How can I soften my onscreen image for gaming

3080guy

3080guy

3080guy

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26 Sep 2020
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Ive turned monitor sharpness to zero.
I have an Nvidia 2080 Super.
Id like to add additional softness to my gaming experience, but havent been able to do so. Is there a way to soften the image?

(On a seperate note, Im finding WRC 9 much, much sharper than the lovely soft image in dirt 2.0. Turning sharpening off and motion blur on in WRC 9 does not give me a nice soft image, however).

Can anyone help with the first (or both) issues?
 
Rofflay said:
Any reason why you want to go the opposite of everyone else? Is this due to the sparkling pixelated effect called aliasing? That can be fixed.

You could run a non native resolution also, If the game has a slider lower it below 100%? Im curious as to why blurry softness is what you want.
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Ive turned all jaggies smoothening options to max. After a return to PC gaming (from many years of console gaming) Im not used to the ultra sharpness of the PC monitor (VG27AQ) and rather prefer the softness of my TV with sharpness set to virtually 0. Feels more film like, real, less looks less computer generated. I like that look.

I did find some setting in a Nvidia control panel somewhere a few months ago (device manager settings maybe) but was totally unable to change and save it. Gave up trying. Felt like the setting was locked and I couldnt find a way to override sharpening, although the option appeared to be there. I should look for that setting again so I can reference it.

Ive tried running games in windowed mode at a non native resolution, and the added smoothness is minimal.
Ive only got one game which has a setting that allows you to render at 90% of the native 1440 resolution. A few which offer 75% rendering which is a little too soft, but not too bad either.
Be nice to find out if I can find a way to address the cards capability to soften images, all the time. I have no idea whether that is possible.
 
Rofflay said:
Any reason why you want to go the opposite of everyone else? Is this due to the sparkling pixelated effect called aliasing? That can be fixed.

You could run a non native resolution also, If the game has a slider lower it below 100%? Im curious as to why blurry softness is what you want.
Click to expand...
Ive had another look. It was in the Nvidia Control Panel that I was looking for an override sharpness feature, which I remember thinking I found, but I was unable to make the image softer and save it.

Under Manage 3D Settings > Global Settings > Image Sharpening
I wanted to enable GPU scaling and slide the slider down to 0.
This may be the same as OFF, which was the default. In which case it wouldnt make any difference.
I couldnt experiment as any attempt to apply changes resulted in the message
Access Denied. Failed to apply selected settings to your system.

I assumed a few people might know how to get a graphics card to soften images, but I also thought that it might not be possible to make images softer, I was being hopeful.
 
SkeeterUK said:
fxaa blurs the image a little. You can maybe turn the res down a notch that could soften the image. Lower texture setting a notch might help, soften the sharp textures?

iu


Maybe adjust the slider to the negative may do it?
Click to expand...
- Turning FXAA On and clicking apply results in the message I mentioned: "
I couldnt experiment as any attempt to apply changes resulted in the message
Access Denied. Failed to apply selected settings to your system."

- Experimenting with non native resolutions already, thanks for the suggestion.
- Prefer high res textures. Just a softer image.

If youve got a decent TV, crank the sharpness up to max, then down to minimum.
There is a wide range of pixel sharpness, which is a user preference thing.
My monitor has SHARPNESS and VIVID PIXEL, two "pixel sharpness" technologies, which have nothing to do with resolution, pixel density, texture clarity, but rather affect pixel sharpness.

The half dozen anti aliasing technologies, each with different benefits, GPU demands, performance etc... every game ive owned has settings for anti aliasing methods in-game.

I just find some games are far more sharp than others, hence looking to see what can be done with settings outside of games.
Right now, I cant edit 3D settings, I get that error message I mentioned.
 
I suspect its Anisotropic filtering which can soften the crispness of textures, that I want to control via the NVidia control panel, as the default setting is APPLICATION CONTROLLED, and id like instead to set it to override at 16x, which is an option.

I can change the setting to 16x to see what happens, but I get the following message (again) when I click apply:
Access denied
Failed to apply selected settings to your system.
 
banja said:
Mip bias was often configurable within games, which could 'blur' of soften some edge textures. But I don't recall seeing the option in games for some time.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

Haggisman said:
You need non-native and fullscreen (e.g. run at 1080p on a 1440p monitor). That way your monitor will have to interpolate the missing pixels and hopefully make it a blurry mess nice and soft
Click to expand...
I tried this, and the image became so soft I could insert my head through the monitor. But during the event, the monitor suctioned half my intelligence out of my head, and Im all thats left :(
 
Malevolence said:
Get a cloth and smear some Vaseline on your screen.
Click to expand...
I will try this method with something I like the smell of, so bacon fat, or maybe I cant believe its not butter, which should be translucent at screen temperature. If you come round to play, I'll let you lick the screen if its too blurry for you.
 
wunkley said:
It's a strange request to soften an image for gaming(!) but it seems like you have a specific need as the obvious solution suggested of running a lower non native res obviously doesn't float your boat.

If you're really serious about doing it you should look into reshade..
Click to expand...
Id like softer images, not less detailed, which is why Im less keen on running lower resolutions. Reshade looks amazing by the way. Be superb if graphics cards allowed that level of control without third party software, especially where online games are concerned. Thanks for the info.
 
What superb news, great find. All that right under my (clogged lol) nose all along. Will have a good look when I'm next near the pc!
 
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