TXAA convert!

[taserbro]

I'm pretty conflicted about this; I absolutely love the shimmer-free picture but I hate the performance hit. The image quality is really better despite what I've been previously indoctrinated about the laughable amount of blur but there's just no way I can justify the performance hit on a game that's already teetering on the edge of playability on my rig.

At the end of the day, I have to turn off other settings to turn this on and it just bothers me every second of my ac4 playthrough because the game itself is fantastically fun but I just can't get rid of the nagging feeling that I'm "downgrading" the settings and ubisoft knows they can get away with not optimizing pc ports of otherwise outstanding games because of this arms race argument...

 

[UaVaj]

glad you like it.

some of us would rather take MSAA over anything else.

we back that up with multi gpu as necessary.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

I've never seen any images of video of this AA method that does not blur the ever loving crap out of the screen, I suspect games that have a lot of post processing effects which already suffer a severe hit to texture clarity might not appear to suffer much from this.

But the affect is undeniable with correctly working eyes, we've seen a steady decline in AA expectations over the years, from perfect SSAA to more approximate MSAA and then MSAA with "optimisations" and then down to post processing AA which doesn't even subsample. Now we have this blurathon.

Don't get me wrong, I like choice but I find it hard to believe many people really prefer this trade off.

 

[Silverforce11]

I've never seen any images of video of this AA method that does not blur the ever loving crap out of the screen, I suspect games that have a lot of post processing effects which already suffer a severe hit to texture clarity might not appear to suffer much from this.

But the affect is undeniable with correctly working eyes, we've seen a steady decline in AA expectations over the years, from perfect SSAA to more approximate MSAA and then MSAA with "optimisations" and then down to post processing AA which doesn't even subsample. Now we have this blurathon.

Don't get me wrong, I like choice but I find it hard to believe many people really prefer this trade off.

Exactly. Which is why people game in BF3 with 4xMSAA and the same with BF4, even if it takes a performance hit, the clarity is well worth it over blurfest post-AA.

But since there are examples of post-AA without the blurring, it CAN be done.

 

[SirPauly]

Don't get me wrong, I like choice but I find it hard to believe many people really prefer this trade off.

Easy to believe actually if some don't desire default TXAA, one may use a third party tool to achieve their clarity tolerance -- clean, sharper image while moving with much more efficiency than super-sampled.

 

[Grooveriding]

I've never seen any images of video of this AA method that does not blur the ever loving crap out of the screen, I suspect games that have a lot of post processing effects which already suffer a severe hit to texture clarity might not appear to suffer much from this.

But the affect is undeniable with correctly working eyes, we've seen a steady decline in AA expectations over the years, from perfect SSAA to more approximate MSAA and then MSAA with "optimisations" and then down to post processing AA which doesn't even subsample. Now we have this blurathon.

Don't get me wrong, I like choice but I find it hard to believe many people really prefer this trade off.

I don't think many do care for it. Just some interest in here and there. For me the blur and image degradation is just too atrocious to even consider using it. Plus it tends to be performance intensive and more demanding than MSAA, while MSAA looks better.

You turn TXAA on and degrade and blur your textures, then add another filter to try and salvage the damage that further degrades and alters the textures... Just turn it off and save the headache of trying to correct a damaging method of anti-aliasing.

 

[boxleitnerb]

The blur is overrated imo. You can get used to it and don't notice it anymore after a while (unless you can directly compare it on still images to MSAA/SMAA etc. - but who plays that way???). Yet aliasing is annoying all the time since you instinctively know that it should look different without any direct frame of reference. You *know* that aliasing is an artifact and that reality doesn't have it. Since moving objects also draw attention of the eyes much more than a "steady" light blur over the whole image.

It's like saying
a) this bbq sauce tastes a little bland
b) this bbq sauce tastes like vinegar

You can have a hard time noticing a) without a frame of reference, but you immediately know that b) is wrong.

So for me aliasing is way worse than a bit of blur. In previous games the loss of sharpness was much more pronounced. In AC4 it is very subtle and no problem at all. People criticizing this are exaggerating imo.

 

[SirPauly]

I don't think many do care for it. Just some interest in here and there. For me the blur and image degradation is just too atrocious to even consider using it. Plus it tends to be performance intensive and more demanding than MSAA, while MSAA looks better.

