Anisotropic Filtering in IL-2

[Les]

Originally Posted by EJGr.Ost_Caspar

...@Les... I have an 9800GT, but I get the same framerates as you with 8xS. But I use stock game, so maybe any mods influence framerate? BTW, I use to set Anisotrophic filtering to OFF, as I do not see such a big impact on eyecandy like with Antialiasing. So I grab a few more frames.

No mods, using the GeForce 260.99 WHQL drivers.

I usually have Anisotropic filtering on and set to 16X because it's frame-rate impact is minimal and it sharpens up the grass runways to one consistent level. Without it I'd look down the runway and there'd be a solid block of softened grass textures up ahead, moving away from me as I approached it, or towards me as I moved away from it. Thing is, that effect seems to be greatly reduced now anyway with Antialiasing set to '8xSQ [Combined: 2x2 SS + 2x MS]'. It's still there as I come in to land on the runway, but I think I can put up with it.

Anyway, I went back and turned off Anisotropic filtering altogether just to have a look, and pretty much got my normal frame-rates back! In some places that added up to about 20fps regained (from 17fps to 38fps)!

But just as much as turning off the Anisotropic filtering helped boost framerates, in one case (in the Hurricane), turning off the mirrors gave me up to 20(!) more fps. I'm sure they, Anisotropic and mirrors, never used to have that much of an impact just using 8xQ Multisampling.

Whatever the case, for me, it's worth losing the mirrors and Anisotropic filtering just to have anti-aliasing working on the cockpit gauges, while still getting playable frame-rates over stuff like palm trees on the islands. The mirrors were just ornamental and I see much more of the cockpit gauges than I do of the things Anisotropic filtering now effects.

I did some of my testing in the F4U and the difference in the way the gauges look without all the jaggies is huge. There is still some minor aliasing going on, but there's no going back from here. For me, this kind of improvement in image quality ranks right up there with the way IL-2 Mat replaces the default aircraft insignia with better looking ones. This info should be stickied somewhere and made common knowledge for all.

I've got to say again though, it's an absolute pain in the arse trying to get these setting changes to stick sometimes. I couldn't even Alt+Tab out of the game and get back into it again, Il-2 would just flash up then crash back to desk-top again and refuse to respond to normal closing down.

I do seem to be able to exit and restart, and Alt+Tab in and out of it as normal now though, as long as I don't adjust anything inbetween. So I seem to be set up okay.

Thanks again, Il-2's never looked better.