FSAA/Anti-aliasing/Major resolution problem (merged)

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I read something here that say the resolution in settings stick at 1024*768, if you try to change it, it return to 1024*768.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/Spaxspore/sh42007-03-2020-14-46-22.jpg

But in this screen posted by someone here we can clearly see it's in 1600*1200.
Or maybe I just dream of the sticking 1024*768.... And if it's true we can put any resolution we want!

[Ark]

I read something here that say the resolution in settings stick at 1024*768, if you try to change it, it return to 1024*768.

But in this screen posted by someone here we can clearly see it's in 1600*1200.
Or maybe I just dream of the sticking 1024*768.... And if it's true we can put any resolution we want!

The menus/GUI can be set to the correct resolution, however, all of the 3D objects remain at 1024x768. :(

[oiler]

I read something here that say the resolution in settings stick at 1024*768, if you try to change it, it return to 1024*768.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/Spaxspore/sh42007-03-2020-14-46-22.jpg

But in this screen posted by someone here we can clearly see it's in 1600*1200.
Or maybe I just dream of the sticking 1024*768.... And if it's true we can put any resolution we want!

U CAN set any resolution what u want BUT 3d engine is fixed and upscaled from 1024x768 = u have still same big pixels like 1024x768 on all resolutions, still same jaggy graphics because is it still 1024x768.

[Immacolata]

U CAN set any resolution what u want BUT 3d engine is fixed and upscaled from 1024x768 = u have still same big pixels like 1024x768 on all resolutions, still same jaggy graphics because is it still 1024x768.

Turn off post processing filters.

[sjw985]

Did that, sadly no noticeable effect on the resolution issue. I think FR jumped,though.

[Potoroo]

I can confirm I am unable to force FSAA on SH4 using an Nvidia application profile as I was able with SH3. I have not yet had time to play around with high resolutions.

[tommyk]

Yes, I canceled my pre-order because I am a "will not support lowres on my Dell2407 nut" but this is what is kind of my last hope for full resolution.

I have no SH4 to prove it but here is what is my basis

1.) In Previews I read much about the great graphics
2.) I also always read "be aware to have finest gfx card to see all candy"
2.) now people report it runs smooth even on mediacore system with all max
3.) resolution looks like upscaled 1024 with software blur

Hmm, can it be that there was a last month decision to set "max_res_internal" to 1024 to be able to shoot for the "mass market" (like UBI-Marketing: "We want all candy without the prize. We cannot have SH4 only run smooth on 8800+ or 1950 systems with 2gigs. Development has to deliver that! yadda, yadda")

Yes, I am burned, hahaha. I guess I have been in too many Marketing Meetings over the past years :) :)

[cherbert]

Lifelike graphics and spectacular audio/visual effects offer an incredibly immersive gaming experience. Witness historical accuracy and amazing attention to detail, from breathtaking Pacific settings to more than 75 authentic-looking war machines such as the U.S. Gato sub, the Japanese Yamato flagship, and the Kawanishi aircraft.



It is this quote from the Features (Official Home Page) that annoys me.

They fail on both audio and visual effects as far as I'm concerned.

At this moment I feel SH3 gives me a far better immersive gaming experience!

[DragonRR1]

To recap:

At resolutions over 1024x768...

1. The 3D/Action section of the bridge and external views generally appears to be at a fixed resolution of around 1024x768.
2. The periscope view appears to have a slightly higher fixed resolution.
3. Any 2D screen such as the navigation map is at the set resolution (i.e. rendered correctly.)
4. Any 2D part of the screen such as menus are rendered correctly over the top of the poorly rendered 3D view.
5. There is some AA going on even at 1024x768
6. The problem doesn't appear to relate to the make or type of graphics card.
7. People with large high resolution 1680x1050+ screens will be the most affected.

The original SH3 res fix does NOT currently work with SH4.

There are no obvious user changeable entries in any config file to fix the problem.

The question of resolution was quite a hot topic with SH3 since SH3 ran at a fixed resolution. It was promised that SH4 would not have this issue.

No Dev or UBI official has commented thus far.

[OneTinSoldier]

I feel the reason for Ubi's silence is because, if and when they make a comment it will be something like...

"The resolutions are working as intended and are not broken, therefore there is nothing to fix."

And saying that right now could lead to lost sales. Notice how they never answered the simple question of whether or not Anti-Aliasing would be supported in SHIV? Imagine if they had had the guts to simply come out and say, "No, Anti-Aliasing will not be supported". That would've actually taken some guts wouldn't it have? What they want to do right now is make sure they get all the money they can before they start telling people that they aren't going to fix the industry's very first 'upscaled resolution in order to fake a higher resolution' and whatever other issues they aren't going to fix.

I hope I'm worng about that but that is my fear.

What really irks me is that, indeed, they have not said word one about this yet. I feel they have had enough time to come on out of the bomb shelter and say something by now.

[Boris]

What of the rumour that series 8 Geforces allow post processing with FSAA? Can anyone confirm this?

[Father]

I"m getting ready to take this back to the shop as well, I won't get all my money back but they buy back games.

The lack of AA support is a joke, and by the screenshots that were released prior I feel completely cheated here.

Not only the lack of AA is crap but also vertical sync can't be enabled.

I can't force it via the gfx card either.

Even at my native res of 1920x1200 on a dell 24" which is supported as a resolution things look almost worse then at 1024, seems like the graphics themselves become inflated making it look even jaggier.

Running on an LCD vsync is pretty essential and the tearing I am getting is absolutely shocking.

A real shame as I really enjoyed SH3, I even had SH4 on pre-order but as good as the game might be the graphical quality of it is so bad that I simply cannot take the approach of "could be better but it will do" this time.
Sorry but looking like this I really can't play it.

I'll hang out a little bit in hope of a solution but it seems that the issues are fundamental to the graphics engine so :cry:

[DragonRR1]

I"m getting ready to take this back to the shop as well, I won't get all my money back but they buy back games.

The lack of AA support is a joke, and by the screenshots that were released prior I feel completely cheated here.

Not only the lack of AA is crap but also vertical sync can't be enabled.

I can't force it via the gfx card either.

Even at my native res of 1920x1200 on a dell 24" which is supported as a resolution things look almost worse then at 1024, seems like the graphics themselves become inflated making it look even jaggier.

Running on an LCD vsync is pretty essential and the tearing I am getting is absolutely shocking.

A real shame as I really enjoyed SH3, I even had SH4 on pre-order but as good as the game might be the graphical quality of it is so bad that I simply cannot take the approach of "could be better but it will do" this time.
Sorry but looking like this I really can't play it.

I'll hang out a little bit in hope of a solution but it seems that the issues are fundamental to the graphics engine so :cry:

I am 99% certain that the fix for the problem is doable and not that difficult. From my limited experience and discussions with industry friends it is actually more difficult in Direct X to produce a combination of resolutions on the same screen, that they are forcing the low resolution for frame rate or other reasons. The question for me is more... will they actually allow the fix to be done?

Judging by the number of complaints I would think that they have little choice!

[DJSatane]

I"m getting ready to take this back to the shop as well, I won't get all my money back but they buy back games.

The lack of AA support is a joke, and by the screenshots that were released prior I feel completely cheated here.

Not only the lack of AA is crap but also vertical sync can't be enabled.

I can't force it via the gfx card either.

