ATI Radeon 9800 update has unique GL tuning
updated 01:35 am EDT, Tue August 12, 2003
Several readers offer notes about the new Mac OS X-only ), which includes new exclusive functionality via the new ATI Displays preference pane, including the ability to set GL options on a per-application basis, share GL profiles among different applications, and apply changes to GL settings immediately (without a restart). The new features allow gamers to enable FSAA and Anisotropic Filtering on older games without performance issues and improving quality at lower-resolutions.
"Version 4.1 features of ATI Display, included with the driver update, includees the OpenGL Overrides Tab inside the 3D Options Pane. ATI Displays 4.1 allows overriding the settings in existing games and extending Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) and Anisotropic Filtering (part of SMOOTHVISION) functionality to older game titles that were not designed with these in mind. With ATI Displays, game players have the ability to define per-title 3D option profiles as well as option presets that can be used by multiple titles and appy changes to the settings immediately. The options apply to titles using OpenGL and include FSAA, Anisotropic Filtering (AF), Vertical Sync (VSync) and a composite control in the form of a Performance slider."










First Post!
08/12, 02:44am reply
It's about time ATI pulled its head out of it's a** and gave us mac users a good driver. In the past you would have to wait 3 years for a single minor update. This is good news, as it indicates a shift in ATI's support philosophy for the Mac. Now all we need is Battlefied 1942 and Rainbow six ported over!
MacNN.com Reader
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001
Support for other cards
08/12, 02:49am reply
Is there even a simple version of these settings for their other cards (9600 Pro) in particular? Is there the ability to turn on/off FSAA?
MacNN.com Reader
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001
Ati 9000
08/12, 08:26am reply
When are they going to update the 9000 drivers?
MacNN.com Reader
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001
Rainbox six is out
08/12, 11:05am reply
for mac. it's just not OS X native.
If you want a gaming machine the PC will always be better.
The mac is a more serious machine for real work.
And graphics companies will always be behind for mac support
Even the mac version of open gl does not support all the features of open gl on windows like shimmering water. That feature box is dimmed out on Neverwinter Nights because it's not support on the mac. It's not Bioware's fault it is not there. The last ground breaking mac only video game was Marathon. Period. That was 8 years ago. There will never be another like it.
MacNN.com Reader
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001
shimmering water
08/12, 12:48pm reply
Shimmering water can be done with pixel and vertex shaders. If anyone has seen some of the ATI demos running on Macs, they would know that Macs can do shimmering water.
MacNN.com Reader
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001