3DMark05 - Grass Anti-Aliasing Comparison

[Clay]

Ok, I admit it... I'm caught up in all the hoopla surrounding 3DMark05. :nana:

So, before you say something like "Clay, why in the world are you comparing grass anti-aliasing screenshots?!?" just think about how giddy you are right now too. We're all geeks/nerds/etc at heart or we wouldn't be here.

Seriously though, for some reason the Vertex Shader - Complex test got me to thinking. For those of you out there that dismiss the effect/advantage of anti-aliasing (believe me guys, they're out there) check out the shots below.

The reason the grass caught my attention is because, in this density, it really has a dramatic effect on your eyes whether AA is applied or not. Once games start to implement full blown fields of grass like this (instead of the scattered clumps we have now) we'll really appreciate AA even moreso. As always, you can't appreciate the affect unless you see it in motion so be sure to run this test without AA and with to see the dramatic difference.

All of the cropped shots below are from these 1600x1200 BMP images (http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/iq.zip) (~12MB zip file of original BMPs at 0,2 and 4 AA levels) at the 90th frame of the Vertex Shader - Complex test. They were taken with the Image Quality feature of 3DMark05. The cropped shots below have been converted to PNG format to retain lossless quality and be visible via browsers.

0xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-0aa-c1.png

2xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-2aa-c1.png

4xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-4aa-c1.png



0xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-0aa-c2.png

2xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-2aa-c2.png

4xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-4aa-c2.png



0xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-0aa-c3.png

2xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-2aa-c3.png

4xAA
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/vscomplex_0090-16-4aa-c3.png

[Omega53]

The grass is too thick to notice any aliasing issues

[subbo]

Speaking of aliasing foliage, has anybody noticed that 1-bit alpha doesnt seem to receive fsaa in games like battlefield vietnam? I've also noticed that 1-bit alpha combined with bumpmapping is absolute murder for the NV40.

This is evident when looking through the elevator grid in doom3 or other flat face alpha texture like it, or enabling "highest" graphics quality in BFV and loading a jungle map where the foliage is bumpmapped+alpha, and walking up to a bush drops fps to low low numbers from 100+. And when you drop the quality to "High" it removes bm from the foliage and your fps roars high no matter how much of it is in your face.

It's a framerate killer equal to alpha/translucent-smoke-puffs of old Voodoo2 times.

[Clay]

The grass is too thick to notice any aliasing issues
Watch it in motion. ;)