Even at my native res of 1920x1200 on a dell 24" which is supported as a resolution things look almost worse then at 1024, seems like the graphics themselves become inflated making it look even jaggier.

Running on an LCD vsync is pretty essential and the tearing I am getting is absolutely shocking.

A real shame as I really enjoyed SH3, I even had SH4 on pre-order but as good as the game might be the graphical quality of it is so bad that I simply cannot take the approach of "could be better but it will do" this time.
Sorry but looking like this I really can't play it.

I'll hang out a little bit in hope of a solution but it seems that the issues are fundamental to the graphics engine so :cry:

Have you tried changing synchronized to yes under [video] in main.cfg (in your documents\sh4\cfg\ folder)? That did the trick for me as far as vsync.

[Ark]

U CAN set any resolution what u want BUT 3d engine is fixed and upscaled from 1024x768 = u have still same big pixels like 1024x768 on all resolutions, still same jaggy graphics because is it still 1024x768.

Turn off post processing filters.

That doesn't do anything for the resolution.

[sjw985]

What's the best way to take uncompressed screen grabs? When I get home from work I'll take comparative shots at 1024x768 and 1920x1080 so y'all can all see the difference (or lack therof) that 163% more pixels makes on SH4.

I don't buy the limited performance argument. I remember hearing the same thing about SH3 and it wasn't true then, either. Now we live in a world where quad CPUs and GPUs are available already. SH4 may be a few incremental steps forward but it's hardly a generational leap. And imagine what hardware will be like at the end of SH4's lifecycle?

Developing to the "lowest common denominator" without scaleability is a mistake. I haven't used 1024x768 since 1995. Oh wait, that's not true. I used it for SH3. until the DLL-fix came out.

Anyway, I'm patient enough to wait for a solution, assuming that there is one.

[Paajtor]

I am really puzzled, why they made the GUI able to go at super high-res, while the 3D-world behind it is stuck at 1024x768, but simply stretched to fit the chosen resolution.

Why not have it the other way around?
Have the GUI fixed at 1024x768 and "stretchable", and the 3D-world at the resolution you choose.

But suppose they release a patch, that makes this possible...then the patch would also have to contain GUI-versions for every possible resolution, to prevent egg-shaped dials and stuff?

[OneTinSoldier]

What's the best way to take uncompressed screen grabs? When I get home from work I'll take comparative shots at 1024x768 and 1920x1080 so y'all can all see the difference (or lack therof) that 163% more pixels makes on SH4.

The following may not work but you can try it. I'm not sure if SH's hardcoded binding of the PrtScrn key will interfere. Anyway...

Download FSScreen from here:

http://www.simradar.com/File/2791/FSScreen_Version_1_1.html


Run FSScreen before you fire up your game(it takes up very very little resources). Every time you press 'PrtScrn' on your keyboard it saves a .bmp screenshot of exactly what is on your screen. The screenshots are written to the folder where you ran FSScreen from. If it works ok, I wouldn't doubt if you get a little pause every time you press PrtScrn. You will probably be saving two large files... the .bmp and then a .tga in your SH4 root folder(if it's like sh3 which has a built-in prtscrn function that saves as .tga's). But anyway, a .bmp(bitmap) is as uncompressed as you can get!


And I don't buy the limited performance argument either. They already took out the ability to force AA, which can cause a performance hit, which means there should be no need to lock res to 1024x768 and upscale it... in the name of better performance.

Good Luck

[DaMaGe007]

What's the best way to take uncompressed screen grabs? When I get home from work I'll take comparative shots at 1024x768 and 1920x1080 so y'all can all see the difference (or lack therof) that 163% more pixels makes on SH4.


The following may not work but you can try it. I'm not sure if SH's hardcoded binding of the PrtScrn key will interfere. Anyway...

Download FSScreen from here:

http://www.simradar.com/File/2791/FSScreen_Version_1_1.html


Run FSScreen before you fire up your game(it takes up very very little resources). Every time you press 'PrtScrn' on your keyboard it saves a .bmp screenshot of exactly what is on your screen. The screenshots are written to the folder where you ran FSScreen from. If it works ok, I wouldn't dount if you get a little pause every time you press PrtScrn. You probably be saving two large files... the .bmp and then a .tga in your SHIV root folder(if it's like sh3). But a .bmp(bitmap) is as uncompressed as you can get!


And I don't buy the limited performance argument either. They already took out the ability to force AA, which can cause a performance hit, which means there should be no need to lock res to 1024x768 and upscale it... in the name of better performance.

Good Luck

I dont buy the performance argument either, older cards are simply not supported and the base system requirements are quite high, there should be no need to worry about performance on older systems because it simply doesnt work on them at all(well 5 fps is not working if you ask me).

[Anachronous]

I've seen this problem with AA and HDR in most gaming boards, ATI users can do it, but Nvidia cant. I cant say about SH4 myself yet, because I havetn played around with AA.

[Guido]

its certainly a case of 3 steps forward and 5 backwards ........again in terms of gaining greater/mass appeal - which is where silent hunter needs to be, I think it had many gamers salivating prior to the information thats being discussed here.

I dont think the performance is even very respectable either, I am testing it currently on a core 2 duo 3.2gig and an 8800...............

hmmmmm

[OneTinSoldier]

I am really puzzled, why they made the GUI able to go at super high-res, while the 3D-world behind it is stuck at 1024x768, but simply stretched to fit the chosen resolution.

Why not have it the other way around?
Have the GUI fixed at 1024x768 and "stretchable", and the 3D-world at the resolution you choose.

But suppose they release a patch, that makes this possible...then the patch would also have to contain GUI-versions for every possible resolution, to prevent egg-shaped dials and stuff?

Boy, I think you kind of lost me. Why would they need to do anything with the 2D GUI when it's already made for all those high resolutions? Seems to me the ONLY thing they have left to do is get out of the Neanderthal age(XGA 1024x768) for the 3D rendered world.

I'm sure I'm missing something though.

[The General]

its certainly a case of 3 steps forward and 5 backwards ........again in terms of gaining greater/mass appeal - which is where silent hunter needs to be, I think it had many gamers salivating prior to the information thats being discussed here.

I dont think the performance is even very respectable either, I am testing it currently on a core 2 duo 3.2gig and an 8800...............

hmmmmmHow can you be, you're in England and the game hasn't been released in the U.K. yet, has it?

[The General]

Originally Posted by Paajtor
I am really puzzled, why they made the GUI able to go at super high-res, while the 3D-world behind it is stuck at 1024x768, but simply stretched to fit the chosen resolution.

Why not have it the other way around?
Have the GUI fixed at 1024x768 and "stretchable", and the 3D-world at the resolution you choose.

But suppose they release a patch, that makes this possible...then the patch would also have to contain GUI-versions for every possible resolution, to prevent egg-shaped dials etc.

I'm suprised that this puzzles you. The reality, I think, is this: The DEVS may or may not have had a gun put to their head by UBisoft and told to: make SH4 run on as many systems as possible. This of course means having a fixed resolution for the 3D world (1024x768). Ubisoft, like all other corporations are in the business of making money. Hence, they must sell as many copies as possible in order to help proliferate a successfull franchise. The Catch-22 is this; you all must buy SH4, such as it is, if you ever wanna see a High Res version. They need SH3 to be very successful before they'll commision a sequel.

