---
title: "FXAA"
authors: ["Timothy Lottes"]
year: 2011
venue: "NVIDIA whitepaper"
arxiv: null
doi: null
source: "https://developer.download.nvidia.com/assets/gamedev/files/sdk/11/FXAA_WhitePaper.pdf"
topics:
  - "anti-aliasing"
seed_rank: 1352
seed_batch: "fox-engine-2013"
reviewed: "2026-08-25"
pool: "graphics"
relevance_score: 8
lineage: anti-aliasing
cites:
  []
see:
  - "1344-photorealism-through-the-eyes-of-a-fox-the-core"
  - "1346-deferred-shading"
  - "1355-metal-gear-solid-v-graphics-study"
  - "1357-decima-engine-advances-in-lighting-and-aa"
---

# FXAA

## One-sentence takeaway

Lottes NVIDIA FXAA: one full-screen pass that finds luma edges and blurs across them. The AA Courrèges found on Fox (deferred cannot just turn on MSAA).

## Problem

Deferred G-buffers store one sample per pixel. MSAA is painful. Fox still has jaggy rails and silhouettes after lighting.

## Design

Single pixel-shader pass, color in / color out. Detect edges from local luma contrast; apply a short directional blur perpendicular to the edge, with a sub-pixel term. Whitepaper dated February 2009 on the cover; document change history 25/01/11 "initial release" — this is the 3.x SDK paper games cite.

## Evidence

NVIDIA whitepaper PDF, HTTP 200. Courrèges 2017: Fox finishes the frame with an FXAA pass (handrail stair-steps gone). Decima 2017 later pairs FXAA with TAA — different engine.

## Limitations

Softens textures; no temporal stability. Not a DOI paper. 2009 vs 2011 dating is messy; source is the 2011 SDK PDF.

## Implications for Broadside

If Anoptic stays forward+/visibility, MSAA or visibility-aware AA is available. Fox's choice is the deferred default of 2013: FXAA at the end.

## Bottom line

Mint Lottes FXAA from the NVIDIA whitepaper URL. No invented 2009-only PDF.

## Links

- NVIDIA whitepaper: https://developer.download.nvidia.com/assets/gamedev/files/sdk/11/FXAA_WhitePaper.pdf