question about antialiasing

[cschaef13]

what does it do? I have heard people say it just wastes processor power. can someone send me pics with differences of all of the antialiasing settings?

 

[Ti133700N]

First pic, no anti-aliasing : http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTAzMDEzNzg1MXFXNVo4NzNQUGtfM18xX2wuanBn

anti-aliasing 2x : http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTAzMDEzNzg1MXFXNVo4NzNQUGtfM18yX2wuanBn

anti-aliasing 4x : http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTAzMDEzNzg1MXFXNVo4NzNQUGtfM18zX2wuanBn

anti-aliasing 6x : http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTAzMDEzNzg1MXFXNVo4NzNQUGtfM180X2wuanBn

Look at the stairs and you'll see the difference.

 

[cschaef13]

any other comparisons I can get with um say i game like hl2 haha, no offence or anything i get what you are starting at but the graphics in that were just a little too bad to notice alot.

 

[[Matt]]

Anti aliasing smooths the edges of polygons and is much easier to see at lower resolutions such as 800x600. I have prodived these images below of hl2 running at 800x600 with differing levels of FSAA. The effect it generates is most noticable on the combine tower and the power lines. Also check out the roof TV ariels.

No AA. Notice how edges look really pixelated or 'jagged'.

2x AA. A minor improvement over no AA as the power lines no longer appear broken up but the image still shows pixelation.

4x AA. Now we see a huge improvement over both no AA and 2x AA. The edges appear much smoother and pixelation is at a minimum.

6x AA. Again a huge improvement over no AA but only a very slight improvement over 4x AA to the extent that its hard to tell the difference between 4x and 6x AA.

 

[ilovemetal]

so wat ur saying is u reccommend anti aliasiang

 

[[Matt]]

so wat ur saying is u reccommend anti aliasiang

if your card has enough bandwidth to use it without your frame rate dying then yes...