Anti-aliasing

Comparison of no anti-aliasing and 8x MSAA. Click to enlarge

Anti-aliasing (AA) is a graphics technique extensively employed in Valve video games, such as those in the Half-Life series, as well as in other software applications developed by Valve, including Steam and Source Filmmaker, etc. This technique is utilized to enhance the visual quality and reduce the jagged edges, or jaggies, that can appear in computer-generated imagery.

Computer monitors are essentially a large grid of squares that can be set to any color or brightness. As such, it is impossible to draw a perfectly straight line, because no matter how many squares there are, it will never be able to make a perfectly smooth diagonal. This creates a stair-step pattern that gets increasingly noticeable the lower the resolution is, which is often referred to in the video game world as "Aliasing".  Spatial anti-aliasing, often referred to simply as anti-aliasing, is designed to combat the problems of aliasing. In simple terms, anti-aliasing is designed to smooth out that stair-step pattern in images and make them look less pixelated, while not changing the resolution of the final image.

While anti-aliasing is available on PC, it was often not supported on consoles until the release of Portal 2 (which uses MLAA on PlayStation 3), as traditional methods like MSAA are very expensive, compared to post-processing methods like FXAA/TAA/MLAA used in later games. In all Source 2007 games and above on Xbox 360, it uses software AA, which is not as effective as newer post-processing methods.

Overview

Traditional methods

• Restore missing details and looks sharper compared to post-processing methods
• More expensive than post-processing methods (also SSAA is more demanding than MSAA, while produce better result)
• Most newer games (that uses deferred renderer) does not support these methods
• MSAA only: Does not apply anti-aliasing to transparent textures without alpha to coverage

SSAA

• Performance Impact: Very High

 SuperSampling Anti-Aliasing, also known as Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) in some games and often interchangeable with the term downscaling.

• Technically when implemented correctly, these do differ in that downscaling applies to an entire frame buffer – 2D and 3D Elements, while SSAA/MSAA are techniques only applied internally to 3D elements. In some implementations this can result in a lesser performance impact and better compatibility.

Compared to MSAA, SSAA/FSAA produces the same result as MSAA, but completely reduced stair-step pattern in alpha textures, and makes transparent letters (on the container prop) less blurry. Additionally, ReShade depth buffer detection works with SSAA. However, despite it's very high-quality results, SSAA is very expensive when it comes to performance compared to MSAA, and SSAA is not available as an option in Source by default, but can be enabled below:

On NVIDIA graphics cards, it's implemented as OGSSAA (Ordered Grid Supersample Anti-Aliasing), and can only be enabled through third-party applications such as Nvidia Profile Inspector, using the following modes: 2x1, 1x2, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4. OGSSAA also only supports Direct3D.

Important:If you are building cubemaps, enabling AA through driver level (such as SSAA (or OGSSAA/downscaling), or forcing MSAA through drivers) will cause cubemaps (especially HDR cubemaps) to be built very slowly (even on powerful GPUs). Make sure SSAA (or OGSSAA), or driver-level MSAA is disabled before building cubemaps. This issue is not affected if you enable MSAA in-game.

Downscaling

Downscaling or downsampling is a brute-force method for AA, which applies SSAA to both 2D (such as HUD and UI) and 3D elements by running the game at a higher resolution. It can be enabled on graphics card control panel as NVIDIA DSR or AMD VSR. Unlike SSAA, downscaling will produce slightly blurrier results and does not get rid of the shimmering effect on transparent textures/objects.

Another downside to downscaling is that many older games' UI (such as VGUI) will become smaller at higher resolutions. However, recently Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch (both since 20th anniversary), and aswell as Team Fortress 2 has been updated to allow VGUI to scale properly on higher resolution, while all games since Left 4 Dead properly scales UI at 4K or higher (except close captioning which does not scales in Left 4 Dead, but does on Left 4 Dead 2 and newer titles).

