What the heck? No Anisotropic Filtering in EQ2?!

Slougheye · 10-03-2007, 12:50 PM

Hola folks,can someone please explain to me how a game like EQ2, which is considered to be pretty hardware heavy in high end settings, could not have Anisotropic Filtering in game?!I tried the manual override in my Catalyst Center 7.9, 16x, 8x even 4x, with checked and unchecked "High Quality AF". Nothing works.I run with a Radeon 1900 XTX.Somebody pretty please tell me it's possible because in its currents state the textures look like a sludgy pile of garbage and it really is a total motivator killer for me.Thanks in advance,Sloug

Slougheye · 10-04-2007, 10:51 AM

umm...somebody?

Melod · 10-04-2007, 10:55 AM

Make sure Catalyst AI is disabled in your drivers and that line in your eq2.ini (forget what it is but a search will turn it up). I have AA and AF running but you do have to do it outside the game.

Slougheye · 10-04-2007, 12:41 PM

I only found "r_aa_blit 1" which is for Anti Aliasing...I need Ansiotropic Filtering!

Melod · 10-04-2007, 02:24 PM

I think you are right that is for AA only. Just configure in your drivers disabeling AI and you are set. It looks sweet with 16x AF SMILEY<img src=

" width="15" height="15" />.

Bournville · 10-05-2007, 05:31 PM

Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ?

Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ?

Melod · 10-06-2007, 09:40 AM

I don't believe that AA or AF are officially supported is why. I do wish they would do it though for non PC people since it "seems" to not cause issues on any PC I have seen.

willnotuse · 10-06-2007, 01:23 PM

Bournville@Lucan DLere wrote:

Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ?
Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ?

Simple answer: The game isn't as "innovative" and "game re-defining" as their marketing proclaimed before it's release. You know, kind of like it's supposed SM 3.0 support that was going to be there.

ebonweav · 03-08-2008, 06:56 PM

Bournville@Lucan DLere wrote:

Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ?
Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ?

Amen... years later and you still have to type this command in the prompt rather than clicking a check box in the graphics options. Lame. I do find it interesting that turning off the AA settings in the nVidia panel and using the /r_aa_blit 1 command in game produces better AA effects than if you have it set to 0 and override with the AA in the nVidia controls. All the more reason however, they should just put a checkbox in the GUI, which would be insanely easy and save a lot of headaches. All it needs is a tooltip that says turn off the AA in the graphic card controls otherwise you're duplicating AA and killing performance.

Xz · 03-08-2008, 08:23 PM

ebonweaver wrote:

Bournville@Lucan DLere wrote:
Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ?
Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ?
Amen... years later and you still have to type this command in the prompt rather than clicking a check box in the graphics options. Lame. I do find it interesting that turning off the AA settings in the nVidia panel and using the /r_aa_blit 1 command in game produces better AA effects than if you have it set to 0 and override with the AA in the nVidia controls. All the more reason however, they should just put a checkbox in the GUI, which would be insanely easy and save a lot of headaches. All it needs is a tooltip that says turn off the AA in the graphic card controls otherwise you're duplicating AA and killing performance.

I feel like im a hunt down ebon and disagree vendetta, but its not personal I promise lol.The r_aa_blit command allows you to run AA via control panel choices , it doesnt change the way AA works .. its either available with this option selected or not available without it. If you put it on 1 and dont select AA in panel then you dont have any aa , if you dont put the line in and do select aa in panel you still dont have any aa. Theres no duplicating or whatever your thinking.It has nothing to do with AF, you just choose you option of AF in control panel and away you go.I do find it a bit odd they dont make a checkbox that inserts this setting that disables bloom so that you can use your panel settings but its partly understandable considering the amount of why does the game run so bad posts that they dont include a setting that will guarantee the game runs bad lol. So for the OP just select what AF setting you like in control panel choosing overide option, dont worry about the ra_blit line at all unless you want to mess arond with AA which will almost half your fps but if you have plenty i suppose its worth messing around with it.

ebonweav · 03-08-2008, 08:44 PM

Xzar wrote:

The r_aa_blit command allows you to run AA via control panel choices , it doesnt change the way AA works .. its either available with this option selected or not available without it. If you put it on 1 and dont select AA in panel then you dont have any aa , if you dont put the line in and do select aa in panel you still dont have any aa. Theres no duplicating or whatever your thinking.

