I suspect that there are nearly as many solutions to the problem of email address validation as there are projects that require them. I’ve seen a fair amount of them myself over the years, they range from simply checking for the presence of an @ in a string to extremely complex and often flawed sub-routines designed for the task.

In my mind the most logical solution to validating email addresses is through the use of regular expressions. In this article I will present a regular expression solution that can be used in four different languages. Hopefully this will be the last email validation regex you ever need.

The Wikipedia entry on email addresses provides a nice summary of the surprisingly complex standard that governs valid and invalid email addresses, and is what I used as a guide for generating these expressions.

To summarize the standard even further, an email address takes the following basic form: ‘local_part@domain’ with separate rules for ‘local_part’ and ‘domain’.

One rule for ‘local_part’ involves the use of quoted strings, which allows the presence of some special characters as long as they are contained within double quotes. An example of a valid email address using quoted strings is this monstrosity:
mail."<some>\ <xml>\"inside\"</xml></some>"@host.com

The very standard that defines this rule recommends against its use. Another obscure rule defined in the standards involves the domain portion of the address. In addition to the normal rules governing host-names, email addresses can have IP address domains such as this: email.address@[123.123.123.123]

According to the Wikipedia article email addresses such as this are “rarely seen except in email spam” – so matching addresses such as these may have some practical applications in spam detection.

Because these two features cause the regular expression to become unwieldy I have provided three expressions for each language.

• The basic does not allow these rare addresses.
• The intermediate allows IP domains to be in the email address, but not quotes strings.
• The advanced will allow both IP domains and quoted strings to appear.

^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~])+\\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+@\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}$

^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~])+\\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+@\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}$

^(([-a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~])+\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~]+@\w((-|\w)*\w)*\.(\w((-|\w)*\w)*\.)*\w{2,4}$

/^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~])+\\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~]+@\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}$/

^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~])+\\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+@(?:(?:\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\])|(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}))$

^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~])+\\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+@(?:(?:\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\])|(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}))$

^(([-a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~])+\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~]+@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(\w((-|\w)*\w)*\.(\w((-|\w)*\w)*\.)*\w{2,4}))$

/^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~])+\\.)*[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~]+@(?:(?:\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\])|(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}))$/

^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+|(?:\"(?:[-\\[\\],:;<>&@()a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?:\\\\[\\\\ \"]))+\"))\\.)*(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+|(?:\"(?:[-\\[\\],:;<>&@()a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?:\\\\[\\\\ \"]))+\"))@(?:(?:\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\])|(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}))$

^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+|(?:\"(?:[-\\[\\],:;<>&@()a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?:\\\\[\\\\ \"]))+\"))\\.)*(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+|(?:\"(?:[-\\[\\],:;<>&@()a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?:\\\\[\\\\ \"]))+\"))@(?:(?:\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\])|(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}))$

^(([-a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~]+|(\"([][,:;<>\&@a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~-]|(\\\\[\\ \"]))+\"))\.)*([-a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~]+|(\"([][,:;<>\&@a-zA-Z0-9\!#\$%\&\'*+/=?^_\`{\|}~-]|(\\\\[\\ \"]))+\"))@\w((-|\w)*\w)*\.(\w((-|\w)*\w)*\.)*\w{2,4}$

/^(?:(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~]+|(?:\"(?:[-\\[\\],:;<>&@()a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~]|(?:\\\\[\\\\ \"]))+\"))\\.)*(?:[-a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~]+|(?:\"(?:[-\\[\\],:;<>&@()a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~]|(?:\\\\[\\\\ \"]))+\"))@(?:(?:\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\])|(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.(?:\\w(?:(?:-|\\w)*\\w)*\\.)*\\w{2,4}))$/

Download Sample Scripts

I have packaged up the examples in PHP, Java, JavaScript, and Bash below.

These will help you put the expressions into your script.
Download – Java class, JavaScript HTML page, Bash shell script, and PHP script (zipped)

Try it out! – The live, working JavaScript test page.
Try it out! – The live, working PHP test page.

Once a developer steps up to more critical projects, like those in an Enterprise environment, debugging production issues means dealing with log files.

In this article, I will give some Solid tips for working with web server logs in a Bash (Unix) shell command line, covering the basics to make your development and debugging easier.