One post earlier suggested we haven't heard from the DEVs because they don't wanna hurt sales. I suspect he maybe right. I'll go further and suggest that this maybe why we haven't had a review from Neal.

Personally, I don't have a problem with any of this because:

a) SH4 is still an awesome sim!

b) Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[tommyk]

> Maybe the SH engine can’t handle higher resolutions without suffering from an enormous performance loss.

It cannot be the core engine alone. SH3 runs fine when you force it 1600x1200 or such. Nearly no loss in FPS...

[OneTinSoldier]

The Catch-22 is this; you all must buy SH4, such as it is, if you ever wanna see a High Res version. They need SH4 to be very successful before they'll commision a sequel.

I corrected what I think was a typo on your part in my quote and changed 'SH3' to 'SH4'.


Now... hold on here. There were many complaints about SH3 being locked at 1024x768. Hence the, ahem, higher resolutions for SH4. Yet we come to find out that the 3D world is still locked at 1024x768 and is faked for any resolutions higher than that!

SH3 = 1024x768 locked - people want a higher res
SH4 = 1024x768 and higher res's are faked - people want a 'real' higher res

Now... how many versions of SH are you going to suggest we 'need' to purchase before we finally, actually, get a genuine higher res than 1024x768!? Think about this.... why should we support them if they are just going to fake it?!? To me it's a lie and a cheat. I know of no other game that fakes higher resolutions!! Can anyone here name any other commercial game, ever, that has faked their res like this?

[DaMaGe007]

I remember when Master of Orion 3 came out locked at 800x600...oh boy did they cop it !

[cherbert]

I'm wondering if its worth starting a thread to get people to bombard UBI with emails to get some sort of response from them.

Their total silence is getting beyond a joke now - they clearly are just trying to salvage as many sales as they can - unforutnatley I think its having the opposite effect as many appear to be cancelling their pre-orders.

I think considering SH3 has been hacked to run at true high resolution I see no reason why the devs can't fix this problem.

They are annoying me now with their lack of communication to this community - the release date isn't even here yet and this debate is getting out of control.

I hope Neil's review covers all the bugs and issues found thus far - I wonder if Neil has v1.1?

[DaMaGe007]

I would hate to be in Neals position right now, on one hand if he is honest about the issues he may upset the devs/publisher to some degree, if he doesnt mention the bugs he loses some credibility with his forum users.

Not a nice position to be in if you ask me.

Remember subsim is mentioned on the box of the game...ouch...

[cherbert]

"Silent Hunter 4 is a knockout." ...SUBSIM.COM
Laughable.

Where did that quote come from?

[XanderF]

5. There is some AA going on even at 1024x768


Not only do you get jagginess due to low resolution but also you get BLURRY jagginess making it look even worse. Apparently, running windowed in 1024x768 won’t solve the problem so there is no escape.

The complete lack of sounds, even compared to vanilla SHIII is also a serious problem. Not looking forward to press reviews on this one. Only Neil may overlook SHIV shortcomings due to his native love for subsims.

Yeah, I was going to say - AA is NOT a 'blur filter'. There is definitely NO AA going on at ANY point in this game.

If you think there is...umm...go do more reading on what exactly AA *is*!

Because...it's not here! The 'blurriness' is just the post-process filter...well...'blurring' the image. AA doesn't effect the "whole image", it just effects polygon edges by removing the 'sawtooth' jaggedness. I'd point you to these two posts in this thread on SH3 to highlight the differences FSAA makes:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=426061&postcount=64

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=426213&postcount=66

[Nightmare]

The thing that concerns me is a lot of people are put off by the lack of AA to begin with. Next we factor in the upscale of anything beyond 1024x768, followed by bugs. I don't think any of these are going to go over well by reviewer since they tend to be hard on follow up products, and not quite as forgiving on things that aren't fixed from the orginal version. Bad reviews or less than stellar reviews for a product in a dying market means loss of sales. That could very well mean the death of the SH series, or at the very least means we won't be seeing a new sub sim for quite some time.

[XanderF]

The thing that concerns me is a lot of people are put off by the lack of AA to begin with. Next we factor in the upscale of anything beyond 1024x768, followed by bugs. I don't think any of these are going to go over well by reviewer since they tend to be hard on follow up products, and not quite forgiving on things that aren't fixed from the orginal version. Bad reviews or less than stellar reviews for a product in a dying market means loss of sales. That could very well mean the death of the SH series, or at the very least means we won't be seeing a new sub sim for quite some time.

On the one hand, I agree that it's important to support developers that develop niche games.

On the OTHER hand, if they deliver us "Battleship" and tell us it's "Harpoon 5"...I mean, you gotta draw a line SOMEWHERE.

Obviously not saying this goes that far, but, seriously...if we don't have SOME standards, the genre will keep getting dumbed down until 'Battlestations Midway' is as 'realistic' as we can get!

(Aside: another subsimmer in Portland?!? Been to the Blueback? :know: )

[Paco454]

Ok seems you change resolution but this only effects the menu's and icons. The game however remains fixed at 1024x768 with AA not working. I tried using the keygety's res fix for Sh3 using the Compatibilty Administrator but it only bumps me back to desktop.

We need a fix for this as we did in SH3.
Anybody able to fix this?

PACO454

[OneTinSoldier]

Ok seems you change resolution but this only effects the menu's and icons. The game however remains fixed at 1024x768 with AA not working. I tried using the keygety's res fix for Sh3 using the Compatibilty Administrator but it only bumps me back to desktop.

We need a fix for this as we did in SH3.
Anybody able to fix this?

PACO454
No. Not yet. :damn: And it's why this thread is 22 pages long and still going strong! We want this made right Ubi!

[DragonRR1]

Great news about the patch!

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108143

Except that there is not a single mention of the resolution issue :(

[Guido]

I wonder if that patch will fix the carboard crew members, my wife came in whilst I was playing SH4, and I showed her the crew. She laughed aloud at the "stick men" as she called them. I really think Id prefer no crew at all, to the "RIFLE RANGE MEN"!:oops:

[Ark]

"Silent Hunter 4 is a knockout." ...SUBSIM.COM
Laughable.

Where did that quote come from?


Well, it isn't exactly untrue.

SHIV did knockout about $70 w/shipping from my wallet. :)

[Father]

I"m getting ready to take this back to the shop as well, I won't get all my money back but they buy back games.

The lack of AA support is a joke, and by the screenshots that were released prior I feel completely cheated here.

Not only the lack of AA is crap but also vertical sync can't be enabled.

I can't force it via the gfx card either.

Even at my native res of 1920x1200 on a dell 24" which is supported as a resolution things look almost worse then at 1024, seems like the graphics themselves become inflated making it look even jaggier.

Running on an LCD vsync is pretty essential and the tearing I am getting is absolutely shocking.

A real shame as I really enjoyed SH3, I even had SH4 on pre-order but as good as the game might be the graphical quality of it is so bad that I simply cannot take the approach of "could be better but it will do" this time.
Sorry but looking like this I really can't play it.

I'll hang out a little bit in hope of a solution but it seems that the issues are fundamental to the graphics engine so :cry:
Have you tried changing synchronized to yes under [video] in main.cfg (in your documents\sh4\cfg\ folder)? That did the trick for me as far as vsync.

