Proper Anti-Aliasing - MSAA back in WoW 6.0 (NVIDIA Only)

[Bloomfalls]

Hello everyone.

I've checked the past few pages but didn't see anything related. In any case, I apologize if this is a repost.

Disclaimer:
The methods in this post will alter settings in your video card driver. Anti-aliasing also requires more power from your video-card, which means it can overheat if it's not properly cooled. Do it at your own risk. I recommend only following it if you know what MSAA is, and what not, or if you're already familiar with NVIDIA Inspector.

The problem:

People who are less tech-savvy have been complaining on the official forums about how their game look less sharp or blurry. Even the new in-game Anti-Aliasing methods are described as blurry. If you're more knowledgeable of 3D pipelines then you've probably noticed that since 6.0 kicked in you can no longer use proper multi-sampling in WoW.

If you don't know what that means, it's simple - The entire graphic output has been rewritten and the new method doesn't allow proper anti-aliasing (which consists of sampling multiple pixels then averaging them in order to get a more precise final result). Instead it now offers two post-processing methods. Post-processing is faster but inferior to multi-sampling and, on top of that, the current methods available in-game are very inferior to more modern post-processing solutions. FXAA in particular is unusable, as all it does is blur your edges very poorly. A blurry staircase still looks like a staircase.

Typically deferred rendering (the current method) doesn't allow for multi-sampling. The next-gen methods are pretty much brute-force (such as downsampling or, as NVIDIA is marketing it, DSR/Dynamic Super-Resolution, which consists of rendering the entire image at much larger resolutions then downscaling it) and present a huge impact in game performance.

I could go on if you want, but I believe the basics are explained.


The solution:

It's actually possible to bring back MSAA in WoW through NVIDIA Inspector. I'm not providing links to third-party programs, but there's a link to NVIDIA Inspector on Guru3D, feel free to google for it or use the display card tweaker of your preference. Use it at your own risk.

Inside NVIDIA Inspector, click the Driver Profile Settings (looks like a button with a hammer next to the "Driver Version" information) and choose the profile for World of Warcraft. Change the following settings:

Antialiasing Compatibility: 0x000012C1

Antialiasing Behavior Flags: None
Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
Antialiasing - Setting: 4x [4x Multisampling]
Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling: Disabled
Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling: 4x Sparse Grid Supersampling

Second, change WoW settings to use DirectX 9 instead of DirectX 11 (Esc - System - Advanced - Graphics API - DirectX 9 - Confirm and restart the game).

Third, disable the in-game anti-aliasing in WoW. No FXAA Low or High. Just disable it.

DirectX 11 doesn't provide any way for you to inject antialiasing compatibility flags, unfortunately, which is the main issue here. You'll lose some FPS in your transition to DX9 (WoW is better optimized for DX11) and you'll lose the new Quest Objects glowing effect, that's about it.




What's most interesting is that you'll get the same performance impact of a traditional MSAA instead of a full-screen super-sampling which usually occurs in deferred rendered games. You can test this easily through DSR or by changing the anti-aliasing setting to supersampling and notice how much bigger is the FPS loss. In fact, WoW is the only deferred-rendered game I've ever seen where this happens. You can use the same method to force anti-aliasing on many other games that don't support multi-sampling (such as FFXIV) but all you'll be doing is forcing a sparse-grid supersampling instead, except for WoW. I'm really curious about it.

Anyway if you follow these instructions you should get MSAA back in your WoW and everything will look shinier and sharper than ever.

Also while you're at it, if you don't like the new permanent bloom the game forces down your throat, this is the command to remove it in-game: /console ffxglow 0
It has just been hotfixed to persist after you log out.

Have fun.

[Steeltronic]

Do you have an example screenshot of how this looks like? I'm all for getting better graphics as my rig could easily handle it. I just wonder if it's somewhat "stable" FPS on 144Hz screens?

[Bloomfalls]

Do you have an example screenshot of how this looks like? I'm all for getting better graphics as my rig could easily handle it. I just wonder if it's somewhat "stable" FPS on 144Hz screens?

Well, that depends entirely on your video card. It's stable on mine, but I'm under a GeForce 780 Ti. I have no idea what your video card or your resolution is, so you'd have to try it out.

Screenshots are bad to convey anti-aliasing, especially multi-sampling, because of how MS deals with temporal aliasing. The game will look much better in movement, relative to static images.
This is twice as true in areas with dense vegetation, especially in relation to post-processing AA: Each screenshot might look fine on its own, but the temporal information will not match because each grass is located in sub-pixel areas, which results in the game flickering like mad.

Anyway, here's a comparison. Normal on the left, MSAA on the right:






My recommendation is: If you're not bothered by how the game looks right now in comparison to pre-6.0, don't worry too much about it. Feel free to try it out anyway.

[Viktoras Freigofas]

didn't work for me to be honest, names are still blurry i got no problem with environment detail but for some reason people names have been blurry, even bought a new Monitor and that still same

[Bloomfalls]

didn't work for me to be honest, names are still blurry i got no problem with environment detail but for some reason people names have been blurry, even bought a new Monitor and that still same

Make sure you disable the in-game anti-aliasing, and check all the steps back again, especially WoW in DX9. Antialiasing compatibility flags need to be set to exactly 0x000012C1 or it's not gonna work.

[Steeltronic]

Well, that depends entirely on your video card. It's stable on mine, but I'm under a GeForce 780 Ti. I have no idea what your video card or your resolution is, so you'd have to try it out.

Screenshots are bad to convey anti-aliasing, especially multi-sampling, because of how MS deals with temporal aliasing. The game will look much better in movement, relative to static images.
This is twice as true in areas with dense vegetation, especially in relation to post-processing AA: Each screenshot might look fine on its own, but the temporal information will not match because each grass is located in sub-pixel areas, which results in the game flickering like mad.

Anyway, here's a comparison. Normal on the left, MSAA on the right:

My recommendation is: If you're not bothered by how the game looks right now in comparison to pre-6.0, don't worry too much about it. Feel free to try it out anyway.

Ah, okay. Thanks! I have a GTX 690 so this shouldn't be a problem to run in any way, tho I'm way to used to play at 144Hz (144fps is so damn smooth..) so I don't know if it's worth having "better graphics" over the smoothness at this point..
Thanks for this guide however!

[Thomja]

This works, however I when I'm moving in game I kinda see the ground move somewhat aswell in certain places... Hard to explain... But does look somewhat better but this ground issue may not make it worth having.

[Bloomfalls]

This works, however I when I'm moving in game I kinda see the ground move somewhat aswell in certain places... Hard to explain... But does look somewhat better but this ground issue may not make it worth having.

You're probably having compatibility issues with Ambient-Occlusion (SSAO). Care to disable the in-game SSAO and see if the issue remains?

[Bloomfalls]

Ah, okay. Thanks! I have a GTX 690 so this shouldn't be a problem to run in any way, tho I'm way to used to play at 144Hz (144fps is so damn smooth..) so I don't know if it's worth having "better graphics" over the smoothness at this point..
Thanks for this guide however!

I understand. In some games I prefer a higher FPS and am willing to accept the sacrifice in regards to image quality, too. I have experienced a 120hz screen once it was indeed delightful.

[Bloomfalls]

Bumping it for the WoD release. Friendly reminder that quest items don't get their in-game glow while in DX9.