How to apply Antialiasing (AA) in Grand Theft Auto IV or Episodes from Liberty City

 

Note: Nvidia Cards only

 

This is using FXAA, Nvidia's form of AA. I'm using a GTX 680 Super Clocked edition. FXAA will work on most Nvidia cards, both old and new.

 

Hey everyone.

 

Some of you may already know this, and some of you may not. I've created this topic so that those of you that didn't know this, can.

 

As most of you know, ever since the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the game hasn't supported Antialiasing (or AA for short). Antialiasing basically gets rid of jagged edges around corners.

 

For those of you that would like an example on what it looks like with/without for comparison, look at this:  http://www.gamedev.ru/files/images/taa_vs_noaa.jpg

 

Not the best example, I know. But it may give you an idea. FXAA doesn't show in screenshots, so making comparison screenshots wouldn't work.

 

If you look at the picture, you will notice that with AA, edges will be smoothed out, and less pixilated. AA will help make lower resolutions more bearable, and make maximum resolutions look even better.

 

 

So, you're probably wondering how to do this, right?

 

Again, I think this only works on Nvidia's series of cards, but I'm sure there's another guide AMD users will be able to use to get AA as well. On the bottom, look under 'Additions', it will show other methods

 

of AA for non-Nvidia cards, posted by other members in this topic. Many thanks to them.

 

*Skip this part if you already have Nvidia System Tools*

 

First, download Nvidia System Tools if you haven't already: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.02.html

 

Note: During installation, I recommend that you select 'create shortcuts' if you're given the option. This will make going in/out much easier and faster.

 

Install it to your preferred folder.

 

Now you're caught up,

 

*Skip to here if you already have Nvidia System Tools*

 

Open NVIDIA Control Panel.

 

Go under 3D Settings (located at the top left), and click on Manage 3D Settings.

 

Now go over to Program Settings. Under 'Select a program to customize:' find your GTA IV or EFLC .exe

 

For me, my EFLC .exe is named eflc.exe. In order to find your .exe, you may need to hit 'Add' next to 'Select a program to customize:', and find it. It displays the most recent applications you launched, so in some

 

cases, you may need to start GTA up for a second, exit, and then search for it. If you require help finding it, post below, and I will help you.

 

Once you've found it, go down to Antialiasing - FXAA, make sure it's set to On.

 

Go down to Antialiasing - Gamma correction, if you think your card can handle it, set it to on. Otherwise, leave it Off. You can tweak your settings by going in/out of the game, and seeing which works best for your

card.

 

Here's one of the most important parts; Antialiasing - Mode, make sure it's set to 'Override any application setting'. This will force it onto GTA IV.

 

This step is based on what you think your card can handle. Next to Antialiasing - Setting, you have:

2x

4x

8x CSAA

8x

16x CSAA

16Q CSAA

32 CSAA

 

The easiest way I can put this is; the further down you go on the list, the better the settings

are, but more pressure is put on your card, which can affect your FPS.

 

Under Antialiasing - Transparency, you have a choice of:

 

Off

Multisample

2x (supersample)

4x (supersample)

8x (supersample)

 

Again, the easiest way I can put this is; the further down the list, the better it looks, but more wear and tear is on your card.

 

Now hit 'Apply' in the lower right hand corner of the screen. And you're all set. You will also find a list of many other settings that can help improve you GTA IV experience as well. Tweak at your own risk, I'm not responsible for ANY DAMAGE done to your card. There's your warning, but to be honest, I think everything here is pretty much harmless.

 

FXAA is a very performance friendly form of AA. So your FPS shouldn't be effected too badly, even with max FXAA settings. This will also work for other games that don't support AA,

 

If there's anything I can do to improve this guide, please let me know. Even if I made a typo, please post below.

 

I will continue to update this guide, and make it better as time goes on. Think of this as an incomplete beta.

 

Any questions or comments, please feel free to post below.

 

Enjoy a less jagged edge and pixilated patrol,

 

Nick

 

Additions:

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"Just on a side note, you can also use injectSMAA. It works with both NVidia and ATI cards and it's really performance-friendly. - Yard1

 

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"On AMD/ATI cards, in "gaming" tab, enable the "morphological filtering" or "morphological box", it's MLAA, and it reduces aliasing a lot on my GTAIV / EFLC at 1080p, without performance loss.

Disabling "definition" in the game graphics settings help a bit too, following visual mods that you have."

Attached Thumbnails

 

-DarthWound

 

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Thank you Yard1, DarthWound, and Break for helping me update and fix this tutorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 201313 yr by Original Light

Just on a side note, you can also use injectSMAA. It works with both NVidia and ATI cards and it's really performance-friendly.

Thanks, I'll add it.

 

+1

Edited April 16, 201313 yr by Original Light

On AMD/ATI cards, in "gaming" tab, enable the "morphological filtering" or "morphological box", it's MLAA, and it reduces aliasing a lot on my GTAIV / EFLC at 1080p, without performance loss.

Disabling "definition" in the game graphics settings help a bit too, following visual mods that you have.

I don't know which setting caused it, but when I edited the Nvidia control panel setting things, textures and shadows started blinking in Arma 2. Just saying that editing these could cause problems in other games.

 

Edit (didn't read the whole tutorial): Using just program settings should be fine. Editing global settings may cause problems.

Edited April 16, 201313 yr by willpv23

I don't know which setting caused it, but when I edited the Nvidia control panel setting things, textures and shadows started blinking in Arma 2. Just saying that editing these could cause problems in other games.

 

Yes be careful of other games because they don't always support graphic card' AA. My Skyrim was full of white dots with AA activated on the control panel.

 

EDIT : oh and thanks for the +1 OriginalLight

Edited April 16, 201313 yr by DarthWound

Make sure you're only doing it by application, and not global settings.

 

 

This is a very nice and useful tutorial. I like it and will be using it!

This works on most NVidia cards and has been around longer than the 600 Series.

The 500 and 600 series are capable of this natively I had a GTX 570 and recently moved to a GTX 670. MXAA works well to undercut some overhead actual Anti-Aliasing causes. MLAA is actually even better performing, one of the advantages of buying an AMD card over an nVidia one, but it isn't supported in every video game yet, since it's a new technology. This is called "forcing" AA using the video cards respective control panels. Depending on how you do it, you can get either super pretty results with terrible performance, or minor boosts in image quality with relatively little performance hits. MXAA/MLAA satisfy the latter of the two. Personally, I think the FPS drop you get can be put to better use on ENB texturing and lighting. Having a high resolution on your monitor and details cranked up high in-game distracts you from the jagged edges pretty well I find, because your character in game is generally driving/moving so fast you don't have time to analyze the corners anyway.

I can see how this may be useful for screenshots of cars and stuff though if you're the very picky type. Good tutorial.