Author Topic: Radeon Direct3D Settings - What IS right??? (Read 364 times)

Sparks · « **on:** February 06, 2003, 05:54:57 AM »

OK - can anyone tell me whats best for AH in this lot. I only play AH so forget problems with other games.
System is a PIII running at 750Mhz with 512 Ram and Radeon is a 9000 Pro - NOTE NOT 9700.

Compatibilty Tab

Support W-Buffer - enable or disable?

Support 32bit Z-Buffer Depth - enable or disable?

Alpha Dithering Method - Error Diffusion or Ordered?

Support DXT Texture Formats - enable or disable??

Alternate Pizel Centre - enable or disable?

Direct3D Custom Settings

Anisotropic Filtering - Application Preference or what setting??

SmoothVision - Application Preference or what setting??

Texture Preference - High Performance -> High Quality - where?

Mipmap Detail Level - High Performance -> High Quality - where?

Wait for Vertical Sync - Application Preference or what setting??

Truform - Always Off or Application Preference?

Any help would be gratefully recieved as this is all Double Dutch to me

Thanks

Sparks

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #1 on:** February 06, 2003, 09:32:32 AM »

There's no saying which is best which is not.

You sacrifice image quality for performance and vice versa.

If you want speed, disable all anisotropy, anti-alias and trueform functions.

Shane · « **Reply #2 on:** February 06, 2003, 09:48:39 AM »

ok... wow, i'm not sure many of us who tweak our radeon cards even know 1/3 of the options they have, lol.... but fwiw...

(if it's not listed by me, my card doesn't have that option, and you just might have to fiddle around, one thing at a time, to see the effects, unless of course skuzzy can step in with some enlightment, which i hope he does.)

W-Buffer: i have it enabled, but dunno if AH supports it.

32bit Z-Buffer: enabled, but... ??

Alpha Dithering: i have it on error diffusion, i've tried the other methods and couldn't really tell any difference.

Alternate Pixel Center: mine's disabled under the tweaker recommendation.

Anisotropic filtering: disabled by me, i notice i seem to lose fps if i have it enabled. could just be my slow system, tho'

Texture Pref/Mip Mapping detail: i have mine on setting 0 (high quality), i notice i lose FPS, but gain quality with higher settings... again my slow system, so YMMV.

Wait for V-Sync: enabled.. suggested by Skuzzy to be enabled. it ties in monitor refresh and card rates, keeps them in sync, so to speak.

TruForm: my card doesn't support it.

Skuzzy - what kind of Fog does AH utilize? i have 3 kinds disabled and fog doesn't appear... i find a gain an fps or 2 without it enabled.

here's my specs (go ahead and laugh, you know you wanna

)

333 PII
128mb RAM
66mz sysbus
DX9
win98SE
ati radeon 64mb DDR Vivo (almost like a radeon 7200 - what allows my system to even be able to play AH - really gotta upgrade this summer; i get between 2-40 fps depending on situation. avg around 20-30)
1024*768 desktop/game res, 32-bit color.

my system is low end for AH, and everytime HTC does a newer version, i generally start to lose fps, but can opften gain back a little by putzing around with things, but it's a net loss each time overall. so far have managed to maintain minimal playability. i don't think it'll last for much longer, tho...

Skuzzy · « **Reply #3 on:** February 06, 2003, 10:02:41 AM »

I would disable 32 bit Z buffer. It could cause some performance degradation during the clear of it. 24 bit is plenty.

Anisotrophic filtering is only really noticable on the terrain. It basically sharpens the textures when they are at greater than 45 degree angles to your view and stretch a bit into the distance. It will cause a performance hit.

The rest is all up to you. Generally speaking, options that provide better image quality will degrade performance.

Shane · « **Reply #4 on:** February 06, 2003, 10:06:15 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
I would disable 32 bit Z buffer. It could cause some performance degradation during the clear of it. 24 bit is plenty.
The rest is all up to you. Generally speaking, options that provide better image quality will degrade performance.

my z-buffer is 16, 24 (with 8-bit stencil buffer enabled) and compression is 0. i think i see degradation with higher compression settings - probably due to my system.

now about the fog type AH uses?

vertex fog?
discrete?
volume?

i'm too lazy to find out by checking 1 by 1.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #5 on:** February 06, 2003, 10:56:47 AM »

We use a mix of fogs, depending on the situation. Might try discrete.