MSAA

• Performance Impact: Moderate (2x, 4x) to High (8x)

 MultiSample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) was the gaming industry standard of anti-aliasing (prior to the TAA gradually replacing MSAA in mid-late 2010s as games transitioned from forward rendering to deferred rendering), and as such is the only anti-aliasing available (alongside CSAA on NVIDIA cards prior to Maxwell) in all Source games before Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and later available in GoldSrc in 2013, with only MSAA 4x being available, which is enabled by default. In GoldSrc, the anti-aliasing can be disabled by starting with the -nomsaa launch option. Essentially, if a polygon is crossing a multisample point, or subpixel, it detects how many of its neighboring points are also being intersected, then takes the color of that polygon and adds it over the existing image to create a slightly smother line. This creates a smoother line, but does not completely remove the stair-step pattern (especially on alpha textures that don't use alpha to coverage) without combining FXAA/SMAA/other post-FX AA methods with MSAA.

Games that use deferred rendering will have higher performance impact than forward rendering when using MSAA, and MSAA are not as effective on games using deferred rendering. This is one of the reasons why Black Mesa, and Apex Legends does not support MSAA.

All GoldSrc, Source and Source 2 games contain 3 different settings of MSAA, which include:

• 2x
• 4x - Default level in post-SteamPipe GoldSrc (can be enhanced in GPU control panels), aswell default on post-20th anniversary
• 8x - Very expensive on older/low-end hardware. Introduced in Source 2006. You can enable 8x MSAA in Source 2004 by using the mat_antialias 8 console command, or force it through driver settings.^[1]

What this does is add more subpixels to a specified location and increases the accuracy of the multisampling, at the cost of performance. Some alternative anti-aliasing methods such as the post-processing one will be less demanding compared to MSAA or other methods.

Warning:If MSAA is enabled, ReShade depth buffer detection will stop working, which means that you are unable to use some AA methods, for example (such as some versions of TAA), or even shaders such as SSAO in general.

Note:Previous version of engine branch, Source 2004 (before late 2005 update), has an option for MSAA 6x. This setting of MSAA does not work on modern graphics cards or newer drivers, and was replaced by MSAA 8x.

Note:Alpha to coverage requires MSAA, as it is a multisampling method. Alternatively, SSAA or SGSSAA (the latter is MSAA combined with transparency SSAA) can be used instead to reduce jagged edges on alpha textures and objects.

Note:In Titanfall 2, MSAA is only available if Adaptive Resolution and Adaptive Supersampling was disabled, otherwise TAA will be forced.

MSAA enhanced (Nvidia SGSSAA / AMD Adaptive AA)

• Performance Impact: High (2x, 4x) to Very High (8x)

On system Nvidia and AMD graphics card, MSAA can be enhanced with two methods:

Sparse Grid Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing (SGSSAA)

Adaptive AA

Both are improved version of regular SSAA (or OGSSAA), by enhancing MSAA with TrSSAA (Transparency SSAA).

This AA method produce good results and makes distant texture looks significantly sharper (compared to downscaling methods like NVIDIA DSR/AMD VSR), it also produces more detail than OGSSAA (or regular SSAA), and transparent textures will look better and properly anti-aliased than using alpha to coverage (which creates noticeable shimmering on far distance, and dithering when looking closer). Additionally, all transparent texture which did not use alpha to coverage also get anti-aliased.

However, like SSAA (OGSSAA), this method is also very demanding even on powerful graphics card, especially at 8x setting. A powerful graphics card like GeForce RTX 3060 (or GTX 1080 Ti) can handle atleast 100-150 FPS with 8x SGSSAA at 1080p, but when looking at particle effects, it can go down to 24-30 FPS.

Note:If you are building cubemaps, you must disable SGSSAA/Adaptive AA, or switch to Vulkan, as SGSSAA/Adaptive AA can cause building cubemaps speed to be very slow.

Note:These anti-aliasing method does not work with Vulkan, as Vulkan is a low-level API that bypass any settings applied by graphics card control panel/drivers.

How to enable SGSSAA anti-aliasing (Nvidia) 

Enabling this method requires third-party application such as NVIDIA Profile Inspector, and changing the "Antialiasing - Compatibility (DX9)" flag & LOD bias to allow SGSSAA to work.

