Blurry Plane Icon Text?

[Randy1]

 I have my icon text set to maximum.  I use the default colors.  I run graphics to just about the max except of the environmental slider and its 25%.  I hit maximum frame rate all of the time.

The far plane icons are blurry while the up close ones are good, not sharp though, much like I needed glasses.

What setting should I look for to have sharper edges on icon text?  Small W7 text on my monitor  like the time and date as an example are very sharp and clean.

[Skuzzy]

Are you forcing AF (anisotropic filtering) on in your video card?  That can blur some things in the game.

[Randy1]

Are you forcing AF (anisotropic filtering) on in your video card?  That can blur some things in the game.

I just checked, it is set to use application.

[Randy1]

Windows has a clear text section included in the W7 color calibration program listed in display settings.  Does the clear text program have any effect on AH text?

[Bizman]

I've noticed blurry text with some font sizes more than with others. Try with various font sizes to find the one that will produce a crisp readable result.

I believe the issue is somewhat similar to using other than native resolution in your monitor. I mean, if the computer says a line should be one pixel wide but the monitor will try to draw it like 1.2 pixels wide, the image will be blurry simply because it's impossible to illuminate physical pixels partially. Just as you can't light up 1.2 lightbulbs out of 2, it's either one or both if that rough comparison makes my explanation more understandable...

[Skuzzy]

Windows text and game text are very different.  There is no concept as "text" in a game.  They are all 3D images.  If a one-to-one pixel mapping is not available, then DirectX dithers the images to paint them.  This can blur the image a bit.

Monitor quality comes into play, at this point.

[Bizman]

Thanks, that explains some. Am I right to suggest that the text images don't necessarily scale to all sizes due to the partial lamp effect I described? Or is it more of quality issue of the monitor or GPU?

[Randy1]

Thanks Skuzzy and Bizman.  I do use the W7 recommend setting for display size.  I do use the largest text size.  No harm in dropping it down one size to see if it is crisper.

[Skuzzy]

Thanks, that explains some. Am I right to suggest that the text images don't necessarily scale to all sizes due to the partial lamp effect I described? Or is it more of quality issue of the monitor or GPU?

No, that is the same effect I was describing.  When the text is being drawn on  a static poly, like the radio text, the characters wil be consistent.  When the text is drawn on a poly which moves in the three dimensions there may be times a set of characters will appear blurred.  Drawing one row of dots, in a character, will always be a worst case scenario.

[Bizman]

Thank you for the explanation 

[Randy1]

I got it fixed.  Played around with the monitor/HDTV's  setting.  Made several small changes so I can't finger which one or ones got the text crisp.  Auto contrast may have helped the most.  In the fix as well, I can see planes near the ground when I am on their six a bit better.