Whats the difference between AAA and 4AA?

[Carc369]

For example, Metro 2033 gives you those Anti-aliasing options.

Which provides better eye candy and what is the difference between them?

 

[jprahman]

I don't know about any image quality differences, but IIRC AAA is far more demanding on video cards.

 

[wolfram23]

Metro employs AAA exclusively, as far as I know. It stands for analytical anti aliasing. As far as I've read and seen, AAA is a way to reduce jaggies on objects that aren't vertical or horizontal. Not sure how it works exactly but things that approach vert. or horiz. will have plenty of aliasing going on, while angled lines seem smooth.

4xMSAA will apply anti aliasing to everything, but in Metro I find it will wash out the textures a bit. It's also nearly impossible to run 4x along with Depth of Field, I think it uses up too much VRAM or something.

 

[bystander]

Metro employs AAA exclusively, as far as I know. It stands for analytical anti aliasing. As far as I've read and seen, AAA is a way to reduce jaggies on objects that aren't vertical or horizontal. Not sure how it works exactly but things that approach vert. or horiz. will have plenty of aliasing going on, while angled lines seem smooth.

4xMSAA will apply anti aliasing to everything, but in Metro I find it will wash out the textures a bit. It's also nearly impossible to run 4x along with Depth of Field, I think it uses up too much VRAM or something.

You are not quite accurate on the 4xMSAA. You seem to be describing SSAA. SSAA will smooth out everything, including textures. 4xMSAA will only smooth out the outside edges of objects, it won't touch textures at all. If you are correct about the AAA, the difference is 4xMSAA will not just smooth out non vertical and horizontal lines, it includes the horizontal and vertical lines.

In Metro 2033, 4xMSAA definitely looks better than AAA, but it comes at a cost of lower FPS. I personally notice jaggies the most when they are vertical and horizontal because each step in the pixels look like they are moving up and down the edge.

 

[wolfram23]

I don't know, I understand that usually that's the case but I swapped between AAA and MSAA and took some screens and I could definitely tell the textures - from walls to clothing - were slightly less sharp than with AAA.

 

[benski]

One will give you a tow if you break down, the other teaches young hillbillies how to raise sheeps and pigs.