Here's a bit of a recap of the techniques with some of my own opinions. Listed from cheapest to most demanding. *FXAA* : cheap but arguably lowest quality *SMAA 1x* : better than FXAA but does leave quite a bit of aliasing to the image. *SMAA T2x* : this temporal variation applies SMAA 1x to current frame and blends it with previous frame (using velocity weighting). Good candidate for the best quality / performance ratio. *MSAA* : Very nice edges (better than above techniques) thanks to the larger depth buffer. But, costs more memory and computation. Also, does nothing about shading aliasing. *TXAA* : MSAA with temporal filtering (MSAA + remedy to shading aliasing). Achieves very calm image but at high cost. Can also be too blurry for some tastes. *SSAA* : super sampling. Highest cost, highest quality. Not really sensible for latest games that push hardware limits, but good candidate for older games. If you can't choose: my recommendation is SMAA (T2x preferably). Finally, something that was not described in the video: *TSSAA* : temporal super sampling. The motivation is same as in SSAA - use fully shaded samples within pixel and average them. But, unlike in SSAA, the samples are not computed during a single frame. Instead, the main camera is constantly being jittered in the desired sampling pattern, and the AA samples are "stolen" from previous frames with exponential history weighting (older frames contribute less). For this to work, a velocity buffer must be generated in order to know where each pixel was located in the last frame. The beauty: this is same as super sampling when the image is static! The ugly: Lots of tricky stuff when camera/objects start moving... ghosting issues, balancing between blur and aliasing... All in all, surprisingly cheap technique, but comes with caveats. But when implemented well, can give a very nice filmic look (Uncharted 4).
@@steelixion Short answer: I highly recommend you stick with a single solution. In my opinion games should not allow for AA mix and matching to avoid confusion. More detailed answer: - SSAA doesn't need anything else to support it. - MSAA does not really benefit from additional post-process AAs like FXAA and SMAA. It might benefit from temporal filtering, but that is essentially the TXAA option. - SMAA does not need FXAA. But it can be combined with TAA/TSSAA. Indeed, idTech offered AA solution called SMAA 1TX that kind of does this (In Crysis 3 and Doom 2016 I think?)
Hey Salazer, I must say you are the best in this business, you're a champion in explaining, teaching and delineating technology. And yes, you always sit in your chair when making videos...keep sitting in your chair for you are the King!
I already knew what MSAA and FXAA were but SMAA and TXAA were new ones that suddenly started appearing in my graphic settings in my newer games, great video, very well explained.
I like how in the first diagram of aliasing with the circles, even the "smooth" ones have clear aliasing! Great video Greg! I'm happy to say I knew a lot of it already, but it did clear up some of the similarities and differences that I have trouble keeping track of between all the AA's :)
Been looking for anyone who can explain these things properly. After trying to read some long ass pages which I struggled to understand, I stumbled upon your video. It's perfect! Short, simple but elaborate. Very nice!
I don't think you hear this enough, Greg. Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to research, analyze, format(make it easy to understand), and write an entire paper and put it in video form with great visual demonstrations. I love to learn, especially when the subject is something i'm genuinely interested in. I hope all your time and effort is being rewarded with success financially and mentally(knowledge and pride). Thanks again! -Student of Professor Salazar
With all respect but that is bullshit and you know it ;) Oke, I agree that it also looks great without AA....BUT.....even in 4K (I have a 4K 27inch display) it is needed in my opinion. The very lowest AA settings is enough to do the job....but you can clearly see the difference :)
I’m currently setting up an epic VR setup for Assetto Corsa through an Alienware laptop and this explanation has improved my experience exponentially! Nice work!
Thank you for making this video. These kind of things are probably the hardest part of getting into pc gaming and I will be sharing this video to my friends in the future who are new to pc gaming. I only wish you made this video earlier so I could have gained something. Great work as always.
