theory Arma 3 with FidelityFX Super Resolution

[Jove Chiere 448]

I have an AMD GPU and I play Arma3 in 4K, and the FPS in many occasions are low, having the option to scale the screen resolution to avoid fps drop. But the quality of the filtering is not very good, and the image loses sharpness and too much quality.
AMD's FSR options have just been released, which work equally well on Nvidia and Intel, achieving better quality and lower image scaling.

As this is difficult to explain, I wanted to make some example images (with a small x3 magnifying glass) so that everyone can judge.

 

Images at 4096x2160 pixels

ArmA 3 Fidelity Super Resolution TEST

Multiple options for comparison

Zoom in to see more detail, pixel by pixel on your screen

 

I personally gain 150% more FPS when using the 75% scale, and 200% more FPS when using the 50% scale.

 

This is very easy to implement, there are already mods like the one in GTA5 that add support for FSR externally created by the community. And the same author has created a FSR common distribution that can be used in any game.

 

 

I guess many will say "NVIDIA's technology is much better! Better to implement DLSS.", and it's true... but the problem with this is that it will only be a breakthrough for a privileged few with their RTX 20 and 30 series.

 

I look forward to your comments on this, Thank you.

[zukov 490]

2 hours ago, Jove Chiere said:

I personally gain 150% more FPS when using the 75% scale, and 200% more FPS when using the 50% scale.

So it works! in the beginning even the dlss had problems.

you can reach 100 fps?

[Jove Chiere 448]

27 minutes ago, zukov said:

you can reach 100 fps?

 

If it currently has 60 fps... it could easily go up to 120 with the performance option (scaled to 50% resolution).

[zukov 490]

apology for another question
do you have problem with battleye? or is a driver level?

[Jove Chiere 448]

Battleye screams like crazy... 
It should be implemented directly as adding external DLLs makes it a possible cheat.
Plus a fatal error when closing the Arma 3 client.

[froggyluv 2136]

Looks nice but can you briefly explain how to implement this for Arma? I see a link to GTA are you just literally swapping those files into Arma root folder?

[Pagoda.br 8]

The links are not working?

[Jove Chiere 448]

On 7/3/2021 at 12:14 PM, Pagoda.br said:

The links are not working?

 

Updated links to a better page, sorry for the inconvenience.

[Valken 622]

I was playing with image scaling on my 1060 GTX. 

 

If I set objects, textures and terrain to LOW, I get crazy 60-80 FPS even with 3800 objects and draw distance but smudge low res textures.

 

If I set textures to ULTRA, it looks "really" good with bad trees due to low objects settings.

 

I wonder if using this with textures at high and objects at standard or high would maintain the same performance levels?

 

At full ULTRA everything, I get 30-40 FPS which is not bad with no AI.

 

It tanks on Tanoa, Livonia and Cam Lao Nam a bit but other terrains including CUP looks great.

[nikiforos 450]

What about GTX 1070 any hope for better performance with this fix option?

[Jove Chiere 448]

If BI were to implement this technology, we could scale the image to 75% of the screen and gain 50% more FPS.

It is clear that at higher resolutions (e.g. 4k) the scanning performance improves a lot without affecting the quality too much.

If we go to 50% scaling, the quality drops a lot, but we gain 100% more FPS.

Remember that it is not the same quality if we scale a 1080 to 720 resolution than a 2160 to 1080.

But if you are willing to sacrifice quality for fluidity, it is very viable.

 

The graphics card doesn't matter the brand or model. From what you can currently squeeze though 50% or 100% more of. FPS.

[Pagoda.br 8]

Thanks, the link works now.
Do you have a test with game originally at 1080p X 75% FSR X 50% FSR?

[Jove Chiere 448]

20 hours ago, Valken said:

I was playing with image scaling on my 1060 GTX. 

If I set objects, textures and terrain to LOW, I get crazy 60-80 FPS even with 3800 objects and draw distance but smudge low res textures.

If I set textures to ULTRA, it looks "really" good with bad trees due to low objects settings.

I wonder if using this with textures at high and objects at standard or high would maintain the same performance levels?

At full ULTRA everything, I get 30-40 FPS which is not bad with no AI.

It tanks on Tanoa, Livonia and Cam Lao Nam a bit but other terrains including CUP looks great.

 

It's true Valken, that we already have image scaling and even the focus filter, but even if these two options are maxed out, the effect on image quality is very blurry in vanilla.
FSR creates a spiral focus with artefact correction and also without generating a temporary file to be read, all directly on the GPU.
Of course this is not going to free up CPU work to control AI or vehicle physics. So we will need a good computer.
But 2k or 4k gamers will be able to adjust their FPS better even if their GPUs are not state of the art (or even pre state of the art).

 

3 hours ago, Pagoda.br said:

Thanks, the link works now.
Do you have a test with game originally at 1080p X 75% FSR X 50% FSR?

 

Obrigado a você Pagoda.br, the previous image comparison host closed or deleted many links. This site is better, faster and with more options.

About the 1080p version, I haven't tried that option, but if you zoom in and fullscreen in the image options, you will get a very close feeling of how it should look.

The quality will decrease a lot as there are less pixels, and the effect will be much more visible. 

But as I said, if your computer's performance has reached a limit, you will have to sacrifice graphics quality to get more FPS.

