Want to know In-game wordings (WC3) compared to General AA/AF

[lopri]

I'm playing WC3, and there are quite a few in-game graphics setting options. I want to know which settings stress which functions in the graphics card. Following are the in-game options..

1. Model Quality
2. Animation Quality
3. Texture Quality
4. Particles (low/med/high)
5. Lights (low/med/high) -- this doesn't seem to be "Gamma" since there is a separate gamma control
6. Unit Shadows (on/off)
7. Occlusion (on/off)
8. Spell detail (on/off)

I have a general idea but want more accurate information. I recently purchased 9800Pro, and not quite happy with the driver quality (too many artifacts, but performance is very satisfactory) Using Cat 3.5, when I set both(AA/AF, OpenGL/Direct3D) at "quality" on the control panel the artifacts seem to be minimal, but I can't set everything at max quality cause I want a better performance. Thing is, when I play with the settings I sometimes see the artifacts and sometimes don't. Can anyone give me the exact information about the above settings? (For example, Texture Quality - OpenGL/AF, etc..? oh well I don't even know this game is built with OpenGL or Direct3D)

Thanks in advance.

lop

 

[Detselom]

Warcraft 3 is direct3d like most games. Open gl are usually based on id software games. ex. soldier of fortune, doom3, quake, medal of honor... You shouldnt be seeing any artifacts in Warcraft 3. What was your previous video card and did you uninstall it properly. Might have to do with cooling? are you overclocking? You should be able to play warcraft 3 @1600x1200 with all the ingame options cranked.

 

[JBT]

Actaully WC3 has an option of D3D and openGL. Check to see which file it is using to launch. WarCraftIII.exe is open GL and War3.exe is D3D. By default mine opens with openGL mode. I hear OPenGL has less artiphacts.

Lights in the detail section
low=2 lights
med=4 lights
high=8 lights.

 

[lopri]

I'm not overclocking GPU or CPU. I also redid my machine when I got the card. Artifacts are pretty much reproduceable, when both (Direct3D & OpenGL) are set at "Perfomance" I always get the artifacts. Neverwinter Nights is another game that I find quite a few artifacts in.

My original question is, in the Warcraft 3 game display settings there are handful of options. I want to know how they compare to video driver's AA/AF.
(For instance, Model Quality = Anti Aliasing, Texture Quality = Aniso,, etc... not sure these examples are correct though) so I can tune the overall quality up without artifacts.

Anyone?

 

[Pete]

Can you describe these artifacts?

In terms of speed, try this: Max out the WC3 settings, as the 9800P can handle them. Then enable 16x Quality AF (I'd say Performance, but you say it displays artifacts, so we're left with only Quality). Check if WC3 plays smoothly. Then enable 2xAA. Check if performance is still acceptable. Then bump the AA up to 4x, and check performance. Finally, bump AA to 6x and see if things are still smooth. If not, lower AA to the highest acceptable level, and stick with that.

Your 9800P should be able to run WC3 16xAF and 4xAA without a problem (GamePC shows the 9800P playing WC3 at over 30fps at 1600x1200 w/4x AA and AF), but you may have to lower the resolution a notch or two down from 1600x1200 if your framerate standards are high. Make sure you're using 4x and not 6x AA--6x doesn't look much better, and incurs a sizable performance hit.

 

[lopri]

Playability isn't really an issue because I get a great performance at "balance" setting. I'm just being *a bit* anal since this is my new video card which is supposed to be top quality, and also I got a brand new 21" LCD (Samsung 213T). I want everything to be perfect. heh..

So like I said, I can play WC3 at 4x/8x (which I believe is "balance" setting, actually it's very very smooth ) but I also don't like the fact that I get artifacts at "performance" setting. Artifacts are like 1~2 tile size of black/grayish patches near gold mines, forests, etc. I'll try to upload a screenshot later.

Pete, do you know how each settings in WC3 apply to driver's AA/AF? That is, Animation Quality(#2 in my original post) is Aniso? or Anti-Aliasing? I'd like to know what those settings are in the hardware settings.

Thanks
lop

 

[Pete]

I'm not sure what you mean by how WC3's settings "apply" to the 9800's driver settings. #2, for instance, shouldn't be affected by either AF or AA--it just seems to be an in-game setting for how much CPU power to spend on smoother animation (walking cycles and the like). I'd imagine #1 affects how many polygons are used per character, which I suppose affects AA by giving the 9800 potentially more polygon edges to AA. Same with #6--I'd imagine shadows are just more polygons. #3 is just bigger textures, meaning it might impact AF performance, but I can't be sure (I'm not sure if bigger textures take more GPU time to process in terms of AF). I don't think #4, 5, 7, or 8 will affect AA/AF.

But those WC3 settings aren't alternate controls for the settings ATi's control panel offers.

 

[JBT]

Exactly what Pete said. Those don't have anything to do with the ATI control panel settings those are just adding more polygons or making animation smoother, NOT AA or AF