- Jun 3, 2002
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Originally posted by: DaveBaumann
Originally posted by: Evan Lieb
In any case, I think one of NVIDIA's engineers mentioned to me a while back that trilinear buffering is disabled in certain games (this could apply to certain levels in UT2K3) as it'll significantly degrade fps for no good reason (i.e. no IQ gain). Though I'll have to confirm that info.
Trilinear Buffering?
Yeah, I meant to say filtering. Thanks?
Originally posted by: DaveBaumann
But anyway, regarless - you think its OK to just arbitarily remove Trilinear filtering at will? You did not question this when you were told it? Did you actually investigate any of the maps in UT2003 to see if it was noticable or not? Did you solicit opinions from the developers to ask if they thought it was OK to alter the IQ from which they selected for their application?
I was merely stating what I remembered an NVIDIA engineer telling me a few months ago. Since I cannot remember exactly what was said I will have to call up NVIDIA soon and ask them point blank about trilinear filtering in UT2K3. And to answer your question, yes, I have compared multiple UT2K3 maps (with a 5900 Ultra box and a 9800 Pro box standing side by side, Quality mode, various resolutions) and noticed very tiny variances in overall IQ.
I?ll ask a few developers some questions about this, good idea.
Originally posted by: DaveBaumann
Come on, really, this is 2003 - Trilinear filtering has been here for years (and even for Free on NV10, in terms of fill-rate), should we really be accepting that its just turned off on these new "uber boards" being released which are several generations on from those boards that initially offered it?
I agree, it shouldn?t be expected. But perhaps there?s something you or I don?t know about that makes ?smart? trilinear filtering in UT2K3 useful. And perhaps NVIDIA is just trying to cut a few corners to get higher frame rates. Having seen infinitesimal IQ variance with identically configured 9800 Pro and 5900 Ultra boxes in UT2K3, I really don?t think this is too big a deal. Of course, perhaps I?ve missed something and this ?smart? trilinear filtering (if it even exists, I?ll have to ask NVIDIA and do some independent testing) is reproducible in various maps.
Overall, unless I (or someone) can actually reproduce a scenario (from a gamer's perspective) in UT2K3 where the 44.03 drivers are degrading IQ for the sake of higher fps in UT2K3, this is hardly all that important, though certainly worth some investigation.