Crysis 3 beta. SMAA, TXAA, FXAA, MSAA

[Rateddrew]

I always see these settings. I really don't know the difference between them. I usually just go and select the last option. Which is usually the best. But I kind of read around they they offer different features.

 

[HEXiT]

it depends on the card you have as to what aa you should use. nvidia runs msaa for very little overhead. while amd run fsaa better things like txaa should only be used if you can afford the overhead in that your game runs well beyond 60 fps. they will improve middle distance and perspective aa, the effect they will have is reduce pattern strobing where pixels form a ray trace drawn arc instead of a square mesh.

 

[Rateddrew]

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.

 

[Rateddrew]

I Have a GTX 670 FTW 2gb

 

[lostgamer_03]

Nvidia recommends using SMAA.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-313-95-beta-drivers-released

 

[reedy777]

it depends on the card you have as to what aa you should use. nvidia runs msaa for very little overhead. while amd run fsaa better things like txaa should only be used if you can afford the overhead in that your game runs well beyond 60 fps. they will improve middle distance and perspective aa, the effect they will have is reduce pattern strobing where pixels form a ray trace drawn arc instead of a square mesh.

msaa is the top quality option everything else is a tradeoff for performance. if its one or the other msaa is top trump sometimes you can use more then one type. for best results on a card that can't maxx a game get it to run at your desired fps 60 is preffered. then increase aa setting until your fps drops below your desired fps. or disable v sync and increase aa setting at the cost of image tearing. althought anything less than 60 fps ruins the experience (the game is not smooth) in my opinion, although 30 fps is seen as acceptable by some

 

[reedy777]

correct me if i'm wrong but it works something like this
8x msaa (multi sample anti aliasing)= the gpu will render at 8 x your monitor resolution and then scale that image to fit your monitor thus giving you (crysis 3) something uber looking
fxaa(fast aproximate anti aliasing) the process inteligently picks parts of the image that are likley to suffer from jagged edges and then renders them at a higher resolution it then rescales and blends the two images hence the fuzzy (to make it look smoother). as not all the textures are condensed the overall picture is of a lesser quality

 

[Rateddrew]

Learning something with each post. Thanks a lot

 

[bystander]

correct me if i'm wrong but it works something like this
8x msaa (multi sample anti aliasing)= the gpu will render at 8 x your monitor resolution and then scale that image to fit your monitor thus giving you (crysis 3) something uber looking
fxaa(fast aproximate anti aliasing) the process inteligently picks parts of the image that are likley to suffer from jagged edges and then renders them at a higher resolution it then rescales and blends the two images hence the fuzzy (to make it look smoother). as not all the textures are condensed the overall picture is of a lesser quality

No, you have that wrong.

MSAA will smooth out the jaggies only on the outsides of objects, and requires help from the game engine to do so. This is the most basic version of AA.

SSAA or sometimes called FSAA is what you described and is by far the most demanding type of AA.

Nvidia has a way to do something in the middle, which allows the use of MSAA and use SSAA (supersampling AA) on transparent textures, which is a pretty good compromise.
AMD calls something similar Adaptive-MSAA.

FXAA is a post process AA, which does not require any knowledge of the rendering process. This will smooth out the whole image, much like SSAA does, but without info from the game engine, it does an inferior job, and it does not use nearly the resources.
MLAA does a similar process as what FXAA does, and is on AMD cards.

TXAA is new. I really am not sure what it does, but it is supposed to be a low overhead version of SSAA, but I have not seen it in action. Currently only one game has it available, and it's an MMO.

 

[Rateddrew]

No, you have that wrong.

MSAA will smooth out the jaggies only on the outsides of objects, and requires help from the game engine to do so. This is the most basic version of AA.

SSAA or sometimes called FSAA is what you described and is by far the most demanding type of AA.

Nvidia has a way to do something in the middle, which allows the use of MSAA and use SSAA (supersampling AA) on transparent textures, which is a pretty good compromise.
AMD calls something similar Adaptive-MSAA.

FXAA is a post process AA, which does not require any knowledge of the rendering process. This will smooth out the whole image, much like SSAA does, but without info from the game engine, it does an inferior job, and it does not use nearly the resources.
MLAA does a similar process as what FXAA does, and is on AMD cards.

TXAA is new. I really am not sure what it does, but it is supposed to be a low overhead version of SSAA, but I have not seen it in action. Currently only one game has it available, and it's an MMO.

So out of the selection which is the best option if I want the best picture if I am not worried about performance drops?

 

[bystander]

SSAA/FSAA, but you won't likely be able to handle that sort of AA levels, except on old non demanding games. It probably isn't even an option.

Of the ones you listed, TXAA is likely the best, but SMAA is something new, and may be similar. You'll have to test.

 

[DragonClaw]

SSAA/FSAA, but you won't likely be able to handle that sort of AA levels, except on old non demanding games. It probably isn't even an option.

Of the ones you listed, TXAA is likely the best, but SMAA is something new, and may be similar. You'll have to test.

SSAA: Super Sampled AA
Your GPU renders the image at a higher resolution and down-samples the image with a filter, when the processing is done. Simply imagine a very sharp pointed edge and see it from a distance. It will look smothened [AA'd].

