Crysis 3 - Return of real PC Anti-Aliasing (MSAA)

[Grooveriding]

It looks like Crytek really is bringing back real anti-aliasing in Crysis 3.

Haven't had a chance to try the beta yet, but will add some screenshots to see what the MSAA looks like, as well to compare it to the other post-AA options (SMAA/TXAA) which I assume are going to be too blurry for my liking, but we'll see.

edit: After using the fix to get SLI working, it seems there are special Multi-GPU SMAA options.

Multi-GPU SMAA options

Some surprising results. I usually dislike any post-AA, but SMAA High does a decent job without blurring the image with no noticeable performance hit, about 50FPS. 4xMSAA does a very good job with aliasing for the most part - it does seem similar to MSAA in BF3 where it doesn't cover all the edges on terrain and objects and seems more focused on players, units and weapons, about 40FPS. TXAA High is outright horrible, blurs the image, textures and everything else to all hell, about 35FPS, performs worse than 4xMSAA ?

4X MSAA

SMAA High

TXAA High

The game looks decent, not ground-breaking like the first Crysis. Doesn't look much different than Crysis 2 to me at this point.

 

[boxleitnerb]

You need to add the exe to the profile. Seems like Crytek changed it last minute:

 

[Jaydip]

Isn't the whole point of TXAA is to have a more cinematic feel which can't be captured in screenshots?but I agree it blurs the image badly and didn't like it either in AC III.

 

[notty22]

You need to add the exe to the profile. Seems like Crytek changed it last minute:

I tried it, using the newest nvidia inspector, it did not work for my setup.

edit: got it working. was using .8 changed to .9 and imported .exe instead of manually adding the bits.
Looks like no AA and medium textures puts me at 980mb.
Just want to play for now smoothly, I will try to see what happens increasing the IQ later.

 

[Grooveriding]

You need to add the exe to the profile. Seems like Crytek changed it last minute:

Thanks, it works now.

Everything on high with 4xMSAA is not playable for me on my setup imo. Too many dips to 40FPS. This is with SMAA MGPU on.

 

[NTMBK]

From those screenshots SMAA looks like the clear winner- just check out the aliasing on that left hand diagonal wooden thing on 4xMSAA.

 

[Gryz]

In other games, I've found that 4xMSAA give the best static picture. But when moving the camera or walking around, I don't like the "pixel creep" (which I believe is also called temporal aliasing ? Correct ?). SMAA does a much better job of getting rid of pixel creep than MSAA does.

Luckily, MSAA and SMAA can be combined. I always enable 4xMSAA (or 8xMSAA), plus MSAA transparency, via the nVidia control panel. And then I drop the Inject SMAA files in the game folder. Works nicely. SMAA is so light, it hardly impacts framerates. This is now my preferred AA config for all games.

Can you combine MSAA and SMAA in Crysis 3 via the in-game settings ?
Can you combine MSAA and SMAA in Crysis 3 via InjectSMAA ?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

isn't "real AA" SSAA?

 

[blackened23]

In other games, I've found that 4xMSAA give the best static picture. But when moving the camera or walking around, I don't like the "pixel creep" (which I believe is also called temporal aliasing ? Correct ?). SMAA does a much better job of getting rid of pixel creep than MSAA does.

Luckily, MSAA and SMAA can be combined. I always enable 4xMSAA (or 8xMSAA), plus MSAA transparency, via the nVidia control panel. And then I drop the Inject SMAA files in the game folder. Works nicely. SMAA is so light, it hardly impacts framerates. This is now my preferred AA config for all games.

Can you combine MSAA and SMAA in Crysis 3 via the in-game settings ?
Can you combine MSAA and SMAA in Crysis 3 via InjectSMAA ?

SMAA does nothing for pixel creep.

 

[FalseChristian]

I still think 3Dfx's RGSS was the best anti-aliasing ever. Don't you agree.

