AA is also used to smooth scaled out low res polygon textures. That was one of the trademarks of N64 visuals back in the day. It explains why most of the games had ridiculously blurred textures to compensate for their low resolutions (with less storage space using costlier chip based cartridges).

Yes, the gamecube and wii can both do hardware AA, and all sorts of post processing filters such as blur effects.

If HW AA is indeed possible on the Wii, why didn't we see it in SMG or SSBB? (Or even in Wii Sports for that matter)?

I'm certain now that I'm seeing it in Okami... Very certain. Interesting to say the least.

kn said: If HW AA is indeed possible on the Wii, why didn't we see it in SMG or SSBB? (Or even in Wii Sports for that matter)? I'm certain now that I'm seeing it in Okami... Very certain. Interesting to say the least.

Antialiasing was used in both of those games ... The Wii and Gamecube both use hardware based 4xAA which greatly reduces the quantity and noticeability of most aliasing but doesn't completely eliminate it.

ItsaMii said: The wii can`t do 3D grafix.

 Lol, good catch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Wii is hardware-locked to -1.5D isn't it?

HappySqurriel said: kn said: If HW AA is indeed possible on the Wii, why didn't we see it in SMG or SSBB? (Or even in Wii Sports for that matter)? I'm certain now that I'm seeing it in Okami... Very certain. Interesting to say the least. Antialiasing was used in both of those games ... The Wii and Gamecube both use hardware based 4xAA which greatly reduces the quantity and noticeability of most aliasing but doesn't completely eliminate it.

 I don't know, Happy.  Perhaps they are using 4xAA, but I've got a 42" LCD and I'm not seeing ANY AA on SMG.  Perhaps it is there and I'm not seeing it but if it is there, I'd argue that it is 2xAA at most.  On my 42", near horizontal lines have HUGE jaggies and I don't see any sofenting whatsoever on them.  Is there some technical data somewhere you can point me to?  I'm not saying you are wrong because, frankly, I just don't know, but I'd love to see something written about how Nintendo's hardware handles AA and what titles are using it...

 

kn said: HappySqurriel said: kn said: If HW AA is indeed possible on the Wii, why didn't we see it in SMG or SSBB? (Or even in Wii Sports for that matter)? I'm certain now that I'm seeing it in Okami... Very certain. Interesting to say the least. Antialiasing was used in both of those games ... The Wii and Gamecube both use hardware based 4xAA which greatly reduces the quantity and noticeability of most aliasing but doesn't completely eliminate it.  I don't know, Happy.  Perhaps they are using 4xAA, but I've got a 42" LCD and I'm not seeing ANY AA on SMG.  Perhaps it is there and I'm not seeing it but if it is there, I'd argue that it is 2xAA at most.  On my 42", near horizontal lines have HUGE jaggies and I don't see any sofenting whatsoever on them.  Is there some technical data somewhere you can point me to?  I'm not saying you are wrong because, frankly, I just don't know, but I'd love to see something written about how Nintendo's hardware handles AA and what titles are using it...

Nintendo took the technical specifications for the Wii off of their webpage, but the image processing functions can still be found:

All I can say about what you're seeing is that the aliasing from Wii and Gamecube games is dramatically less noticeable than the early PS2 games that didn't have antialiasing; it is (likely) 4xAA which is far from perfect, in particular at lower resolutions it is far less likely to adequately solve the alaising artifacts.

 

Thanks, Happy. I'll fire up SMG and play around with it and see if I can find some lines that are high enough in contrast to see some blending going on at the pixel line jumps.

BTW, even with AA on, watching the Wii on an HDTV will show some jaggies simply due to lower resolution, that is unless you have some kind of interlopation or turn the sharpness down.

I don't really know if the Wii is capable of anti-aliasing, but to do so, it's a matter of hardware not software as it's a post-processing effect; pre-rendered scenes and effects suffer as well.