Supersampling FSAA in OpenGL on the GeForce 4

[AdamK47]

I've been told many times before that the only way to get SS FSAA to work on a GeForce 3/4 is to emulate NV1X rendering. I didn't even bother trying to find a way to enable SS FSAA on my GeForce 4 until I played with the new 42.70 drivers on this boring Sunday night. I don't know if this is true with previous nVidia drivers in the 4x.xx set, but there is now a way to enable supersampled FSAA without GeForce 1/2 emulation. To do this all I had to do what change one key in the registry. Location is here:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Video\{52231CBC-8945-4E5B-86AD-97D3BDE42A30}\0000]

(substitute the hex line after \Video\ with your current video)

Change this key (or add it):

"Ogl_FSAAMode"

It has values 0X 00 00 00 where X is the AA mode.

0=off
1=2x MS
2=QuinxAA
3=unknown
4=4X MS
5=9tap 4X MS
6=4X SS

Here's some screenshots with low compression JPGs.

Counter-Strike 4X MS AA:
http://home.wmis.net/~adamk47/CSMSAA.jpg

Counter-Strike 4X SS AA:
http://home.wmis.net/~adamk47/CSSSAA.jpg

Vulpine GLMark 4X MS AA with pixel shaders:
http://home.wmis.net/~adamk47/GLMSAA.jpg

Vulpine GLMark 4X SS AA WITH! pixel shaders:
http://home.wmis.net/~adamk47/GLSSAA.jpg

If it was emulating NV1X, GLMark would be unable to run with pixel shading enabled (or "GeForce 3 features" as it's called in the options).

[AdamK47]

Hello sir. Thank you for posting such a highly intelligent thread. It appears that most people here do not share such enthusiasm in your find. I do have a comment on your findings. The newly discovered OpenGL mode does not appear to be 4X SSAA. It looks a lot like 8XS. Which, if true, would disprove anyone on these forums that multisampling and supersampling cannot be done in OpenGL. I also noticed your post on the Anandtech forums crowded around other threads discussing 3DMark scores. It was not surprising there that the 3DMark score conscious people did not reply to that thread. It would appear that they do not like antialiasing since it takes away precious 3DMark points. Oh well, I share your love of image quality. To heck with the blind! Huzzah!

[demalion]

You make me dizzy talking to yourself like that. ;)

This (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=75826&#75826) may be pertinent to your discussion (except there shouldn't be issues of not seeing the downsampling in your screenshots).

I'm not sure what the basis for "no mixed MS and SS in OpenGL" is...perhaps something with sub pixel position that allows mixing OGMS with OGSS (but not RGMS with SS)? I have some sort of ghost of a recollection of someone saying something like that. If that by some chance is correct, that would explain this I guess.

[Bambers]

Nvidia said back in november that 8x would be in OpenGL too and only the 4xS and 6xS modes would be restricted to d3d.

[AdamK47]

The 8X mode that nVidia stated before is multisampling. This is some form of supersampling.

[Althornin]

The 8X mode that nVidia stated before is multisampling. This is some form of supersampling.
Nope.
The 8x is also a mixed mode.