What Does Ambient Occlusion Do?

[WeedBluntBlazing]

i always seen that pc setting in every game but it never said what it does. i know AA makes games blurry so i keep that setting off to make all games look sharp and crisp. in most games i play ambient occlusion goes up to x16

[sethsez]

First, anti-aliasing only makes the image blurry if it's a certain type, usually FXAA. Anti-aliasing done properly smooths the edges of lines without blurring anything. FXAA is much faster to do than, say, MSAAx8, though.

Second, the thing that goes up to x16 is Anistropic Filtering, which affects how textures are rendered at extreme angles. Generally you want this at x16, because there's practically no performance hit but it makes a significant difference to image quality.

Third, Ambiant Occlusion (which does not have a x16 setting) is a lighting setting that approximates where shadows should be based on ambient light and how it bounces off of various surfaces. Typically this means corners are darkened a bit. This can make a big difference or none at all depending on how a game is designed to look (personally I think it looks a bit goofy here, but in other games it can be gorgeous), but it takes some significant hardware power to do properly.

[WeedBluntBlazing]

Originally posted by sethsez:

First, anti-aliasing only makes the image blurry if it's a certain type, usually FXAA. Anti-aliasing done properly smooths the edges of lines without blurring anything. FXAA is much faster to do than, say, MSAAx8, though.

Second, the thing that goes up to x16 is Anistropic Filtering, which affects how textures are rendered at extreme angles. Generally you want this at x16, because there's practically no performance hit but it makes a significant difference to image quality.

Third, Ambiant Occlusion (which does not have a x16 setting) is a lighting setting that approximates where shadows should be based on ambient light and how it bounces off of various surfaces. Typically this means corners are darkened a bit. This can make a big difference or none at all depending on how a game is designed to look (personally I think it looks a bit goofy here, but in other games it can be gorgeous), but it takes some significant hardware power to do properly.

when i play every game it goes up to 16 only in every game. so thats the highest number i seen

[Drakelstorm]

Originally posted by RedCorgi Gives You Jetpacks:

Originally posted by sethsez:

First, anti-aliasing only makes the image blurry if it's a certain type, usually FXAA. Anti-aliasing done properly smooths the edges of lines without blurring anything. FXAA is much faster to do than, say, MSAAx8, though.

Second, the thing that goes up to x16 is Anistropic Filtering, which affects how textures are rendered at extreme angles. Generally you want this at x16, because there's practically no performance hit but it makes a significant difference to image quality.

Third, Ambiant Occlusion (which does not have a x16 setting) is a lighting setting that approximates where shadows should be based on ambient light and how it bounces off of various surfaces. Typically this means corners are darkened a bit. This can make a big difference or none at all depending on how a game is designed to look (personally I think it looks a bit goofy here, but in other games it can be gorgeous), but it takes some significant hardware power to do properly.

when i play every game it goes up to 16 only in every game. so thats the highest number i seen

No it doesn't. Please go back and look at all the games you've played AO does not got up 16x and it doesn't even have a multiplier next to it.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/80343196790358785/03799E69FE46B01D229E02597B2E95AE750A3539/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_occlusion

Variants
SSAO-Screen space ambient occlusion
SSDO-Screen space directional occlusion
HDAO-High Definition Ambient Occlusion
HBAO+-Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion+
AAO-Alchemy Ambient Occlusion
ABAO-Angle Based Ambient Occlusion
PBAO
VXAO-Voxel Accelerated Ambient Occlusion

Also as said above FXAA makes the screen blurry not all forms of AA do this. TXAA may make the screen blurry in static images tho.

[Dakuwan]

Anywhere two surfaces meet, there is a slight shadowing effect.

[Zergem]

Ambient Occlusion always made it look like everything was hovering to me. I always turn it off.

[puddingtopf]

Originally posted by Zergem:

Ambient Occlusion always made it look like everything was hovering to me.

it's pretty much supposed to do the opposite since shadows are a positional indicator. not sure how you can think that, but ok.

[lPaladinl]

Anti-aliasing and ambient occlusion are two very different things.

Ambient Occlusion is very performance demanding, but it creates the illusion of 3d on otherwise flat textures. Examples being when you see a brick wall in most games, it's totally flat, but with AO on, you might notice some bricks look like they stick out to look more 'realistic'.

[Chop Suey]

Originally posted by lPaladinl:

Anti-aliasing and ambient occlusion are two very different things.

Ambient Occlusion is very performance demanding, but it creates the illusion of 3d on otherwise flat textures. Examples being when you see a brick wall in most games, it's totally flat, but with AO on, you might notice some bricks look like they stick out to look more 'realistic'.

