Morphological Anti-Aliasing, or MLAA, is a cutting-edge technology that uses GPU-accelerated DirectCompute to apply full-scene anti-aliasing as a post-processing effect. This process differs from more traditional methods, like Supersample Anti-Aliasing (SSAA), which are applied during the rendering phase of the GPU pipeline.
By shifting the computational burden of anti-aliasing to post and accelerating it with the stream processors found in modern AMD Radeon™ GPUs, MLAA enables very high image quality at a fraction of the performance penalty incurred by SSAA. Further, because MLAA is conducted as a post-processing effect, Morphological Anti-Aliasing can be applied to virtually any DirectX® 9 or newer title, including those with no pre-existing support for anti-aliasing technologies.
MLAA 2.0
Starting with AMD Catalyst™ 12.4, AMD will introduce a new version of morphological AA for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series. Leveraging the record-breaking compute power of the GCN Architecture1, this second-generation MLAA algorithm is designed to increase image quality and performance versus the existing implementation of MLAA. MLAA 2.0 is automatically enabled on AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series products when users tick the "Morphological filtering" box available in the AMD Catalyst™ Control or VISION Engine Control Centers.
What are the benefits of MLAA?
Small performance impact
Morphological Anti-Aliasing is applied to fully rendered scenes as a post-processing effect. Performed with DirectCompute and accelerated by AMD Radeon™ stream processors, MLAA requires significantly less time to calculate and apply than computationally intense methods like Supersample Anti-Aliasing (SSAA), which is performed during the rendering phase of the GPU pipeline.
Stunning image quality
The algorithm used to perform Morphological Anti-Aliasing dramatically reduces aliasing, or “jaggies,” across every texture and object in a given scene. The stunning image quality enabled by MLAA is broadly comparable to that of Supersample Anti-Aliasing (SSAA), which is widely considered to provide the highest available anti-aliasing quality.
|
|
|
|
No MLAA
|
MLAA
|
Broad compatibility
Because Morphological Anti-Aliasing is conducted in post, it does not depend on pre-existing application support for anti-aliasing. This substantial difference from traditional anti-aliasing techniques enables MLAA compatibility with virtually any DirectX® 9 or newer title.
Simple to enable
Accessed via the AMD Catalyst Control Center™, a simple “Morphological filtering” checkbox is all the user needs to enable this fantastic image-enhancing technology.
