Advanced Graphics options noob question.

Hello!
Im about to publicly profess my heretical ignorance here, but I was just wondering about what some of the advanced graphics options actually do (namely in BC2)?
I checked google for some of these and just came up more confused than before so could someone please just tell me what IS:
Antialiasing, VSYNC, HBAO, Anisotrophic Filters and what they each do.
Also when taking performance into account which ones show vast improvements, and which ones are simply massive resource hogs. Like in which order should I enable them, are some just bad?

Also..... as far as levels of detail, texture, shadow, and effect, I am wondering the same thing; which ones really push your computer, and whats a typical good balance?
Like I said I know im in the GAMING section of notebookreview so im sorry for this extremely elementary question, but im just trying to learn. ex consol gamer here lol.
Thanks so much and appreciate any help!

 

AA or antianilising smooths the edges around the objects, stopping the "jagged" effect making them look.. well more real lol, normally comes in 2,4,8,16x depending on your GFX card and the performance hit also follows in that order. Note this will be the biggest performance hit out of any selection.

Vsync links the amount of frames on the screen to the refresh rate of your monitor, so if you monitor is a 60hz like most LCD monitors you maximum FPS will be 60fps, the reason behind this is it stops "tearing" on the screen that can normally be seen during fast action scenes or when moving the mouse around as horizontal lines appearing. The other side is it stops your GPUs overstressing themselves, theirs no point having the GPUs push 300fps out as your eye can't see that fast lol. Performance hit is mimimal and can actually be benefical if used in conjuction with triple buffering to smooth out FPS drops for smoother gameplay.

Anisotrophic filters if memory serves makes the textures themselves look better, starts with biliner, triliner, anisotrophic 2/4/8/16x, the performance hit also follows in that order, given your rig you should be able to have this set to 16x quite happily.

The levels of detail are normally self explanitory, low/medium/high, high being the biggest performance hit but looking the best, shadows are normally the biggest performance hit especially dynamic ones.

 

Ahh nice Japs! I have also wondered what caused the horizontal lines . How to enable Vsync in Windows? Because, when YouTubing on HD with Full Screen, the lines appear when the camera moves fast like you explained. It doesen't annoy me much, but it would be nice to know!

 

Your answer lies within.

And even if you think you have a pretty good handle on some or most of this sort of stuff, this TweakGuides essay is (like most of his essays) highly recommended reading for any gamer. Very much worth taking precious time out of your gaming schedule to read this essay, and possibly to browse the rest of his site.