New D3D FSAA Viewer
- Thread starter Colourless
- Start date
Bambers said:
make sure you are either restarting the system - or restarting d3d (by using the smartshader trick - i found you need to do this a few times though, sometimes it doesnt work) run FSAAViewer to check
image quality is better with 3xT BUT you will get much more pronounced flickering. ie games where 2xT dont show it (farcry for me for example) show it with 3xT.
I'm on Cat 4.4 here, and I haven't set the threshold value.
By default, as it is with my system, If the FPS drops below about 40 FPS over 3 frames then it drops back down to the default sparse sampling pattern for that mode. Then if the goes over 40 FPS for a few frames (no idea how many is required) it goes back to the temporal AA mode.
You can easily see this by going full screen in FSAA Viewer and by pressing the 'm' key. This will change the 'mode' of the program where the sampling patterns will be shown across the entire screen. Your framerate will drop substantially, and you should see the sampling pattern change. Then if you keep pressing 'm' you will get back to the three square and the sampling pattern should return to the temporal one.
By default, as it is with my system, If the FPS drops below about 40 FPS over 3 frames then it drops back down to the default sparse sampling pattern for that mode. Then if the goes over 40 FPS for a few frames (no idea how many is required) it goes back to the temporal AA mode.
You can easily see this by going full screen in FSAA Viewer and by pressing the 'm' key. This will change the 'mode' of the program where the sampling patterns will be shown across the entire screen. Your framerate will drop substantially, and you should see the sampling pattern change. Then if you keep pressing 'm' you will get back to the three square and the sampling pattern should return to the temporal one.
Joe DeFuria
Legend
Colourless said:
Yup, that's how it behaves on my system. (Cat 4.4s).
As this is a very long thread maybe I missed something, but I think that main reason in bringing Temporal AA lies in less memory usage that will be vital in case of embedded memory (X-box 2 suposedly has it).
Using 4x and 6x multisampling in higher resolutions can often result in textures being read from main memory...
Zvekan
Using 4x and 6x multisampling in higher resolutions can often result in textures being read from main memory...
Zvekan
Hi guys,
I haven't had a chance to play with this yet, but I wanted to make a couple of comments and ask a couple of questions.
The shimmering is due to a high contrast change happening at a low frequency for each pixel right?. One of the options to make it look like the image is stable is to increase the frequency. Could another option be to lower the contrast change between frames? So far I've noticed that the AA patterns in adjacent frames are designed to mimic what the AA patterns would look like if you were to use a higher AA mode (IE 2XT mimics the 4X AA mode). This probably makes a lot of sense if you have a high stable frame rate, but might it make sense to use sample points that are only slightly off set per frame to get pixels that have a closer contrast on adjacent frames (At the expense of AA quality) when the frame rates are lower or you have a lower number of sample points?
For 2XT as an example, you would no longer get the equivelant of 4X aa (well, it'd be 4X, but sub-optimal), but the sample points would be less offset between the two frames. This should reduce the contrast between adjecent frames shoudln't it?
Nite_Hawk
I haven't had a chance to play with this yet, but I wanted to make a couple of comments and ask a couple of questions.
The shimmering is due to a high contrast change happening at a low frequency for each pixel right?. One of the options to make it look like the image is stable is to increase the frequency. Could another option be to lower the contrast change between frames? So far I've noticed that the AA patterns in adjacent frames are designed to mimic what the AA patterns would look like if you were to use a higher AA mode (IE 2XT mimics the 4X AA mode). This probably makes a lot of sense if you have a high stable frame rate, but might it make sense to use sample points that are only slightly off set per frame to get pixels that have a closer contrast on adjacent frames (At the expense of AA quality) when the frame rates are lower or you have a lower number of sample points?
For 2XT as an example, you would no longer get the equivelant of 4X aa (well, it'd be 4X, but sub-optimal), but the sample points would be less offset between the two frames. This should reduce the contrast between adjecent frames shoudln't it?
Nite_Hawk
Hi Guys,
Sorry to answer my own question, but I just realized that the shimmering is probably due to hitting some high contrast edge where you either hit it for the AA, or you don't, so my idea probably wouldn't help at all.
Are there any other ways to lower the contrast between frames using temporal AA?
Nite_Hawk
Sorry to answer my own question, but I just realized that the shimmering is probably due to hitting some high contrast edge where you either hit it for the AA, or you don't, so my idea probably wouldn't help at all.
Are there any other ways to lower the contrast between frames using temporal AA?
Nite_Hawk
Chalnoth said:
Just going back to this point, your refresh rate probably *is* between 59 and 60Hz as well.
Removed then reinstalled the 4.4s and TemporalAAFrameThreshold now works. YAY. No idea why it didn't before but who cares, eh? Nice to see it reverts back to the normal pattern instead of "pausing" on a temporal one.
MuFu.
So let me get this straight, if I don't have a TemporalAAFrameThreshold setting in my registry it defaults to 40?
I'm running 2XAA/3T right now and it works very well without much flickering at all on my 19"CRT, but I want to check how well it will run in Farcry and there is no way I'm getting over 40FPS constant in Farcry.
I'll also have to go to a spot on the Island that has an indoor area to check some edges on since it seems everything outdoors is in constant motion.
I'm running 2XAA/3T right now and it works very well without much flickering at all on my 19"CRT, but I want to check how well it will run in Farcry and there is no way I'm getting over 40FPS constant in Farcry.
I'll also have to go to a spot on the Island that has an indoor area to check some edges on since it seems everything outdoors is in constant motion.
Moose said:
well i changed threshold to 60 - and even in full screen on fsaaviewer with 20fps - i see tempaa :?
so er i dunno
must need a reboot perhaps or d3d `kick started` a few times for the changes to take effect...ah that got it.
*BEWARE* changing smart shader options ONCE to re-start D3D probably isnt enough - i had to do it 3-4 times in order for it to actually work - so if you are using this method - CHECK - because if you see no change its likely it didn't restart d3d properly*
now below 60fps i see standard 2xAA
My theory on why it works with me on Far Cry & Op Flash and less so on Gothic 2 is as follows;
Far Cry - in theory it shouldn't work well according to eveyone here. My FPS on medium settings are 55 on average using the rebellion02 demo. My refresh rate is 60hz, so their isn't any fps to spare to use on T-AA. But as average fps are below 60 but above 30, my actual v-sync fps will be 30fps, so leaving lots of spare fps for t-AA.
Gothic 2 in town (like Morrowind) frames drop to 20-25 fps therefore lots of flickering, compared to out in the wilderness/mountains where fps are 60fps solid, where no flickering.
that's my current thinking anway.
Far Cry - in theory it shouldn't work well according to eveyone here. My FPS on medium settings are 55 on average using the rebellion02 demo. My refresh rate is 60hz, so their isn't any fps to spare to use on T-AA. But as average fps are below 60 but above 30, my actual v-sync fps will be 30fps, so leaving lots of spare fps for t-AA.
Gothic 2 in town (like Morrowind) frames drop to 20-25 fps therefore lots of flickering, compared to out in the wilderness/mountains where fps are 60fps solid, where no flickering.
that's my current thinking anway.