When I first loaded up Half-Life 2 on my nVidia card, I was a tad bit annoyed that the graphics appeared "muddy" even when all of the graphics settings were at their maximum. This seemed to be an issue with mipmaps.
I did some hunting, and I found the solution, for nVidia at least.
On nVidia cards, OpenGL has a lesser LOD Bias than in DirectX.
Opengl = -1.125 DirectX = 0.000
This has caused an appearance of "muddy textures" in Half-Life 2 for users. This is also why OpenGL tends to look better than DirectX, when using an nVidia card. This setting can be modified, and it is best to have DirectX's LOD Bias /match/ OpenGL's default specified "-1.125"
After doing so, the results are quite noticeable and the game looks crisp and clean.
---- Comparison Shots, using Half-Life: Source ----
---Bad--- LOD Bias set to a positive value: (1.125), default "0" http://www.svencoop.com/davemcd/compare/c1a0pos.jpg
---Great--- LOD Bias set to a negative value: (-1.125), default "0" http://www.svencoop.com/davemcd/compare/c1a0neg.jpg
As you can see, this setting is very important and should be modified. I am unaware of how ATI treats this setting.
A quick check to see if you have an LOD Bias issue with your driver settings, is to look at the 357 Barrel in Half-Life 2. If you can not see engraved text on the side, you have the problem. Also you can notice by looking at the end of the shotgun. If the shotgun's end appears blurry, you have the problem.
http://ds80-237-203-199.dedicated.hosteurope.de/atuner/ Use this tool to change LOD Bias if you have an nVidia card.
I hope this is helpful for everyone.
- David "Sniper" McDermott Sven Co-op Programmer
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