Does Anisotropic Filtering Make a Difference in GW?

Eldin

Eldin

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

America. How about you, commie?

Fellows of Mythgar [FOM]

R/Mo

Title. I've seen threads of people using their video card driver control panels to force Anisotropic Filtering since GW does not offer it in the control panel. There are some places in which I think GW would really benefit from anisotropic filtering.

I almost never force a certain AA/AF, and simply set it to application controlled. But I decided to try AF anyway, this was the result:



I don't see a difference. I tried AF 16x too (not in the image, but I tried it), and again I see no difference.

Does Anisotropic Filtering not work with GW, or is it a driver problem?

Card: BFG Tech GeForce 7800 GS OC 256MB (AGP)
Drivers are up to date.
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Oh, and if for some reason you still don't get what I mean by forcing AF, I mean this little thing:


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It's not that big a deal if I can't get AF working, as Guild Wars is beautiful already, though it would be nice if I could give it an extra kick somehow.

ObiWan07

ObiWan07

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2006

AF works perfect for me (8800GTS, 97.92)

Pics
16AF:


No AF:


PS: Have you restarted GW before comparing the screenshots?

Jelloblimp

Jelloblimp

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

[KCHS]

W/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by ObiWan07
AF works perfect for me (8800GTS, 97.92)

Pics
16AF:


No AF:


PS: Have you restarted GW before comparing the screenshots?
Nice screenshot comparison, jungle areas should be easier to see the (minor) difference because of close up branches/trees/leafs & such.

AF is not much use once you go over 800x600 in resolution, 1200 & above you cant even see the differences without squinting. Unless your vid-card handles AF like a breeze just shut it off.

Eldin

Eldin

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

America. How about you, commie?

Fellows of Mythgar [FOM]

R/Mo

ObiWan: Yes, I restarted GW.

Jello: Oh, that may be why. I run GW at 1280x1024 resolution.

ObiWan07

ObiWan07

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2006

AF at Wikipedia

You'll always see a difference, not just below 800x600.

Without AF the ground textures start too blur, the further you get away from the camera.
With AF they should always be sharp.

What you ment is probably Anti Aliasing(AA), but even there you see a slight difference in high resolution.

@Jellopimp
just4you at 2560x1024:
16x AF:


No AF:


compare the ground at the Xunlai or the Kurzick NPCs and you'll notice the difference

PS: I forced "No AF" in my screens, with "Application controlled" there is less difference, what means GW uses AF "out of the box"

Jelloblimp

Jelloblimp

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

[KCHS]

W/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by ObiWan07
AF at Wikipedia
(...)

What you ment is probably Anti Aliasing(AA), but even there you see a slight difference in high resolution.(..)
Yah it was AA I was thinking on , still I dont think AF is worth the performance hit (on 8x above) since its such a minor difference.
(Unless you have a beast of a vid-card like that 8800).

ObiWan07

ObiWan07

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2006

As I stated in my post scriptum it looks like Guild Wars always uses AF.
I've done some screenshot comparisons and it seems GW uses 4x AF.

Lord Sojar

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

Yeh, the quality does amp up with max AF and AA settings.

kirby2096

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2006

The Angels of Divine Hope [Hope]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ObiWan07
As I stated in my post scriptum it looks like Guild Wars always uses AF.
I've done some screenshot comparisons and it seems GW uses 4x AF.
I never thought of forcing AF off through my video driver's options. This'll help me when PvPing on my Go5700 ^^