Can antialiasing make bits of the map easier
to see through?
Yes it can.
Here to help me today is Tropiko, who has
this rather thankless job.
Thanks, Tropiko.
In my main graphical analysis video I was
a bit indecisive about antialiasing.
I said that it is effectively like playing
the game at a higher resolution, which can
help in situations such as these where the
visible gap between the bars is less than
a pixel apart.
Without antialiasing, this means that a pixel
either represents the bar, or the gap between
it.
In other words, 0% or 100% transparent.
Antialiasing will make the same pixel a blend
of the two.
Because of this I prefer antialiasing because
it will at least be a bit transparent in a
lot of cases where no antialiasing simply
shows the bar.
If you don't care about the theory behind
it, just look at these examples.
The bottom two show proper antialiasing- FXAA
is effectively getting the one with no antialiasing
and blurring it, so it's not going to show
any additional detail.
Let's see where the player is hidden behind
the bars in this scene.
As you can see, without antialiasing he's
far more likely to be hidden.
I've also heard that FXAA on non-native resolutions
is meant to help.
I also ran this same test but at 1024x768
with FXAA on... but the last visible pixel
gap wasn't as far along, making a lower resolution
worse.
Lower resolutions, in my opinion, are less
likely to show gaps through the bars than
higher ones.
HOWEVER, when set to 640x480, the last visible
pixel was further along than with 1024x768,
showing that occasionally aliased scenes get
lucky.
If I was standing in a SLIGHTLY different
location, I'm sure that things would have
been different.
But I won't rob 640x480 of this battle.
I will, however, rob it of the war.
Comparing it to 1920x1080 with proper antialiasing,
I think you'll agree that there is no contest,
nor should there be!
Rely on a lot of accurate pixels rather than
a gamble with fewer.
Aw... go on, I know you want to see 640x480
with antialiasing, and the result is this.
Can we please now put this resolution war
to rest?
Higher resolutions plus antialiasing is better.
Case closed.
Now onto the vents.
These were unrewarding to study in comparison.
FXAA blurs the whole thing so I'd suggest
taking that off.
Aside from that, antialiasing doesn't do much,
since these grills are completely flat and
seeing through them isn't the problem- people
being camouflaged inside is.
Your position in the room determines this,
view them head-on for the best visibility
in this regard.
And that concludes this video.
Thanks once again Tropiko, I couldn't have
done this without you.