To enable SGSSAA anti-aliasing, follow these instructions:

1. Open NVIDIA Profile Inspector
2. Select the game profile, in this case, "Half-Life 2" for Half-Life 2 (including it's episodes and Lost Coast).
3. Set Antialiasing - Compatibility (DX9) flag, see below for list of games/branch and their respective flag. In this case for Half-Life 2, use 0x000000C1 (or 0x004000C1 if ReShade is installed).
4. Set Negative LOD to "Allow", then set LOD Bias (DX) to -1.0 (for 4x), or -1.5 (for 8x). This will make texture sharper when using SGSSAA.
5. Set Anti-aliasing (MSAA) Mode to "Override any application setting", 4x [4x Multisampling] or 8xQ [8x Multisampling], and set Transparency Supersampling to 4x or 8x (must match MSAA settings).
6. Finally, disable in-game Anti-aliasing or use mat_alphacoverage 0 to disable alpha to coverage. Done.

Note:When using SGSSAA, make sure the in-game MSAA option is turned off (if you choose to override the AA settings in GPU drivers control panel/NVIDIA Profile Inspector), or if you enable transparency AA (forced through GPU drivers) while having in-game MSAA option enabled, make sure alpha to coverage is disabled (using mat_alphacoverage 0) to avoid some transparent textures shimmering due to SGSSAA conflicting with alpha to coverage.

Note:All Team Fortress 2 branch games (, , and ), now have different executable name, and also had a 64-bit executable (cstrike_win64.exe, dod_win64.exe, etc.), so you will need to add the new executable name into driver profile first (in Nvidia Profile Inspector), before you can use SGSSAA anti-aliasing. This is also true for any Source engine games with different executable name, like Garry's Mod, which use either hl2.exe or gmod.exe.

To enable SGSSAA in Half-Life 2 (including it's episodes), and Half-Life: Source, you will need to select "Half-Life 2" profile on NVIDIA Profile Inspector and change it settings here. To enable SGSSAA on any other Source games sharing hl2.exe executable name, select "Half Life: Source"^[sic].

Game	AA Flag & LOD Bias setting
All	LOD Bias: Set Negative LOD to "Allow", then set the following value: 2xSGSSAA (2 samples): -0.5 4xSGSSAA (4 samples): -1.0 8xSGSSAA (8 samples): -1.5
Source 2004 - Source 2013	0x000000C1 0x004000C1 (if ReShade is installed) 0x004010C1 (Portal)
Left 4 Dead engine branch and above	0x000000C0 0x004000C0 (if ReShade is installed) 0x004010C0 (Portal 2)
All Direct3D 11 (DX11) Source games	Compatibility flag not required, but you might need to enable MSAA in-game (even if you override it, unlike DX9 which can force AA even if MSAA is off in-game).

How to enable Adaptive Anti-Aliasing (AMD) 

To enable AMD Adaptive AA, follow these instructions:

1. Open the game and change the in-game MSAA settings to 4x or 8x.
2. Minimize the game and open AMD Software Adrenalin Edition.
3. It should show the game that's open. Click on adjust game graphics under "CURRENT SESSION".
4. If the game can't be seen, then the game may have to be added to the software through the Gaming tab.
5. Click on the back button if the tab goes to a specific game.
6. Click on the more options button at the far right.
7. Locate and add the executable for the game.
8. Scroll down and click on Advanced.
9. Change Anti-Aliasing to Enhance application settings. Change Anti-Aliasing Method to Supersampling. Change Texture Filtering Quality to High.
10. Restart the game.

CSAA^{[ Deprecated]}

Coverage Sampling Anti-Aliasing (CSAA) was an NVIDIA-exclusive method of anti-aliasing, introduced with the GeForce 8 Series (2006). It aims to further reduce the additional stress that MSAA puts on the system, with NVIDIA claiming that a CSAA-rendered image will rival 8x-16x MSAA while only putting a load on the system comparable to 4x MSAA. It does this by reducing the number of settings each sample determines (by creating a new sample for coverage) while increasing the overall number of samples.

However, by the release of Maxwell-based GPUs such as GTX 745, 750 & 750 Ti, GTX 800M/900 series in 2014, and newer NVIDIA graphics card drops support for CSAA completely, as Multi-Frame Anti-Aliasing (MFAA) completely succeeded it, a method which has it's own limitations and only works with Direct3D 11 games.^[2]

Source itself natively support CSAA since Source 2004 (after / engine update in September 2005).

