GeForce3/4 FSAA drivers

[blakespot]

I wonder when we will see GeForce 3 (/ GeForce 4) drivers that support FSAA (full scene anti-aliasing). There would need to be a System Preferences item that allowed it to be toggled on or off, with a number of other options, as per the Windows implementation.

The hardware is capable of it--it's a shame not to have it as an option on the Mac. The fact that this hasn't yet been rolled out was reinforced to me as I was playing Oni on OS X. 800x600 max res. With FSAA on, it would be quite a different experience.


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[blakespot]

Black & White is another one w/ 800x600 max res (until a patch comes out). Also great benefit would be found if FSAA were an option.


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[hvfsl]

The Voodoo5 MAC had an option for AA, but it was just too slow. I think the reason why there is no option is that Macs are just too slow at playing games. My 900Mhz PC with a Geforce 2MX is faster than the top of the range iMac2 at games. I think it is a mixture of apple's OS and that the hardware is not designed for gaming, just optimised for things like photoshop. But the problem most likely lies with Apple's OS, since the Nintendo GameCube is faster than most PCs and uses the same hardware as Macs.

 

[MacAztec]

Originally posted by hvfsl
The Voodoo5 MAC had an option for AA, but it was just too slow. I think the reason why there is no option is that Macs are just too slow at playing games. My 900Mhz PC with a Geforce 2MX is faster than the top of the range iMac2 at games. I think it is a mixture of apple's OS and that the hardware is not designed for gaming, just optimised for things like photoshop. But the problem most likely lies with Apple's OS, since the Nintendo GameCube is faster than most PCs and uses the same hardware as Macs.

Dont know about that one, but a good try. Let me see some real specs and I might agree....not

 

[blakespot]

Originally posted by hvfsl
The Voodoo5 MAC had an option for AA, but it was just too slow. I think the reason why there is no option is that Macs are just too slow at playing games. My 900Mhz PC with a Geforce 2MX is faster than the top of the range iMac2 at games. I think it is a mixture of apple's OS and that the hardware is not designed for gaming, just optimised for things like photoshop. But the problem most likely lies with Apple's OS, since the Nintendo GameCube is faster than most PCs and uses the same hardware as Macs.

Actually, the computer itself (OS, CPU, BUS, etc.) have zero impact on the speed of FSAA, done in the 3D hardware. The GeForce 3 would perform FSAA no faster on a P4 2GHz than on the slowest Mac you could put it in--it's all done on the videocard.

It would seem a somewhat close call, a 900MHz PC (what CPU, bus speed?) to an 800MHz G4, both machines using a GeForce 2MX. Depending upon the CPU and the bus, the PC might have an edge.

As for the Game Cube, there can be no meaningful direct comparison between a unit that has been designed specifically as a game machine and a fast, general purpose computer. And as for shared hardware with the Mac--to an extent that's true of the CPU (the "Gekko" in the Cube is basically a G3 with AltiVec running at 5xx MHz), but the similiarity ends there.



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