More changes

NVIDIA’s Detonator 50 drivers are about more than just a new compiler and scheduler, which solely benefit GeForce FX users. NVIDIA has also incorporated a few new additions that will benefit all NVIDIA card owners. The most obvious change is the new user interface for the control panel, and nView 3.0.

Updated user interface

First, the new interface isn’t as dramatic as the change between Detonator 30 and Detonator 40; rather NVIDIA has modified the look of some of its menus in Detonator 50, as well as adding new settings such as the “image sharpening” setting under the color correction menu for GeForce FX users.

Control panel main menu

Color Correction Menu

The most talked about change is the updated “Performance and Quality Settings” menu. NVIDIA maintains the generic “High Performance”, “Performance”, and “Quality” settings, which will use predefined settings for aspects like texture quality (unfortunately, end users still aren’t able to manually toggle these functions like you can with ATI hardware) with the default setting being “Quality”.

Performance and Quality Settings Menu

Direct3D Menu

OpenGL Menu

One new feature however, is the “Application-controlled” setting for anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. In theory, this setting leaves both of these functions in the hands of the particular application you’re running. So if you have anisotropic filtering enabled in say, Unreal Tournament 2003, you’ll get anisotropic filtering in UT 2003. Unfortunately however, this isn’t the case, as we found in our recent image quality article that Detonator 52.16 still uses its pseudo-trilinear filtering in this app, and it appears all Direct3D applications.

This is particularly disappointing as NVIDIA has stated on multiple occasions that they would be implementing an application mode into Detonator 50 to address these concerns. Well, they put the button for application mode in there, but apparently it’s nothing more than a mask in its current form, leading many to openly joke about the irony of the new “ForceWare” label, as the new driver literally forces NVIDIA’s pseudo-trilinear mode upon its users.

An application setting will become even more important in the future, as DX9 titles that will ship this year and into 2004 (including OpenGL titles such as DOOM 3) will offer built-in settings for anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing. Slowly but surely manipulating these settings will become more prevalent in the games themselves, rather than in the driver’s control panel. Therefore, getting this feature implemented needs to be a larger priority than it has been to date for NVIDIA.

Temperature Settings Menu

Change Resolutions Menu