Firstly, 16x Anistropic filtering is better then Trilinear filtering, but comes at a greater performance hit. Trilinear filtering results in the ground becoming blurred into the distance, whereas Anistropic filtering x16 means that the ground is still pretty much clearly defined into the distance.
Generally, anisotropic filtering can noticeably affect framerate and it takes up video memory from your video card, though the impact will vary from one computer to another. When the in-game camera views textures from an oblique angle, they tend to become distorted without anisotropic filtering.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
The most primitive of these techniques are bilinear and trilinear filtering. Of course, higher levels will have a higher performance impact, but the image quality is incomparably better in comparison with bilinear/trilinear filtering.In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering (abbreviated AF) is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces of computer graphics that are at oblique viewing angles with respect to the camera where the projection of the texture (not the polygon or other primitive on which it is rendered) appears
Fast game with low/medium graphics would definitely mean NO Anti-aliasing unless you're playing very undemanding games. Anti-Aliasing is where the GPU filters/renders shadows, curved edges etc so they look smooth and realistic. So, if you want a playable experience keep it off or at a minimum.
HBAO stands for Image-Space Horizon-Based Ambient Occlusion. SSAO stands for Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion. HBAO is an improved method of AO compared to SSAO.
In layman's terms, anisotropic filtering retains the "sharpness" of a texture normally lost by MIP map texture's attempts to avoid aliasing. Anisotropic filtering can therefore be said to maintain crisp texture detail at all viewing orientations while providing fast anti-aliased texture filtering.
Decals allow multiple textures to be applied to a single object or part of an object, over a base texture that is already applied to the object. Decals can be used to simulate signs on a textured wall, or layered textures for portraying wainscoting on a wall or patterns on fabric.
Fxaa would give you higher performance than 4xmsaa but it won't look as sharp as msaa does. Fxaa does have an effect on performance but it's minimal. FXAA is less resource intensive than MSAA and doesn't have a very significant effect on performance.
FXAA can cause texture blurring, but MSAA can miss some edges - so it depends which limitation bothers you more. You really need to test it yourself and see which you prefer. FXAA is much better for performance though, so that is the deciding factor for a lot of people.
FXAA takes no hit on performance, whilst TXAA gives you a bigger hit on performance than MSAA. Personally I must say I dislike TXAA. It adds motion blur, a filter and MSAA combined. Big performance hit.
On 1080p I would use FXAA, TAA is only good in very few games. Anything above 1080p I would just go with no AA at all, somehow the game has almost no aliasing in it, a friend of mine plays without AA on a 1080p resolution and says it looks better than FXAA.
SMAA, or Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing, uses the same technique as FXAA — that is, MLAA (Morphological Anti-Aliasing). SMAA addresses this, and provides even better anti-aliasing and less blurring than FXAA. It's the joint work of Crytek and the Universidad de Zaragoza in Spain.
SMAA is the best commonly available(There is a downloadable injector) type of post processing AA, it causes less blur than fxaa, and has subpixel information so it can come closer to MSAA in quality. Overall the post process types come close to 2-4x MSAA at significantly less cost.
Anti-aliasing techniques are essential in making games more realistic. They smooth out all the jagged edges that are common in computer-generated graphics. However, anti-alias techniques do adversely affect fps performance. Less anti-alias will increase fps yielding a smoother, more fluid experience.
SMAA, or Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing, uses the same technique as FXAA — that is, MLAA (Morphological Anti-Aliasing). SMAA addresses this, and provides even better anti-aliasing and less blurring than FXAA. It's the joint work of Crytek and the Universidad de Zaragoza in Spain.
Fast approximate anti-aliasing
