[Mack]

So first off, I do have a good gaming PC. I'll just get my specs outta the way so as to there are no doubts;
Win 10 Pro, 8GB Ram, GTX 970 4GB. I play it on a 1366x768 resolution.

Now the issue is, I've seen several screenshots where the game looks absolutely stunning on ground. Yet on ground, I see the textures jagged and not as good as some of screens I've seen. So what gives? My graphics in STO are set to maximum. Are people using a third party graphics mod to make it look almost cinematic? I'd like to know. On ground, it barely seems as if I have anti aliasing, when my settings are maxed for it.

EDIT: Also, my Nvidia Geforce Experience doesn't detect STO ever since I re downloaded it.

[Ziipzaap]

Win 10 Pro, 8GB Ram, GTX 970 4GB. I play it on a 1366x768 resolution.

My question is: Why?

[Mack]

My question is: Why?

That's my monitor resolution. Is resolution going to solve the main issue I've asked above? If so, please recommend a setting which I will immediately try.

[Ziipzaap]

That's my monitor resolution.[...]

Well, it just seemed kinda weird, having a 970 but a monitor with such a resolution. The game looks OK-ish on my second 1600x900 screen though.

Is resolution going to solve the main issue I've asked above? If so, please recommend a setting which I will immediately try.

I don't know, probably. The game looks really bad in lower resolution. A screenshot would help, and also the screenshots you've seen (comparison).

[Hevach]

First: Some people use the renderscale command line to temporarily up the graphics level beyond its normal limits for screenshots. It makes for amazing screenshots, but the game becomes unstable and performance tanks, so playing like that is a bad idea, even on a top of the line computer. So while hopefully this post should help, there's a limit, you simply can never play the game as well as the best screenshots look.


Anyway, on to the meat and potatoes:

The master quality sliders don't control everything and don't take some settings to their absolute maximums or minimums, to get the best you have to go through the entire Graphics and Advanced settings tabs and fiddle with everything. From the problems you describe, these are the ones that I think will help the most:

The first set is under the Graphics tab, Detail heading: World, Terrain, and Chracter detail distance. Crank these up, and enable Show high detail objects and Use full detail character animations. Improving lighting quality and shadows can help as well, but I generally find the game actually looks better with it turned down a little, until those improvements the devs are showing off go live, the lighting engine is bad and can make things worse rather than better, especially on the ground - the Lego look where a flat surface is lit as if it's many slightly non-parallel planes, for example, is very visible in the "Before" shots of their before-and-after blog posts, and is a product of the lighting engine.

Next set of settings is in the next tab, Advanced. The World texture detail and Character texture detail sliders, which aren't tied to the master sliders at all, can really impact look on the ground.

[Mack]

My game pic;

Comparison pic;

The master quality sliders don't control everything and don't take some settings to their absolute maximums or minimums, to get the best you have to go through the entire Graphics and Advanced settings tabs and fiddle with everything. From the problems you describe, these are the ones that I think will help the most:

The first set is under the Graphics tab, Detail heading: World, Terrain, and Chracter detail distance. Crank these up, and enable Show high detail objects and Use full detail character animations. Improving lighting quality and shadows can help as well, but I generally find the game actually looks better with it turned down a little, until those improvements the devs are showing off go live, the lighting engine is bad and can make things worse rather than better, especially on the ground - the Lego look where a flat surface is lit as if it's many slightly non-parallel planes, for example, is very visible in the "Before" shots of their before-and-after blog posts, and is a product of the lighting engine.

Next set of settings is in the next tab, Advanced. The World texture detail and Character texture detail sliders, which aren't tied to the master sliders at all, can really impact look on the ground.

That's pretty much how I got it set up.

[Hevach]

That's a likely example of renderscale being used for one, but a few settings that appear to be different between them: depth of field, possibly post processing, the two advanced sliders, and likely lighting/shadow settings. Nimbus is a place where its shortcomings don't really show up (at least outside of Paradise City), while Risa is one where its problems will jump out of the screen and shake you like a naughty puppy.


Post processing and depth of field are both double edged swords. Post processing especially - it controls a bunch of environmental/atmospheric effects and effect overlays that make large environments feel "grander" and change the sense of a lot of maps (the creepy stuff from the Tuvok mind meld, for example) but also things like the TOS film grain effect that some people complain gives them headaches. Depth of field is a bit more straightforward - it makes some views go from cool to epic (like that one), but makes a some others go from "There it is" to "uh... where am I going?" (turn that screenshot a bit to the right and try to figure out where the canyon entrance is without consulting the map objective marker).

[Mack]

But the character edges are still much more smoother. I tried disabling post processing, and that didn't do it. My edges did smooth a tad bit more when I disabled the reduce file streaming option, it was enabled.

However, on further research on that comparison picture, that was not a render scale pic. There apparently seems to be a 3rd party graphics enhancer for STO which injects some settings to make that possible. It's called Reshade.

Searching for its download links now. Thanks for the replies.

[Kirkling35]

But the character edges are still much more smoother. I tried disabling post processing, and that didn't do it. My edges did smooth a tad bit more when I disabled the reduce file streaming option, it was enabled.

However, on further research on that comparison picture, that was not a render scale pic. There apparently seems to be a 3rd party graphics enhancer for STO which injects some settings to make that possible. It's called Reshade.

Searching for its download links now. Thanks for the replies.

Does STO allow third party things? I remember awhile back they decided they weren't going to allow UI modding ala World of Warcraft but that's all I've heard on the subject.

[aceman67]

Does STO allow third party things? I remember awhile back they decided they weren't going to allow UI modding ala World of Warcraft but that's all I've heard on the subject.

Nope

[Kirkling35]

Nope

That's kind of what I figured. Thanks for the confirmation, Ace!