If, like me, you can’t stand blur: - SSAA is best for dealing with all aliasing but is the most performance intensive - MSAA is second best, even just 2x makes a big difference in games - SMAA is less effective but still sharp I would avoid FXAA, TXAA, TAA like the plague unless you hate visual clarity.
SSAA is really taxing. Tired to run Colin McRae Rally 2005 with max settings and SSAA set to 8xEQ and my RX 580 was sometimes running it at less than 60 fps. At least it looked really good.
Great VIDEO! I'll be checking my game settings tomorrow.... When you buy a game and have a decent setup you try to run the top tier's .... Not knowing what they are ppl assume it's the highest / last setting avail. Knowing what these do, in a quick video like this was great. Heck of a JOB! I've been subscribed for awhile now, but will be forwarding this video to friends, and colleagues who know little about graphic settings. THX!
I used TXAA in Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 and I really liked their implementation. I noticed that TXAA smoothed out the edges well while being pretty resource friendly (playing these games on a 1070 settings cranked at 1440p). I can't say that it's perfect for every game but it did not negatively impact a fast shooter like Titanfall 2, so I'd say it's worth trying out
Thank you very much, this is exactly what I was searching for. I was well aware of what Antialiasing is and what it does, but I was confused about the various methods of AA and the differences between them. I personally prefer 4xMSAA, because I can't see a difference in visual quality between 8x and 4x, but there is usually a huge drop in performance. If the game supports it, I also like to mix it with TXAA as for me, using a 75Hz monitor, it makes movement much more smooth. FXAA I only use if the picture tends to be choppy due to great amounts of moving vegetation, as it makes the game look more steady by blurring out the movement a bit.
Morphological AA methods originally came from ATI/AMD just as a note. Where available I will always choose SMAA vs TXAA. If I have the choice or the game allows the use I will choose MSAA at 4x + transparency AA.
Thank you , finally some useful information from a tech channel, thank you for taking the time to explain this.I can not tell you how much I enjoy this kind of content.
Always have the highest Anisotropic Filtering quality that you can choose, it helps with texture quality at distance and at angles. The performance impact is nearly 0, and this has been the case for a decade or more.
Damn son! Okay, you made this 5 years ago, but the depth of details and information considering how compared you made it, was completely worth my time. I was trying to figure out why MSAA and stuff werre affecting FPS and data transfer, but it's mostly in the eyes as well. Interesting! I'll certainly try playing the game in more intensive situations and give it a shot! Thank you!
This is why I liked your channel! Please continue teaching us things like this. I hope to see more videos like this in your channel very informative! 👍 Do you have a video now about strange science? I love to hear something like the pyramids and deep ocean creatures. 😂
more stuff like this. Been gaming for 15 years, building for 8, and even worked at a few tech places and still haven't gotten a explanation as good as this for subtle nuances like this. Tho I suppose this knowledge will be less required as time goes on with hdr 4k devices coming to market... it's still good stuff to know.
Finally someone who tells us to thumbs down if we disliked something, i respect that, it oddly enough makes me want to like the video more than just usual begging for likes
I started seeing this on games like Crysis 1, lot of years ago. I never understood what the heck was it. With your video, many years before I finally understood.
hi Salazar can u plz doing video about overclocking ? i know that ther alot of resource out there. im look forward for this video on this channel. sorry for my english
Hey Greg love your short videos on different subjects. An idea for a video I would be interested in would be an explanation of different monitor connections. DVI display port and so forth. I haven't seen these explained with benefits, pros and cons.
a thing I find way more important than any kind of AA is anisotropic filtering, because it makes much more of a difference in visuals if you don't have clear textures at shallow angles than when you have some (often hard to notice) jagged edges on an object.
