A comparison of Anti-Aliasing settings

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

I took a look at Anti-Aliasing (AA) using different settings within the game, nVidia and FlightFX.  I used the same settings for all shots except for AA and all were taken using the Ultra preset.  My settings are at the bottom.  I recorded a track and took screenshots from exactly the same frame after loading the various settings listed.  Each change required leaving ad reloading the game.  When looking at the screenshots the places that show the largest differences are the engine cowling, the radio mast and the wires.

1. This first shot is for control purposes.  It has no in-game AA at all and FlightFX is disabled.

 

2. The shot is the same as the first but with in-game AA set to 4x.  FlightFX is disabled.

3. This shot has in-game AA off, nVidia AA set to Overide Application with the setting of 8x (I believe this is MSAA) and Transparency setting of 8x.  FlightFX is disabled.

4. This shot has in-game AA off and nVidia AA set to Application Controlled with Transparency off.  Flight FX is enabled with SMAA threshold at .20.



Conclusion:  The best AA from my testing appears to be the in-game.  If you compare the nVidia AA only shot 3 to shot 1 they are virtually the same.  The nVidia settings have no affect on AA whether on Override or Enhance the Application.  I tried all the way up to 32x CSAA and there is no difference.  Since I use FlightFX to tone down the blue tint unfortunately I have to turn off in-game AA.  The FlightFX SMAA does a pretty good job on all edges except the wires.  I also tried SweetFX with FXAA but did not see any difference.  It is too bad in-game AA does not work with FlightFX in BOS as it does with ROF as this would be the best of both worlds.  If I am overlooking anything that would make it look better, by all means, let me know.  I am not sure ATI AA holds up with overriding the application, maybe someone can post their results if using FlightFX/SweetFX.

Side note.  I posted my FlightFX setting file in another thread and saw that several people downloaded it.  I have since made changes to the settings to make the lighting more consistent with the game and enhance the ground detail while still eliminating some blue tint.  File is attached below. 
 

 

nVidia - Manage 3D Settings:
Ambient Occlusion - Not Supported for this application
Anisotropic filtering - 16x
Antialiasing - FXAA - On]
Antialiasing - Gamma correction - On
Antialiasing - Mode - Changed per screenshot
Antialiasing - Setting - Changed per screenshot
Antialiasing - Transparency - Changed per screenshot
CUDA - GPUs - All
Maximum pre-rendered frames - 3
Multi-display/mixed GPU acceleration - Single display performance mode

Power management mode - Adaptive
Shader Cache - On
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization - Off]
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias - Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality - High Quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization - On
Threaded optimization - On
Triple buffering - On
Vertical sync - Use the 3D Application setting

In-game settings:
Setting:  Ultra
Screen resolution: 19200 x 1200 (Native)
Full screen: OFF
VSync: OFF
Multi GPU Support: OFF
FPS limiter: 60
Antialiasing: Changed per screenshot
Gamma correction: 1.0

terrain.ini  (Found in Drive:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics)
PixelSize=50        //meters

LodCount=5

texlod=8192,32
texlod=4096,16
texlod=4096,16
texlod=4096,16
texlod=2048,8

FlightFX
Setting file attached below.

 

IL2 BOS Req VR_Stick 2.txt

Edited December 12, 2014 by VR_Stick

[VBF-12_Snake9]

I am able to force aa with my ati card stick. I was going to get a new 970. I would like to also know if the nevida cards are able to force aa through the card before I buy one.

[SharpeXB]

I have found that setting Nvidia to override doesn't help this or other games. I tried that with CoD but no sucess.

Setting Nvidia to enhance 8x I think gives an improvement to BoS but I haven't made screenshot comparisons.

SweetFX I didn't have any sucess with for CoD either which is the only time I've tried it. If I inderstand correctly how AA works it would be impossible for an after effect program like SweetFX to implement because it involves detecting 3D edges within the game. SweetFX just applies color effects to your screen. RoF has very good detail perception and with Nvidia set on 8x enhance I think I've got BoS looking similar.

Another very good, or best, way to get AA is with Supersampling or Nvidias new Dynamic Super Resolition. This looks very good on BoS and with 2x 980s I can get a solid 65 FPS with it set at 4.0 (4K basically). I have run into a lot of game crashes though with Full Screen checked so I stopped using DSR.

[DD_Arthur]

Thanks for doing this VR_Stick. Really interesting. I agree with your conclusions. I use FlightFX as I feel the benefits outweigh the disadvantage of not being able to use the in-game AA.

 

Incidentally, since the last update, we are unable to use SweetFX with the in-game AA of RoF! Whatever they did, both games now share the slight disadvantage of not being able to run SweetFX with the in-game AA.

 

However, in RoF we still have the benefit of comprehensive graphics options so I run SweetFX with supersampling on

 

@Sharpe; SweetFX is really worth having another try with.  It gives you some interesting options.

