Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: thujone
at worse you might have to fiddle with what level of AA you can get away with.
at high resolutions that's about the only thing you have to worry about in a game this old.
i use an 8800gts and i usually just leave AA off in most games. but i'm impatient.
isn't it true that at the high res of 1920x1200, the level of AA (or was it AF? or was it both?) doesn't really matter and/or most people cannot tell the difference anyway?
No. There's more to it than that.
If you really want to see the what difference is, choose a game where you can save at any point. Take screen shots of the save game (so the image is consistent) with different levels of AA and AF, then zoom in about 400% on the images to look at the pixels to see the difference.
The most important thing AA does, in my opinion, is reduce "edge crawling." You'll see this for example on the edge of a dark object with a bright background or the other way around. The edge will appear to "crawl" as your point of view changes.
AF basically sharpens textures that are viewed at an angle. When you look at a checkerboard straight on, you see perfect squares with alternating colors. When you tilt it, the "squares" are now rectangles with a smaller area... tilt it even more, and add complexity to the pattern, and eventually you completely loose some detail, creating a blurry image. AF attempts to analyze the texture and reduce the size appropriately for the angle it's being viewed without sacrificing important image detail.
Resolution has an indirect effect on both of those, as a higher resolution can display smaller pixels, making aliasing less visible, and texture blurring less noticeable, but they both still exist. And it's not necessarily resolution that's important, it's the pixel density. 1920x1080 on a 20 inch display is very dense and the images will look very smooth and detailed. 1920x1080 on a 60 inch plasma TV viewed at the same distance won't look nearly as smooth... you'll be able to focus on individual pixels easily.