Yes that did fix the tearing, thanks for the tip, why on earth they don't make this a menu choice sigh.

Now for all the other issues :roll:

[Deep Six]

Quick question for those who have a 8800 card has anyone tried using nHancer and tried forcing AA thru this utility?. I use it and it can in most cases get "around" the fact that some games have no AA.....

Deep Six.

[sjw985]

Well, I'm baffled. First, I took tons of BMP screenshots in 1024 and 1920 and spent some time comparing the two. Subjectively, I do think the 1920x1080 still looks somewhat better than the 1024, but that could be a result of me most dishonestly "scaling" the 1024 *.bmp to fit my screen to better replicate the size of the in-game view.

I honestly don't know what to say other than that I do not believe the 1920x1080 picture looks as good as it should. I won't hang my hat on the premise that a 1024 image is being upscaled, though.

Here's another possibility - maybe the textures are lower res, and the models lower poly, than what we are used to seeing? Coupled with the inability to use AA... which I would bet many of us take for granted these days... these factors work together to degrade image quality beyond what we consider acceptable?

It's the 3D gauge faces that push me in this direction. The gauge faces are textures. It looks just as blurry and crappy in 1920 as it does in 1024. So maybe there is an opportunity for modders to make massive improvements by replacing or recreating textures. Or maybe there is an underlying engine problem.

The simple fact is, I don't know. Is this a state-of-the art 2007 release? No. Is help needed to make sure SH4 reaches its maximum graphical potential? Heck yes, and alot of it. But you know what? I've decided that I'm not going to lose sleep over it, and I'm not going to go AWOL. I'll jump right into a new patrol, get used to the graphics, and then get blown away when Ubi or some other good samaritan (read: MODDER) makes it even better.

And that's all I'll be saying on this topic. There's a war on, and I need to report in to my new command. Good hunting, Captains! :arrgh!:

[Ark]

Quick question for those who have a 8800 card has anyone tried using nHancer and tried forcing AA thru this utility?. I use it and it can in most cases get "around" the fact that some games have no AA.....

Deep Six.

I have an 8800GTX, but haven't tried nHancer. IIRC, nHancer did't work in GRAW though, so I don't see it working here.

I guess it's worth a shot though.

[Ark]

Ok, I have nHancer now, but since I haven't used it in the past, I'm not sure what to set to see if it "forces" FSAA in game.

I have tried a few different settings, but FSAA still doesn't show up...but, I have no idea what I am doing either, so I'm not sure if I am doing things correctly. lol

Any suggestions?

[Arrowhead2k1]

AA in SH4 simply isn't possible as of yet. No need to waste your time trying.

[Ark]

AA in SH4 simply isn't possible as of yet. No need to waste your time trying.

I figured that, but having never used nHancer, I thought I'd give it a shot. :)

[Onkel Neal]

"Silent Hunter 4 is a knockout." ...SUBSIM.COM
Laughable.

Where did that quote come from?

Came from me :D . I saw SH4 in San Francisco and wrote a preview. I played the game on some gawd-almighty big screen, it looked fantastic. The full text can be found here

I can't vouch for the AI or deeper levels of gameplay from an hour in the Ubisoft media center, but visually, Silent Hunter 4 is a knockout. The dev team has covered a lot of ground in just nine months. They've refined and improved many facets of the game such as crew management, multiplayer, harbor activity, crew models, and radio traffic, and added new things like dynamic objectives, special missions, and most importantly, simulated the US submarine war in the Pacific theater.


Tedhealey posted some shots of the game on his 37" screen, he says it looks great.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=454684#post454684 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=454684#post454684).


I'm not having problems, it looks very nice here ;)

[Onkel Neal]

I would hate to be in Neals position right now, on one hand if he is honest about the issues he may upset the devs/publisher to some degree, if he doesnt mention the bugs he loses some credibility with his forum users.

Not a nice position to be in if you ask me.

Remember subsim is mentioned on the box of the game...ouch...

Nah, I don't worry about upsetting anyone, even the devs. I will be very honest but I won't be snotty in my review. I will definitely mention bugs and that the game was rushed; I said so in my preview. Many games I have loved have had bugs and unfinished features: Aces of the Deep, Fast Attack, Silent Hunter 1, Spearhead. I think one can be honest about the good parts and the bad parts, and put the whole in perspective.

And in the end, it's just my opinion anyway :ping:

Neal

[602Sqn_Puff]

Just a thought { I get my game today or tomorrow so I can test this myself } I have the game Red Orchestra , I also have a 8800gtx, when I enable HDR bloom in that game it becomes very blurry and the textures look softer, by disabling that it becomes a much better looking game, is it possible that it is this causing the game to look bad at higher res? { I can also run AA and Bloom with both SH3 and also with RO, so it must just be this that is porked }

[Onkel Neal]

One post earlier suggested we haven't heard from the DEVs because they don't wanna hurt sales. I suspect he maybe right. I'll go further and suggest that this maybe why we haven't had a review from Neal.


The reason I have not posted a review: Ubisoft did not send the review disc until 2 weeks after the game went gold. You may be right, they may be hoping to sell a lot of games before the reviews hit. :hmm:

I'm not going to rush my review, and I will use the v1.1 patch. I will mention the game needed the patch.

[Koinonos]

I must say how dissapointed I am in the overall texture quality and 3d resolution of Silent Hunter 4. As a frequent SHIII player while I will still enjoy SH4 for it's sim qualities I am quite surprised that the 3D world resolution appears to be fixed, and increasing the resolution to 1920x1200 (my Dell 2405's native res) only increases the resolution of the UI and not the world.

While the extra effects are nice (plant life, post processing, etc) - I am baffled why the 3D world looks so jaggy and less attractive than SHIII. Did they use a different game engine or something?

<scratches head>
shanec - Koinonos

[Potoroo]

Quick question for those who have a 8800 card has anyone tried using nHancer and tried forcing AA thru this utility?. I use it and it can in most cases get "around" the fact that some games have no AA.....
As I reported a couple of pages ago I am unable to force AA on SH4 via an Nvidia application profile as I can do with SH3. I use nHancer. That my card is a 7800GT rather than an 8 series is irrelevant.

[tommyk]

The reason I have not posted a review: Ubisoft did not send the review disc until 2 weeks after the game went gold. You may be right, they may be hoping to sell a lot of games before the reviews hit. :hmm:

I'm not going to rush my review, and I will use the v1.1 patch. I will mention the game needed the patch.

I find this a good decision!

It is fair to include the patch and it is fair to name the game realy needs (and deserves!) that patch.

I too find it remarkable that ubi delivered your review-disc very late. :hmm: But, hey, you got it now and thats good. happy hunting!

[Galanti]

It occurs to me to try the following when I get home tonight:

1. Shut off all graphics options (not just post-effects, sun glare or water transparency may also put a hex on AA).
2. Force basic AA (No multi or super sampling or gamma correction) in Rivatuner, or NHancer, or whatever
3. Reboot! (this is critical, I noticed after a session of GRAW, AA would be broken on all other games until reboot).

Even if this doesn't work, there has got to be a way.

I understand there is a conflict between AA and post-effects, I just don't get why the devs did not allow for AA to exist if these effects were disabled. There are a few HDR & Bloom games that work like this (Far Cry, MTW).