There are 3 different settings of CSAA, which include:

• 8x (MSAA 8x quality, with MSAA 4x performance)
• 16x (MSAA 16x quality, with MSAA 4x performance)
• 16xQ (MSAA 16x quality, with MSAA 8x performance)

Note:CSAA 8xQ is MSAA 8x.

Post-processing methods

• Produces blurrier result and does not restore missing details compared to traditional methods
• Cheap, with little to no performance loss compared to traditional methods
• Only available on Source 2007 (Software AA), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (FXAA), but it can be easily implemented to any game using Source shader editor or ReShade.
• Does apply anti-aliasing to all transparent textures.

Software AA

(in all games since ) All Source engine games since Source 2007 introduced software AA, which blurs the jagged edges (similar to FXAA or other post-processing AA). On PC, it currently only works on Source 2007 games (tested on Black Mesa 2012/mod version). Software AA is also supported (and used) in Xbox 360 and Nintendo Switch port of Source engine games. Unlike other anti-aliasing, this can be only toggled through console commands (mat_software_aa_strength).

Bug:Software AA is currently broken in all Source 2009, Source 2013 games (PC only). It is also broken (or non-functional) in Left 4 Dead engine branch^[3] and above.
However this bug does not apply to console port (such as Postal III cancelled Xbox 360 port which runs on Source 2009, and Portal on Nintendo Switch which runs on modified Source 2013 SP.)  (tested in: , , , , Source SDK 2013.)

FXAA

• Performance Impact: Very Low

 Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA) is a post-processing anti-aliasing with a very low performance cost. The main advantage of this technique over regular anti-aliasing is that it doesn't require a lot of computing power, and is also capable of smoothing out alpha-blended textures (aka transparent textures). Its main drawback is that it blurs the final image, so textures will look less sharp, and plus, they don't recover the missing pixel (or alpha to coverage) without using FXAA with MSAA simultaneously (or by downscaling). Regular Source (prior to CS:GO engine branch, or in third-party engine branch such as Xengine) doesn't have support for it but as FXAA is a post-processing effect, it can easily be implemented like with the Source shader editor or with ReShade.

Important:Using ReShade for multiplayer games and connecting to a VAC-secured server is not recommended.
Additionally, using ReShade on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2 requires the -allow_third_party_software and -insecure command-line options, which would prevent you from connecting to any VAC-secured server.

MLAA

• Performance Impact: Very Low

 Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA) is a post-processing anti-aliasing typically available on AMD cards, but it can be used with any other graphics card. It's similar to NVIDIA's FXAA but has a higher performance cost, but is less demanding compared to MSAA. It's used in PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2.

Confirm:What about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on PS3?

SMAA

• Performance Impact: Low

Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing (SMAA) works similarly to FXAA or MLAA (the latter which is what SMAA was based off), but results in much better image quality than both FXAA and MLAA, while also taking little performance impact. There are currently no GoldSrc, Source or Source 2 games using this AA method, but users can add SMAA by using ReShade or Source Shader Editor.

CMAA

• Performance Impact: Low

 Conservative Morphological Anti- Aliasing (CMAA) is an image-based post-processing technique originally developed by Filip Strugar at Intel. CMAA uses 4 main steps to reduce aliasing:

• Color break detection
• Locally dominant edge detection
• Simple shape handling
• Symmetrical long edge shape handling.

CMAA, while having slight performance impact compared to FXAA, but still has less performance impact than SMAA, CMAA manages high quality anti-aliasing while preserving text and without over blurring the geometry.

CMAA is currently only implemented in Counter-Strike 2.

Note:When Counter-Strike: Global Offensive got ported to Source 2 (and renamed to Counter-Strike 2), (FXAA) support was removed and (CMAA) was implemented in its place, with the ability to use it alongside MSAA removed.

Temporal methods and upscaling

• While producing result similar to SSAA, TAA/TSSAA restore missing details by jittering the image which combines the information from past and current frames, while TXAA restore missing details by using MSAA.
• Temporal methods, when in motion, also produces blurrier image and create ghosting effect noticable with lower framerate and/or resolutions.
• Like post-processing methods, cheap, with little to no performance loss compared to traditional methods
• Aside from TAA, temporal-based upscaling techniques are also available, which can increase performance by internally rendering the game at lower resolutions, then use AI to upscale the image.
• Does apply anti-aliasing to all transparent textures.

