Question regarding FSAA

Hello, I have a question about the option to apply Anti-Aliasing within a game, such as the GTR demo has in its 3d setup.Would this be in addition to whatever level FSAA I have my card (NVidia in this case) set to? And if it's a cummulative thing, do you use it? Or do you let your video card's software/drivers do the AA work? It just seems strange, I figure if they are adding it as an option for those without cards that have FSAA, those people probably don't have a strong enough card to run the game's AA anyway. No? I've seen this in other games and just have never been clear on it, and figured there's a wealth of knowledge here. Thanks for any insight. Tim

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 02:48:58 GMT, "tim" <[email hidden]> wrote: >I have a question about the option to apply Anti-Aliasing within a game, >such as the GTR demo has in its 3d setup.Would this be in addition to >whatever level FSAA I have my card (NVidia in this case) set to? And if >it's a cummulative thing, do you use it? Or do you let your video card's >software/drivers do the AA work? If you force a certain level in the NVidia control panel, then the setting in the game shouldn't make any difference. In game selection (in theory) only affects the game if your control panel setting is "application preference". >It just seems strange, I figure if they are adding it as an option for those >without cards that have FSAA, those people probably don't have a strong >enough card to run the game's AA anyway. No? I've seen this in other games >and just have never been clear on it, and figured there's a wealth of >knowledge here. Some people have PC's that can't run all games at equal levels of FSAA, so it can be handy to be able to select different levels for different games. Unfortunately a lot of games don't have the option of changing it, or in the case of your NVidia don't know about the Quincunx FSAA setting. -- Andrew. To email unscramble [email hidden] & remove spamtrap. Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards, please don't top post. Trim messages to quote only relevant text. Check groups.google.com before asking a question.

"tim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:uUuxc.14868$[email hidden]...

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> Hello, > I have a question about the option to apply Anti-Aliasing within a game, > such as the GTR demo has in its 3d setup.Would this be in addition to > whatever level FSAA I have my card (NVidia in this case) set to? And if > it's a cummulative thing, do you use it? Or do you let your video card's > software/drivers do the AA work? > > It just seems strange, I figure if they are adding it as an option for

those

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> without cards that have FSAA, those people probably don't have a strong > enough card to run the game's AA anyway. No? I've seen this in other games > and just have never been clear on it, and figured there's a wealth of > knowledge here. > > Thanks for any insight. > Tim

You can't run AA if your card won't do it, no matter what you set the in-game switch to. That's just an option that allows you to set the AA level from in-game as opposed to in the video card's software, so that you can set it different by game. Conversely, the cards allow you to set it globally as many games don't give you the option in-game. To save you from having to reset your global settings manually for each game, the current NVidia drivers let you add and modify individualized game profiles so you can have different settings game to game without making any of those choices in-game (& much more can be done this way than just AA). But if you force an AA setting globally, that's what you'll get; the in-game setting only prevails if you set your card's software to "application-controlled". SB

It all makes sense now. Thanks guys Tim "Steve Blankenship" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> "tim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:uUuxc.14868$[email hidden]... > > Hello, > > I have a question about the option to apply Anti-Aliasing within a game, > > such as the GTR demo has in its 3d setup.Would this be in addition to > > whatever level FSAA I have my card (NVidia in this case) set to? And if > > it's a cummulative thing, do you use it? Or do you let your video card's > > software/drivers do the AA work? > > > > It just seems strange, I figure if they are adding it as an option for > those > > without cards that have FSAA, those people probably don't have a strong > > enough card to run the game's AA anyway. No? I've seen this in other

games

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> > and just have never been clear on it, and figured there's a wealth of > > knowledge here. > > > > Thanks for any insight. > > Tim > > You can't run AA if your card won't do it, no matter what you set the > in-game switch to. That's just an option that allows you to set the AA > level from in-game as opposed to in the video card's software, so that you > can set it different by game. Conversely, the cards allow you to set it > globally as many games don't give you the option in-game. > > To save you from having to reset your global settings manually for each > game, the current NVidia drivers let you add and modify individualized

game > profiles so you can have different settings game to game without makingany > of those choices in-game (& much more can be done this way than just AA). > But if you force an AA setting globally, that's what you'll get; thein-game > setting only prevails if you set your card's software to > "application-controlled". > > SB > >