Is FXAA Underated? Complaints Excessive?

[Ransome]

Hey guys, open topic here, let's talk about AA - Anti-Aliasing. The looks, the textures/blur, the edges, and of course: the performance.

I put this post on because I recently started playing Splinter Cell Blacklist - a game that's very un-optimized - running on dated engine (Unreal Engine 2.5) - bad graphics and performance. imo.

Now my only issue with the game is the AA: my rig can handle the Ultra settings.
I search and dag deep into AA: FXAA VS MSAA VS TXAA VS Etc... discussions and my concern is this:
are the complaints about FXAA blurriness overdone and excessive??

On the other hand, MSAA is just too old a method, is simply way too demanding, even with 16 GB of DDR3 ram, a powerful GPU like 670GTX, and 4 core Intel 3570K OC'ed.

Putting x2MSAA drops like 10 fps from 60, adding x4 drops another 10 fps.. it's absurd.

FXAA on the other hand offer constant 60 frames per second, even on ultra settings.
I read many claims how: "FXAA is a blurry mess", "FXAA look like S@$%", "FXAA is hurting my eyes", "FXAA make texture unbearable" - you get the picture. ...

But I think people are over-reacting... might be wrong though.

I have being testing it for hours, making comparisons - in game - and FXAA performs a lot better than x2msaa and just as good as x4msaa albeit 20 fps more.
It definitely done better job than x2msaa, and only microscopically blurrier than x4msaa with similar smoothening.

I heard many claims about TXAA being even "more blurry and un-acceptable".
Are the complaints about reduced image and texture quality with TXAA/FXAA too exaggerated??
What do you think?

Btw I really loved CSAA - but seems like games stopped using it.... 🙁

 

[cookybiscuit]

In my opinion, FXAA is total crap. FXAA just looks like you dropped the resolution and piled on as much MSAA as possible, blurry but without jaggies. TXAA is even worse, looks like a blurry mess and the performance hit is huge.

Since Nvidia has terrible AA profiles for DX11, I tend to use a SMAA injector. For any lower DX's, I use MSAA, 4x, 8x is unnecessary.

If you want the best possible image, downscale a larger image. Simply go into the Nvidia control panel and create a custom resolution (ensuring GPU Scaling is on) at say 2560x1440 if you have a 1080p display.

 

[Ransome]

In my opinion, FXAA is total crap. FXAA just looks like you dropped the resolution and piled on as much MSAA as possible, blurry but without jaggies. TXAA is even worse, looks like a blurry mess and the performance hit is huge.

Since Nvidia has terrible AA profiles for DX11, I tend to use a SMAA injector. For any lower DX's, I use MSAA, 4x, 8x is unnecessary.

If you want the best possible image, downscale a larger image. Simply go into the Nvidia control panel and create a custom resolution (ensuring GPU Scaling is on) at say 2560x1440 if you have a 1080p display.

Really???
What are you using, can you provide a safe link for updated version?


Any more opinions?

 

[Ransome]

I am also looking for a custom made software called:
SweetFX Configurator by Terrasque
but can't find the latest version for download. Is this app working? is it safe?

 

[cookybiscuit]

If you meant the injector.

http://mrhaandi.blogspot.co.uk/p/injectsmaa.html

 

[Ransome]

Sweetfx won't work on windows 8.1 anyhow. But again, this is off topic.
Any other takes about FXAA and the rest? and why is CSAA not in more use? it is a lot better than msaa and cheap on the hardware.

 

[17seconds]

Its always best to have as many graphics settings as possible to play around with and find what works best. FXAA seems pretty good to me, and so many developers are using it, they must agree.

 

[renz496]

Depends on the person i think. They say FXAA make the screen blurry but personally i never notice that with FXAA being turn on and off. (maybe i can if there were side by side comparison). when i'm still using my 460 i often force FXAA via nvidia control panel because other type of AA have large impact on performance. FXAA might be not the best but it still better than no AA at all.

 

[Ransome]

Depends on the person i think. They say FXAA make the screen blurry but personally i never notice that with FXAA being turn on and off. (maybe i can if there were side by side comparison). when i'm still using my 460 i often force FXAA via nvidia control panel because other type of AA have large impact on performance. FXAA might be not the best but it still better than no AA at all.

[Hate to sound like a noob, lol, how do you put your specs like this at the bottom? is that just signature with font? and where/how do you find the exact system specs and module numbers of your hardware?

About FXAA - I mean, it nearly nails it! does a good aa job, some games better than others.... I just wish NVidia will pull a good and clean AA tech out of their hats, someone should... something official not injector-thingy.