Anyway to see if AA and AF is enabled?

[Kirai]

I know the question sounds stupid but I have a GTX 275 Nvidia card and I have enabled advanced graphics settings, adding dcs.exe (I hope this is the startup file in dcs cause there is also the launcer.exe file). I have enabled AF 16x and AA 16xQ. I have tried to make a screen dump with the settings on and off to compare (with the helicopter on the ground with some objects in the background) but I can't seem to see any notable difference.

 

Is it easy to see the difference or is it just little things thats hard to see?

 

If this question has been covered please just point me to that thread cause I can only find threads on how to enable it in nvidia controll panel and people who have problems with different drivers. I have recently gonne back to 185.85 drivers to see if I get better results.

[Pilotasso]

Depends on the size of your screen, dot pitch and resolution. If you have a big screen of small dot pitch and high rsolution setting up AA wont have much of a difference beacuse it only smooths out the ladder efect of lines that are already in high resolution.

[Kirai]

Depends on the size of your screen, dot pitch and resolution. If you have a big screen of small dot pitch and high rsolution setting up AA wont have much of a difference beacuse it only smooths out the ladder efect of lines that are already in high resolution.

 

Sorry for not writing down that info. I have a 22" HD monitor running 1920x1080 native.

[sinelnic]

Hi Kirai, even at your resolution the difference with no AA to 16x AA is very noticeable, I play on a 24" LCD @ 1920x1200 and without AA the image is lame, all object edges are jagged, with AA you get a much sharper image.

 

As for AF that's harder to notice, basically textures that are farther away from you look better, but your problem seems to be making sure that the configuration is applied when running DCS, once you get it working with AA, you'd have also enabled AF.

[sharkforce]

for the AA you should be able to see "jaggies" with AA disabled. and the lines in game should be far smoother with AA on.

on my system with a Radeon HD4890, about the same power as your 275

I run 4x AA and 8x anisotropic filtering

 

with AA and AS on:

(click the images for full screen)

http://img44.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=screenshot012utw.jpg

 

with AA and AS off:

http://img406.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=screenshot015g.jpg

 

 

 

the difference is subtle but very noticeable for me.

[Kirai]

for the AA you should be able to see "jaggies" with AA disabled. and the lines in game should be far smoother with AA on.

on my system with a Radeon HD4890, about the same power as your 275

I run 4x AA and 8x anisotropic filtering

 

with AA and AS on:

(click the images for full screen)

http://img44.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=screenshot012utw.jpg

 

with AA and AS off:

http://img406.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=screenshot015g.jpg

 

 

 

the difference is subtle but very noticeable for me.

 

I can really see the difference on your pictures. The weird thing is that I was testing the v-sync on and off cause I get some screen tearing when I have it set to off and I could notice a big improvment with the screen tearing when I have v-sync forced to on so it seems that it is loading the profile but on my pictures I can't really see any difference. I have to post an example and see if you can see the difference.

[Quirkitized]

Easy way for me to always tell is...the game looks like garbage without AA & AF.... it looks good when its on and working lol :)

[Kirai]

Well here are two pictures, the first one with default settings in nvidia and the second with advanced settings (AA/AF on)

 

But the right exe file to load into nvidia is dcs.exe right?

 

 

Edited August 21, 2009 by Kirai

[sinelnic]

Well here are two pictures, the first one with default settings in nvidia and the second with advanced settings (AA/AF on)

 

But the right exe file to load into nvidia is dcs.exe right?

 

Right. But there are no pictures...

[Kirai]

Right. But there are no pictures...

 

Hmm thats weird, I can see them but I have uploaded them again to imageshack instead, hope you can see them

 

 

http://img529.imageshack.us/i/25035848.png/

 

http://img9.imageshack.us/i/bsen.png/

Edited August 21, 2009 by Kirai

[Triangle99]

AA is not on in these pics (the rotor blades do not appear anti-aliased at all) - read this thread (the last page) for how to sort this out ...

