Guild Wars 2

The only AA currently available in game is FXAA, which is terribly blurry. Would my account be at risk if I use an SMAA injector? If yes then can we expect better AA to be implemented in the future?

Can’t you just force AA from the control panel?

Tried that in beta but nothing worked, using an Nvidia card.

Nope, in my case it’s impossible to force the AA of my AMD graphic card on GW2. If I do so the whole game goes blank when I login so I cannot play.

Might be that you have to do it via Nvidia inspector or it will have no effect, I haven’t tried though so no idea really.

The idea that SMAA_Injector could get you banned is ridiculous. If ArenaNet would do that, they can have my account. Wouldn’t wanna play a game made by <beep>.

I’ve been using SMAA Injector with GW2 for the last 3 weeks or so. Definitely an improvement. Not only is it less blurry than FXAA, it also improves the image-quality when moving the camera. FXAA (and MSAA too) can cause “pixel crawl”. Basically the outlines of moving objects can start flickering. Movement can be an NPC walking across your screen, but also you moving your camera. With SMAA, that pixel crawl is significantly less.

Imho SMAA is the best form of AA at the moment. GW2 is the first game where I am using it. I tried it in Skyrim too, and it’s a huge improvment there too. I plan to use it in all my future games, until something better comes along. (And no, I don’t think TXAA will be better).

The best AA currently available is super sampling AA, but that has a massive performance impact. The pixel crawl you’re talking about is only an issue when using shader based AA like FXAA, MLAA, and SMAA, which is where SMAA excels.

The SMAA injector is a third party program and I believe they stated that almost all third party programs are not allowed. I’m just hoping that they don’t mind this one.

Just went through all the AA options with Nvidia Inspector again and can confirm that none of them work still. At least with an Nvidia card.

Vash.1852:

Just went through all the AA options with Nvidia Inspector again and can confirm that none of them work still. At least with an Nvidia card.

Ah, sad to hear that as I too find FXAA to blurry.. can’t really decide wich is worse, the jaggies or the blur

Anet had no right to move the thread here, this thread has everything to do with people asking Anet to fix something or to offer other AA alternatives. It’s been a bug since closed beta that when you try to force the AA on AMD cards GW2 becomes blank and unplayable; x times later and it’s still not fixed. We still cannot force AA anyway, whether it’s Nvidia or AMD.

Vash.1852:

The best AA currently available is super sampling AA, but that has a massive performance impact.

I am sure we agree here. (You want SMAA after all too, just like me).
But SSAA is the “best looking” form of AA. That doesn’t mean it is the best overall. Considering the performance penalties and other aspects, I think SMAA is the best form of AA at the moment. (Especially in games that do deferred rendering, and where only FXAA, TXAA, MLAA and SMAA work properly).

The SMAA injector is a third party program and I believe they stated that almost all third party programs are not allowed. I’m just hoping that they don’t mind this one.

It depends on what you call a “third party program”.
If all pieces of software that are not GW2 are illegal, than nobody can play. Because we all use an OS. We all use drivers. We all use APIs like DirectX. What is a “program” ? Something in the form of an .exe ? Well, SMAA injector is safe then (it’s a DLL, not an .exe). Utilities like Logitech’s SetPoint is an .exe.

I think the rule is simple. Don’t use any tools that allow you to cheat in the game. No bots. No wallhacks. No teleports. No changing models/skins into bright colors. Etcetera. Note the use of the word: etcetera.
But trying to enhance the visuals of the game is not cheating. Nobody would consider SMAA cheating. That’s why I wrote my first line “if someone considers SMAA cheating, then he is a <bleep>”.

Don’t expect ArenaNet to give you an answer. They won’t. Because the more explicit they are about what is allowed, and what is not allowed, the more they are digging a hole for themselves. If they are vague, it is much easier to ban “smartasses” that come up with new stuff to cheat. If they list 10 or a 100 or a 1000 different things that are forbidden, then someone will come with cheat nr 1001. And point out that it wasn’t mentioned that it was forbidden, and thus allowed.

Go install SMAA_Injector, and enjoy your visuals !

I haven’t heard a statement on the current game, but in GW1 Anet always stated that using out source programs to change any ingame graphics isn’t against the EULA but is unsupported. (so if anything breaks in or out the game due to the outside source, you won’t get support. If it is due to the outside source, is totally up to the judgement off Anet and not up to you).

So assuming the above using outside programs to enhance the graphics is not a problem. when it comes to graphics your allowed to enhance and/or cripple the client as much as you want (make sure it stays at the client though, but in this case that isn’t a problem). The only but is that if the game keeps crashing, you can’t call support to fix it.