Where are the log files?

The majority of people who will benefit from this article will find themselves using Apache server on Linux. It’s used everywhere in the business world and even with dirt-cheap hosting from GoDaddy.

For Apache/Linux, you will almost certainly find your logs under /var/log. If you happen to be running Tomcat server, you will find your logs under /usr/share/tomcat/logs, usr/share/logs, or opt/tomcat/logs. For Windows IIS server, you can find logs under c:\winnt\system32\LogFiles, but then again this article won’t be of any use to you.

You can go directly to your logs in a shell by using the change directory command:

cd /var/logs

Solid Tip: These are the default log locations. The locations or file names might be changed, so watch out. Additionally, custom logs might be created and intercept the data you expect to be elsewhere. If your server is part of shared hosting, your logs will likely be directed into some sort of home folder.

How can I view log files?

Thankfully, you have plenty of options for viewing logs. Sometimes log files can get very large, making simply downloading/opening them futile. You can use the head or tail commands to view the beginning or tail end of the file respectively. You can watch the log entries on-the-fly as they come in by using the tail command with a follow flag as shown below:

tail -f your_log_file.log

The previous command will show a rolling tail-end of the log file. It shows 10 lines by default, but you can also specify the number of lines, like tail -f -25 php_error_log.

My logs are huge! How do I truncate a log?

As said above, logs can become very large, becoming Gigabytes if not pruned. Additionally, you might encounter issues trying to clear the file out because it is in use by the server. You can easily truncate giant log files with a greater-than arrow:

> your_log_file.log

This command also works while the log is running. The arrow is a “redirect” command that puts the stuff output on its left into the file on its right.

Solid Tip: Other methods include a truncate command or cat /dev/null > your_log_file.log. The arrow syntax is simply the shortest way of handling it (plus the cat command with one file is frowned upon as “cat abuse”).

How do I search a log for text?

You can search an entire log file for a string of text, but it could take a long time. You can combine a search in a tail (described up above) and pluck a desired entry out right as it enters the log:

tail -f your_log_file.log | grep -i "search string"

If you want to search the entire log, simply use the find command:

find "search string" your_log_file.log

Count how often something appears in a log

If you need to know how often an error or other log entry is occuring, the following will return the number of lines that a string appears:

grep -c "search string" your_log_file.log

Hopefully these simple tips will aid you in debugging and understanding your web applications. Of course, if you want to know how to do something else or have a better way of doing something, let me know!

Welcome to yet another game test in our long-running series: The Logitech G27 Racing Wheel for Casual Racing Gamers. Here, I will show you how to set up your G27 racing wheel to play DiRT 3.

DiRT 3 was developed and published by Codemasters. While still a Colin McRae series game, the name was dropped from the title for the North American audience. Racing is rally cross style and takes place on a track.

Solid Tip: Looking for G27 drivers or Logitech Profiler software? Get it here.

Dirt 3 Settings

Like any respectable racing game, Dirt 3 has a preset that recognizes the G27. Be sure to follow the steps in the list below to quickly setup the game and get racing. Unlike the previous Dirt game, you don’t need to worry about having the game patched before using your wheel. It also has better support for the Logitech software.

Dirt 3 allows you to choose between Automatic, Paddle Shifters, H-Shifter no clutch, and H-Shifter with clutch. I actually found the clutch to be very unforgiving when I first loaded up the game, so beware.

There are a plethora of other options as well. Beneath the Transmission selection, there is an Advanced Wheel Settings page where you can tweak deadzone, saturation, and linearity. Since this article is for casual gamers, I will leave you to play with those settings. However, if you want to tweak how the on-screen wheel turns in relation to the actual wheel in your hands, you want to adjust the linearity slider.

Finally, there is a also a dedicated Vibration and Feedback section where you can tweak Force Feedback. This screen is a separate option besides Controls. These are similar to the Logitech Profiler, so you can either play with those settings here or under the Specific Game Settings in your Profiler.

Step By Step

• Open the Logitech Profiler
• Select New > Profile
• Add dirt3_game.exe using the Browse button
• Select Edit > Specific Game Settings
• Set Degrees of Rotation preference here
• Leave ‘Report Combined Pedals’ Unchecked
• Start DiRT 3 using the game’s launcher, not the profiler
• Go to Options > Controls > Choose Preset > G27
• Map any additional controls to your liking.

