NVIDIA's New FXAA Antialiasing Technology

[GaiaHunter]

NVIDIA's New FXAA Antialiasing Technology

The Bottom Line

In F.3.A.R., FXAA performs extremely well and reduces aliasing as well as or better than 4X AA in most cases. It's not perfect, but it is effective and inexpensive in terms of GPU time. In this particular title, we are grateful for the enhanced image quality and outstanding performance that FXAA offered us on all levels of video cards that we tested. We are extremely happy to see FXAA working on AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. We hope that NVIDIA can spread FXAA to more game developers and that those developers will make use of FXAA's more advances sub-pixel contrast reduction features.

This is a feature that has mostly flown in under the radar, and we think NVIDIA should have been more vocal about it. It is a great step forward for anti-aliasing technology, which has remained largely stagnant on the NVIDIA side of the pond since the introduction of CSAA with the GeForce 8800 series in late 2006. FXAA is a fast and effective tool, and we are excited to see how much better NVIDIA can make it going forward.

Big kudos to NVIDIA, for making Anti-Aliasing interesting again.

Now this is what I, as a consumer, call a good way of improving the PC gaming.

Kudos to NVIDIA indeed.

 

[Phynaz]

Pretty sweet, going to try it out on the Duke demo.

 

[RussianSensation]

So HardOCP continues to state their opinions as facts, again contributing to their already "questionable" work/reviews (such as them praising MLAA over MSAA? when MLAA turns games into a giant blur fest and is inferior to MSAA, except in cases where MSAA doesn't work).

"In F.3.A.R., FXAA performs extremely well and reduces aliasing as well as or better than 4X AA in most cases." ~ HardOCP <--- Now they think FXAA is better than MSAA? :sneaky:

"While in DNF the best antialiasing algorithm was FXAA mode, in this case it is secondary. The performance boost from the use of a less complex algorithm is obvious: almost 50&#37; for AMD Radeon HD 6950 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti. On the other hand, we, unfortunately, can&#8217;t recommend FXAA settings: the result will look like someone is permanently pressing on the Blur button in Photoshop. Trying to eliminate the jagged contours of the objects on the screen, you will lose texture clarity. The vegetation will also suffer substantially. I doubt you will be willing to sacrifice so much for the soft contours of washed-out objects." - Xbitlabs

4x FSAA (Conventional Multi-sampling)

4x FXAA

FXAA is better suitable for budget videocards that need the 50% performance boost. A 6970 gets 55 fps at 1920x1080 4x FSAA. There isn't really a need to move away from FSAA, esp. when the image quality is degraded.

This is similar to Crysis 2 on Extreme, where the built in AA mode results in significantly worse textures and sharpness than on High (blur fest). Yes, NV, thanks for that blur, but no thanks.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Remember the big flickering debate that happened when the 6800 series came out and AMD changed the drivers settings?

Remember how people were saying the AMD cards showed so much more flickering compared to NVIDIA cards? And then people started to notice NVIDIA textures were less crisp more blurry?

MSAA problem is that it does nothing about flickering/shimmering. MLAA and FXAA reduce that at the cost of texture crispness.

Texture shimmering is easily not shown by screen shots.

Finally [H] also says the following:

"FXAA Image Quality

Compared to 2X AA, FXAA is uniformly superior. Compared to 4X AA, there are some I Q trade-offs, but the performance advantage that FXAA offers gives FXAA the advantage. In some areas, 4X AA offered slightly superior image quality, and in other areas FXAA is better.

Even though 4X AA offers slightly better hard edge aliasing reduction than FXAA, we still think FXAA is a better option in most circumstances. For starters, shader aliasing is reduced by FXAA but not MSAA. Alpha texture aliasing is reduced by FSAA, but not MSAA. Single-pixel aliasing is also reduced, as is sub-pixel aliasing. The flickering of very small objects or surfaces can be a big problem, and FXAA deals with it admirably while MSAA does not handle it at all."

So [H] isn't stating it as a fact but as an opinion and also recognizes IQ trade offs.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

So is this MLAA for Nvidia? TBH they wern't missing anything important imo.

 

[GaiaHunter]

So is this MLAA for Nvidia? TBH they wern't missing anything important imo.

Similar, but also works on AMD cards and need to be implemented by the developers (which seems to be he source of much smaller performance impact) although there are some reports that it be made to work in some titles using Nvidia inspector (can't comment on their validity).

 

[Borealis7]

you cant deny, though, that MLAA's and FXAA's picture quality is extremely similar (from the zoomed views in HOCP's review) and that FXAA is faster.
Last time i checked, faster = better, while maintaining image quality.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Impressive. I'm also impressed with Nvidia's handling of it.

