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Dictator93 · Sep 9, 2016

One of the last visual blemishes in Alien Isolation has just been eliminated.

Remember how no matter how much you downsampled Alien Isolation you could still see pixel crawl and shader aliasing? DF makes mention of it:

Surprisingly, image quality closely reflects the consoles, with only minor differences in the AA pattern at a pixel level, leading us to believe that all three share the same basic method of dealing with jaggies. Long edges and sub-pixel details suffer from pixel crawl and shimmering, while shader aliasing is commonplace across specular reflections throughout the game.

Imagine this just shimmering no matter what you did (Courtesy of Auto-Reply from the PC Screenshot thread 2015):

Well, thankfully a modder by the name of "aliasIsolation" has implemented an injectable TAA going beyond the game's SMAAT2x. It accumulates multiple frames and strongly curbs any and all shader aliasing (at the cost of some sharpness of course).
Link here on Reddit

Default TAA:

Modded accumulation TAA:

This is an awesome step to preserving this game over time IMO.

pottuvoi · Sep 9, 2016

Awesome news.
Slight blurring can be fixed with supersampling, so even if one likes really sharp image this is excellent news.

Pops Maellard · Sep 9, 2016

Amazing stuff, definitely will check out.

Isolation is still one of the most visually impressive games this generation tbh.

Garrett Hawke · Sep 9, 2016

awesome

icecold1983 · Sep 9, 2016

any videos Dictator?

pottuvoi · Sep 9, 2016

icecold1983 said:
any videos Dictator?

There are couple of links at his imgur gallery.
http://imgur.com/gallery/kDDfD

Dictator93 · Sep 9, 2016

icecold1983 said:
any videos Dictator?

I am about to go off to work so I cannot test it out (need to reinstall), but there are these 2 videos from the mod author I believe.

6 seconds

full play

I think they are rendered even at a native 720p (not downsampled)... so that lack of pop and crawl is rather impressive in those videos.

cyberheater · Sep 9, 2016

That's a massive improvement.

I can't see any aliasing in the second shot.

RelaxedOtter · Sep 9, 2016

That is really impressive stuff.

Zojirushi · Sep 9, 2016

What's the performance impact?

Hesemonni · Sep 9, 2016

I loved the look and atmosphere of Alien Isolation the team did a terrific job with it. Too bad about the lackluster ending though and, apparently, weak sales which might not warrant a sequel.

MaLDo · Sep 9, 2016

massive. A bit of sharpen from reshade will do wonders over that.

def sim · Sep 9, 2016

Thanks for sharing this. I'll try this, for sure, when I eventually get back to Isolation.

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

Great work!

mjp2417 · Sep 9, 2016

This is really cool

Peterthumpa · Sep 9, 2016

So wait, a modder can create an injector that adds TAA to a game? Is that specific to Alien Isolation or can we expect other games down the road?

Imagine this working with ROTR.

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

By the way, the source for this is available and it seems really neat from a quick look.

felipepl said:
So wait, a modder can create an injector that adds TAA to a game? Is that specific to Alien Isolation or can we expect other games down the road?

Imagine this working with ROTR.

It's complicated and quite game specific. Like most things with modding, it can be done of course.

SnowTeeth · Sep 9, 2016

Jesus christ PC gaming kicks ass. Truly awesome stuff.

Zojirushi said:
What's the performance impact?

On my 960, none whatsoever. (admittedly I haven't done any tests to know exactly what the difference is, but it's as smooth as it was prior to the mod being installed)

prudislav · Sep 9, 2016

felipepl said:
So wait, a modder can create an injector that adds TAA to a game? Is that specific to Alien Isolation or can we expect other games down the road?

Imagine this working with ROTR.

I doubt it can be done with Denuvo DRM in it

Calabi · Sep 9, 2016

Awesome downloading Alien Isolation now. Will see what it looks like and what my 1080 can handle.

The Janitor · Sep 9, 2016

Calabi said:
Awesome downloading Alien Isolation now. Will see what it looks like and what my 1080 can handle.

You'll probably get 120 fps at 4K. It's an insanely well optimized game.

Peterthumpa · Sep 9, 2016

prudislav said:
I doubt it can be done with Denuvo DRM in it

But isn't this a post processing AA method as well? Reshade works ok with Denuvo.

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

felipepl said:
But isn't this a post processing AA method as well? Reshade works ok with Denuvo.

What this does is far (far) more complex than merely post-processing the final framebuffer.

No idea whether or not Denuvo would interfere, but the argument doesn't work.

flipswitch · Sep 9, 2016

Maybe they should've called this game, Alien:Aliasiation. ( sorry)

I have this on Ps4, but what I've been doing lately since upgrading my PC is re-buying my ps4 games on PC. This could be my next purchase

.

HTupolev · Sep 9, 2016

Modding exponential accumulation TAA into a game?

Dayum.

Dictator93 · Sep 9, 2016

Durante said:
By the way, the source for this is available and it seems really neat from a quick look.

When I get home I definitely will look at it

Durante said:
It's complicated and quite game specific. Like most things with modding, it can be done of course.

If the game uses motion vectors for its own TAA or for its own per-object motion blur (I am assuming this injection builds and hooks on to those), then I imagine it is "doable"?

Peterthumpa · Sep 9, 2016

Durante said:
What this does is far (far) more complex than merely post-processing the final framebuffer.