TAA/TSSAA

• Performance Impact: Very Low

 Temporal Anti Aliasing (TAA) is an anti-aliasing technique that reduces shimmering or flickering effects by smoothing the frame when in motion. There are multiple implementations of TAA, but the most common one is TSSAA (Temporal Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing) which combines information from past frames (usually 8 frames) and the current frame, while also slightly jittering to smooth the current frame. Each pixel is sampled once per frame but in each frame the sample is at a different location within the pixel. Pixels sampled in past frames are blended with pixels sampled in the current frame to produce an anti-aliased image. While being cheaper to calculate than MSAA, and produces image similar to super sampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) or downscaling, its main drawback is that it can cause ghosting and blurriness to the image, especially when in motion, noticeable with lower framerate or resolution, depending on the implementation (Example here). Some of the drawbacks can be mitigated by adding a sharpening filter.

As of mid 2010s, it's the current gaming industry standard of anti-aliasing (alongside FXAA for weaker hardware) with many modern games (except many VR and mobile games) and modern engines (like Unreal Engine 4/5) started to use TAA as most modern games transitioned from forward rendering to deferred rendering, which allows many lights to be rendered without a significant performance hit, and because MSAA is harder to implement on deferred rendering yet produce worse result than games using forward rendering. Some games use TAA to hide dithering or noisy effect (such as SSAO, soft shadows or ray tracing), leading to some titles forcing TAA to be enabled, providing no options to disable it in-game outside console commands or editing configuration files (if possible).

Apex Legends as well as Titanfall 2 are the only two Source games that uses TAA (TSSAA), while Titanfall uses older TAA technique called TXAA which requires MSAA to function.

FSR (and FSR Native AA), DLSS (and DLAA), XeSS (and XeSS Native AA)

Aside from TAA, modern games also comes with upscaling techniques, which has it's own version of TAA anti-aliasing, but also improves performance by reducing the game resolutions and makes smaller resolution image appear sharper through the use of image upscaling algorithms like Nvidia's DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), AMD's FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and Intel XeSS (Xe Super Sampling). Depending on the game (but can be also forced through graphics card control panel), the upscaling feature of DLSS, FSR and XeSS can be turn off, leaving the anti-aliasing part, known as Nvidia DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing), AMD FSR Native AA and XeSS Native AA enabled. Unlike regular TAA, all 3 techniques are likely to be more stable in motion, and produce slightly sharper image.

There are also other upscaling technique which are not vendor-specific, and can be run on any graphics card (whether the hardware support DLSS/FSR or not), like TAAU (Temporal Anti-Aliasing Upsample) and it's successor, TSR (Temporal Super Resolution).

Portal with RTX, Half-Life 2 RTX and all other RTX Remix games use DLSS (or DLAA) for anti-aliasing and upscaling. One upcoming Source 2 game made by Valve, Deadlock, supports TAA through AMD FSR 2, FSR 3 (first two are Native AA) and Nvidia DLSS 4.0 (or DLAA). Apex Legends uses TAAU for upscaling.

TXAA

• Performance Impact: Moderate

TXAA is an older form of TAA that creates a smoother image by combining MSAA with Nvidia-designed temporal filters. TXAA is supported with Nvidia GeForce GTX 600 series or higher. TXAA can be operate without MSAA, but many games that implement TXAA, including Titanfall, forces MSAA enabled in order to enable TXAA.

TXAA support 4 different settings, but many games including Titanfall only features TXAA 2x and 4x:

• 0x - Disables MSAA and leaving temporal filter enabled.
• 2x - Same as MSAA 2x with temporal filter enabled.
• 4x - Same as MSAA 4x with temporal filter enabled.
• 8x - Same as MSAA 8x with temporal filter enabled.

Media

Tip:Click on one of the images below, after it's fully loaded, click on it again to view it in full resolution.

GoldSrc

FXAA (through ReShade)

SMAA (through ReShade)

4x MSAA (default)

No MSAA

Source

Closeup

This image shows how each anti-aliasing methods affect text, details, transparent textures (both non-alpha to coverage and alpha to coverage).

