MSAA, SMAA, FXAA

[Momitja]

Hi everyone,

 

first of all thank you for this great project!

 

This topic is about MSAA, SMAA and FXAA.

I am a bit confused. I already know a few differences and informations about them but i am not entirely sure what i should really use.

As far as i know is SMAA superior over FXAA, so FXAA is not really what i should use, right?

What i really don't know: Should i use MSAA or SMAA?

I use the Skyrealism ENB and tried out some settings with the SMAA injection via the enbseries. But i can't really see any differents (quality and performance).

And is it important to just use only SMAA or only MSAA, or can i use both at the same time? Is SMAA only better if you want to get more performance but a drop in quality?

 

My PC configuration:

HD: SSD

RAM: 16 GB

GPU: Geforce GTX580 1.5 GB VRAM

CPU: i7-3930K @3.2 Ghz (6 core)

OS: Win 8 x64

[SSL]

I just want to point that SMAA (according to [0] its devs) already does MSAA, so there is no point enabling the latter.

 

[0]: https://www.iryoku.com/smaa/

[Momitja]

So, why using MSAA anymore if SMAA is faster and does MSAA? Has MSAA without SMAA better Quality?

[tomtomtommy]

MSAA is better quality but also requires more much power ...the slight SMAA quality drop is probably worth it to save some resources for texture/lighting etc...

[TechAngel85]

If you're using the current version of SkyRealism ENB that uses ENBSeries v0.139, the only solutions available to you are the ENB AA (which is a bit blurry) or SMAA. Hardware AA does not work due to limitations of the ENBSeries.

[Besidilo]

MSAA and SMAA are two completely different types of anti-aliasing.

 

SMAA is a post-processing method of AA based on MLAA (meaning that it's a filtered applied to an already rendered frame, the reason why it doesn't cost much performance), which I think is developed by AMD, whilst MSAA stands for Multisampling Antialiasing and is part of the rendered image. MSAA on its own doesn't cover transparent textures, SMAA anti-aliases the whole scene (which is not always desirable).

 

You can't just say that one is better than the other because they're completely different and the results will depend on the scene.

 

ENB up to 119 supports hardware antialiasing, then the support is dropped, then again it is back with 142 revision or so.

[DaTraS]

Kind of incorrect.

I can use hardware-antialiasing just fine (4x MSAA + 4x SGSSAA to be precisly), even using ENB Mods based on v139.

 

All you have to do is to disable the edge-antialiasing in the enbseries.ini.

Also Depth of Field should be disabled, or else the whole screen will blur.

[TechAngel85]

Kind of incorrect.

I can use hardware-antialiasing just fine (4x MSAA + 4x SGSSAA to be precisly), even using ENB Mods based on v139.

 

All you have to do is to disable the edge-antialiasing in the enbseries.ini.

Also Depth of Field should be disabled, or else the whole screen will blur.

I would like to know how you're doing this since Boris himself says you can't and I myself can not while testing.

[JudgmentJay]

Kind of incorrect.

I can use hardware-antialiasing just fine (4x MSAA + 4x SGSSAA to be precisly), even using ENB Mods based on v139.

 

All you have to do is to disable the edge-antialiasing in the enbseries.ini.

Also Depth of Field should be disabled, or else the whole screen will blur.

I would like to know how you're doing this since Boris himself says you can't and I myself can not while testing.

Same!

[DaTraS]

Okay.

 

enbseries.ini:

[EFFECT]
EnableDepthOfField=false

[ANTIALIASING]
EnableEdgeAA=false

Also disabled the in-game depth of field per skyrimprefs.ini:

[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=0

Then, as I use a SLi with 2 GeForce GTX 690, i use the Nvidia Inspector to set the following values:

Antialiasing Compatibility: 0x000000C1

Antialiasing Behavior-Flag: None

Antialiasing Mode: Override any application setting*

Antialiasing Setting: 4x [Multisampling]

Antialiasing Transparency Supersampling: 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling

When using the Override-Mode, this Antialiasing is VERY demanding but quality-wise the best you can get.

Using the 2.2.1 STEP guide, i reach easily my VRAM Limit (2GB, as in SLi the whole VRAM is shared... *sigh*) but it's playable.

 

(Using 8x MSAA + 8x SGSSAA is too much even for my rig).

 

It is recommended in several forums, which discuss the use of compatibility bits for nvidia (e.g. 3dcenter-forum oder guru3d), to use the enhance mode instead:

Antialiasing Compatibility: 0x00000000

Antialiasing Behavior-Flag: 0x00000005

Antialiasing Mode: Enhance the application setting

Antialiasing Setting: Application-controlled / Off

Antialiasing Transparency Supersampling: 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling

Now, what I don't know if maybe this is meant by Boris, as it uses the MSAA given by Skyrim itself.

It works fine without ENB and is not as half as demaning as overriding.

Difference is that it doesn't affect the whole screen but only the areas where the ingame MSAA is used (e.g. not covered are books, if I remember correctly).

 

Thing is: I don't know if enhancing works with the 139 ENB...

 

Oh, forgot one thing: of cause you have to enable ingame antialiasing via the launcher.

 

Hope I could help you.

[z929669]

One important aspect of your hardware is SLI. I use CrossfireX, so there could be some diffs that I am not aware of, but DoF via ENB does not work for me, so I am wondering if it is plausible that many cannot extrapolate from your setup due to SLI.

[DaTraS]

Well, the major difference is not sli and crossfire, but nvidia and amd alltogether.

Some years ago i had an amd card and I was not satisfied with the options to gain antialiasing when it's not officially supported.

 

That's why I personally recommend nvidia graphic cards.

 

Everyone owning a nvidia GPU should head over to guru3d (english) or 3dcenter-forum (german), there are nice tutorials how to use the compatiblity bits.

 

EDIT:

 

Okay guys, just verified it now.

 

Override works with ENB Series v139 just fine.

Enhance DOESNT work with ENB Series v139.

 

That makes sense, as the enhance mode (as described earlier) uses the ingame antialiasing - and this one seems not work with enb 139...

 

Sorry for the confusion, hope it will help atleast some people...

[JudgmentJay]

Your method works for me, DaTras. It looks great; however, the override AA method results in a 1 pixel wide white/red line on the top and left-hand side of my monitor. Sad times.

[TechAngel85]

Thanks for this information, DaTras!

[DaTraS]

I am happy to be a bit of help here :-)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

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