Jump to content
LaptopVideo2Go Forums

nHancer (NV ControlPanel Game Profile Editor)


®®®

Recommended Posts

Just found the SafeSearch feature @ google.

Here's a HowTo :)

[/color]

*UPDATE* nHancer v1.0.3

  • Added an ?all? and ?none? button to the import/export selection window.
  • Added menu option ?Allow override of predefined settings?. When activated, this option allows you to change options even if they are marked as ?predefined? by nVidia?s driver.
  • Bugfix: After changing a profile with nVidia?s CP while nHancer was running, nHancer started to behave erratically. Now it just reads the changed profile information and continues to work as usual. Thanks to Robert Schwortschik for reporting that bug.
  • Implemented a more meaningful error message, if the display driver information couldn?t find the registry key for the driver for some reason. Thanks to ?Matzinger04? for reporting this problem.
  • Corrected the mistyped shortcut ?nHander?.
  • Removed the grid lines in the profile list, since it could cause graphic corruption.
  • If the SLI setting is not overridden, the list view for the compatibility flags is no longer disabled, since that caused graphic anomalies and the list was no longer scrollable.

Now (related to this nvApps.xml thread) a German jumped in and made a tool called "nHancer" (former name: Yet Another Profile Editor). Looks very promising and professional, so i think we should open up a new thread for that. I can imagine that in the future people are uploading their best working profile here with a description of what the profile is set to and others can download

Here's the readme:

What's it for?

YAPE is a replacement for nVidia's own profile editor, which is integrated in their driver. You can also change the global driver settings, but the focus is on creating and manipulating profiles.

Since nVidia's own profile editor has several shortcommings and flaws, not to mention that it's hard to use, I decided to write a tool on my own.

And one of the most important advantages is, that you have full control over all SLI settings, so you can make all the games work with your SLI setup, even though nVidia doesn't provide a profile for them yet.

What's the difference between YAPE and all the other tools like aTuner or RivaTuner?

These tools are great for manipulating global driver settings, including settings that are not available through the usual control panel.

Some of thise tools even provide an integrated profile support, which allows you to create a specific set of settings that can be used for certain applications. But these profiles habe a disadvantage: They don't work automatically.

nVidia created a quite unique feature in their drivers, the driver automatically detects the game requesting a 3D-screen. If there are specific settings for that game stored in the driver's registry, the driver automatically uses those settings. So you don't have to manually activate your settings each time you start your game, or create a shortcut which does the automagically things for you. Just define the profile and everything else is done automatically.

And, most importantly, YAPE is so far the only available tool to support the new SLI settings, including all the compatibility flags.

What are the system requirements for YAPE?

You need an nVidia card, YAPE doesn't work with ATI or any other cards. This is not because I don't like ATI cards (in fact, I currenlty use an X800Pro and a 9700Pro myself), but ATI just doesn't provide the automatic profile activation like nVidia does. So there's just no way YAPE can work on ATI cards like it does on nVidia cards, sorry folks.

YAPE has been tested with a GeForce 6800GT, but it should work with all nVidia cards that are supported by the latest unified drivers.

YAPE requires a version 60 or later of the Detonator driver (see http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp).

You also have to install at least version 1.1 of the .net Framework (see Windows-Updates or http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/dow...s/framework1_1). If you sceptical against .net or want to know my reasons why I used it, see further down in the section "Why the .net framework?".

How does it work?

After installing YAPE, you can start the application through the shortcut in "All programs->YAPE".

When YAPE is running for the first time (or if a different driver has been installed since its last run), it automatically creates a backup of the registry and the file nvapps.xml, where nVidia stores the current profile settings. If you want to restore this backup, look further down in this file to the section "How do I restore a backup".

After that, you'll see YAPE's user interface.

The usage should be pretty obvious, just a few items should be noted:

You don't have to click "Apply" or "Ok" to activate a setting. As soon as you change the setting, it becomes active.

If any other application (e.g. nVidia's control panel or aTuner) changes a registry setting or the profile database, YAPE will immediately update itself to reflect the new settings. It's not neccessary to restart YAPE to make it aware of the changes.

If the window is to small for you, go ahead and make it larger. YAPE is freely sizeable

Manipulating profiles

On the left hand side you see a list with all currently known profiles. You see the profile's name and a short description of what the respective profile changes.

A profile usually doesn't redefine all settings, it just overwrites some parameters. The parameters that are not defined in a profile are used from the global settings when the application is run. Therefor, the description of the profile only lists the settings the profile actively overrides.

If you select the topmost line in the Applications list, you can change the global settings of the driver on the right hand side.

If you select a specific application from the list, You'll see a new checkbutton called "Override" on all options. This checkbutton indicates, if the respective option is overidden in this profile. To change an option for a specific game, you have to select that game and activate the "Override" checkbutton for the options you want to change.

If you want to add a new application that is not yet listed, just click the "Add" button below the Application list. You can then enter a name for the new application.

After that you have to define which executables are used for that game. Usually it's only one executable. Click the "Add" button right of the Executables list below and select the game's .exe file, which can be found in the game's installation directory. If there is more than one executable, you can include them all in the list.

What does the lock symbol mean?

In some cases, the override checkbutton is replaced by a lock symbol.

In those cases, the respective option has been predefined by nVidia. Usually this is done for SLI and compatibility settings.

If nVidia has predefined a setting, you can be pretty sure that they know what they're doing. Therefore YAPE doesn't allow to change those options.

If you really must change such an option, just open the file "nvapps.xml" (in c:\windows\system32) with any text editor, find the application (look for it's executable) and remove the following part

Itemtype = "predefined"

from the settings you want to change. After you safe the edited file, YAPE should allow you to change the settings.

What do all these options mean?

The options are the same options available in the nVidia control panel itself. You can check there for an explanation.