In MSAA, only some transparent textures (that uses alpha to coverage) are anti-aliased, however SSAA (both SGSSAA and regular SSAA) significantly produces better AA results for transparent textures, but is more expensive.

Post-processing methods like FXAA and SMAA produces inferior results compared to MSAA, which can result in blurry or softer image while also does not solve shimmering, but they generally results in better performance than any traditional methods (like MSAA), making it useful on lower-end devices.

No anti-aliasing	2x MSAA	4x MSAA	8x MSAA
FXAA through ReShade	SMAA through ReShade	SGSSAA (8x MSAA with 8x Transparency MSAA, TrMSAA for short), transparent text and some transparent textures are fully detailed, and less aliasing.	SSAA 4x4 (similar result to SGSSAA, but more demanding)

Software AA

No anti-aliasing

Software AA - Strength 1 (mat_software_aa_strength 1)

Software AA - Strength 4 (mat_software_aa_strength 4)

Black Mesa

Multisampling

No anti-aliasing (Click to enlarge)

2x MSAA (Click to enlarge)

4x MSAA (Click to enlarge)

8x MSAA (Click to enlarge)

Post-processing

FXAA through ReShade (Click to enlarge)

FXAA through ReShade, in conjunction with 8x MSAA. This produces a very good result without downscaling/SSAA which reduces performance, but at the cost of making the image blurrier, unless a sharpening filter is also used. It's also the default AA settings in CS:GO when launching for the first time.

SMAA through ReShade (Click to enlarge)

SMAA through ReShade, in conjunction with 8x MSAA. (Click to enlarge) Similar to FXAA with 8x MSAA, except less blurrier image.

Supersampling

SGSSAA (Click to enlarge) Produce good result, with the jagged edges on the towers completely gone, at the cost of performance.

SSAA (or OGSSAA) 4x4 (Click to enlarge) Similar to SGSSAA but used ordered grid.

16xS (SSAA 2x2 & MSAA 4X) (Click to enlarge) Similar to SSAA 4x4, although less demanding.

Nvidia DSR, producing SSAA-like result.

Titanfall 2

No anti-aliasing (Click to enlarge)

2x MSAA (Click to enlarge)

4x MSAA (Click to enlarge)

8x MSAA (Click to enlarge)

Temporal AA / TSSAA(Click to enlarge)

Source 2

Todo: Add screenshots.

Support

GoldSrc

Game	FXAA	MSAA	TAA
Half-Life Half-Life: Opposing Force Half-Life: Blue Shift Counter-Strike Day of Defeat Ricochet Team Fortress Classic Deathmatch Classic Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Condition Zero Deleted Scenes	No	Yes (since 2013 engine update, 4X only)	No
James Bond 007: Nightfire	No	Yes (up to 8X)	No

Source

Anti-aliasing types	Post-processing	Spatial	Temporal
Game / Branch	FXAA	MLAA	Software AA	MSAA	CSAA (NVIDIA)	EQAA (AMD)	TAA
Source 2004	No	No	N/A	2x, 4x, 6x 8x (since 2006) Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Supported since January 2006 version of Source 2004 Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only	No	No
Source 2006 Source SDK Base 2006	No	No	N/A	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only	No	No
Source 2007 Source SDK Base 2007	No	No	Always enabled Disabled by default (PC)	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only	No	No
Source 2009/ Source Multiplayer Source 2013 Source SDK Base 2013 Team Fortress 2 branch Alien Swarm engine branch Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop Left 4 Dead engine branch	No	No	Always enabled (1x strength ) Always enabled (4x strength, ) Broken/non-functional (PC)	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only	No	No
Portal 2 engine branch Portal 2: Desolation[confirm]	No	Yes (PS3)	Non-functional (PC) Replaced by MLAA? (X360, [confirm]) Replaced by MLAA (PS3)	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only Can be only enabled using mat_aaquality. CSAA options removed from menu.	No	No
CS:GO engine branch	Yes	No	Non-functional, replaced by FXAA.	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only Can be only enabled using mat_aaquality. CSAA options removed from menu.	No	No
Dota 2 (pre-Reborn)	Yes	No	No	Can be enabled through console, but breaks deferred renderer	Same as MSAA.	No	No
Black Mesa	Yes	No	2012 mod only	Removed (post-Xen update) Available on previous versions (2012 mod/pre-Xen) Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Removed (post-Xen update) Available on previous versions (2012 mod/pre-Xen)	No	No
Consortium	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Strata Source	Yes	No	No	2x, 4x, 8x	Unknown[confirm]	No	No
Titanfall	No	No	No	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	Older NVIDIA GPUs/drivers only Up to 16xQ	2x, 4x, 8x	TXAA (2x, 4x)
Titanfall 2	No	No	No	2x, 4x, 8x Enhanceable with SGSSAA	No[confirm]	2x, 4x, 8x	TSSAA Also support Adaptive Supersampling (requires TSSAA)
Apex Legends	No	No	No	No	No	No	TSSAA Also support Adaptive Supersampling (requires TSSAA)
Portal with RTX (and other RTX Remix games)	No	No	No	No	No	No	DLSS/DLAA

