Unfavourable forced TAA (temporal anti-aliasing) since 2018

    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:



  • This is just from turning the camera:



  • The haloing around objects:

  • God rays negatively effected by TAA:



    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.
7 Likes

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).

1 Like

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. :face_exhaling:

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).