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Updated
on July 12, 2001 by Thomas
McGuire
Graphics
(continued)
Now select the Page down button.
Bump mapping. Bump
mapping can be used to improve detail of objects by using
light-calculations to add depth to models. Set this to Disabled
for optimal performance, although visual quality will be reduced
slightly (You may not even notice it given the fast pacing of the game).
Setting this to Enabled will provide best visual quality with
minimal performance hit on newer Graphics cards. NOTE – Not all
graphics cards support Bump mapping.
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 Enabled will improve the texture quality of Models,
although it can cause a performance hit, particularly on older graphics
cards. Set this to Disabled for improved performance, although
with reduced visual quality, particularly up close to models.
Specularity. This setting can be
used to enable/disable specular lighting on models. While
this effect can look nice on some models, you probably won’t notice it
too much given the hectic gameplay style. As a result you should set
this to Disabled if you don't feel you want the loose the few
frames this can cost.
Reflection mapping. This setting
can be used to enable/disable reflection mapping on
models. While this effect can looks nice when you are near enough to see
it on models, you probably won’t notice it too much given the hectic
gameplay style. As a result you should set this to Disabled.
Multi-texturing mode. This setting
controls the number of multi-texturing units available for use in
Serious Sam. This setting is auto-detected when you initially
launch the game, although it may well be worthwhile checking to see if
this is set correctly anyway. If you have a Geforce 3 or Kyro 2 based
Graphics card then set this to Quad for optimal performance
(Selecting a lower amount will reduce performance). Check your Graphics
cards specifications if you are unsure about changing this setting.
Allow grayscale textures. Leave
this set to Yes.
Texture compression system. This
option specifies the compression algorithm to be used for compressing
appropriate textures in Serious Sam (as specified by the Don’t
compress setting). Whether or not you use texture compression should
be determined by the amount of Video memory on your Graphics card &
the Texture Settings you made. That said, it’s strongly
recommended you enable some manner of this if your Graphics card
has 32MB of Video memory or less.
Options available being None, OpenGL
wrapper, S3TC, FXT1 & S3TC (legacy). FXT1
should be selected if you are using a 3dfx Voodoo 4/5 as it offers a
better compression ratio to S3TC, while S3TC should be selected
for supported nVidia/ATI/PowerVR & S3 Graphics cards. While if you
are having problems using any of the above methods you should attempt
selecting OpenGL wrapper or S3TC (legacy). Selecting None
(Not recommended) will provide best texture quality (No loss of
quality) & fastest loading times, although you should only consider
this option if you have 64MB of Video memory. Using texture compression will
result in some texture quality loss (particularly with nVidia based
Graphics cards which have a poor DXT1 implementation) & increase
level loading time (Textures must be compressed before loading the
levels), although performance can be greatly improved due to reduced
Video memory requirements.
Texture rendering method. This
option controls the texture filtering method used in Serious Sam.
Options available are Nearest neighbor, Bilinear, Trilinear
& Trilinear (sharpen). For best visual quality you should set
this to Trilinear/Trilinear (sharpen), although if you
have a 3dfx card then set this to Bilinear only (3dfx
cards cannot perform Multi-texturing & Trilinear texture filtering
simultaneously). You shouldn’t have to set this to Nearest neighbor
if you are using any semi-modern Graphics card.
Texture anisotropy. This setting
controls the level of anisotropy for textures used with Graphics cards
which support Anisotropic texture filtering. Settings available are 2,
4, 8, 16, 32, 64 & 128.
This sets the amount of samples used for such filtering, higher values
will yield significantly reduced texture aliasing in games &
maintain texture sharpness/detail over greater distances. The
screenshots below illustrate the differences between None & 2,
in particular notice the wall to the left & the floor in the
distance.
Setting:
None
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Setting:
2
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NOTES - The maximum
amount of samples supported will vary depending on your Graphics card,
e.g. Geforce 2 supports 8 tap Anisotropic, while the ATI Radeon supports
128 tap. No 3dfx cards support Anisotropic texturing filtering. For more
information about what Anisotropic texture filtering can do in Serious
Sam check the article on 3D
Pulpit.
Texture LOD bias.
Using this slider you can make textures appear sharper or blurrier. This
is quite useful & can enhance texture quality greatly. The
performance hit when using this is negligible also. Here’s
what the LOD bias does (Thanks Reverend).
LOD bias modifies the calculation of texture level of
detail parameter LOD. Often a texture is oversampled or filtered such
that the texture is band limited at lower frequencies in 1 or more
dimensions. The result is that texture-mapped primitives appear
excessively blurry. LOD bias provides biases in the LOD calculation to
compensate for under or over sampled texture images. Mipmapped textures
can be made to appear sharper or blurrier by supplying a negative or
positive bias respectively.
If you are using FSAA
then you should move this slider to the Right to offset the
texture blurring that can occur when using FSAA (How far you move this
should depend on what level of FSAA you intend to use), although if you
aren’t using FSAA you should leave this set to Normal to
eliminate any unnecessary texture artifacting.
Faster Rendering. This setting
toggles the use of the r_ext_compiled_vertex_array OpenGL
extension. If possible you should leave this set to Enabled for
everything for best overall performance (Visual quality isn’t
affected). Although on Graphics cards with poor OpenGL drivers it may be
advisable to select Disabled should you have problems running the
game (Although first try setting Access mode to Compatibility).
NOTE - Matrox Graphics cards have been known to have problems with this
extension & as such you should set this to Disabled should
you have problems running the game on such Graphics cards.
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