I have never had a problem with 8xS AA "softening the edges" in DX9 mode. It looks a lot better than clear, sharp graphics that highlight any texture blemishes or inaccuracies.

 

To be clear, when I talked about my issues with AA in DX9 through NI giving a fuzzy look I'm not talking about the edges of things  I'm talking about the whole overall view looks fuzzy (slightly out of focus).  I see it ALL the time in screenshots around the forums as well.  I think people just don't pick up on details like that.  I do a lot of photo editing as an amateur photographer and am a nut for detail so I pick up when things are not totally "in focus".

I guess I just prefer "soft focus" to "shimmering textures".

So can tough use SweetFX with DX10 of not? If you can are there any special settings you need to do?

 

Yes, you can use SweetFX with DX10.

Just downloads - "SweetFX Configurator" here: 

 

http://sweetfx.thelazy.net/?p=91

 

 

 

• More flexible SweetFX install / game launch settings
• Option to import or export presets under “Save / Load configuration” – You can also just drag’n'drop preset text files to the list to import them.

For more info:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/389455-have-any-of-you-tried-this-sweetfx/

Having seen so many posts for the DX10 after the release of the DX10 fixer, I devided to do a test between P3D DX9 and FSX DX10. 

I haven't installed the famous DX10 fixer, but I have installed the latest patch uploaded in avsim library and also completed all tasks reading the 'how-to-do-doc'.

I have a pretty good system, i5 3570K overclocked to 4.4Ghz, 8Gb or ram, Samsung SSD and Asus Nvidia GTX660 GPU.

 

I used Heathrow Extreme, with FTX Global, LOD 4.5, same Display sliders on both systems.

For airplane I used the Aerosoft Airbus Extended A321.

 

I also use OpusFSX with TrackIR and REX textures.

 

My results:

 

1) P3D was smooth with some microshuters. FSX DX10, a little smoother (+5-10%) but also had microshutters both on the ground and in the air. 

 

2) No Cockpit shadows for the Aerosoft Extended.

 

3) If 'aircraft casts shadows on itself' is selected, btriangular external shadows on the plane's fuselage.

 

4) When looking at the airport from a distance I was seeing white ittle pixels poping out from the scenery's buildings/poles corners.

 

5) Colors more washed out.

 

6) Generaly lower quality image, PFD screens lower resolution, external model lower AA quality etc..

 

All in all, a bad visual expirience compated to P3D. But let's say I can start tweaking the nvidia inspector with various AA settings and buying Steve's Fix to reduce the visual artifacts.

 

While many advertise the DX10 as a 'butter smooth' experience, I get many micro shutters in London, I have no shadows in VC in the add-on aircraft I use and I get a lower quality image. Really what's the point of doing such a mesh to my beautifly running P3D with crystal clear graphics, smooth FPS plus the ENB tweak that really takes the visuals in another level. I don't see any reason. Given the problems in some airports I read from others, I'm sticking with DX9 P3D.

 

Everyones experience is different I guess. Nothing wrong with that. I have side by sided them many times and there are minor differences. I get slightly smooth experience in the FPS department in DX10 and no one can tell me or anyone else that claims that differently. Stick with what works best for you.

 

As for colors I have dozens of SAVED FLIGHT screenshots using DX9/10 side by sides which I did myself and they are identical in contrast and coloration. Not sure if, in your case, it's a P3D versus FSX thing as I do not have P3D.

 

As for white dots in some scenery. I concure. There is a texture thing happening I have sent in to Steve on SOME small poles and powerlines in ORBX scenery. Could be elsewhere. We all know.... Missing textures might display as white or grey. Hopefully he can track it down. Drives me nuts.

 

Why get DX10? Don't if you don't want to. But your experience wont necessarily mirror someone elses. Period.

 

My expreince... On an ATI 7000 series video card... I get less shimmer when I use 4xSSAA in DX10 in small detail edges at a distance. The shimmers were never bad per se. But under certain conditions and depending on where the light is comming from, I might get a little in DX9. Less so on DX10. I also seem smoother in heavier cloud cover scenarios. Drilling holes in 2000 foot thick 100% density Overcast Clouds in my JS41, TrackIR panning remains smoother than in DX9 for me.

 

Things like that. So many angles to consider. We all have different needs.

 

Charles.

I agree of course. If in your system DX10 runs better and it is in your liking there is no question. Everyone runs what serve his needs better.

To be clear, when I talked about my issues with AA in DX9 through NI giving a fuzzy look I'm not talking about the edges of things  I'm talking about the whole overall view looks fuzzy (slightly out of focus).  I see it ALL the time in screenshots around the forums as well.  I think people just don't pick up on details like that.  I do a lot of photo editing as an amateur photographer and am a nut for detail so I pick up when things are not totally "in focus".

 

True that.

 

Appreciate the comments from the photographers eye, completely understand the critique, bit of an amateur shooter myself, enjoying low-light shooting with a Nex-5n and some fast primes, lots of fun.

 

However what the pixs don't show and only an in your face side by side comparison can help you with -is where it really counts:

 

- The in game experience; static shots can demonstrate only so much. 

