Utterly confused, need help...

[Lazerbeak]

I've heard that changing your 3D card settings will make FS look a lot better than changing the game's settings. I got my "new" rig today (with a Nvidia GeForce FX 5200, running DX9 and with the latest drivers) and decided to try it.

I put AA and AF to 8x (the highest it would go) and loaded up FS. What I got was the most atrocious-looking graphics I've ever seen, and with an FPS that'd make slideshows look speedy. I then set the AA/AF to "Application-controlled" and modified the settings in-game. This gave me slightly better graphics (yet still not very pretty), with a somewhat less lousy FPS. I'm not exactly a computer expert, so I'm not sure what I did wrong.

Am I being an idiot and forgetting a step, or am I just gonna have to get used to crappy graphics?

EDIT: never mind, I'll get used to the graphics.

[NicksFXHouse]

I've heard that changing your 3D card settings will make FS look a lot better than changing the game's settings. I got my "new" rig today (with a Nvidia GeForce FX 5200, running DX9 and with the latest drivers) and decided to try it.

I put AA and AF to 8x (the highest it would go) and loaded up FS. What I got was the most atrocious-looking graphics I've ever seen, and with an FPS that'd make slideshows look speedy. I then set the AA/AF to "Application-controlled" and modified the settings in-game. This gave me slightly better graphics (yet still not very pretty), with a somewhat less lousy FPS. I'm not exactly a computer expert, so I'm not sure what I did wrong.

Am I being an idiot and forgetting a step, or am I just gonna have to get used to crappy graphics?

EDIT: never mind, I'll get used to the graphics.

I would answer but I do not know your card. I assume you installed the drivers and enabled the advanced features correctly... I also assume you set FS9 up for the correct monitor resolution and color depth (x32).

I saw you post but thought someone with experience on your card would post back and give you some direction. Its only been 3/4 of a day... allot of people work and do not hit the forums everyday... give it some time

EDIT: here is a quote from Congo in another thread:

The graphics driver set 16bit colour or less when it installed, or doesn't have the correct driver installed.

The banding is because the colour pallette isn't large enough for the "infinite" smooth blending of one shade into the next.

Right click desktop, go to properties/settings and set the screen resolution you desire and 32 bit colour pallette, then click advanced, go to the monitor tab and set 85hz refresh rate if you have a CRT monitor that supports it, goto the GF6600 device tab for your advanced driver settings and remove application control and set anti-aliasing to manual - 2Qx and anisotropic filtering to 4x or 8x (I use 4x).

Set the graphics quality to very high and turn off the vertical sync. Nothing else need be touched and this will apply the settigs globally for all apps and displays.

If you don't find the above options it's because the driver is not correctly installed.

Within windows services you'll find the nVidia display driver service which can be disabled and in your system startup, any nvidia applications can be disabled, the driver settings you set using the method described above will work fine without the background apps running. It's ridiculous that driver install programs must always seem to install applications and run them as default in the background when they are not at all required or desirable. Again, this will only be required after the correct driver installation and after every subsequent driver installation. (Because nVidia just keeps installing all this crap with every driver release).

Cheers.

[Lazerbeak]

I wasn't getting impatient with the lack of replies (though I admit the edit came off that way), I just decided that it really wasn't that big a problem anymore (especially since I'll probably end up buying a different card anyway).

Regardless, I guess I'll try the suggestion you quoted.

[FridayChild]

Turn off anti aliasing in fs9 and leave it on in the graphic card settings for a start.
Maybe post a picture so we can see what you are talking about. And what about your full system specs?
Good luck!  :)

[congo]

The 2x aa and 4x AF setting would be the max on that card and it will affect FPS quite negatively.

The 5200 is the bottom of the range in the FX series, and the FX series was only just capable at the high end 5900's.

A lot of people think their 5200's are wonderful, and this is great for them, but you only need to look at any performance chart and they sit right down there near the bottom of the heap, so don't expect a lot from the card.

Filtering on nVidia cards didn't get any good until the 6000 series, so the best advice I can give you is to run weather at clear skies or minimal clouds, and stay out of built up areas.

There is no substitute for a quality graphics card and unfortunately they don't come cheap, so if you want good graphics, be prepared to shell out some cash.

You need to turn application control off and set the filtering manually, also make sure that the FS9 filtering options are disabled in the game's display settings.