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Video Card Anti-aliasing -- can a video card smooth out the pixels on old sims?

Chr2014

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Hello to everyone,

There is an old jet fighter combat simulator from 1997 that I really like to fly. It is called Jane's Fighters Anthology.

The graphics are jagged. There is no anti-aliasing in this simulator. I run it in 800 x 600 resolution (the maximum resolution is 1024 x 768).

Is it possible to anti-aliasize the graphics in this old simulation, so that they appear nice and smooth? That would be absolutely fantastic! If so, what graphics card would you recommend I purchase?

The old sim runs perfectly on my current system:

* Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz, 1333FSB (Dual Core) 6000K

* Spire Socket 775 Intel fan

* ASUS P5QL PRO P43, 1600FSB PCI Express, Sound, 1Gb LAN

* ATI Radeon HD 5450

* 4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel

* 320.0GB Western Digital 7200RPM SATA2 UDMA 300 16m cache

* Samsung 20x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW

* AC 97 3D Full Duplex sound card (onboard)

* Ethernet network adapter (onboard)

* PowMax Black Mid Tower ATX Case w/ Front USB

* Case Fan 80 mm DC fan

* Apevia 500W ATX See-Through Aluminum Power Supply

* Microsoft Windows XP Home CD

Thanks very much,

Chris
 
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Yours should do it with at least 2-4X AA though the Control Center.

If you want to upgrade how much do you want to spend?
 

Chr2014

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With the card I currently have, ATI Radeon HD 5450, I should have the option to apply AA?
 
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Yes, open Catalyst Control Center, click Gaming->3D Settings

Then Under Anti-Aliasing choose "Override Application Settings"
Then Choose 4X under Samples
Filter set to Box
Method set to Super Sampling
and if you have Morph Filtering set it to On



Then in the texture Filtering set it to "Override Application Settings"
Then Choose 4X
Filtering Quality Standard

Click Apply and see if it helps.
 

Chr2014

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Under 3D I see:

--> Standard Settings
Anti-Aliasing
Anti-Aliasing Mode
Anisotropic Filtering
Mipmap Detail Level
All Settings
 
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Iamsatan.jpg
A
 

Chr2014

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In Anti-Aliasing it says:

[check box] Use Application Settings
[check box] morphological filtering
Filter [box, narrow-tent, wide-tent, edge detect]

and a slide-bar that shows the level
 

Chr2014

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AA works totally independent of a game? The video card just takes the pixels displayed on the screen and blends them? So, a game does not have to be "compatible" with AA, correct?
 
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You probably should upgrade your drivers.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Use the second option.
Desktop Graphics
Radeon HD Series
Radeon HD 5XXX PCIe series
Windows Version you are using.

Click the link, then download the Omega Driver package, let it install and reboot if needed.

___________________________________________________________________________

Yes, it will attempt to use the driver to intercept the drawing if it is allowed and then apply the AA and AF effects to the final output, if the game is too old it may not support it. Even some modern games do not support it due to their rendering paths.
 

Chr2014

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This old sim does not use a graphics card to render the graphics. The sim's engine runs off the CPU.
 
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"Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) will have largest impact, enhancing any game that supports resolutions above 1920x1080"

Essentially no, it will not work that way either, the best you will get is to use a TV that has some video enhancing hardware.
 
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Its the hardware in the GPU, and the driver that are setup to use any form of Anti-Aliasing, not the display output logic. If the game is not rendered though the GPU I am unaware of any way it can perform AA on the edges to reduce the jagged edges, or AF to sharpen the texture samples.

Yes, a lot of TV's have some edge enhancement, and some deblocking, but it will make the textures fuzzy looking and the edges may still be jagged.
 

Chr2014

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I was told that the sim is rendered through the GPU . . .

I would gladly purchase a copy for you to test for me if you would like.
 
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Then try forcing AA and AF in the Control center using the sliders. See if it looks better, if it doesn't there is nothing else to do other than hope someday someone rewrites it in a modern format.

I appreciate the offer for the game, but you will be able to test it as well as I could.


As far as upgrading GPU's, essentially you are going to have to upgrade operating system to get any new features out of any new card, but none of them are applicable to this game, so its a moot point. Force the AA and AF, and see how it looks to you.
 

Chr2014

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Okay, I understand now. It really does depend on the program itself, not just the video card.

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me . . .
 

Chr2014

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I turned up the settings on my AMD card, but I didn't notice any difference.

Perhaps edge enhancement on a TV "may" improve the sim? With a TV the game's programming will not matter like it does with a video card?
 

Chr2014

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Here's an interesting post . . .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am having a BLAST on my dell ultrasharp widescreen 24inch monitor... it is 1920x1200...

Anyways, you do not have to run on the native resolution... in fact there is a BENEFIT for running on a lower res that is the same aspect ratio...
1. You get more FPS (or can increase the quality)
2. You get "free anti aliasing"; well not really, but a similar effect... anti aliasing is basically a blur tool. And on some games max AA makes them TOO blurry. Making text look fuzzy and blotted.
The upscaling makes the monitor blend pixels causing a blur effect that can reduce jagged edges just as well as anti aliasing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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It might, but it will have other unwanted effects as it is only using a basic process to try and sharpen an image.

Most of that is not true at all, AA is not a blur tool, it uses pixel location to determine the angle of an edge to the player point of view, and then either corrects the jagged edges that appear by sampling them individually, or it overdraws the whole scene and then shrinks it to redetermine the corrected edge locations.

 
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OneMoar

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the game doesn't use directX but used DirectDRAW witch means no anti-aliasing or DSR
there is nothing you can do
if it supports 3DFX glide witch it MIGHT you can try glidewrapper http://www.zeckensack.de/glide/ witch MAY improve the quality
 

Chr2014

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OneMoar,

This is from the readme file:

*********
* VIDEO *
*********
Fighters Anthology requires you to have a video card that is 100%
DirectX compliant. If you have run the DXSETUP.EXE program
(which can be found in the DirectX directory of your Fighters
Anthology CD), and your video card is not certified, you need to
contact your video card manufacturer and obtain the latest DirectX
drivers for your card or contact Microsoft.
 

OneMoar

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OneMoar,

This is from the readme file:

*********
* VIDEO *
*********
Fighters Anthology requires you to have a video card that is 100%
DirectX compliant. If you have run the DXSETUP.EXE program
(which can be found in the DirectX directory of your Fighters
Anthology CD), and your video card is not certified, you need to
contact your video card manufacturer and obtain the latest DirectX
drivers for your card or contact Microsoft.
so it used either DirectX 5 or maby 6
both are unsupported
 
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