Anti-aliasing worries for WoD

[cowmuflage]

Well if it does not change I'm sure it's not the end of the world. If you can't get used to it (Might take a while for some people but I'm sure you would) and it's that important to you to have really smooth graphics maybe it's time to look elsewhere for your mmo fix? I mean if it's that painful to look at and makes it that much of a pain to play that is

Not trying to sound mean when I say that. Just thinking out loud.

[SpiritBinder]

Hmmm this is kinda worrying.
I'm much more of a "It Must As Look Pretty As It Can!!!" kinda of Gamer. I like to stop and smell the pixelated roses and if it effects my performance a little, I'm actually OK with that. If I am raiding/PvPing and need to, I can always turn it down to get better performance, but as soon as I'm out I always turn it back to max.
I really hope this is an over site or they can bring back the x8 Multisampling.
Ironic now too, that soon we will have brand new player models to look at, with all new chunky edges

[Vephriel]

Hmmm this is kinda worrying.
I'm much more of a "It Must As Look Pretty As It Can!!!" kinda of Gamer. I like to stop and smell the pixelated roses and if it effects my performance a little, I'm actually OK with that. If I am raiding/PvPing and need to, I can always turn it down to get better performance, but as soon as I'm out I always turn it back to max.
I really hope this is an over site or they can bring back the x8 Multisampling.
Ironic now too, that soon we will have brand new player models to look at, with all new chunky edges

And that's the worst part, to think that the game will be taking a step back in graphics when it's at its peak for models.

No, I won't quit, but yes this is something that affects me to a great extent. The visuals of my game are important to me, and if things proceed with how they are now I'll be so upset.

I'm just going to keep boosting the threads in the beta support forums and hope we get a response from Blizzard eventually. I can't wrap my head around a decision that will result in poor model rendering during the most up to date expansion yet. It's 2014! The option for higher graphics should still be there for people who can run it.

[SpiritBinder]

I just flicked a tweet to Lore (who has replied to a similar issue in this thread, although mainly environmental, http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... 589?page=1) and Chris. R.

**Edit** whoops it was Celestalon, Oh well

@CM_Lore @artofcgrobinson Any way you could PLZ add back support for SMAA or SSAA? Stunning new models with pixel edges makes me = sadface

Who knows, maybe if Chris realizes that it's actually compromising his amazing new work they might take a second look into it.

[zedxrgal]

Hmmm this is kinda worrying.
I'm much more of a "It Must As Look Pretty As It Can!!!" kinda of Gamer. I like to stop and smell the pixelated roses and if it effects my performance a little, I'm actually OK with that. If I am raiding/PvPing and need to, I can always turn it down to get better performance, but as soon as I'm out I always turn it back to max.
I really hope this is an over site or they can bring back the x8 Multisampling.
Ironic now too, that soon we will have brand new player models to look at, with all new chunky edges

I hate to admit but this is me 100%. And how I feel. I won't quit playing but I cannot garuantee that. Just being honest. I didn't pay $60 for an expansion plus $15 a month for a downgrade in graphics.
I may not quit the game but it would severely reduce my play time.

I hope Blizzard responds soon

[Danielfboone]

I tried forcing AA through Catalyst and it doesn't work at all. I tried all the 3 settings currently available and at my resolution of 1920 X 1080 on my 23" monitor, the one that looks the best to me is FXAA-Low. It actually looks smoother than either of the other 2 and I'd be perfectly satisfied with it. In the live game I run 4X MSAA and 4X AF because I see no difference with anything higher than that. The FXAA-Low setting with 4X AF looks pretty much the same. This is with an AMD FX-6300 CPU and an AMD R9-270X video card on Windows 8.1 64 bit.

I never use the highest possible settings in a game even if I can. I see no reason to stress my system more for gains that to my eyes are indistinguishable or minimal.

[Slickrock]

Is this a PC only issue? Sofar testing the beta on my Mac I never noticed a difference.

I'll check tonight and try a few SS's if I notice anything really different.

[Xella]

Yeah this is a mac issue as well; the only options for AA on mac are none, FXAA Low, and FXAA High.

(Here's what all that looks like on my setup, btw. I run I think 8x Multisampling on live, and None on beta because both FXAAs look really bad to me (Low looks better than High but both ones make my eyes really hurt after about ten minutes). If you've never had to wear glasses, put FXAA high on and stare at it for about an hour and that's what life starts to look like when your prescription goes out of date, haha.)

