Yep, I can remember when I had a V5 and GPL with 4xFSAA was a beautiful
sight.
I don't know who claimed the GF3 could do FSAA without a framerate drop
(wasn't me anyway :) ) but they are definitely wrong. What i've read is
that it can do 4xFSAA at 2xFSAA speeds. Whether this is true, or whether
nVidia have got their 4xFSAA to look as good as 3dfx's, who knows, I guess
we'll find out when someone buys one :)
GigaPixel were working on a chipset which could supposedly do FSAA without a
frame-rate drop, then they were purchased by 3dfx, and then 3dfx assets were
bought by nVidia, but that technology is not on the GF3.
FSAA = Full Scene Anti Aliasing - ie not just edges.
> FSAA is, depending on who you talk to, Full Screen Anti Alias or Full
> Scene
> Anti Alias. I'm not sure if either definition is wrong. Bascially what
it
> does is
> smooth out many of the jagged lines that many PC programs display.
> 3dfx(voodoo) with it's V4 & V5 currently has the best looking FSAA, but
> Nvidia(Geforce) also developed
> a version of FSAA that is done in the drivers(or software) whereas the
3dfx
> version
> is cleaned up by the hardware.
> Either method does impact the framerate, but with GPL being capped at
> 36fps, you
> can often overcome any hits to the fps with a good fast CPU.
> FSAA really smooths out a screen...before we would have to use higher
and
> higher
> screen resolutions to get a clean looking image. With FSAA you can use
> lower rez's and the increased clarity of the image will make it look like
a
> much higher resolution.
> But 3dfx has folded and Nvidia is gearing up a new video card called the
> GeeForce 3.
> Some hardware sites have previewed the new nvidia attempt at fsaa and feel
> they have made a big improvement. Also some users here have claimed the
new
> FSAA will not
> impact framerates..but I'd be really skeptical of that claim. Any process
> that adds a layer
> of commands or instructions to displaying video, has to claim at least a
few
> drops in framerate. Hopefully it will work well.
> Does FSAA improve GPL? Yes..but does it make you faster? No...Can you
> see better in the distance? probably...unless you already had an ultra
high
> rez like 1600x1200.
> There used to be lots of sites that previed the V5 and attempted with
> screenshots to
> show what FSAA looks like, but a static shot doesn't do justice to the
> improvements you
> see on screen.
> dave henrie
> > I keep seeing FSAA mentioned in GPL topics , but what actually is it and
> > what does it do.
> > Hope someone can help
> > Kev Barnes
