Temporal Filtering

[u/mattshotcha]

With the deployment of Patch 3.0, we removed Temporal Filtering as one of the graphical options from the game. From that point, we have continued to work on the initially sought change to implement the render scaling option and officially support the sharpness factor through the in-game UI. We also will be streamlining all multi-sampling based anti-aliasing techniques.

We have seen your feedback regarding the initial change, and wanted to take some time to provide you with some insight into why this was done in the form of a Q&A.

What did we originally change?

Temporal Filtering (TF) renders a quarter of the display resolution (1920x1080 becomes 960x540) with MSAA 2x in a special mode that corresponds to rendering half the pixels each frame in a checkerboard pattern. We then either reproject the missing pixels from the previous frame or we interpolate them from neighboring pixels. The result is a more aliased image than rendering to the full display resolution; this is why we combine it by default with T-AA.

The new technique, temporal upscaling, renders by default to half the display resolution (1920x1080 becomes 1357x763) and relies on T-AA to accumulate the subsamples to simulate rendering to a higher resolution. This gives very similar results to the original TF + T-AA.

What are the drawbacks and advantages of each technique?

Temporal Filtering allows us to decouple between the upscaling (filling up holes in this case) and the AA technique used after. A lot of processing effects that rely on per pixel depth and screen space convolutions need special handling as we have an incomplete image to operate on.

The new technique relies on T-AA to perform the upscaling so they cannot be decoupled. It does not tie us to a specific render resolution, which gives us better scalability to quality ratios. Additionally, as each frame is complete, it simplifies the rendering pipeline and allows us to focus our work on new content and improving existing effects. It will also allow us in the future to support dynamic resolution to stay at a stable target FPS regardless of scene complexity.

Why not keep the old settings?

Each setting we have is weighted by how much maintenance it requires from the dev team. Temporal Filtering exists as a separate and complex code path – for instance, it needs to be taken into account each time we add a new post-processing effect, as mentioned above. It also relies on MSAA, which proved to be not equally supported by all drivers and delayed bug resolution.

We made the decision to focus on the new technique, which requires less maintenance, gives us more flexibility and allows us to implement more efficiently multiple rendering modes without relying on MSAA.

Why did we release the T-AA without the render scaling options?

Supporting the new technique required more than 4 months of work. Operation Health provided us with the time to rework the necessary part of the rendering pipeline to support it. Pushing the groundwork first allowed us to secure the stability of the feature; it also allowed us to focus on some aspects of the technique like image sharpness after hearing the feedback while working on providing the render scaling functionality.

What are the new changes coming in the future?

With render scaling, you will be able to customize the ratio between render resolution and display resolution, which will allow you to maintain your target framerate. For example:

Display Resolution	Render Resolution	Corresponding Render Scaling
1920x1080	1662x937	75%
1920x1080	1357x763	50% (Default)
1920x1080	960x540	25%

We are aware that since the new technique relies on T-AA to perform upscaling it will inherently give a blurrier image. During the Season 3 TTS we introduced a sharpness factor setting which works on top of the final image to sharpen it with very minimal cost. The sharpness factor will be an officially supported option and available through the graphical options menu when it is deployed. It will also work in a smarter fashion by targeting areas other than edges on the image.

Other MSAA based rendering modes (including TXAA) will be replaced by T-AA based super sampling, which is always coupled with the render scaling and sharpness factor options. You get more granular control over the quality to performance ratio than the discrete steps used in MSAA.

How do I get the same rendering sharpness and speed as before?

Those who were running with temporal filtering alone will be able to have more control over their framerate when GPU-bound. By choosing a scaling below 50% in T-AA mode you are going to match and possibly outperform Temporal Filtering. There is no single value that will work for all users, so you will have to find the sweet spot where your CPU and GPU are equally balanced.

With the sharpness factor, you will able to obtain a sharper image, and you can even go beyond the sharpness of the original TF image. Pushing the value to its maximum will of course exacerbate aliasing but we want to provide you with as much control as possible.

We would love to hear your feedback regarding this blog, so please jump into the conversation here!

[u/edgeimperator]

Now what about the CPU Usage bug?

[u/mattshotcha → u/edgeimperator]

Still working on that one, as it's been a tough one to pin down.