Source 2

Game	FXAA	MSAA	TAA	CMAA
Deadlock	Yes	No	Yes (FSR 2/3 Native AA, DLSS 4/DLAA)	No
Counter-Strike 2	No	2x, 4x, 8x	No	Yes
Aperture Desk Job	No	Always enabled (MSAA 4X)	No	No
Half-Life: Alyx	No	Always enabled (MSAA 4X)	No	No
S&box	No	Always enabled (Can be adjusted from 2X to 8X)	No	No
Dota 2	Yes	No	No	No

Performance impact

Note:All performance test below were done on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, running with uncapped FPS (Source games are capped at 300 by default), highest possible graphical settings, VSync disabled.

Below is the performance impact of each AA method. Most modern mid-range and high-end GPUs are capable of 8x MSAA with no performance loss, and over 60-100 FPS in Source games, as they are capped at 300 FPS by default.

Game	None	FXAA	SMAA	MSAA	SSAA	TAA[4]
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (benchmark)	569.23 Avg FPS	549.88 Avg FPS (Negligible)	533.28 Avg FPS (Negligible - Very Low)	547.00 Avg FPS (2x) (Low - Moderate) 520.89 Avg FPS (4x) (Moderate) 475.34 Avg FPS (8x) (Moderate - High)	409.26 Avg FPS (2x2, OGSSAA) (Very High) 329.32 Avg FPS (2x2 + MSAA 4X/SGSSAA) (Very High) 147.74 Avg FPS (4x4, OGSSAA) (Very High)	TSSAA: Similar to SMAA or FXAA TXAA: Similar as MSAA (both not available on this game but can be demonstrated using ReShade)

Console commands

Source

MSAA/CSAA

Source 2013 games and older Source engine games have these console commands dedicated to anti-aliasing:

Cvar/Command	Parameters or default value	Descriptor	Effect
mat_antialias		int	Goes from 0x to 8x (0-8) MSAA. 16x MSAA is also possible (tested on Nvidia GPUs), but unlike other games (like  Doom 3) which supports it, 16x MSAA is just 4x in Source. Other values aside from 2, 4, 6 (older GPUs only) and 8 simply disable MSAA. Note:This command only accepts positive values, negative ones will do nothing. 6x MSAA is not supported on Source 2006 and newer graphics card/GPU drivers. This command also does nothing in Black Mesa (since Xen update) as MSAA has been removed. MSAA is still available on previous versions of Black Mesa. On Source 2004 (which only supports up to 6x officially), 8x MSAA can be enabled by using this command, but once you quit the game, it will reset to 4x MSAA.
mat_aaquality		int	It was used to set CSAA anti-aliasing settings (0-4). CSAA needs MSAA to produce the correct result. 8x and 16xQ is "mat_aaquality 2", 16x is "mat_aaquality 4". Note:Since the release of Nvidia's GTX 900 series cards (as well as GTX 750, 750Ti and other Maxwell-based cards) and newer, support for CSAA has been removed! So this command does nothing.

Software AA

Note:All Source engine games (since Source 2007) have software AA. In PC, it currently only works on Source 2007 games (Black Mesa 2012 version tested). Software AA is also supported (and used) in Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Switch port of Source engine games.

Bug:In PC, Software AA is currently broken in all Source 2009, Source Multiplayer and Source 2013 (including Team Fortress 2 branch) games. It's also broken (or non-functional) in Left 4 Dead engine branch^[3] and above.   (tested in: , , , , Source SDK 2013.)

