xMSAA vs xSSAA Comparison

[orbmis 9]

Hello,

I've been trying to configure my P3Dv4, looking to find the proverbial 'optimal' setup for my system. Looking at the MSAA vs SSAA debates, it's pretty clear that SSAA is higher quality, but at a cost of performance. 

But I do have a general question... in the opinion of the group, from a quality perspective only, would 4xMSAA provide a better image, or would 2xSSAA be better? 8xMSAA vs 4xSSAA?

thanks for your help,

Mike

 

[Slayer 190]

It really depends on your video card -  MSAA doesn't require as much video memory as SSAA does. With the shift to 64 bit you need not worry about a program OOM but need to be mindful of VRAM usage because when it is exhausted you will come to a crawl. Use something like GPU - Z or EVGA precision to monitor your usage. 

There are several discussions around here that tell what settings will impact VRAM and GPU usage.

Bottom line is it's a balancing act like all the other settings. 

Also even though it is presented that way in the program interface , both kinds of AA are not mutually exclusive you can combine them. Some other wrinkle to think about too :P

Edit: On my system SSAA eliminates the white glitter/sparkles that you find in ORBX  scenery, MSAA doesn't do as good of a job.

[ZLA Steve 370]

1 minute ago, Slayer said:

Also even though it is presented that way in the program interface , both kinds of AA are not mutually exclusive you can combine them. Some other wrinkle to think about too :P

Are you describing a cfg tweak? I was curious if this could be done, but would love to know if you were able to activate this on your machine?

[Slayer 190]

4 minutes ago, ZLA Steve said:

Are you describing a cfg tweak? I was curious if this could be done, but would love to know if you were able to activate this on your machine?

You can edit:

[DISPLAY]
ChangeTime=4.000000
TransitionTime=4.000000
TEXTURE_FILTERING=16
MSAA=0
SSAA=4
VSYNC=0
FXAA=0

 

section in Prepar3D.cfg and change the numbers by hand, they will probably revert back should you change any settings in the interface later or you could override in Nvidia inspector. 

[ZLA Steve 370]

[DISPLAY]... 
MSAA=0  Is the parameter equivalent to 1=2x, 2=4x, etc...
SSAA=4

[Slayer 190]

2 is 2x 4 is 4x etc

Pro tip: use Notepad++ for editing and keep the .cfg open, when you change a setting and flip back to notepad++ it will say file changed would you like to reload it. Pick yes and you can see the changes.

[theobrinkman 3]

Hi. Is 2SSAA equal to 4MSAA compare to the impact to video memory? With the profit that the ORBX-glitter is gone? So in this example 2SSAA is the best setting? Is this correct?

[Slayer 190]

I haven't really compared the two but SSAA essentially doubles or quadruples the pixel count then shrinks it back down again for display at your selected resolution -  so it can use a large amount of VRAM ( and the larger your screen or screens the more SSAA will use)

Personally 2x or 4x SSAA is fine and no need to use MSAA at all. I don't use FXAA at all as it seems to be too blurry for my liking. MSAA seems to require a higher setting to be comparable to SSAA  in crispness.

Some people recomend to use the same settings for MSAA and SSAA if you are combining them IE 2x MSAA -  2x SSAA but I haven't found anything concrete that says you MUST do this.

[SolRayz 392]

At the moment I'm having a some good performance vs quality with ingame set to 2xMSAA and NI set to 2xSGSS. Still some runway shimmer, but any shimmer in cockpit is mostly mitigated. With runway shimmer, I find it almost unavoidable without 4xSGSS or beyond, or 4xSSAA ingame, which kills dynamic lights. I love dynamic lights so a compromise must be made somewhere.

I should add that I'm running 1920x1080 on a GTX970.

 

[Cargostorm 151]

2 hours ago, SolRayz said:

At the moment I'm having a some good performance vs quality with ingame set to 2xMSAA and NI set to 2xSGSS.

Yesterday I also experimented with MSAA and SSAA in the sim with dynamic lighting on. SSAA is too hard on performance in the virtual cockpit (980TI, TrackIR), and MSAA alone did not eliminate the texture shimmering.

I also ended up with a compromise by using 2x SGSS in NI and 4x MSAA in the sim. This combination on my setup provides the best from both worlds.

[GSalden 4,655]

14 minutes ago, Cargostorm said:

Yesterday I also experimented with MSAA and SSAA in the sim with dynamic lighting on. SSAA is too hard on performance in the virtual cockpit (980TI, TrackIR), and MSAA alone did not eliminate the texture shimmering.

I also ended up with a compromise by using 2x SGSS in NI and 4x MSAA in the sim. This combination on my setup provides the best from both worlds.

MSAA needs to be the set to the same value as SGSS.

SGSS overwrites MSAA , but uses the MSAA pixel positions. Therefore they need be have the same value.

[Cargostorm 151]

1 hour ago, GSalden said:

MSAA needs to be the set to the same value as SGSS.

SGSS overwrites MSAA , but uses the MSAA pixel positions. Therefore they need be have the same value.

I also tried 2x MSAA with 2x SGSS but elimination of texture flimmering was better with 4x MSAA without performance hit. So I left it in this position. But I can check in more detail again.

[Slayer 190]

Dumb question but to those using newer GF cards , why not try MFAA  if your going to use MSAA, you get double the AA for the same price. Don't know if it works in P3DV4 yet. All you need to do to enable it is set MFAA to on in GF control panel then set your MSAA to 2x or higher in P3D and it should kick in.

[GSalden 4,655]

I went from 4X MSAA to 8X SSAA , it looks better in the distance and I see no framerate drop ( triple view ) with nu 1080 TI...

[gboz 157]

6 hours ago, Slayer said:

Dumb question but to those using newer GF cards , why not try MFAA  if your going to use MSAA, you get double the AA for the same price. Don't know if it works in P3DV4 yet. All you need to do to enable it is set MFAA to on in GF control panel then set your MSAA to 2x or higher in P3D and it should kick in.

I've tried it but if it is doing anything it's too subtle for me to see.

gb.