I am not taking credit for this, the full credit goes to baddmadd who had posted this on the beta forums. Since those forums got wiped, I thought I would repost it here and hope for a sticky.

 

It still works ingame, I tested it prior to posting this.

 

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Below is a short guide in regards to forcing anti-aliasing for Nvidia GPUs.

 

With this applied, all the jagged edges from the buildings, characters, etc, are sharpened and smoothed out to make the game look truly much better.

 

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With Nvidia GPUs, you can't use the control panel, so you have to follow these steps:

 

1. Download the freeware program, Nvidia Inspector.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVIDIA-I....html#download

 

2. Open the program, and next to the "Driver Version", on the right side, you'll see a screwdriver and wrench icon. Click it.

 

3. In the new window that pops up, you'll see "Profiles" in the upper left-hand corner. Use the drop down menu to find "Star Wars: The Old Republic" - make sure you do this, or you'll change the global settings for every game you play.

 

4. Set "Antialiasing compatability" to "0x0000F0C1 (S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Call of Pripyat...)

 

5. Set "Antialiasing - Behavior Flags" to "None"

 

6. Set "Antialiasing - Mode" to "Override any application setting"

 

7. Set "Antialiasing - Setting" to your desired level of Antialiasing

(I recommend 8xQ, or 4x if your graphics card is older. Even though I have a GTX 580, I do not go over 8xQ as you don't notice any difference and your FPS nevertheless drops)

 

8. Feel free to mess with the Transparancy Multisampling at your own whim.

(For those with GTX 560ti +, you can also enable this, but DO NOT enable supersampling on any scale. It really doesn't do much to appearance and greatly lowers your FPS.)

 

9. "Apply Changes" in the upper right.

 

That will allow you to have Antialiasing with Nvidia cards within SWTOR. Jaggies, begone!

 

Here is a picture of my GTX 580 config setting outlining the steps.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/265/swtoraa.png/

 

Here is a comparison:

 

http://imageshack.us/f/339/noaa.png/ - No AA

http://imageshack.us/f/267/15983916.png/ AA 8x

 

P.S.: Also in the game configuration, set shadows to the minimum. There is an issue with the shadows (jagged edges) right now.

Editing the client_setting.ini file is easier and it works perfectly on Nvidia GPUs.

Some people were requesting it on my server so I posted it here.

I forced AA on with my nVidia on different methods.

 

All of them wrecked ingame stuff.

 

Like the holograms in cutscenes were missing, they just didn't display (I kept testing it with a new Imperial Agent and the only way to fix it was turning that forced AA off).

Also Lightsabers and lightning were missing from cutscenes, which completely ruined some scene's for me..

Edited January 2, 2012 by chefd

I am currently testing other methods also, I will edit my post as I come across more stable AA set ups.

Your character's bum isn't big enough .

 

Haha, but seriously, thanks for this info, +stars

The difference in those screen shots is amazing!! Thinking about trying this but i am not a techy and i dont want to brick anything in game. I have an NVIDIA 530, will this work for me? Edited January 2, 2012 by Elizak

Just a heads up - following the OP will create some performance issues. Just as a ten second test this method gave me around 50 FPS at one spot on the fleet - while my method provided a solid 60. I am using a 2600k + GTX 580.

 

I set the AA to 4x in the ini (This may not even have to be done) and then went to the same place as you (Inspector) - however do not use ANY compatibility flags! Change the "AA behavior" to none, then select Enhance application settings. This works 100%, gave the exact same result but with more FPS.

 

Also, I see lightsabers and what not in cutscenes.

 

The difference in those screen shots is amazing!! Thinking about trying this but i am not a techy and i dont want to brick anything in game. I have an NVIDIA 530, will this work for me?

 

Don't bother, or at best try 2x MSAA

The "quality" of the graphics can never be good if there is a bug preventing many people from seeing the High Quality textures as exists now.

 

There are obviously problems with the graphics engine they are trying to fix which is why we don't have AA working, or many of the other options that we're supposed to.

Editing the client_setting.ini file is easier and it works perfectly on Nvidia GPUs.

 

Could I inquire as to where the client_setting.ini file is?

C:\Users\<You User Here>\AppData\Local\SWTOR\swtor\settings

The "quality" of the graphics can never be good if there is a bug preventing many people from seeing the High Quality textures as exists now.

 

There are obviously problems with the graphics engine they are trying to fix which is why we don't have AA working, or many of the other options that we're supposed to.

 

I've never seen high res textures in this game in over 5 months of beta testing.

I forced AA on with my nVidia on different methods.

 

All of them wrecked ingame stuff.

 

Like the holograms in cutscenes were missing, they just didn't display (I kept testing it with a new Imperial Agent and the only way to fix it was turning that forced AA off).

Also Lightsabers and lightning were missing from cutscenes, which completely ruined some scene's for me..

 

I had the same problem. Turning off "conversation depth of field" fixed it, and I really don't know what that changed anyway, as I don't see much of a difference in conversations.

Editing the client_setting.ini file is easier and it works perfectly on Nvidia GPUs.

 

What is the proper command line for AA?

 

Everytime I add the following, the client crashes immediately upon loading. No issues if I force it in my ATI - I'd just much rather leave it application controlled though, since some programs I use AA in and some I don't.

 

Command line that causes me to crash when added:

Edited January 4, 2012 by Zebular

Shadows appear to be main issue. With AA or not shadows are horrible.

i thought editing the config file was against the TOS?

I just went into my nvida control panel and edited my 3d settings to force AA. I don't appear to have any of the above mentioned graphics errors or fps issues.

Shadows appear to be main issue. With AA or not shadows are horrible.

 

They look like jigsaws. It's ****. Even WoW has better shadows.

What is the proper command line for AA?

 

Everytime I add the following, the client crashes immediately upon loading. No issues if I force it in my ATI - I'd just much rather leave it application controlled though, since some programs I use AA in and some I don't.

 

Command line that causes me to crash when added:

AntiAliasingLevel = 4

 

I have the exact same issue when I try to edit the ini file, so I've just forced AA through my Catalyst config.

They look like jigsaws. It's ****. Even WoW has better shadows.

 

Well remember BW intentionally nerfed visuals in order to make sure server performance was good. I am sure this will change in near future.

Well remember BW intentionally nerfed visuals in order to make sure server performance was good. I am sure this will change in near future.

 

I hope you're right. The game generally looks great during dialogue/cutscenes but other than that it looks really rough around the edges. The lack of AA, low-res textures for characters, jigsaw-looking shadows, graphic artifacts (this weird green light everyone I know tends to get on certain planets).