And the decision to lock the 3d rez at 1024 is just breathtakingly mistifying. I can think of no good technical reason for this. As one poster pointed out, it's probably even more difficult to do it the way it is now. One hopes it wasn't deliberate.

[Mikkow]

I have the game (1.0) now in Sweden. I can say with certainty that, even in 1024x768, this is not the rendered resolution when looking through binoculars. I took screens and compared, etc. It's more like 640x480 being upsampled (after the scene was rendered) with some basic smoothing applied (bicubic or bilinear).

It looks very similar to console/TV intended rendering.
The effect is very easily seen when looking at anything through binoculars.

[DragonRR1]

I have the game (1.0) now in Sweden. I can say with certainty that, even in 1024x768, this is not the rendered resolution when looking through binoculars. I took screens and compared, etc. It's more like 640x480 being upsampled (after the scene was rendered) with some basic smoothing applied (bicubic or bilinear).

It looks very similar to console/TV intended rendering.
The effect is very easily seen when looking at anything through binoculars.

Well that isn't exactly great news :(

I have always said approximately 1024x768 although I did check the pixel width on jagged edges and it appears to be roughy 2:1 at 1920x1200 which would suggest 800x600 - 1024x768. 640x480 would be 3:1 horizontal and 2.51 vertical. It didn't seem quite that bad to me.

When I've been searching for the fixed resolution in the files I've always looked for standard ways of storing 1024x768 (0400 x 0300 in hex) and have had no luck finding anything obvious. I suppose it is possible that the reason why I haven't found anything is because I've been searching for the wrong thing!

[Akula]

I am really happy about a new subsim as they are far and few in between.

I have to agree though that it is a dissapointment that it does look so bad at higher resolutions or that the higher resolution and AA doesn't really work and only hope that there will be a fix for it soon.

Thanks,
Gian

[Deep Six]

Quick question for those who have a 8800 card has anyone tried using nHancer and tried forcing AA thru this utility?. I use it and it can in most cases get "around" the fact that some games have no AA.....
As I reported a couple of pages ago I am unable to force AA on SH4 via an Nvidia application profile as I can do with SH3. I use nHancer. That my card is a 7800GT rather than an 8 series is irrelevant. Well I'm sad to say after just receiving my deluxe edition..I'm totally let down by this game....I have tried EVERYTHING under the sun to get AA working ..The best program for me has always been nHancer..Even that cannot override the the games default limitations. I have a bleeding edge 8800GTX ACs3 Super-clocked card.....This is Shameless on Ubi and the dev side...This is HOW not too promote your game guys....This is 2007 shessh at least let US decide at what Reso and AA WE think the games runs best at....

My God this is a FUGLY game....I hope the GAMEPLAY is better or I'm NOT even going to play this game untill the mods start to improve a disastrous beginning to what SHOULD have been UBI premier SUB GAME...

I just feel so let down.....

[stabiz]

I have it too now, and it actually looks worse in real life than in shots. It looks like there is some grainy filter running, escpecially easy to see when you are inside the boat.

[DragonRR1]

I have it too now, and it actually looks worse in real life than in shots. It looks like there is some grainy filter running, escpecially easy to see when you are inside the boat.

Try turning off post processing, if you haven't already, and check again.

[Bo-Bo]

System spec's in my sig......I'm having the same issue and feel let down/cheated. I really hope this gets addressed soon but in looking through the 1.1patch readme I'm not very hopefull. There sure are a lot of "Added" and very few "Fixed".

One should NOT have to downgrade to have a decent looking game.

[DragonRR1]

I have the game (1.0) now in Sweden. I can say with certainty that, even in 1024x768, this is not the rendered resolution when looking through binoculars. I took screens and compared, etc. It's more like 640x480 being upsampled (after the scene was rendered) with some basic smoothing applied (bicubic or bilinear).

It looks very similar to console/TV intended rendering.
The effect is very easily seen when looking at anything through binoculars.
Well that isn't exactly great news :(

I have always said approximately 1024x768 although I did check the pixel width on jagged edges and it appears to be roughy 2:1 at 1920x1200 which would suggest 800x600 - 1024x768. 640x480 would be 3:1 horizontal and 2.51 vertical. It didn't seem quite that bad to me.

When I've been searching for the fixed resolution in the files I've always looked for standard ways of storing 1024x768 (0400 x 0300 in hex) and have had no luck finding anything obvious. I suppose it is possible that the reason why I haven't found anything is because I've been searching for the wrong thing!
Well I'm running the new patch now and imo.. if anything the binocular view (when zoomed in) and the periscope view *seem* to be at the full resolution. Unfortunately because of the software aliasing, or whatever it is, things still have a pixellated look. I'm really not sure whether this was the case in 1.0 or not. The way I'm checking this is by taking a screenshot and zooming into a pixel stepped area and checking whether the steps, horizontal and vertical, are more than a single pixel. With the periscope and binoculars they don't seem to be.

I guess, if I'm right, the good news will be that changing the bridge and external views to full resolution will be a doddle! Assuming, of course, that UBI choose to do this.

Edit:
[img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/19/102411sq0.th.gif] (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=102411sq0.gif)

This is a 1024x768 screen from the bridge which appears to have 1:1 pixel mapping.

[rdtwendt]

I will be avoiding SH4 indefinetely, until this issue is addressed by a mod or an official response. :down:

It's hard for me to come to terms with such a drastic decision, but being the graphics snob that I am I have to draw a line in the sand. I understand that some will view this as extreme but I feel strongly that there is no excuse for a major game release like SH4, which was advertised and touted to have amazing graphics, to be without support for FSAA or true resolution switching, and certainly not without both. :nope:

Having already purchased the game, and thereby contributed to the subsim genre and its future, I feel rather cheated. I loved SH3 and learned to cope with the lower 1024x768 resolution, in comparison to the 1920x1200 native resolution that my monitor so eagly desires, because of the ability to enable AA and AF. The current inability to do this in SH4 is a showstopper, and will force me to find virtual refuge elsewhere until something can be done. I just can't allow my 8800gtx to render the garbage that SH4 is currently pushing. The game appears as if it would indeed live up to it's billing as graphically impressive if FSAA actually worked as it did in SH3 or if it actually ran the 3d textures in the 1920x1200 I've selected. Until this is fixed, I will leave you gentlemen with wishes for fair weather and good hunting. :cry:

[navec]

Does anyone else remember the devs talking about SHIV's greatly improved graphics? I do. On ubi's forums they are still claiming that DX10 might be supported in a future patch. Is that some sort of private joke among the developers? If their crack team is baffled by the cutting-edge technologies of multiple resolutions and anti-aliasing, then they might want to rethink their dx10 plans.

[Elder-Pirate]

I noticed in DragonRR1's post ( #563 ) this pic [img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/19/102411sq0.th.gif] (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=102411sq0.gif) has "16 ft" bottom right hand corner by depth gauge. YAAAY. :rock:

[DragonRR1]

I noticed in DragonRR1's post ( #563 ) this pic [img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/19/102411sq0.th.gif] (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=102411sq0.gif) has "16 ft" bottom right hand corner by depth gauge. YAAAY. :rock:

Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your post? :lol:

[Elder-Pirate]

I noticed in DragonRR1's post ( #563 ) this pic [img=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/19/102411sq0.th.gif] (http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=102411sq0.gif) has "16 ft" bottom right hand corner by depth gauge. YAAAY. :rock:

Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your post? :lol:


Heh heh. :smug:

[nhall70]

Ok Guys,

I'm going to take a crack at putting this whole 1024x768 upscale thing to bed. I went ahead and bought the game so I could see this problem first hand on my 24" monitor and figure out what's going on here. I love the quest for truth! :)

Bottom line (for those who don't want the details)...I believe that the resolution is true. If you set it to 1920x1200, you get a 3D rendered scene that is 1920x1200 resolution. I am certain that the image is NOT being upscaled.

