Image Quality Comparisons
Though I only had a short time with the MFAA-enabled driver, I was able to sit down and play some Crysis 3, Battlefield 4 and GRID 2, running all of them through some benchmarking testing as well. Clearly we want to put the performance claims NVIDIA is making about MFAA to the test but image quality claims are important as well. And in this case, they just happen to be a bit more complex to do.
On the last page I mentioned that only direct hardware capture enables you to see the benefits of MFAA as it would appear on the screen – screen grabs and FRAPs won't cut it here. Luckily our Frame Rating performance capture and analysis system already allows to do direct hardware capture of the output from the GTX 980 we used in our testing.
Another problem comes up when you we realize that MFAA is a temporal AA, meaning the sample patterns change over time. NVIDIA tells us that the pattern changes on a frame-to-frame basis, using two samples in frame 1, then two different samples in frame 2, then two different sample locations in frame 3, etc. These are then filtered back together through a custom (and apparently very hush-hush) section of the Maxwell hardware, resulting in the combined, smoother image. However, because these sample patterns are being combined on a frame to frame basis to a composited image, movement on the screen will affect the final output.
During a static scene, where the character is not moving, the alternating pattern of the AA samples in 4xMFAA should be able to create a new perfect match to the visual quality of 4xMSAA. However, as soon as you start to move on the screen, that changes. Imagine a strafing animation in a shooter where the character passes in front of a door. Inside the door is a very dark scene, but outside it's very bright. The edge between that will have clear aliasing and is typically the a location we would use to evaluate AA quality. With MFAA, and other temporal AA methods, issues arise when the pixels on your screen move from the bright part of the scene to the dark; since previous frames are being used to calculate the color of the current frame, there is the potential for degradation.
NVIDIA claims that it's filtering algorithm is intelligent enough to take this into consideration and even in the worst case scenario, the quality of 4xMFAA will never be worse than that of standard 2xMSAA. But you have the potential to see quality nearing that of 4xMSAA.
Does it live up to that? Below I have included screenshots to demonstrate some interesting locations in our BF4, GRID 2 and Crysis 3 test runs.
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Our first comparison comes from GRID 2 and you can see in the metal frame work of the signage that the MFAA implementation is definitely a step above that of the 2xMSAA screen capture. Here, in a very static portion of the benchmark, the quality of 4xMSAA and 4xMFAA are difficult to distinguish between.
Click to Enlarge
Next up is Battlefield 4 and a look into the distance at a collection of telephone poles. In this case the screen capture comes from a portion of the game that is moving. Once again we see that NVIDIA's MFAA is definitely a quality step above 2xMSAA and nearly identical to the result of the 4xMSAA image.
Click to Enlarge
Finally, we have our most difficult comparison in Crysis 3. Look along the top edge of the red pipe we are walking across and notice the jagged edges at 2xMSAA that are mostly gone at 4xMSAA. With 4xMFAA though, the result is better than 2xMSAA but still a clear step behind that of the standard 4xMSAA implementation.
Still frame grabs are one way to look at anti-aliasing performance but really the ideal solution would be to see it in motion. With temporal AA you have the possibility of shimmering along edges as the AA patterns change. We did attempt to make a video showcase this from GRID 2 (again using hardware capture) and though it's difficult to see in the video itself, from my several hours of using MFAA I didn't not see any egregious instances of anomalies.
Though you're mileage will vary from game to game, because NVIDIA is taking the white list approach with the new multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing, we would have to assume that NVIDIA is looking for those exact visual issues and will either attempt to fix the implementation of MFAA for them or just remove the option for MFAA on that game forever.
“FXAA/MSAA/CFAA/MFAA/DSR –
“FXAA/MSAA/CFAA/MFAA/DSR – TRASH” (c) Forever proud FSAA/SSAA-god
Of course those AA methods
Of course those AA methods offer superior image quality. A less divine aspect is that they also bring dramatic framtime augmentations. No one is saying MFAA is explicitly superior to FSAA, or even MSAA; they do say, however, that MFAA’s frametime:imagequality ratio is very appealing. If I had had a Titan Black back when I had a GTX580, I’d be supersampling my heartout in my “Yes I can run Crysis T-shirt.” If you want to clean up a Frostbite 3 frame, or load a Ubisoft game’s title screen, efficient aliasing elimination is lucrative, and therefore worthy of Nvidia’s attention.
MFAA is trash simply because
MFAA is trash simply because it’s actually worse than MSAA (which is already being a piece of crap to begin with).
MFAA soapens up the image like hell, just like that FXAA garbage did. And for a PC any soap ever is a very big no-no. Leave soap to consoles.
It does NOT matter if MFAA has “better” consumption rates in comparison to MSAA or something else. Because the soapy trash is still soapy trash, no matter how much you try to justify it’s still-born “existence” or how hard you try to defend it in comparison to truly GODLIKE methods such as FSAA/SSAA.
The turd doesn’t become any less turd if you make it out of gold and cover it with gems – it’s still a turd in the end.
As for DSR…I’ve already said it many times before and I will never get tired of repeating this:
DSR effing sucks, seriously.
It tries to recreate FSAA/SSAA while making lesser hit on performance than the actual FSAA/SSAA does, but fails because it soaps up details rendered further away and produces glitches like the ones which AMD’s CFAA had. Don’t get me wrong though – it’s utterly useless trash in comparison to the full-blown FSAA/SSAA only, by itself (if you don’t consider that FSAA/SSAA exists out there) it’s not all that bad. It’s just fugly when you compare it to a pure FSAA/SSAA, not if you compare it to other methods. To put it out simply: there is still no technology better than FSAA/SSAA out there, FSAA/SSAA is STILL the most best method, there is nothing better. DSR is completely useless and just outright sucks, in that regard.
