FXAA

FXAA

Discuss the source code and development of Spring Engine in general from a technical point of view. Patches go here too.

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Caydr
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FXAA

Post by Caydr »

Have there been any recent developments?

I came here to ask out of curiosity if you guys have implemented FXAA or anything similar. I haven't updated my copy of Spring in a while so I'm just curious.

If not, I think it would be a super-duper addition to the engine, and relatively easy to implement since it's basically just a post-processing shader like bloom... IIRC... so probably wrong.

edit: GLSL-compatible alternative here: http://www.iryoku.com/smaa/#downloads

Before you get your shits in a twist, I know "FXAA" is probably a trademarked brand name copyright GREAT-SATAN-MICROSOFT-DIRECTX thing. The underlying technique itself is well documented and could be adapted... that's what I'm suggesting.

Changed my email address a while ago. It looks like there have been some notifications waiting for me that I should attend to.

edit: Oh wow, the butthurt is strong with this one. I'm doing what I can to get the listing closed. From what I can tell, I didn't even start the listing to begin with so I may not get immediate results. Apparently it's causing some confusion so I'll do my best.
Last edited by Caydr on 22 Jun 2012, 01:41, edited 1 time in total.
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Pxtl
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Re: FXAA

Post by Pxtl »

... it's blur. Read the FXAA carefully. It's just blur, but using an edge-detection filter so that it only blurs hard edges.
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MidKnight
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Re: FXAA

Post by MidKnight »

Pxtl wrote:... it's blur. Read the FXAA carefully. It's just blur, but using an edge-detection filter so that it only blurs hard edges.
That doesn't mean it isn't any good.

Also check out SMAA. It's even smarter blur!
Last edited by MidKnight on 22 Jun 2012, 01:43, edited 1 time in total.
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Caydr
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Re: FXAA

Post by Caydr »

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MidKnight
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Re: FXAA

Post by MidKnight »

luckywaldo7
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Re: FXAA

Post by luckywaldo7 »

And here I thought a new version of AA was being announced.
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Das Bruce
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Re: FXAA

Post by Das Bruce »

FXAA is an ugly hack they use on consoles because they're too slow to do proper AA.

See RedDeadRedemption on the PS3
BaNa
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Joined: 09 Sep 2007, 21:05

Re: FXAA

Post by BaNa »

Das Bruce wrote:FXAA is an ugly hack they use on consoles because they're too slow to do proper AA.

See RedDeadRedemption on the PS3
hah i got the same impression looking at the smaa video, SSAA/CSAA x16 looked better for all the scenes than smaa did.
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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
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Re: FXAA

Post by Forboding Angel »

Caydr wrote: edit: Oh wow, the butthurt is strong with this one. I'm doing what I can to get the listing closed. From what I can tell, I didn't even start the listing to begin with so I may not get immediate results. Apparently it's causing some confusion so I'll do my best.
I didn't care about there being an AA listing so much as the fact that there was no content there and it makes the rest of us gamedevs look like idiots.

If there had been any content at all that would have been something...
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MidKnight
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Re: FXAA

Post by MidKnight »

Post-process AA techniques could be called hacks, sure, but they make it possible to do AA with a deferred renderer, plus they're blazing fast. SSAA looks nice, but it increases render times quadratically since it's essentially just increasing the size of the display buffer and then scaling down. The PP AA techniques also have the added advantage of not hogging massive amounts of video card memory.
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Rumpelstiltskin
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Re: FXAA

Post by Rumpelstiltskin »

Will the next AA have cool blurry post processing effects?
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aegis
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Re: FXAA

Post by aegis »

SMAA looks good for everything but pixel shifting/walking in the distance - when they show real-game scenes, only the CSAA/SSAA 16x filters get it right.

It's really distracting to have artificial motion in the background :)
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Caydr
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Re: FXAA

Post by Caydr »

Managed to recover the moddb account. Can't delete the listings entirely as they have no mechanism for this but I think I changed it to be a historical anime MMO based on the Starcraft engine for DOS and released in 1980 or something of that nature, also archived it, changed the name, deleted the description, notified the administrators that I'd appreciate them deleting it, etc. Done everything I can, I hope it doesn't result in any further headaches.

Yes, any future versions of AA will have a combination blur/bloom/HDR filter assuming I can program one. Does this engine understand javascript or will I need to use perl? Thanks.
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smoth
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Re: FXAA

Post by smoth »

You can archive it caydr. that puts it as inactive.
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Forboding Angel
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Re: FXAA

Post by Forboding Angel »

FXAA may be an ugly hack, but it looks really great and unless I'm mistaken is fairly light on system resources (is this correct?).

Would adding something like FXAA be difficult to add to the engine? It would really help the polish imo (the edge blurring really helps with looks).

The reason I mention this is, I was playing GW2 which as many of you prolly know just came out. I had basically everything cranked to high with no AA. The edges of stuff looked really crappy. Normally I will run 2xAA just to take the bite out of it, but I noticed that the option in this case was FXAA. I enabled it and omfg, the difference was amazing. In fact, I'll post some screenies to show what I mean.

No AA whatsoever:
http://i.imgur.com/1WM3r.jpg

FXAA
http://i.imgur.com/UCp1z.jpg

As you can see, the difference is HUGE! The game looks really cruddy w/o it.

My main point is that if it wouldn't be super tough to add, it would be really neat to have. And as pointed out earlier, the statement that it turns everything to blurry crap is silly.
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Das Bruce
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Re: FXAA

Post by Das Bruce »

Can you post some regular AA's shots for comparison, plus FPS if it's possible?
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Forboding Angel
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Re: FXAA

Post by Forboding Angel »

FXAA is the only option.

FPS only differs by 2 with it on/off (41 - 39). This is on a GTS 450.
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jK
Spring Developer
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Re: FXAA

Post by jK »

FXAA is BETTER than MSAA
see the antennas: http://timothylottes.blogspot.de/2012/0 ... tills.html (that's the blog of the author of FXAA)

Still as always it is just another option and needs to be balanced with all the others (e.g. edge detection, contrast detection, MSAA, temporal filtering, ...).
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Beherith
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Re: FXAA

Post by Beherith »

Forb, I do not get why the FXAA is tuned so that it blurs texture detail on flat surfaces. Imo the large areas like the road seem like they were rendered one mip level higher with FXAA than the normal ones. Sure the edges are smooth, but so is everything else.
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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
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Re: FXAA

Post by Forboding Angel »

Believe-ability. JK's link pretty much explains it perfectly.

Plus, that way, it just plain looks better (it's easier to understand if you happen to be familiar with GW2's art style).
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