EM - Anti-Aliasing trouble (Solved)

Jaga · Post by **Jaga** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:50 pm

Been having some trouble getting either Windowed mode or Fullscreen mode working with Anti-Aliasing. I can't stand jaggies, especially in space sims with black backgrounds or colored nebulae, so I usually tackle this before getting deep into the game.

When I enable any form of AA in RadeonPro (used to manage my profiles), it doesn't seem to take effect in the game. Or at least, I can still see prominent jagged edges on certain parts of the ship's hull (struts, etc). I have tried both standard multisampling and adaptive AA, and have tried 2x, 2xEQ, 4x, and 4xEQ modes. I have RadeonPro set to override app settings.

System this is occurring on: i7-930 (4ghz), Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate, ATI Radeon 6870 (Cat 11.12), 1920x1200 resolution (native for monitor). EM version 1.728.

I've tried all four types of game-supported display modes, WM and FS, locked and unlocked, and none of it seems to make a difference. I'd be glad to post screenshots and highlight the problem areas if needed. Mostly I see it on the edges of architecture (ship struts, etc)

If it is simply something I'm not doing correctly, I'd be glad to try suggested fixes/changes to my config.

[Edited on 1-19-2012 by Jaga]

Post by **Vice** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:54 pm

Should work fine, especially if the override application setting option is used. Although I'm only familiar with the Catalyst Control Center for specifying the settings on AMD/ATI cards. I use 4X AA myself (with 8X AF).

Jaga · Post by **Jaga** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:31 pm

Here's what I'm seeing in a new 4xAA Supersample test. First the raw screen PNG with an elipse to highlight the problem area:

Now, the problem area blown up with nearest-neighbor resample so there's no distortion, and so true detail can be seen:

Both images are thumbs - click for full sized originals.

Note: the problem area "shimmers" like jaggies often do in high-contrast areas when AA isn't being applied. And given that the test was done with 4x supersample on, I'm at a loss why you'd see any jaggies at all.

About the only thing I have left to try is to set Catalyst card default AA, reboot, verify defaults stick, and re-test. From what I can tell above, aliasing isn't being applied in my game.

Jaga · Post by **Jaga** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:58 pm

Some more information:

I took RadeonPro out of the loop by closing it down, and simply used CCC to control for a test. I set it to override the app with 8x supersampling AA, 16xAF, then closed/re-opened CCC to make sure it stuck.

I get exactly the same results as the screens I posted, and I even re-verified CCC was holding the settings I specified. I currently have EM set to full screen unlocked mode (FS, red lettering), which should be the easiest for the driver to apply AA/AF to.

Not sure what's happening here, but AA most definitely isn't being applied to my copy of EM. If nothing else, my 120 FPS should be nose-diving to 40 or less, and it isn't. And the really bad news - it works fine for all other games I have.

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:11 am

Hi Jaga, hope you get it to look like y0ou want. Welcome to the forum and the Sim. Have fun and hope to see you in Multi-Player sometime.

Jaga · Post by **Jaga** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:20 am

Hi Tiebers! Thanks for the welcome, always nice to find a friendly community.

A quick update, with positive results: Throwing the RadeonPro switch named "Force agressive API detection level" seems to have kickstarted Anti-Aliasing for EM on my system. The difference between a simple 2x-Super and 8x-Super isn't that big, but it is there. I should also note: my FPS is now dipping as AA goes up (as it should), though due to the engine scaling well and my rig being more than capable, it maintains good framerates throughout.

I'd suggest for anyone using RadeonPro with EM that you throw the aggressive API detection switch, as it seems to be far more reliable for enforcing profiles.

Dev feedback: This is probably an engine-renderer-driver thing, and not something you can safeguard against (though I'm not the expert here by any means). However, what I saw in terms of scalability in my testing was that the engine does a superb job at it. I have never (really - never) been able to run any 3D sim of any type at 8x Supersample and get manageable framerates. That's a big thumbs-up for you there.

Consider this one solved!

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:28 am

Glad you got it solved Jaga. And welcome to the game and forums mate!

Jaga · Post by **Jaga** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:50 am

Thank you Viper. I'm glad I got it sorted as well - lets me enjoy the game without visual anomalies driving me crazy.

After I get a chance to cut my teeth on single player, I may very well move on to multi. Hopefully with the addition to Steam, there will be a large influx of players to help that along.

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:38 am

From post: 124116, Topic: tid=8362, author=Jaga wrote:Hopefully with the addition to Steam, there will be a large influx of players to help that along.

Evidently, you have no idea. But, if you don't hurry, the crowd may have already spread out.