Sorry but that's not true, I just spent a bunch of time today testing AA performance to see if it was different in game or on card when I found out about this setting. Here are the facts:If you do not use this r_aa_blit command you have no AA in game unless you tell the nVidia controls to override the game and have AA set in panel.If you turn off AA in the nVidia panel and use the r_aa_blit 1 command you have AA in game.If you turn on the AA in panel (with override so it applies to the game) AND use the r_aa_blit command, your performance drops in a big way because you have double AA occurring.There is no performance drop with or without AA on, and it does not matter if you apply it on card or in game. Again, there IS a drop if you double it up by doing both, as I suspect this is causing a conflict. There is also an impact with AA on if you have shadows enabled, on top of the huge hit to performance that shadows cause.If you are not seeing this exact behavior, I can only surmise that AA/ the r_aa_blit command is working entirely different based on hardware, possibly ATI vs nVidia. The only other option is that the controls in the nVidia panel do not work as they should, and the command is allowing the card to perform double AA because both the override is occurring and the system default is occurring, but that seems like a big stretch.

Xz · 03-08-2008, 09:19 PM

Sorry mate thats all wrong from top to bottom. Im not sure where the confusion lies but your results speak for themselves, if you get no performance drop then you havent enabled aa , if you about half your performance then you have.To be clear.. The ONLY way to enable AA in eq2 is to include the ra_blit line in the eq2.ini, disable bloom effects in game AND to force AA in the control panel for your video card. Miss out on any one of these three and it wont work.

ebonweav · 03-08-2008, 10:10 PM

Xzar wrote:

Sorry mate thats all wrong from top to bottom. Im not sure where the confusion lies but your results speak for themselves, if you get no performance drop then you havent enabled aa , if you about half your performance then you have.To be clear.. The ONLY way to enable AA in eq2 is to include the ra_blit line in the eq2.ini, disable bloom effects in game AND to force AA in the control panel for your video card. Miss out on any one of these three and it wont work.

Well, I'm not sure what to tell you other than that's not at all what I have seen, and I can assure you the difference between AA on and off is easy to see because everything is either jagged or smooth. Why your experience is completely different from mine I can't say. Mind you, AA in any game should NEVER drop framerates by half, at most it's a minor impact (say 15% tops) on any game or system I have run in the last 3 years. CoH for example is the same way, there is zero impact on framerate with AA enabled. Mind you that wasn't always the case, and maybe Sony changed things in EQ2 since you last tested these things yourself. I ran those tests multiple times today to be certain of the results because I never trust one go around, and they are 100% true on my rig. As I said, I have been forcing AA for several months because I didn't even know about this r_aa_blit command until today, and was pleased to see it's AA is better than the forced 4x from the nVidia controls. The forced AA was certainly smoother than none at all, but the built in AA is a tad smoother and doesn't have the same highlight distortions between some textures.

Xz · 03-08-2008, 10:52 PM

Ok mate .. I dont want to keep doing this but my last words are, I dont know how you can be the only person who can enable aa in eq2 without using the r_aa_blit line because it simply is not possible. I cant explain the appearance you see re the jaggies .. pop a couple of screenies up if you can be bothered.As for CoH I would hazard a guess that you forced aa on in the D3D panel which is why you noticed no performance impact cus its an opengl game but whatever.As for the performance hit , 15% is a bit light on, Crysis for example goes from 26 fps to 6.5 fps with aa enabled (source Tomshardware) while Oblivion goes from 70 to 39.Either way, if you get zero performance hit then you havent enabled aa period, I dont know why thats something you are even arguing about its just silly.The whole argument is irrelevant to the OP anyway so I apologize for derailing.EDIT: Mmm ok did the whole run of options to see what your seeing. Noticed something that disagrees a bit with what Im saying. NO AA NO R_AA_BLIT = Jaggies @114fps NO AA + R_AA_BLIT 1 = Jaggies @ 119fps8xAA + R_AA_BLIT 1 = Smooth @ 54fps8xAA NO R_AA_BLIT = Jaggies @ 78fpsSo, while I cant see any quality improvement with aa forced but no ini edit there is definitely a performance hit. /shrug I dont know why It drops fps with no quality improvement.Pics here if they work havent tried this beforehttp://img183.imageshack.us/img183/...q2000005rt1.jpg http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/...q2000004im2.jpg http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/...q2000003yj0.jpg http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/...q2000006eb1.jpg

10-04-2007, 02:24 PM	#5
Melod Server: Lucan DLere General Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 43	I think you are right that is for AA only. Just configure in your drivers disabeling AI and you are set. It looks sweet with 16x AF " width="15" height="15" />.

