Lighting & rendering · Beginner

Anti-aliasing

Smoothing the jagged stair-step edges in rendered images

Also called AA

What is anti-aliasing?

Anti-aliasing is a set of methods that smooth the jagged, stair-step edges that appear when a sharp 3D edge is drawn on a grid of square pixels. It works by blending edge pixels between the colors on either side, so lines and curves look clean.

Think of it like this

It is like drawing a slanted line on graph paper: shade the squares it half covers in gray, and from a distance the line looks smooth.

Where it fits in a 3D project

  1. Create
  2. Surface
  3. Rig
  4. Animate
  5. Render
  6. Export

Render: Lighting the scene and turning it into images or video.

How anti-aliasing works

  1. 01A diagonal or curved edge only partly covers some pixels.
  2. 02Without anti-aliasing, each pixel is all one color, so edges look like steps.
  3. 03The renderer takes several samples inside each edge pixel, or across frames.
  4. 04It averages them, giving in-between shades that read as a smooth edge.

Where anti-aliasing is used

  • Clean edges in games and viewports
  • Smooth thin details like cables, hair and fences
  • Final renders where stair-steps would look cheap

Beginner tip

In offline renders, anti-aliasing comes from your sample count and pixel filter. If edges still look rough, raise samples rather than sharpening, which brings the jaggies back.

Terms related to anti-aliasing

Anti-aliasing FAQ

What are jaggies?
Jaggies are the stair-step edges on diagonal and curved lines in a rendered image. They come from drawing smooth shapes on a grid of square pixels, and anti-aliasing removes them.
What are the main types of anti-aliasing?
Multisampling (MSAA) samples edges several times per pixel; post-process filters such as FXAA soften edges after the frame is drawn; temporal methods (TAA) blend samples across frames. AI upscalers often handle it too.
Does anti-aliasing affect performance?
Yes, to a degree. Multisampling costs the most, post-process filters cost little, and temporal methods sit in between. A higher screen resolution also reduces the need for heavy anti-aliasing.
Why does anti-aliasing make my game look blurry?
Post-process and temporal methods soften the whole frame a little, along with the edges. Turn on a sharpening option, or switch to multisampling if your hardware can afford it.

Updated October 29, 2026 · Browse all 3D terms