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

@ Snake9 - I believe the nVidia GeForce drivers are going to work the same on the higher level cards so I wouldn't expect any difference, i.e. forcing AA won't work, although I could be wrong.  Can you post a similar shot with FlightFX on and your ATI setting?

 

@Sharpe - Tried both Override and Enhance Application on numerous levels of AA, neither works on any of them.  Too bad about ROF, I didn't know that as it has been a while since I've flown in it.

Edited December 12, 2014 by VR_Stick

[Dakpilot]

Not able to check now but if you use Nvidia control panel to enhance BUT leave the ingame AA ON it will have an effect in allowing overriding with a higher setting,

obviously this will be no use if using SW/FX

 

maybe someone can check if that is in fact true and not my imagination/memory, think I also found better FPS by leaving ingame AA on than when turning it off

 

Also better to change: Power management mode - Adaptive to - Prefer maximum performance to avoid (possible) stuttering/slowdown

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[Urra]

Not able to check now but if you use Nvidia control panel to enhance BUT leave the ingame AA ON it will have an effect in allowing overriding with a higher setting,

obviously this will be no use if using SW/FX

 

maybe someone can check if that is in fact true and not my imagination/memory, think I also found better FPS by leaving ingame AA on than when turning it off

 

Also better to change: Power management mode - Adaptive to - Prefer maximum performance to avoid (possible) stuttering/slowdown

 

Cheers Dakpilot

I also found much better performance leaving in game AA on rather than off.

[MarcAnton]

Nvidia AA forced trough the driver is not working with BoS at the moment so picture 3 is the same as picture 1 

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

I am not experiencing a performance issue here, just trying to get the best AA using FlightFX but thanks for the posts.

 

@ Marc - yep, that's what it shows and what I stated in the conclusion although I didn't know that until I did the comparison.

Edited December 12, 2014 by VR_Stick

[SharpeXB]

Not able to check now but if you use Nvidia control panel to enhance BUT leave the ingame AA ON it will have an effect in allowing overriding with a higher setting,

obviously this will be no use if using SW/FX

 

maybe someone can check if that is in fact true and not my imagination/memory, think I also found better FPS by leaving ingame AA on than when turning it off

 

Yes that's my experience also. "Enhance" means leaving the in-game AA on. It does seem to give an improvement but going from 4x to 8x is very subtle. RoF has 8xAA and its my gold standard for how this should look. You can count the struts on other planes and clearly see emblems etc. BoS with Enhance at 8x seems equal.

Yes I noticed a huge FPS drop turning AA off in-game once when testing DSR settings. It ran better with it on in-game.

[SharpeXB]

@Sharpe; SweetFX is really worth having another try with. It gives you some interesting options.

I tried using it with Cliffs of Dover to add AA since that game has no AA built in. Wasn't able to see any effect in that regard.

[Leaf]

To squeeze the most fps out of my system I've tried pretty much every AA combination.

I've come to the conclusion that in-game AA set to 2x and 4-8x "Enhanced" in the Nvidia CP works best. Keeps fps high whilst giving the best AA solution.

[oneeyeddog]

VR Stick, Thank you for taking the time to do this comparison and post your conclusion.

[VBF-12_Snake9]

 

These are taken on balanced setting, With AA turned off in the game. 

Forced 4x AA through card Ati 6870.

Also Flight Fx, but no SMAA in Flight FX used.

So the only AA your seeing is forced through card settings.  There is no difference in frames in forcing AA or letting the game run AA.  Forcing 8x AA brings my card to it's knees, but I think it's the old card that's capped out there. 

[Potenz]

I have found that setting Nvidia to override doesn't help this or other games. I tried that with CoD but no sucess.

Setting Nvidia to enhance 8x I think gives an improvement to BoS but I haven't made screenshot comparisons.

SweetFX I didn't have any sucess with for CoD either which is the only time I've tried it. If I inderstand correctly how AA works it would be impossible for an after effect program like SweetFX to implement because it involves detecting 3D edges within the game. SweetFX just applies color effects to your screen. RoF has very good detail perception and with Nvidia set on 8x enhance I think I've got BoS looking similar.

Another very good, or best, way to get AA is with Supersampling or Nvidias new Dynamic Super Resolition. This looks very good on BoS and with 2x 980s I can get a solid 65 FPS with it set at 4.0 (4K basically). I have run into a lot of game crashes though with Full Screen checked so I stopped using DSR.

CloD has no native AAA, so there's only a way with some injectors to have some sort of AAA

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Snake, that looks great.  Wish nVidia AA could be forced like that.

[VBF-12_Snake9]

Anyone know if aa can be forced with the amd 290x. My other new card option.

[Anw.StG2_Tyke]

Anyone know if aa can be forced with the amd 290x. My other new card option.

should be, actually forcing AA is something which is software side option. The Card's are all capable of doing AA and AF. I can do it with my 290X.

[cabsen]

I can run FlightFX with in-game 4x AA enabled and I think it's been like that for a while. I know there was a time when il2.exe would not launch when FlightFX was set, but this does not seem to be the case anymore, at least on my end.

