4k gaming and TV settings tips for you.

[D007]

Being one of the few people involved in 4k gaming atm.
I thought it might be helpful to people, to let people know some things that have helped me.
Some things that have solved problems and game settings information, that people should consider, when gaming in 4k.
Took some time to figure out whats what, so maybe it'll save some people some time.

1. Make sure you check the picture options on your TV and if it has an option to "enable UHD colors" do that on every port, that you have a UHD capable device connected to.
Turning UHD colors on for a device that does not support 4k, may have problems.
I was watching firefly in HD on Sci fi channel and I had tons of vertical lines pop up.
Disabled it and problem gone.
If you don't enable UHD colors, you cannot run 4k resolutions, it will black screen and timeout the monitor/TV.

2. Sharpening is not necessarily your friend.
If you notice flashing textures when you move or look around in games, you should consider lowering your sharpening a lot or all the way, until it stops.
Sharpening seems to be overkill on my 4k and makes things look odd at higher rates for sure.
Different games will react differently to sharpening I think.

3. On the same note if you notice flashing in games, you should enable vsync.
That solved problems for me as well.
4k seems less forgiving in screen tearing and vsync has been a must for me so far.

4. Shadows in games don't always have to be set to ultra anymore.
in Arma 3, shadows look differently at different res than they use to.
While in 1080p, shadows on high, literally look like dots and on low they are just horrid.
In 4k, there are no dots, just a solid shadow.
There are other shadow differences that will make ultra shadows worth having though I'm sure.
Not all games react the same, test them out because it hits you harder, to go for
higher settings obviously.

5. AA, less is more is the motto again here.
2X AA is pretty much the most you will ever need in 4k.
The pixel density in 4k, makes AA much less necessary in all things.

6. A general statement of "less is more" seems to be a good idea here.
Check all settings in game and see what actually matters.
Even texture settings can go from ultra to very high or high, with 0 loss in humanly visible quality.

7. NEW problem and solution added:

I was having two different no signal problems, with my 4k TV.
Both of which were the TV's problem NOT the GPU as samsung had me believing.

Problem one was what I mentioned in statement 1, above.
UHD colors were not enabled.

Problem two was that if I ever switched HDMI ports, by changing input, I would loose signal if I tried to switch back to any 4k Device.

I had an automatic firmware update to my Samsung TV and what they don't tell you is this.
"It is a good idea to reset factory defaults after a firmware update or maybe even initially"
It is exactly like why it is sometimes a good idea to reset bios.

It allows the TV to reregister the new information properly.
It may take up to 30 seconds with the "no input" message on the screen, before the screen actually comes on, when you switch HDMI ports.
So wait for it.

without doing that my problem was this:

I would play games on HDMI 2, in 4k, with UHD colors enabled.
Then I would switch to HDMI 1, at 1080p and watch TV.
If I ever tried to switch back to HDMI 2, after I had switched HDMI inputs, I would loose signal.

Reset factory defaults solved it.


So all in all, don't forget to check your TV setting thoroughly.
Keep in mind to try not being a graphics whore with 4k.
You sincerely don't need or want to set everything to ultra.
Even with my 2x gtx 980 SC's, overclocked.
I can still drop down to the 30fps mark or under if I push it.
Some games are likely still unplayable.
So less is more and check all settings visually.

I did 30 to 91 fps, in Valley benchmark, on ultra settings with 2X AA, 3840 X 2160.
Should give you an idea of how it runs but the drivers are currently shite for the 9 series.
I am getting worse performance on these than I was on my gtx 680's.


Happy trails and GG.

EDIT: Display started timing out on me again when switching HDMI ports for no apparent reason. Waiting for samsung top tier support to call me back.

Also here is another article I found extremely informative and an absolutely necessary read, for anyone considering 4k.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PGTJ...electronics</span></blockquote>&tag=tec06d-20

 

[Mussels]

oh good, i'm not the only one who makes how-to threads to sort out all the voices in my head

 

[newconroer]

6. A general statement of "less is more" seems to be a good idea here.
Check all settings in game and see what actually matters.
Even texture settings can go from ultra to very high or high, with 0 loss in humanly visible quality.

The game(s) you are playing, do they use native 4k and 8k textures?
If not, are you downsampling via the GPU?

 

[D007]

The game(s) you are playing, do they use native 4k and 8k textures?
If not, are you downsampling via the GPU?

I have no idea. I am playing Arma 3 atm.
Played Mass effect 1,2 and 3.
I set the resolution to 3840x2160 and watch the magic happen.
It changes.. Everything.
I'm pretty sure doing that brings everything to 4k.
The textures and everything visibly compress into much smaller, tighter frames.
It would seem that once you set to 4k, it does the scaling it's self. No scaling necessary, it's part of the resolution.
Or iunno. Looks that way though.

oh good, i'm not the only one who makes how-to threads to sort out all the voices in my head

It's all I can do to maintain sanity. XD

 

[newconroer]

I have no idea. I am playing Arma 3 atm.
Played Mass effect 1,2 and 3.
I set the resolution to 3840x2160 and watch the magic happen.
It changes.. Everything.

