S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Xenith on 6/10/2009 at 17:36

I'll post some screens in a couple of minutes. Though Clear Sky with 4xAA is a slide show.

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No AA: (http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/6954/swampnoaa.jpg)
With 4xAA: (http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4411/swampwithaa.jpg)

2xAA seems to be almost unnoticeable, however it does work (so I didn't take any pics). At 4xAA you'll notice the wires in the above pic look more smooth and all the wood planks on the house blend in nicely. The light pole where the stalker is, on the house, does still have a few jaggies, at least on the left side.

But yeah 4xAA makes it a slide show for me and as far as I can tell transparent multisampling/supersampling doesn't work, even though I tested that way back on SoC.

Oh, I turned off Gamma Correction. It seemed to make things 1 frame more smooth.

EDIT: Right I just tested transparency supersampling now and it works. I guess the old driver I first tested it on couldn't handle the job.

So SoC and CS are like diamonds now.... you can't do anything with them except gaze in awe.

Ostriig on 6/10/2009 at 18:11

Hm, what do you know! Guess I gotta skullfuck my graphics driver soon and get one that allows forced AA again. The differences are undeniable, though I don't have the rendering know-how to figure out why it can be forced from the driver but not in-game. Thanks for the screens!

inselaffe on 6/10/2009 at 23:14

How come it doesn't work on the trees?

Xenith on 7/10/2009 at 06:42

Trees and grass are considered transparent textures. That's what Transparency Supersampling/Multisapmpling is for. I haven't enabled it in those two pictures, but it doesn't really do that much of a much for things that are more than say 3 meters away from you. So unless you look at the trees and grass up close you won't see any difference.

Here's some pics.

With 4xAA and without supersampling: (http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6917/swamp4xaanosupersamplin.jpg)
With 4xAA and with supersampling: (http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/5236/swamp4xaawithsupersampl.jpg)

The tree up close get's nicely worked out, but the ones that are further away don't seem to get much out of the effect, even though if you look close they do look a bit more smooth. Of course do to the fact that wind is present and they move, they'll look just as though they have no supersampling applied, even if it is applied.

mothra on 7/10/2009 at 09:41

I don't know but any screenshot I see and if I force it ingame (not only for STALKER) I can't see any noticable change using AA if you have a resolution above 1280x1024. that's why I never bother with it and it's the first thing to turn off.

Xenith on 7/10/2009 at 10:24

For some games, textures already blend in with each other very well (Stalker is one of them), so at a resolution of 1280x1024 or higher AA is just a subtlety and/or a resource eater.

Personally I prefer 1024x768 (or 800x600) with AA when I have to possibility.

Ostriig on 7/10/2009 at 12:25

Quote Posted by mothra

Quote Posted by Xenith

Personally I prefer 1024x768 (or 800x600) with AA when I have to possibility.

Not running an LCD's native resolution will have visible impact on texture sharpness, though. Personally, I prefer to ditch AA in favour of the native resolution.

FloPPynstein on 7/10/2009 at 12:26

I am being followed by a constant big shade all the time. That's just not realistic.

I'm playing with the smallest resolution available but everything else is at maximum including dx10.

Anysotropic is set at 16x from nVidia CP.

I've found that unchecking "shade from the sun" option gets me rid of the problem but it's crap, darkey and no more hdr, actually no more Half life 2 "sun, rays and light" anymore.

Xenith on 7/10/2009 at 12:33

Quote:

Not running an LCD's native resolution will have visible impact on texture sharpness, though. Personally, I prefer to ditch AA in favour of the native resolution.

Yes it does make everything less sharp, though the effect doesn't bother me, especially when I get a good performance boost out of switching to lower res. :)

mothra on 7/10/2009 at 12:58

Quote Posted by Ostriig

Take into account that the Dot Pitch of your monitor will greatly factor into that. I've got a 22'' with a 1680x1050, and AA makes a very big difference. If I were running a 1980x1020 22'', the no-AA jaggies wouldn't be quite as noticeable.

Not running an LCD's native resolution will have visible impact on texture sharpness, though. Personally, I prefer to ditch AA in favour of the native resolution.

i have an 22" 1680x1050 and AA makes no difference. maybe it's your hardware (aka eyes) or my lack of motiviation staring at a static picture finding a jagged edge instead of moving my avatar in the gameworld and experience the game.

for me AA is totally unnoticeable in a gamesetting except for standing still and switching it on/off all the time. What I do not do, I play a game with moving pictures, my brain gives them motion, blurs them together and if I am engaged, it is known that ppl get a tunnel-vision narrowing their focus even more on the onscreen happenings and narrowing your FOV. sometimes I forget the black borders around my screen and get sucked in. I remember seeing the "jagged" edges at games with 800x600, 1024x768 but with widescreen and 720p upwards this is gone for me.

of course I am not talking about a 3d version of simple games with straight lines in different angles. there you can spot it all the time.