Curious of the texture blurring might not be able to be mitigated via higher quality textures.

 

[ViRGE]

Ugg; bluring the entire screen is not anti-aliasing. If you want to remove all aliasing do it right: take multiple samples of everything. Kudos to NV for implementing a fast algorithm, but we're backsliding here on IQ.

 

[Sylvanas]

Meh it's a nice option but compared to MLAA it's still not a killer implementation. MLAA came at release available for pretty much all recent games regardless of developer / API. FXAA is only what....3 titles so far?

 

[BFG10K]

This looks to be marginally better than MLAA but with similar problems: blurry textures while not really addressing texture/shader aliasing. I’d only use it in games that cannot support AA, and even then I’d think twice before putting up with that blurring.

 

[SirPauly]

One can use FXAA on any OpenGL title as of right now using nVinspector -- it's early though. There are rumblings that nVidia may offer this for all applications:

I think very soon FXAA will be available officially. Nvidia Control Panel already contains the following description:

Antialiasing - FXAA

FXAA is a fast shader-based post-processing technique that can be applied to any program, including those which do not support other forms of hardware-based antialiasing. FXAA can be used in conjunction with other antialiasing settings to improve overall image quality. Note that enabling this setting globally may affect all programs rendered on the GPU, including video players and the Windows desktop.

&#8226; Turn FXAA on to improve image quality with a lesser performance impact than other antialiasing settings.

&#8226; Turn FXAA off if you notice artifacts or dithering around the edges of objects, particularly around text.

 

[SirPauly]

Remember the big flickering debate that happened when the 6800 series came out and AMD changed the drivers settings?

Remember how people were saying the AMD cards showed so much more flickering compared to NVIDIA cards? And then people started to notice NVIDIA textures were less crisp more blurry?

MSAA problem is that it does nothing about flickering/shimmering. MLAA and FXAA reduce that at the cost of texture crispness.

Texture shimmering is easily not shown by screen shots.

Finally [H] also says the following:

"FXAA Image Quality

Compared to 2X AA, FXAA is uniformly superior. Compared to 4X AA, there are some I Q trade-offs, but the performance advantage that FXAA offers gives FXAA the advantage. In some areas, 4X AA offered slightly superior image quality, and in other areas FXAA is better.

Even though 4X AA offers slightly better hard edge aliasing reduction than FXAA, we still think FXAA is a better option in most circumstances. For starters, shader aliasing is reduced by FXAA but not MSAA. Alpha texture aliasing is reduced by FSAA, but not MSAA. Single-pixel aliasing is also reduced, as is sub-pixel aliasing. The flickering of very small objects or surfaces can be a big problem, and FXAA deals with it admirably while MSAA does not handle it at all."

So [H] isn't stating it as a fact but as an opinion and also recognizes IQ trade offs.

Most of the complaints was there was a limitation in mip-map transitions and depending on color contrasts, one would see artifacts while moving. It was a hardware problem.

What HardOcp is talking about is specular and shader aliasing and multi-sampling doesn't touch textures so the only way to improve this is to offer even more quality on anisotropy or use super-sampled, which helps curb these artifacts. It's good to see something else though that may help though with a small hit.

MLAA or FXAA are very welcomed to me based on having some quality, where none was available or to use in conjunction depending on title.

Hope its not the future of IQ because these are taking steps backwards in quality to me -- unless these features improve upon quality moving forward.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Most of the complaints was there was a limitation in mip-map transitions and depending on color contrasts, one would see artifacts while moving. It was a hardware problem.

What HardOcp is talking about is specular and shader aliasing and multi-sampling doesn't touch textures so the only way to improve this is to offer even more quality on anisotropy or use super-sampled, which helps curb these artifacts. It's good to see something else though that may help though with a small hit.

MLAA or FXAA are very welcomed to me based on having some quality, where none was available or to use in conjunction depending on title.

Hope its not the future of IQ because these are taking steps backwards in quality to me -- unless these features improve upon quality moving forward.

Actually a large chunck of it was about texture flickering.

As you should remember since you posted about it.

Curbing shimmering and texture aliasing artifacts are part of anisotropy, too.

What that thread also called to attention is that AMD had crispier textures compared to the more blurrier NVIDIA textures. I believe it was skurge that posted a picture (can't find it, maybe skurge can give a hand) of dirt2 and in the NVIDIA picture you couldn't read anything on the signs since it was blurred out.


Shimmering happen in games and it can sometimes be annoying. Blurring reduces it but has the disadvantages or reducing texture crispiness/sharpness.

