About MultiSampling and Stencil Buffering
So, I've received many questions from players about these 2 settings, what they do and why should they use/not use it. Well, Instead of just explaining via text, i'll be including images to make it easier to understand.
Stencil buffering:
GunZ originally used a 16bit depth buffer (you can wiki what it does if you want). I changed GunZ to use D3DFMT_D24S8, which is simply a 24 bit depth buffer with 8 bit stenciling. What this does it prevent certain textures from glitching. Example mansion:
Stencil buffering disabled:
http://i.imgur.com/7ew3HKP.jpg
Stencil buffering enabled:
http://i.imgur.com/P5PPXiv.jpg
As you can see from comparing the two pictures, with stencil buffering enabled, the texture above the door no longer has that weird stripey glitch. This applies to all maps and all texture related issues.
Now that you've seen what stencil buffering does, lets move onto multisampling. Multisampling is another way of saying antialiasing. To be more specific it's a method of antialiasing. MSAA (multisampled antialiasing), is what gunz uses. there's many more but there's no need to explain them. Antialiasing clears up the jagged edges seen around objects.
Multisampling disabled:
http://i.imgur.com/7CyShl5.jpg
2x Multisampling:
http://i.imgur.com/f4DLeh6.jpg
Notice that the amount of jagged lines is greatly reduced from 2x multisampling. This is further reduced in 4x, and even further reduced in 8x. If you're experiencing fps lag, lower the multisampling you're using.
If there's any other questions, feel free to post a reply here.
