Okay, yet another dug777 Farcry Nvidia issue :P Two screenshots to compare from Rage3d review of the x1900xtx...

[dug777]

Apparently the settings are the same, but the water and reflections look totally different (especially as you move off into the background), and the rocks in the 7800 screenshot seem blurrier in the distance...

You conspiracy nuts will say that the settings must be different, but they would then favour the 7800GTX 512 in terms of fps if that was the case, as it looks like dodgy filtering to me...

from this page: http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/atix1900/index.php?p=7

The actual pics;

http://www.rage3d.com/image.php?pic=/re...00xtx.jpg&comment=Far%20Cry%20X1900XTX

http://www.rage3d.com/image.php?pic=/re...800gtx.jpg&comment=Far%20Cry%207800GTX[/quote]

I will remind you i'm very happy with my 6600GT, and am planning on grabbing a 6800GS as my next upgrade, before you all start screaming at me for being in bed with ATI

I'm just a huge fan of Farcry (especially with the HAWT 64-bit extended content pack, massive draw distance, offset bump mapping, increased vegitation and birds/insects/fish for minimal fps hit>*) and so i take a keen interest in how cards render it in reviews


Here's a reminder of how it looks with the extended content pack (on my ancient 32bit OS/AXp/6600GT)...

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dug777/ECU5.jpg

EDIT: wtf, my water is the same as the x1900xtx in that shot, maybe it's a driver issue, or a 7800 driver specific bug...

My screenshots were taken a while back...(mid/late december it seems) so maybe it's a newer driver problem...

We need some comparative screen shots from people now with current drivers and 7800/x1800/x1900s



EDIT: so what's going on, is it just an unpatched version of farcry? Ideas?

EDIT2: I'm confused Help!

 

[CP5670]

Your links aren't working, but if the water looks messed up they just forgot to patch the game. I remember the original version had some issues with the water on 6800 cards, but it was fixed in one of the patches.

 

[fierydemise]

but Dug remember ATI cards can't render sacrifice correctly.

 

[dug777]

 

[imported_thefonz]

The pictures of the GTX have crap AA look at the rocks near the waters edge and at the tip of the mountain?

Are the pictures with the same settings on, like 4AA 16AF or something?

Also the ATI picture looks alot more crisp then the NV to me atleast

Anyone else notice this?


Edit: The gun looks aliased on the GTX photo and the shadows seem darker as well

Check out the Shadow's on the birds wings also as they look terrible on the GTX

 

[rise]

first time i saw those pics i wasn'tt sure those were even birds in the gtx pic

as for the water, wasn't there similar comparison screenies with hl2 that had opposite effect in regards to the water? i remember some screenies looking through a fence where the water on the ati card looked like hell. but maybe that was a driver issue fixed already?

 

[SpeedZealot369]

x1900xtx kicks @$$

 

[otispunkmeyer]

this the one where the water on the ATI card kinda looks sparkly, and the water on the NV card looks like a reflection thats been smeared?

neither of them look any good, the ATI one looked too, bittty or graininy....it kinda detracted from the scene coz it looked rather ugly ie like a nasty sweater with too many tiny jazzy colours going on

on the NV card it looked really really bland and abit poor mans.....only guessing here since rage seems to not be working.

what we really need is water like whats gonna be in the 360 version of this game!

 

[M0RPH]

Yikes, there's some nasty aliasing on the 7800GTX image, right at the bottom of the rocks where they meet the sand.

In fact there's lots of aliasing throughout the whole image. I wonder if they forgot to turn on AA for that shot?

 

[BFG10K]

Make sure both cards are running Ultra Qualty water.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

ahh pics work now! cool

right

yep its as i thought, both water renderings look horrible to me, ATI has too much going on, Nv has too little going on. theres some horrible aliasing goin on with the Nvidia card on some of the rocks, almost like theres no AA running, but i think at the waters edge the Aliasing is more apparent because of the sheer lack of detail in the water. ATI's card could have similar aliasing at the waters edge but its hard to tell because the waters overly detailed/ has too much goin on.

other than the horrible water on both cards, and some nasty aa on the NV card, they both look comparable to me

 

[BFG10K]

Something is definitely wrong with the nVidia screenshot. I've just tried mine and it looks like the ATi screenshot (7800GT, 81.98 drivers). I have visible ripples in the second lagoon while the nVidia screenshot shows none.

I suspect Ultra Quality water is not being used in the game for the nVidia card and is instead at a lower setting.

 

[Sc4freak]

There also seems to be some kind of shadowing problem - look at the shadow of the palm tree on the hut and the shadows on the ground above to the hut. Not to mention the terrible AA - it seems as if no AA is being applied at all in some areas.

To me, neither of the water shots looks right. The X1900XTX shot is too busy, while the 7800GTX shot is too blurred.

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Something is definitely wrong with the nVidia screenshot. I've just tried mine and it looks like the ATi screenshot (7800GT, 81.98 drivers). I have visible ripples in the second lagoon while the nVidia screenshot shows none.