I think there are a few things that are leading people to believe that the image is being upscaled.

1) There is no FSAA available. Many of us are accustomed to using FSAA pretty much all the time. I think this is the first time I've ever seen an image on my 24" monitor that wasn't anti-aliased. It's umm...an adjustment. :roll:

2) Many of the reports of poor resolution are coming from people with larger monitors. When considering resolution, one must also consider the pixel pitch of the display. 1920x1200 is basically the widescreen equivalent of 1600x1200...no better, no worse. But on a 24" monitor, the pixels are larger than on a 20" display running at 1600x1200. If you want high image quality on a large monitor, you simply must have FSAA, period.

3) The triangle count on the models in SH4 is quite high...almost too high for a scene that's not using FSAA. 3D geometry is being used in places that might better be done with just texturing alone if you're not going to support FSAA. Textures filter more smoothly than geometry, unless of course FSAA is being used...and in this case it's not. High triangle counts and more geometry are great, but only when FSAA is available. More geometry creates more edges which results in more aliasing (or jaggies if you prefer).

So, when you combine all of these factors together...large monitor, user that is accustomed to FSAA, extremely high triangle counts, etc...it's easy to see how someone might think there's something wrong.

However, I believe the resolution is correct. Now this doesn't mean that I think SH4 looks as good as it could...it has the problems it has. But I don't think Ubi is pulling a fast one on the resolution thing.

Just my thoughts.

[Ark]

Ok Guys,

I'm going to take a crack at putting this whole 1024x768 upscale thing to bed. I went ahead and bought the game so I could see this problem first hand on my 24" monitor and figure out what's going on here. I love the quest for truth! :)

Bottom line (for those who don't want the details)...I believe that the resolution is true. If you set it to 1920x1200, you get a 3D rendered scene that is 1920x1200 resolution. I am certain that the image is NOT being upscaled.

I think there are a few things that are leading people to believe that the image is being upscaled.

1) There is no FSAA available. Many of us are accustomed to using FSAA pretty much all the time. I think this is the first time I've ever seen an image on my 24" monitor that wasn't anti-aliased. It's umm...an adjustment. :roll:

2) Many of the reports of poor resolution are coming from people with larger monitors. When considering resolution, one must also consider the pixel pitch of the display. 1920x1200 is basically the widescreen equivalent of 1600x1200...no better, no worse. But on a 24" monitor, the pixels are larger than on a 20" display running at 1600x1200. If you want high image quality on a large monitor, you simply must have FSAA, period.

3) The triangle count on the models in SH4 is quite high...almost too high for a scene that's not using FSAA. 3D geometry is being used in places that might better be done with just texturing alone if you're not going to support FSAA. Textures filter more smoothly than geometry, unless of course FSAA is being used...and in this case it's not. High triangle counts and more geometry are great, but only when FSAA is available. More geometry creates more edges which results in more aliasing (or jaggies if you prefer).

So, when you combine all of these factors together...large monitor, user that is accustomed to FSAA, extremely high triangle counts, etc...it's easy to see how someone might think there's something wrong.

However, I believe the resolution is correct. Now this doesn't mean that I think SH4 looks as good as it could...it has the problems it has. But I don't think Ubi is pulling a fast one on the resolution thing.

Just my thoughts.

I would have to disagree.

I run 1600x1200 on my 21 inch CRT. If I switch to 1920x1200, the image looks the exact same...the only difference being the GUI. Same jaggies. Going even higher in resolution produces the same result.

There should be very few jaggies at a 2000+ resolution on my CRT.....but the image looks the exact same. In fact, I don't think there should be that many aliasing issues at all at a resolution of 2048x1536. There aren't that many in R6:Vegas at that resolution, but in SHIV, it still looks the same. Run Lock On at 2048x1536 and it's soemwhat difficult to find jaggies without FSAA. They are still present, but nowhere near the same as 1024x768.

My monitor size is staying the same, so that dispells your theory. :(

[XanderF]

Ok Guys,

I'm going to take a crack at putting this whole 1024x768 upscale thing to bed. I went ahead and bought the game so I could see this problem first hand on my 24" monitor and figure out what's going on here. I love the quest for truth! :)


Ummm...yeah, as was pointed out earlier in the thread (and can proven with screenshots), it's easy to prove the res is locked.

Make sure the below test is a screenshot with 2d and 3d elements - say, a view from the bridge with the gauges on screen.

Fire up Silent Hunter 3 with the res patch. Take a screenshot at 800x600, then use Photoshop to resize up to 1600x1200. Now, run the game at 1600x1200, take a screenshot. Compare them - no FSAA or anything. Note how different they are.

Now, fire up Silent Hunter 4. Take a screenshot at 800x600, then use Photoshop to resize up to 1600x1200. Now, run it at 1600x1200, take a screenshot. Compare them - no FSAA or anything. Note how IDENTICAL they are - especially how the gauges are quite different, but the '3d world' is identical!

[Guido]

yup, im with my fellow americans on this one.

It stays the same, my crew look like giants on my sony bravia!

[PCG SimGuy]

Here's a graphic representation (http://www3.telus.net/andymahood/Temp/) of the upscaling process. Note the missing top and bottom elements (white rectangle thrown in for comparative scaling purposes). They had me fooled as well until I saw how they were cropping the 1024*768 picture to fit my widescreen monitor. I could have sworn I was looking at a proper 1680*1050 screen. At least they didn't stretch it. That would've looked like ass on my widescreen monitor.

[DragonRR1]

Here's a graphic representation (http://www3.telus.net/andymahood/Temp/) of the upscaling process. Note the missing top and bottom elements (white rectangle thrown in for comparative scaling purposes). They had me fooled as well until I saw how they were cropping the 1024*768 picture to fit my widescreen monitor. I could have sworn I was looking at a proper 1680*1050 screen. At least they didn't stretch it. That would've looked like ass on my widescreen monitor.
Until you posted this I hadn't even noticed that they are actually cropping to obtain widescreen, rather than the norm which is expanding the view area so that vertically you see the same as 4:3 but horizontally you see a wider area. Admittedly, as you mention, at least they aren't stretching!

What on earth were they thinking??

-------------------------

In response to nhall:

The fixed resolution problem has been verfied a number of times, all you need to do is zoom into an area on the 3D view where there is an edge at an angle and look at the stepping. At all resolutions the steps should be 1 pixel wide but at 1920x1200 or 1600x1200 they are at least 2 pixels wide with means that the image is being upscaled to fit the higher resolution. As I have mentioned in previous posts the periscope view MAY be at a higher resolution.

[RocketDog]

So if you run in widescreen you actually get less than 1024 x 768?

:damn:

RD.

[DragonRR1]

So if you run in widescreen you actually get less than 1024 x 768?

:damn:

RD.

