Author Topic: Nvidia advanced video properties  (Read 269 times)

Offline hubsonfire

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Nvidia advanced video properties
« on: May 21, 2007, 02:02:54 PM »
Okay, just got the new 7600GS fired up. No compatability issues, installed the 84.66 drivers from Guru3D, rebooted, fired up AH. A quick glance at my vid properties revealed I was pretty well set to "Quality". Things look real good ingame, this card runs this hobbled CRT at an 85Hz max, so I was bouncing off 84FPS for a bit. Down low though, things would still chug along, getting down into the 20s. Average seems to be in the 40-70 neighborhood, which I'm pleased with.

However, in the process of adjusting my vid properties in WinXP, I notice I have a few more options available than my 6200 had. I recall seeing another thread the other day about AF, which I gather AH doesn't use. So, what about all that other stuff?

I've got Antialiasing Settings, Anistropic filtering, image settings, color profiles, Vsync, Force Mipmaps, Conformant Texture Clamp, Extension limit, Hardware acceleration, Trilinear optimization, Anistropic mip filter optimization, Anistropic sample optimization,  Gamma correct antialiasing, transparency antialiasing, Triple buffering, Negative LOD bias, and cardboard box transmogrification. WTF is all this stuff? Aside from the obvious V sync, hardware accel, and color profiles, what affects AH? What are the rules of thumb for setting this stuff? What should be off, what on, etc etc.

Never really paid any attention to this stuff in the past (used Omega's drivers for the most part, didn't tinker much with the advanced stuff), so now that I've got a new card, I thought I'd ask around. I don't recall seeing any discussions on these settings, and that thread on AF the other day got me wondering.
mook
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Offline Bruv119

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Nvidia advanced video properties
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2007, 02:16:40 PM »
Antialiasing Settings

set to at least 4 times.

The difference is amazing for curved edges and smoothness.
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Offline Fulmar

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Nvidia advanced video properties
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2007, 06:03:25 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Bruv119
Antialiasing Settings

set to at least 4 times.

The difference is amazing for curved edges and smoothness.


If you're getting 20FPS down low (lets say smoke etc) I'd avoid anti-aliasing because it will low your FPS by big margin, especially at 4x.  Depending on your resolution your FPS will vary, especially with anti-aliasing (AA) turned on.  

Yes AA will make things look pretty and not jagged, but its a resource hog on the video card and if your system isn't powerful enough, your FPS can be crippled.

I'm sure Skuzzy can answer most of what settings affect Aces High.
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Offline hubsonfire

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Nvidia advanced video properties
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2007, 07:03:06 PM »
AA gives me 2 issues- blurry text, and a weird box outline around the cursor. Granted, I know this monitor's dying (next upgrade is a 19" LCD), so that may be part of the problem, but I just don't see a huge improvement with AA. Tinkered with it a few times in the past, and always with the same results.

The new card has already paid dividends in that the game looks better, but I'm more concerned with striking a nice balance between eyecandy, and good framerates.

This is an older 2GHz AMD socket A, with 1GB RAM, SB Live sc, and this 256MB 7600. I know this isn't going to be the deathstar (actually, it is), but I wonder how much is lost in the myriad settings in the control panel.
mook
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Offline Fulmar

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Nvidia advanced video properties
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2007, 07:21:02 PM »
You always experiment.  It may be time consuming but you'll find out first hand what looks better etc.

For me, I can definantly see the difference AA makes.  When people post screenshots on the forums I can instantly tell if they have AA turned on or off and also aprroximately what texture size they are using.  The higher the texture memory size, the cleaning/clearer textures you'll see.
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Flying off and on since Warbirds
Aces High Movies available at www.derstuhl.net/ahmd2 - no longer aceshighmovies.com - not updated either