Anti-Aliasing - who uses it?

[TAIPAN_]

Hi All,

 

I've been trying anti-aliasing via the nvidia control panel.

 

It looks good, but I notice now it is much harder to spot ground targets! They are kind of blurred into the terrain argh.

 

Has anyone else noticed this and decided to just leave AA off so they can still find targets?

 

Cheers

[dooom]

hmm - i never noticed it being harder to see contacts... I don't know that I could go without though..

 

I wish i could use v sync though - my frames go into the toilet when i do .

[TAIPAN_]

Do you mean air contacts? I don't think it affects that as they are moving.

 

But ground targets look like terrain

[dooom]

nah - i was thinking ground..

[TAIPAN_]

You prefer vsync off? I didn't think it affected frames just that it would sync them with the monitor?

[SuDepp]

...use AF too to prevent this!

 

I prefer playing with AFx16 and AAx8 incl. v-synch - everything is sharp up to the horizon.....

Try to balance it but always use AF at at least 8x.

 

Greets

S@uDepp

[dburne]

Ditto here to the above - I use a profile created in Nhancer for Black Shark - 8xaa combined and 16x AS, vsynch forced on ( a must really with Track IR) , performance is good and everything looks great.

[TAIPAN_]

ok so if I put 16x AF it will increase clarity in the distance cool :)

 

I might put 16x AF and 2x AA and see how I go.

 

Don't want too much AA because will be going for a bigger resolution soon, and new monitor will have small dot pitch anyway

[Distiler]

Anisotriopic vs no anisotropic:

 

[Pilotasso]

I dont use anti aliasing. I have yet to see a GFX deal with it without clobbering FPS.

[EtherealN]

Well pilotasso, you have a more powerful card than I do, and I'd like to point out that in both DCS:BS and FC2 there is no statistically certain difference in my FPS if I run with no AF and no AA, or 8x both. Of course, that's multisampling AA. supersampling AA is a whole different story. (Multisample takes samples from adjacent pixels to even things out, supersampling renders the screen at a much higher resolution and then takes averages - so 8x Supersample AA on a 1680x1050 screen would actually be rendering a 13440x8400 screen and display it like a 1680x1050, and yeah, that will indeed clobber your FPS.)

 

In DCS:BS and FC2, if Anti-Alias is in any way affecting your FPS you either have a stone age GPU or you are doing something wrong. ;)

[TAIPAN_]

It might be the definition of clobber... I just did a test and he's right.

 

With 16xAF and 2xAA I was getting 50-55 fps.

 

Changed to 16xAF and no AA, and it went to 58-60fps (maxfps) pretty stable there.

 

So that's about a 10-15% difference only 2x AA.

 

I'm upgrading to a 2560 resolution 30" soon, plus a second monitor. With all those pixels I best leave AA off.

[EtherealN]

8x AF and 8x AA:

Min: 26

Max: 103

Avg: 46.973

 

8x AF and AA off:

Min: 25

Max: 104

Avg: 47.866

 

This is running an identical track. None of the changes are statistically significant - any random background task thing can cause that change to happen.

 

And to finish off, here's 8x AF and 16x AA:

Min: 25

Max: 103

Avg: 47.165

 

Unfortunately there's no way to go higher on AA, so I am unable to keep getting the same numbers for you... ;)

 

EDIT: Attaching the track for you to compare with, if you want.

EDIT again: And my signature is lying again, I had a BSOD issue the other day and reverted the whole system to stock while troubleshooting it (and eliminated an ATA drive that was plugged in and failing), and I have not gotten around to rebooting so I can get into BIOS and re-apply my overclocks.

AAtest.trk

Edited May 22, 2010 by EtherealN

[Mustang]

I couldn't imagine flying without AA or AF, especially more so on bigger screens, it would make my eyes bleed :D

 

settings on my HD3850

 

[Fahhh]

I also run at 8AA 16AF on a HD4830 512mb, and there isn't a significant FPS drop. Flying without is eye-hurting as Mustang said :)

[EtherealN]

What's eye-hurting is Mustang's avatar... :P

[MoGas]

8AA with 24x edge dedect (looks kick ass on 1920x1200) and 16AF, on my HD5870.

[JaBoG32_Prinzartus]

I also use maxed out AA and maxed out AF.

My 5950 can handle this easily @1900x1200.

 

In regards to FPS that should not be muh of a deal.

 

However AntiAliasing can "grey out" a black pkel somewhat, so I think it might be a little harder to find targets from a distance. AA does soften/blur the eddges by adjustung the color of the object. If the object is just a pixel, it can be a little harder to find, I imagine.

[Bucic]

I dont use anti aliasing. I have yet to see a GFX deal with it without clobbering FPS.

Try my GF 9600 :P AA 8x, 1280x1024, all the other settings to HQ, Vsync on and 45-75 FPS in the 'Patrol" SP mission.

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/Bucic/DCSforum/Vsynch_weird_liketripplebuff-1.png

[Frederf]

Blah, should I be getting 32 FPS with an AMD 4200 and a 8800GT? I'm running high AF and have tried all manner of MSAA from 0 to 16.

[winz]

I have similiar performance with the same card. 1680x1050 8xAA 16xAF, scenes at medium and some graphics_bs tweaking.

[PedroTheGoat]

You know, this game is just odd to me.

 

My PC specs are AMD Quad Black Edition @ 3.4ghz, ATI 5830 with 1gig DDR5, 4 gigs or DDR3 (Thought about upgrading to 8 gigs but seeing as how BS is a 32bit app, it wouldn't help it at all)...

 

AND... I use D3D Override for Vsync...

 

I can crank AA all the way up and down... I can crank AF all the way up and down... I can crank Mipmap quality all the way up and down...

 

And there is no danged difference in FPS.

 

It's like this game doesn't care one bit about my GPU... Yet I still pull "modest" framerates. 30fps in crowded city areas, and 60 in barren fields.

 

This is after all of the tweaks and everything.

 

My conclusion is... This games graphics are EXTREMELY CPU dependent, and until it becomes a 64bit app that utilizes all my cores efficiently, then my FPS is not going to change.

 

I'm not griping at all, I'm happy with my current FPS... I just wish this game could use more of my computer. Hopefully the release of DCS A-10 will change this all.

[EtherealN]

And there is no danged difference in FPS.

 

It's like this game doesn't care one bit about my GPU... Yet I still pull "modest" framerates. 30fps in crowded city areas, and 60 in barren fields.

 

That's because, as you noticed, this game doesn't care one bit about your GPU. ;)

Basically, unless you're running something like a liquid-nitrogen cooled 6.5GHz i7 (I think that's the current record), your FPS is going to be limited by the simulation, not the graphics - the simulation actually works in "frames" as well, it's just not graphics frames but rather simulation frames, and when they dip low the graphics engine has to wait for the simulation engine - otherwise it would have no clue what to paint on your screen.

 

So those AA and AF things you are doing is simply occupying time on the GPU that would otherwise not be used at all.

[Outlaw24]

Are there still plans on 64bit version of the A10-C if so will there be a possible upgrade for BS to 64bit?

[Erdem]

I do. Though my FPS dips a bit with an Intel i5 and an HD5850. It looks absolutely horrible and like a garbled pixel mess otherwise.