I rarely ever like playing games with any kind of Anti-Aliasing on, Makes a buttload of games just look like crap and are super blurry with any kind of AA provided. Although some games look amazing with AA, and I cant stand to play without AA in a game like that where everything looks sharp were it should with the AA still doing its job elsewhere.. Its always just been weird to me, Ive understood the concept but until haven't bothered to learn the difference in AA and just what exactly each different AA is doing. Awesome video, I enjoyed it
I like TXAA the most because of the lack of temporal aliasing, makes a big difference in image quality. If it's too blurry, I suggest using Reshade or something to sharpen the image a bit.
Old video, but still very good. There seems to be very limited information on SMAA out there, and Google constantly redirects me to MSAA articles, instead. Why? Thank you for making this.
Can you make a video on TAA? many games, especially current ubisoft games use taa in their ultra settings but TAA seems to make the image look worse. Battlefield 1 and Rainbow Six Siege for example
Some people will call BS but higher resolutions are a substitute for anti aliasing. the question is which option is less taxing on your GPU. you also have to factor in monitor cost. in my experience, getting a 1070 to be able to run MSAA at 1080p is cheaper than going up to 1440p. Because you need a 1070 to run 1440p comfortably at more than medium detail anyways, so that's $300 for the screen and another $300-$400 for the GPU.
Stinson Gaming the 1070 is perfectly capable of running most games at 1440p ultra. my Rx 480 even does a few games at 1440p, from my experience I'd much rather use the higher resolution instead of anti aliasing because 1440p looks wayyyyyyyyyyy better than 1080p.
Future display idea: instead of using pixels, mix of hardware and software that works together to 'emulate' or approximate their locations. Since light is more fluid, might also make it harder to 'emulate' sharp corners. Hardware: use precision parts to very accurately approximate and use distinguished 'pixel zones' (areas where any allowed/determined light(s) can enter to display image(s). Software: do same thing but with translating that to software. Just need ultra-precise hardware and maybe much higher density for good-enough fidelity versus pixel display counterparts. Most likely prototypes/early models will be far thicker. But theoretically is the next future of displays.
My goto Video for A.A. 🤔 when my Gameplay was with my i5-2400 + 16gb + 1050 ti the choice was Simple : Fxaa 🕹 Now with my Ryzen 5 3600 + 32gb + Rtx 2060 8gb Super = 🤯 = at times ......... Thanx for Posting 🇵🇹
Motion blur perceived from higher fps (and therefore more real temporal fluidity) will always be better than any synthetic temporal interpolation in my book. The sense of realness you get from your eyes blending the image on 120+ fps screens was the largest step in vidya I've experienced since getting a PC. Its legit like going from 64kb audio to 320kb you can't go back, I say 320kb cos it would be better higher than I have rn lol I like counterstrike a little pixelated, but sharp and fluid-1228x864 144hz, low settings except high shaders and 4xAF, 1536x1080 for native res stretch which I like sometimes as well w e w
TXAA is mostly dead today. It was replaced with TAA (sometimes called TSSAA) that does not require multisampling foundation. The downside is that it is game-dependant, meaning each developer implements and fine-tunes it to their preference, which sometimes results in mediocre, blurry result with ghosting in motion. Overall, in no particular order, I'd say: *SSAA* (above native screen resolution scale) is obviously the best, the king and the GPU melter. You can't properly enable it in-game, but you can use VSR (AMD) or DSR (nGreedia) to run up to 2x2 virtual resolution (goes nice in older games, e.g. FarCry, FlatOut, Half-Life 2 sampled from 7680x4320 down to native 4K look great; HL2 is light enough to even switch in-game 8x MSAA on top, which gives a resulting 32x mixed sample AA, also known as 32xS). nVidia owners may also use nVidia Profile Inspector to force SGSSAA (sparse grid supersampling) instead of multisampling in older DX9 games. *MSAA* (and its derivatives CSAA, EQAA) meh, honestly. It can't filter transparencies (alpha-channel), which means object edges are antialiasd, while foliage, fence grates and sime other elements are not, and it makes it even more noticeable, when you have