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Anti-Aliasing MLAA

by Lewis Bibby · in Torque 3D Professional · 08/16/2011 (9:13 pm) · 10 replies

Hello,

A while ago I asked about the MLAA used in advanced lighting. I got some answers about how I might improve my AA and did manage to improve it marginally and let the issue lie to get on with other work. But recently I've taken a look at it again and upset myself with the problem one more time.

My issue is the AA used in advanced lighting just doesn't seem to be up to scratch and when compared with the results basic lighting produces it isn't even in the same league. This image should help draw the comparison between the two.

(Large-ish file size)
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/1173/aaproblems.png

As you can see the difference is quite large and is even worse when the game is in motion. If anyone could help me try and get my AA looking more presentable I'd be very grateful. So far I tried editing the thresholds in the MLAA.fx file but unless I've been using completely wrong values I haven't been able to make much change happen with that.

Thank you in advance

-Lewis
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Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
#1
08/16/2011 (10:38 pm)
Looking at that closeup... i don't see MLAA running in your scene at all. It looks bad because its not there.

Do this... grab a fresh install of T3D 1.1 in a seperate folder and test MLAA on the fps example project. You should see a big difference between it and what your seeing in your scene.

If your using some custom shaders or post effects you could be overwriting the MLAA results or breaking the GFX state in some way. If you carried your project over from a old pre-MLAA version of T3D then you might not have all the scripts in place for it.

On a related note... if i ever get some free time i want to integrate the new FXAA technique into T3D which not only has higher quality, but is also faster.

Torque 3D Owner Lewis Bibby
#2
08/16/2011 (11:44 pm)
I just tried out a fresh install and the MLAA was working in it. I recently rebuilt the game on a fresh install and so the thing that comes to mind is I'm using the SSAO2 resource so perhaps that is in some way affecting the MLAA. I'll see if I can spot anything.

Also a FXAA resource would be amazing ;)

Thank you for your help if I can't trace the problem back to the SSAO2 I'll reply again.

Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
#3
08/17/2011 (12:08 am)
Quote:I'm using the SSAO2 resource
Ah.. yea that could be the issue. I've not used that resource... but its possible its a bug in the resource or just a mistake merging it into your project.


Torque 3D Owner Lewis Bibby
#4
08/17/2011 (12:15 am)
Now that SSAO2 has been removed Everythings fine so at least i know where the problem needs fixing now :)

Thanks again

Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
#5
08/17/2011 (2:44 am)
No prob.

Torque 3D Owner Lewis Bibby
#6
08/18/2011 (6:52 am)
Sorry to bring this back again but I was wondering if you could recommend any ways for me to get the best results out of MLAA. Any possible improvements I could make to it and such

Thank you for the help.

Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
#7
08/18/2011 (5:44 pm)
The stock MLAA we use has little or no tweaks... its as good as that implementation gets. I'm sure there is new research out there that can improve it... but i've not kept up with it.

IMO... if you want the absolute best AA in a deferred engine... you implement Timothy Lottes' FXAA. He has been updating it every few months with new improvements in quality and performance... it is the best thing out there and its totally free.

Torque 3D Owner Lewis Bibby
#8
08/18/2011 (6:18 pm)
Thanks for the help Tom, I'll speak to our programmer and see if he can help us with adding that at some point.

Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
#9
08/19/2011 (7:16 pm)
So i hooked up FXAA today and it will be in T3D 1.2.

Torque 3D Owner Lewis Bibby
#10
08/19/2011 (8:43 pm)
That's amazing news Tom, really looking forward to it.