AA & AF - Game options or control panel?

J

jnick

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Sep 25, 2004
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Hey guys,

I was just wondering if it's better to set AA & AF in the games options itself, or force it through the control panel?

The one issue I've always come across is not all games have an option for AA or AF, ot if they do, it's not in the form of 4x, 8x, etc. Rather, it's Low, Medium, High; or even as general as "On or Off".

Would it be ok if I left the games options as off, or low, and just force both through the control panel, this way it shows up on EVERY game?

As of right now, I'm using the game's options for AA, and forcing AF. However, in CS:S, they have a option for AF. So I set it to 16x, as well as forcing it through the control panel at 16x. Does this actually cause a performance hit? Would the PC combine the two, running at "32x" or would it just stay at 16x? Should I only set the control panel to 16x, and tell the game to use Bilinear filtering?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!
 
I would just use your driver forcing options to enable AA and AF if the game doesnt let you. either way the driver will force w/e over the games settings. im sure you loving these abilities with that 7950 :p have you tried playing the call of juarez demo.. hardest game ever to run!
 
It depends on the game.

In some games if you leave the driver setting to auto, the game will use its own optimised versions of AF and/or AA and other quality settings.
Other games as you say, you cant change the setting(s) and if you want to you may need to configure the driver.
 
Thanks for the tips. What I'm wondering is if I ALWAYS force 4x aa, 16x af, and leave the game's options as "off" or "low", would this be ok? Or would it cause a conflict somewhere?
 
its possible you wont get the full performance if the game optimises the settings itself but tbh with such a fast card you probably arent going to be worried:)
 
Well I can tell you what I do.. I use the game profiles in the driver, this way for certain games I can set the levels of AF/AA accordingly. Using the global isnt such a good idea in my opinion really, but up to you.
 
Good idea, however this would mean that whenever I want to play BF2, I'd have to go into the ontrol panel, and enable that profile. Then if I decide to play CSS, I'd have to disable the BF2 profile, and use CSS one instead . . . correct?

Isn't there any "Set it, and forget it" option?
 
jnick said:
Good idea, however this would mean that whenever I want to play BF2, I'd have to go into the ontrol panel, and enable that profile. Then if I decide to play CSS, I'd have to disable the BF2 profile, and use CSS one instead . . . correct?

Isn't there any "Set it, and forget it" option?
Click to expand...
You only have to set profiles for each game once....whenever you start that particular game it will use the settings you have chosen.
 
Ohhh, nifty.

I'm gonna have to start profiling tonight then!

Two last questions -

If I profile the game for 4x aa, 16x af, what should I put the in game options to for those settings? Does it not matter?

For BF2, my shortcut has the modified target line for a widescreen resolution. Would I need to select the shortcut, and profile? Or is the normal BF2.exe fine for profiling?

Thanks!
 
burned-ati said:
I would just use your driver forcing options to enable AA and AF if the game doesnt let you. either way the driver will force w/e over the games settings. im sure you loving these abilities with that 7950 :p have you tried playing the call of juarez demo.. hardest game ever to run!
Click to expand...

Cool demo, even challenges the 7950 GX2 when you select max settings.

The Nvidia drivers are set up for the game, but not the demo, if you rename the demo exe to coj.exe rather than doj_demo.exe (or whatever it's named to in the demo) then the application specific settings will kick in with the new drivers and SLI will work correctly.

Those with 7950 GX2's should check this out otherwise you will get 1/2 performance.
 
jnick said:
Hey guys,

I was just wondering if it's better to set AA & AF in the games options itself, or force it through the control panel?
Click to expand...

Control Panel is good for making sure what exact level of AA or AF is set rather than the 1,2,3,4 or high, med, low you tend to get in games, it also allows you to set the AA and AF when there is no option.

Additional options like LOD Bias, Gamma AA and Transparancy AA are available only though the control panel can improve the image quality a lot, you also have the options to turn on or off the AF and trilinear optimisations which can increase or decrease IQ with relative frame rate changes, older games that run well it's nice to turn up the AF and turn off all the optimisations so it looks awesome.

Performance should be the same.
 
jnick said:
Ohhh, nifty.

I'm gonna have to start profiling tonight then!

Two last questions -

If I profile the game for 4x aa, 16x af, what should I put the in game options to for those settings? Does it not matter?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Nope, in game settings always yield to driver settings.
 
jnick said:
Thanks for the tips. What I'm wondering is if I ALWAYS force 4x aa, 16x af, and leave the game's options as "off" or "low", would this be ok? Or would it cause a conflict somewhere?
Click to expand...
No, there is no conflict. The Control Panel overrides all in game options no matter what.
 
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