General graphics comparison. Which is better?

[Zimakaru]

Using revision 7390. All screenshots taken in full screen with 16x AF, pixel lighting, native mipmaps, EFB scaled copy, openCL, Dlist caching, and openMP enabled.

This is a general question of which combination of antialiasing and EFB scale produces the best look in terms of graphics.

I chose to use Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 due to its use of clear distinct lines and the particular location due to its lighting and background objects. The images are best viewed at full resolution.

1x EFB noAA/4xAA/9xAA
   

2x EFB noAA/4xAA/9xAA
   

3x EFB noAA/4xAA
   

Note: I lack sufficent vRAM necessary to run 3x EFB at 9xAA at any sort of playable speed. Included below.

Edit:
Fractional EFB noAA/4xAA/9xAA
   

3x EFB 9xAA
   

[NaturalViolence]

That depends on your output resolution (what resolution are you running dolphin at?). Also you don't include fractional. Fractional + 9xSSAA will yield the least amount of aliasing of any scale.

[Zimakaru]

I output at 1600x900. I had forgotten about fractional, but as I understand it at my resolution, even 2x EFB should look approximately the same. Comparing the screenshots there is little to no discernable difference between the quality between 2x EFB at 9xAA and fractional EFB at 9xAA.

I have posted the additional fractional screenshots, plus for reference the 3x EFB 9xAA screenshot.

[sixor]

for your res 3x>frac

so 3x+9xaa+16AF should be the best, but on the gtx460 i don´t think so

3x+4xaa can be done on some games, 3x on almost every game, 4xaa on every game

btw
4xaa on dolphin sucks, it´s not done right for some reason

[neobrain]

btw
4xaa on dolphin sucks, it´s not done right for some reason

lol.
(I'll just leave it like that, NaturalViolence will take care of the rest)

[dannzen]

where is the
4x resolution option? with 9xAA ?

[sixor]

neobrain
well yeah you are right, i should have wrote a little more, for me 4xaa on dolphin does not work like in pc games, there are still jaggies, and stuff, i guess it applies aa to the 1xefb then upscale it to the higher res or something, who knows XD, 9xaa on the other hand works great but very taxing for a gtx460

dannzen
i said 4xaa no 4x (EFB)

[NaturalViolence]

I output at 1600x900. I had forgotten about fractional, but as I understand it at my resolution, even 2x EFB should look approximately the same. Comparing the screenshots there is little to no discernable difference between the quality between 2x EFB at 9xAA and fractional EFB at 9xAA.

I have posted the additional fractional screenshots, plus for reference the 3x EFB 9xAA screenshot.

Well that makes sense, both are significantly higher than your output resolution.

2x scale is 1280 x 1056 = about 1.35MP
fractional is 1600 x 900 = 1.44MP

With fractional your internal resolution is very slightly higher, it should yield very slightly better quality but for the reason I stated about I would expect it to not be noticeable.

where is the
4x resolution option? Big Grin with 9xAA ?

Please use the proper terminology so that your posts don't confuse people. I'm guessing you mean a 4x integral scale + 9xSSAA.

btw
4xaa on dolphin sucks, it´s not done right for some reason

lol.
(I'll just leave it like that, NaturalViolence will take care of the rest)

Ugh, I really don't want to deal with this shit again. You already fixed it. Sometimes I don't know how you put up with me during the whole ordeal.

neobrain
well yeah you are right, i should have wrote a little more, for me 4xaa on dolphin does not work like in pc games, there are still jaggies, and stuff, i guess it applies aa to the 1xefb then upscale it to the higher res or something, who knows XD, 9xaa on the other hand works great but very taxing for a gtx460

....and now I have to deal with it. What build are you using? What you're describing is an issue that I reported and neobrain fixed recently (after months of testing patches and arguing over the cause).

SSAA scales the efb dimensions just like the internal resolution option. The only difference is that a box filter is used for the downscaling instead of a linear filter (MUCH better for getting rid of aliasing). 2x internal resolution (also called efb scale in older builds) should look exactly the same as 4xSSAA + 1x internal resolution if it's working correctly.

[sixor]

well.....thanks
i always use the latest svns, but for me 4xaa does almost nothing for the jaggies (unlike normal pc games), 9xaa on the other hand kills the jaggies and the performance

my res is 1360*768
fractional + 4xaa = jaggies
efb 3x + 4xaa = jaggies
anything + 9xaa = cero jaggies, but too slow for the gtx460

so i am just playing with 3xefb alone because it looks 90% the same as 4xaa+3xefb minus the performance hit

efb3x > 2xefb+4xaa , both showing jaggies

[NaturalViolence]

I do see a reduction in aliasing from those screenshots from 4xSSAA but indeed it is not much of an improvement. If you use 6505 that should fix it. NeoBrain broke it in such a way where it did nothing for a long time (700 revisions I believe?). He eventually got around to kinda sorta fixing it, (it does reduce aliasing now but not to anywhere near the extent that it used to).