Catalyst AA Guide

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by BlackZero, Sep 15, 2011.

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  1. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    does this also include AA modes forced though CAP or driver?
     
  2. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    Not sure, I'm actually just having another read of the whitepapers atm.
    I know MS needs to be enabled as well, but unsure whether that's thru the drivers or via the game engine...
     
  3. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    Hmm I think maybe it does have an effect when the game has no AA support, EQAA is similar to Nvidia's CSAA so it seems the "Enhanced" doesn't mean "enhance game engine", rather it means "enhance MSAA".....
     
  4. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    does that mean with or without forced AA?

    you say MS needs to be on; in adaptive MS is partially enabled.

    I wonder if thats sufficent.

    Or if in adaptive it will only peform the extra samples on the MSAA objects, and ignores the tranparent objects using SS.
     

  5. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    I'm trying to find out myself, seems there's a lack of solid info around....
     
  6. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    yeah, thats why i figured id ask in this thread, seems to be the most desciptive ive found.
     
  7. TwL

    TwL Ancient Guru

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    Nice article!

    So, much confusion around this will come to be good topic for everyone to read. Missing TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing), but since AMD has decided to hide the feature not that important I guess.
     
  8. Athlonite

    Athlonite Maha Guru

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    what version of CCC is that your using I only get a tick box for use application settings not a drop down selection menu
     
  9. blinx

    blinx Maha Guru

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    Great work been waiting for something like this
     
  10. Yadda

    Yadda Active Member

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    Same here - tickbox for "use application settings" only, no drop-down selection box and no "enhance application settings" option that I can see anywhere.
     

  11. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    its been around in CCC since the introduction of MLAA.

    If you dont have a 4xxx or newer card, id guess you dont have it.

    It also requires stream i believe for post processing.
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2011
  12. Athlonite

    Athlonite Maha Guru

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    :biggun:

    did you even look at my system specs on the left before you answered the question obviously not otherwise you'd have seen I use 2 HD5770's I've never had the drop down box since owning my first HD5770
     
  13. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    I did indeed see your profile.

    dont know what to tell ya.

    as i mentioned, ive had it on all my cards since MLAA was introduced.
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2011
  14. Isbre

    Isbre Guest

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    Great guide! Looking forward to some image comparisons as well :)
     
  15. BlackZero

    BlackZero Guest

    Sorry, was away for a couple of weeks so couldn't reply.


    As mentioned by Pill Monster, that method only works when a game has internal AA support.


    'enhance application settings' doesn't allow for forcing AA (no access to the AA level slider) but if using MSAA/SSAA/Adaptive AA modes along with with 'Override application settings' you can enable EQAA through the AA level slider for games that support AA forced through CCC.


    Enhance the application settings/EQAA will work with all AA modes as long as there is AA applied internally or through the Control panel, though the game must support forced external AA. It would be advisable to ensure the game does support external AA by disabling Ingame AA and forcing it through the CCC before attempting to use Enhanced/EQAA.

    Also note that MSAA and SSAA both use Colour samples with the difference being that SSAA renders the whole scene, so 'Enhance the application settings' and 'Override the application settings' should work along with EQAA for any of the three AA modes as long as the game supports external Driver Level AA.


    Keep in mind that MSAA should work on all games that support forced AA but Adaptive AA and SSAA is currently only supported in DX9.




    I was using the CCC that came with the catalyst 11.8 for the guide, I am currently using the catalyst 11.10 which uses the same 3d application settings layout as the guide and is Catalyst Control Center Version 2011.0923.2225.38371.


    You're welcome :)

    and I will be adding image comparisons soon.
     

  16. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    It was my understanding that adaptive AA only performs SS on tranparent textures, and performs MS on everything else.

    This was the point of using transparent textures when creating a game; to be able to control what gets SS applied by using tranparent textures on items that need SS for quality purposes (heavily edged objects like gates, leaves, etc) and to stop huge processing overhead required for full-scene SSAA.

    is this not true?

    it seems wasteful that EQAA would be applied to the SS objects. The MS objects are the only ones that needs that extra help in quality.

    So if you force AA on a game that doesnt support it, (interanlly or externally) through CCC/radeon pro, EQAA does nothing?

    that begs the question whether forcing AA in such games does anything at all.
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2011
  17. BlackZero

    BlackZero Guest

    The eqaa will be applied equally to all samples, that's just how it works and tbh given the relatively low ssaa usage in adaptive aa mode; it's not really a major concern.



    Here's a few dead island screenshots demonstrating performance and cost in different AA modes in relation to daptive aa and eqaa, these are all forced through CCC.


    NO AA

    [​IMG]

    http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3581/noaat.jpg


    8x MSAA

    [​IMG]

    http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8340/8xmsaa.jpg


    8x Adaptive AA

    [​IMG]

    http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3843/8xadaptiveaa.jpg


    8x SSAA

    [​IMG]

    http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9821/8xssaa.jpg


    12x EQ MSAA

    [​IMG]

    http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/9290/12xeqmsaa.jpg


    12x EQ Adaptive AA

    [​IMG]

    http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/277/12xeqadaptiveaa.jpg


    12x EQ SSAA

    [​IMG]

    http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6615/12xeqssaa.jpg



    If a game doesn't support AA internally or externally, then yes, forcing standard AA modes will not having any effect. You would have to use MLAA.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2011
  18. Athlonite

    Athlonite Maha Guru

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    yup I was on 11.8 and now 11.10 but still don't see a drop down menu only a tick box I bet it doesn't appear for HD5xxx/4xxx caaards only for 69xx cards
     
  19. The Mac

    The Mac Guest

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    those screen shots would be nice as a comparison, if my damn browser disnt clean them up so i cant see any differnces...lol

    ill have to disable gpu acceloration clearly to see...

    lol
     
  20. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    Hi mate, MLAA and EQAA modes are only available on 6000 series, with just the 6950/70/90 supporting EQAA.
    That's why you don't have the dropdown option in CCC...:)

    This may interest you however:
    http://www.geeks3d.com/20101023/tips-what-is-the-morphological-anti-aliasing-mlaa/
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2011
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