Resolution vs. Color depth and other stuff..

[aaroncgi]

I've been doing quite a bit of fiddling with my G400 today. The game in question is NFS:HS. Unbelievably almost, it's actually playable in 1600 x 1200 x 16 (1600 x 1200 x 32 will not run). It can get a little choppy at times, but not too bad. If I drop the resolution down to 1280 x 960 x 32, it's more or less smooth all the time. However, I definitely notice a quality difference between the two, which somewhat surprises me. The resolution difference isn't THAT great, I mean 1280 x 960 I thought was pretty high! I am guessing that this game doesn't really take much advantage of using 32bit color, as I can't tell much of a difference between 16bit and 32bit in any resolution. It should be noted that I only have 20/20 vision in one eye though, the other is something horrible like 20/200.

In any case, I did gobs of tweaking with MGA Tweak for the first time today. Got the card (G400 32M DH) running at 300 PLL, making for 150 core and 200 memory. My 3D Mark 2000 scores went up by 9-20% depending on resolution, except in 640 x 480 (stayed the same) and 1600 x 1200, which went down. It ran perfectly stably for a couple hours, then I started getting some white speckles in the screen.

I didn't notice any significant improvement in speed during gameplay, so I'm dropping it back down to stock levels. Ah well, what can you expect with no added fan. But at least I know it will run at some pretty good speeds if I ever had a game where it made a difference.

3D Mark sure seems even more useless now. According to my findings, in 1024 x 768, if I go from 16 bit to 32 bit, my score drops in half or more. Yet in actual games I can't tell any difference??

Sorry to ramble on, I know I'm like a year behind all you guys...

Cheers,

Aaron

[impact]

And your question shall be?

[aaroncgi]

Nice point, Impact.

I guess my original questions were going to be: Which is generally thought of as more important to image quality, resolution or color depth? And also, is the difference between 16 bit color and 32 bit color dramatic or even very significant in a lot of games?

Aaron

[impact]

Depends on both the resolution and the game. Basically, in lower resolution the speed is the same in 16 and 32bit, but 32bit looks better (because of the dreaded 16-bit dithering). In higher resolutions, the difference in image quality is not quite that noticeable, but the speed difference is. (this also depends on the size of your monitor)

It also depends on the game. I can see it especially in newer games that include 32-bit textures or spectacular fog/smoke/water effects (Vampire the Masquerade, Nocturne, NFS 5, Interstate 82).

[impact]

Oh, and yes, NFS4 is not one of the games where colordepth matters, the smoke clouds looks ugly both in 16 and 32bit.

[antdude]

To tell the differences between 16-bit and 32-bit colors, just look for ditherness (dots) in 16-bit colors. Definitely look at smoke effects and light flares.

[aaroncgi]

Definitely agree about the ugliness of the smoke in NFS:HS! Since the PD 6.10 gave me a nice speed boost, am playing it in 1600 x 1200 x 16 from now on! I figure this must not be a very intense 3D game, if I can play it smoothly at this resolution...

How is Interstate 82? I have Interstate 76, but just wasn't able to get into it much, in part because of the so-so graphics. Now if IS82 looks like NFS:4 or NFS:5 and then adds all the weapons and people and such, that sounds like a cool game!

Aaron

[Alec]

For example, Quake 3 benefits from 32-bit color. The sky and walls are much better in 32-bit.

[impact]

Now, how should I explain this... as a sequel to I'76, I'82 is a failure, but it's not as bad as it might seem.

The game has been simplified, the cars' handling is very unrealistic and because of that, many die-hard I'76 fans hated the sequel.

I personally think it is quite good. The positive ponts:
the graphics have been really improved. The engine is capable of almost anything (except EMBM, which was promised!!!) including ripples on the water when cars go thru, transparent and reflective surfaces, leaves and dust when you speed over different surfaces, rains, storms, everything in 32bit color.

lots of different cars (sadly motorbikes were left out) even golf carts and trucks + you can paint your own skins (even edit the alpha channel for reflections and stuff)

lots of different weapons ranging from simple machineguns and rockets, flamethrowers, minethrowers, cutting lasers and mining tools, oil and fire droppers, flares, chaff, nitros to more exotic ones like bolt-on thrusters and satellite uplinks

quite good plot and inventive levels (the Star Wars Death Star Run-like comes to mind)

disco music

and you can switch cars or even fight on foot

Taurus's poems yep some new ones there.

negative (in someone's opinion) points:

very simplified driving controls, cars have gyroscopes preventing 99% of backflips, but if you flip the car, you can push it back on the wheels by yourself, auto braking when going very slowly, automatic transmissions, shields that completely negate certain types of attack.

Considering you can get the game half-price or even less now, I'd say go for it. At least for the eyecandy. And did I mention the car-mounted satelite uplink for calling in orbital barrage?

[impact]

Ooops, don't forget to check the manual entry for 'asbestos armor'. that sent me ROTFLMAO

[impact]

Any favourite cars for NFS4 worth downloading? I'm looking especially for cars with _realistic_ pefomance.

My personal recommendations would be : Skoda Octavia, Lincoln Town Car 97 (looks awesome), Lincoln Town car 2000, Chevrolet Caprice (haxored from the pursuit version), Tatra 603 (ugly model, but decent handling)

[aaroncgi]

Thanks for all the info, Impact! I know IS82 ought to be pretty cheap by now, sounds well worth it to me! That and Carmageddon 2 (also missing EMBM!).

As to NFS:HS cars, there are some wild ones to download at higherstakes.com. I haven't found any very realistic yet, have been going for sheer comedic and coolness factor. So far I have the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard (drives like a Ferrari F50 except gets more air off jumps), Kitt from Knight Rider (Pontiac Firebird but much faster), Suziki crotch-rocket of some type that really hauls a** once you learn how to drive it, and a Snakebite monster truck that looks awesome! Unfortunately I haven't been able to drive it yet due to serial number exceptions, but it's cool to race against. My favorite thus far though as got to be the Delorean from Back to the Future. Even has Mr. Fusion on the back, the car is very detailed. This is BY FAR the fastest NFS:HS I have driven yet, it makes the McLaren look like it's standing still in both acceleration and top speed. In fact, the speedo pegs out at 224 mph in the Delorean, but I've gotten her up to 296 mph !! The other cool thing is that whoever designed it altered the gravity, and so despite the ludicrous speed, it's nearly impossible to get air with this car, it falls at about 10 times the rate of any other vehicle. The one downside is that the body is jacked up pretty high, so it's got huge roll in turns and doesn't turn that well to begin with.

Still have gobs more cars to try out! I've gotten a lot more enjoyment out of the modified tracks though, finally get some jumps and straightaways that last longer than 1/8 of a mile!

Aaron

[Tronic]

I think they're in this order:
-Image (3D) quality / detail level
-Color depth (always using 32bpp)
-Resolution/framerate (these are kinda marrier together, neither is in front of the other)