SS vs AA post-4.001b (with some other questions)

[GP*]

VR experts,

 

What's the latest on SS vs AA after the latest updates? I'm currently running a slight bit of SS (very modest 130% with a Vive Pro) with 4x AA. I have a 2080 so I'm not even sure it matters all that much, but the 90 FPS goal is always there. 

 

Some other questions as well:

 

• Can anyone notice a difference between 2x and 4x AA in game? I'm trying to decide the cost vs benefit and honestly I have trouble discerning the difference (AA off is very apparent though)
• Landscape filter: OFF vs Blurred vs Sharp. I understand Blurred is good for spotting, but (from a performance perspective), which is "worst" looking and which is "best" looking? Is OFF ideal and blurred/sharp some sort of compromise, or is OFF the baseline and blurred and sharp get progressively better from there?
• What's the difference between horizontal draw distance and distant landscape detail?

 

Many thanks. 

[chiliwili69]

SS and AA are two very different concepts, both in terms of GPU/CPU loading and in terms of visual gain.

Last update doesn´t change the fundamental way of how AA and SS is calculated and how it should be used. 

But if any update bring optimization and some room for better visuals, then SS can be revisited and to less extend AA.

 

Let´s first briefly describe AA and SS works in IL-2 VR:

 

AntiAliasing (AA): It is a post-processing technique aimed to smooth of the ugly edges in computer graphics. This technique is performed by CPU (as far as I know) and it blurs a little bit the overall final image but in low resolutions devices or monitor produce a nicer image but you will never get more detail of the scene. The number x2 or x4 is the number of pixel around the pixel that are taken into account to average the color.

 

Supersamping (SS): Also known as MSAA, It renders the scene at a higher resolution than the device physical display or monitor. It loads more the GPU since more pixels are rendered than the actual physical display. It is getting more information from the scene (more pixels sampled) and therefore the resulting image contains more detail. A "side" effect of the SS is that it also reduces the ugly edges, so it also used as a AA technique, but with high computational cost (GPU).

 

In general, for most of VR devices the AAx2 is more than enough. And then apply the "common sense" SS that your GPU with your VR device can support.

 

In general, the higher resolution display the less AA you will need. In the monitor case for example, if you have a 4K monitor, you will not use AAx4, or even AAx2.

 

Every VR device treats SS differently since they already apply an internal SS ratio when you apply 100%SS.

In the case of the VivepPro (identical to Index) when you put 100% they are already a 196%SS internally, so in the case of Index/VivePro the visual gain you get above 100% is less pronounced than in other devices. I don´t know what graphic card you have but 130% for the VivePro is quite OK. (it is 255% the panel resolution)

 

I was experimenting in the past with SS and AA: here some links: