WindowDisplay > Anti-Alias > Shaded Anti-Alias

Toggles anti-aliasing of shaded surfaces.

Use this tool to turn anti-aliasing on and off on shaded surfaces. This applies to surfaces shaded using either WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade or Diagnostic Shading. You have the choice of two methods to anti-alias shaded surfaces: Software Anti-Alias and Hardware Anti-Alias.

Software anti-aliasing gives you a better quality result, but does not apply while you tumble in the view. Once you stop tumbling, there might be a time lag while the anti-aliasing is re-applied. Hardware anti-aliasing works during tumbling as well but the quality is less. You can use both methods simultaneously if you want.

Anti-Alias Shaded Settings

Software Anti-Alias

Set this option to Low,Medium, High, or User Defined to specify the level of software anti-aliasing. By default this option is set to Off. When you select User Defined, the following two options appear.

Samples

(Available when using User Defined Software Anti-Alias) Sets the number of samples that will be taken and averaged. Generally, you should choose values lower than 36. Choosing a value that is too high for your scene may result in some artifacts, like banding.

Pixel Sample Radius

(Available when using User Defined Software Anti-Alias) To create a smooth image, the technique used moves the camera slightly. Setting a value lower than 1 in this option means the camera jitters less than a pixel; values greater than 1 jitter it more than 1 pixel. Choosing a value that is high results in greater blurring than choosing a low value.

Supersampling

When turned on, the anti-alias quality improves by a factor of 4. For example, when Hardware Anti-Alias in set to 16x, the overall quality increases to 64x. Note that using Supersampling affects rendering performance.

Hardware Anti-Alias

Set this option to 4x or 8x to use hardware anti-aliasing. The default setting is Off.

Once you have chosen the appropriate settings in the option boxes, you only need to select the menu items to turn the anti-aliasing on (check mark) or off (no check mark).

About preview rendering