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Rene Scharlach

Please help me understand Anti-Aliasing

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Maybe someone can help me understand the Anti-Aliasing settings. There are four points where I can change them:

 

(1) The Anti-Alias Checkbox in FSX (I am flying Steam Edition)

(2) The AA settings in the DX10 Switcher (I am flying DX10)

(3) The program settings in the NVIDIA System Settings (under the program "fsx.exe")

(4) The NVIDIA Profile Inspector (I have it and use it)

 

Right now, I am trying to override the application settings with something that looks like Supersampling 4x. To do that I created a new profile in the inspector and selected "Override Application Settings", "4x4 Supersampling (D3D only)", "Enabled Transparency", "4x Supersampling" in AA Transperancy Settings. I applied the changes, and the NVIDIA system settings reflect this, I think.

 

However, if I change anything in this profile, it does not make a visible difference. The AA check in FSX does however. If I disable it I get no anti-aliasing. What is happening?

 

Rene

 

Update: I have set it to "4x4 Sparse Grid Supersampling (D3D only)" which looks really good. But still, I have to enable AA in FSX to get it working, Why does it not override this settings as I want?

 

Another question: Is it possible to change the settings on the fly? The AMD driver does restart when I go to full screen and back. But not so the NVIDIA.

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The technical background section which can be found as the last two pages in chapter 6 of the manual describes it.

 

In most games overriding does not work in dx10 onwards and fsx is no exception.

 

Forget anything you know about aa in dx9. For dx10 the base aa level is defined in fsx.cfg based on the antialias flag and a couple of MultiSample entries that define the number of samples and quality.

 

You can setup these settings either by editing fsx.cfg or by editing just the multisample entries and using the tick box in fsx settings.

 

As a convenience dx10 controller lets you see what the current settings mean by showing what they would have been described as in Nvidia inspector in the antialias setting field. The dx10 controller also lets you select a different antialias level using the Nvidia names and it will write the appropriate settings into fsx.cfg.

 

The only form of super sampling supported is sgssaa. The requires the base aa samples so you can only select the value which matches your multisampling setting as in the table in chapter 6. This you set in Nvidia inspector.

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Thanks for that answer, Steve. I should have checked the manual of the DX10 Fixer. It explains everything.

 

So as a final summary I stick with Sparse Grid Super Sampling, because I like the way the displays in the cockpit look. I cannot stand the flicker and shimmering lines of anything below it. The downside seems to be that clouds cost a lot of frames.

 

Thanks again

 

Rene

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As an AMD user, what is my best option? I use 4x EQ in the fixer but it still looks not that great. Also tried to override with Crimson (AMD software) to supersampling but also no luck...

 

Can I change some things in Crimson or just go for 8x or 8x EQ?

 

Thanks!

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Try setting supersampling on in the global profile - there have been various issues with profiles not working properly in Crimson of late. 

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Ok thanks Steve I will try it. I must say that the performance is very smooth now with 4xeq. Steady 30fps with PMDG! Curious how the performance is with supersampling (if it works). I'll let you know!

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You are a GENIUS Steve! I totally worked!! I use 4x in the fixer and supersampling in Crimson. Looks great now! And suprisingly no difference in performance! I was stunned.

Also the bloom effects in dx10 have almost no fps hit. Beautiful sunsets with bloom enabled.

 

Thanks for your great work!

 

P.S. Can it have something to do with the fact that I run FSX standard as administrator in combination with Crimson profile?

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I dont know to be honest. When I saw your post I tried my test pc with an AMD card and found it wasn't working either until I tried the global profile, it always used to work ok with catalyst.

 

Google shows lots of complaints from other games about crimson and profiles not working, but you cannot tell whether that represents a minority or not. They seemed to work ok in dx9, it's very odd.

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Yeah it's very strange... Now I have to change settings everytime I switch games. But it's worth it :)

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