Ummm... Yes :damn:

[BananaBob]

If at all possible, no one should purchase this game especially when a company comes out with trash like this and I read that folks are, "just glad there is a new sub sim?" Why do you concede so easily? You ever hear the term, "Give someone an inch and they'll take a mile?" That's exactly what has happened here. I know nothing about creating a game, but i'm betting it's easier to make a game without FSAA? Just a guess. I don't like to get angry but this is just hideous. :down:

[Onkel Neal]

Message from dev team regarding resolution (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108470)

[OneTinSoldier]

Thank you very much for the heads up Neal! :)

At the very least it is good for them to let us know that they are aware of this issue. They should make it right and I hope they do. And if they give us AA capability too, WOW, that would be soooo excellent! :up::yep:

Hopefully at least one or the other, if not both.

Thanks again Neal.

[DragonRR1]

Agreed, thanks Neal!

This response is what most of us needed, acknowledgement of the resolution and AA issues from the Devs and that they intend to do something about it. I was concerned that the lack of response meant that the resolution problem was intended rather than a bug which would be fixed!

Great news!

[bobo]

I felt the same way dragon.......I no longer feel cheated :D ......just a lil used ;)

[tommyk]

Message from dev team regarding resolution (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108470)

THANK YOU FOR THE HEADSUP NEAL!

This is very good news about the resolution for me and rright on time! I have to admid that I already feared I have to stay away from SH4 because . My DE arrived yesterday and I wanted to decide today wether to send it back or open/keep it...

I waited for a clear statement that high resolution will be addressed. I have a beautiful 24" widescreen (del2407) and superlowres is plain ugly on it. WTG devs! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :rock:

[rdtwendt]

A message from the Silent Hunter IV Dev Team:...We have strong hopes it will include both Anti-Aliasing and a fix for the issues experienced when running the game in very high resolutions.
In the words of many a televangelist - Thank you Jeeeesus! :yep:

Also, a hardy Bravo Zulu to Neal for providing this info to a desperate crowd of subsim lovin' graphics snobs. :up:

[sjw985]

Hopefully at least one or the other, if not both.



If it's either/or, I'd rather have res than AA...

[OneTinSoldier]

If it's either/or, I'd rather have res than AA...

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. Although I can't say I'm knowledgable enough to know for sure, I take it from posts prior to Neals link that people that have Widescreen monitors are getting jipped on the 1024x768 upscaled issue more than those with 4:3 ratio monitors. So I would have to say the Res issue needs fixing above an AA ability feature.

[rdtwendt]

Hopefully at least one or the other, if not both.


If it's either/or, I'd rather have res than AA...
I'm running SH4 on a Samsung 244T (24" widescreen LCD) at its native 1920x1200 and the game looks down right fugly. My wife, who is not a gamer, even teased me about spending $50 on a game the looks so bad. I'll be happy with either the res fix or AA but if I had to choose I would agree with you guys, in that res would be the better option.

I think we deserve both however. :arrgh!:

[alexoscar]

I can't enjoy this game without FSAA. Really, I can't play it at this moment. I will wait for the patch solving this question to start a career.

My God, is incredible. 2007 and they launched a game in that resolution and without antialiasing possibility... :down:

At least, in my country this game costs less than 20€ (18$?). I will stay with SH3+GWX in the while.

Regards.

[OneTinSoldier]

Well, I agree, almost pathetic that the game was released with faked higher resolutions and no FSAA.

The Good new is, there's a fellow with the username maerean_m (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=230086) from Bucharest, Romania. Apparently he is a Dev and stated in the 'A Message From the Silent Hunter IV Dev Team'(which is a sticky) that FSAA and AF will be possible by forcing it with your video card driver...

in Patch 1.2


So as long as they are able to deliver on that it won't be to awful long from now. It might be a full month or so from now, but at least it will, hopefully, be in the next patch!

[Wilcke]

Well I ordered my SH4 but will wait for the "teething" problems to be resolved prior to loading up.

You know we ran into a lot of issues last year with Ubi's release of IL-2: 1946 which also uses SecuRom, which is built into the "executable". It produces "stutters and splutters" in the framerate which in a flight sim is rather inconvenient.

The folks/devs finally did "cop" to the fact....it was out of their hands as the executable is sent to SecuRom for implantation of the CP. All is well now as the community no longer uses the executable that came with IL-2: 1946.

I hope that all SH4 issues are resolved so that folks can enjoy this great genre. Being new to SH3+GWX I am just enjoying this a lot and look forward to SH4 and SH5.

Another point, I might add is I am also involved with Steel Beasts II PE, this Dev Team has spun off into its own world and is pricing their software at Grognard prices $125 plus you get a "dongle" for CP protection you can load the game on "umpteen" PCs but you need the dongle to play. I think now they license the dongle to run on two machines. Works great and their support is spectacular plenty of free upgrades and new vehicles.....e-sim games is the name. Might be a way for these Devs to go with their niche market sim.

Thanks guys! Keep up the good work.

[rdtwendt]

Seeing as this thread is one of the most viewed and responded to on this forum right now, would it be sensible to make it a sticky? This would help new SH4 players who may have just bought the game and are curious, confused, or frustrated with the AA/res issue. I found this thread cross referenced in another, and it would have helped me to save time and effort if it was a sticky. :hmm:

[flintlock]

Message from dev team regarding resolution (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108470) Since the quoted thread got hijacked and subsequently closed, I just wanted to add that this is terrific news from the dev team. It truly is refreshing to see a company actively attempt to address legitimate and reasonable concerns from the community.

Kudos Ubisoft!

[Faamecanic]

Thanks Neal....there is hope :up:

I will be going back to GWX until the res and FSAA gets fixed. As of right now this Sim is just downright UGLY on my 20" LCD.....

[XanderF]

Indeed, good to hear.

To be fair, healthy dose of skepticism will keep the game in its box ready to return until this drops, and I'll stick with Sh3.

If they deliver as promised? Nobody will be more gleeful than I!

[Snakeeyes]

Well, I agree, almost pathetic that the game was released with faked higher resolutions and no FSAA.

The Good new is, there's a fellow with the username maerean_m (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=230086) from Bucharest, Romania. Apparently he is a Dev and stated in the 'A Message From the Silent Hunter IV Dev Team'(which is a sticky) that FSAA and AF will be possible by forcing it with your video card driver...

in Patch 1.2


So as long as they are able to deliver on that it won't be to awful long from now. It might be a full month or so from now, but at least it will, hopefully, be in the next patch!

YES!

[DragonRR1]

Well, I agree, almost pathetic that the game was released with faked higher resolutions and no FSAA.

The Good new is, there's a fellow with the username maerean_m (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=230086) from Bucharest, Romania. Apparently he is a Dev and stated in the 'A Message From the Silent Hunter IV Dev Team'(which is a sticky) that FSAA and AF will be possible by forcing it with your video card driver...

in Patch 1.2


So as long as they are able to deliver on that it won't be to awful long from now. It might be a full month or so from now, but at least it will, hopefully, be in the next patch!

I sincerely hope that maerean_m DOESN'T mean that the resolution issue won't get fixed in 1.2. AA can't make 1024x768 look like 1920x1200 or 1680x1050. It might just squeeze 1280x1024 at a push....

