Gettin the most out of my video settings

[Gary26]

I just got my new computer and I want to run AH to enjoy all the eye candy. Any tips?
Specs are
Asus 890fx board
AMD 1100 6 core 3.3
2xATI 5770
6mb ram
950watt power supply

[Silent6]

Yea bro simple turn all sliders up. ENJOY! I think its been recommended that you dont use anit aliasing.

[ebfd11]

Also before you go in, got to video setting and put your max textures to 2048, and the game will look awesome.

LawnDart

[Krusty]

2048 only applies to select cockpit textures and the B-29. All other textures max out at 1024.


EDIT: The REAL visual stunner is shadows. They suck power, though. Turn those up for a real nice treat.

[maddafinga]

2048 only applies to select cockpit textures and the B-29. All other textures max out at 1024.


EDIT: The REAL visual stunner is shadows. They suck power, though. Turn those up for a real nice treat.

They are neat for sure, but after running them for a while I turned them back off.  I started to find that they were distracting. Really cool though, it was neat to look at your wing and see your cockpit frames shadowed there, or to be pulling through a maneuver and watch the shadows slide over your instrument panel.  Very cool, but distracting to me in the game. 

[321BAR]

They are neat for sure, but after running them for a while I turned them back off.  I started to find that they were distracting. Really cool though, it was neat to look at your wing and see your cockpit frames shadowed there, or to be pulling through a maneuver and watch the shadows slide over your instrument panel.  Very cool, but distracting to me in the game. 

honestly, i play 128 low end graphics and none of the eye candy matters really.

[Spikes]

I have 2 5770s as well, the shadows drop my frames a little.

[zack1234]

Yea bro simple turn all sliders up. ENJOY! I think its been recommended that you dont use anit aliasing.

I thought anti aliasing improved frame rate?

[Krusty]

No. Anti aliasing usually eats framerate. There might be a few instances where the higher up you go (like 3 or 4 monitors of resolution) you'll see funny FPS changes with FSAA.

I recall some reviews where 2 cards were very similar, but one had FSAA that was worse hit on performance on the low-res end, and the other was the opposite.

But overall it eats power and memory. The more you set the more it eats.

[Tigger29]

honestly, i play 128 low end graphics and none of the eye candy matters really.

And that is fine and dandy if you prefer performance over candy, but if you have a system that can do both, then there really is no reason not to do so.

[Excaliber]

Yea bro simple turn all sliders up. ENJOY! I think its been recommended that you dont use anit aliasing.

What exactly does anti aliasing do???

NM just googled it...... smoother edges...... more memory drag.....:-)

[Krusty]

Anti aliasing is really a throwback from older technology... Back when 800x600 was high resolution... To get smoother images you need better resolution, but you're stuck to the monitor technology of the time. So they came up with a way of smoothing the image across existing pixels to make up for the lack of real physical resolution.


Nowadays, though, with ever increasing resolutions, HD, and so forth, you only benefit from the lowest setting to just "take the edge off" of the image on the screen. Maxing out FSAA doesn't really help all that much. I've gone through every setting my video card has and in the past tried numerous driver versions and makes to test them out... Never could tell the difference between 4x FSAA and 16x. Never could tell looking at the monitor, that is. And that's really the important thing.

Turn it up to 2x or 4x, then stop there. No benefit at higher levels.

[Pudgie]

What about just setting the vid card to allow the game to set this?

That's what I've done as on my box I've set the vid card driver to Application-Controlled settings for AA, AF & V-synch & in-game AA setting to "Most".
I found that this setting gave me the best of it all: visual quality & performance & I get this w/ all graphical settings on & maxed out.

Just saying....................... ......................