Aperture Graphics Presets - ApertureViewer/Aperture-Viewer GitHub Wiki

Aperture Viewer features a unique and performance-tuned graphics preset system designed to provide users with clear, feature-driven choices for their visual experience. This system replaces the traditional "Low, Medium, High, Ultra" paradigm with named levels that correspond to specific visual features being enabled or enhanced.

These presets are accessible via the Graphics Presets combobox on the General (Gen) Tab within the Aperture Phototools Suite (APS).

Philosophy Behind Aperture Graphics Presets

The core philosophy of Aperture's graphics presets is:

  1. Feature-Driven Levels: Each preset level is named to indicate the primary visual feature it enables (e.g., "Shadows," "Ambient Occlusion," "Depth of Field"). This makes it easier for users to understand what visual enhancements they are opting into.
  2. Incremental Enablement: As you move up the preset levels, new major visual features are turned ON.
  3. Consistent Base Quality: For levels 1 through 6 (from "HDR Foundation" up to "Mirrors"), the quality settings for features that are already ON (like shadow resolution, SSAO samples, reflection probe resolution, etc.) are generally kept at a consistent, moderate baseline. This means that when you enable a new feature (e.g., moving from "Shadows" to "Ambient Occlusion"), you are primarily seeing the impact of that new feature without an immediate, compounded performance hit from also increasing the quality of previously enabled features.
  4. "Eye Candy" for Maxed-Out Quality: Once all major features are enabled (up to "Mirrors"), the "Eye Candy" levels (Levels 7 & 8) then significantly increase the quality settings for all enabled features across the board. This is where you get the richest visual experience.
  5. Performance and Stability: The default values for each level are carefully chosen to balance visual quality with reasonable performance, aiming to prevent the "performance cliff" some users experience when jumping to an "Ultra" setting in other viewers.
  6. User Customization: While these presets offer excellent starting points, Aperture Viewer empowers users to save their entire customized visual setup (all APS settings, including Post-Processing) as their own named presets using the "Graphic Presets: Save/Load/Delete" buttons at the bottom of the APS window.

The Preset Levels (v1.0.0)

Here's a breakdown of what each preset level primarily enables or adjusts. Note that settings from lower levels are cumulative unless explicitly overridden.

  • Level 0: AP_Level_0_Essential_Visuals

    • Focus: Bare minimum for viewer operation with a focus on maximizing FPS.
    • Key Settings:
      • Core pipeline features (Occlusion Culling, Fullbright capability, Alpha Masking).
      • HDR, Reflection Probes, Glow, Shadows, SSAO, DOF, SSR, Mirrors are all OFF.
      • Minimal PBR terrain detail, low local light count, anisotropic filtering OFF.
      • Low particle count, very low avatar complexity limits, minimal draw distance.
      • Intended for situations where performance is paramount over visual fidelity (e.g., very old hardware, extremely crowded areas if other measures fail).

  • Level 1: AP_Level_1_HDR_Foundation

    • Focus: Enables the PBR/HDR pipeline, basic reflection probes, and glow. This is the foundational level for modern visuals in Aperture.
    • Key Features Enabled/Settings:
      • HDR Pipeline ON, Emissive Buffer ON.
      • ACES Tonemapping (Mix at 0.0 by default).
      • Full PBR Terrain Detail.
      • Increased Local Light Count.
      • Anisotropic Filtering ON.
      • Reflection Probes: Moderate resolution (128), Full Scene Coverage, Static + Dynamic Detail, generous draw distance.
      • Glow: ON with moderate quality settings.
      • Transparent Water & Water Materials ON.
      • Object/Volume LOD set to 8.0 (to prevent accessory deformation).
      • Increased Draw Distance, Particle Count (1024), Avatar Complexity.
      • Sharpening at 0.4.

  • Level 2: AP_Level_2_Shadows

    • Focus: Enables Sun/Moon + Projector shadows.
    • Key Feature Enabled: RenderShadowDetail set to Sun/Moon + Projectors.
    • Quality Settings: Shadow Resolution at 1.0 (moderate), default blur and bias settings. Other settings largely inherit from Level 1.

  • Level 3: AP_Level_3_SSAO

    • Focus: Enables Screen Space Ambient Occlusion.
    • Key Feature Enabled: RenderDeferredSSAO ON.
    • Quality Settings: SSAO Samples at a moderate 8, default scale and factor. Other settings largely inherit from Level 2.

  • Level 4: AP_Level_4_DOF

    • Focus: Enables Depth of Field.
    • Key Feature Enabled: RenderDepthOfField ON.
    • Quality Settings: Moderate DOF settings (F-Number, Focal Length, CoC, Resolution at 0.7). Other settings largely inherit from Level 3.

