So I'm doing some GPU testing in various games.
I don't want to use plain-jane 2x or 4x AA, I want to explore the other modes... and for what it's worth I want to check them out while having Multisample selected in the Transparency checkbox, as IMO there's no sense in checking out high-end AA modes if you're not going to apply AA to alpha textures. That makes sense, right?
First off, I have AA set to "override application setting", as I want exclusive control and want to make all adjustments in NVIDIA Control panel. However, to be safe, I try to set the in-game settings as close as possible to what I set in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
So let's say I want to only test two AA modes, 4xAA with Multisample selected, and 8xQ with Multisample selected. I want to check out 8xQ because I've heard that it's better than regular 8x, with out that much higher of a performance penalty, is that true? ... but what happens when I try something like the Just Cause 2 demo which only has selections for 8x and 8x CSAA? Even if I have the Control Panel set to override do I run any risk of the game applying its own AA setting? Or will the 8xQ + Multisample that I had set in the Control Panel Stick no matter what I have selected in-game?
Ugh, there are SOOOO many AA modes now, and their configuration is different for NVIDIA and AMD, and that's not even taking into account the in-game selections (and I don't have all the faith in the world in the "application override" setting unless someone can tell me different).
Hey, I don't want PC gaming graphical options to become console-ized, but DAMN. Why can't there be some more consistency/ease of use? I get that there are a few DirectX games that use their own proprietary AA, and that's all fine and good, but the rest of the games out there.... idk, maybe there should be a drop-down box that's the same for every game, and maybe there could be a direct link between that and the graphics driver control panel?
Making it worse is reviewer A using 4X AA mode Z, reviewer B using 4X AA mode Y, reviewer C using 4X AA mode X, so on and so forth... this isn't making it any easier for reviews to appear to have much consistency in their findings, and I don't like that.
I've had problems with this before, with reviews I wrote where I ended up using Catalyst AI at a setting that appeared to have no real NVIDIA equivalent. I didn't mean to make that mistake, but it's not like it was easy to sift through the huge control panels for both AMD and NVIDIA and easily set things exactly equal.
I'd like to better wrap my head around the AA modes... and maybe after I do so I can get an article together that explains things better so dummies like me can know what they're doing, and maybe this can help bring some ease of use issues to the attention of AMD and NVIDIA.
Please, discuss.