 

[SirPauly]

Isn't the whole point of TXAA is to have a more cinematic feel which can't be captured in screenshots?but I agree it blurs the image badly and didn't like it either in AC III.

I am very pleased by the addition of TXAA in Crysis 3 -- Some may not like the softening but one can use SweetFX to add more clarity and still garner impressive temporal aliasing attributes from TXAA:

The Secret World -- TXAA:
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1706/thesecretworlddx1120130.jpg

The Secret World -- TXAA SweetFX Tweaked
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1706/thesecretworlddx1120130.jpg

Assassins' Creed 3

TXAA:
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/9070/ac3sptxaa.jpg

TXAA SweetFX extreme Tweaked::

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/290/ac3sptxaatweaked.jpg

Personally use quality on shadows due to high quality offers noticeable shadow aliasing that may look like edge aliasing and shimmering on grass.

 

[boxleitnerb]

I am very pleased by the addition of TXAA in Crysis 3 -- Some may not like the softening but one can use SweetFX to add more clarity and still garner impressive temporal aliasing attributes from TXAA:

The Secret World -- TXAA:
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1706/thesecretworlddx1120130.jpg

The Secret World -- TXAA SweetFX Tweaked
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1706/thesecretworlddx1120130.jpg

Assassins' Creed 3

TXAA:
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/9070/ac3sptxaa.jpg

TXAA SweetFX extreme Tweaked::

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/290/ac3sptxaatweaked.jpg

Personally use quality on shadows due to high quality offers noticeable shadow aliasing that may look like edge aliasing and shimmering on grass.

Wow, looks great with the tweaks! How is it in motion? Could you link to a guide or tutorial how to make these tweaks, please?

 

[SirPauly]

http://sweetfx.thelazy.net/

The key ability is the lumasharpen setting, which has a lot of flexibility to find that right balance of clarity for each individual. Setting is wonderful for SGSSAA and TXAA settings, to me.

What it reminds me of is the older "image sharpening" feature that was offered in the FX generations from nVidia.

 

[AdamK47]

Nvidia driver FXAA is actually pretty good now. It's less blurry than previous iterations and far less blurry than the inject FXAA method. I find it comparable or better than inject SMAA. Not to mention it also works with OpenGL and sub DX9 titles (DX8, DX7, etc.).

 

[Piroko]

Isn't the whole point of TXAA is to have a more cinematic feel which can't be captured in screenshots?but I agree it blurs the image badly and didn't like it either in AC III.

A decade ago interlacing blurred the picture all by itself. This and the 24p playback in cinemas got people used to the idea that slightly blurred images = cinematic effect. There is no deeper meaning in that marketing term.

I am very pleased by the addition of TXAA in Crysis 3 -- Some may not like the softening but one can use SweetFX to add more clarity and still garner impressive temporal aliasing attributes from TXAA

Good for you if you like this image, but to me it's just a blurred picture with a strong sharpener applied. The result is fairly obvious: Horrible banding at every contrast edge and backgrounds with only minor contrast differences get smoothened to an uniform grey soup of fake detail.
Just look at the stairs on the upper left of your Assasins Creed Screenshot: The wood planks behind the actual stairs got completely deprived of detail, leaving a uniform brown surface and in the second screenshot the sharpen filter adds fake detail to the area. There is absolutely nothing left in that area which could give you the hint you that you're looking at wooden planks and not a concrete wall with some ape-with-banana-shaped graffiti on it.

 

[djsb]

Interesting, first game I've seen that natively uses SMAA instead of having to inject it.

 

[SirPauly]

A decade ago interlacing blurred the picture all by itself. This and the 24p playback in cinemas got people used to the idea that slightly blurred images = cinematic effect. There is no deeper meaning in that marketing term.
Good for you if you like this image, but to me it's just a blurred picture with a strong sharpener applied. The result is fairly obvious: Horrible banding at every contrast edge and backgrounds with only minor contrast differences get smoothened to an uniform grey soup of fake detail.
Just look at the stairs on the upper left of your Assasins Creed Screenshot: The wood planks behind the actual stairs got completely deprived of detail, leaving a uniform brown surface and in the second screenshot the sharpen filter adds fake detail to the area. There is absolutely nothing left in that area which could give you the hint you that you're looking at wooden planks and not a concrete wall with some ape-with-banana-shaped graffiti on it.

