AA and HDR

[bagman 0]

Hi there

The conventional wisdom when it comes to HDR and Anti-Aliasing is that this combination does not work for Nvidia card users. It's either one or the other.

Does this apply to ArmA ??

When enabling AA within game it appears that it's working but not sure about HDR.

I note that there is a arma.cfg file within the ARMA folder in My Docs. Within the arma.cfg file there is an entry for HDR that has a value of 8. Can you disable HDR by changing that value to " 0 " ??

cheers

[JimLad 0]

The value you refer to is the number of bits precision to calculate HDR lighting, so by default it is 8-bit but you can increase to 16-bit.

I have an 8800 and HDR works fine with AA

[bagman 0]

I believe the 8800 series are the only Nvidia cards that let you enable both HDR and AA.

I'm running a 7950GX2 so will not work for me.

As to the value that I mentioned for HDR lighting, I see your point but to disable HDR do you make the value " 0 " ??

cheers

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Works great on 8800, not sure for 7*** you might be in the oblivion boat of no HDR if aa, or the HL2 boat of both but HDR is odd.

[troop 0]

Now, wait a second.

I have an 7800 GS+ AGP card. When it is common knowledge,

that HDR + AA does not work on this card together, how

does ArmA handle it?

I cannot use AA anyway, because the hit on performance would be to severe

(I guess..did not even try)

But, does this have technical (hardware) or software (driver)

related reason? Or are 7xxx capable of applying both..at all?

-

I am asking, because if it is true (yes, confirmed) that HDR

cannot be disabled with ArmA(just quality/precision), so AA

*will* be forced *off* for 7xxx cards?

Devs, please shine a light on how ArmA truly handles this, thanks.

[neildood 0]

I have a 7900GS and it runs HDR and AA at the same time, runs better after i done a complete system reinstall

and there is already topics been posted in past

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=57049

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=58187

[Dwarden 1125]

it depends if You use 8 bit or 16 bit HDR ...

16bit one should only work with 8xxx NVIDIA serie ...

[neildood 0]

it depends if You use 8 bit or 16 bit HDR ...

16bit one should only work with 8xxx NVIDIA serie ...

Yea 8 bit works with AA which looks nice, like it has been said when you go to 16 it switches off AA (for 7900) but at default 8bit it looks nice.

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Now, wait a second.

I have an 7800 GS+ AGP card. When it is common knowledge,

that HDR + AA does not work on this card together, how

does ArmA handle it?

Confirmed now in this post works with 7 seires and arma at 8 bit.

It does not work in oblivion, or does if you have no AA set. It's the one thing nvidia messed up' on the 7 series. The 8 series does AA and HDR but is missing video input lol

So my 7 series is still being used in another machine.

Get a feature back lose another, that's GPU's for you.

[-=seany=- 5]

I too have a 7800gs 256mb. I didn't think you could turn HDR off in Arma but I can run with AA on. However..it costs too many FPS.

Troop. What sort of cpu/ how much Ram have you? what settings do you run Arma ? and what frames do you get.

Your the first other person I have noticed here with a 7800gs, so Im curious as to your performance etc in Arma

[troop 0]

@ -=seany=-

Numbers are with HDR=8; with 16

everything is 2-5 FPS slower.

-

With 256MB and also somewhat reduced

features (pipelines) of your card,

you may have to aim your res one notch

down from mine below and also keep

viewrange below 1000-1200m.

Thats without knowing your CPU or

RAM-size. So, it will highly

depend, if you see similar results.

I suggest, you also read the

'800700e' thread and setup accordingly

for stability and prolonged play.

Above all..have fun!

-

WinXP SP2

Opteron 165 @ 2.8GHz

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinium with 2 GB G-Skill (HZ)

7800GS+ 512MB AGPx8 (G71 core; as in 7900GT PCIe)

driver 93.81b

I'm tweaking Arma 'on the fly' wether I'm on ground or

flying.

Flying:

2048x1526 @2000-3000m vr

Terrain: Very low

Objects: Low

Textures: Normal

Shading: Low

Postprocess: Low

AF: Very high

Shadows: Low

AA: Disabled

FPS: Cobra, 25m, full speed, all terrain..and looking good!

City or heavy forrest-medium-deserts

19-24-35

---

Ground:

1280x960 @800-1200m vr

Terrain: Normal

Objects: Normal

Textures: Normal

Shading: Normal

Postprocess: Low

AF: Very high

Shadows: Normal

AA: Disabled

FPS: Note; FPS on ground

and those below are *without* action or AI,

just running around in Paraiso, including heavy foliage.

