Why does Nvidia brag about FXAA? It makes most of my games look like crap...

[Benetanegia]

AF is anisotropic filtering, which filters actual textures. Maybe you mean something else than anisotropic filtering.

No, I mean anisotropic filtering. The way texture filtering works is similar to AA except it is effectively applied on textures instead of the screen. Going by the most broad sense of aliasing, AF is an anti-aliasing method, well actually any texture filtering method is, anisotropic is just the most accurate one.

 

[newtekie1]

AF does EXACTLY the same as AA (more so MLAA or FXAA) except it includes a perspective correction on the algorithm (read is better), so what are you talking about? If AF does not get rid of jaggies AA certainly won't. That being said, try to use AF because if you still see jaggies on textures, you are not enabling it properly. I've not seen jaggies on textures in a long long really long time.

I don't know what other way to enable it other than to set the setting to 16x, do you?

And no, it is not exactly the same as AA. It improves aliasing effects, but it is no where near as effective as actual AA, hence the reason that it does not blur the texture as much, and why it still produces jaggies in textures.

I'll give you an example.

The top screenshot is with AF forced to 16x and AA forced to 0 in my nVidia Control Panel. the fronts of the cabinets are one big texture. You can see the horrible jaggies in certain areas, especially around the black board on the doors on the cabinet closest to the camera.

The bottom screen shot is with FXAA turned on. Notice how the jaggies in the texture are a lot less noticeable? AF does help with jaggies, but it is no where near as powerful as true AA being applied to textures. AF does not eliminate jaggies in textures, even on its highest setting.

 

[Benetanegia]

I don't know what other way to enable it other than to set the setting to 16x, do you?

And no, it is not exactly the same as AA. It improves aliasing effects, but it is no where near as effective as actual AA, hence the reason that it does not blur the texture as much, and why it still produces jaggies in textures.

I'll give you an example.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/newtekie1/DEUSEX.png

The top screenshot is with AF forced to 16x and AA forced to 0 in my nVidia Control Panel. the fronts of the cabinets are one big texture. You can see the horrible jaggies in certain areas, especially around the black board on the doors on the cabinet closest to the camera.

The bottom screen shot is with FXAA turned on. Notice how the jaggies in the texture are a lot less noticeable? AF does help with jaggies, but it is no where near as powerful as true AA being applied to textures. AF does not eliminate jaggies in textures, even on its highest setting.

Not a single texture. Don't know how or why*, but that is the case. For example look at the vertical line on the left. The one that is supposed to be the outside of the door (also the horizontal lines in the middle, the ones that line up with the crystal). No jaggies. That's how it's supposed to look.

*Where you see jaggies is probably because the artist separated that part to either:
1) save on polys
2) separate uvw coordinates, to make it easier for unwrapping the texture (a so so given the low poly count)
3) same as 2, but in order to make it easier for the texture guys

EDIT: To add some more details of what we are talking about here. It'd be hard to find a ss with more lines in more directions on it. Some are lines on textures, others geometry. See the stark difference.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I just use it in games with tons of vegetation that seem unaffected by normal AA, like crysis. Makes a huge difference on the palms in that game.

 

[erocker]

I love FXAA. Not only does it have various levels of anti aliasing, it has other filters as well.

 

[Phusius]

I love FXAA. Not only does it have various levels of anti aliasing, it has other filters as well.

Go play with your 7970 some more.

 

[erocker]

Yes, I use FXAA on my 7970.

 

[Phusius]

How do you use Physx and FXAA on your 7970... stop keeping these secrets!!!

 

[erocker]

PhysX? I didn't mention PhysX. FXAA will work if the game supports it. There's even FXAA injectors that will work with anything.

 

[Phusius]

I keep trying FXAA in different games, I don't know, I dislike it. Haven't found one game I like the way it looks, it's a blurry mess. MSAA x4 and AF x 16 for life.

 

[RejZoR]

PhysX? I didn't mention PhysX. FXAA will work if the game supports it. There's even FXAA injectors that will work with anything.

I wouldn't use FXAA injectors in online games because it will most probably clash with anti-cheat protection. And Valve is playing ignorant if you ask them what will happen if you get VAC banned because of it. I'm just not willing to risk all my Steam games just so that Valve will later say, yeah well, tough luck for you pal and that would be it. I've tried injectSMAA once for NFS Hot Pursuit 2010 and didn't find it particularly better or worse than native MLAA2 on my Radeon. MLAA1 was a bit problematic on HUD elements and stuff but MLAA isn't.

I keep trying FXAA in different games, I don't know, I dislike it. Haven't found one game I like the way it looks, it's a blurry mess. MSAA x4 and AF x 16 for life.

I really don't get it where ppl see "blurry mess". It's a blurry mess if you're applying FXAA or MLAA2 at 800x600 on a 22 inch screen but when using native resolution it is nowhere near anything i'd call blurry. The reason why you might think its all blurry is because even though you use 4xFSAA you probably don't use it on transparent textures and you think the image is all blurry where in fact its the way it should be in the first place.

 

[Super XP]

I tried MSAA and don't like it regardless of game.

 

[Phusius]

I tried MSAA and don't like it regardless of game.

lol... enjoy your FXAA then bud.

 

[newtekie1]

Like I said, it all comes down to preference. Really I don't like FXAA, it does make things a little blurry for my tastes, but that is what AA does. FXAA works great in games that are designed for it, because they optimize it. However, forcing it through control panel over does it. Just like forcing 16x AA through the control panel causes things to be too blurry too. If I'm going to force AA in a game that doesn't have it natively I use 4x at the most, most times only 2x. Any more than that and things get to blurry for me, some people don't like any AA because of the blur. It is all preference. If you don't like FXAA, don't use it. However, there are a lot of people that like FXAA, especially since it comes at next to no performance cost.

 

[xBruce88x]

This is why the nvidia control panel lets you set customized settings for specific games... though its a bit more tedious with Steam games... the app can't seem to detect any of my steam games properly. I usually have to navigate to the game's main .exe (not the launcher .exe) within the app then set the settings i need. This works very well and the settings for that game will stay should you reset the "global" setting as the individual settings override that.

also, having it override a setting versus enhance a setting can make a difference too.