AA and AF (what are they)

[PJ101]

Hey, I know what the respective names for each of these "enhancements" are, but what exactly do they do.. and at what kind of a performance hit. Personally i have always played at 1280x1024 with high setting but neither of these turned on... Also if HDR is so amazing why is there so much buzz to adding AA on top of it? I know that HDR makes colors more vibrant and changes some contrast issues. I geuss I also understand that AA smooths edges. I am completely lost on AF though. Can someone either give me an indepth description of all of these and how they work together or link me to a website that does a good job of explaining?

 

[cleeve]

AA: Antialiassing
Smooths edges on polygons. Has nothing to do with HDR, which can make a scene look nicer but still have rough edges on polygons, so using them together is nice.

AF: Anistropic Filtering
Filters taxtures on 3d objects so that they look crisp as they fade into the distance; without filtering it looks pretty blurry, especially stuff like landscapes.



Google Anistropic Filtering and AntiAliassing , there's probably a milion sites to discribe them.