Anisotropic Filtering

[DEElekgolo]

An email conversation the other day reminded me of a config.txt setting for Halo 1 PC that may interest people - the game supports anisotropic filtering, (better than trilinear, which you're probably using now), but for performance reasons, we didn't enable it on cards we hadn't specifically tested. Which now includes any card you'd be using today.

It's easy to enable it, but be warned this is only an unsupported tip, and I can't guarantee how well it will work (that's the whole reason we left it off for unknown cards)

go to your game directory and open config.txt
find the vendor string for your video card's PnP device ID (I'll let others reply with expanded help for people who don't know what this means)

Nvidia users will scroll to here:
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// NVIDIA
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

Vendor = 0x10b4 "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x12d2 "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x10de "nVidia"

If you have a modern card, your device ID isn't listed below. So scroll down to the Unknown section:

Unknown = "Unknown"
//UseAnisotropicFilter

remove the "//" from this line to enable aniso. If you don't like it, put them back to comment out the line again.

Enjoy!

(p.s. - no, this isn't what I meant in the podcast. I'm not planning any game changes or updates. There are no concrete plans for the CD key, but it's your way to show us that you're a Halo 1 player, which we might want to know in the future.)

Here is an idea of what AF does.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5043/ggdsg22.jpg
http://www.tweakguides.com/images/GGDSG_22.jpg

[Daishi]

I get an image failed to load error. What does AF do?

[tj117]

I get an image failed to load error. What does AF do?
I don't. But if you still do, it's something I've noticed while playing in Halo 3's Forge mode in Sandbox's skybubble. It's when you get to such an angle of viewing of the grid that it begins to spread at a distance, with an odd blur effect. Hard to describe, but I wish halo 3 had anisotropic filtering.

I'll go take a picture of it in halo 3.

[Con]

forcing it from nvidia control panel has always worked for me

[Higuy]

I have ati
nooooo

[NullZero]

I have ati
nooooo

Uh...I just did the same thing, but for the ATI section of config.txt

worked like a charm

[Higuy]

Uh...I just did the same thing, but for the ATI section of config.txt

worked like a charm
Oh, ok
:downs:

[tj117]

Sorry for the delay.

http://www.vulomedia.com/images/2264390626733Full.jpg

(http://www.vulomedia.com/images/2264390626733Full.jpg)
I think that's it. Of course it's much worse in game...

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

ugh, I hate the lack of AF

[Delta4907]

Ignore my graphics card stupidity, but can't you can just enable this from Nvidia Control Panel? I would check myself, but for the longest time whenever I click the "3D Settings" part of the control panel, it crashes (freezes), and I have to force it to close.

[chrisk123999]

Wasn't this posted awhile back on the Bungie forums?
I've had it on for awhile now...

Edit: Example
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/Anisotropic_compare.png
Right side is with it on.

[Siliconmaster]

Yeah, I saw it posted there and turned it on about 2 weeks ago. So much better looking now. I run around some areas of Halo and am amazed by how crisp it looks.

[n00b1n8R]

Anybody want to post pics? (comparing CE to PC if they've only got 1 set or just some well known CE map on it's own?)

[Siliconmaster]

I would, but I have no time. :( Someone else want to step up to the plate?

[chrisk123999]

Without:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1455347/1.bmp
With:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1455347/2.bmp

Very noticeable.

[Siliconmaster]

Thanks. Yeah, there's a huge difference.

[Ganon]

lol wow it's hard to tell the difference until they are lined up next to each other like that.

[Botolf]

Damn, tried this with my own game (16x AF), the results are fucking gargantuan. I wonder if some tech wizard has figured a way to get the game to use AA without freaking out. Some AA combined with this would really make this all look stunning.


lol wow it's hard to tell the difference until they are lined up next to each other like that.
Lolwut.

Blood Gulch with Trilinear Filtering (http://i28.tinypic.com/slqrt2.png)
Blood Gulch with Anisotropic 16x Filtering (http://i27.tinypic.com/2lxwenm.png)

[Kornman00]

bitterbanana gained a few gray hairs trying to figure out how to get AA working. He never got it working sadly

[Siliconmaster]

bitterbanana gained a few gray hairs trying to figure out how to get AA working. He never got it working sadly

That's too bad. At least he tried. Doesn't it have something to do with the way the game renders images, much the same reason that Halo 3 has no AA?

[BobtheGreatII]

I think it gets left out of most games just because it drops FPS rather quickly.

[DEElekgolo]

A friend of mine's named dirk told me that the mac version of the game has unprotected shaders so you can edit them freely. Damn mac users....

[Syuusuke]

bitterbanana gained a few gray hairs trying to figure out how to get AA working. He never got it working sadly

And rec0 disappeared when he did.

That's what I heard, right rosc0?

[Siliconmaster]

It's the hack of doom. Anyone who attempts it is banished from the island community. :tinfoil:

[Kornman00]

A friend of mine's named dirk told me that the mac version of the game has unprotected shaders so you can edit them freely. Damn mac users....
Stubbs the Zombie for both Mac and PC also had it's shaders in their text form.

Pity Stubbs had such a limited amount of support (no Windows machine I've had could run it) or else I would have worked on a Yelo for it.