Misconceptions about PC gaming.

[The Wooster]

Well, i don't know if any of the PCs i've seen use AA (whatever that is, please explain) but i'm not kidding when i say that in every PC game (except Crysis) that i've ever seen no matter what the rig or game the graphics to me look too straight and jagged.

AA stands for Anti- Ailiasing. Basically, a screen is made up of squares of colour, the question is, how do you make a circle out of squares? AA does that by dividing up certain squares into triangles (I think). This has the effect of making the edges appear smoother.

Consoles do it as well, but it's less noticable because PC users tend to use higher resolution screens. Ergo more squares to cut up, so it appears jaggier.

Although I may be wrong.

Ha, nice catch. Sorry 'bout that, but I'm a "Console-Tard" so i don't know as much as i'd like about PCs.

And it's fine, maybe this should be the 'learn about PCs thread'?

AA on a video card actually renders the image at a resolution much higher than the monitor is capable of displaying (2x as big, 4x as big, 16 x as big etc) then the image is down sampled to a smaller resolution. That's why large scale anti aliasing gives you such a performance hit on busy games.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Well, i don't know if any of the PCs i've seen use AA (whatever that is, please explain) but i'm not kidding when i say that in every PC game (except Crysis) that i've ever seen no matter what the rig or game the graphics to me look too straight and jagged.

AA stands for Anti- Ailiasing. Basically, a screen is made up of squares of colour, the question is, how do you make a circle out of squares? AA does that by dividing up certain squares into triangles (I think). This has the effect of making the edges appear smoother.

Consoles do it as well, but it's less noticable because PC users tend to use higher resolution screens. Ergo more squares to cut up, so it appears jaggier.

Although I may be wrong.

Ha, nice catch. Sorry 'bout that, but I'm a "Console-Tard" so i don't know as much as i'd like about PCs.

And it's fine, maybe this should be the 'learn about PCs thread'?

AA on a video card actually renders the image at a resolution much higher than the monitor is capable of displaying (2x as big, 4x as big, 16 x as big etc) then the image is down sampled to a smaller resolution. That's why large scale anti aliasing gives you such a performance hit on busy games.

Basically it makes everything smoother. Also it makes objects in the distance a hell of a lot easier to recognize.

 

[Danny Ocean]

AA on a video card actually renders the image at a resolution much higher than the monitor is capable of displaying (2x as big, 4x as big, 16 x as big etc) then the image is down sampled to a smaller resolution. That's why large scale anti aliasing gives you such a performance hit on busy games.

There we go, that makes a lot more sense than my guess, that explains why you need so much more proccessing power.

Am I the only person who thinks that Crysis isn't really a fair benchmark for a pc? When it was made the developers said that it was designed for PCs that would exist in 3-4 years time. It's like using The Enterprise's speed as a benchmark for your regular space shuttle. If you'll excuse the incredibly geeky analogy.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

1. A gaming PC doesn't cost the earth
2. A gaming PC isn't upgraded every year
3. It doesn't take an IT genius to do
4. Software compatability
5. Patches
6. Noise

depending on the person and the computer, all or some of these points could be true, despite what you said.

and that's the underlining problem of PCs. most of them are not the same and issues that plague one person might not be relevant to another. so maybe you haven't encountered any issues but i myself have ran into media player incompatabilities that made Microsoft Support's head spin (don't comment on their intelligence, it's a cheap shot and the issue was actually quite complicated).

so these aren't misconceptions. they are just occasional pitfalls that some users fall into which become scare stories that prevent people from comitting to a PC as a gaming system.

you're level of interest towards PCs is probably at the level of either a hobbyist or an enthusiast and a lot of people don't want to invest to that degree in order to play videogames. some people just want their video game system to work like a toaster and that's it. me, i used to make boot disks to get Tie Fighter to work so i can go either way but i know that most gamers would rather drink and play games rather than figuring out how to change their registry.

 

[Alex_P]

Am I the only person who thinks that Crysis isn't really a fair benchmark for a pc? When it was made the developers said that it was designed for PCs that would exist in 3-4 years time. It's like using The Enterprise's speed as a benchmark for your regular space shuttle. If you'll excuse the incredibly geeky analogy.

That's just a hype-ful way of saying "Yeah, we didn't bother making the code particularly efficient."

-- Alex

 

[ReepNeep]

AA on a video card actually renders the image at a resolution much higher than the monitor is capable of displaying (2x as big, 4x as big, 16 x as big etc) then the image is down sampled to a smaller resolution. That's why large scale anti aliasing gives you such a performance hit on busy games.

Thats exactly how older Super Sampling AA works. Like you said, the performance hit is immense so it hasn't been used on the whole frame since around the time of the Geforce 2 (2001-ish).

Multi-sampling AA that is used today is considerably faster but doesn't look quite as good. It works differently but I can't quite remember how as its been a LONG time since I've read the specifics.

That's just a hype-ful way of saying "Yeah, we didn't bother making the code particularly efficient."

