Last week I had some problems with not working Anisotropic Filtering. Luckily I could solve the problems by (once again) de- and reinstalling the drivers and (most importantly) nHancer. I found out that nHancer somehow knows how to do things right with the 169.25 drivers and AF (although I don't know what exactly I did wrong)! So, as has been told before, GET nHancer if you don't have it yet!!!Anyway, today I tested various settings and I found some very interesting things I'd like to share here. First of all they might help you and secondly I am curious if someone else can confirm this.First of all and most important something that's very weird but quite interesting for (at least) everyone with a 8800GTX, the 169.35 drivers and nHancer on Vista 32 bits.The FSAA settings (mode) in nHancer's FSX-profile have NO effect at all in FSX.The FSAA settings (mode) in nHancer's Global profile DO work in FSX!BTW I am talking ONLY about the FSAA-mode (Multisampling 4x and so on) and not Gamma correction (more about that later on though). Following on this it is important to know that all other settings in the profile, like AF, DO work and they DO override the global settings!This means that to get the best out of the 8800GTX (and maybe other cards on maybe other systems) you need to set the Global AND the Profile for FSX to your liking!So simply making a profile isn't enough! You HAVE to make a profile to use for instance specific AF settings but you also HAVE to set the Global settings for your desired AA settings! You can NOT simply set all global settings as you desire OR all the profile settings as you desire!I've done a LOT of tests this evening (more about those later) and I've rebooted the computer numerous times and everytime FSAA only worked in FSX when set in the Global options. So, for example, if you set AF in Global to Off and in the Profile to 16x, you will get 16x in FSX. But if you set FSAA in Global to Off and in the Profile to 8xS, you will NOT get 8xS in FSX!I'd like to know if others with similar systems have this too. Important tip if you want to test this all: you do not have to restart FSX to try different settings! Simply Alt-Enter FSX to windowed mode, change the nHancer settings (just keep the window opened) and Alt-Enter FSX back to full screen: the new mode will be activated. So testing is pretty easy and quick.

Because I didn't want my opening post to be too long, I decided to put the rest of the testing results in a reply. ;) Okay, the reason for my testing (I have a E6600 (not overclocked), 8800GTX (169,25) and 2 Gb Ram on Vista 32 bits with FSX in DX9 mode) was to see what FSAA modes were better and what their impact was on fps. Well, I can tell you that the Supersampling 8xS (which is only available with nHancer!) beats the **** out of Coverage Sample 8x or Multisampling 4x! Tomorrow (if anyone is interested) I can post some screenshots to compare the various settings. The differences may seem subtle at first but when you compare them they are very clear. Everything is smoother, meaning that trees in the distance, that look like pixels with CS8x, suddenly look like tiny little trees with 8xS. The lines of the Ultralight suddenly look like lines instead of rows of pixels (with CS 8x!). There is also more detail (light) in water! I think I will post some screenshots tomorrow anyway to make this more clear. ;) Next thing I wanted to know: how much fps will that superior FSAA mode cost me? Well, the answer is great: NOTHING! The FSAA modes I mentioned above perform almost the same! The difference after two minutes of flying is about 0,8 fps AT LARGE! So Supersampling 8xS, which looks a lot better then Coverage Sample 8x or Multisampling 4x can be used with almost no penalty!BTW Coverage Sample 8x and Multisample 4x really look almost the sameAnother thing I found out: turning Enhance in-game AA-setting and Gamma correction seem to make NO difference at all! Fps with both on and off was the same but the quality too! I could see no difference at all. (You might as well turn them on in case there comes a moment it DOES make a quality difference, but on the other hand... maybe it will cost you fps at a certain moment)Anyway, I am quite excited about Supersampling 8xS, which you can enable with nHancer. It is really worth it and you'd be crazy not to download nHancer (specially since it also can cure other problems, like bad AF)!P.S. My testflight starts above KLAX (I saved a game in mid-air), looking down and flying towards the city, autogen to extremely dense, hardly any traffic (some GA and cars), LOD at Large, water high 2x, no bloom and shadows (DX9...), the rest pretty normal and fps set at 40 for testing (I have it at 25 usually) and at the end of every flight (2 minutes with autopilot) average fps was 20,1 to 20,8 and peak was always about 26. (And all this at 1680x1050x32.)

Gamma correct AA simply adjusts the color value of he AA pixels, so you wont really see the difference in practice. On older cards, other than 8800's, the 8xS may be too strong, so the 4xS value would be good for those, as its still better than the ussual modes in many cases. Though I believe sombody here with a 7800GTX said he can use 8xS without issue.

I'll stay with ATI ;-)Regards, Gerrit Kranenbarg

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http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/forum_images/pfe_team.jpg

To add some more info, the graphics board doesn't mean much to FSX. I upgraded my system to C2Duo E6850 on Gigabyte P35C-DS3R, 4G PC6400 but i hadn't money left for a new graphics board. So i'm still using my Asus EAX850, 256 Mb ATI card. It runs just fine on 1600x1200-75Hz, frames varying from 10 to over 100 with water at 1x high, 60% airtraffic and 30% ground and water traffic. Other sliders maxed except autogen, it accepts dense as the maximum possible. Any higher and i get spikes and other graphic deformations. Ah well, you can't have it all with that card.Regards, Gerrit Kranenbarg

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http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/forum_images/pfe_team.jpg

I tried it on my 8600GTS 256MB card and indeed, 8XS looks better than my usual 4X standard, with no performance impact. I do notice that the temperature of the video card went up 5 degrees, but that is fine, I paid for the darn thing so it may as well do some real work !Great find !

