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It’s rather brute force, though, and as you can imagine, it comes with a huge performance hit. In fact, it’s one of the oldest forms of anti-aliasing. Even though we’re still running the game on a 1080p monitor, the supersampled branches are clearly visible and defined, without the blur or aliasing of the previous images. You can see a noticeable difference in both the branches in the foreground as well as the trees in the distance to the right-and trust me, it’s even more noticeable in person than it is in a photo. The left is the same SMAA-altered image I showed earlier, while the right image has supersampling cranked up to 4K. If you don’t believe me, check out the two photos below, showing the same scene. The result isn’t the same as running the game on an actual 4K monitor, obviously, but it’s a surprising improvement over rendering the game at 1080p, even with anti-aliasing on. Instead of applying anti-aliasing techniques to certain parts of the image, supersampling renders the entire game at a higher resolution-say, 4K-then scales it back down to fit your screen. It’s an improvement, but it’s not perfect.
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The SMAA-altered image on the right is better, but the smoothing kind of makes the branches disappear into the sky while adding some noticeable blur. Look at the photo above, from some foliage in Shadow of the Tomb Raider: on the left, you can see the branches are very jagged with anti-aliasing turned off. Many will only smooth out certain types of aliasing around polygon edges, while others may make the image look a bit blurry. Modern versions of anti-aliasing, like Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing (SMAA), work decently well, mitigating those obvious stair-step patterns without sucking up a ton of resources.
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This is particularly common at lower resolutions like 1080p, which is why games have included anti-aliasing features for years to help smooth out those jaggies. Those who have been in the PC gaming space for a while are probably already familiar with the concept of aliasing-where edges that should be smooth look like stair steps, creating a pixelated look reminiscent of early 3D games. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
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