-- Alex

Which is just a tactful way of saying "we have no idea how to optimize our code"?

 

[Danny Ocean]

That's just a hype-ful way of saying "Yeah, we didn't bother making the code particularly efficient."
-- Alex

I thought Crytec were German. How can it not be efficient?!
[/steriotype, please don't lynch me]

 

[klarax]

I dont know how some people can say that a pc is faster than, for example, ps3. PC's have to run a god dam operating system in the background while you play a game. At least a console can use most all of its power and processing on the game.

 

[Jumplion]

Is the AA in the PC or Game?

Either way, even some footage of Crysis looked weird to me, but that's just what I saw.

 

[Alex_P]

Is the AA in the PC or Game?

In PC games, it's a graphical setting you can turn on and off. Sometimes when a game won't let you, you can set it in your graphics card's little control panel program.

Sometimes a game just won't let you. We're seeing a bit more of that these days because of some weird bullshit related to X-Box ports.

-- Alex

 

[Aries_Split]

Is the AA in the PC or Game?

In PC games, it's a graphical setting you can turn on and off. Sometimes when a game won't let you, you can set it in your graphics card's little control panel program.

Sometimes a game just won't let you. We're seeing a bit more of that these days because of some weird bullshit related to X-Box ports.

-- Alex

I was disappointed when I couldn't use AA in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I didn't invest $230 bucks in my graphics card (more than that if you count the fan I bought so I could over clock) just so I couldn't use AA.

 

[Torment40]

That is another thing, I know people who assume PC's are less powerful than many consoles because they struggle to emulate the last generation (PS2/XBOX). We all know this is crap but I figured I'd mention it.

I used to believe that myself until I realized emulation on Console's is done by the company that made the console they are emulating, whereas PC emulation is done by people with too much time on their hands and '1337 skillz' at telling a computer in programming terms 'Run this f***ing thing you moron'

 

[Danny Ocean]

I dont know how some people can say that a pc is faster than, for example, ps3. PC's have to run a god dam operating system in the background while you play a game. At least a console can use most all of its power and processing on the game.

Exactly, the PC has to be faster to run the operating system in the background and keep the game running smoothly.
A quick trawl around wikipedia researching PS3 hardware reveals the cpu to be equivalent to a pentium 4, and the gpu to be the equivalent of a nvidia 7800, except it's limited to a maxium resolution of 1080p.

 

[Jumplion]

I dont know how some people can say that a pc is faster than, for example, ps3. PC's have to run a god dam operating system in the background while you play a game. At least a console can use most all of its power and processing on the game.

Exactly, the PC has to be faster to run the operating system in the background and keep the game running smoothly.
A quick trawl around wikipedia researching PS3 hardware reveals the cpu to be equivalent to a pentium 4, and the gpu to be the equivalent of a nvidia 7800, except it's limited to a maxium resolution of 1080p.

Wait, there's a resolution higher than 1080p? That's PC ignorance for ya (me).

Besides, the PS3 is upgradable and the warranty doesn't expire if you do I believe.

 

[Danny Ocean]

The hard drive is upgradable to whatever you like, but all the other bits are integrated afaik, that's what makes it so small, it has one big board like a laptop.

Afaik (again, sorry, I can't be bothered to double check right now), 1080p is 1900 and something by 1080 pixels.

The 20" screen I'm typing on now is 1680 by 1050, just shy of 1080p status.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

The 20" screen I'm typing on now is 1680 by 1050, just shy of 1080p status.

I'm 1900x1200 here, which is more than above 1080p

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Console gaming now is mostly not tech savvy it seems since a 1080p tv+ ps3 alone is 1500USD, while that could get almost a mid-high end pc and LCD moniter.

 

[Woe Is You]

I dont know how some people can say that a pc is faster than, for example, ps3. PC's have to run a god dam operating system in the background while you play a game. At least a console can use most all of its power and processing on the game.

Exactly, the PC has to be faster to run the operating system in the background and keep the game running smoothly.
A quick trawl around wikipedia researching PS3 hardware reveals the cpu to be equivalent to a pentium 4, and the gpu to be the equivalent of a nvidia 7800, except it's limited to a maxium resolution of 1080p.

Wait, there's a resolution higher than 1080p? That's PC ignorance for ya (me).

Besides, the PS3 is upgradable and the warranty doesn't expire if you do I believe.

Yes, I'm writing this post on a 24" TFT at 1900x1200, which is a bit higher resolution than 1080p.

And the only thing you can upgrade on the PS3 is your hard drive. It's exactly what I'd call upgradeable — not to the extent a PC is anyway.

 

[The Wooster]

Is the AA in the PC or Game?

Either way, even some footage of Crysis looked weird to me, but that's just what I saw.

One of the best things about PC's. Is that modern cards let you force AA on all kinds of 3d games (mostly) which makes your older games look super crisp and awesome. If the ps3 could do that for ps2 games rather than making the jaggies worse, I'd build the fucking thing it's own throne in front of my TV.