I am doing my best not to play SH4 at the moment. Went back to SH3+GWX but despite playing at higher resolution the overall look of SH4 with the transparent water (and transparent desk hands), refraction, better lighting, far better wave effects (and no obvious tiling), particle effects etc... makes SH3 look rather old!

Maybe I'll spend some time with the Mrs. Dragon until patch 1.2 comes out. Then again maybe I'll just go to the pub more often :)

[Gildor]

Why don't I see transparent water? I have everything on except environment fog/clouds but I dont see transparent water.

Also, I think the water texture is extra large. This might give you an idea. (Thats me in the distance) ATI Radeon X800pro

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6523/sh4waterxz2.jpg

[stabiz]

That is exactly why you dont see the transparant water, its a part of the enviroment effect.

[Gildor]

Thanks Stabiz

[XanderF]

[quote=DragonRR1I sincerely hope that maerean_m DOESN'T mean that the resolution issue won't get fixed in 1.2. AA can't make 1024x768 look like 1920x1200 or 1680x1050. It might just squeeze 1280x1024 at a push....

I am doing my best not to play SH4 at the moment. Went back to SH3+GWX but despite playing at higher resolution the overall look of SH4 with the transparent water (and transparent desk hands), refraction, better lighting, far better wave effects (and no obvious tiling), particle effects etc... makes SH3 look rather old!

Maybe I'll spend some time with the Mrs. Dragon until patch 1.2 comes out. Then again maybe I'll just go to the pub more often :)[/quote]

You know, I think I'd pay just about full price again for an add-on to Sh3 that brings it up to Sh4's graphics standards (once FSAA is fixed, anyway. Granted, the res thing IS annoying, but if you can run 6xAA...and I can...it really does almost completely resolve any issues with it. The worst thing about lower resolutions is reading gauges and other text...and that scales properly with res ANYWAY, so...it's really not that bad).

Maybe a pack that officially adds the Med, Indian Oceans, and Southwest Pacific for the Kriegsmarine and kicks the graphics up to Sh4-level. I'd pay retail price for that!

[Grobschnitt]

I'm not holding my beath for a fix, there are so many bugs missing features that the devs will not have time/money to fix all of it all..

[Ark]

After checking out osme other games, if I had to choose between resolution OR FSAA, I would choose FSAA.

There is a higher likelihood the community can mod the resolution. I doubt the community could integrate FSAA since there is a very good chance it is directly related to the engine.

In addiiton, higher resolution without FSAA still looks like a mess, IMO Which is why I used the resolution hack AND fsaa in SH3). In all honesty, you can't really have one without the other in terms of looks. If we only had FSAA the resolution would still be low and peope with LCDs would not get to true in native-res. If we only had high resolution, jaggies would still be present and those who run at lower resolution would still get the short end of the stick. IMO, you really need to have both options available so everybody can benefit in their own way.

[DragonRR1]

After checking out osme other games, if I had to choose between resolution OR FSAA, I would choose FSAA.

There is a higher likelihood the community can mod the resolution. I doubt the community could integrate FSAA since there is a very good chance it is directly related to the engine.

In addiiton, higher resolution without FSAA still looks like a mess, IMO Which is why I used the resolution hack AND fsaa in SH3). In all honesty, you can't really have one without the other in terms of looks. If we only had FSAA the resolution would still be low and peope with LCDs would not get to true in native-res. If we only had high resolution, jaggies would still be present and those who run at lower resolution would still get the short end of the stick. IMO, you really need to have both options available so everybody can benefit in their own way.
I can't say that modding the resolution isn't possible but it probably won't be easy. As I have mentioned I *think* that some 3D views such as the periscope view are at a higher resolution which would make the forced resolution settings harder to find. I have some programming and modding experience and I have had a really good look through the files for anything forcing the resolution, there is nothing obvious and I've already tried changing the most obvious entries, including a few in the main .exe file, to no affect. The SH3 res fix doesn't have any affect in SH4 but it does work with other games where the WHOLE screen resolution is fixed (according to the author). http://www.kegetys.net/misc/

People like myself with largish screens capable of 1920x1200, 1680x1050 or 1600x1200 even 16x AA on 1024x768 would be awful. As you say ideally we need both high res AND the ability to do H/W AA but for I would MUCH rather have full res than AA if I had to choose between them.

The smaller the dot pitch of your screen the less you need AA. Obviously if you have a dot pitch smaller than the eye can see then you don't need AA at all. I have a 17" laptop with a resolution of 1920x1200 the pixels are so tiny that AA would be almost worthless. For SH4 and gaming I use a 27" Dell with a dot pitch of about 0.3 which means that a pixel is fairly noticeable but I still tend not to bother with AA at full resolution if I have to sacrifice FPS for it.

For people with 1080P 40-60" TV's high res isn't enough.. a 46" is 0.5mm and a 57" is about 0.7mm so jagged edges would be pretty obvious. This is also true for people with lower resolution but relatively large screens.

[nhall70]

Generally speaking, I would have to agree with Ark.

When forced to make a choice, I typically run at the highest resolution I can afford (performance wise) AFTER I've cranked FSAA all the way up.

However, in the end they are both very important for good image quality (if you're in to that kind of thing).

Here's to running SH4 at 1920x1200 with x16Q...it will be a sight to behold!

[SteamWake]

Generally speaking, I would have to agree with Ark.

When forced to make a choice, I typically run at the highest resolution I can afford (performance wise) AFTER I've cranked FSAA all the way up.

However, in the end they are both very important for good image quality (if you're in to that kind of thing).

Here's to running SH4 at 1920x1200 with x16Q...it will be a sight to behold!

Would

[Ark]

Generally speaking, I would have to agree with Ark.

When forced to make a choice, I typically run at the highest resolution I can afford (performance wise) AFTER I've cranked FSAA all the way up.

However, in the end they are both very important for good image quality (if you're in to that kind of thing).

Here's to running SH4 at 1920x1200 with x16Q...it will be a sight to behold!

Would

???

[rdtwendt]

Another request to sticky this thread!

[Gizzmoe]

Another request to sticky this thread!

What for? The devs and the rest of the world already knows that AA doesn´t work and the devs wrote that they "have strong hopes it [patch 1.2] will include both Anti-Aliasing and a fix for the issues experienced when running the game in very high resolutions."

[rdtwendt]

Another request to sticky this thread!
What for? The devs and the rest of the world already knows that AA doesn´t work and the devs wrote that they "have strong hopes it [patch 1.2] will include both Anti-Aliasing and a fix for the issues experienced when running the game in very high resolutions."
It's quite simple. Having this thread stickied makes it easier for people who just purchased the game and are having the graphical problems described herein to realize that a) everyone else is unable to enable FSAA and proper resolution and b) there is hopefully going to be a fix out in patch 1.2.

When I first turned on the game, I was worried it may have been a problem with my 880gtx and 680i mb. I looked through the forums and found this thread, the one I really needed to see, after searching for quite some time and finding a crosslink to it by Neal.

It's also worth noting that this thread has more replies and has been viewed more times than just about any other thread in this forums right now. That seems pretty deserving of a sticky if you ask me. :know:

[Gizzmoe]

Actually it´s time to close this thread, the main reason is that this topic has been discussed to death, the second reason is that threads with a many replies put a large strain on the forum database/server, due to the way the forum software works.

I´ve added a link to this thread to the "Technical Help and Questions" sticky.