What will look better ? (video setup option question)

[chimpmunk]

Question is, how to set up my video options so the game looks the best,
I usually at it set at the automatic settings wich are: Model detail, texture detail, shadow detail al at high (and shader at low) with no antialiasing.

However, I've just discovered the wonders of antialiasing (expecially 4x) and I'm thinking about dropping everything to medium (tested it, no real loss of frames) so I may have less quality on close stuff, but overrally, the game should look better,
what do you think?

 

[chizzler]

Check out the tweak guide for HL2 at

http://www.tweakguides.com/

They are very helpful, hare geared towards the technical and non-tecnical alike, and are also extremely thorough.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

What are your system specs?

 

[FreemanHL2]

shader detail is perhaps the only thing that should be left at high always... shaders are the most important part of all gaming engines, SHADERS ON HIGH! lol I personally prefer to run everything at high with no anti-aliasing... its simply not worth lowering the texture res that much...

 

[Solver]

I find, personally, and this is not just with HL2, that a big leap in quality is achieved by going from no AA to 2x AA. Experimenting with settings, I find that in all games some places just look off without AA. I ran FEAR on all high settings, but no AA - certain things and objects simply looked wrong, all those jaggies. Set AA to 2x, the effect is almost entirely eliminated. So I think generally turning AA on provides a better leap in quality than any other single option.

That said, you won't notice a huge difference between 2x AA and 4x AA, particularly at higher resolutions. I'd rather have 2x AA and high textures than, say, 4x AA and medium textures.

 

[The Brick]

I prefer AF over AA.

 

[SPARTACVS]

Lately I've been realizing just how much I can squeeze out of my old system. On a 6600GT with 1gb of RAM, I used to just use 1024x768 because I didn't know any better, now I've found that I can run Ep1 in 1280x720 widescreen with everything High, HDR, Color Correction, and still manage to have 4xAA and 8xAF with pretty playable framerates. Even on a 4:3 monitor I would rather use 1280x720 instead of filling the screen with 1280x960 because it runs smoother (a few thousand less pixels) and you get a wider viewing angle which helps. On HL2 it has even more playable fps than Ep1 (With HDR in that game I occasionally get random drops into the 30s-mid 20s). Anyone else use the same settings? How does it run?

 

[Operational]

I normally prefer an increase in resolution over a high AA

 

[SPARTACVS]

I normally prefer an increase in resolution over a high AA

What resolution do you currently use for how big a monitor?

 

[Operational]

Well for newer games I don't have much of a choice but for less demanding games (ie HL:S) I choose a max resolution of 1680x1050 over a lower resolution with AA turned up. My monitor is an LCD widescreen with dimensions of 21x33cm.

The other graphics details I set as high as I can after I choose my resolution.