External FSAA device: FSAA with no frame rate hit

[YMK]

Would people pay for an external analog, passive device that provides FSAA with no frame rate hit?

[F4_Hunter]

Just how would that work? It would have to reprocess the image and TRY to figure where the edges are. It wouldn't pretty.

I wouldn't buy one.

F4

[YMK]

Nope. Even FSAA done on the computer doesn't care where the edges are. It reprocesses the entire screen. It treats all pixels exactly the same. All FSAA is blurring. Don't you notice when FSAA is on how text is blurred? See, the FS in FSAA stands for Full Scene. Voodoo3 is the only card I know of that does edge only anti aliasing.

[This message has been edited by YMK (edited 08-08-2001).]

[Dputiger]

YMK is right. ALL the pixels on the screen are anti-aliased.

[F4_Hunter]

Didn't realize. My bad.

[This message has been edited by F4_Hunter (edited 08-08-2001).]

[Ruahrc]

Personally, I think FSAA is a bit overrated. I mean it's really impressive that hardware today is able to run FSAA and still keep useable performance, but benefit of it is pretty useless.

I run my games in 1024x768 and at that res the jaggies are so small they are almost innoticeable anyhow. In FPS games you don't even have time to look for the edges. Other games like BnW are more suited for it but still even in that game the effect is minimal.

I tried the Quincunx on my GF3 and all the menus and text were blurry. Gave me a headache. The older 2x/4x method keeps menu clarity but is slower.

Ruahrc

[LemonHead]

have any of you played midtown madness @ 640x480???

ickkkk
thats where FSAA comes in. TV's are limited to the low res's so FSAA is useful in consoles, but on a monitor (higher quality) you can up the res (MM @ 1024x768 is playable)

[Barney]

Yes, but even the best TV's are quite fuzzy (compared to a monitor). Put in 4x FSAA and it gets even fuzzier. I don't think they should use FSAA in videogames, instead they should run the games at a higher resolution.

[LemonHead]

no, TV's are fuzzy due to interlacing. i.e. it draws all the even scan lines (2,4,6,etc) for one frame and then all the odd scan lines (1,3,5,7...etc).
but some TV's dont interlace, i think.

[Kruzin]

Just smear some vasoline on your screen.
Instant FSAA.

[Dputiger]

I've got to disagree with whoever said FSAA was over-rated.

I can get MUCH smoother lines on a screen by using 4XFSAA (800x600) then I can using 1280x1024.

Since I don't tend to play games just for deathmatching, I really like the improved image quality FSAA brings.

[Ruahrc]

Dputiger-

Yeah I'm that one Perhaps I should qualify...

I can see your benefit from FSAA's image quality- I played around with it on my old GF2MX and FS2000 at 1024x768 (4x). Even at that res, the lines were noticeably smoother and crisper. (The game actually ran pretty decent at that setting too!)

But when trying FSAA in action type games I couldn't tell at all. (without pausing to look at the edges)

If you play the slower games (like flight sims and the like) FSAA can be a great thing.

Ruahrc

[falcompsx]

in some games, like counter-strike, FPS is life. Beauty is not nessarry at ALL. as long as you can quickly, and accurately point at their head, you can win. The blocks around the edge of their head only slow your video down. Some games like BnW are great for it though. frame rate can take a hit from fsaa and go down to oh say 55-60fps and still be fun, because you aren't doing 180 degree turns with a flick of the wrist and needing to be able to track where you are going. abouve 60fps may not always be noticable, but in fps games when you turn really fast, you need all the frames you can get to keep track of just how much you've turned.