I can confirm that your settings option works. I did the same testing too. My nhancer had FSX profile and miscrosoft simulator x profile which was disabled. I used global and FSX profile and everytime I changed global profile it worked but FSX profile did not worked. The only way to know this is that when you make any changes to your global profile, just go back to your FSX and switch between window mode and full mode. Also do not use window mode, just adjust the window mode you will get more FPS.I have 8800 GTS with latest driver 169.25 Vista.Burakhttp://www.flythy.com/images/banner.jpg

Here are some screenshots to show the differences. These are all cropped examples and enlarged 200% in Photoshop: NOT bicubic to keep the pixels visible! So this is exactly what you see if you would view the original picture at 200%. If you download them and switch between them in Windows Viewer you will see the differences even more clear, but I think even looking at them side by side makes it clear Supersampling 8xS is a LOT better! Trees are more trees instead of groups of pixels, the lines from the glider are really lines, the windows in the building suddenly all look alike, water has more detail, etc. etc. Another thing I noticed is that with Supersampling 8xS you will see more autogen in the disctance: specially trees (though very tiny) show up earlier. Just switch between the examples and you will see what I mean. The difference is small but clear.The only (small) drawback is that text (like when slewing) looks a bit less clear, but I certainly can live with that. After testing this there is absolutely no way back for me! Supersampling 8xS all the way! Remember you can only choose this mode with nHancer!Treeshttp://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/TreesCS8x.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/Trees8xS.jpgGliderhttp://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/GliderCS8x.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/Glider8xS.jpgBuilding (windows!)http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/Jva...uildingCS8x.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/Building8xS.jpgWaterhttp://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/WaterCS8x.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/Water8xS.jpgTrees in the distancehttp://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/Jva...istanceCS8x.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b302/JvanE/Distance8xS.jpgBTW I wonder if the FSAA problem I discovered (that only the Global settings work) also goes for older drivers. Did anyone check that?

I cannot thank you enough! Thank YOU Thank YOU Thank YOU Thank YOU!Absolute night and day difference after changing the Global AA to 8Xs settings. I had my FPS set to unlimited, and couldn't believe I was getting 50 to 70 FPS with my original "medium" settings. I then deleted my FSX.cfg file and let FSX build a new one, just to see where FSX would place the settings automatically. In the main settings window, EVERYTHING was set to the right. I could not believe the difference. Flying is smooth now. The Autogen trees, buildings, roads, and AI traffic are crystal clear in focus. However the terrain is still "Quilt-patch" blurry at ground level, and doesn't really look good till about 1000 feet in the air. Wish I could get the ground to look as clear as the trees and buildings sitting right there on top of it...but thats a different issue. I'm just extremely happy to have smooth flight with IMO nice scenery. Thanks again for the tip.

The problem with mutlisampling, which is essentially what coverage sampling is, is that it doesn't work to well on aircraft lettering and lines. Fortunatly supersampling does. Of course even 8xS Supersampling is superior to 16x Coverage Sampling.These shots are 1:1 so you can see the in game difference. http://sio.midco.net/FTP4/16xcoverage.jpg http://sio.midco.net/FTP4/8xssuper.jpgTo bad we can't just use 4x Supersampling, though I'd be interested to know if 8800GTX SLI can handle it. People have claimed SLI does not work in FSX, but testing with 4x Supersampling would be a sure way to find out. http://sio.midco.net/FTP4/4xsuper.jpg

Well, I didn't know this would actually IMPROVE fps, but I am happy for ya! ;)BTW Thanks to David Roch (here on Avsim) and NickN (from simforums and the simviation forum) for pointing me into the right direction: they told me 8xS was nicer...! I only did some testing, really... (Although my main reason for this topic was the fact that FSAA in the profile doesn't work with the 8800GTX, 169.25, DX9 and Vista...)(Happy now, NickN? :( ;) Just kidding ya!)

Try testing with 16xS. So far I haven't seen a performance hit with it, and I run at 1600x1200. In the Dundee UK area seen in the 1:1 crop I stayed pegged at 27fps the entire time, even over the city, and that's with all scenery sliders maxed using very dense autogen and mid 2.x water. I even flew over London at 25fps and up. My card is overclocked, but I only had it up to 620/2000 for the tests.

Hi,I've got a new machine with Vista 32 and it includes a NVidia Control Panel. If I install and use NHancer does it override the control panel or do I have to disable the control panel some how?If so, how would I do that. Just want to be sure of which is doing the controlling - either Nhancer or the existing NVidia control panel.Thanks.Jim

nHancer will override the nVidia control panel: there is you nothing you have to do. Actually, everything you change in nHancer will also be changed when you open de nVidia panel: when you choose 8xS the nVidia panel will show 'custom', since it is a setting the control panel doesn't offer.

Thanks for the info.Jim