[Valken 622]

@Jove Chiere So do you think we can get really GOOD FSR performance by keeping texture quality at ULTRA and letting FSR scale the geometry details to enhance it? I think this would be a great option for people looking for high FPS.

 

Can you try this with FSR to compare the overall "quality"? ULTRA textures, and compare ULTRA objects and terrain details to STANDARD objects and terrain for example? I wonder will FSR do a good enough job so it is close to 90%.

 

I know in DayZ SA, this is kinda needed as it is a  competitive PVPVE game. In ARMA, it really depends on the game type - SP, COOP, MP or PVPVE.

 

I think KOTH, Battle Royale and other PVP type mods really needs to keep the FPS higher than COOP for example. I know my K/D goes up along with FPS with a good under 100 ms connection to a server. If my connection is way over 200, 300+, it really doesn't matter as much anymore due to ballistics latency. 

[Jove Chiere 448]

OK, it is now possible to check the FSR status in any game (in this case ArmA 3).

 

For this I used MAGPIE, a free Chinese software found in GitHud that is used to scale game windows to fullscreen. I have used many formulas so you can appreciate the variations by applying 3 values:

Window resolution + 3D scaling in ArmA 3 + FSR on/off
https://imgsli.com/NjQxMTU/

With these 3 parameters we can see the differences and compare one image with the other.

 

Within the comparisons, for my personal taste and image quality, the main difference is when we use the official A3 scaling, on a 3840x2160 screen with a 50% scaling, the image is very blurry in the final result. Whereas if we lower the resolution to 1920x1080 and leave the A3 scaling at 100% with the FSR filter, the result is an image very close to the original.

https://imgsli.com/NjQxMTU/2/6

 

Therefore, I conclude that the ideal would be to integrate the default FSR effect into the ArmA 3 engine managed by the scaling percentage and the image sharpening slider.

[zukov 490]

3 days ago Frontier add FSR to Elite dangerous game. the FPS was increase dramatically, would be a smart move for B

[Jove Chiere 448]

28 minutes ago, zukov said:

3 days ago Frontier add FSR to Elite dangerous game. the FPS was increase dramatically, would be a smart move for B

 

I can only show evidence of image quality, the FPS also goes up of course... But it's not the same result using shader injectors compared to something native.

 

Still I will show you a very silly example that we can all understand.

https://imgsli.com/NjQxMzE

The same image at 2160, 1800 and 1080 pixels vertically.

 

[Jove Chiere 448]

I am going to write a small and vague guide so that you can test MAGPIE with FSR in ArmA 3, but it is pleasantly simple.
 

MAGPIE is a free software of Chinese origin that allows you to scale small windows to full screen, and for a correct viewing, it allows you to add pixel scaling filters.

Spoiler

When the window to be enlarged is in the foreground, press the hot key to display the window in full screen, and press the hot key again or switch the foreground window to exit the full screen.

 

 

The following is the configuration description:

1) Zoom mode

The program presets a variety of zoom modes, if they do not meet your needs, please customize the zoom.

• Lanczos: Common traditional interpolation algorithm, good at preserving sharp edges.
• RAVU: See About RAVU. This preset uses a zoom variant.
• FSRCNNX: A variant of FSRCNN. Excellent performance in various occasions.
• ACNet: A port of ACNetGLSL. Suitable for animation-style image and video enlargement.
• Anime4K: An open source high-quality real-time animation scaling/noise reduction algorithm.
• FSR: Suitable for 3D games.
• Pixel: Enlarge each pixel by an integer multiple to preserve the visual effect of the original image. Two magnifications of 2x and 3x are preset.

2) Crawl mode

Instruct the program how to grab the source window image

• WinRT Capture: Use the Screen Capture API to capture windows, the most recommended method. This API has been provided since Windows 10, v1803.
• GDI: Use GDI to grab the source window, the speed is slightly slower.

3) Injection mode

If a custom cursor is used in the source window, two cursors may appear on the screen. In order to solve this problem, Magpie provides the function of process

 

injection:

• Do not use injection: suitable for occasions where the source window does not have a custom cursor
• Runtime injection: Inject the source window thread while performing zooming, and cancel the injection after exiting the full screen
• Injection at startup: It is suitable for occasions where runtime injection does not work. You cannot inject the running process. You need to manually select the program to be started and injected.

4) Advanced options

• Display frame rate: display the current frame rate in the upper left corner of the screen

 

To simulate the effect of the FSR we only have to run Arma3 in window mode at a size smaller than our screen, and with MAGPIE open and the FSR zoom mode, press the ALT + F11 keys (Customizable).

As they say in the FidelityFX-FSR GITHUB, you can use a percentage mode or some preset window sizes. I recommend leaving the Arma 3 scale at 100% and lowering the window size.
According to FidelityFX-FSR, these presets are:

 

And this is it, by pressing ALT + F11 we can expand the selected window and see the game with the FSR effect applied.

Clarification that the FSR is designed for people who play with high pixel density screens and lose a lot of FPS for that reason.

 

 

[Jove Chiere 448]

Updates about MAGPIE.

Video of how to use MAGPIE:

And MAGPIE version in English:
https://github.com/7Brandyn7/Magpie/releases/