I suspect Ultra Quality water is not being used in the game for the nVidia card and is instead at a lower setting.

I very much doubt that.
Rage3D would not make a mistake of that nature.

Can you post the screenshot of what you are talking about?

Thanks

 

[Gstanfor]

Never mind the water issue (which is a non issue - the tester stuffed his/her settings up), check out the trees in the background.

As you get further into the background the ATi screenshot resembles an impressionist watercolor more and more, whereas the 7800 has far more detail present.

It is something that has been brought up several times in the past (not necessarily on this forum), and is something I don't like about ATi cards - the picture quality is too "smoothed out" or over processed (mafia is good game to compare screenshots where you will see similar things going on). How anyone can call the ATi screen shot "quality rendering", let alone "superior" to nVidia, I'll never know...

 

[Malladine]

The water looks better on the 7800gtx to me. The 1900xtx does a better job of the rocks though. Plants appear to be the same, more or less.

There's definately too much going on with the water on the ATI card imo.

anti-aliasing appears superior on the ati card.

Also, look at the palm shadow on the hut in the foreground. On the ATI card I can see part of the hut texture/colour through the shadow, like translucent shadowing or something. Darker on the nvidia.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
Never mind the water issue (which is a non issue - the tester stuffed his/her settings up), check out the trees in the background.

As you get further into the background the ATi screenshot resembles an impressionist watercolor more and more, whereas the 7800 has far more detail present.

It is something that has been brought up several times in the past (not necessarily on this forum), and is something I don't like about ATi cards - the picture quality is too "smoothed out" or over processed (mafia is good game to compare screenshots where you will see similar things going on). How anyone can call the ATi screen shot "quality rendering", let alone "superior" to nVidia, I'll never know...

? As i see it the hut roof texture is smoother and less sharp on the nvidia card. The rock in the middle background textures are filtered as sharply in the middle ground and it looks like the nv card has 0xaa on. Aslo the ati card has rougher, almost unrealistic rough waters(the water patterns seems repeating, not randomized) while the nv card has almost unrealistic smooth waters.

as for the palm tree shadow on the roof of the hut, the ati card does well noticing that a bunch of leaves is not the same in blocking light as a solid wall and lets some spots of light through to simulate the gaps between leaves. The nvidia card treats the leaves as a giant solid brick wall.

as for the background bioth shots are identical except i'm really thinking the nvidia shot was taken without aa.

personally I prefer nvidia's water to ati's water due to the more random looking nature. ATI's water looks like a repeating pattern of tiles of water.

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
personally I prefer nvidia's water to ati's water due to the more random looking nature. ATI's water looks like a repeating pattern of tiles of water.

Yeah, can't stand that.

 

[imported_Finny]

Okay, methinks that the 7800GTX512 is NOT on the higher quality setting, and lacks AA.

1. Look at the mountain edges- ATI may have a better AA method, but it wouldn't be THAT noticable from another card. The GTX doesn't look like it has any AA at all!

2. I think that the GTX's reflections do look better. They may not be as "busy" as the ones on the 1900XT are, but I don't think that they should to begin with....

3. Look at the planks on the little dock by the water. Notice how detailed the planks are on the ATI card, and then how blurry they are on the GTX. It's like they're on a completely different quality setting!

A fair comparison my ass...

 

[stelleg151]

Good lord farcry is bueatiful. Talk about a game that scales well with improving hardware....

 

[Munky]

I just examined the sceenshot, and so far i can tell that:
1. Ati has AAA enabled, but Nv does not have TRAA enabled
2. Ati has MSAA enabled and Nv does not
3. Nv is using lower quality water - not only apparent by the reflections, but also the water edges
4. Ati is rendering the vegetation with slightly more light reflections
5. Ati has soft shadows and Nv has hard shadows

Also, whoever said Nv has more detail in the distant trees - that's caused by aliasing, not extra detail. Just like a point-sampled texture seen at an angle from a distance seems "crisper" than a filtered one, but again, it's only an illusion due to aliasing and lack of filtering. In this case, it's caused by lack of TRAA.

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: dug777

I'm just a huge fan of Farcry (especially with the HAWT 64-bit extended content pack, massive draw distance, offset bump mapping, increased vegitation and birds/insects/fish for minimal fps hit>*) and so i take a keen interest in how cards render it in reviews

No kidding! Thanks again for pointing us to that amd64 patch hack. Looked fantastic on my p2.4c! Farcry is still one of my most favorite games and I still think the best graphics yet. I really wish others would use this engine. As for the differences in rendering - both look darn good to me - but I would like to see actual game footage. :beer:

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Seems the reviewer has an agenda, or he's a complete moron. Take your pick.

Either way, that's a pretty piss poor thing to do.

 

[Janooo]

If HDR is enabled on GTX then AA is not available. Is it right?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Janooo
If HDR is enabled on GTX then AA is not available. Is it right?

dosent look like hdr is enabled though.