Radeon MR9600 Image Quality - AA Sample Patterns
The Radeon supports 2X, 4X and 6X multisampling. The 2X mode is a centre-offset 45° grid, the 4X mode a 4-plane rotated grid and the 6X mode a true scattered grid.Colourless's D3D AA Tester is used to generate the grids.
2X Antialiasing - offset 45° grid
If you draw a diagonal line between the two geometry samples (redish squares), you'll see the grid line doesn't pass through the center of the pixel, showing its offset nature.
4X Antialiasing - 4-plane rotated grid
Geometry samples are done on four distinct horizontal and vertical planes, giving the most coverage per pixel. It's optimal for four samples, ATI having got it right for a long time. Only a single texture sample, indicating no supersampling and therefore no texture AA.
6X Antialiasing - scattered grid
Six samples on six distinct horizontal and vertical planes, scattered for the sample set, gives the best consumer AA quality available today. Not even NVIDIA's 8X antialiasing on any hardware - NV40 or otherwise - can match the quality of ATI's 6X scattered grid AA.
Let's examine Go5700's sample grids before checking out image quality in a game title.
