Tuesday, September 29th 2009
Batman: Arkham Asylum Enables AA Only on NVIDIA Hardware on PCs
Anti-Aliasing has been one of the most basic image-quality enhancements available in today's games. PC graphics hardware manufacturers regard it as more of an industry standard, and game developers echo with them, by integrating anti-aliasing (AA) features in the game, as part of its engine. This allows the game to selectively implement AA in parts of the 3D scene, so even as the overall image quality of the scene is improved, so is performance, by making sure that not every object in the scene is given AA. It seems that in one of the most well marketed games of the year, Batman: Arkham Asylum, doesn't like to work with ATI Radeon graphics cards when it comes to its in-game AA implementation.
Developed under NVIDIA's The Way it's Meant to be Played program, and featuring NVIDIA's PhysX technology, the game's launcher disables in-game AA when it detects AMD's ATI Radeon graphics hardware. AMD's Ian McNaughton in his recent blog thread said that they had confirmed this by an experiment where they ran ATI Radeon hardware under changed device IDs. Says McNaughton: "Additionally, the in-game AA option was removed when ATI cards are detected. We were able to confirm this by changing the ids of ATI graphics cards in the Batman demo. By tricking the application, we were able to get in-game AA option where our performance was significantly enhanced." He further adds that the option is not available for the retail game as there is a secure-rom.
With no in-game AA available to ATI Radeon users, although the features do technically work on ATI Radeon hardware, the only way AA can be used is by forcing it in Catalyst Control Center. This causes the driver to use AA on every 3D object in the scene, reducing performance, compared to if the game's in-game AA engine is used. "To fairly benchmark this application, please turn off all AA to assess the performance of the respective graphics cards. Also, we should point out that even at 2560×1600 with 4x AA and 8x AF we are still in the highly playable territory," McNaughton adds. Choose with your wallets.
Developed under NVIDIA's The Way it's Meant to be Played program, and featuring NVIDIA's PhysX technology, the game's launcher disables in-game AA when it detects AMD's ATI Radeon graphics hardware. AMD's Ian McNaughton in his recent blog thread said that they had confirmed this by an experiment where they ran ATI Radeon hardware under changed device IDs. Says McNaughton: "Additionally, the in-game AA option was removed when ATI cards are detected. We were able to confirm this by changing the ids of ATI graphics cards in the Batman demo. By tricking the application, we were able to get in-game AA option where our performance was significantly enhanced." He further adds that the option is not available for the retail game as there is a secure-rom.
With no in-game AA available to ATI Radeon users, although the features do technically work on ATI Radeon hardware, the only way AA can be used is by forcing it in Catalyst Control Center. This causes the driver to use AA on every 3D object in the scene, reducing performance, compared to if the game's in-game AA engine is used. "To fairly benchmark this application, please turn off all AA to assess the performance of the respective graphics cards. Also, we should point out that even at 2560×1600 with 4x AA and 8x AF we are still in the highly playable territory," McNaughton adds. Choose with your wallets.
353 Comments on Batman: Arkham Asylum Enables AA Only on NVIDIA Hardware on PCs
it really sucks ATi doesn't get good native support, but really Nvidia made the whole thing happen with their own pocket money, and since I generally go with Nvidia hardware, suits me.
I bet this plays riiiiight into ATi fans believing in Nvidias apparently 'evil' practices, man I get a belly laugh out of that every time.
280GTX>> 650$ to 450$
260GTX>> 450$ to 300$
Nvidia Sucks !
* Fact is that revenues in the discrete graphics market is half of what it used to be since the AMD pricing strategy chaged. They are not making the same money (neither Nvidia), but that's what it takes if they want to gain market share. Market share keeps investors happy. In the link look at market value.
Im it's something both companies do.
Oh no that's right, Nvidia is a big greedy evil corporation and ATi is nothing of the sort, my bad!
hmmmmmm :twitch:
Seriously though, its 2009, what is up with these games trying to skimp on AA all the time...
Kind of lose all credibility when you do that.No, the game is based on the, aging, Unreal Tournament Engine. This engine does not have native AA, it is likely that AA would never have been implemented in-game if nVidia did not fund the developement.
Well as long as the games continue to be based on older game engines, they will lack features that we are all used to, such as AA. The older engines are usually more supported, more mature, and easier to develope for.
Obviously the humor went over your head though. :P Edit: nvm............. I used my eyes to read :DAh, that would make more sense, however I could have sworn that there was a game that used the unreal engine, that also had AA. Mirror's Edge I believe... Hey didn't that have Physx too? :twitch: (disclaimer: definitely not inferring a conspiracy)
What is interesting is that Mirror's Edge was another TWIMTBP title. I wonder if nVidia just gave the developers of Batman Arkham Asylum the AA code since they more than likely at least aided in the developement for Mirror's Edge, and probably had access to the coding required to add it to the Unreal Engine...
I'm really tempted to re-install mirror's edge on my HD4890 machine and see if it allows AA with ATi hardware.
armoredcavalry.deviantart.com/art/Edge-of-a-Mirror-112597392
I still have the last level to complete, I'm really bad about completing games... and tv shows... and sometimes homework... on occasion sentences...
If you really need to, watch the 5870X2 and see what price it will have at launch.
the midrange is where the value truly lays. and that's where you run into problems if one side is dominatign the other. 9600xt at launch was 300$, a pure example of ati taking advantage of their postiion in the market at the time. take at look at the 4770, it was 129$ at launch. obviously we benefit from competition between the two.
thus as long as both have good midrange competitors, I'll eb happy. if nvidia trumps ati at the midrange or vice versa, I won't be.
edit: you know this is funny based on the fact that nvidia paid for the develment the headline might as well read "Batman: Arkham Asylum Enables PhysX Only on NVIDIA Hardware on PCs" lol
It is propietary. It even has Nvidia name all over it!
This has been said like 80000 times already, but Unreal Engine 3 doesn't have AA, every UE3 game to date has not had AA. You had to enable it in the control panel. This AA implementation was put in BM:AA because Nvidia asked them to do and they paid for it and helped making Quality Assurance for the feature to ensure it didn't break the game. AMD didn't even contact with the developer to say Hello and when used it breaks the game, plus it does not anti-alias the game.
:p