The preset below handles the critical stuff. The only important button you may want to change is the E-brake button.

Below, mess with Linearity if you want to change your degrees of rotation and still have a 1:1 turning relationship with the on-screen steering wheel.

Solid Tip: You can increase the degrees of rotation up to the full 900°, but that makes this game very difficult. 200° and the default settings is easy to control and matches the on-screen wheel’s turning action.

Dedicated Wheel Options Screen

Dirt 3 Force Feedback is solid and varies based on the terrain. You feel both impacts and the surface you are driving on. Casual gamers won’t worry about this section.

Dedicated Force Feedback Options

Even More Settings

Thankfully, you can ignore pretty many of the control settings for Dirt 3. I say thankfully because there are still 2 more sets of options to show you! When you load up a race track you have a final screen before starting where you can choose Difficulty and Assists or Vehicle Setup.

Both of these options affect your experience as much, if not more, than the other control options. Vehicle setup is for tuning your car, so it is obviously for experienced drivers. It defaults to all options right in the middle.

Difficulty and Assists is more critical, as it interferes with your own driving by default. Aside from a numbered difficulty 1-6, this section has assist presets (or you can change individual settings to your liking).

Assists default to the “Casual” level (how fitting for this article). The game will automatically slow you down going into corners which may make you mad. It will also try to steer for you? and enable ABS and Traction Control.

Pre-Race Tuning Your Car

Training Wheels - ON by default

That’s what you need to know about setting up your Logitech G27 to play Dirt 3 on your PC. There are tons of options, but you don’t have to modify much to have fun. Check out one of the many other G27 articles to see if your other favorite racing games are supported.

Test Drive Unlimited 2
NFS: Hot Pursuit
Race Driver: GRID
Dirt 2
Need For Speed: Shift

This article is part of our long-running series: The Logitech G27 Racing Wheel for Casual Racing Gamers. Here, I will cover setting up your G27 racing wheel to play NFS: The Run. The 18th game in the series, The Run was developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. The Run features arcade style action reminiscent of NFS: Undercover or NFS: Most Wanted.

It appears that EA likes to alternate between releasing simulation-type game (Pro Street, Shift) and these action-oriented games where you smash into police cars at 200 mph. The Run has you racing across the streets of America trying to outrun the law, the mob, and other racers to magically solve your life’s problems.

Solid Tip: Looking for G27 drivers or Logitech Profiler software? Get it here.

G27 Wheel Issues

Need for Speed: The Run drives well with the G27. Force feedback responds well and the developers finally uses built-in shift LED support. Take note that this is the first NFS game since Undercover to include the shift light feature for this wheel (that was 3 years ago!).

On the other hand. Setting up the wheel makes it painfully obvious that this game was (once again) developed with consoles and controllers in mind. Thanks yet again, EA!

While we really care about driving, it would be nice if the control options actually made sense and the in-game events told you the proper button you have to press since you only have a split second to do it. However, even at the very start of the game, you are presented with a screen that tells you to mash the “Blue X” button or the “Red B” button, followed by Right Trigger+Left Trigger.

Those of us who setup our wheel ahead of time are staring at the screen saying “WTF!” as our character is killed before the game even starts! If you can get over this, then you can actually enjoy your driving experience. Be warned, though, as there are more of these frustrating events later in the game.

Need for Speed: The Run G27 Settings

• Plug in the wheel, of course
• Open the Logitech Profiler
• Select New > Profile
• Add Need For Speed The Run.exe as a new game
• Launch Game from Profiler
• In game, go to Settings > Gameplay > Controls
• switch ‘Keyboard’ to ‘Wheel Controller’
• Map wheel buttons to your preferences

The Run Controls

Simplified Controls

You will notice the screen shot above is somewhat sparse. The game uses very little in the way of controls. In fact, this game doesn’t use the clutch and doesn’t use the H-shifter while driving. You can only shift using the sequential paddles.

Solid Tip: Don’t put aside your H-shifter just yet. The geniuses who put this together force you to use the black round buttons on the H-shifter box during quick-time events. dumb.

