No AA support in Mass Effect 2 for the PC

MadGizmo

In a BioWare thread on Anti-Aliasing someone asked if there will be support for AA in their upcoming Mass Effect 2. The first title in the series doesn't support it either. Although you can force AA, that solution doesn't always work and you'll still keep encountering jaggies from time to time. This is what Brenon Holmes (a software engineer working on the project) said about it:

Quote:

Sadly, you're in the same boat you were in for ME1. If you want it on, you'll have to do it in your hardware settings.

This is a highly anticipated game and I don't think that not supporting AA will change much in the sales, but I seriously question the company's technical competence. Anno 2009 Anti-Aliasing is main stream for any serious title. It even feels odd having to defend that.

Any thoughts on this?

Garone · 08-24-2009, 01:42 | posts: 83 | User is Offline

I never saw any aliasing in the first game so I don't mind.

ice445 · 08-24-2009, 01:50 | posts: 1,157 | Location: Toledo, Ohio | User is Offline

The game is still built on UT3 engine, correct? It's a known issue with the UT3 engine. It simply sucks with AA. Blame EPIC Games for it, not Bioware.

DiaboliX · **Memory**: 4GB Geil DDR2800 4-4-4-12

Don't care too much about this aspect of it's graphics, I mean, I got so immeresed in the first game just from stroy and action that everything looked super even without AA. It will be same with this one most probably.

Zenoth · 08-24-2009, 04:10 | posts: 573 | User is Offline

I don't care, I just want to play it.

cerebus23 · 08-24-2009, 06:35 | posts: 704 | User is Offline

AA works find in batman AA and that is on ut3 to, just shows it can be done if they put some work into the engine.

Chouji · 08-24-2009, 06:48 | posts: 4,815 | Location: Back in the USA | User is Offline

I force the same AA on all my games from within the nvidia control panel.
I just use 4x AA.
I can notice AA being off but even with AA on 2x it helps a ton.
Anything above 4x and it's to minute for me to notice.

Er, As long as AA is on, i'm fine with what ever it's set to. Only with AA off do i notice the jaggies.
4x seems to be fine for me, reduces the jaggies enough, but doesn't hurt performance much.

proFits · 08-24-2009, 06:53 | posts: 4,442 | Location: Quebec | User is Offline

I think graphically the game was fine, nothing to blame really!

Plus you ARE referring to bioware, a company that didnt make it's name through their beautiful graphics but through some well-oiled gameplay (NWN/BG series)

Stromgold · 08-24-2009, 06:53 | posts: 1,118 | Location: Outer Banks, NC | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zenoth

I don't care, I just want to play it.

+1
ME 1 was a fantastic game. The first time I played it, I didn't force AA and still enjoyed it a lot.

steve- · 08-24-2009, 09:01 | posts: 1,733 | Location: Massachusetts, USA | User is Online

I'm not surprised, the UE3.0 does not support AA so any game with AA support has been added in by the developers of that game. There aren't many that I can think of that have AA, Rainbow Six Vegas 2.. nothing else comes to mind. This is more or less just Bioware (or whoever is doing the PC version) being lazy by not adding it in.

Wasn't a big deal in the first one for me, so this is really meh.

Devolution · 08-24-2009, 09:20 | posts: 811 | Location: Sunny state | User is Offline

AA is the least of my concerns. Let's just hope we don't get a retarded Alan Wake situation.

steve- · 08-24-2009, 09:24 | posts: 1,733 | Location: Massachusetts, USA | User is Online

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devolution

AA is the least of my concerns. Let's just hope we don't get a retarded Alan Wake situation.

Huh? How is that even comparable?

BigBlockTowncar · 08-24-2009, 09:55 | posts: 386 | Location: USA | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garone

I never saw any aliasing in the first game so I don't mind.

I notice it mostly when you walk around in the citadel with all of the light blues and white architecture. It looks a little sloppy but I'm not really bothered by it. I'll have to try to force AA through the control panel, never tried that with anything before.

deathvirus · 08-24-2009, 10:05 | posts: 4,409 | Location: Kolkata, India | User is Offline

UE3.0 is a bit taxing on the system even without AA .. so they basically skipped those options .. the AA performance hit is just a bit too much in most systems .. i go from 125+ fps to <60 fps with 4x AA on large maps in UT3 ... so they basically leave the vanilla game ready to be played on majority of the systems .. and if u can use AA, then simply force it

.. though i myself dont have a problems with slight jaggies at 1680*1050 ... depends on how the game is built ..

Dahzeal33 · 08-24-2009, 10:47 | posts: 1,038 | Location: Southern US | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devolution

AA is the least of my concerns. Let's just hope we don't get a retarded Alan Wake situation.

lol, I totally agree. PC gaming these days is FULL of compromises. I'd rather have a pc version of ME2 with no AA, than not have one at all!

