Program Graphics Settings

The quality and speed of your video card will have a huge impact on how fast Realtime Landscaping looks and runs. Video cards are more powerful each year, and upgrading to a modern one will greatly improve your experience with the software.


Device type
Determines which graphics device type to use for rendering. Note: DirectX is a rendering technology from Microsoft that bridges the gap between software such as Realtime Landscaping and the video card.

Software (slow)
This option emulates the video card using software. It is very slow, but can be useful when using an older video card that does not support the minimum settings.

DirectX 10
Some older video cards only support DirectX 10. Advanced features such as antialiasing, global illumination, and 3D grass will not be available when using this device type.

DirectX 11 (recommended)
This is the recommended setting. All graphical effects should be supported. However, please note that some older DirectX 11 video cards have less memory than is recommended and may perform slowly.

Shadow quality
Determines how hard or soft your shadows are. The number in parenthesis indicates the size of the texture used to render shadow maps. For example, Normal (2048) means the normal setting uses shadow maps which are 2048x2048 pixels in size.

Caution: Using a higher quality setting produces sharper shadows, but also uses more video memory. If you find that increasing the shadow quality causes your project to slow down, try reducing the shadow quality to see if performance returns to normal.

Global illumination quality
Determines the quality level of indirect lighting and shadows. Normal should be fine for most scenes. High and Maximum take longer to process, so we recommend only using them for final renders, and then only if needed.

Antialiasing
Antialiasing helps reduce jagged edges, making the edges appear smoother and more realistic. However, antialiasing can be time-consuming to render, especially on older video cards.

Note: This option only applies while designing. Screenshots, movies, and printouts are always antialiased for the best quality.

Enable vertical sync
Vertical sync synchronizes the frame rate with the refresh rate of the monitor. This can prevent tearing artifacts, especially when moving the view quickly. Another benefit is that it can reduce the computer's power usage by not rendering scenes faster than the monitor can display them.

The downside is that vertical sync can introduce lag, and is highly dependent on your video card and size of your project.

Auto exposure
By default, the brightness of the scene is determined automatically by the software based on the time of day. When auto exposure is enabled, the brightness is automatically raised or lowered based on how bright the scene is from the current viewpoint. For example, when looking at a dark, shadowed area of your design, the brightness will be automatically increased to help improve the visibility.

Use the Max increase and Max decrease options to specify how much the scene can be darkened or brightened. These values are in EV (exposure) units, where each whole number is double the brightness of the previous number. For example, a value of 1 doubles the brightness, 2 is twice as bright as 1, and 3 is twice as bright as 2.

Click Reset to reset the auto exposure settings to their defaults. Auto exposure is disabled by default.

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. However, make sure you get them from a reliable source. 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 help 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.