Anisotropic Filtering

[DEElekgolo]

An email conversation the other day reminded me of a config.txt setting for Halo 1 PC that may interest people - the game supports anisotropic filtering, (better than trilinear, which you're probably using now), but for performance reasons, we didn't enable it on cards we hadn't specifically tested. Which now includes any card you'd be using today.

It's easy to enable it, but be warned this is only an unsupported tip, and I can't guarantee how well it will work (that's the whole reason we left it off for unknown cards)

go to your game directory and open config.txt
find the vendor string for your video card's PnP device ID (I'll let others reply with expanded help for people who don't know what this means)

Nvidia users will scroll to here:
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// NVIDIA
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

Vendor = 0x10b4 "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x12d2 "nVidia"
Vendor = 0x10de "nVidia"

If you have a modern card, your device ID isn't listed below. So scroll down to the Unknown section:

Unknown = "Unknown"
//UseAnisotropicFilter

remove the "//" from this line to enable aniso. If you don't like it, put them back to comment out the line again.

Enjoy!

(p.s. - no, this isn't what I meant in the podcast. I'm not planning any game changes or updates. There are no concrete plans for the CD key, but it's your way to show us that you're a Halo 1 player, which we might want to know in the future.)

Here is an idea of what AF does.

[Daishi]

I get an image failed to load error. What does AF do?

[tj117]

I get an image failed to load error. What does AF do?

I don't. But if you still do, it's something I've noticed while playing in Halo 3's Forge mode in Sandbox's skybubble. It's when you get to such an angle of viewing of the grid that it begins to spread at a distance, with an odd blur effect. Hard to describe, but I wish halo 3 had anisotropic filtering.

I'll go take a picture of it in halo 3.

[Con]

forcing it from nvidia control panel has always worked for me

[Higuy]

I have ati
nooooo

[NullZero]

I have ati
nooooo

Uh...I just did the same thing, but for the ATI section of config.txt

worked like a charm

[Higuy]

Uh...I just did the same thing, but for the ATI section of config.txt

worked like a charm

Oh, ok

[tj117]

Sorry for the delay.

I think that's it. Of course it's much worse in game...

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

ugh, I hate the lack of AF

[Delta4907]

Ignore my graphics card stupidity, but can't you can just enable this from Nvidia Control Panel? I would check myself, but for the longest time whenever I click the "3D Settings" part of the control panel, it crashes (freezes), and I have to force it to close.