Unfavourable forced TAA (temporal anti-aliasing) since 2018

[Knew]

Backstory (optional read):

Hi, I would like to disable TAA, but unfortunately I have not been able to find a solution ever since this was forced on all players in 2018. Unfortunately, due to my ignorance on the topic at the time; I thought my display was faulty and ended up trying to get a new one.. you can image my surprise when this did nothing to remove the TAA ghosting. This could've been easily avoided if the ability to disable it like in Hitman 2016 was possible, but as it stands-- it isn't even disclosed that TAA is forced on every user. It is worth noting that I am most definitely not the only person who has been faced with this issue. Evidence of this can be found in this Reddit comment.

The Problem with TAA:

TAA is a great solution for slow moving and movie-like experiences as it can get rid of the stair-stepping effect caused by native low resolution rendering.

The problem arises when users who would ideally have a much better experience without TAA are forced to use it, this can be a user with low end hardware who would rather have increased visual fidelity instead of being forced to use TAA, or a user with a high resolution display (for example: a 1440p or 2160p (4K) display) wanting to boost their visual fidelity by disabling TAA, especially as at such high resolutions, all you get are downsides from TAA (such as lower performance, blurry visuals and TAA ghosting).

Another problem with the current TAA solution is that it introduces haloing around close and moving objects, and not just TAA ghosting. What is less obvious is the blurred visuals TAA creates when applied. Examples of such will be listed below.

Why Am I Making This Post?:

I am making this post because no one has ever posted anything meaningful about the TAA problem Hitman 3 has faced since the release of Hitman 2 back in 2018 (it is now 2023). Of course, there have been numerous posts about it, but none have ever brought light to the problems in question.

Quite recently, I made two posts about this highlighting the problem requesting the ability to turn TAA off, these have been the first ever posts to ever bring light to the problem at any meaningful scale.

If you would like to have a look at the posts in question, the links can be found here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HiTMAN/comments/11y1lub/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HiTMAN/comments/12cbpoa/

The Evidence:

Here, I will showcase the aforementioned problems with TAA discussed:

• This is just from walking/running:

_{^^Full screenshot.^^}





_{^^Full screenshot.^^}





_{^^Full screenshot.^^}

• This is just from turning the camera:

^^Full screenshot.^^




_{^^Full screenshot.^^}

• The haloing around objects:

_{^^Full screenshot.^^}




<sub>^^Full screenshot.^^



^^Full screenshot.^^</sub>

• God rays negatively effected by TAA:

_{^^Full recording.^^ (412.22MB)}

Conclusion:

I really do think there should be an option for players to disable it, as this is a problem that effects every player, even if they do not notice it. But unfortunately, this is not possible. I have requested this in the past with little real response, and again with a similar response, but this time referring me to this forum. I would've done this sooner but I was not aware that my 2017 account was wiped in 2020/2021, so here I am now on a new account.

Too long; didn't read:

I want to know if there is a way to turn TAA (temporal anti-aliasing) off, the cool pictures above highlight the major problems with it.

Notes:

It should be noted that this post isn't a petition to remove TAA completely - rather, this is a call to find a solution to disable it.
TAA has a place, it just shouldn't be forced no matter the circumstance, and currently, it has been forced for 5 years with no solution in sight (only a faux registry setting that does nothing).


_{Thanks in advance,
Knew.}

[Dribbleondo]

Forceful language aside, It’s a good read, and I hope IOI implement a toggle for this sooner rather than later.

You should probably mention that the ghosting only happens when looking at certain surfaces, because otherwise this gives off the impression it happens everywhere (which it doesn’t).

[Knew]

Hi, thanks for your comment,
Unfortunately, it does happen everywhere - you either notice it or you don’t.
TAA ghosting does not go away, it is only mitigated (just because you can’t see it, does not mean it isn’t there).
I very much hope a solution is found, or IOI adds the toggle before development does eventually stop for this game.

[Knew]

Hi, folks,
I have added additional evidence of TAA being a problem in Hitman: WoA.

Please have a look if you are interested, keep in mind that the animated images are compressed to be below 8MB so they can be displayed (download the full uncompressed video or test it out in your copy of the game if you would like to further look into it).

[miitard]

Bump. Commenting to bring more attention to this post.

[Knew]

Well, it’s approaching 2024 now. I’m hoping that development doesn’t end before Hitman is eternally locked behind TAA (temporal anti-aliasing), making the 2016 release the only version without TAA. It would suck less if it wasn’t forced if you used super-sampling or had a display resolution high enough that TAA would only give negative side effects.

My only guess has to be that somewhere in the development of Hitman 2, they did something that relied on how TAA works, kind of like PayDay 3 with hair and CyberPunk 2077 with their lighting. I can only pray that it was solely added for the implementation of DLSS and other up-scaling techniques, making it a non-issue to allow players to disable it.

It’s hard to know for certain without someone at IOI telling us about the implementation of TAA. Maybe then we’d understand, but we are kind of left to speculate now. As of now, I’ve only had downsides to TAA, and I can’t see the future being any better with 4K displays I intend to purchase. While I am at it, I may as well add another instance of where TAA appears to cause visual defects (which I have yet to include).