[Vephriel]

Yeah, the FXAA makes my eyes hurt as well due to the blur effect, no matter which setting.

Thanks for tweeting SB, that's a good idea. The artists seem like they should definitely care about all their hard work being dulled by this change.

[Vephriel]

Still no reply from Blizzard on any of the beta forum threads, but someone made a really excellent video explaining the whole issue that I thought I'd share:
http://youtu.be/LTWx7kvepk0
Unfortunately youtube really doesn't show the differences very well after the video's been rendered, though he does his best to show examples. In game though it's so noticeable that I cringe every time I'm in beta and look at any of the models closely.

[Ziarre]

Ouch. This is concerning to me, as I'm about to upgrade to a beefy new rig (to address stability issues) and I want my shiny new toy to be able to SHOW things more shiny. As long as there's some decent form of AA I'd probably be okay, but there's gotta be something decent available. I'm one of those people that has to have AA and V-sync enabled or edges and screen tearing bug the daylights out of me.

[Danielfboone]

Ouch. This is concerning to me, as I'm about to upgrade to a beefy new rig (to address stability issues) and I want my shiny new toy to be able to SHOW things more shiny. As long as there's some decent form of AA I'd probably be okay, but there's gotta be something decent available. I'm one of those people that has to have AA and V-sync enabled or edges and screen tearing bug the daylights out of me.

AA is necessary but I never use v-sync unless I have to, which is pretty rare.

[Boven]

I'd wondered why I couldn't figure out how to disable the full screen glow effect in beta. I think that it's either that the new anti aliasing that makes my eyes tired/sore after a short time. Whatever it is, it's a noticeable difference. It seems to be that I can't play the beta for even an hour before my eyes start to bother me.

[Xella]

Well, that blog post exists now: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/159362 ... -9-17-2014

Nothing in it to assuage our fears, nothing in the works for launch. If you don't like the beta options or can't run CMAA you're completely out of luck—not even a hint of a bone for Mac users or anybody else who can't run DX11 (from what I understand "anybody else who can't run DX11" is basically code for "has a lower-end computer" but the fact that my entire operating system counts as "lower-end" is absolute bison-honkey >:[).

This is about the only "positive" thing in said post:

For the launch of Warlords of Draenor, CMAA is the top-tier graphical setting available, but after release we’ll be exploring more options for players with high-performance graphics cards—and if they provide quality while still fitting into our future technology plans, we’ll take a serious look at adding them to the game.

[Slickrock]

Regarding Mac, I'm on a new MacPro (DarthMac) with the D300 cards, and I'm not seeing any problems in the beta. I realize that there are lot of older systems out there, but a lot of those have much bigger problems with VRAM.

[Vephriel]

I'm really disappointed in this decision. In fact, I'm genuinely upset. My entire time in beta so far has had me noticing the stark visual differences between it and what I run in live, and knowing that they'll be launching with that subpar anti-aliasing really sours my excitement. The game just does not look the same with these new settings, and the graphics are a significant part of my enjoyment in playing WoW.

All I can say is I hope they follow through with looking into other options. From the comments section on the blog it looks like many other people aren't happy with it, so hopefully we can make enough noise to get them to do something.

[SpiritBinder]

All I can say is I hope they follow through with looking into other options. From the comments section on the blog it looks like many other people aren't happy with it, so hopefully we can make enough noise to get them to do something.

Myself included. Firstly thank god they have acknowledged/mentioned they are looking at exploring more options for players with high-performance graphics cards, at least it's not a blanket silence, I was really worried about. That said, there have been many things that have been " looking at exploring more options for" in the past and still waiting, fingers crossed I guess? Still for me, the visuals are in my top 3 of why I still play this game, so fingers crossed indeed.

[zedxrgal]

Wow. That's .................. just ........ . I mean. I'm glad they're exploring options but we all know in Blizzard speak that generally means "tough luck". I certainly don't have the highest spec machine out there currently but my RoG laptop is no slouch. Graphics are seriously important to me and my immersion in the game. It will be greatly ruining that with no AA.

[Vephriel]

Yeah, I just...graphics are a huge part of the game experience for me, especially since I spend a lot of time taking screenshots and looking at the models up close. It's so hideously noticeable in beta how jagged the edges are, I'm going to feel so irritated that they leave us with that, especially with the release of the revamped player models.

[Danielfboone]

It does seem however that they have greatly reduced the glow effect. My eyes don't start to hurt if someone had a white pet out any more.