Antialiasing And Sharpness Problems With Ati Graphics Card And Fsx

[skylane182 12]

Hello,

 

I'd like to ask for your help because I've a problem with my FSX graphics and I can't find a solution:

 

My antialiasing doesn't work as would like, especially when I zoom out;  a bit away from the aircraft. (screenshots below)

Also a mysterious wireframe is drawn on PMDG NGX and 777 displays, but thats only a minor problem for me, main problem

is the AA.

 

My graphics card is a 1024MB ATI HD 5700 @875MHz core frequency and 1225MHz RAM frequency 

 

Until now, I've used the following settings:

 

FSX: AA on, Aniostropic on, Framerate unlimited

CCC: AA: application controlled

          Filter: Box

          AA Mode: Multi-Sampling

          Morphologic Filter: off

          Anisotropic: application controlled

          Quality: standard

          Surface optimization: on 

 

Additional FSX.cfg entries: 

          HIGHMEMFIX=1

          WIDEVIEWASPECT=TRUE

 

 

Because off the problems, I tried the following settings which were recommended to me:

 

FSX: AA off, Anisotropic on, Framerate unlimited

CCC: AA: overwrite application settings

          Samples: 4x

          Filter: Box

          AA Mode: Super-Sampling

          Morphological Filter: off

          Anisotropic: application controlled

          Quality: standard

          Surface optimization: on

 

Additional FSX.cfg entries: 

          HIGHMEMFIX=1

          WIDEVIEWASPECT=TRUE

 

With the new settings, the AA is a bit better, still some "stairs", but better. There is also nearly no performance loss. 

Also, the mysterious wireframe on the NGX and 777 displays is gone, and the VC seems to look more sharp. 

So the new settings seemed to be a lot better than the old ones, until I discovered a big problem with the new settings:

 

With the new settings, 2D Panels and the FSX menu look a bit blurry, especially the text is very unsharp. I've tried a lot to get that right, but I didn't find any solution. Everytime I switch on the new settings, the 2D Textures are blurry. It also doesn't help to maximize the settings to 24x edge detect etc. - that doesn't change anything. 

 

Does anyone have a clue or a solution for that problem, or any idea what I could try next. I thought about buying a nVidia card, but that is quite expensive for such a little problem to solve, because in all other aspects, the ATI card does a good job for me.

 

Here are some screenshots showing the problem: 
 

First from the outside:
-old settings with FSX controlled MSAA as described above: bad AA, "stairs" everywhere (look at one world logo)

 

-new settings as described above, 4x SSAA: AA a lot better, less "stairs" (look at one world logo)

 

now from the inside: 

-old settings with MSAA: wireframe on displays, but sharp 2D panels:

 

-new settings with SSAA: no wireframe in displays, but blurry 2D panels:

 

I've also read this topic, but found no solution there: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/404430-optimal-settings-for-ati-users-with-fsx-great-results/

 

Thanks for your help, 
Mathias

[dazz 69]

Everything there is normal and to be expected. Supersampling works much better than Multisampling to suppress jags but it also blurs things a bit.

Another side effect of Supersampling is poor performance in clouds. At 4xSS it's going to be bad with a 5770

[skylane182 12]

Ok thanks for your reply

On the one hand thats good to hear because if it's normal, it's no problem with my system. But on the other hand thats bad news because it means that I can't change anything. 

 

Until now I didn't notice any performance loss in clouds with Supersampling, but I haven't encountered a heavy thunderstorm yet, just "normal" cloudy weather. 

 

And what about nVidia? Have the nVidia users the same problem? 

[dazz 69]

Yeah, sure. Nvidia cards also blur things a bit when enough AA is applied

[skylane182 12]

Ok, but I everyday I see a lot of screenshots with perfect antialiasing and also sharp panels - I expect these people use Multisample AA, because of the sharp 2D Panels. - But why do I get "edges" and "stairs" with MSAA? (see pictures in first post) 

[dazz 69]

Ok, but I everyday I see a lot of screenshots with perfect antialiasing and also sharp panels - I expect these people use Multisample AA, because of the sharp 2D Panels. - But why do I get "edges" and "stairs" with MSAA? (see pictures in first post) 

 

Probably because those Nvidia users are running combined modes like 8xS or 8xSQ. That's a plus with Nvidia cards, they can use Inspector to run those modes that combine some Multisampling with some Supersampling with a lot more granularity. With AMD cards, anything below 4xSS just doesn't cut it visually IMO, and 8xSS is far too demanding in clouds. That's why personally I wouldn't go with AMD for budget cards (anything worse than a 7950). 4xSS is pretty much the only acceptable setting