ATI Adaptive AA?

[jasonnoguchi 11]

I tried this feature and oh my god... everything looks even more realistic than ever with almost no jagged edges that can be found. What's more surprising is that there didn't seem to be any performance hit... at least I didn't frap it. Did anyone do any performance testing on adaptive AA?

---------- Post added at 02:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 AM ----------

Did a test using OFPmark.

My base score without Adaptive AA : 2842

With adaptive AA set at performance : 2728

with adaptive AA set at quality : 2982

Surprising!!! Adaptive AA set at quality actually beat my base score without adaptive AA! Which means that Adaptive AA at quality makes the game faster?????

[Maddmatt 1]

What resolution and what drivers? I have the same card as you and AA has a nasty performance hit so I used 125% 3D res instead.

Also, are you using the beta patches?

[jasonnoguchi 11]

everything held constant between base check and AA on check, so resolution should not be a concern. I am using 9.11 CCC. no beta patches.

on the contrary, higher 3D resolution gave me significant performance hit :( what does increasing 3D resolution do anyways?

Edited December 5, 2009 by jasonnoguchi

[Inkompetent 0]

Increased 3D resolution makes the engine render the game at another resolution than the displayed one. If you choose a higher resolution than the display resolution it works (in the end) like AA. While if using lower it works like reversed AA, forcing the rendered screen to be 'stretched' to fit the displayed resolution.

[Mudkip 0]

Screenshots plz! Me don't have ATI.

EDIT: Oh wait! NVIDIA has a thing called transparent AA which does something similar but halves my framerate :(

[cross 1]

nvm the msg

[Maddmatt 1]

Well I tried setting Adaptive AA to quality like you said. On normal (4xAA) it's a slide show. On low it runs ok but drops below 20 when viewing lots of trees. Does look better than ever though.

On the other hand 125% 3D res gives me perfectly smooth performance. But still looks a bit jagged on solid edges.

Could you share your other graphics settings?

[mr_centipede 31]

I only got HD4870 512mb. Tried with AAA and I cant play it even on UTES. Every setting is HIGH and VD is 3500m 3D reso is at 100%

So I just disable AAA. Still looks good enough for me

[Rakov 0]

I have a 4850x2 and anything other than FSAA = 0 is an unplayable performance hit. I am using 9.11 drivers.

[kklownboy 43]

I tried this feature and oh my god... everything looks even more realistic than ever with almost no jagged edges that can be found. What's more surprising is that there didn't seem to be any performance hit... at least I didn't frap it. Did anyone do any performance testing on adaptive AA?

In game AA is FAR superiour.

The CCCs AAA does nothing for me...Once you use at least 2X(low) ingame. Also the CCC AA options only break ingame AA and are just plane bad on there own. I can use 32X samples and uberAAA, and its still less AA than 2X ingame...with a fps hit. Try "AF" in the CCC at 16X, It is much nicer than VH AF ingame!(with 9.10 drivers,9.11s are broken)

Did a test using OFPmark.

My base score without Adaptive AA : 2842

With adaptive AA set at performance : 2728

with adaptive AA set at quality : 2982

Surprising!!! Adaptive AA set at quality actually beat my base score without adaptive AA! Which means that Adaptive AA at quality makes the game faster?????

I suspect you need to do that test again.Do each setting about fivetimes, and never use the first run score. Also restart the game everytime you make a change in the CCC.

What is your Resolution?

[Maddmatt 1]

In game AA is FAR superiour.

The CCCs AAA does nothing for me...Once you use at least 2X(low) ingame. Also the CCC AA options only break ingame AA and are just plane bad on there own. I can use 32X samples and uberAAA, and its still less AA than 2X ingame...with a fps hit. Try "AF" in the CCC at 16X, It is much nicer than VH AF ingame!(with 9.10 drivers,9.11s are broken)

For me, Adaptive AA (AAA) and AA filter settings work just fine in CCC. I just need to "Application controlled" on and set AA in-game for it to work.

Of course the performance hit of anything above 2xAA makes it useless. Even 2xAA gives a bigger performance hit by trees than 125% 3D resolution.

I hear Nvidia cards handle AA better in ArmA 2, which is strange. I wonder if it is a bug somewhere that makes AA on ATI cards have such a huge performance hit.

