Simviation Forums

I am wondering how I should set up the filtering option in FSX and on my graphics card.

On my card, an ATI Mobility X700 (128MB) I have anisotropic filtering set to 16x.

In FSX for filtering i can choose between None, Bilinear, Trilinear and Anisotropic.  I didnt really test the differences too much as i dont have a frame rate counter but there didnt seem to be a whole lot of difference between Bi, Tri and Anisotropic in terms of looks and performance.  What should I set it at, which is best?  Is the setting on my graphics card related to that in FSX? cheers

Taken from Nvidia's website on FSX tips,

"Using in-game AF (anisotropic filtering) is always better than forcing AF in Driver Control Panel. It's always faster and gives virtually the same image quality, because game developers know exactly which surfaces need anisotropic filtering and which don't. It allows the GPU to save the precious resources and achieve better gameplay. Use in-game AF in Microsoft's Flight Simulator X to achieve better image quality."

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_fsx_techtips.html#

NickN told me the settings on the Nvidia site were rubbish for a computer that has any guts to it at all. AA and AF should always be handled by the video adapter otherwise the load is being placed on the CPU. The reason thos settings on the nvidia site tend to help slower systems is because they are lacking in the video card area, divert the load to the CPU and allow what little a slow system may have in the video area to rendering what it can. Also, the settings listed provide little or no visual eye candy or very sharp results unless you are using a better video adapter.

I tried those nivida settings... they were garbage for my system and my video adpter is listed. I also tried all the so called tecture fixes, also complete rubbish as the visuals were less impressive and I had all sorts of strange stutters from them too. The config file edits and a few autogen tree and buiding reductions are what actually do the job.

The head of the development team Ptaylor even said in his blog that some of the fixes being circulated were simply not doing what people thought they are. NickN confirmed that.

AA and AF in the sim to OFF
Trillineral filtering in the sim ON

The only thing that would change those settings to the reverse would be a very slow video system at which point it may help to let the sim/cpu handle the loads.


@ gilly

You are dealing with an x700 mobility.. which is probably one of the lowest grade adapters. My advice would be to try turning AA inthe drivers to "let application decide" and AF down on the card to like 4-8x and let the sim handle AA and AF to see if it improves things. If you were running a regular tower/ video card I would never suggest that but in your case it might help... you can always set it back.

Ingame settings will influence the way textures look regardless of whether you force them through drivers.

Don't beleive me?

Max out Anisotropic filtering using drivers then turn them off ingame.

For best results turn the ingame filtering to anisotropic.

I noticed that UberPwner.  I set the ingame setting to no filtering and kept the GPU setting up high and it looked awful.  I will try turning off the GPU setting.  Although my card might look bad on paper its actually one of the best 128MB cards around, around a year old. its been handling FSX pretty well

To get good results with the card AA and AF, and in-game AA and AF disabled, you must first ensure that your card is in "best quality" mode, and not in any other performance mode.
Those performance modes, at least on Nvidia cards, will decrease the efficiency of the AA and AF to save some ressources.