For the experts... Regarding Video Card Settings

[gmorar]

Hi people,

I've been tweaking my VC settings through the Nvidia Hard Page :-hmmm I was wondering if someone could help me (I cannot get a smooth flight!!. My sliders inside FS are in the middle or on a lower setting, I have FPS target at 18, I have lower ATC, and so on).

I have NVidia Riva TNT2 Model 64 (32M) and using 23.12 drivers on Windows XP; I run the sim in 1024x768x32, my sys. is a P IV 1.6 Ghz. I will like to know what advise could you give me in regard to the following aspects:

1) Open GL:
Antialiasing: Should this be disable? If not, what level should I put in? (1x2; low2x; 2x2).
I see that in the Direct3D page there is another antialiasing option, but this one gives me more setting possibilities (e.g. 2x2 qu.; 2x2 9tap; 3x3lod and so on). What is/are the differences between this two AA sections?

2) Same in regard to Anisotropic: in the Open GL window I have Aniso. filtering (enable/disable); in Direct3D I see Anisotropic level (Point S.; bilinear; 16-tap). What are those? How should they be setted?

3) What is and how should be enabled/disable, W-Buffer and Z-Buffer? Does this affect in OpenGL, the option Force16b Z-buffer, and triple buffering?

4)Should I enable/disable Force multitexturing and fast linear mipmap?

I've been doing a lot of reading but cannot find out the best recommended settings to my video card.

I thank you for your kindness :-)


Gabriel.

[natman2]

Don’t worry about your open GL settings FS uses D3D. As for those settings there is no definitive answer. It all boils down to trade offs between appearance and performance and trial and error. You didn’t include your system specs but the 32 Meg card is more than likely holding you back may be time for an upgrade. Also if you are trying to run FS on a lower end processor it can pretty much be an exercise in frustration.

This is going to sound a bit extreme but in my opinion to get good performance and image quality from FS you should have at least a 1.4 gig processor and a 64 meg graphics card. And 256 DDR or RDR.

[gmorar]

Hi Natman2,

Thanks a lot for your answer. I did however indicate my specs (altough through the lines !!)... Nevertheless, I appreciate you took the time to answer.

So no use to even look at open GL options? ... Now, by any chance, could you or someone else help me in regard to the other questions? The Antialiasing settings, the buffers, multitexture, mipmapping?

Thanks in advance,

Gabriel.

[McFlysky]

LAST EDITED ON Apr-30-02 AT 09:41PM (EDT)[p]I have a P4 1.7@2.0, Asustek P4T-E mobo with Gainward Ti500 using WindowsXP with Detonator 23.12 drivers and have no problems.

On video driver panels in settings make sure you
have vertical sync set to always off. In WindowsXP I have
virtual memory set to, for me, 768 permanent on different
drive than drive 'c'.

My HardPage settings are; Activate all three options and
then enable 256 burst. On D3D panels I chose FSAA 1x2, Anisotropy level Bilinear, MipMap Detail HIGH, W-buffer Adv.Bit, w-buffer scale MAX, z-buffer comp Enabled, and Video Texturing Enabled.

In FS2002 set video options at default then adjust resolution to
1024x768x32. Go to the Scenery list and adust the Cache to say
200 to 300. I am set at 300 with Maxtor 20gig fast drives and set fps rate to 30 fps.

Forgot to mention that in my mobo BIOS I have the AGP memory set
to 64 and Fast Writes on.

[desibaba15]

Check this site out, tweaking for GeForce 1/2/3/4:

http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/geforce/index.shtml

Hope this helps.

Ankit

[gmorar]

Thanks a lot for this help!!

I will start making changes as suggested, and reading the article. Hopefully I'll improve my simulator.

Best regards,

Gabriel.