 

As Christopher Low pointed out, its the whole package, things like cables, AG in the distance, small objects, trees etc - shouldn't be "crawling" and shimmering as it breaks the immersion factor, its a distraction from the virtual reality that's been created in our FS world.

 

How to smooth the aliasing while keeping the details, like good Aniso for FS, not all cards will use AF like FS needs: At all angles (flying or just mainly Horizontal first person shooter skewed or 45 degree shifts from Horizontal vs 360 degree AF computation) cutting corners on filtering can artificially make it appear there is more graphics power to do the T&L, the filtering and pushing the pixels - when in fact its providing less graphics image quality. 

 

So its a balancing act so to speak with settings and hardware, that's why for FSX you are usually better off with an NV card as ATI is not going to help get you there. Very difficult to get rid of the shimmering without some settings that effect you negatively down the line, heavy weather cloud draw issues,  hacking FSX shaders and all that crap vs the solid scene that can be managed easily with NV settings, which is a shame as ATI produces on average better hardware for the buck. They had a great driver team there in Canada for a while, but when AMD/ATI announced they would no longer support FSX it explained a lot.

 

So you can get there, its not perfect but with the right hardware and settings its pretty damn good.

The settings that are being suggested by those that have been in the FS business for a while, many of these guys know a thing or two about why you want this and that, trying to get that best rendered  solid looking scene while enjoying smooth flight with our state of the art hardware - shifting sand.... what ever is best for You then also comes into play, budget a zillion monitors running off two PC's etc.

 

Speaking of smooth and balanced, late last night I played around with 32xS AA, while trying fly the Drzewiecki Design New York City X, had to turn off scenery shadows, water down a tad and cutting auto traffic just to keep it flyable 16-22FPS, details were very solid looking, cable stays, AG everything.

 

Have a great week end.

True that.

 

Appreciate the comments from the photographers eye, completely understand the critique, bit of an amateur shooter myself, enjoying low-light shooting with a Nex-5n and some fast primes, lots of fun.

 

However what the pixs don't show and only an in your face side by side comparison can help you with -is where it really counts:

 

- The in game experience; static shots can demonstrate only so much. 

 

As Christopher Low pointed out, its the whole package, things like cables, AG in the distance, small objects, trees etc - shouldn't be "crawling" and shimmering as it breaks the immersion factor, its a distraction from the virtual reality that's been created in our FS world.

 

How to smooth the aliasing while keeping the details, like good Aniso for FS, not all cards will use AF like FS needs: At all angles (flying or just mainly Horizontal first person shooter skewed or 45 degree shifts from Horizontal vs 360 degree AF computation) cutting corners on filtering can artificially make it appear there is more graphics power to do the T&L, the filtering and pushing the pixels - when in fact its providing less graphics image quality. 

 

So its a balancing act so to speak with settings and hardware, that's why for FSX you are usually better off with an NV card as ATI is not going to help get you there. Very difficult to get rid of the shimmering without some settings that effect you negatively down the line, heavy weather cloud draw issues,  hacking FSX shaders and all that crap vs the solid scene that can be managed easily with NV settings, which is a shame as ATI produces on average better hardware for the buck. They had a great driver team there in Canada for a while, but when AMD/ATI announced they would no longer support FSX it explained a lot.

 

So you can get there, its not perfect but with the right hardware and settings its pretty damn good.

The settings that are being suggested by those that have been in the FS business for a while, many of these guys know a thing or two about why you want this and that, trying to get that best rendered  solid looking scene while enjoying smooth flight with our state of the art hardware - shifting sand.... what ever is best for You then also comes into play, budget a zillion monitors running off two PC's etc.

 

Speaking of smooth and balanced, late last night I played around with 32xS AA, while trying fly the Drzewiecki Design New York City X, had to turn off scenery shadows, water down a tad and cutting auto traffic just to keep it flyable 16-22FPS, details were very solid looking, cable stays, AG everything.

 

Have a great week end.

 

Said Pigs after 3 red bulls...

 

I am going to try 64xS 16xSGSS and 32AF because without that my reality is broken.

 

ROFLMAO. Thanks for the entertainment. 

 

Charles.

my reality is broken

 

Because of your choice to buy an ATI card for FSX?

 

Can you really chose 64xS in catalyst? I dont recall those settings being like that or available with my 7950.

 

Max for D3D DX9 on Kepler is 32xS Combined >  2x2 SS + 8x MS,  higher angle independent aniso would be nice with that - max 16x

 

What part of my post do you find so entertaining?

 

Isn't Red Bull for teenagers?

Because of your choice to buy an ATI card for FSX?

 

Can you really chose 64xS in catalyst? I dont recall those settings being like that or available with my 7950.

 

Max for D3D DX9 on Kepler is 32xS Combined >  2x2 SS + 8x MS,  higher angle independent aniso would be nice with that - max 16x

 

What part of my post do you find so entertaining?

 

Isn't Red Bull for teenagers?