finely smoothed anything contrasted by aliased bushes, tree leaves or a fence nearby. Having a 4K display, I'd rather play with AA "Off". *FXAA* is trash. You'd be much better off with ReShade SMAA. Unless you still struggle on something like GTX 750Ti or GT1030, this should never be an option. *SMAA* (also CMAA, MLAA) is very decent for what it does vs. how much GPU power it needs. May miss some low contrast edges though, but it leaves virtually no impact on GPU performance (unless you go 4K and above... but then you probably have a graphics card that takes it as less that 1% extra load anyway). *Other non-temporal post-process modes* (directional localized AA, NFAA, whatever else there is) are mostly outdated niche competitors of SMAA/FXAA. Try and see if you like them vs. other modes. Typically, they look worse, but it depends on implementation. *Temporal atialiasing* are engine-dependant and quality-wise rely mostly on the developer, meaning there are some fantastic quality examples (DooM Eternal) and some that suck almost as much as FXAA (Crysis Remastered, good thing it can be turned off). Most are scattered somewhere in between the two quality poles. Some varieties, like SMAA T2x/T4x or TXAA are of more constant, better quality, but I don't like T2x for minute quality reasons that would take a freaking multi-page essay to describe. *Hardware-based upscalers / filters* (FSR, XeSS, DLSS) are the latest fashion. May be applied for very high quality upscaling with added antialiasing as a bonus or just anti-alias at native resolution (deep learning AA for nGreedia, XeSS native for Intel, FSR native for AMD). Quality is more constant than traditional TAA, but still varies per-game, since those still require some degree of developer effort to implement. DLSS and XeSS on Intel are roughly equal in quality and look, honestly, very good. XeSS on non-Intel GPUs is decent, but with some minor flaws. FSR is struggling, as of version 3.0, would not recommend, better use XeSS if you're on AMD and the game supports it.
even doom eternal struggels with TAA. The biggest issue after the fact that it makes everything look blurry and causes motion sicknes in many people is that it removes massive amounts of detail. Doom Eternal with TAA looks ok, but once you turn it off and realise how much lighting detail is missing from each scene it just gets sad. Glass domes in the distance start looking like the marble walls and have zero lighting effect left. TAA is a cancer in modern gaming as most devs just use one of the preset modes it comes with and leave it at that and even when properly implemented games just look blurry. But the bigger issue is that devs started to only include TAA in their games forcing players to use no AA or TAA while also refusing to do any manual AA work meaning games are almost impossible to look at without AA or look like a blurry mess.
Using FXAA always at 1440p. I think the “ghosting”/“motion blur” he’s talking about comes from the quality of the monitor, not the software. I’ve used FXAA in most every game because of the performance aspect and to me it looks way sharper than MSAA. Also, NVIDIA seems to handle AA better to the point where I’ve disabled it in game, but turn on in control panel. I can finally run Cyberpunk with FXAA (Nvidia) turned on.
Motion blur is a setting _in-game._ Has nothing to do with the monitor. Ghosting is a result of latent monitors, yes, but the two are very different in terms of source.
@@GregSalazar thanks for the reply! Can agree, though I’ve not had any issues with FXAA. My monitor has high latency compared to modern gaming monitors (PB278Q). Got it for the color vibrancy, resolution and black point. Shot myself in the foot with 60hz (can’t even OC it). Get ghosting in some games due to monitor latency and frame cap regardless of AA application. I generally use FXAA because of performance increase (my 1070 is struggling these days at 1440) Recently, however, I’ve been disabling it in game and letting Nvidia control panel do FXAA @ 4x. I generally get even more of a performance boost (negligible but noticeable in games like CP2077). I’ve been told once you go up to 4k/8k it’s not noticeable, but I was made with bad gaming skills, but eagle eyes, I can tell. Makes me wonder why Monitor companies haven’t integrated monitor run AA applications. Yes, it’s computing/electrical power, but the tech is there. After the 4090 launch it looks like PCs are just gonna be built around GPUs anyway, lol. I appreciate your knowledge and input!
