Why is Need for Speed's AA make the game blurry?

Frostbite · Post by **Frostbite** » 05 Nov 2006, 08:08

I was wondering this NFS seems to be the only game that blurs with AA...
Like it doesn't really make sense since AA just Renders the scene X amount of times (If you have AA on 2X it renders it 2 times 4X = 4 times....ect...) Just wondering...

RavenGT · Post by **RavenGT** » 05 Nov 2006, 08:47

Turning on AA within the game doesn't make the game seem blurry at all. By blurry I think you mean like turning on motion blur/light trails in NFSU? Yeah, blurriness doesn't exist when turning on AA in Carbon.

Frostbite · Post by **Frostbite** » 05 Nov 2006, 08:53

Hallo Raven!

Yes there is a blurryness when AA is turned on...Although it only happens in NFS and not in other games such as Half-Life 2.

RavenGT · Post by **RavenGT** » 05 Nov 2006, 08:57

Well first of all 640x480 screenshots are kind of hard to look at. But I can kind of see it. Are you turning on AA from your graphics card control panel? Are you using 2xQ AA by any chance? I know that will use a blurry antialiasing method, it's strange. Just stick with the normal 4x AA

PS Anti-aliasing will resample the 'image' rendered X number of times, it doesn't "render a scene" X number of times.

Frostbite · Post by **Frostbite** » 05 Nov 2006, 09:03

oh yeah I'm using 2x AA =\ since i can't run 4x due to performance issues =\

RavenGT · Post by **RavenGT** » 05 Nov 2006, 09:05

Frostbite wrote:oh yeah I'm using 2x AA =\ since i can't run 4x due to performance issues =\

2x AA is simply two times anti-aliasing. The type that adds blurriness has a Q at the end, like I said, 2xQ AA. Are you using 2xQ AA?

Frostbite · Post by **Frostbite** » 05 Nov 2006, 09:12

RavenGT wrote:
Frostbite wrote:oh yeah I'm using 2x AA =\ since i can't run 4x due to performance issues =\
2x AA is simply two times anti-aliasing. The type that adds blurriness has a Q at the end, like I said, 2xQ AA. Are you using 2xQ AA?

Dunno it just says 2x in the video settings in Carbon =\

The Gravedigger · Post by **The Gravedigger** » 05 Nov 2006, 09:36

It doesn't make it blurrier, what it does is rids the majority of the screen of the nasty pixelation (the blocky look), sure to some it makes it 'appear' blurry but what it's doing is smoothing out the pixels and if combined with anisotropic filtering it gives the game the look of what the game 'should' look like.

If you just use AA on it's own it will make things look blurry, so slap on some AF also and it'll look a lot better.

The Flying Dragon · Post by **The Flying Dragon** » 05 Nov 2006, 16:02

use AAx4 and u see ultra sharpness o.o

RavenGT · Post by **RavenGT** » 05 Nov 2006, 19:27

The Gravedigger wrote:It doesn't make it blurrier, what it does is rids the majority of the screen of the nasty pixelation (the blocky look), sure to some it makes it 'appear' blurry but what it's doing is smoothing out the pixels and if combined with anisotropic filtering it gives the game the look of what the game 'should' look like.

If you just use AA on it's own it will make things look blurry, so slap on some AF also and it'll look a lot better.

Antialiasing and anisotropic has nothing to do with each other.

Antialiasing will resample the image rendered multiple times (2 times, 4 times, 8 times) to smooth out the "staircase edges". Combine this with a large resolution to make the "staircase edges" completely seamless.

Mipmapping causes textures in the far distance to look blurry, texture sizes will get gradually smaller as they fall into the distance for performance purposes. Anisotropic will sharpen the textures in the distance, so there are no butchered textures when you're looking ahead on the road. A good reference to keep an eye on are the line markings on the road. If AF is set to 8x (or even 16x for high-end cards), your textures especially the road will be very sharp.

BrontoX · Post by **BrontoX** » 05 Nov 2006, 21:43

Actually i have my game on 800x600, AA 4x, AF Antistropic and it runs perfectly and it doesn't blur and before i saw this topic i had it on 800x600, AA 4x, AF Binlear and it had the blur so AF does remove the blur

PSZeTa · Post by **PSZeTa** » 05 Nov 2006, 23:23

AA is different from AF.

Dagon · Post by **Dagon** » 07 Nov 2006, 17:32

I'm not sure, but it might be FSAA instead of AA, meaning it basically just dumps a load of blur over the whole screen, giving your computer that 'TV screen' effect which makes console games look better than they actually are.