Cvar/Command	Parameters or default value	Descriptor	Effect
mat_software_aa_blur_one_pixel_lines	0.5	float	How much software AA should blur one-pixel thick lines: (0.0 - none), (1.0 - lots).
mat_software_aa_debug	0	int	Software AA debug mode: (0 - off), (1 - show number of 'unlike' samples: 0->black, 1->red, 2->green, 3->blue), (2 - show anti-alias blend strength), (3 - show averaged 'unlike' colour).
mat_software_aa_edge_threshold	1.0	float	Software AA - adjusts the sensitivity of the software AA shader's edge detection (1.0 - a lower value will soften more edges, a higher value will soften fewer).
mat_software_aa_quality	0	int	Software AA quality mode: (0 - 5-tap filter), (1 - 9-tap filter).
mat_software_aa_strength	0.0 (PC) 1.0 ()	float	Software AA - perform a software anti-aliasing post-process (an alternative/supplement to MSAA). This value sets the strength of the effect: (0.0 - off), (1.0 - full). Note:This can be set up to "4", but will cause dithering to be more visible around the edges.
mat_software_aa_strength_vgui	1.0 (PC) 2.0 ()	float	Same as mat_software_aa_strength, but forced to this value when called by the post vgui AA pass (0-1).
mat_software_aa_tap_offset	1.0	float	Software AA - adjusts the displacement of the taps used by the software AA shader (1.0 - a lower value will make the image sharper, higher will make it blurrier).

Titanfall (MSAA, TXAA, EQAA)

Titanfall branch has one console command dedicated to anti-aliasing, but these can be only accessible via custom launcher or via launch options.

Cvar/Command	Parameters or default value	Descriptor	Effect
mat_antialias_mode	0	int	Anti-aliasing types. 1 - MSAA 2x 2 - MSAA 4x 3 - MSAA 8x 10 - TXAA 2x 11 - TXAA 4x

Source 2

Counter-Strike 2 only:

Cvar/Command	Parameters or default value	Descriptor	Effect
r_csgo_cmaa_enable		0 disables, 1 enables	Enable CMAA2.
r_csgo_cmaa_extra_sharp		0 disables, 1 enables	Enable sharpening when CMAA2 enabled. Note:Doesn't seem to have any noticeable differences.
r_csgo_cmaa_quality		int	Adjust CMAA2 quality from Off, Low, Medium, and High (0-3).

Note:These commands are now hidden by default in newer version of Counter-Strike 2.

See also

• Direct3D
• Software renderer
• Vulkan
• How To Take Artistic Screenshots

External links

• Advanced OpenGL - Anti-Aliasing
•  The Finest Pixels for CS:GO by 3kliksphilip

References

References

1. User:leonidakarlach - (June 4, 2024). MSAA 8X can be enabled in Source 2004 using mat_antialias 8. And there was a difference. But once you quit the game, it will reset to MSAA 4X.. 2. HL2 - Ep 1, 2, and Lost Coast AA settings and Direct X (#540). GitHub Issues.. 3. User:leonidakarlach - (October 18, 2024). In Left 4 Dead (and L4D2), all commands related to Software AA are hidden, but using SourceMod will allow you to access the commands.. 4. Note:There are multiple variants of TAA. The most common one being used in many modern games (including Apex Legends and Titanfall branch games), which is TSSAA (also known as TMAA), which is also referred as TAA in general, supersamples the previous 8 frames, jittering them and combines into the current one to create smoother (but blurrier) image, it has performance impact similar to FXAA or SMAA. TXAA (Nvidia exclusive), on the other hand, combines MSAA with temporal filters which will have very similar performance impact as MSAA. TAAU and TSR, commonly found on Unreal Engine but also used in other games with different engine, aswell as upscaling solution (FSR2, FSR3, XeSS, DLSS), improves the game performance by running the game at lower resolution, then apply a temporal filter (TSSAA) to anti-alias the image, and sharpener (FSR or CAS) to make the image appeared sharper. Some other games also used a variant of FXAA or SMAA combined with temporal filter (FXAA 1TX, SMAA T2X, and so on.). .