[Dribbleondo]

@Knew

if you used super-sampling

Supersampling is very expensive anti-aliasing wise. It’s good if your computer can handle it, but it quickly eats VRAM, so the benefits start to outweigh the cost to your GPU, so to speak. There’s a reason we have alternate anti-aliasing methods, and as much as you clearly don’t like TAA, it’s better than SS for simply not being so demanding, and that definitely matters to people. Not everyone’s running at 4K, or even 1080p.

Don’t get me wrong, the more options for disabling graphics options, the better, but solely having SSAA is not a solution either.

[Knew]

Hi, Dribbleondo.

@Dribbleondo

Supersampling is very expensive anti-aliasing wise.

Then use TAA, no AA, or even FXAA, and SMAA-- which they removed from the game after Hitman 2016. SS is not a requirement, but is an option. If TAA being forced is ok to you, why shouldn’t SS be? I’d be just as vocal about forced SS as I am about forced TAA if it was.

@Dribbleondo

It’s good if your computer can handle it, but it quickly eats VRAM, so the benefits start to outweigh the cost to your GPU, so to speak.

Me, and most people, would like to take full advantage of their hardware. Modern cards have up to 12GB of VRAM, but the most common is 8GB.

@Dribbleondo

There’s a reason we have alternate anti-aliasing methods, and as much as you clearly don’t like TAA, it’s better than SS for simply not being so demanding, and that definitely matters to people.

The whole point of this post is to bring light to the fact that we don’t have the option to use alternative AA methods. It isn’t that I don’t like TAA, it’s that I don’t like it in Hitman 2 or III. It is very distracting and what is less obvious is how much blurrier the final image is as a result. Why should I be forced to use TAA if I can run SS just fine?

@Dribbleondo

Not everyone’s running at 4K, or even 1080p.

This is just stupid. Over 89.96% of Steam users use displays 1080 vertical pixels high or higher, who hold a very large portion of PC players. Also, TAA is actually worse for users with lower resolutions, meaning if you are really concerned about lower end resolution users having an AA option, TAA is not what they deserve to be forced to use, and they need options just like the higher end users.

Statistics source: Steam Hardware & Software Survey

EDIT: Clarified that I meant 1080 and over. If you count the numbers, you will see this is what I meant.

@Dribbleondo

Don’t get me wrong, the more options for disabling graphics options, the better, but solely having SSAA is not a solution either.

Obviously. Maybe I didn’t make it clear, but I’m asking just to give us the ability to turn TAA off. I didn’t want to ask too much (like adding other AA techniques), but simply being able to turn TAA off opens the door up to far more options. 2160 (4K) and higher users can disable AA all together and save of precious performance if they want and people like me can use AA methods that they final visually far superior to TAA at 1080.

Users deserve more options.

[Dribbleondo]

For the benefit of those not on discord, here is the response I typed over there:

Just because 90% of people use 1080p monitors does not mean their games are actually running at that resolution. There is a disconnect there that the SHS cannot pick up on. It is probable, and quite likely in some demanding games, that players are going to drop the resolution down, with or without FSR or DLSS, and that some people are going to do that. Not “most people”, not “all people”, just “some people”, because we cannot quantify that number so easily. All I was doing was raising that possibility; nothing else.

SSAA is still very useful, but it has limited appeal on lower-end systems, as the downscaling takes a lot of power to do. It’s very good, but costly, which is why games (including H3) recommend it for those with beefier computers.

I want TAA to be able to be turned off too, and users certainly deserve more options, in graphics settings at least, it never hurts. I was not disagreeing with you, not entirely anyway.

[schatenjager]

@Knew

Over 89.96% of Steam users use displays over 1080 vertical pixel height

How do you figure? If 59.01% are using a display that is 1080 vertically, it must be something less than 89 that have a display over that.

[Knew]

@Dribbleondo

Just because 90% of people use 1080p monitors…

This isn’t what I said. I said that ~90% of users have resolutions above 1080, with ~60% having 1080, and the rest (~30%) having above 1080 (25% of which are 1440).

@Dribbleondo

…does not mean their games are actually running at that resolution. There is a disconnect there that the SHS cannot pick up on. It is probable, and quite likely in some demanding games, that players are going to drop the resolution down, with or without FSR or DLSS, and that some people are going to do that. Not to mention that these upscaling techniques were introduced after Hitman 2 and the introduction of forced TAA.

That doesn’t matter. The fact is that there are players who have the hardware needed to play at these resolutions and would not like their visuals to be ruined by TAA. FSR, DLSS, and even XeSS are all forms of TAA, hence their drawbacks being so similar.

@Dribbleondo

Not “most people”, not “all people”, just “some people”, because we cannot quantify that number so easily. All I was doing was raising that possibility; nothing else.

To me, it appears you are trying to justify, or at the very least discourage the request to turn TAA off.

