How to configure FXAA/smaa preset commands?

canceralp wrote: BF1, I think, has a superior anti-aliasing than any post-processing methods. So, I don't think any other AA methods would replace it, in my opinion. But if you still want to try I have been playing around with all the possible FXAA/SMAA combos and I think I found the best options and was able to set some ground rules that apply to all games.

Ground rules;
1) for SMAA, always stick to Color Mode.
2) use first SMAA, then FXAA. SMAA first does'nt kill FXAA but, FXAA first kills SMAA and renders it unnecassary.
3) if possible always use it with VSR/DSR
4) Never use SMAA with in-game MSAA, they create thick artifacts where they need to make things thinner.
5) don't use Lumasharpen, use FilmicAnamorphologicalSharpen, instead.
6) Use the sharpener after the anti-aliasing techniques.
7) Open FXAA.h and FXAA.hx files with Notepad++ and go to the lines 30 and 400 respectively. There you will find "quality" values. Change them to 39 and save the files.

As for the presets;
FXAA;
1) Sub-Pixel removing (the first parameter).
a) If you are playing at native resolution and it's not a complex scene game, like an isometric one; prefer 0.250.
b) If it's a very high sharpened game, or with many jaggies, you can use 0.500.
c) If you are downsampling with VSR/DSR or simply want a more filmic approach, start with 0.500 and you can go to 0.750, which is the default.Downsampling will compansate for blurring.

2) Second parameter. FXAA tries to dedect aliasing by looking at contrast and luma differences. This one simply measures the contrast and decides if a blurring should be applied. 0.166 would be a nice value to prevent unwanted blurring, as there is no need to anti-alias closer brightness areas. This value will save very little performance and also prevent unnecassary blurring where aliasing is already minimal (These areas will be taken care by SMAA, anyway)

3) The last parameter completely disables darker areas from being anti-aliased. Usefull because the aliasing mostly occurs where color and luma differences are big, and the most disturbing ones are the bright flashing one-pixel-sized ones. Using a value that is half of the second value will yield good results. In this case 0.0833 is very good. Also saves very little performance and doesnt touch the darker and black areas. There is no need to anti-alias dark gray and darker grays.

When 2nd and 3rd values are set like this, higher Sub-Pixel removing can be used without too much worry as they compansate for unnecassary blur.

SMAA;
1) Edge dedection treshold:
a) If downsampling 0.050
b) If native resolution (I assume 1080p) between 0.080-0.100

2) Search for edges
a) If native resolution (again, I assume 1080p); 32
b) If 1440 (either native or downsampled); 24
c) If 4K; 16
d) Lower than 1080p, 48.

3) Search for diogonal edged;
a) 1080p = 16
b) 1440p = 12
c) 4K = 8
d) anything lower than native = 20

4) Corner rounding;
a) for almost every game = 25
b) for cartoonish games like Fortnite = can go up to 50.
c) 4K = can go up to 50.

My best case scenerio (where the hardware is enough) for a 1080p display, I have created a custom resolution of 2688x1512, which is equal to 2x SSAA. Then I apply SMAA and FXAA respectively. This gives SMAA Sx2 and FXAA quality together and I disable all the anti-aliasing options of the game ( if the game's AA is broken like Batman Arkham Knight or GTA V or Assassin's Creed 1 or Oblivion).

But, again, I think temporal AA in BF1 is better than all of this. You can just sharpen if with FilmicAnamorphobicSharpen and enjoy the best visuals.