Anti-aliasing in War3 Tutorial

[A Void]

Anti-Aliasing in Warcraft 3

Tools: Windows OS, Graphics Card Control Panel Difficulty: Easy

This tutorial will be about enabling and using anti-aliasing in Warcraft III.

What is Anti-Aliasing? Click Here

Definitions: Video Card - A video card (also called a video adapter, display card, graphics card, graphics board, display adapter, graphics adapter or frame buffer and sometimes preceded by the word discrete or dedicated to emphasize the distinction between this implementation and integrated graphics) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display (such as a computer monitor). More information on Wiki. Anti-Aliasing - In computer graphics, antialiasing is a software technique for diminishing jaggies - stairstep-like lines that should be smooth. More information on Wiki.

Now we shall begin by right clicking on desktop and selecting an option to enter Video Card Control Panel, a control panel for configuring your graphics card display and settings. Click Here Find "3D Application Settings" tab and right click on it: Click Here Notice: Different Video Cards have different control panel interface and settings, you may have to search for a similar option such as "3D Application Settings". Now let's add Warcraft III, you have to find "War3.exe" located in your folder and add it to the 3D Application Settings list: Click Here Now you can experiment with different types of Anti-aliasing settings, here are a few examples of normal type and highest type: Click Here Notice: Don't forget to save your settings!

 

[PurgeandFire]

Nice. Approved.

 

[Chaosy]

This doesn't work for me. I am using nvida and not AMD. There isn't a list of games to choose from, I can change the anti aliasing in general settings but that's not the point?

 

[Bannar]

@Chaosy, NVIDIA panel has almost everything like AMD one. Right click desktop to enter graphic panel. From the menu to the left, choose: Manage 3D settings.
Now, your eyes will notice 2 cards: Global Settings (left), Program Settings (right). Choose the right one, select Warcraft3 The Frozen Throne from the program's list, and scroll a bit to anti-aliasing functions. Enjoy.

 

[A Void]

This doesn't work for me. I am using nvida and not AMD. There isn't a list of games to choose from, I can change the anti aliasing in general settings but that's not the point?

Notice: Different Video Cards have different control panel interface and settings, you may have to search for a similar option such as "3D Application Settings".

You have to search for a similar option.

 

[Chaosy]

I found it, there were a 'secret' tab that I didn't see. By default the setting is "Use Global Settings" which I have maxed. (16x)

 

[Heinvers]

It will only use 4x though. Warcraft support limit afaik.

 

[A Void]

It will only use 4x though. Warcraft support limit afaik.

No it won't, if you looked in the screen-shots you can see the option to override Warcraft 3 anti-aliasing and force it from the video card on the game. The game's limit is overridden that means that you can have: 4x, 8x, 16x, 18x, 24x.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Too much AA is just making things blurry imho.

Without proper Anisotropic filtering, Anti-Aliasing is useless.

 

[A Void]

Too much AA is just making things blurry imho.

Without proper Anisotropic filtering, Anti-Aliasing is useless.

There is also an option to override anisotropic option and use it in Warcraft III from your video card panel. You can do that as well as you did with AA in this tutorial.

 

[Trigger.edge]

LoL +rep....

 

[daverave1212]

My life just changed :O
Epic tutorial

 

[Cokemonkey11]

Too much AA is just making things blurry imho.

Without proper Anisotropic filtering, Anti-Aliasing is useless.

useless yes, but it shouldn't get blurry - that wouldn't be proper AA.

 

[Dr Super Good]

that wouldn't be proper AA

That happens under two conditions.

1. You are using post-processing AA. This is purely a visual filter which blurs to get AA like results.
2. You are using incorrect gamma correction for your anti-aliasing type.

Anti-aliasing only works correctly if you have correct gamma settings. If you are using an output gamma setting of 1 (not recommended, has other problems) then you have to enable "Antialiasing - Gamma correction" for the antialiasing results to appear correct otherwise they will appear darker than intended for the geometry. Like wise if you are using an output gamma setting of 2.2 (recommended, most displays are approximately calibrated to this) then you have to disable "Antialiasing - Gamma correction" or the antialiasing results will be too bright due to incorrectly applying correction when not required. Both of these could cause it to appear blurry because the pixel values are being computed incorrectly for the geometry causing it to bias towards either dark or bright colors.

Anisotropic filtering is used with tri-linear filtering to improve the texture filtering result quality when viewing at oblique angles because otherwise the algorithm behind tri-linear filtering produces wrong results for oblique surfaces (blurs more than it should).

 

[A Void]

That happens under two conditions.

1. You are using post-processing AA. This is purely a visual filter which blurs to get AA like results.
2. You are using incorrect gamma correction for your anti-aliasing type.

Anti-aliasing only works correctly if you have correct gamma settings. If you are using an output gamma setting of 1 (not recommended, has other problems) then you have to enable "Antialiasing - Gamma correction" for the antialiasing results to appear correct otherwise they will appear darker than intended for the geometry. Like wise if you are using an output gamma setting of 2.2 (recommended, most displays are approximately calibrated to this) then you have to disable "Antialiasing - Gamma correction" or the antialiasing results will be too bright due to incorrectly applying correction when not required. Both of these could cause it to appear blurry because the pixel values are being computed incorrectly for the geometry causing it to bias towards either dark or bright colors.

Anisotropic filtering is used with tri-linear filtering to improve the texture filtering result quality when viewing at oblique angles because otherwise the algorithm behind tri-linear filtering produces wrong results for oblique surfaces (blurs more than it should).

Dude, stop talking about incorrect gamma, nobody cares about that. You can set gamma to whatever you like and it has nothing to do with anti-alising OR this tutorial.

You already posted in other threads about "incorrect" gamma, no need to spam it.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Dude, stop talking about incorrect gamma, nobody cares about that. You can set gamma to whatever you like and it has nothing to do with anti-alising OR this tutorial.

It does affect anti-aliasing. If you use gamma 1 you need to use "gamma correction" for anti-aliasing, an option on by default which is likely why it appears correct for your screenshots. If you use a correct gamma color space the results will be wrong unless you turn of gamma correction. Do note that I have read that AMD drivers fail to provide this setting for users forcing them to have gamma correct anti aliasing on all the time but that might have been solved at some stage.

 

[TheLastKnight]

I just found Widescreen Fix and then this thread. Thank you guys.

 

[Dr Super Good]

The gamma stuff in this thread is correct in theory but probably not in reality. I think Blizzard just did not care about gamma correctness in WC3, likely because they did not know/understand it.