To clarify it somewhat easier: it’s fine by itself. It’s only truly bad if there’s full-blown FSAA/SSAA around (like in Witcher 2, for example), because in those cases DSR’s utter ugliness becomes extremely apparent and very easily noticeable. As for the glitches caused by DSR – go Google up “AMD CFAA glitches”, DSR has pretty much same exact problems.
The first 2 Google results
The first 2 Google results for your search terms are your posts about DSR… The rest are not really useful.
Stop producing autism.
Stop producing autism.
SSAA/FSAA doesn’t work
SSAA/FSAA doesn’t work properly with deferred lighting. UE3 is the worst offender…
If I use 4xSSAA @ 2560×1080, theres lighting jaggies everywhere and the framerate goes down to ~20.
With 4xDSR the engine literally multi-samples everything, including the deferred lighting passes. While it doesn’t result in a the complete elimination of sparkling for UE3, it does heavily reduce it compared to SSAA.
The frame rate is also about 3x better (averaging 58 vs 20 in mass effect 3). Also now with MFAA you can use 2x MSAA on top of DSR for free.
With engines that don’t heavily rely on deferred lighting, SSAA works great too.
Okay disregard that. Looks
Okay disregard that. Looks like for ages I hadn’t been setting up SGSSAA or TRSSAA properly and it wasn’t handling the deferred lighting. But it appears it is the case that it does.
Wtf 😀
Do you even know what
Wtf 😀
Do you even know what DSR technology act. does ?
I suppose not, but if u are open minded – like every racíonal person ,learn it!.
Google: “GeDoSaTo Tool”.
Super-sampling is something else than just some shitty api to smooth edges.
And I didn’t even mention that before, SSAA & FSAA are JUST “golden shits with diamonds”, because they’re using supersampling method to begin with.
..
you have no clue what you are
you have no clue what you are talking about, MFAA does not soften the image at all, it sounds like you are confusing it with DSR.
Again, isn’t “DSR” something
Again, isn’t “DSR” something I’ve been doing for 2+ years now?
Yes, I have to actually ask that question!
Still can’t for the life of me figure out if they are doing anything unique here..
Consistently for months before the 900’s launched…
I would usually run older/lower end games at 2X+ my screens native resolution, by forcing custom desktop resolutions through Nvidia CP, then in windows setting my resolution back to normal, then in game the new higher resolutions are selectable, but when returning to desktop goes back to normal. Really easy.
But since then all I’ve been able to do is 1.5x.
I do have a dual-link DVI cable on it’s way to see if my single-link that I found laying around is what’s limiting it to 1.5..
But if I discover that it’s not the cable locking it to 1.5..
Well.. That’s some sad and shady business right there.
I quite miss 2X+ resolution.
Am I the only person who ever did this or what?
I can use some insight.
I did the same until DSR was
I did the same until DSR was enabled. It’s the 13-tap Gaussian filter that makes it superior to Custom Resolutions – Sharpness/Smoothness slider.
Cool, thanks man. I’ve not
Cool, thanks man. I’ve not had time to go and research it more and when I did I didn’t find any answers.
I’ll look into that.
Though even with 2/4X and it’s awesome AA effect I’d find myself using 2/4x AA still to really make it pop.
Perhaps that dithering can sort of replace the need for 2x AA.
So Nvidia doesn’t even add
So Nvidia doesn’t even add support for their own games that are in 2014? Watchdogs and farcry 4 not on the list? Assasins creed unity is the only one i noticed.
You are correct – these are
You are correct – these are pretty glaring omissions. Hopefully NVIDIA can ramp up the white list pretty quickly.
Thanks im currently playing
Thanks im currently playing watchdogs with either txaa x4 os msaa x4 both are just horrible experiences at 1080p on new gtx 980 g1 @ 1500/7700 max everything, so i am in need of less taxing anti aliasing that doesn’t have my frames jumping all over the place 70 to 50 to 70 and back again 50 causes screen tearing on my 120hz monitor.
As well as redux
As well as redux
MFAA shows promise but I do
MFAA shows promise but I do not own a 900 series card so I’ll stick with other methods for now.
Regarding DSR , I was aware of Down Sampling before , but DSR adds an additional special filter which improves image quality.
Correct. Previous iterations
Correct. Previous iterations of down sampling have used very basic filters that were not optimized for the feature they were being used.
I wonder if it’s possible to
I wonder if it’s possible to create our our custom filters and just inject them into DX and again, use any card.
Or even rip their method entirely.
So how does this work in
So how does this work in terms of performance optimization ? Why does MFAA in Crysis 3 performs that much better than in GRID 2 ? I’m guessing none of those games have MFAA optimizations from the actual game developers ? So the implementation for each game has been done in the driver only ? Does this mean NVIDIA spent more time optimizing it for Crysis 3, can we expect that performance impact in future games that will take the time to optimize MFAA for their specific engine ? Who has access to the MFAA API, is NVIDIA contacting specific game developers to implement that feature in collaboration with them ?
As a gamer AA is the last
As a gamer AA is the last option I turn on in any game after I have every other setting to the Max. With BF4 for example I could not stand MSAA. I loved resolution scaling however. To me the quality comes first then performance. MFAA is cheap mens MSAA. If you don’t have the GPU power for 4X then 2X will not be much better either.
July 2015 – MFAA still not
July 2015 – MFAA still not available for SLI users.