Feedback on the current AA methods.

Insurgency Sandstorm, Being on the UE4 makes it look vastly superior to it's predecessor Insurgency which was on the source engine. Surprisingly source has better Anti-Aliasing than what Sandstorm currently has. In source, there were barely any jaggies on geometry and no white outlines near objects. But in sandstorm, The higher AA settings seem to do very little effect compared to lower AA settings. I'll be comparing them with a few screenshots.

In Sandstorm, We have 4 Anti-Aliasing methods.

  1. FXAA
  2. SMAA 1x
  3. SMAA T2x
  4. TAA
  • FXAA: Let's start with FXAA, Here are a few screenshots:
    FXAA.jpg
    No White outlines on the tree leaves and Grass look sharp.FXAA.jpg
    Image Quality looks relatively nice with a small amount of jaggies, no white outlines on geometry and blur. Making things looks nice and sharp.

  • SMAA 1x:
    SMAA 1X.jpg SMAA 1X.jpg
    Smaa 1x looks the same as FXAA with just alot less jaggies with a more cleaner image. So far these 2 AA methods help with increasing visual quality. Keep in mind that these are the 2 lower settings.

  • SMAA T2x:
    SMAA T2X.jpg SMAA T2X.jpg
    Numerous White outlines on geometry, and tree leaves. The amount of jaggies is the same as SMAA 1x. Overall it has worse image quality than SMAA 1x. Even though when choosing the Very high preset the game automatically chooses SMAA T2x.

  • TAA:
    Now for the worst AA method that is available in-game, TAA
    TAA.jpg TAA.jpg
    TAA Makes objects and geometry look VERY VERY blury, It's alot more noticeable when moving around doing things. TAA increases the amount of White outlines but removes all jaggies by making things look blurry. Grass and other vegetation look really bad and undetailed at distances. Reducing Image quality alot. Which is worse than Any other AA method in-game in my opinion. Here's another Major issue with TAA:
    20191212183138_1.jpg Using PiP with TAA gives horrible blur and makes it look like water paint. NWI please fix.

While we're on the topic of AA, Performance on Refinery, Summit, Outskirts, Precinct have improved drastically. The other maps run pretty nice aswell. Except for Ministry, On Some areas like the Parking lot run really bad with shadows even on medium. Especially on a full server. Hopefully the devs read this and make changes to the highlighted issues in this post.

nope

fxaa is blurry and does not get rid of jaggies, it is notoriously bad anti aliasing
smaa does almost nothing to get rid of jaggies
taa gets rid of all the jaggies but it looks slightly blurry, it is the only useful setting

last edited by Grave

FXAA has no blur at all compared to TAA. Smaa 1X is the only useful option with 0 artifacting and slight jaggies. While SMAA T2X does not reduce anything only does artifacting. "Slightly" Try using PiP with TAA and then try talking about blurry. It's nauseatingly blurry. Especially when you're trying to switch between targets while ADS'ing. The front sights are supper jagged for a sec and then super blurry. You don't play the game very often do you? How can you not notice the artifacting on objects with TAA? Which is why it is the WORST anti aliasing method in this game.

last edited by Muhammad

FXAA is useless and blurry.

SMAA is more efficient with treating jaggies, and has almost zero blur. It's still not that efficient, though.

SMAA T2x should be great, especially when playing in 1080p, but the white outlines spoil everything.

TAA is the best of them all except for these horrible white lines, but it's only a viable option on much higher resolutions such as 1440p (the bare minimum imo, and it won't look that convincing) and 4K. Using TAA on lesser resolutions just makes everything atrociously blurry.
The worst with TAA is the bluryness when using PIP mode on scopes. I can stand a bit of white outlines, even though I'd really like it fixed, but the scopes... I use zoom mode because of this.

You're pretty much fucked if you play in 1080p when it comes to aliasing in most recent modern games. MSAA is dead, that's the problem...

I personally use TAA because it completely suppresses jaggies. It's the most efficient AA I've ever seen. Then again, I used to think it was the absolute worst before I bought myself a 4K monitor. Since then, TAA is my best ally. And worst enemy for the artifacts and PiP bluryness.

last edited by Grumf

@Muhammad i use a 1360x768 monitor, which AA settings should i use?

last edited by Alilolo

For the time being, see if you can use SMAA 1X or TAA. I'd prefer TAA if you don't use PiP..

@Muhammad PiP is the life man.. you dont say that to me..

@Grumf

This is true in general, but it’s different in this game and it’s exactly like the op described