New NVidia drivers and AA

[FridayChild]

With previous versions of NVidia drivers (see signature for my hardware specs) I used to leave in-game (software) anti aliasing switched off for performance, since I had set up my graphic driver to force hardware AA for all applications.
Since I installed the latest 16x family drivers, if I turn off AA in FS2004 the AA actually does not work, regardless on how I set up the graphic driver options.
What is the reason of this behaviour and how do I force FS to use hardware AA again?

[a1]

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 1183998514

Do what Nick says and your AA should run from the card.

[FridayChild]

I tried and failed.

[microlight]

There may not be just the one 'right solution', I also have my in-game AA turned on because using the ATI card controls, there is absolutely no difference in terms of clarity or performance - except negatively. The FR suffers with increased settings, and the cockpit instrument text isn't quite as clear, to my aging eyes.

It may well be that the older (simpler?) graphics cards aren't capable of out-performing the in-game AA. Have to keep saving my pennies for a new rig!

[Fozzer]

Graphics Card Drivers...

The old saying:
...Newer is not necessarily Better!... ...!

Many times I have had to revert back to my older Drivers to cure various problems...(I save ALL my downloaded nVidia Drivers, on Disk).

The funny thing is, my best, most reliable, drivers always came on the CD which came with my Cards!.... ...!

Paul....Winfast (nVidia GeForce) 78000GS AGP... 8-)...!

[Tom...]

I have a workaround for the new drivers that i made myself and it definatley works, if you would like it Pm me  ;)

[NickN]

The instructions I posted work fine. He was sent to the wrong thread initially. the user must make sure to duplicate the profile and make the same settings GLOBAL in Nhancer, and then enable Vsync FORCE ON in the Nv driver control panel (with the latest drivers)

Nhancer is also updating soon. the beta is out and is being tested


The 8xS settings Nhancer allows further increases FSX/FS9 visual results so the use of the software is required for best results

[Tom...]

Ill get round to trying your instuctions in the weekend sometime Nick, will putting 16xAA on have any major visual benefits aswell?

Tom

[FridayChild]

Currently I am using a software called RivaTuner, which also allows fine tuning and tweaking of NVidia based cards (both at low/hardware level and at driver level). But I'm not using it for tweaking; rather I'm using it because the fan on my card is damn loud (and probably a bit offcenter too) and it drives me crazy. RivaTuner has the ability to spin down the fan (thus reducing noise dramatically) whenever the core temperature falls below a chosen threshold. Obviously I have set up RivaTuner so that it runs automatically at boot and keeps on running in the background. If I use NHancer to tweak the driver settings, do you think that some kind of conflict will arise with RivaTuner and/or with the NVidia control panel (which also allows a certain degree of tuning)? Also, to make sure that the custom profile I will create for FS will not be overridden by NVidia's default settings, do I have to make NHancer run in the background all the time? And if this is the case, again will there be any conflicts with RivaTuner? I don't want to give up RivaTuner until I get a new, more silent card, because I really can't stand that noise.
Thanks!

EDIT: mmm... I have to learn to read more carefully... I had failed to notice that NickN said there is no need to have NHancer run in the system tray all the time. So I guess I'm fine the way I am now.  :)

[FridayChild]

I did what was suggested, but it did not work.
I duplicated the default MS FS2004 profile and I edited the copy with the suggested settings; then I applied the same settings to the global profile. I rebooted, I started FS2004 and there was no change: disabling AA in the application still had the effect of, guess what, disabling AA (duh).
The procedure had also negative side effects because now there is an anomaly in the global profile: I cannot select the "clamp negative lod bias" option; it keeps on snapping back to "allow".
I will have to do a complete cleaning: remove nTune, remove RivaTuner, remove nHancer, uninstall the drivers, run DriverSweeper, reinstall the drivers, reinstall nTune, reinstall RivaTuner, recreate all my RivaTuner settings.  :-[
Sometimes it's just better to leave things as they are.  :'(
Aaaanyway.... suggestions (about how to clean sweep my system to how it was before) welcome.

[NickN]

[quote]I did what was suggested, but it did not work.
I duplicated the default MS FS2004 profile and I edited the copy with the suggested settings; then I applied the same settings to the global profile. I rebooted, I started FS2004 and there was no change: disabling AA in the application still had the effect of, guess what, disabling AA (duh).
The procedure had also negative side effects because now there is an anomaly in the global profile: I cannot select the "clamp negative lod bias" option; it keeps on snapping back to "allow".
I will have to do a complete cleaning: remove nTune, remove RivaTuner, remove nHancer, uninstall the drivers, run DriverSweeper, reinstall the drivers, reinstall nTune, reinstall RivaTuner, recreate all my RivaTuner settings.

[FridayChild]

I am using the latest non-beta release for my chipset, which is 169.21.
I always uninstall nTune before uninstalling the old drivers, and I reinstall it after installing the new drivers.
I installed all components in this order:
1) 169.21 drivers
2) nTune (version 5.05.47.00) => but I actually don't use it
3) RivaTuner (version 2.06) => I use it to set the fan speed based on GPU temperature
4) nHancer (version 2.3.2) => I used it to tweak the global profile and to create a duplicate profile for FS2004
I'm under the impression that the settings shown by nHancer are correct; I think that, after installing nHancer and tweaking settings that the default nVida control panel does not include, the nVidia control panel may be showing bogus data.
As for the AA problem, I have noticed a setting called "enhance application AA settings" which, according to the nHancer online help, allows to control the level of AA using the driver while still relying on the application to decide where to apply AA and where not to. Apparently selecting this option results in AA having to be enabled in FS in order to have AA at all. I can enable or disable this setting in the global profile, but it's selected and greyed out (cannot be changed) in the FS2004 custom profile. Do you think this could explain the issue?

[FridayChild]

up...

[NickN]

No idea

I dont use FS9 anymore and have not had it installed in well over a year.

As for ntune.. if you dont use it why are you installing it? The more crap you mix into a system the easier it is to end up with cross-file access problems.

Dave (Fly2) uses an older Nv card like yours and has none of these issues.

Enhance INGAME AA is not an item I would select. It does not allow the card to have full control. It lets FS9 control it and FS9 sucks for AA control to begin with and it should be left off in the game, however, with the recent screw-ups made by nvidia in their drivers older cards and games are getting the shaft because nvidia is tryiong to make the 8800 cards and DX10 games like CR work and in the prcess they dont care who they mess up.

[FridayChild]

The reason I installed nTune was to be able to tweak mobo and gfx card timings to get a slight performance increase at little or no cost in terms of noise and power consumption. But I never took the time to take the intensive test and find out the values, so I basically just let nTune sleep. I might well uninstall it.
I would try to disable the "emhance ingame AA" setting, but it's greyed out and permanently ON.