 

It's all in good fun. I really do agree with you about IQ. I am a reformed IQ ###### myself from long before video cards were cool. Back to the Riva TNT days. In the present though, FSX (the way I fly it) forces me to lower my old standards a tick. There is NO WAY I can fly 8xS 4xSGSS in my bad weather scenarios in PMDG planes at the level of smoothness I need. I need 100% stutter free buttery smooth locked at 30 at all times in ORBX scenery in thick clouds using REX textures. That to me means dialing back the AA a tad. I can live with that.

 

Also just want to correct you on the ATI+Clouds thing. No longer an issue since a few drivers back and this last few gens. So anything 7870, 7950 and 7970 are just as good in the clouds as my 660ti Superclocked and my buddies old GTX580 and his GTX680. We tested extensively.

 

We tested using GPUMark for FSX and Kostas Cloud AA test. 3 layers of 8/8 clouds and my 7950 had better results than the GTX580 and my 660ti. My 7970 matches the GTX680 (At equivalent AA settings). This was wtih driver 13.4 and now it's 13.9 which I only started to test last night. Not sure when exactly the cloud issue went away (I remember it on my 4870) but it's not there now.

 

The highest AA on ATI is now 24xSSAA (8xAA+Edge Detect = 24 samples). When I was screenshotting into the wee hours with my ATI versus nVidia tests in FSX, I came to the conclusion that...

 

ATI to nVidia Compared

 

4xSSAA = 4xS+2xSGSS

not avai = 8xS+4xSGSS

8xSSAA = 8xS+4xSGSS

 

My only gripe is if ATI would allow me to force Edge Detect on 2xAA mode I would have 6xAA which would give that magic "in between" 6xSSAA when SS is enabled in the driver. Damn! That would be the answer to 8xS+2xSGSS.

 

Which brings me to DX10. forcing DX10 to go to 8xAA and enabling 4xSGSS in nVidia Inspector works as far as everyone I have spoken to is concerned. It gives you pretty close to the DX9 version of 8xS 4xSGSS so what would be wrong with that? Have you tried it? On clear days, I click DX9 in Steves tool. Bump the AA to 8xSSAA and geek out on the razor sharp AA. If I want to fly in FTXG areas (not ORBX regions) I go to 12xSSAA. 

 

Cool factor of Steves tool. Single click switching between 9 and 10. 

 

Charles.

 

 

Cool factor of Steves tool. Single click switching between 9 and 10.

 

Bit you still have to load profiles in Inspector, don't you? My Inspector profile for DX10 is quite different than the one for DX9! The Fixer doesn't take care of that afaik.

Bit you still have to load profiles in Inspector, don't you? My Inspector profile for DX10 is quite different than the one for DX9! The Fixer doesn't take care of that afaik.

Not sure. Test it? If an enabled feature in Inspector does not work in DX 10 is not simply ignored? Or are you changing the level of SGSS? That's the only thing I remember showing in dx10 was sgss. Does leaving your other crap enabled in Inspector cause an issue?

 

I no longer have it so I cant test it

 

C

 

 

I no longer have it so I cant test it

 

You don't longer have Inspector...? So you don't use SGSS...? But anyway, I don't feel the need to test it because I don't feel the need to switch between DX9 and DX10. It's my intention to stay with DX10 now. I was only thinking along to prevent possible problems for others. ^_^

You don't longer have Inspector...? So you don't use SGSS...? But anyway, I don't feel the need to test it because I don't feel the need to switch between DX9 and DX10. It's my intention to stay with DX10 now. I was only thinking along to prevent possible problems for others. ^_^

SGSS is transparency supersampling specific to Nvidia inspector and can be set independently of the multisampling setting . I run ATI so its just called super sample. its either on or off. 4, 8, 12 or 24 samples. MS or SS.

 

SG SS is the one thing I miss from having nvidia. otherwise I love the 7970. pretty sure inspector does not work with Radeon.

Charles,

 

Yes been there done that.

 

All I can say to you is that you clearly missed something in your testing if you think DX10 ATI is the same ro even close to DX9 NV 8xS with + 2xMS Alpha AA + Gamma Correction AA and 16x AF.

 

Or you are just fooling yourself.

 

And if you need more power a Haswell will get you there though what you have now is no slouch either.

 

Take care.

Charles,

 

Yes been there done that.

 

All I can say to you is that you clearly missed something in your testing if you think DX10 ATI is the same ro even close to DX9 NV 8xS with + 2xMS Alpha AA + Gamma Correction AA and 16x AF.

 

Or you are just fooling yourself.

 

And if you need more power a Haswell will get you there though what you have now is no slouch either.

 

Take care.

I think you misunderstood me. I was refering to ATI vs Nvidia testing that I did in DirectX 9. Comparing AA IQ.

 

You are correct that DirectX 9 8xS + 2xSGSS is a bit sharper than 8xS in DX10. I never said it wasn't. I guess my only point about that was it was basically more than good enough for most of us. And for people who need sharper than what I posted earlier ,you're going to have to stick with DirectX 9 and you better have yourself a real powerful card if you're going to flying in any bad weather at settings higher than that.

 

Can anybody tell me, does SGSS work in DX10 mode? I was under the impression that it did. Theres been a few people that told me it did.

 

C.