Anisotropic filtering

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Ok, I've just installed my new GeForce 3 Ti 200 graphics card. I have set anti-aliasing to 4xS using Riva Tuner, and forced anisotropic filtering to level 8. The problem here is that I don't believe that the anisotropic filtering is working. I took the screenshot below for a different reason, but you can clearly see that the textures look too blurred in the near distance, and I was expecting this to have been sorted out.Can anyone help me here ? The anti aliasing seems to have reduced the texture shimmering even further than my old GeForce 2 GTS with 2xFSAA, but I really want to sharpen up those distant textures.Also, what other aspects of Riva Tuner should I be looking at ? There is something called LOD bias adjustment, but I don't know if I should change this or not. I am aware that LOD is short for LEVEL OF DETAIL.Best Wishes,Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest Staggerwing]

Chris,I don't use Geforce card but I do have LOD controls and they DO make a big difference in what you see.. they can also impact FPS with more detail.Just record where it is set as default and experiment with it a bit. Save some time and just go to both extremes and you will get the idea real quick.Staggerwing

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Staggerwing,I tried setting the LOD bias adjustment to the opposite extremes..........and I failed to see ANY difference whatsoever ! In fact, nothing seems to make a difference. Is there anything that I'm missing here ?Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Naji 5]

Hi, Chris. In Windows Display options, if you go to Advanced settings, in your new driver tab, go to Direct3D; you should have Mipmap Detail Level, set it to Best Image Quality. On my setup, before I did that, I tried all settings in NVmax (like RivaTuner) and still the quality in FU3 was bad. Then, only by chance, when I put the above option, it made a huge difference in FU3 and FS2002.See if it works for you.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Naji,It's already set at Best Image Quality !When I'm flying, the close textures change from blurred to clear like they do with BILINEAR filtering. This isn't what should be expected with anisotropic filtering. The textures are supposed to be sharp to a considerable distance. Am I right ?Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Naji,Another point to consider here is that my framerates haven't changed AT ALL ! This surely can't be right with anisotropic filtering forced to level 8 ?This just convinces me that it isn't working, and that really p***** me off.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Having experimented wil all anti aliasing settings, it would seem that 4xS is the only half decent setting for GeForce cards. This form of anti aliasing is apparently advertised for GeForce 4 cards, but is an undocumented feature of GeForce 3 cards (I can only access it through RivaTuner). Is this true ?Chris Low,ENGLAND.PS. If someone can solve my problem with anisotropic filtering, then I would be VERY grateful. No, no..........not THAT grateful :-lol

[Guest twsimfan]

Chris,First I gotta tell you that this pic has far better clarity than any pic I have seen you post before. Looks great! Your lack of detail in the distance may be a factor of your FU3 settings?? I may have to look in to a GeForce 3 or 4 on the basis of this pic... how about a few more to help me judge? (please) How do your panels look?When I went from the V3 to my current V5 my fps soon went way down... but that was a result of my cranking all the FU3 detail to max... couldn't resist with the AA and all!I repeat... I think your pic looks really good! :)

[Guest PaulL01]

>Ok, I've just installed my new GeForce 3 Ti 200 graphics >card. I have set anti-aliasing to 4xS using Riva Tuner, and >forced anisotropic filtering to level 8. The problem here is >that I don't believe that the anisotropic filtering is >working. I took the screenshot below for a different reason, >but you can clearly see that the textures look too blurred >in the near distance, and I was expecting this to have been >sorted out. >>Can anyone help me here ? The anti aliasing seems to have >reduced the texture shimmering even further than my old >GeForce 2 GTS with 2xFSAA, but I really want to sharpen up >those distant textures. >>Also, what other aspects of Riva Tuner should I be looking >at ? There is something called LOD bias adjustment, but I >don't know if I should change this or not. I am aware that >LOD is short for LEVEL OF DETAIL. >>Best Wishes, >>Chris Low, >ENGLAND.Hi Chris,Since you have just recently installed your GF3 I can only assume that you are using drivers newer than 23.10's if that is the case you cannot access Lod bias adjustment any finer than LOD 0 which is what "best image quality" driver settings will give you. To enable finer negative LOD values you will have to run the LOD bias script patch that is available in RVtuner under the power user tab you will see an icon of a folder with a gear on it, open it and go to patch scripts/Nvidia and then pick according to your OS, read the instructions, you will need to place the xxxxx.dll in a temp directory, run the patch and then copy the patched xxxxx.dll into the system directory while in safe mode. You then will be able to use negative LOD vales. :)As for GF3 settings the best settings I can recommend are a LOD of -0.3 at 32tap(level4) Aniso with Quincunx AA but be warned the more you ask of the card the slower she gets! :)Take Care,

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Paul,Does this mean that changing the current values of anisotropic filtering and LOD bias adjustment directly in RivaTuner are currently not doing anything ? I assume that this must be the case, because neither the framerate nor image quality changes at all. Only the 4xS anti aliasing seems to reduce texture shimmering.Best Wishes, and respond soon !Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

.......oh, and I'm using the Detonator XP 29.42 drivers.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Paul,The instructions for the LODbiasfix patch script aren't very clear. Can you describe EXACTLY what I have to do to run it ?Best Wishes,Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest PaulL01]

>Paul, >>The instructions for the LODbiasfix patch script aren't very >clear. Can you describe EXACTLY what I have to do to run it >? >>Best Wishes, >>Chris Low, >ENGLAND. Sorry to get back to you so late Chris. Here is what to do:First go into your winows/system folder and search for the nvdd32.dll file and then copy it to a temptorary folder, now run the "LODbiasfix" script from RVtuner (pick out the script according to what OS you have, you'll see once your there..) and when it ask you where the "drivers" are just point it to the temp folder that you saved the dll in, now run the script, and then boot into safe mode and copy the updated "fixed" nvdd32.dll from the temp folder into your system folder and reboot to normal mode. Your negastive LOD values will now work.As far as aniso goes that is already fully adjustable....as I type this it is finally dawning on me....err is FU a D3D, OGL or glide game? Doh!!!???

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Paul,If the anisotropic filtering is fully adjustable, why isn't it working ?Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Paul,The procedure isn't working properly. It is telling me that the patch hasn't been executed properly. What's wrong ?Chris Low,ENGLAND.