MSAA: Multi Sampled AA
The graphics card renders to a surface that is larger than the final image, but for shading a cluster of pixels, [that will later be cascaded into a single pixel] the pixel shader is run only once. We save a lots of fill rate, but we still use memory. This technique will not work on the effects coming from the shader [1x AA].
Also it will not work for a deffered renderer. Lighting effects are applied on each image post MSAA treatment.

CSAA: Coverage Sampled AA
MSAA optimised by N-Vidia. ATI has something similar too.

These are three basic AA filters.

Beyond 8X AA will not really show any noticeable difference, whatever might be the AA mode [assuming you are not playing GTA 4].

FXAA, like bystander said, is smoothing from the outside.
SMAA at 1X level is said to give GFX similar to 8X of standard MSAA.

Performance wise, if game AA is not good, SMAA is the best. Else 8/16X MSAA will do the job.
FXAA will be best for games like GTA 4, which do not have AA by default.

But all these are heavily dependent on the game you are playing. For Crysis, for example, SSAA will kill your PC, as it will AA every leaf of the nearby tree.
On the otherhand, in Battlefield 3, it might be alright, considering the boxy/ simple geometrical objects the GPU has to deal with.

Conclusion: Try out every setting, and try to find the best for your game. MSAA will not, in most cases, hit the performance till 4X. IF game engine doesn't perform AA well, inject SMAA and still performance will not be hit. Inject FXAA only if your PC is awesome and the game is not too demanding. Use SSAA beyond 8X, only after keeping your PC into a refrigerator.

Rick

 

[reedy777]

So out of the selection which is the best option if I want the best picture if I am not worried about performance drops?

have you dowloaded the crysis 3 beta from origin its free. most of these methods including txaa are available. however IMHO 8x msaa is bar far the superior method in terms of image quality. im playing on a toshiba 47" 1080p 3d compatible 200hz panel. however there are glitches in areas crytech say they working on you'll know what i mean if you have a play around on it. i'd like to know what your opinion is on that specific game. i put smaa is a close 2nd and less demanding.

 

[reedy777]

A tower of performace best quality at top as tested at at equivilant multiple eg x2, x4
ssaa(fsaa)
msaa
csaa
smaa
txaa
fxaa
note: i have placed msaa above smaa because although it smooths the picture better it takes away from the depth of the image and its the overall image quality that we,re looking at not just the ability to smooth edges. please feel free to add and edit the tower but give and explanation to changing rankings.

 

[reedy777]

No, you have that wrong.

MSAA will smooth out the jaggies only on the outsides of objects, and requires help from the game engine to do so. This is the most basic version of AA.

SSAA or sometimes called FSAA is what you described and is by far the most demanding type of AA.

Nvidia has a way to do something in the middle, which allows the use of MSAA and use SSAA (supersampling AA) on transparent textures, which is a pretty good compromise.
AMD calls something similar Adaptive-MSAA.

FXAA is a post process AA, which does not require any knowledge of the rendering process. This will smooth out the whole image, much like SSAA does, but without info from the game engine, it does an inferior job, and it does not use nearly the resources.
MLAA does a similar process as what FXAA does, and is on AMD cards.

TXAA is new. I really am not sure what it does, but it is supposed to be a low overhead version of SSAA, but I have not seen it in action. Currently only one game has it available, and it's an MMO.

yeah your right ssaa(fsaa) is top trump

 

[bystander]

A tower of performace best quality at top as tested at at equivilant multiple eg x2, x4
ssaa(fsaa)
msaa
csaa
smaa
txaa
fxaa
note: i have placed msaa above smaa because although it smooths the picture better it takes away from the depth of the image and its the overall image quality that we,re looking at not just the ability to smooth edges. please feel free to add and edit the tower but give and explanation to changing rankings.

I'm not sure where SMAA and TXAA fit. I'd agree with the list if you take those two out. SMAA and TXAA is new and I, as well as almost everyone, has no experience with it, but I did read a write up on SMAA and it sounds very similar to TXAA. From the demo and explination of TXAA, I expect it to be higher than MSAA. You also can put MLAA below FXAA, though you don't have it listed.

 

[DragonClaw]

I'm not sure where SMAA and TXAA fit. I'd agree with the list if you take those two out. SMAA and TXAA is new and I, as well as almost everyone, has no experience with it, but I did read a write up on SMAA and it sounds very similar to TXAA. From the demo and explination of TXAA, I expect it to be higher than MSAA. You also can put MLAA below FXAA, though you don't have it listed.

There's an option for SMAA in GTA 4 icEnhance mod. It's the recommended one as well. It lowers the GPU usage considerably (in contrast to injecting FXAA).
FXAA should be higher up on that list. Higher than CSAA, if not MSAA. FXAA, in-fact is the closest to the SSAA, with not so high performance hit. For me, I got the best visuals with MSAA set to 8X in game, and FXAA set in N-Vidia Control Panel.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[bystander]

MSAA and FXAA are definitely different and it may depend a bit on the game itself. FXAA does terrible at doing the edges of objects in comparison to MSAA, but FXAA smooths out more than just the edges.