Any steps to reduce shimmering are positive - hopefully in the future we won't have to choose between blurry but shimmer free or sharp but shimmery games (which one is best, at the moment, depends on the game and sometimes even on the particular scene). Lets hope that at least this show that AMD and NVIDIA are concerned about this problem.

EDIT: Actually it wasn't Skurge and it was on trackmania not dirt2. There were 3 threads about this.

Here, I've circled another discernible difference in the background. Mine is the fat circle. Look at the upper metal bar/roof (?)

 

[tweakboy]

How do you do FSAA ,, new drivers ??? Can I use it ??

 

[SirPauly]

Most of my context is about the hardware limitation that was in 58XX series hardware.

 

[SirPauly]

Actually a large chunck of it was about texture flickering.

As you should remember since you posted about it.



What that thread also called to attention is that AMD had crispier textures compared to the more blurrier NVIDIA textures. I believe it was skurge that posted a picture (can't find it, maybe skurge can give a hand) of dirt2 and in the NVIDIA picture you couldn't read anything on the signs since it was blurred out.


Shimmering happen in games and it can sometimes be annoying. Blurring reduces it but has the disadvantages or reducing texture crispiness/sharpness.

Any steps to reduce shimmering are positive - hopefully in the future we won't have to choose between blurry but shimmer free or sharp but shimmery games (which one is best, at the moment, depends on the game and sometimes even on the particular scene). Lets hope that at least this show that AMD and NVIDIA are concerned about this problem.

EDIT: Actually it wasn't Skurge and it was on trackmania not dirt2. There were 3 threads about this.

But, he offered his context here:

As games have become more shader based, we've seen specular shader aliasing start to be a problem. About 7 years ago, when the original Far Cry was released

FXAA improves polygon aliasing, alpha texture aliasing, and specular aliasing

Alphas, specular and shader aliasing is how he is defining flickering and how FXAA helps curb these to some levels with a small hit.

Traditional textures ---- anisotropy, without optimizations and limitations do a nice job.

 

[n7]

marked for later.

Does this work like MLAA for Borderlands did?

 

[SirPauly]

I guess very soon, perhaps already in next driver.
Using the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak, create a DWORD value called EnableSRS1442 and set it to 1.
Then FXAA will be available in the Nvidia Control Panel. But FXAA currently works only in OpenGL.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=201821&view=findpost&p=1248230

There is a screen shot with the FXAA option in the control Panel in the link above:

And to repeat with an earlier post in this thread:

Nvidia Control Panel already contains the following description:

Antialiasing - FXAA

FXAA is a fast shader-based post-processing technique that can be applied to any program, including those which do not support other forms of hardware-based antialiasing. FXAA can be used in conjunction with other antialiasing settings to improve overall image quality. Note that enabling this setting globally may affect all programs rendered on the GPU, including video players and the Windows desktop.

&#8226; Turn FXAA on to improve image quality with a lesser performance impact than other antialiasing settings.

&#8226; Turn FXAA off if you notice artifacts or dithering around the edges of objects, particularly around text.

 

[Lonbjerg]

Meh....this is mroe for consoles (which are hard pressed to do any form of AA)...and not the PC..

 

[apoppin]

Meh....this is mroe for consoles (which are hard pressed to do any form of AA)...and not the PC..

It is for PC games where AA is not supported by the game engine or cannot be forced in the CP.

Think Borderlands where FXAA or MLAA is better than jaggies; or even Duke Nukem Forever where FXAA is better than MSAA.
:\

 

[SirPauly]

Meh....this is mroe for consoles (which are hard pressed to do any form of AA)...and not the PC..

Think of it as a way to place some quality on a title where no other way is viable. There are titles where one can't enable or force AA on PC gaming titles even using the many methods in nVinspector.

The other advantage is, well, if a title looks okay with FXAA, one can use this method in conjunction with traditional methods, too, for even more quality.

The bonus is really the hit is so small.

 

[Bill Brasky]

I wonder if this AA method will cause response lag. Did anyone else notice that with mlaa? I found it similar to input lag, but I realize this is different since mlaa is a post processing filter. Either way the, the lag was bad enough in BC2 that I had to turn it off. Perhaps these types of AA aren't ideal for first person shooters.

 

[AdamK47]

Any update on this? I'd really like to see this implemented in the drivers. External methods support DX9, DX10, and DX11. This should support everything.

 

[ArchAngel777]

In BF3 I cannot see once difference between FXAA or MSAA. At least, I think post processing is FXAA, right? Anyway, I see no difference with that game. However, big performance gains without having to use MSAA. Seems like a win to me.