Also, you will notice a lack of any further control settings. There are no force feedback options to play around with. Since you created a profile using the Logitech software, you are able to adjust settings on your own (including degrees of rotation) using the ‘Specific Games Settings’ under the ‘Edit’ menu of the Profiler software. I found that I enjoyed the FFB settings out of the box.

Remember to leave the Combined Pedals unchecked or your car will not drive anywhere.

Overcoming the Quick-Time Events

You cannot remap the buttons for the in-game sequences that require you to press buttons that are shown as Xbox 360 Controller icons. But here’s a quick reference that will save your life!

For example, the next time the game shows you a blinking icon that says LT+RT, you will know to quickly press the two top buttons near your thumbs on the wheel itself.

Remember these 6 buttons

Test Drive Unlimited 2
NFS: Hot Pursuit
Race Driver: GRID
Dirt 2
Need For Speed: Shift

In this article, I will explain how to use the interface for Skyrim on the PC and explain how it can be better than simply clicking around the screen with the mouse.

Update 11/29/2011: A patch will be released tomorrow for PC that will supposedly improve the menu and controls in general. It should also address the crash on startup issue I discuss in my other Skyrim article.

Interface Breaks at Character Creation

I had a hell of a time setting up my character. If you didn’t know, you can use the mouse to move your characters face around the screen. It seems, though, that every time I shifted my player’s face to a different angle, there was a 50% chance that the menu would quit responding to the keyboard.

I was unable to make this stop happening, but it was easy enough to get working again. Simply click on a body part at the top of the screen and the keyboard will work again.

I Opened A Book and I’m Trapped

At the beginning of the game, I picked up the first book I saw in the keep. After reading through it, I noticed that it only said “[A][D] Turn Pages” and did not explain how to exit from the reading view.

After being very frustrated for a few minutes, I found that you can exit the menu at any time by pressing TAB. What was really annoying is that pressing ESC seemed to be the logical thing to do, but that only brought up the pause menu on top of the menu that was already open.

Cant Use the Mouse to Click Menu Items

Blasphemy! It is true, you cannot use the mouse on a lot of interface items, but the key is that the entire menu is controlled by your keyboard hand. At first I thought I was forced to use the arrow keys, but it’s actually your movement keys.

After you know how to use it, the menu becomes intuitive and satisfying. Here is the summary:

• You navigate up, down, left, and right using keys W,A,S,D
• Use the E key to confirm choices
• Use the E key also to equip/unequip/use items
• Use the TAB key to cancel/back out of choices
• Use the TAB key also to open and close the menu
• Press J for your Journal
• Press I for your inventory
• Press Q for your Favorites menu
• Press F on an item to mark it as a Favorite
• Press R on an item to drop it

After collecting your basic armor and weapon at the beginning of the game, you can quickly and fluidly enter the inventory menu, equip all the items, and exit the menu. The same can be said for looting, which utilizes the E key and TAB key. It makes grabbing tens of thousands of items effortless and fast.

Assign Weapons and Items to Number Keys

This is a great tip- now you can assign your favorite sword or spell to a number key and not worry about any menus at all.

• Assign item to favorites with F key
• Open favorites with Q key
• Scroll to the item you want
• Press the number you want to assign it to

Enjoy the game!

Mass Effect 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Borderlands 2
Assassin's Creed 4
Battlefield 3 LE

Fortunately, this crash has the same solution as Dead Rising 2 for PC, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

Solid Tip: This isn’t the end-all be-all of fixes, just a specific one that haunts users of aftermarket sound cards. Your game might be crashing for another reason.

If it doesn’t work, be sure to get the latest video card drivers, DirectX version, and verify the Steam cache if you have a Steam copy.

Sound Card Crash

The game should immediately start once you change your sound card quality settings. You can reach the settings for your sound card through the Control Panel in Windows. For this example, I will show you a SoundBlaster X-Fi, which I configure by going to Sound > Playback > Speakers > Advanced. Here, I had my original quality set to 24 bit, 96000 Hz. To get the game to launch, though, I must set the quality to 24 bit, 44100 Hz.

This photo was from my Dead Rising 2 sound car fix. It was actually debated what Hz level your card should be at, so some people might get Skyrim working at 48000 Hz, assuming the sampling rate is the cause of the crash.

My Game Still Crashes!