You turn TXAA on and degrade and blur your textures, then add another filter to try and salvage the damage that further degrades and alters the textures... Just turn it off and save the headache of trying to correct a damaging method of anti-aliasing.

TXAA tweaked a bit:

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2377/txaatweakeds.jpg

MSAA x4:

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6761/msaat.jpg

The difference is the quality while moving is much superior with TXAA!

 

[Grooveriding]

Generally I put a lot more credence in unbiased reviewer's opinions than possibly slanted forum posts. Especially when they reflect my consistent experience in every game that uses TXAA.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/9#.UpS4COK5DhE

This last screenshot demonstrates up close how detail is lost in the high resolution textures due to the blurring. The stone wall simply has less detail with TXAA enabled. Also, the vegetation here is extremely blurry with TXAA enabled.


Overall, TXAA should be avoided. We don't know how this quality of TXAA got implemented into the game and left there. It seems like somebody took the day off when quality control of TXAA image quality rolled around that day. TXAA destroys the gameplay experience in Crysis 3.

Though going on your pictures I think a game like CoD : Ghosts would be a good candidate for TXAA. A primitive game like Ghosts with low-tech graphics would not see much substantive texture degradation of note turning on TXAA. The game already looks horrible, blurring it with TXAA would probably help it some.

 

[Will Robinson]

Generally I put a lot more credence in unbiased reviewer's opinions than possibly slanted forum posts. Especially when they reflect my consistent experience in every game that uses TXAA.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/9#.UpS4COK5DhE



Though going on your pictures I think a game like CoD : Ghosts would be a good candidate for TXAA. A primitive game like Ghosts with low-tech graphics would not see much substantive texture degradation of note turning on TXAA. The game already looks horrible, blurring it with TXAA would probably help it some.

That's almost sig worthy :biggrin:

SSAA please,say no to TX.

 

[SirPauly]

Generally I put a lot more credence in unbiased reviewer's opinions than possibly slanted forum posts. Especially when they reflect my consistent experience in every game that uses TXAA.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/9#.UpS4COK5DhE



Though going on your pictures I think a game like CoD : Ghosts would be a good candidate for TXAA. A primitive game like Ghosts with low-tech graphics would not see much substantive texture degradation of note turning on TXAA. The game already looks horrible, blurring it with TXAA would probably help it some.

The irony is that could be enhanced by a simple in-game command:

r_Sharpening

http://www.gamerconfig.eu/command/crysis-3/r_Sharpening/

Illustration of r_Sharpening:

http://www.tweakguides.com/23_c3_sharpening_comparison.html

 

[FiendishMind]

If AC4 has a better TXAA implementation than previous games, I wonder if it's because they combined it with CSAA. Timothy Lottes (when he was still at Nvidia and had TXAA stuff on his blog) had mentioned this was one of the methods he was going to try as a means to reduce the blur. The reason I suspect this is because AC4 supports CSAA as well.

Have any other previous TXAA games also supported CSAA like AC4?

PS TXAA is not post-process AA. It's MSAA with a custom resolve.

 

[boxleitnerb]

Generally I put a lot more credence in unbiased reviewer's opinions than possibly slanted forum posts. Especially when they reflect my consistent experience in every game that uses TXAA.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/9#.UpS4COK5DhE

Though going on your pictures I think a game like CoD : Ghosts would be a good candidate for TXAA. A primitive game like Ghosts with low-tech graphics would not see much substantive texture degradation of note turning on TXAA. The game already looks horrible, blurring it with TXAA would probably help it some.

The problem is that most people commenting on TXAA focus on one aspect of it only and completely ignore the antialiasing effect. THAT is "slanted".
There are two sides of the coin. MSAA or SMAA alone don't cut it in modern games. SMAA completely fails in motion and MSAA often leaves out edges.
Also the TXAA implementations in games are different and cannot be lumped together.

 

[Silverforce11]

The irony is that could be enhanced by a simple in-game command:



http://www.gamerconfig.eu/command/crysis-3/r_Sharpening/

Illustration of r_Sharpening:

http://www.tweakguides.com/23_c3_sharpening_comparison.html

And it looks heaps better with a simple tweak, why not have it on by default? Do developers really want to smother vaseline on their high quality production to be more "film-like"?