  • Level 5: AP_Level_5_SSR

    • Focus: Enables Screen Space Reflections.
    • Key Feature Enabled: RenderScreenSpaceReflections ON.
    • Quality Settings: Moderate SSR iterations, default ray step, Glossy Samples at 1. Other settings largely inherit from Level 4.

  • Level 6: AP_Level_6_Mirrors

    • Focus: Enables Mirror Reflections.
    • Key Feature Enabled: RenderMirrors ON.
    • Quality Settings: Mirror Resolution at a low 128 (for performance), fast update rate. Other settings largely inherit from Level 5.

  • Level 7: AP_Level_7_Rich_Candy (Eye Candy - without Mirrors)

    • Focus: All major visual features enabled (HDR, Probes, Glow, Shadows, SSAO, DOF, SSR) with their respective quality settings significantly increased. Mirrors remain OFF.
    • Key Quality Increases:
      • Reflection Probe Resolution to 512, Realtime Detail.
      • SSAO Samples to 18.
      • DOF MaxCoF to 30.0, Resolution to 1.0.
      • Higher Draw Distance (1024), Particle Count (4096), Max Fully Rendered Avatars (66), No Avatar Complexity Limit.
      • Dynamic LOD OFF (forces max detail).
      • Antialiasing ON (SMAA, Ultra).
      • All other relevant quality sliders from previous levels are pushed higher.

  • Level 8: AP_Level_8_Full_Candy (Eye Candy - with Mirrors)

    • Focus: All major visual features enabled including Mirrors, with quality settings significantly increased (comparable to Level 7, but with Mirrors active).
    • Key Feature Difference from Level 7: RenderMirrors ON.
    • Mirror Quality: Mirror Resolution increased to 4096, very fast update rate.
    • Other quality settings are similar to Level 7.

[!IMPORTANT] The "Eye Candy" levels (7 and 8) are designed for users with capable hardware who desire the highest visual fidelity. They will be more performance-intensive than the lower levels.

  • Future "Ice Cream / Chocolate" Level (Not yet in v1.0.0 presets combobox):
    • The featuretable_aperture.txt contains an "all" list definition that pushes virtually every quality setting to its absolute maximum (e.g., 8192 local lights, 8192 mirror resolution, 2048 probe resolution, 1024 SSAO samples, etc.). This represents an extreme "everything full blast" scenario, likely unperformant for most current systems but serves as a reference for maximum possible values. A user-selectable preset based on this may be introduced later.

How Presets Interact with APS Controls

When you select one of these Graphics Presets from the combobox in the General Tab:

  1. The viewer applies all the settings defined for that level in featuretable_aperture.txt.
  2. This will override your current manual adjustments in the APS tabs for any settings managed by the feature table for that preset level.
  3. Crucially, selecting one of these built-in Graphics Presets (Levels 0-8) WILL reset all settings on the Post-Processing (Post) Tab to their default neutral values (e.g., Contrast 0.0, Saturation 1.0, Highlights 0.0, etc., as defined within each preset list in featuretable_aperture.txt). This ensures that each built-in graphics level provides a clean, predictable rendering baseline without carrying over prior artistic post-processing adjustments.

[!IMPORTANT] If you have crafted a specific artistic look using the Post-Processing tab and wish to preserve it while changing base rendering quality, you should first save your entire setup as a custom comprehensive preset using the "Graphic Presets: Save" button at the bottom of the APS window. After selecting a new built-in graphics level all post process effect resent to default.

Saving and Loading Your Own Comprehensive Presets

Beyond these built-in levels, Aperture Viewer offers a powerful way to save your entire visual setup:

  • Location: At the very bottom of the APS window, below all tabs, are three buttons:
    • Graphic Presets: Save
    • Graphic Presets: Load
    • Graphic Presets: Delete
  • Functionality:
    • Save: Clicking "Save" will prompt you to name your preset. This saves all current settings across all APS tabs, including all Post-Processing adjustments, environment tweaks (though not the selected Windlight/Water preset files themselves, rather their current numerical values), lighting, reflections, lens effects, avatar settings, and general rendering options.
    • Load: Allows you to load a previously saved comprehensive preset.
    • Delete: Allows you to delete a saved comprehensive preset.
  • File Location: These custom comprehensive presets are saved as .xml files in your user settings folder (typically C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\ApertureViewer\user_settings\graphics_presets on Windows).
  • Sharing: You can share these .xml files with other Aperture Viewer users.

This system provides ultimate flexibility, allowing you to craft specific visual styles and performance profiles and recall them instantly.