rec.autos.simulators

First I made sure that at 640x480 I could get the max refresh rate which is
120Hz.  In Win2K it's kind of funny in that if a lower refresh rate is
available, GPL always uses it - so I have to hack the registry to get rid of
them first.  My hope was that at 640x480 + FSAA GPL would look better than
it would at say, 1600x1200.

My inclination was correct!  at 640x480x32 with FSAA GPL was BEAUTIFUL and
FLUID.  36+ fps and NO JAGGIES.  Now the bad news - The menus are all hosed
up.  They write all over each other and generally make it impossible to
navigate after a while.  Secondly the mirrors in***pit view are only 1/2
there.

Just wondering if anyone has come up with a hack or knows of the settings
that will fix these issues so that FSAA would be useable in GPL.  I planned
on putting a screenshot up in alt.binaries.simulators but for some reason
pbf2tga doesn't work for screenshots with this video card.  Must be the
color depth or something...

Looking forward to any idea's or comments.

--David Cook

I've been following some of the early reviews of the Voodoo5 5500.  When
FSAA is enabled, the V5 takes quite a performance hit when moving to
higher resolutions.  For this reason alone I was discouraged about
purchasing the card, but if I can run GPL at 640x480x32 with good
results then I may reconsider.

So you were really impressed with the graphic quality at 640x480?  Right
now I'm playing at 1280x1024x16 (V3) to eliminate some of the jaggies.

-AndrewS

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Great. Any chance you can tell me WHERE you got these driver and what
brand  you have?

Great. Any chance you can tell me WHAT you changed in the registery?

Of course, if it's a secret, then I understand.... <g> (You might
think I'm a bit harsh, but come on, you could expect these
questions...)

Remco

I could run at 1024x768 with everything switched on, and my machine would
handle it, I'm sure, however, I run at 1280x1024 with a few things
tweaked, not because I don't like the jaggies (there's not really that
much difference) but because I get better distance visibility.

I guess if I were playing Quake or something then maybe I'm not so
interested in the very distant stuff (there isn't often much of it anyway
as everything is at most, mid distanced), in this case AA would work well,
but for a driving sim, I'd like to see it before I thought it was a good
idea.

Cheers,

Steve.

Go here http://www.voodooextreme.com/files/nvidia/nvidia.html for the (leaked)
Beta Detonator v5.13 drivers for the GeForce/TNT/TNT2.  For the D3D FSAA registry
hack go here http://www.planetgeforce.com/files/win2k-d3dfsaa.zip

The settings I changed to get my refresh rate up are here (use Regedt32)
Hkey_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nv4\Device0\*_Modes

Delete all values up to the last one for each of the modes.  I have not yet
determined which one does it so I do them all.  You'll have to change your
desired resolution and color depth, again I change 8, 16 and 32 just to be safe.  
Here's an example:

Before:  32   640  480  60 70 72 75 85 100 120  0  
After:   32   640  480  120 0

Remco - if you fine a solution to any of the menu or mirror problems you'll share
them as well, okay ;)

--David Cook

I've been wishing for AA, I imagine it improves visibility into the
corners a bunch. Keep at it. For the mirrors: Having installed new
drivers perhaps you need to reset the buffer flipping setting ?

I believe that pbf2tga will not work with the OpenGl patch. You can
capture screen shots one at a time by using Print Screen, exiting the
game, and pasting into Paint, or any program that will accept a
bitmap.
--
Don Scurlock
Vancouver,B.C.

As much as I've been disapointed in EVERY set of Nvidia drivers since
2.08 I'm going to have to try this.

How do you know what refresh rate is being used once your in the game
?

-
Don Scurlock
Vancouver,B.C.

I just posted a screenshot to alt.binaries.simulators.autos (thanks for the tip).  
It's about 1MB in BMP 24-bit so as not to lose any clarity.  Zoom in real close.  
Pretty cool how they do the FSAA :)

--David Cook

--
Don Scurlock
Vancouver,B.C.

--David Cook

But that's my point, in the lower resolutions (without AA) you don't get
to see things in the distance very well which has two side effects:

1. Seeing a car in the distance in an incentive to try and catch it up

2. Seeing a stationary car in the distance (or a car starting to lose it)
gives you more time to react (i.e. avoid a collision).

I'm sure that AA will look great, but I've always one to turn off
eye-candy in order to keep the important things right (primarily
frame-rate) but not that I'm in a position to run it, I also like clarity,
which is what's missing from an AA scene where you reduce resolution.

Please note, I'm all for AA, but necessarily by having to reduce your res
to 640x480.

Cheers,

Steve.

Remco

Like I said, I only read previews and the reported amount of e***ment
seeing FSAA enabled in flight sims (Falcon4) was quite convincing.

--
l8er
ronny

Your mouse has moved. Windows must be restarted for the change
to take effect. Reboot now?
          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

For me this card (Dell 64MB Geforce-DDR) can stay or go depending on how it
does with new titles in the pipline such as GP3, NR4, WSC and DTR Sprints.
If I can't do FSAA at 1024x768 without a major fps hit, then I will yank
this one out and buy the Voodoo5 5500 - that is, of course based on the
assumption that the V5 will deliver FSAA without the fps hit as promised by
3DFX.

It will be interesting to see who comes out on top this summer...

--David Cook