong. Just booted up Starcraft 2 to see if I was doing it wrong all this time. With only triple buffering enabled in D3D and v-syn off, I was getting 120+ fps and had tearing. You definitely want to enable triple buffering and v-sync on the D3D panel. Disable v-sync for the in-game settings though.
 
Crunched said:
Yes, but you should be fine with triple buffering alone. I'm not sure what the purpose of vsync and triple buffering simultaneously would be.

If you don't enable vsync, you get tearing. That's how it should work logically, I just tested it with The Witcher 2, and with only triple buffering enabled, I can see tearing even in the intro logo movies, and of course the game.

It's possible you're enabling vsync in the game itself, rather than d3doverrider, but I tend to keep it disabled in the game, because sometimes games will vsync to a max of 30fps or a max of 60fps instead of whatever your monitor's refresh rate might be.

Edit: beaten, but further confirmation Crunched's v-sync info is incorrect.
 
This is for the people who play a lot of visual novels. If you hate using applocale or changing your regions constantly, try using pAppLoc. It's a modified version that basically streamlines the entire program so no more annoying errors or popups.

For an added bonus, try installing a right-click context menu so you can just right click the novel's .exe to run pAppLoc without opening the actual program. The downside of this is that now all your exe files will have a slight lag if you right click them.
 
TheBothersomeMan said:
Yeah, that sound happens every time the overrider is used.

Just to clarify, if I force triple buffering and vsync on D3D do I disable them in the game?

Thanks for the confirmation. Also, still wondering about this question:

BravesCountry said:
so I am in the process of getting rid of mouse acceleration.So I go to my mouse settings and turn off enhanced pointer precision, and it seems to have changed the way my pointer moves, but do I also have to turn off mouse acceleration in windows 7?
 
MSI Afterburner can do most of the things FRAPS can do these days in terms of overlays and screenshot taking -- for free. And it also works with non-MSI cards.
 
Durante said:
MSI Afterburner can do most of the things FRAPS can do these days in terms of overlays and screenshot taking -- for free. And it also works with non-MSI cards.
Fraps does those things for free too...
 
Minsc said:
If you don't enable vsync, you get tearing. That's how it should work logically, I just tested it with The Witcher 2, and with only triple buffering enabled, I can see tearing even in the intro logo movies, and of course the game.

It's possible you're enabling vsync in the game itself, rather than d3doverrider, but I tend to keep it disabled in the game, because sometimes games will vsync to a max of 30fps or a max of 60fps instead of whatever your monitor's refresh rate might be.

Edit: beaten, but further confirmation Crunched's v-sync info is incorrect.
I was wrong. I have it enabled through D3DOverrider. I was at work earlier and couldn't check. Apologies.
 
Having a look at MSI Afterburner, it's pretty damned good except for the horrendously ugly UI which looks like a 1990s vision of the distant future, and the fact that it doesn't record sound.
 
SneakyStephan said:
Don't play mmo's:p
Trolling aside, this advice is equally valuable for RTS games :bind your shit, especially build order navigation and waypoints) and learn to use modifiers and how to group units goddamnit!

Every control optimisation pays off in a satisfying way within no time, do it step by step.
Soon you'll go from struggling to deal with all the menus and clicks and losing overview to edging closer and closer to 100apm and up.

Also in fps games : for the love of god, make use of weapon binds!
Scrollwheel is an easy pattern to fall into but a terrible habit.
If you fumble for a while, deal with it.
Also, try mapping stuff as close to WASD as possible. In Quake, I have weapon binds mapped to Q, E, F, R and 1-5. You can do the same in MMOs for skills. Makes learning hotkeys much easier imo.

If you have a good PC and some PS2 games and you want to play them in higher resolution, you should check out PCSX2. It seems intimidating at first, but you don't actually need to do a lot to be able to play a lot of games.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=427321

This is a good thread to get started with game configs.
 
jim-jam bongs said:
By the way, I was thinking that the best way to keep this thread alive and get the most out of it would be if people could link to guides already available like this one and I'll collect them in the OP so it becomes sort of an index for helpful threads. So thanks!
That sounds like a good idea. I think I'll write up a guide to Nvidia Inspector this week.
 
Stallion Free said:
That sounds like a good idea. I think I'll write up a guide to Nvidia Inspector this week.

Awesome, that would be really handy. I'm going to hassle Snuggles about the MotionInJoy guide he vaguely promised on the first page too.
 
Stallion Free said:
Fraps does those things for free too...
For some reason I thought the free version of FRAPS doesn't do pngs. My bad! But Afterburner can do videos without the length limit. It also has a ton of overlay options.

jim-jam bongs said:
Having a look at MSI Afterburner, it's pretty damned good except for the horrendously ugly UI which looks like a 1990s vision of the distant future, and the fact that it doesn't record sound.
This is sadly true for quite a few of these tools. One of the many great things about Nvidia Inspector is that its author didn't feel the need to implement another GUI toolkit.
 
jim-jam bongs said:
Awesome, that would be really handy. I'm going to hassle Snuggles about the MotionInJoy guide he vaguely promised on the first page too.

I'll try to throw something together.
 
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