While I experienced the sound card crash with Dead Rising 2, I was able to startup and run Skyrim at 96000 Hz sampling rate without crashing.

Another problem that I constantly come across when putting new games through their paces is a crash that is caused by having dual monitors (or triple if you are that cool). I always test games with dual monitors running first and see if that causes any crashing. If the game doesn’t start up, I disable the 2nd monitor and try again.

Additionally, you will want to make sure you have the latest video card drivers and DirectX version, as I mention up above.

There are additional resources available to you with a list of very specific crash fixes over at crashfixes.com. I wont go through all of those, so check that out if you still have issues launching the game.

Mass Effect 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Borderlands 2
Assassin's Creed 4
Battlefield 3 LE

While users have reported a crash to desktop that will be familiar to anyone who has been playing Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, there hasn’t been much that needs tweaking.

Skyrim runs very well on today’s hardware and seems fairly optimized. The shadows can be low quality and chunky, but overall frame rate is good. If you want to fine tune some additional options, though, you can browse through the .ini files in the following location in Windows:
My Documents > My Games > Skyrim.

Solid Tip: Before you go ‘tweaking’ these .ini files, you should copy and paste them into the folder so you have a backup version.

Skyrim's explosive start

Improve Shadows

These are off by default, but try them out to see if your PC can handle it. It looks great.

Ambient Occlusion for Nvidia Cards

If you have a GeForce, you can use Nvidia Inspector to turn on an Ambient Occlusion flag for Skyrim. Need help with the Inspector? Check out instructions in this older Divinity 2 example.

Disabling Vertical Sync (Vsync)

Vsync is a good thing! Only turn it off if your computer is struggling to keep the frame rate high.

Disabling Mouse Acceleration

Personal preference for people. Note that Skyrim has Mouse Sensitivity set very low at the start of the game, so check that first.

Field of View (FOV )

Some people prefer to view the world in a wider angle, some think it looks fish-eyed. The default FOV is not listed, but is probably 70. You can edit FOV by adding a new line as shown below. Set the number to whatever you want. Add the code to the bottom of the file.

Additional Helpful Stuff

Experiencing a crash to desktop with Skyrim PC? I did an article on the same type of crash a couple weeks ago for Dead Rising 2 OTR. Skyrim uses the same fix and involves changing your sound card settings. Check out the crash to desktop fix.

Having trouble with navigating the menus with the mouse? Check out the menu navigation article for some tips on becoming a pro with Skyrim’s user interface.

Mass Effect 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Borderlands 2
Assassin's Creed 4
Battlefield 3 LE

Renderer Settings

I was excited to find a file called renderer_settings.xml after I installed the game. I was disappointed, however, when I opened it only to find the basic options the game gives you along with an aspect ratio option and a refresh rate option.

You can reach this folder by typing %userprofile%/AppData/Local in any Windows address bar if you actually want to change either of those.

<renderer_config>
	<d3d_device
		adapter = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470"
		adapter_index = "0"
		resolution = "1920 1080"
		windowed = "false"
		refresh_rate = "60"
		aspect_ratio = "1.77778"
	/>
</renderer_config>

Vertical Sync

This was an easy fix. By default, PAYDAY has no Vsync, which results in a lot of screen tearing. You can simply go to the Vsync option in your graphics card control panel and set it to ‘Force On’ for Nvidia cards or ‘Always On’ for ATI cards.

If you have never done this before, you open the Nvidia Control Panel/Catalyst Control Center, go to the 3D Settings section, and add the game as a new profile (browse to and select the games .exe file). Then you can force vertical sync under that profile. Simply apply your changes and next time you start the game, you will have vertical sync.

Anti Aliasing – Nvidia Only

Unfortunately, attempting to override the AA settings in the Nvidia Control Panel didn’t work. Luckily, PAYDAY is based on a graphics engine that gamers are already familiar with.

You can enjoy some good anti-aliasing in PAYDAY on your PC by simply using what is known as ‘Antialiasing compatibility’ flags. This is simply some numbers and letters that you enter into Nvidia Inspector- a companion program for the Nvidia Control Panel. In this case, the flag you will want is 0x004012C1.

*Props to the smart folks over at Guru3D for identifying this AA flag.

