4x Anti-Aliasing helps Graphics a Lot

[MeteorPunch]

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious here. I usually run my games with anti-aliasing off, but I just turned it on to try it out in Civ4. Wow, makes everything look better, especially when you go to the maximum zoom level to see everything up close. Looks real smooth.

 

[Si_Lurker]

Yeah, AA helps a lot, I also turned on Fragmet AA x16 on my Matrox Parhelia.

 

[ChrisMDP]

Can you post a screenshot? Perhaps of a city up close.

 

[jpowers]

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious here. I usually run my games with anti-aliasing off, but I just turned it on to try it out in Civ4. Wow, makes everything look better, especially when you go to the maximum zoom level to see everything up close. Looks real smooth.

What is that? Do I need a special card or driver to have 'anti-aliasing'? How do you turn it on or off?

 

[MeteorPunch]

What is that? Do I need a special card or driver to have 'anti-aliasing'? How do you turn it on or off?

It's in the graphics options.

 

[Pounder]

I have mine just set to 'application controlled'.

Is there a change in performance?

other options?:
2x
4Qx
4x
8Sx

 

[KymeraTX]

If your card supports AA(anti-ailising) of AF(Antriscopic Filtering) spelling maybe off on those

Anyways.....you can go into your control panel on your graphics card if you want to force it to use those settings. Most ppl have it at "Application Controled" to make games more playable if you dont have a "good" card. More recent games have been including it in the options nowdays so you can select it from there. Makes rough edges look smooth and it really does improve the oveall look of games. I suggest you use it if your card can handle it without hiccups

If your card cant handle it then yes it can cause performance issues like laggy screen movement and stuff like that. Just fiddle with it, you cant do any damage

 

[Stilgar08]

Sorry, dumb question, but what does AntiA actually do??? (have a quite good NVidia GeForce 6800GT256FX, so I'm sure I can turn it on, I don't know what it is, though )

Anything I have to check when turning this on...???

 

[doronron]

In layman's terms, it smooths out sharp angles and makes things that should look more rounded do so. I haven't done it with Civ IV, yet, but I did notice a big difference with Doom 3. It does slow things down, however, as it requires a bit more resources.

 

[Stilgar08]

In layman's terms, it smooths out sharp angles and makes things that should look more rounded do so. I haven't done it with Civ IV, yet, but I did notice a big difference with Doom 3. It does slow things down, however, as it requires a bit more resources.

Thanx for the info... I'll definitely try it, then...

Any thoughts on the "perfect setting"?
4x, 8x, 12x....?

 

[KymeraTX]

with your card id suggest 4xs AA and 8xs AF

You will notice it alot from no AA or AF at all (at least i can cause im so damn picky lol). You can mess around with it if you want you cant hurt anything. Just go into your graphics cards advanced options and you should see the option for AA and AF in there. Not sure what its called for Nvidia since i got a ATI card.

Just remember if you turn it on through your card options and you seem to lag on other games (like fps's since it uses more resources usually) you can always just turn it down or "application prefrance".

 

[Sadan01]

Here is a shot of my display settings and where you can find the AA settings in the nVidia control panel. To get here, do the following (complete layman's terms here):

1. Right-click on desktop. Choose "Properties".
2. Click on Settings tab.
3. At bottom of this window, you'll have a button labelled "Advanced". Click this.
4. On the new window, you'll have a tab with the make/model of your graphics card (if using the nVidia drivers). Select this.
5. The window will change with a tab that slides out to the left. On this tab, select "Performance & Quality Settings". You then be presented with the screenshot I've attached.

NOTE: You will need to uncheck that option at the bottom (Application Controlled) to make any changes to the AA settings or any other setting such as anisotropic filtering (AF) etc,

I hope this helps.

 

[Stilgar08]

Thanks for clearing that up!

Just one last question:

So it's not enough to turn it on in the Options-menu??? I have to adjust my graphic card settings first??? (Sorry, but when it comes to Hardware I'm useless beyond believe! )

 

[Comraddict]

Thanks for clearing that up!

Just one last question:

So it's not enough to turn it on in the Options-menu??? I have to adjust my graphic card settings first??? (Sorry, but when it comes to Hardware I'm useless beyond believe! )

it is enough to turn it on in options.