10-06-2007, 01:23 PM	#8
willnotuse Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: East Coast Posts: 479	Bournville@Lucan DLere wrote: Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ? Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ? Simple answer: The game isn't as "innovative" and "game re-defining" as their marketing proclaimed before it's release. You know, kind of like it's supposed SM 3.0 support that was going to be there.

03-08-2008, 06:56 PM	#9
ebonweav General Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 15	Bournville@Lucan DLere wrote: Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ? Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ? Amen... years later and you still have to type this command in the prompt rather than clicking a check box in the graphics options. Lame. I do find it interesting that turning off the AA settings in the nVidia panel and using the /r_aa_blit 1 command in game produces better AA effects than if you have it set to 0 and override with the AA in the nVidia controls. All the more reason however, they should just put a checkbox in the GUI, which would be insanely easy and save a lot of headaches. All it needs is a tooltip that says turn off the AA in the graphic card controls otherwise you're duplicating AA and killing performance.

03-08-2008, 08:23 PM	#10
Xz General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 12	ebonweaver wrote: Bournville@Lucan DLere wrote: Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ? Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ? Amen... years later and you still have to type this command in the prompt rather than clicking a check box in the graphics options. Lame. I do find it interesting that turning off the AA settings in the nVidia panel and using the /r_aa_blit 1 command in game produces better AA effects than if you have it set to 0 and override with the AA in the nVidia controls. All the more reason however, they should just put a checkbox in the GUI, which would be insanely easy and save a lot of headaches. All it needs is a tooltip that says turn off the AA in the graphic card controls otherwise you're duplicating AA and killing performance. I feel like im a hunt down ebon and disagree vendetta, but its not personal I promise lol.The r_aa_blit command allows you to run AA via control panel choices , it doesnt change the way AA works .. its either available with this option selected or not available without it. If you put it on 1 and dont select AA in panel then you dont have any aa , if you dont put the line in and do select aa in panel you still dont have any aa. Theres no duplicating or whatever your thinking.It has nothing to do with AF, you just choose you option of AF in control panel and away you go.I do find it a bit odd they dont make a checkbox that inserts this setting that disables bloom so that you can use your panel settings but its partly understandable considering the amount of why does the game run so bad posts that they dont include a setting that will guarantee the game runs bad lol. So for the OP just select what AF setting you like in control panel choosing overide option, dont worry about the ra_blit line at all unless you want to mess arond with AA which will almost half your fps but if you have plenty i suppose its worth messing around with it.

03-08-2008, 08:44 PM	#11
ebonweav General Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 15	Xzar wrote: The r_aa_blit command allows you to run AA via control panel choices , it doesnt change the way AA works .. its either available with this option selected or not available without it. If you put it on 1 and dont select AA in panel then you dont have any aa , if you dont put the line in and do select aa in panel you still dont have any aa. Theres no duplicating or whatever your thinking. Sorry but that's not true, I just spent a bunch of time today testing AA performance to see if it was different in game or on card when I found out about this setting. Here are the facts:If you do not use this r_aa_blit command you have no AA in game unless you tell the nVidia controls to override the game and have AA set in panel.If you turn off AA in the nVidia panel and use the r_aa_blit 1 command you have AA in game.If you turn on the AA in panel (with override so it applies to the game) AND use the r_aa_blit command, your performance drops in a big way because you have double AA occurring.There is no performance drop with or without AA on, and it does not matter if you apply it on card or in game. Again, there IS a drop if you double it up by doing both, as I suspect this is causing a conflict. There is also an impact with AA on if you have shadows enabled, on top of the huge hit to performance that shadows cause.If you are not seeing this exact behavior, I can only surmise that AA/ the r_aa_blit command is working entirely different based on hardware, possibly ATI vs nVidia. The only other option is that the controls in the nVidia panel do not work as they should, and the command is allowing the card to perform double AA because both the override is occurring and the system default is occurring, but that seems like a big stretch.

10-03-2007, 12:50 PM	#1
Slougheye Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 6	Hola folks,can someone please explain to me how a game like EQ2, which is considered to be pretty hardware heavy in high end settings, could not have Anisotropic Filtering in game?!I tried the manual override in my Catalyst Center 7.9, 16x, 8x even 4x, with checked and unchecked "High Quality AF". Nothing works.I run with a Radeon 1900 XTX.Somebody pretty please tell me it's possible because in its currents state the textures look like a sludgy pile of garbage and it really is a total motivator killer for me.Thanks in advance,Sloug

10-04-2007, 10:51 AM	#2
Slougheye Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 6	umm...somebody?

