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Posted
on August 22, 2001 by Thomas
McGuire
Display Settings Optimization
Filtering
Mode. This option controls the texture filtering method
used in Max Payne. Options available are Bilinear, Trilinear &
Anisotropic. For best visual quality you should set this to Anisotropic,
although with many Graphics Cards the performance hit from this may be too
severe, in which case set it to Trilinear instead. Those with 3dfx Cards
are recommended to set this to Bilinear only as they cannot
perform Multi-texturing & Trilinear texture filtering simultaneously (&
don’t support Anisotropic filtering at all). Most other Graphics Cards should
be able to use Trilinear without issue. Anisotropic filtering will
yield significantly reduced texture aliasing in games & maintain texture
sharpness/detail over greater distances. The screenshots below illustrate each
of the Filtering modes in operation (In particular pay attention to the ground
texture).
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Bilinear
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Trilinear
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Anisotropic
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As you can see, Anisotropic
Texture Filtering yields best image quality, so if performance isn’t really an
issue then you should select it. This will also eliminate much texture
shimmering & other such artefacts.
Texture Color Depth.
This
setting controls the quality of textures used in Max Payne. 32 Bit will
provide best quality for textures used in the game, although this will also
consume the greatest amount of video memory, as a result you shouldn't select
this option unless you have a Graphics card with 32MB video memory or greater
(Or supports AGP Texturing). Using 16 Bit will provide the best texture
quality/performance trade off & will also consume less Video memory as a
result.
Antialiasing.
From this drop-down menu you can choose what level of FSAA to use in Max Payne,
or to disable it by selecting Off. For further information on FSAA
be sure to check out our respective Graphics Card tweak guide. NOTE – With
certain Graphics Cards that support FSAA you may find only Off available
due to Driver issues (Lack of DirectX 8 compliance), in which case you’ll need
to obtain an updated Driver.
Level
Geometry. This slider controls the LOD (Level Of
Detail) used for dynamic lighting effects in Max Payne. Setting this to Medium
or High will use more detailed lighting from such light sources, e.g. Weapon
fire. Those with Hardware T&L supporting Graphics Cards &/or a fast CPU
should set this to High,
while those with slower CPUs should set this to Medium,
or Low for minimum
specification systems.
Level
Textures. This setting controls the resolution of textures used for
levels. The further this slider is to the Right the sharper the textures
used for levels in the game will appear, although performance can be lowered
(Especially on low Video memory Graphics Cards). The Lower the setting
the more blurred level textures will appear. If you intend to use High
resolution textures be sure you have AGP Texturing enabled in the BIOS
&/or a Graphics Card with 32MB or more of Video memory.
Other
Textures. This setting controls the resolution of textures used for
player & weapon models. The further this slider is to the Right the
sharper the textures used for player & weapon models in the game will
appear, although performance can be lowered (Especially on low Video memory
Graphics Cards). The Lower the setting the more blurred player &
weapon model textures will appear. If you intend to use High resolution
textures be sure you have AGP Texturing enabled in the BIOS &/or a
Graphics Card with 32MB or more of Video memory.
Detail
Textures. A detail texture is a very small, fine pattern
that is faded in as you approach a surface, for example wood grain, or
imperfections in stone. Setting this to High will improve visual
quality by enabling the use of detail textures, although it will cause a
performance hit, particularly on older Graphics Cards. Set this to Medium/Low
to disable the use of detail textures for improved performance, although
with reduced visual quality as a result.
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