Awful AA in P3D v3

[tiberiusrr 0]

Here is something I also found out, I deleted Inspector from PC. Went back in game...still the same AA 4x in sim and same as inspector 4x???. Its sticks, you have to go into your normal Nvidia setting panel and reset that or it will carry on using the last setting you had in Inspector. Something to take note of.

 

... because NI is only an editor for the "ini settings" of the gpu.

 

and

 

you can easily reset the settings back to nvidia standard settings - an "undo" if you want - by just clicking the button in NI - easy as cakeeating...

[AviatorMoser 353]

I'm getting poor AA performance in overcast conditions even without SGSAA

 

I have to resort to SMAA injection via SweetFX. I will need a stronger GPU, despite using SGSAA and 8X AA without problem and with splendid image quality in FSX:SE. That's the nature of diverging code bases, I guess. One performs and looks great, and the other.....not so much when the AA truly is awful.

[SteveW 1,792]

I've been testing v3 AA on my GTX680+3960x and the latest NVidia driver, among my findings I’m pleased to see TSSAA is working, that is the non sparse grid transparency supersampling modes. This bodes well as implies better overall handling of the GPU AA modes.

P3D 2xMSAA AA quality alone shows as obviously worse than P3D 2xMSAA with NI 2xTSSAA (or 2xTSGSSAA) combined.

Override always performed better than App controlled, or Enhanced, with no better fps, but less dropouts, and a more stable frame rate overall. App controlled actually often hit’s a few higher peaks than Override by a few fps but spoiled by worst for dropouts and instability.

Only the NI AA Transparency section, SSAA, and SGSSAA, made any changes to the image quality, but then only when it is set to the P3D MSAA setting. If I choose any other MSAA setting in P3D, that setting overrides any setting I made in NI.

 

No visual changes could be detected whatever settings I make in the AA section other than changing the Transparency AA value to the multiple of MSAA selected in P3D. Making changes to the “Antialiasing – Setting” value made no obvious differences that could be seen on screen. Introducing the Transparency values with NI showed a greater decrease in performance than simply applying larger MSAA samples, but actually usefully improved AA image quality.

With the stock B58 I found P3D 2xMSAA with NI 2xTSSAA OK, but P3D 4xMSAA with NI 4xTSSAA smoother looking although with a fair hit on fps. With stock plane and scenery I found TSSAA enough, but with some instruments, planes, and scenery the sparse grid setting may be required.

PC Win10 GTX680+3960x 6 core Intel with HT enabled, P3D v3 AM=980=(00,11,11,01,01,00).

[Christopher Low 5,332]

 

Only the NI AA Transparency section, SSAA, and SGSSAA, made any changes to the image quality, but then only when it is set to the P3D MSAA setting.

 

Does that still apply if you use "Enhance the Application Setting"?

[SolRayz 392]

I simply run 4xMSAA in game and 4xSGSS in NI. Like many have preached, those settings are very good until heavy cloud layers. In that case, I simply drop to 2XMSAA in game, and fps is usally stable through clouds. I usually dont get much shimmering during flight. Most shimmering comes from runway lines anyways.

 

Also, not sure if we are over stressing our cards, but I find 4xSGSS usually pegs my GTX970 at 99% GPU utilization. With no SGSS, it fluctuates between 40-60%.

[Nyxx 6,993]

Also, not sure if we are over stressing our cards, but I find 4xSGSS usually pegs my GTX970 at 99% GPU utilization. With no SGSS, it fluctuates between 40-60%.

No wonder a 780 hates 4x with clouds/fog

[pincopanco 5]

I simply run 4xMSAA in game and 4xSGSS in NI. ... Most shimmering comes from runway lines anyways.

 

 

Me too and I do not understand why this setting in NI worked perfectly in FSX and in old P3D 1.4, while it is not sufficient in P3D v2.x and v3.

[Christopher Low 5,332]

CYNICAL MODE ON

 

Probably for the same reason why the water in P3D never looks as good as it did in FSX. In other words, LM switched off something that they thought was not required.

 

CYNICAL MODE OFF

[SteveW 1,792]

Does that still apply if you use "Enhance the Application Setting"?

No amount of fiddling with "Antialiasing - Mode" would promote any differences with the "Antialiasing - Setting" value chosen. On my system, only the MSAA image quality is displayed. The only time the image quality improves is when the "Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling" multiple matches the MSAA multiple.

 

I would expect when SolRayz sets 2xMSAA in game from 4x, the 4x supersampling applied by NI is dropped, and in game quality shows as 2xMSAA alone. This is what my system does. Without supersampling applied, the rendering performance improves.

 

When we choose a Super Sampling mode that works, it's equivalent to taking the samples from a source image bigger than the screen area. That's why there's a marked decrease in performance when we add SS.

[SteveW 1,792]

 

Problems come from changing the aircraft from the B58 to the A36, with the Carenado AA looks bad. Now we *need* to use the "Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling" Sparse Grid mode or we'll just not get good AA. As I said, with certain types of aircraft and scenery we need to add sparse grid supersampling with P3D DX11, and FSX DX10.

[kmagelie 6]

Steve, could the reason that the A36 exhibits worse AA than the B58 be that the textures are not mipmapped?

[mmann 72]

Me too and I do not understand why this setting in NI worked perfectly in FSX and in old P3D 1.4, while it is not sufficient in P3D v2.x and v3.

 

Which probably explains why I spend 99% of my time in FSX and P3Dv3 mainly just sits there taking up hard drive space! :sad2:

[SteveW 1,792]

Steve, could the reason that the A36 exhibits worse AA than the B58 be that the textures are not mipmapped?

It's something to do with the texture scale. If I go back turn off sparse grid setting in NI, the VC looks bad except for yoke. I have mipmapped VC panels checked, and when I uncheck, the yoke becomes poorly AA'd like the rest of the VC. Still needs sparse grid to produce smooth VC in the A36.

[Dazkent 113]

I find 4xSGSS looks the best with my 770 2GB card. Its just a shame that the AA does not look as good as FSX, I was hoping that this would be improved in V3 from V2.5. If the only way to improve the AA is to get a card like the 980 then that is a lot of money and its putting me off from investing in P3D as my future sim.

 

I am not sure why its as bad as it is, am guessing somehing to do with DX11 or non full screen mode?

[SteveW 1,792]

I find 4xSGSS looks the best with my 770 2GB card. Its just a shame that the AA does not look as good as FSX, I was hoping that this would be improved in V3 from V2.5. If the only way to improve the AA is to get a card like the 980 then that is a lot of money and its putting me off from investing in P3D as my future sim.

 

I am not sure why its as bad as it is, am guessing somehing to do with DX11 or non full screen mode?

With FSX DX9 all the objects are drawn into the image at the same scale. The anti-aliased edges contain an amount of transparency to merge their edge colour with the edge colour of the slot where the object is painted in. With DX10 and DX11 the AA is processed in a different way. Some models scaling present edge pixels that can't be AA'd unless at a bigger scale than can be presented. We can move the camera toward the A36 VC to within a few inches away and AA is fine.