It’s no small secret that the PlayStation 3 has one rendering advantage over the Xbox 360 and Wii. Since its release, the PS3 has been a step above the others because of its ability to utilize MLAA (morphological anti-aliasing) to take the big hits like God of War 3 and make the look as smooth and as realistic as possible, removing all forms of “jagged” pixilation that would crop up.

With PC graphic cards now boasting the technology, it seemed that the Xbox 360 was going to be left out and stay a step behind… until now. Two developers have figured out a way to not only bring MLAA to the Xbox 360, but also make it better for both the Microsoft console and for the PC as well -- potentially giving a little extra life to the already five-year-old system.

The thing with anti-aliasing is that it’s time consuming for the processor: taking nearly 3-4ms for the PS3. Yet Jorge Jimenez and Jose I. Echevarria, the two behind the new find, say that they have gotten it down to 2.47ms on the Xbox 360, with room for “a lot of optimizations to try.” Jimenez spoke to Gamesindustry.biz about the technology.

"We can't speak for all the MLAA(-like) implementations out there, but we think our current version 1.6 (the one used for these comparisons) has raised the quality bar considerably… In our tests, it produces results on par (when not superior) to CPU MLAA."

It will be interesting to see how the technology will be used, especially with the Wii U on the horizon and the beginnings of the new console race right outside Microsoft’s door. If Microsoft’s developers (and additional third-party developers for that matter) begin utilizing the technology, it could add some additional longevity to the Xbox 360, while also stealing some of Sony’s thunder.

We’ll have to see how it plays out, but when you have your prize horse at the race, you don’t leave it at the stable.

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Source: Gamesindustry.biz

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