Before we start what exactly is anti-aliasing? I would suggest skipping straight to the text that is accompanied with diagrams if you want the crash course.

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/Graphics/anti_aliasing.shtml


Now that you've gotten yourself a refresher, or not.. let's get on to the screenshots. Note that these were taken from youtube from the Bethesda channel, and they were taken with my desktop resolution settings at 1280x720. The majority of them (everything after the first two) were saved and had highlighting done in paint.net. All images had quality preservation in mind when saving.

Editors Note: Realize that this is a product of boredom, it honestly does not matter to me either way. I know the game will be great.
Uncompressed version on the way, very limited work download speed though. Will be at-least an hour.

Pure Image 1: http://i.imgur.com/e8LxM.jpg
Highlighted: http://i.imgur.com/hc7yR.jpg

Pure Image 2: http://i.imgur.com/DlyXa.jpg
Highlighted: http://i.imgur.com/2W8Qk.jpg Note: Several other examples of jagged edges are left out, feel free to do your own investigating.

Pure Image 3: http://i.imgur.com/VZtf9.jpg Notice the drawstring is blurry in the section hovering over the wood, this may be due to video compression,
Highlighted: http://i.imgur.com/yFrYY.jpg the wood itself is quite beautifully detailed.

Pure Image 4: http://i.imgur.com/M4YuP.jpg
Zoom Applied: http://i.imgur.com/zHFv4.jpg http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/images/grid2.gif

Pure Image 5 (WARNING: CREEPY CRAWLERS) : http://i.imgur.com/R8OL3.jpg
Zoom Applied: http://i.imgur.com/iJ12t.jpg

Pure Image 6: http://i.imgur.com/8dTwA.jpg
Attention to: http://i.imgur.com/ddxK6.jpg

Pure Image 7: http://i.imgur.com/548Qq.jpg
Zoom Applied: http://tinyurl.com/3dosfrp

thats just video compression/off-screen effect. happens to most cam footages.

You should download the uncompressed demo that BGS released and do this thread again. It's hard to really anolyze it with compression artifacts.

This might be it: http://www.joystiq.com/game/skyrim/downloads/

Keep in mind, it is also the compressed video of YouTube. Did you try to do the research on a uncompressed video, by chance?

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1232753-im-getting-really-worried-about-these-graphics/page__st__200

"What you’re seeing in these cases has to do with video compression, not the game itself." -killmoms (Bethesda Video Producer)

/thread

You're highlighting shadows, not actual polygon edges. Shadow quality always blocks out like that to varying degrees.

EDIT: And what Dragonborn1 quoted - the non-shadow images is a case of video compression. Find some screenshots (not video stills) to highlight and that might be worth discussing.

I made sure not to do shadows only.


Also to those on compression

I am looking for the uncompressed version of the video, but the bit with the glass sword is pretty convincing. http://i.imgur.com/zHFv4.jpg

Question: isnt anti-aliasing what PREVENTS this? So the question is not "is this anti aliasing?", but rather: is this LACK OF antialiasing? o.O

It's meant for you to anolyze and make a conclusion about. I avoided making my own because I don't want to start an argument with someone who may be very emotional about the game, and it's meant to be up in the air.

Bethesda employee responded to this. See my above post.

I don't think any degree of video compression is going to create these types of edges: http://i.imgur.com/zHFv4.jpg
To suggest that would be saying it undone the AA completely, in any case I am downloading the uncompressed file now, and I will respond with my findings.

lol. Or "is this aliasing?"

He's the video producer. Sorry. Not trying to discredit your "findings", but no matter what you'll find i'll always be thinking "What you’re seeing in these cases has to do with video compression, not the game itself." Courtesy of a professional video producer.

I think it's ignorant to denounce every case of findings from such a generalized quote, but you're free to believe that. Uncompressed video is 25% done now, has Bethesda responded to any questions of AA in the game? Because I haven't heard them speak about it at all.

I've seen the uncompressed footage. It's not noticeable when you're playing the game anyway. Are you pausing the game frame by frame when you're plating?

Thats not an anti-aliasing effect. That is the effect of small shadow mapping. Large shadow maps would be smoother. Its a similar concept but handled a bit differently. Increasing the shadow map size will fix those images without enabling AA features.

Edit : only looked at the first two sets.

I thought either way, AA doesn't completely remove "Jaggies" it just makes them much less apparent. If you magnify an image enough even at 16x AA you'll see Aliasing. I usually stick with 4x, anything higher only helps when you're specifically "Looking" For problems, great for screenshots, but anyone just playing the game won't really notice it, and probably notice the performance hit more.

Although that's completely irrelevant to the questions I raise in my original post, yes I tend to always notice unnatural lines. Please don't take this personally..



Agreed, that is why I included both the normal sized image and magnified image when I did the few zoom shots, and even then the zoomed images were just for point of reference.

Sorry but Dragonborn1 is correct. And coming from Killmoms, you can pretty much take it to the bank. And me, doing a lot of video work myself, I can tell you that YES, that is a direct result of compression. Horrid compression. Bethesda should have done better, but they didn't. But that's a compression quality issue.

I am interested in how you feel about the last 3 images whenever you get a chance to check them out. The bit about shadow mapping is greatly appreciated, knowledgeable post +rep if it was possible.

Just to point out, there's nothing we can do about YouTube's quality—I upload a source file that's VERY high bitrate (you wouldn't be able to tell it from uncompressed if you just watched it). However, they re-encode that to their own quality levels for each resolution file that's available, which I have no control over.

... It's still beautiful....... :spotted owl:

ICO! :wub:

I like how you claimed the OP was open-ended and up for interpretation, yet you clearly believe yourself that this is AA, as evident in your follow up posts in this thread.

Sorry to burst your bubble but even "uncompressed" video is not exactly what you see in person.