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Tangent: my biggest problem with AA is something adjacent to it, which is that almost none of my games bother explain what the differences are between the different abbreviations available in the settings, half of which are completely unknown to me. Like, sure, I can look them up but a little bit of user-friendliness would be appreciated.

This article will probably help for future reference though!

Thanks for sharing! Author here, happy to answer any questions.

Graphics programming analysis done using examples written in WebGL–genius. Hypertext that takes full advantage of the medium. This reminds me of something I'd see on https://pudding.cool/, but it goes far more in depth than anything there. Absolutely fantastic article.

I've been using MSAAx4 in my rendering engine for some time and only recently have considered switching to a FXAA / TAA implementation. I'm actually not sure I'm going to go through with that now. I definitely learned a lot here, and will probably use the analytical approach for UI items, I hadn't heard about that anywhere.

Not often you see graphics-programming stuff on HN. For anyone interested in more graphics write-ups, this list of frame breakdowns is one of my favorite resources:

https://www.adriancourreges.com/blog/

Those frames with the circle and zoomed bit are a fantastic way to convey this message, well done the whole article reads great.

Appreciated that link out to Captain Disillusion. I had not heard of that guy. Incredible work, here's a direct link for those interested in video effects: https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainDisillusion

Great write-up!

Though a little caveat from my side, as I have written both 2D and 3D rendering engines. Let me tell you, they could not be more different. It is not just another dimension but completely different goals, use-cases and expectations.

So instead of:

> Everything we talked about extends to the 3D case as well.

I would say the entire post is mostly about 3D, not 2D rendering. If you are curious about this topic being approached for 2D rendering here is a nice write-up I found about that: https://ciechanow.ski/alpha-compositing/

One particular criteria for AA techniques that no one cares about in 3D but is very relevant in 2D is correctness and bias. AAA for example is heavily biased and thus incorrect. Drawing the exact same shape multiple times in the same place will make it more opaque / darker. The same thing does not happen with MSAA which has a bounded error and is unbiased.

scrolling thru the post the NeoTokyo screenshot struck me instantly, I ran through the hallway thousands of times - I ran a server for that mod for some years and had great fun with a small community of good/capable people.

It is well presented, but I think the part attacking TAA will lead to confusion, as SDF AA is in no way an alternative to TAA.

TAA covers all types of aliasing, while this only covers edge aliasing.

Many modern games use monte carlo based approaches for indirect lighting and other effects, which basically requires TAA.

amazing blog, both in content and presentation. Love it when articles give you controls to play with. Gives me hope for the future of the web. the NeoTokyo mention reveals great taste.

Awesome article.

SDF(or mSDF) isn't the future. It's already "good enough" classic.

> This works, but performance tanks hard, as we solve every > bezier curve segment per pixel

This is "the future" or even present as used in Slug and DirectWrite with great performance

https://sluglibrary.com/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/directwrite/...

> Mobile chips support exactly MSAAx4 and things are weird. Android will let you pick 2x, but the driver will force 4x anyways.

Hmm... On my Android phone I definitely see a difference between 2x and 4x, but it's not "rounded" like the iPhone one.

those buttery smooth gradients are soooo pleasing to watch <3

Now I'm very curious about analytical AO and shadows as you mentioned Last Of Us uses. I'd heard about the spheres but never seen an explanation of how they get turned into shadows

I really miss MSAA. I still dislike DLSS personally. I realize many people seem to like it, but it just does not look that good to me. Or as good as things used to look or I believe could look.

Sure it's better than TAA, but come on, this can't be the ultimate end for gaming graphics... At least I hope it isn't.

What's the catch?

I've been so used to screen space techniques that I initially read SSAA as "screen space antialiasing", not "super sampled antialiasing".