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=43585

 

This bit - sorry, was too lazy to post it but reconsidered :-)

 

Another user posted this fix that worked good for me to correct the AA +AF problem.

 

Open Nvidia control pannel: go to the option for Adjust image settings with preview and toggle it between Let the App decide and Use advance settings, make sure you hit apply. then your AA and AF will work again...do this even if you already have the use advance dettings checked. Until you do no setting for AA or AF in the DCS profile will work not even in global(for me anyways)

Edited August 21, 2009 by Triangle99

[Kirai]

AA is not on in these pics (the rotor blades do not appear anti-aliased at all) - read this thread (the last page) for how to sort this out ...

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=43585

 

This bit - sorry, was too lazy to post it but reconsidered :-)

 

Another user posted this fix that worked good for me to correct the AA +AF problem.

 

Open Nvidia control pannel: go to the option for Adjust image settings with preview and toggle it between Let the App decide and Use advance settings, make sure you hit apply. then your AA and AF will work again...do this even if you already have the use advance dettings checked. Until you do no setting for AA or AF in the DCS profile will work not even in global(for me anyways)

 

 

Yes I have read this thread many times and done all the things but with no success :(

 

I even tried to set the same settings in global mode but it did not work either. Damn this makes me frustrated!

Edited August 21, 2009 by Kirai

[Triangle99]

What drivers are you using?

[miguez]

I can really see the difference on your pictures. The weird thing is that I was testing the v-sync on and off cause I get some screen tearing when I have it set to off and I could notice a big improvment with the screen tearing when I have v-sync forced to on so it seems that it is loading the profile but on my pictures I can't really see any difference. I have to post an example and see if you can see the difference.

 

Hi Kirai,

 

That all makes sense. Check this out.

[Feuerfalke]

You should be aware, that you have to force FSAA to work in DCS.

 

If you have "Enhance the application" setting enabled, the driver will check for the ingame settings and enhance that to the set level. However, if the game has no FSAA-Setting like DCS, there is nothing to Enhance and FSAA will not be activated at all.

 

You have to choose "overide any application setting" to actually force your driver to render in FSAA-mode!

 

(I further recommend the software nHancer to optimize your settings including all hidden options together with the context-sensitive explanations for each options and consequences on performance and rendering quality)

Edited August 21, 2009 by Feuerfalke

[Slayer]

Another tip with these profiles is that they don't seem to work unless you "add" the .exe In otherwords even though the profile is there you must still point it to the actual program file, most of the games I have installed are not auto detected by the default profiles.

 

[ATTACH]30117[/ATTACH]

[Kirai]

Hi Kirai,

 

That all makes sense. Check this out.

 

That I know, but I was confused that it did use the v-sync but not the other stuff.

 

You should be aware, that you have to force FSAA to work in DCS.

 

If you have "Enhance the application" setting enabled, the driver will check for the ingame settings and enhance that to the set level. However, if the game has no FSAA-Setting like DCS, there is nothing to Enhance and FSAA will not be activated at all.

 

You have to choose "overide any application setting" to actually force your driver to render in FSAA-mode!

 

(I further recommend the software nHancer to optimize your settings including all hidden options together with the context-sensitive explanations for each options and consequences on performance and rendering quality)

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :D

 

It works now. I read about someone and used his settings and he had it on "enhance application settings" and that did not work but when I turned on to "force application settings" it worked! Well at last I can sleep with no worries :)

 

Another tip with these profiles is that they don't seem to work unless you "add" the .exe In otherwords even though the profile is there you must still point it to the actual program file, most of the games I have installed are not auto detected by the default profiles.

 

[ATTACH]30117[/ATTACH]

 

I have added the dcs.exe so it was not the problem :)

 

Well thanks everyone for helping me out and for all quick answers, of to flying again :pilotfly:

[kiss4luna]

Depends on the size of your screen, dot pitch and resolution. If you have a big screen of small dot pitch and high rsolution setting up AA wont have much of a difference beacuse it only smooths out the ladder efect of lines that are already in high resolution.

