Something fishy with Antialiasing and X1900XT?

[xtknight]

Yeah I just tried it at 1280x1024 x16AA and it does it even on mine (certainly noticeable by anybody), just not to the same extent. With 4xAA and 1152x864 it's definitely understandable. I was going to make a q4 avidemo of it but realized it was worthless because Quake 4 downsamples it to [com_avidemowidth] x [com_avidemoheight] which were both 256 when I took mine and I didn't notice that until after I had waited for it to take all the screenshots...blah.

 

[Pete]

I think CatAI includes app-specific optimizations (eg, Humus' Doom 3 shader replacement) and fixes (eg, not allowing AA with PoP). I didn't realize it affected global IQ. I thought that was reserved for the texture, mip-map, AA, and AF sliders and checkboxes?

I think the problem there is just not enough resolution with too high contrast a section. (I mean, you're looking at essentially alternating light and dark lines basically a pixel high.) I think. (I'm trying to figure out why I see moire patterns in the aliasing, but that's probably a typical undersampling artifact.)

What happens without AA? With 6xAA? Can you take a screenshot with no, 2x, 4x, and 6x AA at the same spot (I guess by recording a demo of you just standing there for a minute) to see that AA is actually being applied?

What happens if you disable AF?

Oh, wait: CRT or LCD? It'd be odd if you were using a CRT, tho I think you are, b/c ATI's gamma "corrected" AA is supposed to be better tuned for CRTs, whereas NV's non-GC AA is supposed to look better on LCDs. I definitely see it with my CRT. Have you used a program or website to optimize your monitor settings (brightness, contrast, convergence)?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Pete
Oh, wait: CRT or LCD? It'd be odd if you were using a CRT, tho I think you are, b/c ATI's gamma "corrected" AA is supposed to be better tuned for CRTs, whereas NV's non-GC AA is supposed to look better on LCDs. I definitely see it with my CRT. Have you used a program or website to optimize your monitor settings (brightness, contrast, convergence)?

Yeah, why is it that the CRTs look better with AA (at least ATI's)? Is it covering up the defects in the algorithm due to the slight blurriness?

And maybe he only has multisampling on (AFAIK ATI has no FSAA supersampling mode). Perhaps that staircase isn't "marked" for MSAA or something (obviously a bug)??

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I have one, single question.

Tell me why you upgraded from such a great GPU, to a not that faster one ?

It looks like you still own your GTX, but, still ... why, just why ? Testing purposes ? Benchmarking ?

Just, ya know ... curious.

Errr, a X1900XT is a fair amount faster than a 7800GTX at some games, and if he ends up selling the GTX it's not a costly upgrade?

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Yeah, why is it that the CRTs look better with AA (at least ATI's)? Is it covering up the defects in the algorithm due to the slight blurriness?

Well, my CRT isn't that blurry, but I think it comes down to gamma correction. It was speculated that ATI's gamma correction is better matched with CRTs, and NV's default non-GC looks nicer on LCDs.

And maybe he only has multisampling on (AFAIK ATI has no FSAA supersampling mode). Perhaps that staircase isn't "marked" for MSAA or something (obviously a bug)??

I don't know if MSAA allows you to selectively apply it, but those stairs are definitely geometry, so MSAA should be working on 'em. I'm just not sure if the lighting/shading on those stairs might be affecting the AA output, especially since they're basically a pixel high.

aggressor, in addition to calibrating the monitor using something like Nokia MonTester, have you tweaked the in-game brightness setting? Maybe that'll help with the power lines in CSS.