Graphics Settings

3D video cards can vary greatly in terms of features and performance. Realtime Landscaping Pro will automatically detect your video card and attempt to use the maximum supported quality settings. However, in some cases you may want to reduce the quality level in order to improve performance, especially when using an older video card.

The quality and speed of your video card will have a huge impact on how fast Realtime Landscaping Pro looks and runs. Video cards are becoming less expensive all the time, and upgrading to a modern one will greatly improve your experience with the software.

Graphics quality
Select the desired graphics quality level, or select Auto for the quality level to be determined automatically.

Note: This setting only affects the quality of the graphics while designing. It does not affect Realtime Walkthroughs.  To adjust the Realtime Walkthrough graphics settings, press F7 during the walkthrough and enable or disable the desired settings. For more information, see the section Graphics Settings in Realtime Walkthrough Controls.

The following Graphics quality levels are supported:

Auto (recommended)
The maximum quality level supported by your video card will be enabled.

Low
Disables antialiasing, advanced texture filtering, and advanced surface detail.

Medium
Currently, this has the same effect as Low.

High
Enables all features supported by your video card.

Walkthrough engine
The following Realtime Walkthrough engines are available:

Auto (recommended)
If your video card supports DirectX 11, then the standard Realtime Walkthrough engine will be used. Otherwise, the legacy (DirectX 9-based) Realtime Walkthrough engine will be used instead.

DirectX 9 (Legacy)
Use the legacy Realtime Walkthrough engine. The legacy engine will run on older video cards, but does not support many of the advanced rendering features such as 3D grass, dynamic lighting and shadows, water caustics, and bloom.

DirectX 11
Use the standard Realtime Walkthrough engine. This option is only available if your video card supports DirectX 11.

Software (very slow)
If your video card does not support DirectX 11, then many of the advanced graphics features will not be available during a Realtime Walkthrough.

However, the Software engine is a good alternative for taking screen shots and creating movies. The quality is very high (essentially the same as a high-end 3D video card). However, it is very slow (often several seconds per frame or more).

On computers with older video cards, the Software engine will automatically be used when creating movies. However, in order to use it for Realtime Walkthroughs, you must manually enable it by setting the Walkthrough engine setting to Software.

Updating your Video Drivers

If you experience any problems such as flickering textures, hangs, crashes, or other problems, then your video drivers most likely need to be updated.

Video drivers are free and can be downloaded from the Internet. For desktop computers, the drivers are most often downloaded from the video card manufacturer's website. For laptop computers, the drivers are often specific to the make and model of laptop, and should be downloaded from the laptop manufacturer.

Contact support@ideaspectrum.com if you need any assistance locating the correct video drivers for your computer.  Please send us the make and model of your computer, as well as the video card information displayed in the above dialog.