DCS 2.5 Antialiasing comparison

[Repsol2k]

As i've seen some topics about how Antialiasing of DCS or Nvidia are working i tried to make a little comparisons to see clearly the differences. I will try to expand these comparisons if u want and also try out ReShade to see what we get there.

 

All screenshots are made with following basic DCS Settings:

 

Resolution: 3440x1440

Texture: High

Terrain Texture: High

civil Traffic: Off

Water: High

Visib Range: High

Heat Blur: Low

Shadows: High

Res. of Cockpit Displays: 512

Depth of Field: Off

HDR: Off

Deferred Shading: On

Terrain Object Shadows: Flat

Cockpit Global Illumination: Off

Disable Aero Interface : On

VSync: On

Fullscreen: On

Scale GUI: Off

 

DCS and Nvidia Settings

 

 

Explanation from Left to Right:

 

All Off:

Standard picture which u get with no Antialiasing from DCS or Nvidia

 

MSAA 2x:

Edges looking much smoother

 

MSAA 2x + MFAA ON:

Slighty improve to only MSAA x2. Looks like something between MSAA x2 and x4

 

MSAA 4x:

Not really a huge step compared to MSAA 2x

 

MSAA 8x:

Much clearer picture then MSAA OFF but we all know that with MSAA the FPS will significant drop down

 

MSAA 4x and AF 16x:

Like MSAA 4x but also u see for example Ground Textures getting much sharper. Because AF only affects sharpnes not the AntiAliasing.

 

MSAA 8x and AF 16x:

Like MSAA 8x but also u see for example Ground Textures getting much sharper. Because AF only affects sharpnes not the AntiAliasing.

 

MFAA On:

Turned via Nvidia Inspector the MFAA to On but there isnt really a difference between All Off and MFAA ON

 

FXAA On:

We can see a increase in sharpness between the different 3D Objects for example Hill/Sky

 

MS 8x and SGSS 8x with Override:

Used MS and SGSS with Nvidia Inspector and the "Override any application settings". No nitciable differences.

 

MS 8x and SGSS 8x with Enchance:

Used MS and SGSS with Nvidia Inspector and the "Enchance the application settings". No nitciable differences.

 

All Off + ReShade SMAA On:

U see a small increase in quality between the different 3D objects. For Example the Hill or the Frame of the Huey.

 

NOTICE: Its not possible to make screenshots InGame and see afterwards the ReShade effect. ReShade is a Filter which not get captured by DCS screenshots. If u want to take screenshots with ReShade visible i used for Example Gyazo.

 

Anisotropic Filtering:

 

Here i made a comparison between the different AF Settings of DCS. U can see on the ground textures that the sharpness range increases step by step by increasing the AF from OFF to x16

 

 

 

 

Benefits of ReShade

 

I will show in the following comparison the differences between FXAA, SMAA and both together. Therefore im using ReShade.

 

 

FXAA OFF and SMAA OFF

That u will see without having something turned on

 

FXAA ON

Here u see a little improvement with less FPS cost

 

SMAA ON

U see that Reshade is giving u also little improvement

 

FXAA ON and SMAA ON

This is a little improvement paired with a small improvement of SMAA

Edited February 4, 2018 by Repsol2k

[ebabil]

4x msaa and 16x af would look best combo. can you test it also?

[Repsol2k]

Yeah for sure i can :) Thanks to the Industrie for having SSD's :D

 

Will update it when its made :)

[Repsol2k]

Added : MSAA 4x and AF 16x

[Wizard1393]

My findings: For MFAA to work, at least 2x MSAA must be selected in game. If in-game MSAA is OFF, nVidia Control Panel MFAA has no effect at all.

 

The debate has been more about whether nVidia Control Panel MSAA has any effect in game, if in-game MSAA is set to Off. It does not.

 

About AF (Anisotropic filtering). To clarify: This has nothing to do with aliasing (jaggies). It rarely impacts performance at all (in any game) and should therefore imho always be set to max setting (16x in DCS).

 

Repsol2K: Please add comparison in-game MSAA OFF with nVidia Control Panel MSAA 8x to show people it does absolutely nothing, it does not work.

[ebabil]

Yeah for sure i can :) Thanks to the Industrie for having SSD's :D

 

Will update it when its made :)

 

thanks for adding. i can't see any difference between 4xaa/16xaf and 8xaa/16xaf. so no need to trade fps with extra aa settings in this case.

[Repsol2k]

My findings: For MFAA to work, at least 2x MSAA must be selected in game. If in-game MSAA is OFF, nVidia Control Panel MFAA has no effect at all.

 

The debate has been more about whether nVidia Control Panel MSAA has any effect in game, if in-game MSAA is set to Off. It does not.

 

About AF (Anisotropic filtering). To clarify: This has nothing to do with aliasing (jaggies). It rarely impacts performance at all (in any game) and should therefore imho always be set to max setting (16x in DCS).

 

Repsol2K: Please add comparison in-game MSAA OFF with nVidia Control Panel MSAA 8x to show people it does absolutely nothing, it does not work.

 

I think i already have it with the MS x8 Multisampling and SGSS x8 Sparse Grid Supersampling were u see no difference between All Off and MS and SGSS on x8. Or which Nvidia MSAA u mean ?