[DD_Arthur]

I can run FlightFX with in-game 4x AA enabled and I think it's been like that for a while.

 

I think you are honestly mistaken.  In game AA does not work with FlightFX/SweetFX.

 

But -  - if you have got it working then  neat trick!  How are you doing that? 

[ST_ami7b5]

I can run FlightFX with in-game 4x AA enabled and I think it's been like that for a while. I know there was a time when il2.exe would not launch when FlightFX was set, but this does not seem to be the case anymore, at least on my end.

Just tried, doesn't work, sry.

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

I can run FlightFX with in-game 4x AA enabled and I think it's been like that for a while. I know there was a time when il2.exe would not launch when FlightFX was set, but this does not seem to be the case anymore, at least on my end.

 

I don't believe this is the case.  IL2 set to 4x AA in-game with FlightFX enabled will still run but FlightFX will not be working, so what you see are the in-game settings only.  Try doing a split screen within FlightFX and see if it works.  If you do get a split screen, please post a screenshot here.  FlightFX screenshots reside in the data folder.

[cabsen]

Looks like you are right, sorry. I only ever used FlightFX for luma sharpening and when the game would let me start with FlightFX enabled I was convinced that everything was fine. Seems like i was satisfied enough with the in-game presets, that I didnt even notice.

[Zappatime]

Personally, I think DSR in the new nvidia drivers is the best thing since sliced bread, I use it on all flight sims, project cars, elite, etc, set at 2x's - gone are the shimmering distant textures in ROF and il2BOS, and fringe patterns on the multy faceted space stations in elite dangerous. The fact that you can set a very low setting for AA means overall frame rates are not hit that much and it looks a hundred times better. In Project Cars, having no AA set at all is remarkable; clarity in all games using it is much improved.

[smink1701]

I don't believe this is the case.  IL2 set to 4x AA in-game with FlightFX enabled will still run but FlightFX will not be working, so what you see are the in-game settings only.  Try doing a split screen within FlightFX and see if it works.  If you do get a split screen, please post a screenshot here.  FlightFX screenshots reside in the data folder.

Thanks for the FFX profile.  I would like to try but it's been a while sicne I added a profile so can you please provide the folder location?

[MarcAnton]

Personally, I think DSR in the new nvidia drivers is the best thing since sliced bread, I use it on all flight sims, project cars, elite, etc, set at 2x's - gone are the shimmering distant textures in ROF and il2BOS, and fringe patterns on the multy faceted space stations in elite dangerous. The fact that you can set a very low setting for AA means overall frame rates are not hit that much and it looks a hundred times better. In Project Cars, having no AA set at all is remarkable; clarity in all games using it is much improved.

 

Yes, but spotting the dots ? 

[SharpeXB]

Personally, I think DSR in the new nvidia drivers is the best thing since sliced bread, I use it on all flight sims, project cars, elite, etc, set at 2x's - gone are the shimmering distant textures in ROF and il2BOS, and fringe patterns on the multy faceted space stations in elite dangerous. The fact that you can set a very low setting for AA means overall frame rates are not hit that much and it looks a hundred times better. In Project Cars, having no AA set at all is remarkable; clarity in all games using it is much improved.

I was trying DSR but ran into constant game crashes, I think due to the necessity of having "Full Screen" checked. It does look a bit nicer. It doesn't make up for AA even when set at 4.0 you'll still get jaggies without AA set in game. I tried using it on CoD and didn't see any improvement unfortunately.

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Thanks for the FFX profile.  I would like to try but it's been a while sicne I added a profile so can you please provide the folder location?

 

Drive:\Program Files (x86)\FlightFX\FX\SweetFX\Presets

[smink1701]

Thanks VR.  I put it in the folder but it doesn't seem to work.  My other profiles work fine and show up in spit screen mode ... but not yours.  Any suggestions?

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Thanks VR.  I put it in the folder but it doesn't seem to work.  My other profiles work fine and show up in spit screen mode ... but not yours.  Any suggestions?

 

If you selected it on the Profile Tab in the FX Presets and it's not working I really don't know what to tell you.  Inside the cockpit it may look pretty close on both sides but if you look straight up into a blue sky you should see a difference in the color of the blue on the two sides.

 

[Requiem]

Just wanted to say I tried your profile the other day VR and it's good! 

 

A shame that the forced AA doesn't work with Nvidia for you. I tried it out with Catalyst Control Center and it worked really well with my ATI card, so I can actually use SweetFX and AA together to improve how BoS looks. Not sure if it saves or costs FPS though...

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Thanks Requiem.  The SMAA in FlightFX is OK, e.g. with everything in the cockpit, but as you can see it does have issues.  The biggest one that you really only see when you are flying in the game vs a screenshot is that you see shimmering towards the horizon in forests and villages.  Really good AA, even that provided in the game, stops this issue.  So with an nVidia card it is a compromise between the benefits of FlightFX and the loss of good AA.