Anti-aliasing in the future, fxaa/txaa

In the future, fxaa/txaa will return to the top.

　　[Pconline application]In 3D images, we will inevitably encounter "sawtooth ". Due to the resolution of the display device and the principle of image generation, the image distortion is inevitable. The result is that the edges of the objects in the image are at a right angle. In order to get a better visual experience and make the edge of an object look softer and more natural, anti-aliasing (AA) processing is required.

Future anti-aliasing technology: fxaa/txaa

Although it is anti-sawtooth, It is blurred.

Although fsaa full-screen anti-aliasing technology is very mature, no matter how it develops, it cannot avoid one of the biggest drawbacks of fsaa, that is, the image will become blurred and affect the visual effect. In addition, for mainstream msaa, the number of frames will be greatly reduced after opening four or more times, affecting performance. Today, when image quality is becoming more and more realistic, the word "fuzzy" and "inefficient" must be put to an end. So I derived the new anti-aliasing technologies that will be discussed today: fxaa and txaa.

Fxaa:

The first is fxaa. The full name in Chinese is fast and almost anti-aliasing. It is a brand new anti-aliasing Technology released by NVIDIA last year. This technology is an image post-processing technique that takes place in the later stages of the game rendering pipeline. This is the same as Intel's MLAA (morphological anti-aliasing), so fxaa is essentially a form of anti-aliasing.

First, the detection of edge pixels, followed by the distinction between RGB and light and dark information, will be the most obvious comparison of pixels out, after processing, after the completion of the texture re-coverage, so as to achieve the anti-tooth effect.

Never be too absolute, but just do it.

Obviously, this is the post-working phase of rendering. This form of anti-aliasing only requires edge detection and key pixel selection, and does not involve re-sampling, which is very friendly to system resources. Almost all of the burden is on the rendering backend, and shader resources can be greatly reduced.

NV driver panel

Fxaa is controlled by drivers, so it is very versatile for games.

However, it should be noted that the form anti-sawtooth is useless in the field of depth effect and Dynamic Fuzzy. However, fxaa achieves the same image quality as fsaa, but greatly reduces the computing pressure, which can be seen in the following actual performance tests. Therefore, fxaa represents the future direction of 3D image quality and speed, so that players do not need to tangle with this spear and shield, is a very promising anti-sawtooth technology.

Txaa:

As for txaa, it is a more promising anti-aliasing technology. When the new Kepler architecture video card gtx680 was released, NVIDIA announced a new anti-aliasing technology coming soon, called txaa.

The principle of txaa is to provide color correction on the hardware layer through the HDR post-processing pipeline. The principle of post-processing is similar to that of fxaa: integrate hardware AA and complex high-definition filters similar to those used in CG movies to reduce the tear and jitter in anti-aliasing.

However, to achieve a better image quality and smoother experience than fxaa, you can only achieve txaa through game development. Therefore, txaa is a post-release anti-sawtooth technology that is not as universal as fxaa, but optimized through games. Such a specialization ensures that txaa has the highest execution efficiency.

Therefore, txaa is a new anti-aliasing feature that requires re-development of code to be added to txaa. Therefore, no game supporting txaa is available on the market. However, as NVIDIA advances, it is estimated that the number of txaa games will increase.

The secret world

Recently, drivers released by NVIDIA have added support for NVIDIA txaa anti-aliasing technology, the secret world mentioned in will be the first game to support txaa Technology (support will be enabled after the upcoming patch update ). What is the actual quality and performance experience? After the release, we will know it.

Currently, txaa is divided into two levels: txaa1 and txaa2. txaa1 can achieve 8x msaa, with the execution efficiency equal to 2x msaa, while txaa2 provides higher image quality.

Image Quality Comparison Between 2fxaa and msaa test back to top

Image Quality Comparison Test between fxaa and msaa

Next, let's look at the different picture quality between fxaa and common msaa by supporting fxaa's best BATMAN: argan city and glorious mission games. Because txaa has no actual product, we will not compare it today.