Solid Tip: Below are step-by-step instructions for Nvidia Inspector. The settings here are a “sweet spot” for this game. If you go attempti different settings on your own, know that you will lock up your PC and be forced to reboot. You’ve been warned!

• Add a profile for PAYDAY under the Nvidia Control Panel
• Download Nvidia Inspector from Major Geeks
• Open Nvidia Inspector
• Click the wrench icon to open game profiles
• Select Payday from the drop down menu
• Enter 0x004012C1 under Antialiasing compatibility
• Set Antialiasing - Mode to override
• Select Antialiasing - Setting to 2x or 4x Multisampling only
• Set Antialiasing - Mode to override
• Select Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling to 2x or 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling only
• Hit Apply changes in the upper right

Affect on Performance

Notice that the frame rate (in the pic) took a big hit at 4x AA. It dropped from 120 constant to just under half of that. I was able to get 90 fps using 2x AA, but the jagged edges are still noticeable. If you are able, you definitely want to try the 4x.

Additionally, I was able to play the game at what FRAPS said 30 fps under my setup using 8x AA, but moving around felt like I was trying to steer the Titanic, so I dialed that setting back immediately.

I hope this helps you get some more more enjoyment out of this game!

Mass Effect 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Borderlands 2
Assassin's Creed 4
Battlefield 3 LE

Mouse Lag From Vsync

Assuming your settings are not beyond the capability of your graphics card, your mouse lag in DXHR is being caused by the Vsync setting in the options menu being turned on.

Others have speculated that SSAO (screen space ambient occlusion- a shadow option) causes it as well. While I can indeed verify that SSAO high vs. off does indeed make the problem worse, the SSAO setting doesn’t matter once you deal the vertical sync issue.

The Quick Fix

Seems I have done a lot of Vsync articles for various PC games lately. The fix here is the same 2 steps. Simply turn off the game’s Vsync and force it on in your graphics card control panel.

If you’ve never done this before:

• Open your graphics card control panel’s 3D Settings
• Find the Deus Ex game profile in the list
• For Nvidia- set Vsync option to Force On
• For ATI- set vertical refresh to Always On
• Turn off Vsync in the game’s options menu

Next time you launch your game, you should notice the mouse responds much better than with the in-game vsync and everything else remains the same. This will not eliminate the lag completely, but makes the game much more playable. Have fun!

Mass Effect 3
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Borderlands 2
Assassin's Creed 4
Battlefield 3 LE

The biggest issue is the game not launching at all, leaving the player with an unknown error. Fortunately this crash has the same solution it did before.

Solid Tip: This game has all sorts of crashing issues. In this fix, I will only deal with the most common one, which involves Capcom’s poor sound card support.

Sound Card Crash #1

When your game crashes it creates a crash report text file in its installation folder. If you are getting an error report that resembles the following ‘unknown location’, you need to adjust your sound card settings.

Callstack:          Address             Function                                Location
                    UNKOWN              UNKOWN                                  UNKOWN
                    UNKOWN              UNKOWN                                  UNKOWN
 
Exception: Access Violation (0x0173E3FE)
	>UNKNOWN LOCATION

The game should immediately start once you change your sound card quality settings. You can reach the settings for your sound card through the Control Panel in Windows. For this example, I will show you a SoundBlaster X-Fi, which I configure by going to Sound > Playback > Speakers > Advanced. Here, I had my original quality set to 24 bit, 96000 Hz. To get the game to launch, though, I must set the quality to 24 bit, 48000 Hz.

Sound Card Crash #2

There is a second error that involves your sound setting also. In you get this error, set sound quality to 16 bit, 48000 Hz.

Callstack:         
error SymFromAddr returned error : 487 CRASH

Note that there have been various suggestions as to which sound setting will work for different people, so feel free to experiment with them.

I Changed My Sound But It Still Crashes!

Keep in mind this is a very poor PC port done by Capcom. One user with this same error found that the game would not launch unless it is installed on the C drive, or at least launced from a shortcut that is located on the C drive.

Additionally, if you have had the game working before and it won’t launch now, try deleting the rendersettings.ini file under Documents\My Games\Dead Rising 2 Off The Record.

Finally, reinstall GFWL and check the Steam cache for the game. Hopefully one of these tips will help you. For most users, simply changing the sound settings will take care of things.

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Battlefield 3 LE