what is Anti-aliasing

[shadyrome]

just wondering what's Anti-aliasing is, on options i see 2x,4x and 6x. If i turn them on 6x will i lag or it doesnt affect anything.

[C19W83]

just wondering what's Anti-aliasing is, on options i see 2x,4x and 6x. If i turn them on 6x will i lag or it doesnt affect anything.

It helps refine the edges of your units. With it off, you will see more hard lines (boxy) with it off, the hard edges will be more streamlined but, yes, you will take a hit in performance.

[shadyrome]

So is it good to have them ?

[sabremookie]

just wondering what's Anti-aliasing is, on options i see 2x,4x and 6x. If i turn them on 6x will i lag or it doesnt affect anything.

For what anti-aliasing is, please see www.google.com. (anti-aliasing reduces jagged edges through very complicated forumulae).
A better quesiton might be this:

Have you guys noticed a big change in graphics with anti-aliasing on?

i.e., does anti-aliasing render a much better picture in battle?

[Mihail]

All depends if your system can handle it, things like A-A, Bloom, And filtering is all very hard on your system, all expect bloom(atleast to me) makes the game look better.

[Syntax Error]

Anti-Aliasing does take a hit on graphics performance, but if I remember correctly, the more video memory you have, the better off you will be with AA on. I don't know the exact science but I tend to leave it on for myself since my card's pretty leet. Depends on what you have, but if you're the type of person (like me) that likes the best quality possible, turn it on, and you'll notice it once you know what exactly it is.

[Tom Servo]

I think it depends on the card if you can afford to turn it on or not. Most nvidia 7 series cards can enable x4 AA with little to no loss in performance. But earlier cards will suffer greatly when using AA.

[ML101]

everytime I turn on AA the resolution on my monitor gets all screwy. I hate 7600 GS Nvidea My monitor is a flat panel LCD. Guess its my monitor?

[HorseArcher]

everytime I turn on AA the resolution on my monitor gets all screwy. I hate 7600 GS Nvidea My monitor is a flat panel LCD. Guess its my monitor?

no, it's your graphics card.

[Oldgamer]

It all depends on what you want. With my computer, I can run antialiasing 2x and bilinear filtering (which refines the process started with antialiasing), and the game runs as good as RTW ... and this with all of my other settings on high or highest (I don't use bloom). You've got to find the mix of options that works with your computer. However, when I went up to anisotropic filtering, the game slowed down significantly, and didn't look that much better.

I want to play the game. I don't want each battle to take two hours, and look like a slide show. With the mix of options I'm using, it looks almost as good as it does on the box, and runs.

Note that I have the nVidia 6600 GT, and the knights look as good on my monitor as they do on the box, and the game is smooth. It's only when you get real close to something that you can see the tiniest bit of "boxiness". Otherwise, the game is as adverstised!

I love the way my units look, and the game runs smooth. That's what I'm after ...

everytime I turn on AA the resolution on my monitor gets all screwy. I hate 7600 GS Nvidea My monitor is a flat panel LCD. Guess its my monitor?

Did an adaptor come with your card, like it did with mine? If it did, plug it into the other socket on the game card, and plug your monitor into it. It should work perfectly, after that.

[Tom Servo]

It all depends on what you want. With my computer, I can run antialiasing 2x and bilinear filtering (which refines the process started with antialiasing), and the game runs as good as RTW ... and this with all of my other settings on high or highest (I don't use bloom). You've got to find the mix of options that works with your computer.

I love the way my units look, and the game runs smooth. That's what I'm after ...

Bilinear filtering is the lowest form of texture filtering, you might want to use anisotropic x2 for a performance plus reasonable quality ratio.

[Oldgamer]

Bilinear filtering is the lowest form of texture filtering, you might want to use anisotropic x2 for a performance plus reasonable quality ratio.

Thanks for the reply, Tom!

Once again, my purpose is to make the game look good and run on my computer smoothly. I used anisotropic x2, and the my first battle took an hour and a half, and looked like a slide show. I used trilinear, and it was still slow. I went to bilinear, and it looks great, and runs fine, with practically every other graphics option set to its maximum.

Your microprocessor takes such a big hit in performance with anisotropic because of the extra set of sophisticated mathematical calculations that the computer makes on each and every pixel. I've used the same approach to every game that I have, including Flight Simulator X, which was designed for a computer that's still 4-5 years down the pike.

Once again, it depends on what you want. If you want to use every option, you need to build a new CPU, and get the latest in everything. Not everyone can do that, however (especially many of our younger players), and so living with what you have is the ticket.

[ML101]

Did an adaptor come with your card, like it did with mine? If it did, plug it into the other socket on the game card, and plug your monitor into it. It should work perfectly, after that.

Yeah I plugged in that adaptor but my screen just gets blurry when I turn on AA. Its not like unplayable blurry but it looks like the resolution messed up or something

[HorseArcher]

Yeah I plugged in that adaptor but my screen just gets blurry when I turn on AA. Its not like unplayable blurry but it looks like the resolution messed up or something

what kind of graphics card do you have?

what is your graphics driver version?

what directX are you using?

[maxiumus_pooh]

Anti aliasing is the technique used to apprehend super spies when they are attempting to infiltrate a country, evil organization or grocery store using an alias name. If you are caught using an alias, the punishment is quite severe, usually involving sharks, electroshock, or being straped to a table with a laser beam warming up to slice you from your genitalia to your forehead. Not to worry, however, if you find yourself in this position, just remain calm, keep your mouth shut and let the evil mastermind gloat and explain how he's going to kill you to death. While he's talking, your hot, usually foreign accented, female partner will judo chop him from behind. So once again, if you must use an alias, be very aware of antialiasing.
Oh, um, and I guess its also an option to reduce jagged surfaces in videogames.....

[rayzzz]

I dont really care much about AA, it doesnt seem to worry me too much and i dont really see much difference in games and it decreases performance. Better off settin AF higher instead of AA.

[Mr_Cyberpunk]

my card is a 7600 and it works fine, my monitor is way too small though.

I can run at 8xSAA with VERY LITTLE slow down. I intend to SLI my cards soon to boost the AA Will definitely post 16xAA screen shots. (maybe video even)

[robinhood]

For me even on 2x makes the game look so much better and more realistic but the performance hit is ridiculous . God knows why people say Radeon cards don't take much of aperformance hit from AA.

[Edmonton]

I've good VGAX1950PRO,but all games auto-detect anti-aliasing off it's strange because card features accent the anti-aliasing support

[Mr_Cyberpunk]

If you're using a Geforce you can "FORCE" AA which is why I can run it at 8xS. I'm pretty sure you can do the same for ATI cards too.