Latest Gainward review

[AnteP]

I'd just thought I'd share an opinion here:
Zooming in on the AA pics using a bicubic filter is not a good idea since it makes things all blurry, just use nearest neighbour in PS if that's the proggy you're using

[volt]

Hey,

I haven't used any filters while zooming in.

[AnteP]

Originally posted by volt
Hey,

I haven't used any filters while zooming in.

uhmm, what proggy did you use, I could've sworn that there's filtering going on, no way would it look so blurry otherwise

this is the shot I'm referring to:
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/gainward_gf4_ti4200-8X/benchmarks/SeriousSamFE/2AA.jpg

there's no doubt about it

if you resize in photoshop (and a lot of other proggies) they'll use a bicubic or bilinear filter when down/up scaling the picture by default

[volt]

Yes I'm using PS. Let me take a look at that.

EDIT: Bicubic was set indeed. I would have never though it does that :rolleyes:

Thanks man, I will redo the shots :)

[volt]

The funny thing is I cannot hit Apply. Maybe that's why you don't see a difference. Take a look:

[AnteP]

Thanks for looking it up, nice review btw

just try saving them as "save as", skip the optimize for the web part
do you still have the original "unresized" pics?

[volt]

Thanks :)

Yes I do. I made a little action script that resizes the image and crops it. Or should I just save as -> jpeg ?

[MikeC]

Well Done :super:

[AnteP]

Originally posted by volt
Thanks :)

Yes I do. I made a little action script that resizes the image and crops it. Or should I just save as -> jpeg ?

...as long as it works :)

the pics in the review are still filtered though ;)

[Ratchet]

if you want to get a proper "zoom" effect, the best way is to resize using the "nearest neighbor" setting in the "Image Size" dialog, and select a new size that is either 2,4,or 8 times as large as the original resolution (1024x768 should be resized to 2048x1536 or 4096x3072 etc). Don't just pick a new larger size at random because "nearest neighbor" will discard or resize pixels that don't "fit". I find that increasing it 4x is the best for viewing AA edges, and 2x is best for viewing Aniso filtering.

For some good examples of how I like to do zooms with image comparisons, click the thumbnails at the bottom of this page (http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/sapphire/sapphire9500p/?page=4).

[AnteP]

Originally posted by Ratchet
image resizing != zooming

yeah yeah, english is not my primary language ya know ;)

[Ratchet]

Originally posted by AnteP
yeah yeah, english is not my primary language ya know ;)
heh, sorry man
I elaborated a little on the subject :)

[volt]

Thanks. Doing it now and it looks much sharper :)

Okay it's updated. But I still can't get rid of this ugly shift for Quincunx.

[StealthHawk]

I feel this is a good time to bring up the subject of the outdated article index again (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9299).

the current index doesn't list any of the nV News articles since June of 2002 :o

we the readers of nV News hereby demand that the index be updated so we can browse through newer articles published by nV News staff memebers :D

besides the newspost on the front page, there is no way to even know about Volt's review. not in the article index, and not in the recent article listing at the top of the main page :(

[StealthHawk]

oh, and there doesn't seem to be a "next page" button on any page in the review.

I just started reading the review, but so far this is what I have noticed. there is a drop down box with a list of all pages at the bottom of each page. however, the object selected in the drop down box is none other than the current page you are viewing. so the reader has to manually select the next page whenever they want to proceed.

just thought I would point that out, otherwise good review so far :)

edit: on page9(Aquanox) at the bottom it says the next game to be benchmarked is Wolfenstein, but page10 is Battlefield1942 ;)

edit2: taken from page17, first paragraphJust for reference, there are no major differences between Serious Sam: First Encounter and Serious Sam: Second Encounter. Basically TSE uses a twekaed engine and has different maps. Again the game has been updated to latest version, in this case 1.05. As mentioned before there was some texture curruption while playing version 1.00. Anyway, let's take a look at the image quality.

in the different screenshots are there really different levels of AF being applied? I can barely see any differences between the 0xAF and 8xAF shot. by comparison the Serious Sam screenshots show huge and easily viewable differences. is there an in-game anisotropic filtering setting in NFS?

edit3: very comprehensive review. nice job :thumbsup:

[volt]

Thanks for feedback StealthHawk :D

Silly me on those drop down menus hahaha. Will fix it :)

Are you referring to NFS IQ shots? There is no difference between the AF modes (except for performance). I tested two sets of drivers, and I can't seem to get better results :angel2: There is NO ingame setting for AF modes unfortunetly. I'm thinking it's the game itself.

[volt]

Now about outdated article index. I do feel as it's an issue since the only way you can find about the new ones is searching the news posts. I can take care of this, as long as Mike gives a word on it.

[AnteP]

Ahh thanks Volt, now one can see the difference in the shots. :)

[LORD-eX-Bu]

so volt, you are moving back to Poland, but you will still be here at nV right? or are you movin' back and eh, leavin' us as well?:confused:

[volt]

I'm just leaving the country :)

[LORD-eX-Bu]

good good, from that note you put at the bottom it looked like you were leavin' us, I was about to start yellin' "FREEDOM!!!:p

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by volt
Are you referring to NFS IQ shots? There is no difference between the AF modes (except for performance). I tested two sets of drivers, and I can't seem to get better results :angel2: There is ingame setting for AF modes unfortunetly. I'm thinking it's the game itself.

yes, definitely. all the NFS shoots look like they all have the same degree of AF on :p

that's pretty weird that performance changes but the in-game IQ does not......oh well, welcome to the wonderful world of EA games I guess.

[volt]

Okay fixed the drop down menus :p
Didn't add Previous, Next links since we have a menu at the bottom :)

cheers

[digitalwanderer]

I was waiting for a less critical thread to open praising your review, but figure I'll just stick this here.

I liked your review! Solid, well planned & thorough without being too analytical. It gave an excellent feel for how the average gamer will benefit from the card.

I really liked your attitude in the review, not too high brow. :) If you would have skipped the gratuitous buzz word page I'd have given you extry points though... ;) :p (I KNOW, I know! :rolleyes: )

Nice job, I look forward to your next one. :D

[volt]

Thank you sir! :D I'm glad you liked it hehe.