Can you make the GA startup with AA and Texture Sharpening?
 

OK.

On my Nvidia GF4 Ti4200 with 128MB and 8X the program is visually "crappy" without turning on some combination of these things. I don't usually have these on in any program and most things look great.

With them on the thing is 100 times more believable, and is just plain pretty compared to just plain gritty.

Here is the GA with none of these turned on:
http://rmrcpa.com/lgk/ga/noaa.jpg
All the edges are ragged, and everything looks flat and like a cut and paste.


Here is the GA with 2X Antialiasing and Texture Sharpening on:
http://rmrcpa.com/lgk/ga/aa.jpg
Everything is smooth, no field effects, and the depth of objects really comes out.
(get similar results with the anisotropic filtering and various combinations of the three)


Here is a 3MB movie showing the plants moving in both settings. HUGE DIFFERENCE.
http://rmrcpa.com/lgk/ga/Movie_0002.wmv

In the GA, these settings have very little fps impact. In some other programs, I get a big slowdown. How can I make these settings go on for just the GA?? Is an option inside GA necessary to toggle these things? The GA absolutely, IMO, needs settings internally to toggle these driver options for just the aquarium if there is not some external way to make it happen.

I fiddled with these settings for a while on my G4MX440SE 8xAGP. I also found a significant improvement in the appearance of the edges using texture sharpening and anisotropic filtering, with no reduction in fps.

However, running in 1024x768x16 display, I found that 2x antialiasing caused the background to develop horizontal streaks and lines, and the fps was halved, so if implemented, it would have to be an optional feature.

I'd like to see all of the options available. Especially Texture Sharpening.

After some playing around, Texture Sharpening alone makes enough of an improvement in the backgroubd/plants to be tolerable and just barely messes with the fps.

Adding the AA or Anitsowhatever improves the fish more than the background/plants.

Soc,
I don't think I'll ever need Bat rays but help from West Hills, CA is something truly precious. Thank you very much for bring this to my attention. Lost about 1 fps at 1600x1200 and everything somehow looked twice as good. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Happy Turtle

Wow!!! Socrates' movie convinced me to try it - and WOW!!Everyone who has made a comment regarding the background (including me) needs to try this - the plants look 100% better with Texture Sharpening enabled. IMHO - it should be enabled at default - with an option to disable if frames become an issue.


..and I ditto TT's - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! :)

Hmm, I always run with texture sharpening checked, I kinda wondered what you were talking about in some areas. My brain is dead some days. :(

And evidently mine and SunKing's on all the rest of the days ;)

/Happy Turtle

Guess my Intel 82845G/GL graphics controller doesn't give me the texture sharpening option. :(

Liath,

On the nVidia line of drivers there is an option/checkbox for texture sharpening. If I remember correctly its in the same area as the AA and so on.

Yup. It is.

Nope, it isn't (driver 4.13.01.3082). Haven't updated the driver for a while but if it can do this... or maybe my old GeForce256 does not support texture sharpening?

Forgive my lack of computer skills but just how (where) do you do these adjustments?

I have driver 41.09 for Nvidia.

On this driver, you go to:
Display Properties
Settings Tab
Advanced Button
"GeForce 4 Ti4200 with AGP 8X" Tab (Should be named after your Nvidia Card)
Preformance and Quality Selection Item

As a side note. In the past I have noted that the fish in MA look slightly better with AA on, but I never thought the performance hit was worth it, and the MA is completely believeble to my eye without it.

Texture sharpening seems to have no effect at all in MA2, at least on my PC.

I just turned on AA in MA2, and there was no fps drop at all with Vsync on... imagine that. That's definitely a new thing with MA2. In MA 1.1 it dropped off like a stone with AA on.

Mountainmaster,

Yep, thats the place, its in some of the later driver versions. I don't think you have that option in the drivers you listed. In addition, you may or may not be able to work with v-sync without enabling coolbits in different driver versions.

Hello all.

I'm wondering if my old Diamond Viper V550 (nVidia Riva TNT 16MB) has FSAA option.

I suppose i have to update my hardware very soon...

Thanks!.

Thanks Socrates, - Amazing!

I got the best results with:-

Performance ... Aggressive
Aantialiasing ... 4x ... (2x setting caused problems!)
Anisotropic ... Off
Texture Sharpening ... On ... (It didn't work at all without AA 'On')
Mimmap Detail Level ... Best image quality
Use up to 120 MB system memory
Texel Alignment ... Value: 0 - Center

I don't understand what is happening! :) ...... But it looks great! :TU: ...... Thanks a lot!

I am only getting 15 fps, - but it's wonderful! ..... The fish are beautiful!

The weak part is now the rock, - I didn't like the colour before, - but now it looks out of focus also!

My problems now are, - I had to load 41.09 drivers - (they cause Problems in Photoshop Elements!)
(The drivers I normally use, 31.40, don't have the 'Texture Sharpening' option!)
And I have to have an almost black background in GA, to cover up the 'banding' caused by AA!

Now if I can only solve this blacked out graph in Photoshop Elements, I'm on to a winner! .............

http://www.cjmaddy.co.uk/camera/fish/settings5.gif

GA Version N442.0.9.510 .....
CPU ........ AMD K6-2 500MHz 448RAM
Windows .... 98SE
Motherboard. TMC AI5VG+ 100Mz (VIA MVP3)
Video card . GeForce4 MX440 64mb AGP (Driver 4.13.01.3140) .... 41.09 on test!
Sound card . Sound Blaster AWE-32 (Driver 4.38.16)
DirectX .... Version 8.1b

I thought the newest driver available is 4.14.01.4345 for nVidia.

Socrates

Thanks for the help. I like, I like.