PC Graphics Beyond XBOX - NVIDIA Introduces GeForce4

Accuview - Improved Anti Aliasing

When GeForce3 was released last year, NVIDIA introduced what it called 'HRAA' - high resolution anti aliasing, based on multi sampling AA. Please follow this link for more details.

GeForce4 comes with 'Accuview'. It is supposed to be an advanced multi sampling AA, improved in terms of quality as well as performance.

NVIDIA is using 'new sample positions' that are supposed to improve AA quality, because less error is accumulated, especially when using Quincunx AA. NVIDIA has a white paper about this procedure, but I suggest you save your time and do without it, because it doesn't really explain much anyway.

A new filtering technique that comes into play each time the (multi) samples are put together to produce the final anti aliased frame has been tweaked to save one complete frame buffer write, which results in a dramatic improvement of AA-performance.

Basically, Accuview is supposed to make AA look better and run faster. GeForce4 runs the NVIDIA-specific 'Quincunx'-AA just as fast as 2x-AA. Besides that, NVIDIA added another mode called '4xS'. This mode is supposed to look a lot better than 4x AA mode, due to a 50% increase in subpixel coverage. Unfortunately, this mode is only available for Direct3D games, not for OpenGL ones.

Finally, Accuview supports anisotropic filtering, to improve the look of textures that extend from the foreground into the background.