What's antialiasing?

Martingale00 · 12-13-2006, 03:23 AM

Hi everyone, I installed a Nvidia 7900 GS and in the control panel there's antialiasing. Is this what takes away jagged edges and should I turn it to full max? the options are 2x, 2xQ, 4x, and 8x. Also where should I set anisotropic filtering. Does it depend on the application? Thanks.

**Fr4665** · 12-13-2006, 04:14 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antialiasing
i dont think i can get a better explanation it basically removes the jagginess from virtual lines on the computer

Martingale00 · 12-13-2006, 10:39 AM

Thanks for the link. I came across that in my research last night. The thing that has me wondering about that article is it says antialiasing removed jagged edges "when representing a high-resolution signal at a lower resolution". Well what if you're running a 1280x1024 resolution, how much would antialiasing help in that case. I think I have a better understand of what it is now, I just need to figure out where to put the settings. Full max?

ebackhus · 12-13-2006, 01:47 PM

Anti-aliasing has two meanings with graphics. The first kind has to deal with textures applied to polygons. Textures are applied to add more detail than would be possible using a pure polygonal approach. The problem with that is that sometimes the textures are smaller than the size of the polygon they're being applied to, so the texture is stretched. When this happens the actual pixels that make up that texture are enlarged, causing it to look pixelated. Anti-aliaising of the texture, also called "filtering" comes into play. It basically smooths out the pixels (often by averaging colors of nearby pixels) to create something that isn't as 'harsh' to look at.

The other form comes in the way of removing the "jaggies" that appear when objects on the screen at odd angles. It creates what looks like stair-steps and at lower resultions (640x480, 800x600) can be unpleasant to look at. Anti-aliasing of edges removes these in two possible ways... The first creates multiple frames of the current frame. These are then overlayed to eliminate the jagged edges. This method is called "Multi Sampling." The other method simply renders the scene at a higher resolution (ei. rendering at 1280x1024 for a 640x480 scene) and scaling it back down. This is called "Super Sampling."

12-13-2006, 03:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
Martingale00 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 153 OS: Windows XP	What's antialiasing? Hi everyone, I installed a Nvidia 7900 GS and in the control panel there's antialiasing. Is this what takes away jagged edges and should I turn it to full max? the options are 2x, 2xQ, 4x, and 8x. Also where should I set anisotropic filtering. Does it depend on the application? Thanks.

12-13-2006, 04:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
Fr4665 aka mr.fraggs Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: USA or Germany Posts: 2,965 OS: Win XP,Vista,Android My System	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antialiasing i dont think i can get a better explanation it basically removes the jagginess from virtual lines on the computer __________________ I don't subscribe to threads please PM me if i miss a reply. ------- Everest SensorView Pro DriverCleaner how to fix your game

12-13-2006, 10:39 AM	#3 (permalink)
Martingale00 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 153 OS: Windows XP	Thanks for the link. I came across that in my research last night. The thing that has me wondering about that article is it says antialiasing removed jagged edges "when representing a high-resolution signal at a lower resolution". Well what if you're running a 1280x1024 resolution, how much would antialiasing help in that case. I think I have a better understand of what it is now, I just need to figure out where to put the settings. Full max? __________________ - Athlon X2 4600+ (@ 2.77GHz), 2GB DDR2-667, 8800GTS-320 (@ 600/830), Antec 500w PSU, Audigy 4, Windows XP - Core 2 Duo E6400, 1GB DDR2-667, X1300 Pro, Windows XP

12-13-2006, 01:47 PM	#4 (permalink)
ebackhus Manager, Design Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: SATX Posts: 14,335 OS: WinXP Pro SP3/Windows 7 RTM My System Blog Entries: 28	Anti-aliasing has two meanings with graphics. The first kind has to deal with textures applied to polygons. Textures are applied to add more detail than would be possible using a pure polygonal approach. The problem with that is that sometimes the textures are smaller than the size of the polygon they're being applied to, so the texture is stretched. When this happens the actual pixels that make up that texture are enlarged, causing it to look pixelated. Anti-aliaising of the texture, also called "filtering" comes into play. It basically smooths out the pixels (often by averaging colors of nearby pixels) to create something that isn't as 'harsh' to look at. The other form comes in the way of removing the "jaggies" that appear when objects on the screen at odd angles. It creates what looks like stair-steps and at lower resultions (640x480, 800x600) can be unpleasant to look at. Anti-aliasing of edges removes these in two possible ways... The first creates multiple frames of the current frame. These are then overlayed to eliminate the jagged edges. This method is called "Multi Sampling." The other method simply renders the scene at a higher resolution (ei. rendering at 1280x1024 for a 640x480 scene) and scaling it back down. This is called "Super Sampling." __________________ ----------------------------- There are no dumb questions, unless a customer is asking them. Help in the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses.