AA/AF Question

[Destructis]

I keep seeing posts about AA/AF settings. What exactly are they and how do you adjust the settings?

I currently have an X800 Pro softmodded into a X800 XT PE which runs fine.

 

[Scali]

Antialiasing and Anisotropic (texture) filtering.
With modern games you can set them in the video options in the game.
With old games, you can use the control panel of your videocard to force the settings.
It's generally better to set the options in the game, if possible.

 

[mulpsmebeauty]

Anti aliasing smooths out jagged lines most often seen between areas of high colour contrast.

Anisotropic filtering clears up textures and makes them look sharper.

 

[Scali]

Anti aliasing smooths out jagged lines most often seen between areas of high colour contrast.

Yes. I would like to add though, that these days multisampling is the standard algorithm. Unlike supersampling, it won't work on all aliasing, but basically only on polygon edges.
With multisampling, you may still see aliasing with bumpmapping.

 

[Destructis]

Thanks for the answers so far.

When setting them in game, what should be my optimal settings? What should I shoot for?

 

[Moloch]

Thanks for the answers so far.

When setting them in game, what should be my optimal settings? What should I shoot for?

since you have an uber card, 6X AA and 16AF should work in all but a few games at 1600x1200.

 

[Brent_Justice]

Thanks for the answers so far.

When setting them in game, what should be my optimal settings? What should I shoot for?

whatever is playable

depends on the demands of the game and the resolution you are playing at

experiment

 

[UltimateMan]

I keep seeing posts about AA/AF settings. What exactly are they and how do you adjust the settings?

I currently have an X800 Pro softmodded into a X800 XT PE which runs fine.

dude, to have that card, modify it to an X800XT PE and not know what AA anf AF are is a crime. The police are going to put you away for a long long time...

 

[Destructis]

dude, to have that card, modify it to an X800XT PE and not know what AA anf AF are is a crime. The police are going to put you away for a long long time...

Actually I read about how to mod it here. I am here sucking your brains out and learning more and more.

 

[UltimateMan]

Actually I read about how to mod it here. I am here sucking your brains out and learning more and more.

OUCH! MY BRAINS MY BRAINS!

 

[arentol]

since you have an uber card, 6X AA and 16AF should work in all but a few games at 1600x1200.

Actually your CPU and some other stuff will affect your settings, but since a modded X800pro still isn't as capable as an X800XT-PE I would suggest 4xAA and 8xAF at 1600x1200 in most games if your PC is otherwise pretty fast, and only 2xAA if it's not. (it's hard to see the difference between 8xAF and 16xAF anyway).

 

[Scali]

Actually your CPU and some other stuff will affect your settings, but since a modded X800pro still isn't as capable as an X800XT-PE I would suggest 4xAA and 8xAF at 1600x1200 in most games if your PC is otherwise pretty fast, and only 2xAA if it's not. (it's hard to see the difference between 8xAF and 16xAF anyway).

Should be the other way around, really.
The slower your CPU is, the lower your framerate will be, so the more time the videocard has to render a frame. So you can turn up AA/AF for 'free'.
AA/AF or higher resolutions don't put any extra load on the CPU whatsoever (higher resolutions and AA do take up some extra memory though, so you may get more swapping between videomem and system mem. But I suppose it's a 256 mb card, so that won't be an issue).

 

[arentol]

Should be the other way around, really.
The slower your CPU is, the lower your framerate will be, so the more time the videocard has to render a frame. So you can turn up AA/AF for 'free'.
AA/AF or higher resolutions don't put any extra load on the CPU whatsoever (higher resolutions and AA do take up some extra memory though, so you may get more swapping between videomem and system mem. But I suppose it's a 256 mb card, so that won't be an issue).

You are right for the most part. I think I failed to make my point properly...

What I was trying to say was that we don't know anything about this guys PC outside of his videocard, so nobody here can really suggest settings accurately. In addition, it will vary from game to game anyway. So basically he will just need to try things out to see what works best for him.

Of course trying to say all that was stupid of me because if you check his profile you can see what he has in his PC...

So please just ignore me, I am being particularly stupid today.