In a future version of YAPE I will include a context sensitive help for all the options.

What do those SLI compatibility flags do?

I have no idea ... Only nVidia can answer that question.

In fact, I just looked at the nvapps.xml file provided with the current Detonator driver. I realized that they set certain bits in a bitmask for different games. Obviously, those flags improve the SLI performance and compatibility with those games.

I included the option to set those flags for all games, so maybe you can make a game work with SLI that doesn't run with the standard "AFR" or "SFR" settings. To make it easier, I labeled the flags with the games that are currently using those flags according to nVidia's nvapps.xml.

Do I need any "Coolbits"?

"Coolbits" is the usual name for a short registry file that sets certain flags that opens several new options in nVidia's control panel.

YAPE neither requires nor looks for those coolbits. You'll always have all the options YAPE offers, regardless of any coolbits installed.

Import and Export

You can use the menu function "Export" to create seperate XML files which contain your selection of profiles. You can also share these XML profile files with other people. The "Import" can be used to import all or just a selection of profiles found in another XML file.

You can also import your old "nvapps.xml" file that you might have saved from a previous Detonator installation.

I plan to create a database of SLI settings for all kind of games, new and old ones.

Why the .net framework?

First of all, the .net framework is just a bunch (well a big bunch :) ) of DLLs. It doesn't install any processes running in the backround or any kind of spyware. It's just as safe (or unsafe) as any other software you can get from a large software vendor.

In fact it's basically the same as the old Visual-Basic runtime, the MFC runtime, the Delphi runtime or the Java runtime. All of these have to be installed prior to running any tool which was programmed using those environments.

On difference though is the size of the .net framework (currently around 23 MB). While it was common to include the VB-runtime with each product using it, that's just not viable with the .net framework, at least not when distributing an application over the internet.

The .net framework is just the natrual evolution for windows application development. While in the early days of Windows programming, it could take hours just to program one button and it's functionality, it's not a matter of minutes. And since this tool is free to begin with, you have to live with the fact that I want to have as little work with it as possible.

What features are planned?

I'm going to write a help text for all the options in the program.

Another idea on my list is to create backups of the nvapps.xml file on a regular basis (not just once the driver has been changed), so that the user can always revert to a previous set of settings, if he has done anything which he can't undo (like removing an application profile).

The program will most definitely be translated into german (my own native language). If you want to create a localized version of YAPE in any other language, just let me know, and I'll send you the files.

If you know anything else, just let me know!

How do I restore a backup?

If you want to restore this backup for any reason, just look into the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\YAPE" (might be different, depending on your system's language and installation). You'll find at least two files in there:

nvregistry_backup_7140.reg

nvapps_backup_7140.xml

The number "7140" indicates that when these files where created, the installed Detonator driver version was 71.40.

To restore the registry settings, just double click on the first file (the one ending with ".reg").

Make sure that you only restore files that match the Detonator driver you've currently installed!

All the drivers settings will then be reverted to the state when the backup was created, i.e. when YAPE was first started after this driver had been installed.

To restore the profile database, rename the second file (the one ending with ".xml") to "nvapps.xml". Then copy the file into your "C:\Windows\System32" directory. A previous version of that same file should already be there, you have to overwrite that to restore the backup.

Licence

This version of YAPE may be used free of charge.

It may be freely distributed over the internet.

For any other way of distribution, like on a magazine's CD, I'd like to be asked first.

All rights remain with the copyright holder (Martin Korndörfer).

The author may not be held responsible for any kind of damage the software causes, neither directly nor indirectly on your hardware or your software.

© 2005, Martin Korndörfer (grestorn@gmx.net).

Credits

YAPE has been written by Martin Korndörfer.

It uses the C# Registry class library © BlackBytes (http://www.blackbytes-components.com).

During the development of YAPE, I frequently used aths' tool "aTuner" to verify YAPE's functions. Thanks to aths for providing this great tool!

Release History

Version 0.9:

First public releaase

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

For installation .NET Framework is needed (why? is explained in the readme) and it even recognizes our mobile NVIDIA cards with a properly registry readout as far what i figured.

post-12-11074799920_thumb.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

*UPDATE* nHancer v1.0.1

Fixed: If nHancer had been closed while it was minimized, it couldn't be opened as a normal window anymore.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice program, I have to try this out soon....

If this can help me fix the graphics bugs I have been having in some of my games, I propose we throw a party for this guy, lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

*UPDATE* nHancer v1.0.2

Fixed: On some systems, nHancer could hang when trying to detect the installed driver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

*UPDATE* nHancer v1.0.3

  • Added an ?all? and ?none? button to the import/export selection window.
  • Added menu option ?Allow override of predefined settings?. When activated, this option allows you to change options even if they are marked as ?predefined? by nVidia?s driver.
  • Bugfix: After changing a profile with nVidia?s CP while nHancer was running, nHancer started to behave erratically. Now it just reads the changed profile information and continues to work as usual. Thanks to Robert Schwortschik for reporting that bug.
  • Implemented a more meaningful error message, if the display driver information couldn?t find the registry key for the driver for some reason. Thanks to ?Matzinger04? for reporting this problem.
  • Corrected the mistyped shortcut ?nHander?.
  • Removed the grid lines in the profile list, since it could cause graphic corruption.
  • If the SLI setting is not overridden, the list view for the compatibility flags is no longer disabled, since that caused graphic anomalies and the list was no longer scrollable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Since a few days the official nHancer website is online. It's a great place for offering your working game profiles and downloading others.

http://nhancer.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I figure this thread not only deserves a bump. In my opinion this is the best tweaker for driver options... And I would also recommend that this thread be moved to the Software Tools, Utilities & Customized INFs forum, and pinned if you think it's worthy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...