No idea whether or not Denuvo would interfere, but the argument doesn't work.

Yep, just finished reading the Reddit topic. It also seems based on UE4's TAA implementation.

Regardless, I had no idea that a technique such as TAA could be modded into a shipped game like this.

Lime · Sep 9, 2016

Wow this is amazing

I wish we got a sequel but them's the breaks

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew · Sep 9, 2016

Now I want this game in PC. Awesome job by the modder. The original looks so ugly in comparison.

Baloonatic · Sep 9, 2016

Awesome news. I started another playthrough recently at 4k and even with the highest AA setting on top of that the image quality still left something to be desired.

dgrdsv · Sep 9, 2016

Does it work with DSR/downsampling?

Calabi · Sep 9, 2016

Just did a quick and dirty comparison downsampling all 4K to 1080p with and without mod using Steam screenshot so not optimal. But you can notice the difference.

2A8081A891D9EFC3A34E1F24485D4B7F4290B50B

0F5FE7DCD76208F72042999259EC25E66E0CB552

A7A077C7BC0FF58FE62055A8316ADC1AF65111D2

2D099BFA8082D612C3731D49708B474A28EE924A

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

dr_rus said:
Does it work with DSR/downsampling?

I haven't tried it, but I can't imagine any reason it wouldn't.

Dreams-Visions · Sep 9, 2016

most impressive.

VlaudTheImpaler · Sep 9, 2016

I said wow.

Can't wait to try this when I get up in the morning.

Baloonatic · Sep 9, 2016

So what's the best way to take high quality screenshots? I want to make a 4k gallery with this.

ThirdNostril · Sep 9, 2016

Honestly, it doesn't look that good. It blurs everything like fxaa. Since the game isn't demanding you're better off downsampling and using smaa to maintain a clean and crisp image.

edit: With the comparison shots posted above, it looks to introduce an even stronger blur than fxaa. Schedule an appointment with an optometrist.

MaLDo · Sep 9, 2016

ThirdNostril said:
Honestly, it doesn't look that good. It blurs everything like fxaa. Since the game isn't demanding you're better off downsampling and using smma to maintain a clean and crisp image.

edit: With the comparison shots posted above, it looks to introduce an even stronger blur than fxaa. Schedule an appointment with an optometrist.

No. This shot was taken at 4K and downsampled to 1080p but you can see a lot of specular aliasing.

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

ThirdNostril said:
Honestly, it doesn't look that good. It blurs everything like fxaa. Since the game isn't demanding you're better off downsampling and using smaa to maintain a clean and crisp image.

What people call "crisp" generally also means lots of temporal aliasing, especially in PBR games with high-frequency specular highlights.

Have a look at a still frame from a high-quality blu-ray one of these days, you'll be surprised at the lack of pixel-scale "detail".

MaLDo said:
No. This shot was taken at 4K and downsampled to 1080p but you can see a lot of specular aliasing.

And it's much worse in motion.

Zojirushi · Sep 9, 2016

ThirdNostril said:
Honestly, it doesn't look that good. It blurs everything like fxaa. Since the game isn't demanding you're better off downsampling and using smaa to maintain a clean and crisp image.

edit: With the comparison shots posted above, it looks to introduce an even stronger blur than fxaa. Schedule an appointment with an optometrist.

Even 4K downsampling on top of SMAA can't make the aliasing in this game not look like shit though.

ThirdNostril · Sep 9, 2016

So this is acceptable to you just to get rid of the jaggies? This is from one the comparisons posted here

goodfella · Sep 9, 2016

I'll take a softer image over aliasing any day. Aliasing really hampers immersion, while a shimmer free image really leads to a solid and believable world.

Amazing work by the modder, and we all get to benefit from his time and hard work for free!

napata · Sep 9, 2016

ThirdNostril said:
So this is acceptable to you just to get rid of the jaggies? This is from one the comparisons posted here

Yes I'd rather have a softer image than a game full of shimmering.

ThirdNostril · Sep 9, 2016

Well alright then, back when I played this game I had it set up with smaa at 5120x2160 plus those tweaks for reflections and it looked fine even with some aliasing. I find it hard to comprehend the trade off some are willing to make, but that's just my opinion; I will never use fxaa therefore I won't use this.

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

A comparison with FXAA is very much off-base.

FXAA does very little to fix the type of aliasing (temporal aliasing / high frequency flicker) which TAA techniques fix. (This is not something you can see very well in screenshots)

CHC · Sep 9, 2016

Never expected this, the aliasing was extremely prominent and unpleasant when I played it around release.

Temporal AA is the future, hope to see it in every game moving forward.

ThirdNostril · Sep 9, 2016

But why the overall blur? I never noticed any blur with TAA in other games, the new Deus Ex for example, apart from the blur during motion.

I'm redownloading the game just to see the mod live with my own eyes.

Durante · Sep 9, 2016

ThirdNostril said:
But why the overall blur?

The amount of blur in those instances seems a bit excessive, might be e.g. the motion compensation failing or a bug.

I should reiterate, modding this type of AA into a game you don't have any source access to is not small feat. At all.

ThirdNostril · Sep 9, 2016

I'm not downplaying the modder's efforts and work just to be clear, I would never do that. I'm curious and want to know more that's all.

Baloonatic · Sep 9, 2016

Just messed about with it and it's a definite improvement imo. Running at native 4k and no noticeable shimmering anywhere.

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