Resolutions and AA?

[Fayt756]

What is the difference in resolutions above 4x I can't notice any difference after 4x and what does Anti-Aliasing even do?

[Yash the gamer]

Well the native one is normally 640*480 and when we multiply that resolution with 2 it is 2x native! now u understand that what is 4x resolution? double of 2x..

[Fayt756]

Yeah I get that basically what im asking is what is the point of resolutions above 4x I see no difference? Thanks though

[jesalvein]

it's supposed to be sharper, but apart from stressing GpU, that won't bring any real visual enhancement

[Fayt756]

Ic yea I didn't notice any difference after 4x and AA didn't really seem to do anything maybe its different game to game

[miseru99]

The difference is same as below x4, it's just less visible on popular displays which are limited to HD res cause x4 is above that already, basically on such displays all it gives is very heavy(in resources) yet very subtle(in the effect) AA. (edit: almost forgot, also makes e-peen longer, hence many people absolutely MUST run their games at x6 and must create threads like "Something is broken, x6 doesn't slow my games down, is my computer too good?" - yes, such threads actually do exist, through I made up that name;].)

And AA is basically an effect which tries to remove jaggies out of what you see on the screen;]. Hence in GSdx you have 4 options for it:
1) MSAA - which is a hardware mode hack and commonly break alot of stuff, it can also lead to crashes, but in those games it works fine it actually might be nice,
2) Rising internal res - heavy and in loads of games buggy, often working postprocessing effects are removed just to allow a glitch-less usage of this feature since most people are strange and preffer plain boring graphic as long as the numbers are higher;p,
3) FXAA or based on it/similar external shader - pretty light and usually very effective, but depends on the game and used settings quite alot,
4) Edge AA1 - which is a GS native feature, only for software mode, hardly noticeable at best, especially with fxaa;p.

[Fayt756]

Thanks for all the help that pretty much answers my questions

[Tame]

Hi I have a few 1080p resolution test comparison images on FFX, they all have 2x AA. Click on the thumbnail and open full size images to tabs to compare

Native
[Image: 89794_a2_1xN_AA2.jpg]

2x Native
[Image: 77016_a2_2xN_AA2.jpg]

3x Native
[Image: 69938_a2_3xN_AA2.jpg]

4x Native
[Image: 94760_a2_4xN_AA2.jpg]

6x Native
[Image: 99265_a2_6xN_AA2.jpg]

10x Native (6400x4800)
[Image: 98433_a2_6400x4800_AA2.jpg]

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

What is the difference in resolutions above 4x I can't notice any difference after 4x and what does Anti-Aliasing even do?

The best way to understand it is to think in the relation of quality enhancement vs resources consuming. the otimal point is around 3x or 4x, beyond this there is no significant quality increase (visual) but a huge resources demanding.

Besides, the monitor can't reproduce such high resolution and will downscale it, not the best of worlds. A monitor able to high resolution and a very powerful video card could see some gain but even then not that much.

The upscale is not the same as original high resolution which translates in "more details". The upscale can't make the image more detailed, all it does is making the image softer by reducing pixelation an lo, this is good. Just that beyond 4x the adjacent pixels are already interpolated and furter interpolation becomes too subtle to make significant difference, and this is for screenshots, with you looking attentively for details, things one hardly would even be aware while playing.

In the end is just the need to say "I can push it to the extremes, if it is the best or smart I don't know". If was a car you would probably ask if is advantageous running at high speed using 3rd gears with the engine above the optimal rotation, or cruising lightly at 4rth or 5th gears with nominal engine rotation.

PS: Notice that relation is constant, if you 2x upscale an already original high resolution you would see a significant improvement (supposing the monitor allows it), but beyond 4x the visual quality gain is so poor as upscaling original low resolution, even if the hardware could do it.

[hellbringer616]

Hi I have a few 1080p resolution test comparison images on FFX, they all have 2x AA. Click on the thumbnail and open full size images to tabs to compare

SNIP

So after about 15 minutes of examination on a 1080p monitor (so they are native) from 2-3 is huge, 3-4 is very minor (almost entirely unnoticeable) and then from 4-10 the only difference is distant textures look better. (check the door and steps) almost like an anisotropic filter. at 10x i can honestly say distant textures look as good as they do on the HD collection. I am curious though, Why is it only distant textures seem to increase vastly while normal textures, and by that i mean closer, do not when using past 3x scaling?

There is another interesting thing i see happening as well. When using above 4x scaling, it seems to have an Aliasing effect. As Tidus' leg is definitely more jagged on 10x than 4x