I noticed that my mesh (a detailed .x-file exported from 3DSMax) will appear to "shimmer" when I rotate it using the SDK samples provided with DX9. The only changes I''ve made to the SDK samples are: 1) Turning on linear mipfiltering (to improve the appearance). 2) Adding my own matrix rotation As the mesh spins, the colors appear to sort of "shimmer" as it changes it rotation. It''s difficult to explain exactly. Is this normal behavior? Any tips on getting rid of this? I don''t believe it''s my graphics card, as I''ve looked it on several machines to the same effect.

I actually think "shimmering" is a fairly accurate description of the visual effect. Aliasing? Yeah, I think so. I think it''s the phenomenon known as "sparkling" that LaMothe refers to in his latest book and I believe that this is a form of aliasing.

Of course, I am really not CERTAIN what it is. I''ve tried all different mipmapping settings to no avail.

I''ve searched these forums and numerous technical books and haven''t found a solution to the problem.

I believe it may have something to do with my using a highly detailed (and large mesh) and then scaling it down to a very small size. If I display the mesh larger, I don''t see this.

Perhaps there really is no solution other than to use a different mesh.

I''m going to prepare a little project to show this phenomenon and maybe the I can get some good feedback.

Maybe it''s z-fighting?
If you''re using a 16 bit z-buffer, try a 32 bit one.

Peace,
Muhammad Haggag

Thanks for the tips, guys.

I am using a 16-bit depth buffer, but I have experimented with D24S8 format and haven''t really seen any noticeable difference.

And yeah, I am creating mipmaps already.

*HOWEVER*, I have now actually managed to improve the quality of the image by multisampling .. significantly. The improvement is very noticeable and it looks very sharp. I had not really experimented with this before.

Should I expect that most of my players will support multisampling?