Far Cry 2, for example, runs perfectly smooth (30+FPS, maybe more) with 12xAA(edge-detect) and Adaptive AA. That game also has detailed vegetation, although there isn't as much of it on screen at the same time.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Maddmatt

[kklownboy 43]

For me, Adaptive AA (AAA) and AA filter settings work just fine in CCC. I just need to "Application controlled" on and set AA in-game for it to work.

Thats what i do. The break is from CCC AA not the AAA. So you can use AAA with in-game AA but for me it adds nothing to the IQ... 4XAA(normal) is optimal, no jaggies at all'.

Well NVDA ingame settings are not like ATIs I have both brands.Veryhigh is the same as Normal, #6 setting is the same as high(8x).I should do a whole screen shot comparison this holiday. Its not a bug, Ati is better...

Edited December 5, 2009 by kklownboy

[jasonnoguchi 11]

my resolution is 1280 x 960. Everything very high except AF disabled, PP High and AA normal. 2000m VD. did the tests a few more time each and the numbers more or less tallies that way.

[Ish 11]

I get really good performance with all on very high (where available) and high AA @ 1920x1200 (16:10 24") 100% FillR and no PP.

Settings in CC are as follows.

Smoothvision HD: AA = Use app/box filter

Smoothvision HD: AF = Use app

Catalyst A.I = Advanced (the higher value, the more it relies on th CPU, mine is 4Ghz so no reason not to use it for me, but it might not be appropriate for everyone)

Mipmap = High Quality

V-Sync = Always ON

AA Mode = Multi right now, but i reckon Adaptive is as good if not better.

Tripple buffer = Unchecked.. But it doesn't matter since its OGL anyway :)

Edited December 5, 2009 by Ish

[Maddmatt 1]

I get really good performance with all on very high (where available) and high AA @ 1920x1200 (16:10 24") 100% FillR and no PP.

Yes but you have a 5870 according to your sig. Our 4xxx series cards would go up in flames with those settings ;)

Well I guess I'm exaggerating. It's only AA that really brings the performance down for me.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Maddmatt

[jasonnoguchi 11]

@Ish , yup, your comp specs smoke all of ours ! hahahah

[Ish 11]

Yes but you have a 5870 according to your sig. Our 4xxx series cards would go up in flames with those settings ;)

Well I guess I'm exaggerating. It's only AA that really brings the performance down for me.

It's the same for me really. Only my system can manage it. I don't exactly get a stable 45fps with it set too high, but it's playable. Plus my old comp, i ran the game at 15-25 FPS so it would be stupid too complain :p

[Maddmatt 1]

It's the same for me really. Only my system can manage it. I don't exactly get a stable 45fps with it set too high, but it's playable. Plus my old comp, i ran the game at 15-25 FPS so it would be stupid too complain :p

Well that just shows how hard AA drops performance in ArmA 2 with ATI cards.

The vegetation in ArmA 2 does badly need AA, and increasing 3D res isn't ideal. I wonder if BIS can look into it? Probably far from the highest priority but it would make some of us happier ;)

[Kabolte 10]

I bring benchmarks. The visual difference is good, but at the cost of about 5 fps in these pictures

With AAA

Without AAA

[jumpinghubert 48]

thx kabolte. With AAA it looks like postprocessing @ veryhigh.

@maddmatt

alternatively you can set postprocessing veryhigh. Vegetation/structures far away are a little bit blurry, similar to AAA but less fps eating (for me).

[mr_centipede 31]

That screenshot dont do AAA much justice. Try take a picture of metal fences, the on that looked squared at an angle. withoug AAA you can barely see the metal of the fence, with AAA you can clearly the metal.

Probably the same for wired fences. But of course AAA eats up a lot of fps. Mine was dragged to a slideshow

[Maddmatt 1]

@maddmatt

alternatively you can set postprocessing veryhigh. Vegetation/structures far away are a little bit blurry, similar to AAA but less fps eating (for me).

I always have it at Very High. The game just looks dull without it. But it's nowhere near good enough at smoothing the vegetation.

I play at 1440x900, and without AA/3D res the vegetation looks terrible.

[Kabolte 10]

That screenshot dont do AAA much justice. Try take a picture of metal fences, the on that looked squared at an angle. withoug AAA you can barely see the metal of the fence, with AAA you can clearly the metal.

Probably the same for wired fences. But of course AAA eats up a lot of fps. Mine was dragged to a slideshow

Yea I know, once I realized what AAA did was after I took the pictures. You can still see the effects on those towers to the left though