Jaggies

<h2 id="causes">Causes</h2>
<p>Jaggies occur due to the "staircase effect". This is because a line represented in raster mode is approximated by a sequence of pixels. Jaggies can occur for a variety of reasons, the most common being that the output device (<a href="/facts/Computer_display/NRaTDFHc">display monitor</a> or <a href="/facts/Computer_printer/PnDF2QuF">printer</a>) does not have sufficient <a href="/facts/Display_resolution/8LQTWvl3">resolution</a> to portray a smooth line.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> In addition, jaggies often occur when a bit-mapped image is scaled to a higher resolution. This is one of the advantages that <a href="/facts/Vector_graphics/y8ok7M2P">vector graphics</a> have over <a href="/facts/Bitmapped_graphics/HkXNc8oI">bitmapped graphics</a> – a vector image can be losslessly scaled to any arbitrary resolution or stretched infinitely in either axis without introducing jaggies.
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<h2 id="solutions">Solutions</h2>
<p>The effect of jaggies can be reduced by a graphics technique known as <a href="/facts/Spatial_anti-aliasing/od0SgvLy">spatial anti-aliasing</a>. Anti-aliasing smooths out jagged lines by surrounding them with transparent <a href="/facts/Pixel/UzwBvXBV">pixels</a> to simulate the appearance of fractionally-filled pixels when viewed at a distance. The downside of anti-aliasing is that it reduces contrast – rather than sharp black/white transitions, there are shades of gray – and the resulting image can appear fuzzy. This is an inescapable trade-off: if the resolution is insufficient to display the desired detail, the output will either be jagged, fuzzy, or some combination thereof. While machine learning-based <a href="/facts/Image_scaling/qNoeujzm">upscaling</a> techniques such as DLSS can be used to infer this missing information, other types of <a href="/facts/Visual_artifact/sKfdQVPU">artifacts</a> may be introduced in the process.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
</p><p>In <a href="/facts/3D_rendering/6SqukntK">real-time 3D rendering</a> such as in video games, various anti-aliasing techniques are used to remove jaggies created by the edges of polygons and other contrasting lines. Since anti-aliasing can impose a significant performance overhead, games for home computers often allow users to choose the level and type of anti-aliasing in use in order to optimize their experience, whereas on consoles this setting is typically fixed for each title to ensure a consistent experience. While anti-aliasing is generally implemented through <a href="/facts/Graphics_library/QkHaISm6">graphics APIs</a> like <a href="/facts/DirectX/jyy75wVN">DirectX</a> and <a href="/facts/Vulkan/e188Vdpc">Vulkan</a>, some consoles such as the <a href="/facts/Xbox_360/dYlE3mL5">Xbox 360</a> and <a href="/facts/PlayStation_3/obhuo97V">PlayStation 3</a> are also capable of anti-aliasing to little direct performance cost by way of dedicated hardware which performs anti-aliasing on the contents of the framebuffer once it has been rendered by the GPU.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Jaggies in bitmaps, such as sprites and surface materials, are most often dealt with by separate <a href="/facts/Texture_filtering/XraFoapy">texture filtering</a> routines, which are far easier to perform than anti-aliasing filtering. Texture filtering became ubiquitous on PCs after the introduction of <a href="/facts/3Dfx/8t0LNDBb">3Dfx</a>'s Voodoo GPU.
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<h2 id="notable-uses-of-the-term">Notable uses of the term</h2>
<p>In the 1985 game <i><a href="/facts/Rescue_on_Fractalus!/UJ1annfI">Rescue on Fractalus!</a></i> for the <a href="/facts/Atari_8-bit_computers/aT04N5zR">Atari 8-bit computers</a>, the graphics depicting the cockpit of the player's spacecraft contains two window struts, which are not anti-aliased and are therefore very "jagged". The developers made fun of this and named the in-game enemies "Jaggi", and also initially titled the game <i>Behind Jaggi Lines!</i>. The latter idea was scrapped by the marketing department before release.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Posterization/SEdYoKRj">Posterization</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Mitchell, Don P. "The Antialiasing Problem in Ray Tracing" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2008-11-14. Retrieved 2009-04-16. <a href="http://www.mentallandscape.com/Papers_siggraph90tutorial.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.mentallandscape.com/Papers_siggraph90tutorial.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"The Next Generation 1996 Lexicon A to Z: Jaggies". Next Generation. No. 15. Imagine Media. March 1996. p. 35. <a href="/wiki/Next_Generation_(magazine)" target="_blank">/wiki/Next_Generation_(magazine)</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Is Upscaling Useful at Lower Resolutions? Nvidia DLSS vs Native at 1080p". TechSpot. 2024-02-14. Retrieved 2024-12-23. <a href="https://www.techspot.com/article/2803-dlss-vs-native-1080p/" target="_blank">https://www.techspot.com/article/2803-dlss-vs-native-1080p/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Leadbetter, Richard (2010-01-16). "The Anti-Aliasing Effect". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2024-12-23. <a href="https://www.eurogamer.net/the-anti-aliasing-effect-article" target="_blank">https://www.eurogamer.net/the-anti-aliasing-effect-article</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Hague, James. "Interview with David Fox". Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-10-10. <a href="http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/FOX.HTM" target="_blank">http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/FOX.HTM</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Jaggies open-in-new

Jaggies