 

[SirPauly]

nVidia seems to be going for the Cinematic look for default. Personally like a bit more detail than what is offered with multi-sampling but very clean while moving -- this is why I have been consistent over the years for features like SGSSAA, hybrid mixed modes, TXAA, TRAA, sharpening tools, flexibility with lod -- tools, features and flexibility so I can find that subjective threshold for my eyes -- to improve the gaming experience -- this is my slant!

 

[kosh56]

I just got a GTX 780 this week along with AC4. I upgraded from a GTX 580 so this is my first experience with TXAA.

I was set to write it off based on what I had heard and figured it would provide too much blur ala FXAA.

Well, I am stunned. AC4 with TXAA looks fantastic. I was going back and forth between TXAA 4x and MSAA 4x and could not notice any discernible blur. The reduction in temporal aliasing however, was great. Temporal aliasing is my biggest visual pet peeve and TXAA handles it with aplomb with virtually no drawbacks. I hope results are similar for other games that support TXAA.

I suggest people try it for themselves and see what they think.

 

[Carfax83]

This last screenshot demonstrates up close how detail is lost in the high resolution textures due to the blurring. The stone wall simply has less detail with TXAA enabled. Also, the vegetation here is extremely blurry with TXAA enabled.


Overall, TXAA should be avoided. We don't know how this quality of TXAA got implemented into the game and left there. It seems like somebody took the day off when quality control of TXAA image quality rolled around that day. TXAA destroys the gameplay experience in Crysis 3. .

I don't know if Crysis 3 can be used as a proper example of the drawbacks of TXAA. Crysis 3 was a Gaming Evolved title, so NVidia didn't have a hand in implementing TXAA.

Crytek probably did it on their own and did a sub standard job. The quality of TXAA seems to be variable, with some games having blur that is difficult to detect whilst in others the blur is much more noticeable..

Batman Arkham Origins is another game where the TXAA implementation is definitely high quality, with blur being almost undetectable.. And of course, it was a TWIMTBP title.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

The performance hit and blurness doesn't really make it seem worth it tbh. I've seen better.

 

[guskline]

I agree that COD Ghost benefits with less hit than BF4.

 

[Spidre]

I'm using TXAAx4 in AC4 over other options at the moment. It looks good, and doesn't give much of a hit to performance.

 

[MrK6]

Generally I put a lot more credence in unbiased reviewer's opinions than possibly slanted forum posts. Especially when they reflect my consistent experience in every game that uses TXAA.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/03/12/crysis_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/9#.UpS4COK5DhE



Though going on your pictures I think a game like CoD : Ghosts would be a good candidate for TXAA. A primitive game like Ghosts with low-tech graphics would not see much substantive texture degradation of note turning on TXAA. The game already looks horrible, blurring it with TXAA would probably help it some.

Well said.

Smudging the image enough so you can't notice temporal aliasing is the biggest joke and yet some people have been sold on it. I play on a 2560x1600 monitor to improve image quality and sharpness, not destroy it.

 

[bystander36]

Well said.

Smudging the image enough so you can't notice temporal aliasing is the biggest joke and yet some people have been sold on it. I play on a 2560x1600 monitor to improve image quality and sharpness, not destroy it.

Crysis 3 isn't the only game using it, and the screen shots above should show that it clearly isn't the same in every game that has it.

 

[SirPauly]

Well said.

Smudging the image enough so you can't notice temporal aliasing is the biggest joke and yet some people have been sold on it. I play on a 2560x1600 monitor to improve image quality and sharpness, not destroy it.

When tweaked to sharp -- still does a wonderful job on temporal aliasing!

 

[SirPauly]

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – SweetFX vs Vanilla Comparison


http://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot...-iv-black-flag-sweetfx-vs-vanilla-comparison/

 

[MrK6]

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – SweetFX vs Vanilla Comparison
http://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot...-iv-black-flag-sweetfx-vs-vanilla-comparison/

The fact that they're promoting destroying the image only to add in more mods to over saturate and garble it further tells me this is an endeavor from novices with shoddy hardware. I'm not sure what else you're trying to prove by linking that site.