Test image quality settings

Due to human experience, fxaa (high) and msaa 4x have similar image quality. Therefore, we will compare the two settings. First, we will compare the image quality of Batman: The city of argan, all images are the highest and physx is enabled.

Image Quality Comparison

If you don't open your eyes, you can't see the obvious difference, but you can't see the difference when you click an image to see the big picture and then open your eyes? In fact, if we confuse images, it is hard for almost all of our friends to clearly distinguish between fxaa and msaa. If no obvious difference is found, switch to the game.

Glorious Mission image quality settings

The image quality settings used in glorious mission are the same as those in Batman: The city of argan. Let's take a look at the comparison of the original images.

Image Quality Comparison

The same is true! It seems that the principle is different, but the visual anti-sawtooth effect is almost the same, a lot smoother than after the closure. Now, since the image quality is almost the same, the number of frames to fight is reduced by less.

Performance Comparison Between 3fxaa and msaa test back to top

Performance Comparison and testing of fxaa and msaa

Currently, the mainstream anti-aliasing modes include msaa and fxaa. We have seen the differences in actual image quality between the two. Next we will test the comparison between the two anti-aliasing modes, let's take a look at how obvious the advantages of fxaa's number of frames are.

Test Platform introduction and test method description:

Hardware Platform
CPU	Intel core i7 3960x
Motherboard	Asus p9x79 deluxe
Memory	Ddr3 1600 4 GB × 4 (8-8-8-24)
Hard Disk	Western data 1 TB 64 m sata3 black disk
Power Supply	Lepa G1600-MA-EU
Graphics card	NVIDIA gtx650 (1058/5000 MHz)
Software Platform
Operating System	Windows 7 SP1 64-bit flagship edition + DirectX 11
Graphics card driver	The NVIDIA forceware 305.53
Test Item	Game comparison:Glorious Mission BATMAN: the city of argan

This test mainly aims at whether the testing structure of the game can maintain a high level after fxaa and msaa are opened. The platform adopts the high-end i7 + x79 platform and chooses hd7750 as the comparison. The game is set to 1440x900 with high quality.

● BATMAN: the city of argan

Game Performance Test: Batman: The city of argan
Software Introduction	This game puts a lot of pressure on the graphics card, dx11 High Resolution + the highest picture quality, more than 1000 yuan of graphics card can run smoothly.
Test Method	Use the built-in benchmark for testing.

Test score comparison

● Glorious mission

Game Performance Testing: Glorious Mission
Software Introduction	China's first large-scale dx11 FPS game with proprietary intellectual property rights supports currently top-notch Surface Subdivision effects in computer 3D technology, hbao (ambient light masking) special effects, and physx physical acceleration special effects.
Test Method	Normal texture quality. Enable background processing.

Test score comparison

Test summary:It can be seen that the fxaa high model has a better test score than msaa 4x, with a leader margin of more than 10. It can be seen that fxaa is a better choice for both picture quality and smoothness.

Summary of pconline evaluation room

Players' demand for image quality is endless.

When the pace of hardware wins the progress of 3D technology, the beneficiaries are naturally a large number of game players. However, human needs always rise from one level to another. When the smooth running needs of 3D games meet, they naturally enjoy the quality. However, if the hardware conditions are certain, of course, the anti-aliasing technology with the minimum impact on the performance decline after anti-aliasing is enabled is adopted.

Better image quality and better performance naturally require new anti-aliasing Technologies

As a result, anti-aliasing technology continues to develop and gradually keeps keeping the image quality consistent with the previous anti-aliasing technology, the number of game frames does not drop significantly. Fxaa has done this. After comparison, in the same image quality, fxaa's frame rate is higher than that of msaa, which is naturally the best choice for players. Of course, there will be more promising txaa in the future. I believe that the anti-aliasing technology will be able to reach another height.

Anti-aliasing in the future, fxaa/txaa