Does anyone here actually use FSAA?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 9:54 pm

Now that I've got this nice new rig (Athlon XP 2000+ w/Geforce3 Ti200 o/c'd to GF3 speed) I thought I'd experiment with FSAA.

Well it STILL SUCKS. I play nothing but first person shooters and I only play online. Performance is a MUST. If a game can't maintain a rock steady 60 fps at a reasonable resolution (and 800x600 is the minimum I'll play a game at) then I'm not interested.

I can play an older game like Half-Life (DOD & CS) just fine at with FSAA enabled at a reasonable res (of course this game engine is nearly FIVE YEARS OLD), but SOF2 chokes. It's fluctuating between 40 and 60 fps at 800x600. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Now I don't care - I've never needed FSAA before and I don't need it now. I prefer to crank up the res and do without it, but I'm wondering if ANYONE realistically uses it. Seems like a wasted feature unless you're playing something that doesn't tax your 3D subsystem.

PreDatoR · Post by **PreDatoR** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 10:43 pm

I usually run 2x-4x FSAA on most games. And 4x Smoothvision on this 8500... I see a difference. Usually run games at 1024x768 if i can get 40fps i'm fine. Naked eye can't see the difference anyways. Now if i start dipping below 30 then i'll start to notice but that rarely happens. Only game i can think of that happening was MoH:AA During the Omaha Beach mission. That is one game mission that will tax your card for all it is worth.

LoneWolfX1X · Post by **LoneWolfX1X** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 10:49 pm

I run everything at 1280x960x32 force level 8 anistropy (64 tap) and quincux AA with texture sharpening

I mostly play Op Flash, AA, NWN, etc

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 10:53 pm

Pred. You don't play multiplayer with 40 fps do you? I admit single player it's acceptable, but anything under 60fps and I'm at a severe disadvantage in a multiplayer first person shooter.

It's nothing to do with what your eye can discern - it's the fact that at lower fps your computer may not draw something important that happens quickly - like a guys jumping at you from the right with a knife.

Well anyway I've played with it, and from what I see I'd rather play DOD at 1280x960 without FSAA than 1024x768 with it. Looks the same to me, and you can see more distance detail.

d_b · Post by **d_b** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 10:54 pm

I must be living a cave, but how do you enable fsaa and what's it all about? I know what the intials stand for but thats it.

PreDatoR · Post by **PreDatoR** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 11:01 pm

Only game lately i've played online is America's Army and HL:TFC... And i've been running 1600x1200 on those... FSAA turned off though. HL i still pull 99 FPS i have it set to max at 99 not sure about AA Its the new Unreal Engine don't know how to check FPS with that... But its very playabl eat 1600x1200...

LoneWolfX1X · Post by **LoneWolfX1X** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:40 am

for AA just type in the console

stat fps

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 6:29 am

d_b: For NVidia card you can enable it in the Advanced Display settings - it's the tab called "3D Anitaliasing Settings".

tunis5000 · Post by **tunis5000** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 3:35 pm

"I run everything at 1280x960x32 force level 8 anistropy (64 tap) and quincux AA with texture sharpening"

At what, 20 fps? I have the same video card as you and I found that even lvl 2 anisotropy just killed the performance in newer games (MoH:AA, GTA3, SoF2, JK2, etc - running full detail @ 1024x768x32) too much to be worth it, especially with any FSAA going on. Granted, your CPU is a lot faster than mine (it's only a P4 1.5), but isn't it the video card that handles the work for anisotropy and FSAA? I'm just finding it hard to believe your games are running at an acceptable sustained framerate with those settings... but hey if they are I guess a CPU upgrade is in order for me.

Anyway, since I got my GF4 4600, I've tried messing with different settings. I run my games at 1024x768x32 with details at max, 2x FSAA, no anisotropy, and that runs my games at least 60 fps or higher, which is what I want. I like the sharper image quality that FSAA gives, as long as it runs OK I think it's worth it. Like you said FP, older games like Half-Life and it's mods you can crank it, but for relatively new games, I don't think your GF3 200 can take it. When I had a GF3, I didn't bother with FSAA, too much of a performance hit, but with my GF4 it seems to handle it better. Of course there's all sorts of variables like CPU speed, the resolution, the detail, the game engine, etc. etc...

Gand1 · Post by **Gand1** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 3:37 pm

I guess FSAA is why I'm spending $400... I want frames!!!

Lmandrake · Post by **Lmandrake** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 7:00 pm

You guys have it all wrong. You are playing the wrong games to use FSAA.

Load up a copy of Microsoft Train Simulator or Silent Hunter II and you can use 2x or 4x FSAA and still play.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 7:15 pm

LMANDRAKE: LOL!

I run everything at 1280x960x32 force level 8 anistropy (64 tap) and quincux AA with texture sharpening

At what, 20 fps?

Took the worlds out of my mouth Tunis. No way you can get any kind of usable fps at that res with Quincunx. Not in any modern game. Maybe Quake2...

Well I've been playing around a lot with it. I've found 2x is usable in most games at 1024x768 except SOF2 (real performance hog. ESPECIALLY RMG Jungle maps - that moving grass puts a hurtin' on a 3D subsystem).

Quincunx (ahem - not sure that word should be spoken in mixed company

) is impractical and 4x is nice if you like a slide show.

However I don't want to be enabling it and disabling in all the time. Frankly I just don't see the difference in an FPS multiplayer game. Who cares about zaggies. I grant you it's nice to lose the dancing barber pole effect, but I'd MUCH rather turn FSAA off and just crank up the resolution to 1280x. Looks just as good, AND give you the bonus of better details in distant objects (nice for a game like DOD or SOF2).

ANYWAY, I'm perfectly happy with this hardware. All my games ran fine on my P3-1000 at 1024x768. It's just nice to play DOD at 1280x now

No way I'm spending the dough on a GF4 right now - not after coughing up money for a new mobo, CPU and RAM. Vid card upgrade will have to wait until Xmas and by then some better hardware may be out.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 7:25 pm

I have my r 8500 set to 4x fsaa all the time. everythign is playable at 1280/1024. Actually I played gta3 at1600/1200 and it ran fine. amd 1700+ and im happy with win2k.

Greg

matt719 · Post by **matt719** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 9:23 pm

You guys are crazy with this shit. Lets put it this way... my old Voofoo 3 3000 16MB 3DFX card could put out 100+fps on half-lfie (cs, or other mods) at 1024x768... I'll admit, i have no idea what fsaa is, but my geforce 3 Ti500 with an Athlon XP 1900+ with 512DDR ram doesn't play half-life any better than my old P3 500MHz with 256SDRAM and that voodoo card... If you want to test out your computer, put on Medal Of Honor Alied Assault and see what resolution you can run it at before it crashes. My current Athlon system can only handle it smoothly at 1280x960. I could play MOHAA on my old P3 500 at 800x600 easily, without OpenGL. (sigh, crappy ATI Radeon 7200) So anyways, could someone tell me what fsaa is?

Koo Koo Mouse · Post by **Koo Koo Mouse** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 9:28 pm

Very interesting.. I have a GF4 4200 and never thought about FSAA.. Never touched it.

I spent the evening expirinting on the looks part but not the FPS part on a fresh load of SOF2.

1024x768 with ali OFF and useing the the control FP mentioned:

<img src="http://cskogen.homestead.com/files/noanti.jpeg">

Youll see a bit (maybe 12 steps acrossed the top of the entrance above..

<img src="http://cskogen.homestead.com/files/noanti500.jpg">

You see the step. Rememer this is blown up 500 times. !

<img src="http://cskogen.homestead.com/files/antion4x.jpeg">

OK this is the same shot a 4x aa.. Yep theres a differance but is it a big one?? I think not.

img src="http://cskogen.homestead.com/files/antion4x500.jpg">

A closer (500X look telles us its just a grayscale in color.. It just fills in and makes many more pixels to to be managed by whatevers gotta do it.

<img src="http://cskogen.homestead.com/files/antion4x500.jpg">