That is why there is flexibility -- the examples were offered as an illustration of extremer detail can be offered if one desires and still have impressive temporal anti-aliasing attributes, while moving.

One can lower the detail -- setting has a ton of flexibility to find the right balance for each individual.

 

[Piroko]

I don't think we're talking about the same filters. TXAA is a temporal smoother, it will by definition create blur - both in still and in moving images. A post processing sharpener (SweetFX) can not recover already lost detail, but only add 'noise' to the background and more contrast to any (preblurred) edges it finds.
Both filters will destroy detail in low contrast areas and make anything with already high contrast only stick out even more. That's not something which helps immersion.

 

[DiogoDX]

I still think 3Dfx's RGSS was the best anti-aliasing ever. Don't you agree.

Is RGSS for Rotate Grid Super Sampling? I think this is the SSAA in catalyst.

TOPIC: Kudos for SMAA. TXAA again proves useless. No advantages in performance or quality.

 

[SirPauly]

I don't think we're talking about the same filters. TXAA is a temporal smoother, it will by definition create blur - both in still and in moving images. A post processing sharpener (SweetFX) can not recover already lost detail, but only add 'noise' to the background and more contrast to any (preblurred) edges it finds.
Both filters will destroy detail in low contrast areas and make anything with already high contrast only stick out even more. That's not something which helps immersion.

Even nVidia has noticed that SweetFX may offer some value:

http://international.download.nvidi...l-of-duty-black-ops-2-sweetfx-comparison.html

http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/black-ops-2-tweak-guide#10

 

[moonbogg]

Thanks for sharing OP. I expect to be able to play this game close to max at 1080p with two 670s, but I will end up waiting for a sale price since this does infact look like a crysis 2 reboot. Origin has a delux version of the game for $80. Thats expensive for the extras you get.

 

[Grooveriding]

I don't think we're talking about the same filters. TXAA is a temporal smoother, it will by definition create blur - both in still and in moving images. A post processing sharpener (SweetFX) can not recover already lost detail, but only add 'noise' to the background and more contrast to any (preblurred) edges it finds.
Both filters will destroy detail in low contrast areas and make anything with already high contrast only stick out even more. That's not something which helps immersion.

This is the whole issue with TXAA; it's image degradation, not improvement. And it comes with the biggest performance hit of them all! Pretty bad. Nvidia is trying to do to anti-aliasing what they failed to do to in game physics with physx.

Jack up the performance cost of an existing feature to the detriment of the game.

Thankfully Crysis 3 is offering proper Anti-aliasing with MSAA and SMAA, which while still adding some blur, is the best example of a post-aa filter I have seen. I'd like to get some explanation on why the SMAA settings are different with multi-gpu enabled and what the differences are with the two multi-gpu options.

 

[SirPauly]

I'm glad they're offering TXAA based on that title is probably littered with temporal aliasing -- choice is good.

 

[Piroko]

TXAA is still a performance improvement over true Supersampling as far as I know. But I simply refuse to accept this as a good solution when it took years of pressure to get angle independent anisotropic filters and similar stuff.

 

[SirPauly]

TXAA is still a performance improvement over true Supersampling as far as I know. But I simply refuse to accept this as a good solution when it took years of pressure to get angle independent anisotropic filters and similar stuff.

My only constructive nit-pick was an allowance of clarity flexibility based on the softening, but was very pleased with the temporal anti-aliasing attributes, especially for the efficiency, which is very impressive to me. Polar opposite of Grooveriding!

Thankfully, there was SweetFX and nVidia has noticed!