[Dr.G.]

My son just bought EA Sport's NBA Live 2003. On the options section is a request to set the "Texture Filter" at "Trilinear, Anisotropic and Bilinear", and whether to turn "V sync" on or off. Might anyone explain what these terms mean? One of the game options, the "1 on 1" setting does not seem to work and I am wondering if this is caused by the configuration of these setting. I should admit that the computer it is loaded on is a Dell Dimension with Windows 98 second edition.

I would appreciate you help on this matter. I would hate to have to go "cap in hand" to some of the tech persons I know here in St. John's since they know my stand on getting a Mac in the new year.

 

[elmer]

Is it possible the "1 on 1" feature refers to online gaming? Perhaps there is some internet setup / registration necessary. Or maybe you need two controllers configured.
The settings you describe sound like graphics quality / performance trade-offs - it should be safe to experiment turning them on or off.

 

[jonmon]

yes, i agree with elmer

1 on 1 sounds like a gameplay option and would have no interaction with the other options that you mentioned

i think the first one makes textures look smoother and the second one syncs the graphics to the vertical sync of your monitor

 

[jfpoole]

Dr.G. wrote:
"On the options section is a request to set the "Texture Filter" at "Trilinear, Anisotropic and Bilinear"..."

The different texture filtering options determine what algorithm is used when rendering textures. Bilinear is the cheapest algorithm, but anisotropic produces the best results (with trilinear being somewhere in the middle).

There's a more in-depth explanation of the various algorithms here.

"...and whether to turn "V sync" on or off."

When you're dealing with real-time graphics, there are two buffers: a front buffer and a back buffer. The front buffer is displayed on the monitor while the computer updates the back buffer. Once the computer is done updating the back buffer, the buffers are swapped. If vsync is on, then the buffers aren't swapped until the monitor is done refreshing. If vsync is off, then the buffers are swapped as soon as the computer is finished updating the back buffer.

Having vsync off means your framerate is higher (good for benchmarking), but you'll experience tearing (i.e., the top and bottom halves of the display will be different because the buffers were swapped when the monitor was refreshing).

"Might anyone explain what these terms mean? One of the game options, the "1 on 1" setting does not seem to work and I am wondering if this is caused by the configuration of these setting."

I doubt it; 1 on 1 sounds like a gameplay option that involves two people at the same computer or two people on different computers. It shouldn't be influenced by graphics options.

"I should admit that the computer it is loaded on is a Dell Dimension with Windows 98 second edition."

Dude! You've got a Dell! Oh, wait, I've got a Dell, too. Doh.

 

[8thDegreeSavage]

I would say with the DELL if you have a separate Graphics card and its halfway decent(something built in last lets say 2-3 years) then use Trillinear, Billinear is used for Vodoo cards and older card while Antistropic Filtering is used on systems with HIGH end hardware.