 

 

it doesn't matter what resolution the output picture is. when AA is enabled, there will be obvious differences between a non-AA picture and an AAed picture even they are the same resolution.

 

of course, maybe there will not be much difference between 4xAA and 8xAA at specific resolutions and monitors. but if you have a good enough eye-sight, you will still find out the difference.

 

i uploaded some pics just taken minutes ago from Quake3(my dcs got sucked for keyboard control and i deleted it).

 

especially attention for the redline-surrounded area in the first pic, it's taken without any aa or af. and be careful about the textures in the ground

 

then the second one is taken with 2xAA and 2xAF, you can notice that the ground texture is more sharp and the jaggers on some edges are reduced

 

the 3rd one is taken with 4xAA and 4xAF. pay special attention for the far end of the ground texture comparing to the last one. and check the jaggers at the same area

 

now it reaches the threshold of my 1950Pro, it can only achieve 6xAA. compare the same edges to the 4xAA pic. and with 8xAF enabled, the textures on the far end of the ground is more sharp than 4xAF

 

then let's compare the difference between 16xAF and 8xAF

look at the area past the bright brown square, comparing the 16xAF one and 8xAF one. you will see the difference

 

and for a better comparison, i changed to q3dm6 level2 platform. specially attention for the textures under the gate. when 16xAF is enabled, the texture there is not blurred and shown correctly.

 

for DCS or LO, i have to say that its ground textures are too less detailed. AF is not efficent when texture is not detail enough. and for some reason i don't know, even when 16x High Quality AF and High Quality Texture Filtering enabled withou any optimization, the far side ground textures in LO and DCS still blur. not big differences between 16xAF and 8xAF in LO and DCS, and 16xAF seems taking too much energy for my 1950Pro in these two titles. the most detailed texture on the LO and DCS ground is the railway, you can try looking from one point to the end of its one side, comparing the differences between different levels of your AF

[kiss4luna]

and to enable AA and AF on in DCS, you should go to NV control panel, advanced 3d settings, using forced AA and AF(override any application settings)

 

GTX260 handles DCS well in its max AA/AF capacity under 1680x1050 result to my test

[Feuerfalke]

That I know, but I was confused that it did use the v-sync but not the other stuff.

 

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :D

 

It works now. I read about someone and used his settings and he had it on "enhance application settings" and that did not work but when I turned on to "force application settings" it worked! Well at last I can sleep with no worries :)

 

 

 

I have added the dcs.exe so it was not the problem :)

 

Well thanks everyone for helping me out and for all quick answers, of to flying again :pilotfly:

 

Great!

 

Glad it works!

 

 

Took me some time to figure out myself as most games work okay with the "enhance"-mode ;)

[Kirai]

and to enable AA and AF on in DCS, you should go to NV control panel, advanced 3d settings, using forced AA and AF(override any application settings)

 

GTX260 handles DCS well in its max AA/AF capacity under 1680x1050 result to my test

 

Thanks for the pictures. I now have the AA and AF on max but maybe it is going a bit to far so I will try different settings and find one that suits me fine :)

[SuDepp]

...with a gtx 275 you have to try 16xAF and 4xMSAA as minimum!

 

It looks like it works - flawless ;)

 

Greets

S@uDepp

 

.... donґt forget - most 190.ґxx got some issue with the AA! U have to click once back to "global".... then back to the profile to make it work as it is upposed to!

[Feuerfalke]

With DCS your maximum available FSAA- and AF-settings are basically mostly dependend on your graphics memory and your resolution as DCS is not really putting enough stress on the GPU to make it a GPU limitation.

 

So basically you can use pretty high settings compared to most other modern games.

 

 

But the maximum setting for FSAA still is depending a lot on which method you use.