Overview
Tweaks I used after extensive testing which fixed the poor base implementation of RAGE. It now runs silky smooth
Basic Issues
As per alot of people I had major issues with stutter in this game despite having a high end system. While i got it smooth enough to play there was always this annoying stutter here and there to things. Unfortunately it requires alot of manual tweaking detailed below to fix.
I finally worked out thru some extensive testing how to get it silky smooth on my system, a consistent 60fps without any sort of microstutter whatsoever which hopefully will help some of you guys out there encountering the same problem.
A few points…
Megatextures allow great quality long distance views but very poor up close textures. It’s an inherent problem with the engine. While the forced 16k textures do improve it, it will not eliminate the substandard up close texture issue in RAGE
RAGE does not support SLI/Crossfire. Also an issue of the idTech engine.
With 2 cards installed you will also not be able to turn on GPU Transcoding ingame causing more noticeable texture popin when moving the mouseview around. It is not fixed by disabling SLi and I assume Crossfire either.
– GPU Transcoding luckily can however be forced (fixed) manually in the cfg section and manually assigned to the second card if you have SLI
– It’s capped at a maximum 60fps. Once the stutter issue is resolved it’s not really a problem, just shows lack of flexibility
– The stutter is from one command being set too high – vt_maxppf. In later idtech games the max you can set this to is 64. It’s 128 in RAGE! The best setting is 16 unless you have some 16 Thread monster CPU.
The autostreamer is overly conservative and does not load the highest quality textures
– Fixed by manual cfg changes
The menu sensitivity needs fixing if using a high dpi mouse (and using low sensitivity ingame)
– Fixed in cfg section
Ingame Vsync does not work properly on high refresh rate monitors – it continually disables itself
– Manual forcing thru your graphics card control panel fixes it
These are my specs at thused for this
Intel i7 2600 3.4Ghz
16GB DDR3 1866
SSD (OS)
SSHD Drive (Game Installs incl. RAGE)
Windows 7 x64 SP1
EVGA GTX670 FTW 2GB SLI – Drivers 337.88
144Hz Monitor
Fixes
In game set
Transcoding can be used but I noticed slightly increased latency. If you have a suitable enough CPU, try turning transcoding off.
Config file typical file location is below (Otherwise locate it within the base folder where RAGE is installed)
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonragebaseDefault.cfg
Add the following to the top of the cfg file
g_fov xx (90 to 100 is usually a good start)
m_menu_sensitivity 0.50
+set vt_pageImageSizeUnique 8192 (16384 if you have more than 3GB VRAM)
+set vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly 8192 (16384 if you have more than 3GB VRAM)
+set vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly2 8192 (16384 if you have more than 3GB VRAM)
vt_maxPPF 16
vt_useCudaTranscode 1 (For SLI, non SLI users can enabled/disable ingame)
Optional
m_smooth 2 (if you have a low dpi mouse otherwise you should be able to leave at game default)
Here is the background to those commands..
g_fov xx (Changes to a better Field of View for 1920×1080 or above)
m_menu_sensitivity 0.50 (you can then turn down ingame sensitivity to 0 for high dpi mice)
+set vt_pageImageSizeUnique 8192/16384 (Forces 8/16k Textures)
+set vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly 8192/16384 (Forces 8/16k Textures)
+set vt_pageImageSizeUniqueDiffuseOnly2 8192/16384 (Forces 8/16k Textures)
vt_maxPPF 16 (A lot of the stutter is caused from the default 128. 16 has the lowest latency/microstutter)
vt_useCudaTranscode 1 (Nvidia SLI only)
m_smooth 1 or 2 (Mouse smoothing with minimal latency)
The following should also be made in the Nvidia Control Panel
Under Manage 3D Settings. Look for the RAGE game profile
Set Vsync to ON
Optionals
Set Triple Buffering to ON if you’re system can’t maintain 60fps
(Works since it’s not using SLI. Don’t use Triple Buff. on SLI)
If you have a 120hz+ monitor make sure the Refresh Rate is set to Highest Supported
Turn FXAA on for Antialiasing. Turn off Antialiasing in game and/or use 2xMSAA for a good combo
If you have a SLI system and want to use transcoding – Under CUDA – set CUDA to Card 2 to dedicate it for CUDA Transcoding
Once you’ve done these changes RAGE should hopefully now be running as smoothly as it is on mine 🙂 Enjoy!