Poll: The Ultimate Graphics Whore Test

[lacktheknack]

I'm a self-labeled graphics whore, but even I didn't realize how bad it had gotten. A user on this website (and friend of mine), Booker, sent me a spliced screenshot from Battlefield 3, with a screencap on the left and the same one on the right, but with a setting changed to make it look better. The challenge: Figure out which setting was changed.

We were a bit vexed when I succeeded.

http://i40.tinypic.com/e03nnd.png

<link=http://i40.tinypic.com/e03nnd.png>Here, you're going to need it in higher res.

Take a good long look at it and see if you can find the difference.

The antialiasing was increased from MSAA x4 on the left to FXAA "HIGH" on the right. Photo courtesy of Coding Horror.

So, did you join me in the top ranks of "World's Pettiest Graphics Whore", or do I need to go re-evaluate my life?

EDIT: MY LOVELY POLL! GONE FOREVAR! ;_;

 

[ResonanceSD]

Probably AA.

Lol wtf, the answer's in the thread. GG.

 

[lacktheknack]

Probably AA.

Lol wtf, the answer's in the thread. GG.

It's not a contest, just a self test.

 

[booker]

I spliced it together and I could barely tell. I can tell the difference, but that's just because I had read the article about it. [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/12/fast-approximate-anti-aliasing-fxaa.html]

 

[RicoADF]

Yeah thought it was AA, but the difference is so small you need to be focusing on the graphics more than playing, not a good idea when in combat
I must agree with the latter, to be so picky that you pick something like that up while playing.... it's not right...
To be honest games have gotten to the point that their practically real and theres very little that can be changed, its now more about artistic style than graphics capability.

 

[Jandau]

Those are two different images? Huh, I guess I'm not a graphics whore...

 

[lacktheknack]

Those are two different images? Huh, I guess I'm not a graphics whore...

Not top-tier, anyways. If you look REEEEALLY closely at the wires in the distance...

 

[teqrevisited]

Yeah I noticed. I don't really care about graphics that much, though. If I did I'd probably spend all of my time complaining that the trees in the distance are all sprites.

As long as the style is consistent and doesn't get in the way of the gameplay I'm happy. If it's photorealistic that's always a bonus though.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Yeah, I actually did notice, but AA is one of those things that I really care about in my settings, so...yeah, I must be a graphics whore.

Too bad my hardware can't keep up with my whoring...wait, that sounds wrong.

 

[booker]

Yeah, I actually did notice, but AA is one of those things that I really care about in my settings, so...yeah, I must be a graphics whore.

Too bad my hardware can't keep up with my whoring...wait, that sounds wrong.

You're in luck. This new antialiasing technology being showcased by nVidia (the frame rendered on the right) is actually a pixel shader that can be run much faster than the old techniques of antialiasing. So no longer does antialiasing chop down your frame rate.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Those are two different images? Huh, I guess I'm not a graphics whore...

Not top-tier, anyways. If you look REEEEALLY closely at the wires in the distance...

It jumped out at me immediately just from seeing the wires at the top of the image that are relatively close, not in the distance, but that's one of the things that always really bugs me and why I always "need" to have AA on whenever possible. The only thing that bothers me more is screen tearing for some reason.

Yeah, I actually did notice, but AA is one of those things that I really care about in my settings, so...yeah, I must be a graphics whore.

Too bad my hardware can't keep up with my whoring...wait, that sounds wrong.

You're in luck. This new antialiasing technology being showcased by nVidia (the frame rendered on the right) is actually a pixel shader that can be run much faster than the old techniques of antialiasing. So no longer does antialiasing chop down your frame rate.

FXAA/MLAA and similar techniques are very fast, but they only help with certain things and not others, and depending on the specific type of filter used they can even reduce image quality in some ways with the blurring they introduce. Different AA and post-processing techniques work better in different situations (high motion vs. (relatively) still images, larger or smaller areas where the polygons in question meet or what angle the edges are, transparent textures, etc.), and sometimes the best end result is a combination of traditional AA and a post-processing filter. It seems to depend on the engine and the visual style of the game.

 

[darth.pixie]

I noticed pretty easily. AA is actually one of the things I notice most in games.

*goes back to playing DOS games*

 

[redisforever]

Yeah, thought it would be anti-aliasing.

All it does on my computer is make it look blurry and kill my framerate.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Those are two different images? Huh, I guess I'm not a graphics whore...

My first thought was: it looks the same as the PS3 version. I apparently really don't care about graphics.

 

[Rack]

I found it hard to spot, partly because 4xaa is pretty damn good anyway and partly because the two sides of the picture are so different.

 

[Hazy992]

I honestly noticed no difference

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I guessed correctly even though I would never notice that in-game anyway. That like you can appreciate the graphics in BF3 anyway with all the dust and the motion blur, and the shit all over your screen.

 

[Disturbed-Hell]

Apparently i'm not a graphics whore because at first glance i thaught that the pic was from COD4. -_-
Also, I couldnt tell the difference between the two.

 

[lacktheknack]

EDIT: And good God, lacktheknack, you pick the most disturbing avatars.

You're welcome!

 

[Jazoni89]

You do know that Anti Aliasing isn't as obvious as it is in motion, so making a screencap of a non Anti Aliasing game, and a game with Anti Aliasing, there isn't going to be a huge difference in picture.

Personally I think low AA is just annoying, it's my second most important setting (second to Texture Detail) when it comes to PC gaming. Even it it is such a graphics hog FPS killer.