That's not ambient occlusion,thats parallax mapping.

Originally posted by RedCorgi Gives You Jetpacks:

i always seen that pc setting in every game but it never said what it does. i know AA makes games blurry so i keep that setting off to make all games look sharp and crisp. in most games i play ambient occlusion goes up to x16

This should tell you everything you need to know about ambient occlusion. You'll notice it the most on objects like shelves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCwHMcHtI5I

Anti-aliasing only blurs an image if it's post process antialising (Which looks as the frame as a flat image). Multisample antialiasing does not blur the image,but in fact makes things even clearer (While also being very performance demanding,but not as much as superspampling)

Just watch the video below,that should explain it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2UMqmne4RA

Not all game engines support MSAA and I don't think Turok 2 even has MSAA.

[WeedBluntBlazing]

Originally posted by Zergem:

Ambient Occlusion always made it look like everything was hovering to me. I always turn it off.

how does it look like stuff is hovering? i dont notice that when its on

[WeedBluntBlazing]

Originally posted by MusicNote:

Originally posted by lPaladinl:

Anti-aliasing and ambient occlusion are two very different things.

Ambient Occlusion is very performance demanding, but it creates the illusion of 3d on otherwise flat textures. Examples being when you see a brick wall in most games, it's totally flat, but with AO on, you might notice some bricks look like they stick out to look more 'realistic'.

That's not ambient occlusion,thats parallax mapping.

Originally posted by RedCorgi Gives You Jetpacks:

i always seen that pc setting in every game but it never said what it does. i know AA makes games blurry so i keep that setting off to make all games look sharp and crisp. in most games i play ambient occlusion goes up to x16

This should tell you everything you need to know about ambient occlusion. You'll notice it the most on objects like shelves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCwHMcHtI5I

Anti-aliasing only blurs an image if it's post process antialising (Which looks as the frame as a flat image). Multisample antialiasing does not blur the image,but in fact makes things even clearer (While also being very performance demanding,but not as much as superspampling)

Just watch the video below,that should explain it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2UMqmne4RA

Not all game engines support MSAA and I don't think Turok 2 even has MSAA.

the reason i dont turn AA on is because games like just cause and far cry make it look blurry, mostly mafia 3 too. i cant even turn AA off. it only goes to low. but i guess its the engine they use on mafia 3? but what i have notice is when i turn AA completely off the images look sharper and better. i dont understand these edges people talk about. maybe im not looking at stuff hard enough? i just turn graphics on high, play and shoot whatever is moving to get to the objectives

[puddingtopf]

Originally posted by RedCorgi Gives You Jetpacks:

the reason i dont turn AA on is because games like just cause and far cry make it look blurry, mostly mafia 3 too. i cant even turn AA off. it only goes to low. but i guess its the engine they use on mafia 3? but what i have notice is when i turn AA completely off the images look sharper and better. i dont understand these edges people talk about. maybe im not looking at stuff hard enough? i just turn graphics on high, play and shoot whatever is moving to get to the objectives

AA is only blurry when it's FXAA i think. without AA you get jagged edges, like "stairs". with AA the edges are smooth.

[WeedBluntBlazing]

Originally posted by puddingtopf:

Originally posted by RedCorgi Gives You Jetpacks:

the reason i dont turn AA on is because games like just cause and far cry make it look blurry, mostly mafia 3 too. i cant even turn AA off. it only goes to low. but i guess its the engine they use on mafia 3? but what i have notice is when i turn AA completely off the images look sharper and better. i dont understand these edges people talk about. maybe im not looking at stuff hard enough? i just turn graphics on high, play and shoot whatever is moving to get to the objectives

AA is only blurry when it's FXAA i think. without AA you get jagged edges, like "stairs". with AA the edges are smooth.

with stairs, thats a good idea i have to test that. for turn 2 what would be a good way to see the difference in AA? i tried switching to 3 of them in game time looking at the fountains but no luck seeing the differences

[puddingtopf]

i meant that the edges look like stairs because they are so pixelated.
you have to look at the edges of objects, especially if they are slanted (diagonal). not textures or anything.

[devon_rex_unreal]

HDAO would be nice to have.
The SSAO present in the game looks kinda low res i think.

[Antroid]

I think the intensity of the ambient occlusion in this game should be reduceable. It looks extremely ugly as it is, IMO. The shadows in the corners are way too sharp, thin and black, and so are the shadows objects. Then again I never liked post-process ambient occlusion in games, it always looked fugly to me (especially when objects just gain a shadowy outline even when they aren't next to the wall). I prefer it to just be baked into the lighting where it tends to look much more natural.