Anti-aliasing tip for nVidia video card users

[JohnMK 0]

Upshot and synopsis: 4xS anti-aliasing is where it's at, IMO. Not all drivers make this setting available. If yours don't, be sure you upgrade to the latest version to see if that's not why, and if that doesn't do the trick, then download a tweaking program to make it visible, e.g. NVIDIA Tray Tools, a.k.a. NVTray:

http://nvtweak.laptopvideo2go.com/

The story:

I've been somewhat disappointed and baffled by the relatively small visual quality enhancement that anti-aliasing seems to provide SC4 so I decided to dig deeper. I took more than a dozen screenshots of the exact same spot, in all the permutations of settings I cared to take, to determine which settings provided optimal visual quality in my subjective opinion.

It would appear that supersampling anti-aliasing modes provide the best visual quality. The following I am certain employ some degree (*S) or full (*SS) supersampling anti-aliasing:

2xSS

4xS (my personal favorite for now)

6xS

8xS

In theory, supersampling (SS) is demanding and impacts performance more than multisampling (MS), hence MS's deployment several years ago as a way of broadening the practical application of AA in high-fps video games. I am not finding however that one AA mode or another seems to detrimentally impact SC4 at all, surprisingly, so I'm inclined to use SS, especially since it seems that SC4 uniquely benefits very little from MS and benefits at least noticeably from SS. The hybrid modes (4xS, 8xS) that blend modest supersampling with modest multisampling seem to give the overall best benefit, thus, especially if I have missed some of the benefits of multisampling in SC4 in my examination of my screenshots. Curiously, it seems the hybrid modes are sharper than the exclusively supersampling modes (and quite probably also sharper than the multisampling modes, but I might be wrong on that). I suspect this has more to do with settings nVidia have chosen to enable when their hybrid modes are activated, instead of having anything to do with the anti-aliasing technologies themselves. I could very well be wrong on that though.

I also tested anisotropic filtering's impact and could not discern any difference whatsoever.

Self-criticisms of my testing method:

I'm not a connoisseur of image quality. Just a computer geek. I tested  at only one zoom level. I tested an area I just threw together for this purpose -- I felt it should be rather sparse and simple but have a few buildings in it, so I plopped the WTC, a nice bridge with supporting cables (excellent for spotting aliasing, btw), some residential and commercial buildings, etc. It's not pretty. If I lived there, I'd move. I'm sure there are other problems that render my test somewhat moot and less than applicable to a wide range of systems, as well. For example, ATI may do things differently. Maybe their multisampling is far and away superior to nVidia's. My computer system is also somewhat potent, at 3.73GHz P4-w/ 2 GB of RAM @ 711MHz, and a Geforce 6 6600 GT video card with 128MB of video RAM.

In the event anyone wishes to examine my screenshots, here's at 19MB file containing all 17 of them in PNG image format.

http://students.washington.edu/chs4000/SC4-AA&AF-Screenshots.zip

FYI,

-John

[prince_of_sims 0]

actually, Maxis recommends turning off AA and AF on any cards, regardless of maker. it's because SC4 isn't suited to handle those advanced features, and for best perfomance, they should be turned off.

[JohnMK 0]

It's a good thing someone's done empirical testing then because that seems to be wrong on all counts.

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

prince_of_sims, perhaps that was true when the game came out... but even without testing, I would doubt it would be the case anymore.

[prince_of_sims 0]

yeah, i was just stating what Maxis has stated. i play with AA on the lowest level.

[JohnMK 0]

Is your card ATI- or nVidia-based? How dramatic would you rate the difference between AA off and AA 2X? The lowest AA level in all drivers is always 2X multi-sampling, btw. Unless you have a really old video card such as the Voodoo4 or Voodoo5 which only knew supersampling. 3dfx supersampling was just gorgeous -- done on a rotated grid for some extra prettiness.