what is AA? and how do i turn it on?

[jannickj]

got a new pc a couple months back cause i wanted to play this game with max settings.

 

now i heard a lot about this AA thing. so...

 

what is it? and how do i turn it on?

[jannickj]

come on! i cant be the only tech-idiot in here -.-

[GnatB]

Aliasing:

Because the game is rendering discrete polygons, if the percieved physical size of pixels is large enough, there will be a noticeable "stair step" on ony angle lines drawn on screen as the line transitions from one row/column of pixels to the next.

 

i.e.

X
X
X
 X
 X
 X 

Anti-aliasing:

Various techniques for reducing that stairstepping, generally done by rendering the image at a higher resolution, then scaling it down with sampling, so the lines are "blurred".

i.e.

X
X
X\
\X
 X
 X

(hopefully ascii art works out in whatever font you're using)

 

Presumably you turn on anti-aliasing in the graphics option. Since pretty much all means of anti-aliasing involve rendering at a higher resolution then scaling down, it almost always has a noticeable impact on frame rate.

 

IMO, better bang for the buck is just to run at a higher resolution/smaller perceived pixel size so there is no noticeable aliasing in the first place, thus no need for anti-aliasing.

[jannickj]

Aliasing:

Because the game is rendering discrete polygons, if the percieved physical size of pixels is large enough, there will be a noticeable "stair step" on ony angle lines drawn on screen as the line transitions from one row/column of pixels to the next.

 

i.e.

X
X
X
 X
 X
 X 

Anti-aliasing:

Various techniques for reducing that stairstepping, generally done by rendering the image at a higher resolution, then scaling it down with sampling, so the lines are "blurred".

i.e.

X
X
X\
\X
 X
 X

(hopefully ascii art works out in whatever font you're using)

 

Presumably you turn on anti-aliasing in the graphics option. Since pretty much all means of anti-aliasing involve rendering at a higher resolution then scaling down, it almost always has a noticeable impact on frame rate.

 

IMO, better bang for the buck is just to run at a higher resolution/smaller perceived pixel size so there is no noticeable aliasing in the first place, thus no need for anti-aliasing.

 

|| <-- thats how much i understood... so if im running highest resolution AA wont have any impact?

[Enkenon]

Anti aliasing is What makes a game look great and what makes your

VGA look obsolete.

[Daekarus]

Not no impact, but less. You can prove this to yourself by enabling the two different levels of AA while you have the game running at different resolutions.

[Grammarye]

If you do not see jaggies on your screen (models and artwork with jagged lines that annoy you or disrupt immersion, as described above) then you do not need AA on. I see them easily, and so never run without AA, but it's very much personal preference. If you don't see them or don't find them an issue, then your GPU will thank you for keeping AA off.

 

However, you could try turning it on and see what difference it makes to you personally. It's in the graphics options. High seems to be the only setting that does anything. Beware it's quite expensive on GPU performance.

[Marmerus]

|| <-- thats how much i understood... so if im running highest resolution AA wont have any impact?

Yes that is correct. But we can't make screens with that high resolution yet so we don't have any need of AA. It would be like simulating real life.

 

EDIT: I suck at English. What I wanted to say is that we can't make screens so good we have no need of AA.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Marmerus

[jannickj]

think i got it now. dont think i need it then. game looks perfect. but still it annoys me that i cant seem to find an AA button in preferences...