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Anti-Aliasing + Deferred Rendering

Discussion in 'AR/VR (XR) Discussion' started by Gizmoi, Dec 5, 2016.

  1. Gizmoi

    Gizmoi

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2013
    Posts:
    327
    Try as I might, I'm unable to get any form of AA working in VR using deferred rendering. Any posts I've seen regarding AA simply tell me to use forward rendering and MSAA.
    I've tried Unity's built-in image effects, the new Post-Processing pipeline, but the SteamVR_Camera script seems to either mess it up or negate the effects.

    I find it hard to believe that people are simply settling for forward rendering + MSAA.
     
  2. Gizmoi

    Gizmoi

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2013
    Posts:
    327
    Bump.
     
  3. McMayhem

    McMayhem

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2011
    Posts:
    443
    I actually was looking into the same issue some months ago, and it really is the case that people are using Forward Rending + MSAA. This really pissed me off because I wasn't able to use HDR or Soft Particle effects which limited me to some pretty lackluster visuals. I eventually discovered how to use both HDR and Soft Particles with Forward Rendering, though it took me a while to figure it out. Not sure if that's your hang-up on the given solution, but it's definitely something that adds some pretty infuriating limitations to the software.

    The one Post-Processing effect that they seem to be pushing for now though is Temporal AA, the idea being that since the HMD is almost always in motion the regular issues with TAA weren't an issue. Problem is that TAA has a wicked tendency to blur the absolute hell out of anything in the distance. I'm not sure if you've given that a try or not, but that seems to be the only way to apply AA that looks somewhat comparable to MSAA.

    If your issues are the inability to use HDR and Intersection Fading (Soft Particles) let me know and I'll dig up the article on HDR working (though this is fixed in 5.6).

    If, however, your issue is the light limitation in Forward Rendering, I'm afraid that one is there to stay.
     
  4. IronStomachVR

    IronStomachVR

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2013
    Posts:
    22
    There is a company that is focusing on a solution for Deferred AA. http://www.livenda.com/ctaa
    They have samples to test. It is expensive though 250$. If it works, great. I plan on checking it out for my next project. My current one does not need deferred though.
     
  5. bgolus

    bgolus

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2012
    Posts:
    12,329
    Yes, the answer really is Forward and MSAA. The other answer is super sampling, which you can do with Unity's built in renderScale setting.

    TAA is the other other answer, at least the one that UE4 uses. Right now TAA is broken for single pass stereo VR in Unity, so it requires turning off single pass to use which can be a considerable performance loss. CTAA is also limited by the same issue FYI. I also highly dislike TAA for VR as objects in motion leave "trails" of aliased pixels, something usually hidden by motion blur in non-VR cases.

    Also soft particles work perfectly fine in forward rendering. The real problem is the way Unity does directional shadows for forward rendering which doesn't work with MSAA as it's done against the non MSAA depth texture. I posted a work around here on the forums, a version of which shipped with Wayward Sky. It can also be solved by using the Lab Renderer or I think the Sunshine! assets which don't do shadows against the depth buffer. Also, as you mentioned, HDR & MSAA can be worked around (to an extent), otherwise it's fixed in 5.6.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2017