FSAA and Anisotropic Filtering - Am I missing something??

[Apache]

I have read and re-read lots of posts about this and actually decided to take the plunge and try both recently.

I have an Athlon 2100+ with a GeForce Ti 4200 128 M Video card. I found the 'tab' the turns these things on and off etc. but for the life of me I can't see much different. To some degree I'm not sure what I'm looking for??? I thought that it maybe something to do with the 'jagged' gun barrels you get when looking from certain angles but can see no difference there either. In fact, the only thing I did notice was two fine lines that seemed to run along each side of my targeting lines etc. Are there other settings that I need to activate to get the 'benefit' of having FSAA and/or AF on or is it a lot of 'hype' over something that doesn't make a jot of difference in most cases?

[ March 08, 2003, 04:04 AM: Message edited by: Apache ]

[easytarget]

the short answer imho is no, it doesn't make that much difference

i have both turned on, mostly because i play other games where i see more impact

a lot of bandwith and emotion has been wasted in this particular forum over this very topic (along with the incessant whining about newer drivers not working)

and to be brutally honest about it, the graphics in CM, while great for a wargame, are laughably atrocious compared to games i own dating 3-4 years ago

in summary, AA and anisotropic filtering can't improve a baseline graphics that already starts pretty far down the charts and is therefore not worth spending a lot of effort worrying about

and all this being said, don't be surprised if hundreds of new threads appear in this forum rehashing this and the driver issue for the next two years till the next CM product comes out with a new engine

[ March 08, 2003, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: easytarget ]

[Apache]

Thanks for reply. IF they did work, what SHOULD they do? Presumably FSAA does one thing and AF another?

[easytarget]

here's a link to an explanation for each - basically though, they are both about smoothing out the jaggies:

AA: http://www.grafx-design.com/02gen.html

AF: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,548248,00.asp

[voidhawk]

I have FSAA (4x) enabled not so much to get rid of jagged edges but to greatly reduce the "sparkly" effect in the distant tree and terrain textures seen when scrolling around.

Yes, I see those extra lines along the target lines etc. too - I did not used to see them with my older GeForce 2. I have tried various drivers, but it made no difference. Who knows, but a small price to pay for nice smooth textures though.

[Apache]

Thanks. I can't say i notice any difference with either turned on so think I'll plump for single lines. Might think otherwise if I saw some difference but I don't.

[aleader]

I've noticed a huge difference with AA ('Smoothvision' on my Radeon 9000 Pro card) turned on. All of the graphics are MUCH smoother, and the game runs a lot faster too (and 4X is faster than 2X). I have saved screens to prove it. A friend of mine has a Ti4200 card, and enabling the AA didn't seem to make a big difference on his either. It looks the same as mine when Smoothvision isn't enabled. I'm wondering if there isn't some trick to enabling the AA on a Nvidia card though :confused:

[ March 14, 2003, 11:13 PM: Message edited by: aleader ]

[Mr. Die Easy]

Dear Apache,

I am a big fan of AA and AF because they have both improved my CMBO/CMBB graphical experice a lot. Don't give up on AA and AF - they do make a difference - in my opinion a huge difference.

First I suggest that you use the 30.82/30.87 driver for your GeForce4 (otherwise AA might give you some problems) and download the RivaTuner tweak tool from guru3d.com. Rivatuner makes it easy to change AA and AF on the 30.82/30.87 driver.

AF reduces the sparkling that a lot of people see when they are moving around on the map. Objects seem to shimmer when you move your view to look at them from different angles. I suggest you go into Rivatuner and try level 8 of AF. Level 8 will make almost all sparkling disappear.

AA smooths the jagged lines on the different object and might also reduce some sparkling too. I suggest you use method 4X in Rivatuner. Remember to click "Force Anti Aliasing in all Direct3D applications" otherwise the change will have no effect. This setting might be the reason why you do not notice any difference. If you do not force AA, AA will not be used in CMBO/CMBB.

Give it one more shot. I am running CMBO/CMBB in resoution 1280*1024 with AF on level 8 and AA set to 4X. My graphics are really great!

Best regards

Mr. Die Easy

[jiggles]

IMO AF makes a much more noticeable difference than AA, especially if you have hi-res terrain texture mods (like wot I do).

[Jack Carr]

I see the jagged lines disappear when I enable antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. Nvidia GeForce Ti4600. This makes a big difference for me.

[Apache]

Thanks. I'll try again. I might try the higher res too. I use 1024x768 at the moment. One thing I noticed with the 1280 x 1024 is that interface shrinks to the centre of the screen rather than going all the way across. I presume that's because it's designed to work at 1024x768?

[Schrullenhaft]

It's designed to work with a minimum resolution of 800x600. The bitmaps are a fixed sized, so increasing the resolution means that the DPI will go up and the bitmaps will appear smaller on the screen.

[aleader]

Higher res shouldn't make much difference. I run at 1024 x 768 as well. You'll notice the difference right away (even zoomed out a ways) with AA enabled. AF doesn't seem to make much difference on mine (even at 16X), but AA (Smoothvision) sure does.