Matrox and Anti-Aliasing

[xbnmx]

We recently developed a program that (in software) allows for 16x 3dfx style anti-aliasing (in Windows NT/2000/XP, do to memory limitations in 9x/ME we developed an 8x version), right now it's simply an operational demmo, but this week it will be capable of being run on screen shots, and able to be applied to games later this month. After that we'll begin customizing it to run on specefic chipsets, and I placed a Matrox program at the top of the list, post your toughts here, I'll post a link to the FTP where you can download the demo in a sec...

[roadie]

nice one, but do you think any matrox cards will be powerful enough to do this in software?

[Novdid]

I don't think they are powerfull enough to do it hardware either...

[Venturer]

Do you know Matrox drivers can just emulate antialiasing in software (only in D3d mode)?
Antialiasing is not enabled by default in the drivers (high performance loss). The only way is to do it through the software if it allows.
So is your software layer capable to do antialiasing also for OpenGL?

[TdB]

I recently tried a flightsim from microsoft, i think it was "combat flightsimulator" or something, i don´t quite renember.
you could enable fullscene-antialiacing, and it actually worked on a g400max
I think microsoft made a software-fallback or just enabled edge-antialiacing instead or something, and performance was actually not that bad, 20fps-15fps or something in 1024*768*32, and yes i could SEE the difference!

[Maggi]

just to straighten out some facts:

G200 does AA in hardware and so does the G400, if the app calls for it ...

For example run 3D Winbench 99 or newer and have a look at their AA tests.

[TdB]

i knew it could do egde-aa, but i didn´t knew it could do fsaa.

[xbnmx]

You see...

I beleive the Matrox cards do do hardware aa, but this is 3dfx aa (the highest quality still toda), and it's 16x(by 3dfx terms, 32x standerd). And it dosn't have to do with your videocard's power, it's all about procesor power, SMP platforms are the ideal location for this, you'll have an xmhz AA procesor, similair to 3dfx's geometry assist for T&L...

[Greebe]

None of Matrox's cards have ever had hardware AA.

[xbnmx]

Oh

Well now they'll have even better software AA...

[Greebe]

I'm still waitin for you to post that promised link...

[xbnmx]

The links...

Heres the 8x one for 9x/ME users: www.erie.net/~fartalk/aliasing9x.exe

Heres the 16x one for 2000/XP users: www.erie.net/~fartalk/aliasingxp.exe

[Maggi]

you sure, Greebe ?

afai remember Karina6 (remember her ?) explained, both could do 2x fsaa by rendering internally at double resolution, blurring it a bit and then scale down for output.

But it could also be that my brain has gotten a little foggy over the years ...

[Greebe]

Yeah Maggs I remember her... got heckled to death and left the forums over the facts she brought us about the G200 ICD fiasco... she was correct and those whom heckled her were flatout wrong.

But to date we have yet to see anything in the drivers supporting AA.

[Maggi]

but how come that AA is working in ZD's 3D Winbench ?