 

For the AF i added a text. Yeah you are right. It only brings more sharpness inside the textures but dont help to get rid of the "Jaggies" "JigSaws" "Steps" however u will call it.

 

All those AA AF MSAA SGSS are a bit confusing :D

 

 

 

Adeed ReShade to the comparison.

Edited February 2, 2018 by Repsol2k

[Retrofly]

This matches my findings.

I could not see any noticeable difference using an of the Nvidia CP settings or re shade.

 

MSAA has by far the most impact along with AF.

[Solid84]

So if i use MSAA 2x in game options i will able to effectively use mfaa via Nvidia control panel? It's right?

[edokg]

Very good topic!

[funkyfranky]

Nice comparison, thanks!

[Repsol2k]

So if i use MSAA 2x in game options i will able to effectively use mfaa via Nvidia control panel? It's right?

 

Added MSAA x2 + MFAA On inside the comparison.

 

Maybe someone else also can prove that MFAA with MSAA gives a slightly improvement ?

 

 

 

And when someones see any wrong description of the MFAA, AA, AF; SGSS, MS etc then please correct my because im not an GPU Guru.

[funkyfranky]

Added MSAA x2 + MFAA On inside the comparison.

Thanks! The ground textures look much sharper in this case. Are you sure, AF was OFF? ;)

[Repsol2k]

Ah damn u got me :D

 

Corrected it .

Edited February 2, 2018 by Repsol2k

[ebabil]

can you compare fps 4xmsaa/16x af and 2xmsaa/2xmfaa/16x af ?

[Wizard1393]

So if i use MSAA 2x in game options i will able to effectively use mfaa via Nvidia control panel? It's right?

 

Yes. It doesn't do much. But a little bit. If u look at the comparison (now updated) u can see the difference in the bottom edge of the cockpit glass. The horizontal cockpit edge there is seemingly less aliased/jaggy.

Edited February 2, 2018 by chrisofsweden

[Kadin]

In your Nvidia panel, what setting do you use for the "Antialiasing mode"?

Thank you for doing this. Very helpful.

[Repsol2k]

I can but it will not tell u if its laggy or not because this depends on your system. To compare Image quality is easier because its only 1 picture which u need.

[wedge_one]

I'm achieving nice results with FXAA turned on Nvidia Control Panel while keeping the FPS high

[Yskonyn]

I generally find FXAA making the image too blurry. I don't like its effect.

 

A question about AF:

 

Years ago test of Anisotropic Filtering showed that 16x over 8x only improved the textures in the distance marginally while the performance drop was exponential.

Is this still the case with modern cards like the 1000 series of NVidia or can these cards crank Anisotropic Filtering to 16x without sweating?

[Canada_Moose]

I generally find FXAA making the image too blurry. I don't like its effect.

 

A question about AF:

 

Years ago test of Anisotropic Filtering showed that 16x over 8x only improved the textures in the distance marginally while the performance drop was exponential.

Is this still the case with modern cards like the 1000 series of NVidia or can these cards crank Anisotropic Filtering to 16x without sweating?

 

 

AF 16x has been a "freebie" on modern GPU's for some time now.

[Repsol2k]

In your Nvidia panel, what setting do you use for the "Antialiasing mode"?

Thank you for doing this. Very helpful.

 

 

Application controlled i use

 

Added Anisotropic Filtering comparison

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

My findings: For MFAA to work, at least 2x MSAA must be selected in game. If in-game MSAA is OFF, nVidia Control Panel MFAA has no effect at all.

 

The debate has been more about whether nVidia Control Panel MSAA has any effect in game, if in-game MSAA is set to Off. It does not.

 

About AF (Anisotropic filtering). To clarify: This has nothing to do with aliasing (jaggies). It rarely impacts performance at all (in any game) and should therefore imho always be set to max setting (16x in DCS).

 

Repsol2K: Please add comparison in-game MSAA OFF with nVidia Control Panel MSAA 8x to show people it does absolutely nothing, it does not work.

Hello. You are partially mistaken. In order to force AA from Nvidia Control Panel and get rid of the jaggies, you need to activate three different things:

 

"AA mode" to forced or override application

"AA setting" to 2x or whatever you graphic card could handle

"FXAA" to on

 

Otherwise it doesn´t work. Give it a try ;)

[StefVR]

VR only flyer here: Its difficult but Defered Shading on, MSAA 2 times and AF 16 times and Supersampling 1.5 in Oculus Tool works with ASW and mostly 45 fps on my Titan X Pascal and 8700k at 5000 Mhz with 32 GB ram and Intel Optane SSD.

 

Textures plus Terrain high, Traffic Medium, Water high, Visib Range High Blur Low, Shadows Medium and flat, Clutter Gras nearly off, Trees 74 % Preload max smoke 1

 

I am really happy with this setting but look forward for Ampere GPU and even more to Vulkan API together with higher Res headsets.

 

No MSAA is impossible, buildings blink and shine like christmas trees in VR

 

The dream guys its sooo close...

[Repsol2k]

Ok i found something out with makes me not happy :D My screenshots from ingame arent showing the picture quality as it looks on my monitor . Therefore i need to updated the FXAA On picture. Now u can see an increase in picture quality.

Edited February 2, 2018 by Repsol2k