Riva Tuner: Texture Filtering, layering Anistropy?

[Guest]

Hello All:I have learned the basics of using the Riva Tuner The version I have is 2.0 RC-12, and am tweaking a GF4 Ti4600 with patched 40.72 drivers from Nvidia installed. Topic 14113 discussed that under Textures->Optomization that in addition to setting multiple stages that can be optomized, that each stage can have a different degree of Anistropic filtering.The first layer selected would receive the highest degree of Anistropic filtering, with successive stages receiving a reduced amount. This would be done because layers beyond the first one would not benefit from the highest degrees of anistropy, and setting a lower level might also improve overall performance. Right now I have stages 0 and 1 selected, with level 8 Anistropy set as the maximum, but could not figure ouot how to set the lower level of Anistropy for the 2nd and successive stages.Therefore, if two or more stages are set:- What stage should be the first on used, 0 or 1?- How many stages in total should be set?- Beyond setting the highest desired level of Anistropy for the first stage selected, how do you set lower levels of Anistropy for the successive stages? Thanks, RickThanks, Rick

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Rick,I guess its an all or nothing situation.I left stage "0" with the box unchecked, the assumption being that anisotropy level 8 would be forced on that stage ( which, I assume is layer 1).Boxes for stages 1,2 and 3 are all checked and I have defined/optimized level 4 (32 tap) for these. Seems okay as, far as I can tell.I posted a few days ago hoping for feedback from 'PaulL01' but I think he must have been otherwise occupied at the time. I bumped once or twice before giving up - don't want to become irritating ;)Mike

[Guest]

Hey Rick Just wanted to put my 2 cents in here. I have used Riva Tuner for quite a while now and on my system with a GeForce4 4600 I fiddled with the stage stuff until I almost passed out. It does absolutely nothing for my system. Im not sure if anyone out there has some real stats or not but save yourself some time and just set the aniso to suit your needs. I force level 2 and it works great. You get the analysis paralysis syndrome with some of this tweaking stuff. If you really get a substantial improvement please let me know.RegardsBobG

[Guest]

Thanks Bob:I am convinced that Microsoft designed Flight Sim for the express purpose of forcing people to expend all of their discretionary time overusing the capabilities of Windows Explorer routing around the innards of a computer in places you'd rather not be, a slave to the box in search of the illusion of better performance. Peripheral manufacturers have followed suit.The illusion is so powerful that each of us can find evidence to support our claims of performace gains, since to us they do truly exist. That is until someone else decides to try to duplicate our results. When they can't we each rightfully claim that our particular systems set-ups are so unique that no two people could ever actually achieve the same results.And all this effort while simply trying to simulate flight at a reasonable frame rate and with an acceptable level of clarity and fidelity. The Wright Brothers had it easy by comparison.The other element of our characters they prey on is our unlimited capacity for hope. The next tweak, the next patch, the next upgrade or add-on, perhaps a blinding flash of the obvious. One of them will provide us with the holy grail of soul satisfying performance improvement that will make the elusive dream of optomized performance a reality. We will spend the hours, the cash, and our intellectual and emotional capital on this hobby until we get right. All they need to do is feed that hope with a claim that the next whatever is going to be the one.I'm of a rational mind. All of this effort is futile. I must stop tweaking and upgrading. I must stop chasing the illusion...Whoa, that was close. Can't believe I said that! So, having gotten that last thought out of my mind, where is my next great performance leap? I've gotta have it, real or otherwise.Back to tweaking.Rick

[Guest]

Hey Rick Your last line just made me laugh. Although I tout "the end to tweaking" I too find myself back at it. You actually end up with the great circle route meaning you get done with your efforts and realize you are right back where you were. You have done all you can do. There is one thing that I find myself doing over and over again and that is finding a way either through a lower resolution or giving up something so I can have reflective water. This is the only slider that I have never been able to get acceptable frame rates. I have max scenery, resolution, clouds etc and this is the only one that I wish I had, but the rates just drop 30-40%. I have an AsusP4T with a 1.9 processor, 512mb ram and a Geforce4 4600. The tweaking will never get me reflective water. The only hope is for a better card (8x AGP) and a faster processor (middle of next year probably). Anyway nice to see Im not the only nut out there:-)RegardsBobG

[Guest]

Bob and all:9 days of head banging, teeth nashing, hair pulling, and Mylanta chugging have paid off. How, you ask? A combination of button pushing and dumb luck, just like many great events in history.First, I thought to myself I've messed with everything in the FS2002.CFG file, and it still seems like the program cannot access enough high quality textures. Suspecting a hard drive setting I checked and sure enough DMA was disabled. Win98 supports it, so I checked it. Next time FS2002 loaded the high quality textures had crept out from the aircraft. But not much.Next, I ensured that in the TERRAIN section I had the following values:TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.900000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.000000 TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1Note: I could have left TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS at 4.000000, the default value, but hey, it's free in this problem.Textures crept out a bit farther, but were still blurry to the front and sides beyond about 3-4 miles.Next I went into Riva Tuner. AS RECOMMENDED in Topic 14113 I had set the following:Texture Filter Settings: Determined by Direct3D application. We'll revisit this one shortly.After clicking the Optomize Button: - Texture Filtering Optomization -> I had selected stages 0 and 1 for optomization. - Next I enabled Always optomize selected stages. - Under Optomization Strategy I selected-> The Maximum anistropy for optomized stages level 8.I started FS2002. THE TEXTURES DID NOT IMPROVE AT ALL.After thumbing through the tabs uselessly, I went back to the Riva Tuner's Texture Tab. I changed the Texture Filtering Setting to: force level 8When I restarted the Sim, the textures were clear and sharp out toward a point 15-18 miles away, and then blurred naturally toward the visible horizon, with 40 miles visibility set.I had finally restored performance to where it was before the hard drive went to half speed and my Ti500 failed. Using most of the recommended settings for the Riva Tuner, while discarding others, made all the difference.The moral here, the advice of others is invaluable, but if you're simply following the other guy on downwind, you're probably both off altitude.Rickp.s. Usual disclaimers apply. Professional stunt tweaker, do not attempt these tweaks at home. Settings are the authors, and publication does not imply suitability on other systems. Your mileage may vary. Some assembly required. Mylanta and hair glue extra.

[Guest]

Good Job my man!!! I have never had blurrie textures. I do use the 9.9 radius settings also. Your mileage may vary is soooo true. Really glad to hear you didnt need a prescription for Paxil.Way to goBobG

[Guest sfgiants]

Bob,Which driver are you up to now a days?How are your blurry textures?TJ