10-04-2007, 10:55 AM	#3
Melod Server: Lucan DLere General Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 43	Make sure Catalyst AI is disabled in your drivers and that line in your eq2.ini (forget what it is but a search will turn it up). I have AA and AF running but you do have to do it outside the game.

10-04-2007, 12:41 PM	#4
Slougheye Loremaster Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 6	I only found "r_aa_blit 1" which is for Anti Aliasing...I need Ansiotropic Filtering!

10-05-2007, 05:31 PM	#6
Bournville Server: Lucan DLere Guild: Dragon Hunters Rank: Royal Guard Loremaster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 162	Why is this so difficult requiring people to edit ini files ? Can we not get some form of selection incorporated into the game options screen ?

10-06-2007, 09:40 AM	#7
Melod Server: Lucan DLere General Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 43	I don't believe that AA or AF are officially supported is why. I do wish they would do it though for non PC people since it "seems" to not cause issues on any PC I have seen.

03-08-2008, 09:19 PM	#12
Xz General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 12	Sorry mate thats all wrong from top to bottom. Im not sure where the confusion lies but your results speak for themselves, if you get no performance drop then you havent enabled aa , if you about half your performance then you have.To be clear.. The ONLY way to enable AA in eq2 is to include the ra_blit line in the eq2.ini, disable bloom effects in game AND to force AA in the control panel for your video card. Miss out on any one of these three and it wont work.

03-08-2008, 10:10 PM	#13
ebonweav General Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 15	Xzar wrote: Sorry mate thats all wrong from top to bottom. Im not sure where the confusion lies but your results speak for themselves, if you get no performance drop then you havent enabled aa , if you about half your performance then you have.To be clear.. The ONLY way to enable AA in eq2 is to include the ra_blit line in the eq2.ini, disable bloom effects in game AND to force AA in the control panel for your video card. Miss out on any one of these three and it wont work. Well, I'm not sure what to tell you other than that's not at all what I have seen, and I can assure you the difference between AA on and off is easy to see because everything is either jagged or smooth. Why your experience is completely different from mine I can't say. Mind you, AA in any game should NEVER drop framerates by half, at most it's a minor impact (say 15% tops) on any game or system I have run in the last 3 years. CoH for example is the same way, there is zero impact on framerate with AA enabled. Mind you that wasn't always the case, and maybe Sony changed things in EQ2 since you last tested these things yourself. I ran those tests multiple times today to be certain of the results because I never trust one go around, and they are 100% true on my rig. As I said, I have been forcing AA for several months because I didn't even know about this r_aa_blit command until today, and was pleased to see it's AA is better than the forced 4x from the nVidia controls. The forced AA was certainly smoother than none at all, but the built in AA is a tad smoother and doesn't have the same highlight distortions between some textures.

03-08-2008, 10:52 PM	#14
Xz General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 12	Ok mate .. I dont want to keep doing this but my last words are, I dont know how you can be the only person who can enable aa in eq2 without using the r_aa_blit line because it simply is not possible. I cant explain the appearance you see re the jaggies .. pop a couple of screenies up if you can be bothered.As for CoH I would hazard a guess that you forced aa on in the D3D panel which is why you noticed no performance impact cus its an opengl game but whatever.As for the performance hit , 15% is a bit light on, Crysis for example goes from 26 fps to 6.5 fps with aa enabled (source Tomshardware) while Oblivion goes from 70 to 39.Either way, if you get zero performance hit then you havent enabled aa period, I dont know why thats something you are even arguing about its just silly.The whole argument is irrelevant to the OP anyway so I apologize for derailing.EDIT: Mmm ok did the whole run of options to see what your seeing. Noticed something that disagrees a bit with what Im saying. NO AA NO R_AA_BLIT = Jaggies @114fps NO AA + R_AA_BLIT 1 = Jaggies @ 119fps8xAA + R_AA_BLIT 1 = Smooth @ 54fps8xAA NO R_AA_BLIT = Jaggies @ 78fpsSo, while I cant see any quality improvement with aa forced but no ini edit there is definitely a performance hit. /shrug I dont know why It drops fps with no quality improvement.Pics here if they work havent tried this beforehttp://img183.imageshack.us/img183/...q2000005rt1.jpg http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/...q2000004im2.jpg http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/...q2000003yj0.jpg http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/...q2000006eb1.jpg