Of the ones you listed, then no I don't believe they do. Part of your theories on 'less is more' then are going to become different when you encounter native textures.
It would be interesting to see the results then.

 

[D007]

Of the ones you listed, then no I don't believe they do. Part of your theories on 'less is more' then are going to become different when you encounter native textures.
It would be interesting to see the results then.

Yea I thought the same thing, which is why I said.
"Not all games react this way however, test them out"

One way or the other it is nice to know that some settings can actually be dropped and you will loose no visible clarity due to 4k.
So huge fps hit for 4k res.
But you get some fps back for dropping some settings.
It's not a fair trade at all of course.
4k is a monster on fps and hits way harder than any setting or all settings combined.

I ninja edited above.:
It would seem that once you set to 4k, it does the scaling it's self. No scaling necessary, it's part of the resolution.
Or iunno. Looks that way though.

 

[Mussels]

i'd be curious to see what your response is to skyrim before and after a 4K texture mod

 

[newconroer]

i'd be curious to see what your response is to skyrim before and after a 4K texture mod

I was going to mention that, but then again I don't know if I trust those 4k/8k mods. Something about them being third party means they are slapped over the top of an existing engine, as opposed to being built from the ground up.
Performance may be inaccurate.

What about something like Rage or Wolfenstein?

 

[Mussels]

I was going to mention that, but then again I don't know if I trust those 4k/8k mods. Something about them being third party means they are slapped over the top of an existing engine, as opposed to being built from the ground up.
Performance may be inaccurate.

What about something like Rage or Wolfenstein?

i've used them, they do what they claim and they're reliable. people literally just re-did the textures manually at 2K and 4K resolutions and they show a huge quality difference vs the console level crap the game shipped with

 

[D007]

See I don't "think" 4k requires texture mods like you guys are thinking..
4k maybe IS the texture mod.
The texture resolution definitely seems to increase when you enable 4k.
They seem to go from 1080p to 4k, with the res.
Shadows seem to do the same thing, going straight to 4k shadows.
I'm pretty sure, from the look of it.
Which is why maybe low shadows look just as good as ultra shadows to me in arma 3 now?
Where as they would look like total garbage @ 1080p, I tested that.
GPU scaling is automatic and all encompassing it seems.
Mods can definitely help though, like the 4k mods I used for mass effect 1,2 an 3. Those definitely helped with like Garrus's face..


I've used 4k mods though before and had a great time with them.

 

[newconroer]

See I don't think 4k requires texture mods like you guys are thinking..
4k IS the texture mod.
The texture resolution definitely increases when you enable 4k.
They go from 1080p to 4k, with the res.
Shadows seem to do the same thing, going straight to 4k shadows.
I'm pretty sure, from the look of it.

GPU scaling is automatic and all encompassing it seems.
No mods required.

I think you are confused between texture resolution and image resolution. The latter will increase the quality on long distance views, less pixel crawl, reduced aliasing and flickering and an overall smoothness in parts of the rendered image.
Texture resolution will never go up no matter what monitor you use.

 

[D007]

I think you are confused between texture resolution and image resolution. The latter will increase the quality on long distance views, less pixel crawl, reduced aliasing and flickering and an overall smoothness in parts of the rendered image.
Texture resolution will never go up no matter what monitor you use.

Yea that sounds right.
Just the picture in general looks way better I guess.
Shadows and all that are processing effects and completely different.

 

[Mussels]

you can slap a nintendo 64 game upto 4k, and textures will still be blurry and lack detail.


1K textures are 1024x1024 resolution - but you rarely see them head on, and these days rarely see them without shader effects slapped over the top. in a game that relies on shader effects, upping the resolution is all it needs.

these texture mods solve the problem of walking into a room, seeing awesome shading, lighting, reflections, and looking down to notice the floor is one blurry blob.

 

[OneMoar]

D007 go home you are drunk
if the textures in a game are 1024x1024 and that game is running at 4K its gonna look like ass because you are scaling those textures way outside of what they normally would be scaled to
the same thing can apply to shaders
assets that look like ass end up looking like ass

 

[D007]

D007 go home you are drunk
if the textures in a game are 1024x1024 and that game is running at 4K its gonna look like ass because you are scaling those textures way outside of what they normally would be scaled to
the same thing can apply to shaders
assets that look like ass end up looking like ass

Yea, I needed some sleep.
That made no sense lol..

Textures are a different ball game but play arma 3 and you will see what I mean.
Ultra textures and very high look EXACTLY the same @ 4k.
High looks almost exactly the same.
Where as on 1080p, high and ultra look significantly different.

 

[Mussels]

Yea, I needed some sleep.
That made no sense lol..

Textures are a different ball game but play arma 3 and you will see what I mean.
Ultra textures and very high look EXACTLY the same @ 4k.
High looks almost exactly the same.
Where as on 1080p, high and ultra look significantly different.

some games actually scale DOWN textures and such at higher res, to maintain their preferred memory foot print - IIRC mass effect 1 on PC had this issue, running at 1080p would cause the textures to run on low settings as some kind of default performance 'tweak'

 

[D007]

Updated with a new problem and solution to that problem, after several days of more nonsense..lol