NASCAR 2003 video tweak

TWEAK N2003

NR2003/2005/2007 Graphic Tweaks

A balance between FPS (Frames Per Second) performance and picture quality is necessary for maximum enjoyment of

any game. Unfortunately, the better the quality, the larger the sacrifice is in FPS. Too much balance on the quality side,

and your FPS diminishes, making the game more “choppy” and run less smooth. Too much emphasis on FPS, and quality

is diminished. The trick is to find a happy medium, where they are balanced the best they can be, and you have the best

of both worlds.

The human eye senses little change above 35 Frames per second. Of course, some are more sensitive than others, but in

general, the human eye can see little difference, if any, between 35 FPS, and 75 FPS. However, a difference between 20

FPS and 35 FPS can be dramatic.

The purpose of this guide, is to help you achieve an even balance of performance and quality. Though some things may

give you a hit in FPS, there may be other options that will balance them out.

First things first, lets get some basic information that you need before starting. The information you are about to get

here will be very important in making the changes you need to make. So, take the 5 minutes of your time to fill out the

following.

A. GET YOUR STARTING POINT

Start Up your NR2003/05/07 game, and select a mod which you run most –

which is heaviest on frames (SScot or NSCS10 preferrably). Select “Single

Race”. In your race options, select a version of Indianapolis and make sure you

have about 30 competitors. Start, and then skip to the race session. This

should put you last in the lineup with all the cars in front of you. While sitting

on pit road, press “F”, and this will give you the FPS in the upper right corner.

Take the number you see most (it will vary) and write it in the box to the right.

Exit the game and go back to your desktop.

FPS

B. How much RAM do you have?

From your desktop, select Start, then “Run” and a small window will open.

(This is in Windows XP, not sure about Vista or Windows 7). Type in dxdiag and

press enter. In the window that opens, about ¾ of the way down you will see

an option for “Memory”. Write that number in the box to the right. Keep this

window open.

RAM

C. How much Video Ram do you have?

From the same dxdiag box, select the “Display” tab. Fill in the total memory,

resolution, and bit information in the boxes to the right.

Current display mode - Resolution would be something like 800x600 or

1024x768, or maybe larger depending on your settings.

Now that you have the basic information you need, lets get started making the tweaks. If you already have a high FPS,

that is fine. If you have a high FPS, that just means, you may be able to increase the eye candy, sacrifice a little bit of

FPS.

So, the first thing you want to go, is go to the root folder of the game, regardless of whether it is NR2003/5/7.

1. Locate the core.ini file – double click it.

a. Look for the line [FileLRUCache]

i. Underneath that it should say CacheSize=4194304

1. Just add a 1 before that so it says CacheSize=14194304

b. Now, look for [Memory]

i. Under that, look for MaxBlockSize

1. Look at the number you place in Box B for RAM. Open your calculator and multiply that

number by 1024. For example, 512 x 1024 = 524288 or 2048x1024=2097152

2. The answer to your math question should be placed next to MaxBlockSize. For example,

for 2048 RAM, MaxBlockSize=2097152

ii. Still under the [Memory] setting, look for PoolSize.

1. The number in PoolSize needs to be identical to the number in MaxBlockSize, so input

the same number here.

c. Click File, then save, and close your core.ini file

2. Now, locate the rend_ogl.ini or rend_dxg.ini file. You will see both rend_ogl and rend_dxg files, but only one of

them will have an ini file – which one depends on which mode you are currently running the game in. This is

what you will need to open…double click.

a. Look for the line TextureSetSize=.

i. Now we need to perform some magic to determine what number goes here.

ii. Look up in box C on page 1…and fill in the blanks in the next sentence.

(APPROX TOTAL MEMORY) ______mb video card running ____ bit (BIT)

For example, “256mb video card running in 32 bit”

What you need to do here is fine your video card – and bitrate, and then match up the resolution and circle that

number.

32mb video card running in 16bit

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

1024x768= 127926272

1152x864= 126255104

1280x960= 1246387328

1600x1200= 118857728

128mb video card running in 32bit

1024x768= 121634816

1152x864= 118292480

1280x960= 114556928

1600x1200= 103497728

256mb video card running in 16bit

1024x768= 262144000

1152x864= 260472832

1280x960= 258605056

1600x1200= 253075456

256mb video card running in 32bit

1024x768= 255852544

1152x864= 252510208

1280x960= 248774656

1600x1200= 237715456

Insert the number that corresponds with your settings, into the TextureSetSize.

For example – for a 256mb video card running in 32 bit, with 1024x768 resolution, the line would read

TextureSetSize=255852544

iii. Next, locate the line AnistropicLevel=8. Change that 8 to a 0.

b. Save the file and close.

OK, we are done for now, editing files. There is one more thing we can do, but lets save that for later.

Your results may vary. You may see an increase in FPS, you may see no change, you may see a small decrease, though a

decrease would be unlikely.

IF you see a drastic decrease – run your 3d configuration, like you did when you installed the game. This will return all

your settings back to the original settings.

IF the game crashes…you likely either placed the wrong number in the TextureSetSize or MaxBlockSize blocks. Again,

run your 3d config to reset back to original settings, and start over.

In some cases, if you place a number larger than 524288 in the MaxBlockSize – it will cause the game to freeze or crash.

Try editing that if nothing else works.

If you see an increase in FPS or even no change, that’s a good thing. Basically what you did here, was optimize the

graphic settings. You may notice, walls are smoother, track painted lines are smoother…billboards/cars may be sharper.

Like I said, there may be another setting we can change – but, that is all according to what your current FPS is now.

If you have framerates of 60+, I recommend making the next change. If below 60, I recommend ignoring the next step,

especially if below 40 FPS.

Go into your Players folder, select the folder for your player.

Find the player.ini file

Go to [Graphic Options]

Find Texture_Quality=-1

Change that to Texture_Quality=100

This will keep all textures at 100% quality, and the game will not change them. -1 is auto – which allows the game to

adjust as it deems necessary.

Doing this, usually causes a 10 FPS drop. Again, since normally eyes cannot sense a change between 35 FPS and

anything higher – this drop would be unimportant, and worth it.

TWEAKER PART 2 RECHECK

Open up your C:/papyrus/Nascar4/Nascar2002 or Nascar2003 racing season directory. These ini.file adjustments will work with all three sims. The performance gain hasn't been as great for 2003 as it was for 2002 but it'll still get you some frames. Look for your core.ini and open it with notepad or just by double clicking it.

Look for the line that reads, [FileLRUCache] Cachesize=4194304

Just put a 1 in front of the number,

So it'll 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 ***We have heard that on some computers Nascar 2003 will lockup and/or crash to the desktop when using values above 512 on your ram to configure your [Memory] Maxblocksize .

Save the core.ini file and close it. Next, open the rend_ogl or the rend_d3d file, Whichever your running the game in, OpenGL or D3D. look for the line that reads. TextureSetSize= "????????"

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?

I listed the proper settings 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 AnistropicLevel=0 Save these changes and close the file.

Then, In your players directory. Open the Player file Look for the line that reads [Graphic Opitions] 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 Opitions] 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.