How is P3D's aliasing and shimmering at 4K?

[Sethos 4,335]

I've been considering upgrading to a 4K monitor for some time. Saw P3D briefly on a 4K display and was really blown away by the clarity but didn't get enough time with it to truly see how aliasing and shimmering was handled. Currently running 1440P with 4xSSAA, so would obviously love to drop SSAA down to claw some performance back when running 4K. However, is the classic shimmering still noticeable even at 4K and is MSAA enough at 4K to get a similarly smooth image to my current setup? What is everyone's experience?

Thanks

[greggerm 312]

With no AA, there is still a touch of shimmer. It's not bad, but it is there. I give it just one little notch of MSAA, and it squashes that shimmer nicely and doesn't hobble the video card like SSAA would. I've been pleased so far and haven't touched any custom nVidia settings since getting the 4k display.

Before investing in 4k though, consider the rest of your programs and apps. Some applications, particularly some older ones, don't play very well with Windows display scaling, which lets you run at full 4k resolution but have your icons, applications, and content not look absolutely tiny.

I'm glad I invested in 4k, but I think I would have liked to weigh the Windows scaling part of things before having to learn about it after the fact.

Good luck!

-Greg

[kaha 205]

This depends on 2 things:

 

1. DPI of the monitor used

2. viewing distance

 

With a 50" 4K monitor dpi is roughly the same as with a ~27" monitor at HD. If then the viewing distance is closer than with the 27" monitor, even more antialiasing is needed on the 4K monitor.

 

If yopu go from a 27" HD monitor to 27" 4K monitor, that's a different story. Antialiasing can be reduced then.

 

Karl

Edited March 29, 2019 by kaha

[Mace 1,926]

What Karl said -- depends on how big your 4K screen is.

I have a 32" 4K screen (BenQ brand) and there are a bit of jaggies on certain lines even with 4xMSAA.  If I bump it up to SSAA that is gone.

4K is great, but I have often wondered if 3 screens at 1080p arranged like aircraft windscreens would be more immersive -- but the cons are they wouldn't be as pretty as my 4K setup is.  3 screens at 4K or some mid-range resolution, now that would be nice.

[mpw8679 428]

On a 43 inch 4K tv the shimmering at night is pretty bad with MSAA.  4X SSAA clears it up nicely but still noticeable.  

[Sethos 4,335]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm going from a 27" to a 27", at about an arm's length viewing distance. So the pixel density should be pretty high at 4K. I'm obviously not suffering from any illusions of this becoming a completely perfect experience without a shred of aliasing or shimmering. However, I do hope I can get a similar experience in terms of aliasing from my current setup, at 4K with just some level of MSAA, to avoid those crazy performance hits that SSAA seem to suffer from at times, especially with dynamic lights, but with the added clarity of 4K.

Greg, your reply does give me confidence though, your experience sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. And you make a good point about the scaling, I have heard a lot of horror stories about Windows' scaling issues and it's a thing I'll keep in mind. Luckily I don't really do a lot at my home PC. Watch a few movies, play a few games, do a few flights. So hopefully scaling issues won't become a problem.

Plus, as an added bonus, I expect the monitor I'm looking at (LG 27UK650, comes highly recommended), is able to do 30Hz. For some crazy reason, my current monitor can't do 30Hz, even with a custom resolution. So I can't get the 30Hz / V-Sync / Triple Buffering setup going.

[kaha 205]

4 minutes ago, Sethos1988 said:

...is able to do 30Hz. ...

 

That's perfect!

[Mace 1,926]

41 minutes ago, Sethos1988 said:

Plus, as an added bonus, I expect the monitor I'm looking at (LG 27UK650, comes highly recommended), is able to do 30Hz. 

Is this the one you're looking at?

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27UK650-W-4k-uhd-led-monitor

If so it looks like it can only do 60Hz. (scroll down to "Tech Specs"

You will want 30Hz capability with 4K.  I think it is critically important for smoothness in our sim right now.

 

[Sethos 4,335]

1 minute ago, Mace said:

Is this the one you're looking at?

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27UK650-W-4k-uhd-led-monitor

If so it looks like it can only do 60Hz. (scroll down to "Tech Specs"

You will want 30Hz capability with 4K.  I think it is critically important for smoothness in our sim right now.

 

That's not the exhaustive list of what the monitor is able to run, just its maximum rated refresh rate. Common way to list monitors in their spec sheets.

[Mace 1,926]

Just now, Sethos1988 said:

That's not the exhaustive list of what the monitor is able to run, just its maximum rated refresh rate. Common way to list monitors in their spec sheets.

Ok, thanks.