Understanding Anti-Aliasing

[Zappykins]

kain_kusanagi said:
This might be slightly off topic, but do you think that real time graphics in extreme HD like 4k will have a need for anti-aliasing? I mean if you look at aliasing on SD games and compare it to aliasing on HD games, the lack of aliasing at 1080p is far less noticeable that it is at 480p. I'm talking about PC because you can turn the settings off and on to see the difference, but the same would obliviously apply to any gaming system.

I wonder if anti-aliasing will get left behind when games are rendered at such high resolutions that we can't even see the aliasing with our naked eye.

Wouldn't it become MORE imporant?  Espically with larger screens.

Think of how your character is looking over a nice vista - long draw distance, lots of little things far away, and something like a telephone wire.  Without AA the wire would flicker something horibly as you panned around (as an opject in the distance would be smaller than 1 pixel.)

Now, if we get to retina type density on a 52" screen with 300dpi.  (I calculated the resolution at 13,650x7650 - well beyond 4K, let's call it 16K)  Then it might not matter.  But until we are at such amazing resolutions I think AA and similar tech will become more important.)

Can CGI-Quality answer this please?