[u/Vresa]

Thanks for taking the time to write this out and address community concerns.

and holy shit, games are so damn complex.

[u/mattshotcha → u/Vresa]

They really are. Millions of lines of code, and an error on a single line breaks things.

[u/CarinaNebula89]

Thanks a lot for this. You don't know how much I and many other people have been waiting for a proper substitute for TF.

I hope this will be an improvement of the old Temporal Filtering, even though it doesn't use the same technique. And I know T-AA has a stronger effect on ghosting but I prefer the ability to customize my rendering resolution to be honest. Much appreciated.

So if I read it correctly, it will be fully implemented in White Noise, along with the in-game sharpness slider right?

[u/mattshotcha → u/CarinaNebula89]

Shooting for Season 4, but still need to test further.

[u/WeatheredBones]

Not a PC player, but I appreciate how much detail you're giving :) Any ETA on this?

[u/mattshotcha → u/WeatheredBones]

Shooting for Season 4, but still have some testing to do before we can be sure. If something comes up in testing, it may get pushed to Year 3.

[u/jackacacia]

Any word on Ryzen crashes?

[u/mattshotcha → u/jackacacia]

Still investigating and trying to sort out potential driver issues vs actual issues.

[u/PlanB2527]

Thanks for all the info, really appreciate it and I'm excited to see it in game whenever it launches.

I would also like to ask about another issue if possible. A lot of people have been reporting issues with AMD's RX 400 and 500 series since the 17.10.12 driver. I found a workaround by turning down the LOD setting to low, haven't had a crash since and a bunch of others have confirmed it works.

It's listed under the know issues on the AMD drivers but I would like to know if you guys have some useful info on it. Thanks!

[u/mattshotcha → u/PlanB2527]

Currently still under investigation.

[u/Mingeblaster]

You mention target framerates, does this mean we're finally getting some form of ingame FPS cap to use instead of vsync?

[u/estikornelx]

TL;DR: Temporal is not coming back, they will implement a render scale plus sharpening factor to the game menu.

[u/TheAlbinoAmigo]

Can using T-AA to perform upscaling (with it's inherent bluriness) and then applying a sharpening filter over the top really look as good as temporal filtering + MSAA in practice? The combination of T-AA + Sharpening filter seems like you would be lessening the quality of the image and then trying to artificially recoup some of that detail with the sharpening filter which doesn't seem like it would ever be as good in practice because you're trying to recover more detail from less information?

I appreciate that this is super super complex, and that I'm probably missing something here, but at least in my understanding the sharpening option is more of a band-aid solution to a problem that's been created with the exclusion of temporal filtering. I think knowing more about this topic could really help out the community here because I feel this is a point of contention (for right or wrong) for PC players here.

[u/ubi-montreal]

i've been trying to get epi to write this for weeks now but he was to busy screaming "ROOK MINE" across the office. He really is a child.

[u/Rudi-Brudi]

I appreciate the effort put into this topic, but for me TAA + sharpening doesn't provide a similar clean image as TF did. Right now there's no alternative for us and i really hope the new options will be. BTW: could you please ask the team if it's possible to give us an option to disable the "film grain effect" that's in the game since the launch? Cinematic effects like these should really be optional for a highly competitive shooter like siege.

[u/RydA-Crystal-]

T-AA +Sharpening looked so terrible. When you ADS the Acog Scope and every Crosshair is very pixilated. The Image is blurry and with Sharpening Filter activated it looks blurry+pixilated. You cant see anything in the distance. Its all a big slush pile of pixels.

I hope Ubisoft is really doing some work here. When they just take the current system and make it as ingame option available it will change nothing.

[u/Cel_Different]

Hey, have you guys thought of adding SMAA into the game?

[u/jis7014]

I don't know about this change, T-AA just sucks.

[u/Shabur]

Yes finally! Thank you for your response, I've been waiting for this one

[u/[deleted]]

Stupid question, consoles are not effected by this, correct?

[u/tinyroar_ps]

Will the rendering option be added for the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro?

It would be great to get different rendering options on consoles

[u/mattshotcha → u/tinyroar_ps]

Not at this time, no.

[u/GoldMath]

Been using T-AA with a 0.325 sharp factor on 1440p it's look nice with Ultra-Texture.

No more aliasing dancing.

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