RenderingHint? and 3D

RenderingHint? and 3D

• PatrickRyu

  I've posted a download with the reg keys for both XP and Vista (which are slightly different) up on a blog post here:

  http://blogs.msdn.com/karstenj/archive/2005/09/28/475040.aspx

  Regards,

  Karsten

   

  
  
  

• Sreekanth Muralidharan

  To enable multisampling in 3D on the WPF PDC CTP, use this reg key:

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics]
  "MaxMultisampleType"=dword:00000004

  We recommend keeping this value set to 4 or 0  (aliased rendering), though you can set it higher if you'd like Avalon to attempt to render with more samples per pixel.  Keep in mind that video memory consumption basically scales linearly with sample count.  If avalon can't render using the number of multisamples you've specified it will attempt to render with fewer samples per pixel or will render without multisampling.

  
  Warning:  Many video drivers (even recent drivers) have buggy multisampling implementations and can cause rendering artifacts or crashes with multisampling enabled.  Before applying this reg key you should make sure you have the newest video drivers available.

  David

  
  

• BManager

  Thanks for the replies, that was what I was looking for. From what your saying, it does no real harm from setting that registry key, if the card doesn't support it, then it falls back to software rendering. So I guess my question is why isn't it turned on by default, and can we expect it to be either turned on or as a configuration option on a future ctp/beta/rtm I'm looking at it from the perspective that if I'm deploying a wba app, that I won't have the ability to change that reg key, and posting a step-by-step guide to my users on how to modify their registry might not be totally feasible.
  

• Asvin Ananthanarayan MSFT

  I think your stripping the end users of a long running MS tradition to BSOD on the first run attempt (RIP NT) I know myself and most others have been subjected to it,...right after a 2 hour long install on a pos machine...at 9pm, on friday...with no beer...it's just wrong that other people will no longer feel our pain..., but I can understand that, if people run old cards, then they probably won't be to upset on missing out on a few less jaggies.
  

• Christopher Yager

  It's not turned on by default because a substantial number of mainstream video cards will render improperly or just simply crash when multisampling is enabled.  This problem is compounded when you consider the number of people running with ancient video drivers.
  
  We're not crazy about the idea of a user's "first Avalon 3D experience" taking the form of a BSOD or a screen full of garbage.  There would be no indication of the cause of the crash, so the assumption would be that "Avalon crashed" when really the offending code would likely be in the video driver.
  
  The plan moving forward is to enable 3D AA by default on only those drivers that have been certified to run properly with multisampling enabled. 
  
  David
  
• RenderingHint? and 3D