@Dribbleondo

SSAA is still very useful, but it has limited appeal on lower-end systems, as the downscaling takes a lot of power to do. It’s very good, but costly, which is why games (including H3) recommend it for those with beefier computers.

Yes, SS is notorious for being the most expensive form of AA, so I don’t think people would like the sully the appeal of SS by having TAA forced over it.

@Dribbleondo

I want TAA to be able to be turned off too, and users certainly deserve more options, in graphics settings at least, it never hurts. I was not disagreeing with you, not entirely anyway.

Good. I don’t know why you discourage the talk of this issue. You were doing this months ago too.

@schatenjager

How do you figure? If 59.01% are using a display that is 1080 vertically, it must be something less than 89 that have a display over that.

I didn’t. Dribbleondo simply misinterpreted it, and maybe you did too. Please read what I am saying more carefully. I said that ~90% of users have resolutions above 1080, with ~60% having 1080, and the rest (~30%) having above 1080 (25% of which are 1440). That comes up to ~90%. I hope that explains how I got that figure.

EDIT: I think I found the confusion. I stated that ~90% of users use over 1080, but did not clarify that I meant 1080 or over. I will correct this. Sorry for the confusion.

[schatenjager]

@Knew

I stated that ~90% of users use over 1080, but did not clarify that I meant 1080 or over.

Yep, that was the problem I was referring to. The vast majority of users are still using monitors with 1080 vertical resolution. I personally have three of them and unless pricing changes pretty dramatically, don’t see any purpose (for me) of upgrading to anything bigger.

[Dribbleondo]

I’m more surprised 1440 monitor usage is as high as it is tbh.

[Knew]

@schatenjager

Yep, that was the problem I was referring to.

Haha, yeah. My bad.

@schatenjager

The vast majority of users are still using monitors with 1080 vertical resolution. I personally have three of them and unless pricing changes pretty dramatically, don’t see any purpose (for me) of upgrading to anything bigger.

I also have a 1080 multi-monitor set up. I do plan to switch to 4K the moment a nano-LED or QD-OLED ultra-wide drops. It would be a shame if I couldn’t take full advantage of the pixel density, but to be fair 2160 (4K) can perfectly mimic 1080 using integer/nearest scaling. IMO, 4K is the best resolution for media and games as a result. Can’t wait.

[schatenjager]

As this community’s resident old person with bad eyesight, I can’t really tell the difference, other than physical screen size. I couldn’t really tell the difference between the old Standard and High Definition televisions either. I’m still using a 1600 series Nvidia card and, frankly, everything looks good enough for my purposes. Usually when I’m playing a game, I have another monitor playing some movie or YouTube video while the third monitor has email, Facebook, or something else up.

[Knew]

So @Dribbleondo managed to find a way to disable TAA using Illusion0001’s method, and with the help of @musicalmushr00m and Invalid (unsure of their forum handle), it was also possible to disable the TAA jitter. Unfortunately, because of the games reliance on TAA, things like shimmering (particularly at 1080) and blocking on textures became visible (particularly in Hawke’s Bay), even with 2xSS, which is a shame, but appears to confirm the reason for the introduction of TAA in Hitman 2, as this was a non-issue in Hitman 2016.

The only way to enjoy a TAA free experience is with a high resolution display, which is at least possible now. Something that is evident is just how clean and sharp the game looks without TAA.

Lossless Image

Lossless Image

Aforementioned texture blocking:

Video of blocking textures

Thanks, guys.

[Knew]

Year Update:

After a whole year since this post was made, I would like to update it a little as this is now the top result on Google for people searching how to disable TAA on Hitman. Developments into Nvidia’s DLSS and Intel’s XeSS technology have made some great leaps in the time, and I would like to direct those who have problems with Hitman’s native TAA to try these out, but with modifications as IOI does not seem to keep the DLLs up to date, nor allow finite user modularity of them.

DLSS:

For DLSS, I would suggest updating the DLSS DLL within "...\steamapps\common\HITMAN 3\Retail\" of the game directory to the latest one (look out for DLSS 4.0 soon), and set the scaling to 1.0, so it will use DLAA instead of DLSS with the pre-set of ‘E’ selected, and auto-exposure enabled. You can use this tool to help you get started.

XeSS:

For XeSS, I would also suggest updating the XeSS DLL. The XeSS DLL will be in ...\XeSS_SDK-1.3.1\XeSS_SDK-1.3.1\bin\ of the *.zip file, and you will need to replace "...\steamapps\common\HITMAN 3\Retail\libxess.dll" with the updated version. To modify XeSS to use native XeAA rendering, you may use Intel’s official ‘XeSS Inspector’ tool to do it.

If All This Sucks:

Yeah, it does. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn close now, and especially compared to IOI’s forced TAA implementation. Even though people found out how to disable the forced TAA, it just simply was unreasonable to play without it as you’d need to use super sampling and on top of that deal with shimmering and other dithering effects IOI relied on blurry temporal anti-aliasing methods to mask for them. Even though TAA won’t go away any time soon, all we can hope for is that all the issues with it are resolved… especially the ghosting and blur.