21-37-47

-

Patch 1.05 did improve performance for me (from 1.02 coming) very much.

Slightly higher FPS with a notch higher settings; but waaay smoother

terrain/foliage loading. Definetely.

-

I also could set up everything -except postprocess- and AA to 'Very high'

and even while I got almost the same FPS as with Normal, it feels

not 'smooth' enough. Plus, I run into 8007000E territory..

So, for now, happy soldier/pilot over here!

[sailindawg 0]

@ bagman

I'm running a 7950 X2 as well. What I find that works best for the HDR lighting, is to change the value of the HDR in the arma.cfg to 16. The 16 bit HDR automatically disables the AA. I don't use AA anyways, too much of a performance hit. I get around the jaggies by using a higher resolution.

Using 16 bit HDR seems to keep the HDR from being overly reactive. What I get instead of the blinding light, is a very subtle natural lighting effect. Much more natural than the 8 bit HDR. Night shadows also look much more improved.

I hope this helps.

[bagman 0]

@ bagman

I'm running a 7950 X2 as well.  What I find that works best for the HDR lighting, is to change the value of the HDR in the arma.cfg to 16.  The 16 bit HDR automatically disables the AA.  I don't use AA anyways, too much of a performance hit.  I get around the jaggies by using a higher resolution.

Using 16 bit HDR seems to keep the HDR from being overly reactive.  What I get instead of the blinding light, is a very subtle natural lighting effect.  Much more natural than the 8 bit HDR.  Night shadows also look much more improved.

I hope this helps.

Sailindawg....thanks for the reply.

I'll certainly try your suggestions and see if any difference.

I assume that after altering the HDR value to 16 yu have to make the .cfg file "read only" to make it "stick" ??

I would also like to thank all you guys for replying and offerings tips and advice

Greatly appreciated

cheers

[sailindawg 0]

Quote[/b] ]I assume that after altering the HDR value to 16 yu have to make the .cfg file "read only" to make it "stick" ??

Nope. You do not have to make it read only. BIS has programmed HDR to use either 8 bit or 16 bit. The game will not overwrite the change.

One other note, I'm using the 91.47 drivers and made a SLI profile using nHancer. I use AFR SLI mode. I find the 91.47 driver to be about the fastest and very good IQ compared to either the 93.71 or the 93.81. The 91.47's are also not bugged when it comes to Coolbits. The 93.81's are the worst. I haven't tried the 94.20's or the 100.x with the modified .inf file.

[bagman 0]

One other note, I'm using the 91.47 drivers and made a SLI profile using nHancer.  I use AFR SLI mode.  I find the 91.47 driver to be about the fastest and very good IQ compared to either the 93.71 or the 93.81.  The 91.47's are also not bugged when it comes to Coolbits.  The 93.81's are the worst.  I haven't tried the 94.20's or the 100.x with the modified .inf file.

Thanks for that.

I'm using the 93.81's and having no issues.

Might try those 91.47's, though I note they have a Sep 2006 issue date.

Which AFR mode are yu using AFR 1 or AFR 2 ?

I generally find AFR 2 the better of the 2 and compatible with most games.

FYI, I never use nHancer, just create a profile using the nVidia Control Panel

cheers

[smellyjelly 0]

I'm using a 6600GT, and HDR and AA appear to be working at the same time.

[sailindawg 0]

Quote[/b] ]I'm using the 93.81's and having no issues.

Might try those 91.47's, though I note they have a Sep 2006 issue date.

Which AFR mode are yu using AFR 1 or AFR 2 ?

I generally find AFR 2 the better of the 2 and compatible with most games.

FYI, I never use nHancer, just create a profile using the nVidia Control Panel

Don't let the "date" of the 91.47's put you off. They are pretty decent drivers. They support the GX2 pretty well. The only thing they don't have are whatever game optimizations the 93.71's & the 93.81's. There's no ARMA optimizations in any of them. Actually, the 93.71's weren't that bad. Coolbits seemed to work fine. It was the .81's that are borked regarding coolbits.

I use SLI mode AFR 1 for ARMA and do not use any flags that are shown in the nHancer GUI. I find that AFR 1 runs ARMA best. I should try AFR 2 again since the 1.05 patch.

Regarding nHancer, it's a really good program for editing nVidia game profiles. It backs everything up and you can't go wrong with it. I have just found that the nVidia user CP seems kind of hit or miss when setting up game profiles since the late 8x.xx drivers. Once I got the GX2 this past fall, I started using nHancer. The newest version is very sweet. Give it a try.