ScoobyDooby · 08-24-2009, 11:21 | posts: 4,020 | Location: BC, Canada | User is Offline

honestly.. what is with all the AA bs? I never use AA and I enjoy playing all these games just fine. To me it is easily the worst performance vs value optimization there is for PC. You get 4xAA on and your fps drops by 10+ fps in almost all scenarios I have tried. And does it make the game look that much better or does it really increase a person's enjoyment of a game? IMO, it shouldn't.. in a lot of cases I can't even tell the difference when I'm running and gunning. Total waste of gpu power to use AA afaic

BigBlockTowncar · 08-24-2009, 13:59 | posts: 386 | Location: USA | User is Offline

It does seem like some people are far too picky with graphics, I think it can make certain frames to look a little sloppy, but I don't care that much. I would consider AA a finishing detail. If a game has it, great, if not, oh well. ME2 sounds like it will be really cool, the level of detail is going to be increased, the character will have over 200 facial animations, there will be realistic damage modeling, etc.

Chouji · 08-24-2009, 14:23 | posts: 4,815 | Location: Back in the USA | User is Offline

Depends on your resolution Scooby, Higher the resolution, less noticeable the jaggies are.
First time i ever noticed jaggies was in morrowind. The difference between AA off and 2x AA was massive @ 1024x768. The light fog in Seyda Need,(starting town) and the barren trees, made the jaggies stand out alot. You'd look at a diagonal tree branch and think it was made of Legos. Turn on AA to 2x or that 2x4, and it transformed them from massive lego's to minor pixelation.
Play the game at higher resolutions, and you didn't even need AA.
1280x960 with no AA looked just as smooth as 1024x768 with 2x AA, maybe even smoother.

Edit:
I'm one of those types that care more about performance than eye candy. I'll turn down the graphics to get good steady FPS. So if the game runs like crap with AA on, i'd be willing to turn it off. Low FPS = headache for me.

Nato.dbnz · 08-24-2009, 14:30 | posts: 2,288 | Location: Auckland NZ | User is Offline

Lack of AA never bothered me in ME and I doubt it will bother me in ME2. The first one had some of the nicest character models & facial details I've ever seen in a game and was a real feast for the eyes.

Also, people who say jaggies are less noticeable at higher resolutions....not really. On LCD screens as long as you are running at native res of your screen whether it is 1280x1024 or 1920x1200 the amount of aliasing you see is dependant on how tightly packed the pixels on you screen are. On an old CRT where you could force very high resolution into the same physical dimensions then sure, higher res=less jaggies, but on an lcd as the res increases so does the physical dimension of the screen so you still see pretty much the same amount of aliasing.

BigBlockTowncar · 08-24-2009, 15:47 | posts: 386 | Location: USA | User is Offline

True about the resolution.

Do you think we will get to a point to where resolutions are high enough to where you do not need AA? Or have we maxed out at 2560x1920

nonymous666 · 08-24-2009, 16:44 | posts: 170 | Location: Pennsylvania | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve-

I'm not surprised, the UE3.0 does not support AA so any game with AA support has been added in by the developers of that game. There aren't many that I can think of that have AA, Rainbow Six Vegas 2...

Gears of War was able to do AA on Vista, but had to use a bit of DirectX 10 voodoo to do it.

F1refly · 08-24-2009, 16:55 | posts: 5,703 | Location: muncie,indiana | User is Offline

ah, more games taht dont support AA, like gta 4, why do they continue to use rendering like that?
as for U3 engine, afaik, you can have AA in DX10, just not dx9 due to how the lighting is rendered, some type of "stitch" like effect which makes it use less resources? hope someone can explain why they would even bother with that.

Redemption80 · 08-24-2009, 17:05 | posts: 2,967 | Location: Glasgow | User is Offline

Batman:Arkham Asylum has been the best example of how AA can be used with UE3, though it does come with a higher than normal performance hit.

Lack of proper AA was something i missed in the first one, as i find it hard to get immersed into a game like this if i'm constantly spotting flaws, its a curse i have, have saw me stopping a BluRay after 15-20mins purely cause the picture quality was less than i was expecting

ScoobyDooby · 08-24-2009, 19:47 | posts: 4,020 | Location: BC, Canada | User is Offline

^ see this to me is just a cup half empty attitude. If you always have crazy and wild expectations you have to be ready to be dissappointed a lot more often don't you?
I'm not ripping you.. if you don't like it you don't like it.. I just find it hard to understand is all. I guess I would prefer to enjoy it for what its worth rather than get all bothered about something that you can't change..

Redemption80 · 08-24-2009, 20:51 | posts: 2,967 | Location: Glasgow | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoobyDooby

^ see this to me is just a cup half empty attitude. If you always have crazy and wild expectations you have to be ready to be dissappointed a lot more often don't you?
I'm not ripping you.. if you don't like it you don't like it.. I just find it hard to understand is all. I guess I would prefer to enjoy it for what its worth rather than get all bothered about something that you can't change..

Surely cup half empty is a pessimistic attitude, while crazy wild expectations would be an optimistic attitude.
Pessimists don't get disappointed as they are always expecting the worst.

Anyhoo, lol.
But yeah, i expect to be disappointed alot, but it happens so often its normal practice, though i am more forgiving about games than movies, as we all have a decent amount of control over how they look, sound and play.
Even this game will have some AA in some form eventually.