Is anyone playing games with FSAA enabled?

[LarryJoe]

Just finished today's FSAA article and was wondering if people are actually using it. Last time I tried with the 5.22 drivers on my GTS and wasn't playable. I haven't upgraded to the 5.30 or 5.32 drivers because I heard there was no real difference. So to FSAA or not to FSAA?

 

[Holler]

no. to me it just makes things look blurry and less defined.

 

[JellyBaby]

I've tried using it but there are still problems even with 5.22. They need to tweak the algorithms because there's always at least one anomoly with every DirectX game I try (in SFC the starfield becomes washed out, in Thief the control repsonse lags, etc.). I'm waiting for 5.3x which I hear improves quality (you must have heard differently than me...?).

 

[LarryJoe]

No I have heard that the 5.3x drivers are improved over the 5.22's. I'll give it a shot tonight.

 

[0div0]

I tried FSAA in quake 3. Performance was slower and there was a slight difference in image quality but not enough for me to use it all the time. I didn't do the registry hack that Anand did to change it to 2x. I'll try that now.

 

[0div0]

ok I'm using the 5.30 drivers and fsaa is playable(even with the reg hack to change it to 2x). There is again a slight image quality difference between it on and off, but I don't think I'm going to leave it on just because the picture quality isn't jaw dropping.

 

[HannibalX]

OT - LMAO at your sig man

I can remember hearing a robotics programmer in 1978 saying that he didn't know how he was going to write enough code to fill all 8 kb of memory the engineers had given him to work with

 

[NFS4]

I just installed the new 5.32 drivers for Win2k on my system. Motocross Madness 2 runs fine at 1024x768 high detail (20-25fps) @ 2x supersampling with MIPMaps at the native game resolution

This is on my Athlon 735 w/Gigabyte SDR GeForce (150/200)

I'm getting ready to try 2x supersampling with MIPMaps at the backbuffer (higher) resolution.

 

[LarryJoe]

Let us know how you do.

 

[NFS4]

2x supersampling with MIPMaps at the backbuffer (higher) resolution. works just great too. Hardly any performance difference from the lesser settings.

It only chokes on this one Nationals race where there are a LOT of trees.

 

[LarryJoe]

NFS4 - What notch on the slider is 2x supersampling with MIPMaps at the backbuffer (higher) resolution??

 

[LarryJoe]

I just installed the 5.32's and haven't tried FSAA, but I did lose a few fps in Q3 demo001. No biggie to me as the GTS smokes anyway.

LJ

 

[Burn]

I tried it and I didn't find the improvement to be great enough. I usually run at 1280x1024 on my 19" monitor and running at 800x600 with FSAA just doesn't look good enough. Plus it is still slower...

 

[NFS4]

<< NFS4 - What notch on the slider is 2x supersampling with MIPMaps at the backbuffer (higher) resolution?? >>


3rd notch from the left.

 

[dszd0g]

FSAA helps Darkstone as long as you aren't zoomed all the way out, things are a little too blurry then. If you like viewing at the default zoom level (about equivalent to Diablo) it is a noticable improvement. For Darkstone the performance hit isn't very noticable.

 

[NFS4]

MM2 looks MUCH better with the 2x FSAA

 

[Wingznut]

I use 2xFSAA on games such as SiN, UT, Deus Ex, MDK2.
And 4xFSAA on games such as NFS5, Madden2k, NHL2k, MCM2.

 

[BuddyHolly]

No. Not worth it.

 

[MrChicken]

I leave 4xFSAA (v5 5500) on all the time. After a couple of weeks of 4xfsaa, after the WOW factor wore off I decided to switch it off. That lasted about 10 minutes, I decided 4xFSAA was the way to go. If I cant get decent playability at 1024x768, I drop it down to 800x600, but still keep the FSAA.

 

[Wingznut]

Same here, MrChicken!

I play NFS5 with 4xFSAA at 1024x768. One day I fired it up, forgetting to enable FSAA. I couldn't even finish one race without going back and enabling FSAA.

 

[Volenti]

Homeworld at 1024x768x32 with 4xFSAA (and the game is still cpu limited with a 667 cumine)
UT in glide at 1024x768 2xFSAA as well as most other games.

 

[LarryJoe]

Well after some exerimentation on my GTS with the 5.32 drivers, FSAA is very much improved over the earlier 5.XX drivers. UT looks stunning at 800x600x32 and high detail in 4X FSAA. It runs pretty well too with a 40fps average on that time stat thing, for what ever that is worth. MCM2 graphics were all screwed up at 4X but ran fine at 2X, again a noticable improvement. NFS5 also ran well at 2X and 4X at 1024x768x32, but the rock walls were all screwed up.

I am impressed but I don't know if the speed is enough to make me leave it on. I don;t like going back down to 800x600 or lower or going back to 16-bit color, yuck! I played UT at 800*600*32 at 4X FSAA for a half hour and then went back to 1024*768*32 with no FSAA and I'll tell ya, there is not that much of a difference. 800*600 FSAA was definetely a bit better, but not worth a 50% drop in framerates.

I haven't tried any opengl games with FSAA as opengl really doesn't need it as much as D3D. I may check out MDK2 though based on what NFS4 said, because I couldn't imagine it looking any better.

Right now I guess it comes down to - do I want to run at a much lower resolution and go to 16 bit color or run real high resolutions keep the 32 bit color and get great frame rates. I will probably go with the latter until the next drivers come out and improve FSAA even more.

Isn't nVidia's driver support absolutely top notch?

LJ

 

[NFS4]

<< I may check out MDK2 though based on what NFS4 said, because I couldn't imagine it looking any better. >>


That's MM2, not MDK2

 

[Mem]

They have benchmarks of 5.22 ,5.30, 5.32 drivers over at firingsquad ,worth a read.


http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/detonator530/default.asp

 

[ShawnReeves]

LOL...Uhh whats FSAA and where can I get it??