API Change Proposal - Re: MSAA and Scene anti aliasing

[Jim Graham]

+1

Constants good enough for now.  First pass doesn't really need 
subclasses since the 4 constants we start with are virtual and somewhat 
opaque, but we could put them in for grins if we want.

But, when we start making the different AA types selectable and 
parameterized then I think we want to have subclasses at that point. 
The concepts of "where are the subsamples taken" (both in respect to the 
positioning of the N sub-samples that determine coverage and also which 
of them, if any, are used to execute the shader) in MSAA have no bearing 
on FSAA, for example.  Trying to mix and match disparate descriptive 
parameters in a single class gets awkward...

			...jim

On 7/31/13 5:09 PM, Richard Bair wrote:
> Sorry let me be clear. Having a class vs an enum was my preferred approach and I'm glad with Jim's nudge it looks like we'll go there. Having just the few predefined constants as a starting point I think is good, and we can add sub-types and more goodness in the future.
>
> Richard
>
> On Jul 31, 2013, at 4:47 PM, Richard Bair <richard.bair at oracle.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm pretty confident we'll want different sub-types as we go along (CSAA, MSAA, FXAA -- there are a lot of different ways to do full-scene anti-aliasing and I bet that they will have different parameters for controlling their various algorithms), but we can cross that bridge later.
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> On Jul 31, 2013, at 4:36 PM, Chien Yang <chien.yang at oracle.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I agree, however I would prefer a single class over subclasses if possible. I have added Jim's proposal to the JIRA for consideration.
>>>
>>> https://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-31878
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> - Chien
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 7/31/2013 3:21 PM, Kevin Rushforth wrote:
>>>> This seems cleaner in terms of extensibility. I think we can wait on adding anything other than the public static finals for this release, but plan to extend it using something like what Jim suggests.
>>>>
>>>> -- Kevin
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Richard Bair wrote:
>>>>> Personally I liked this approach. It was like an enum in ease of use but much more extensible in the future when we add more anti-aliasing types and twiddles.
>>>>>
>>>>> Richard
>>>>>
>>>>> On Jul 31, 2013, at 1:36 PM, Jim Graham <james.graham at oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> D'oh!  I knew I should have been checking this list a bit.  I hope this isn't too late to have any impact...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As an intermediate solution this is fine, but when we want to get into providing settings for MSAA and FSAA and other algorithms I think classes are more flexible than enums.  How about this solution:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> package javafx.?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> public class SceneAntialiasing {
>>>>>>   public static final SceneAntialiasing DISABLED;
>>>>>>   public static final SceneAntialiasing BALANCED;
>>>>>>   public static final SceneAntialiasing FASTEST;
>>>>>>   public static final SceneAntialiasing NICEST;
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   public static SceneAntialiasing[] getAvailableTechniques() { }
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   SceneAntialiasing() { /* package private constructor! */ }
>>>>>> }
>>>>>>
>>>>>> public class MsaaAntialiasing extends SceneAntialiasing {
>>>>>>   MSaaAntialiasing(int numsamp) { /* package private */ }
>>>>>>   public int getNumSamples();
>>>>>> }
>>>>>>
>>>>>> public class FsaaAntialiasing extends SceneAntialiasing {
>>>>>>   FsaaAntialiasing(int numsamp) { /* package private */ }
>>>>>>   public int getNumSamples();
>>>>>> }
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Note that there are ways for the system to construct these objects without providing public constructors so that these become statically defined by the system.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What about Anisotropic filtering?  Is that considered a form of AA, or an option on top of AA?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>            ...jim
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 7/24/2013 3:07 PM, Chien Yang wrote:
>>>>>>> Thanks for the help! I was of 2 minds about it; alphabetical or logical.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> public enum SceneAntiAliasing {
>>>>>>>   DISABLED, // disables anti-aliasing
>>>>>>>   BALANCED, // enables anti-aliasing using optimal system setting available that balances speed and quality
>>>>>>>   FASTEST, // enables anti-aliasing using minimum system setting available that results in better frame rate
>>>>>>>   NICEST // enables anti-aliasing using maximum system setting available that results in best visual quality
>>>>>>> }
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - Chien
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 7/24/2013 2:49 PM, Richard Bair wrote:
>>>>>>>> Just to be picky, I would put DISABLED first in the list. It seems more consistent to have the only OFF mode to be first and then all the rest of the options (which happen to then have ordinals > 0) will be some form of ON mode.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Richard
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Jul 24, 2013, at 2:37 PM, Chien Yang <chien.yang at oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thank you for the feedback! We decided to drop DEFAULT in favor of BALANCED. So here is the revised SceneAntiAliasing enum entries:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> public enum SceneAntiAliasing {
>>>>>>>>>   BALANCED, // enables anti-aliasing using optimal system setting available that balances speed and quality
>>>>>>>>>   DISABLED, // disables anti-aliasing
>>>>>>>>>   FASTEST, // enables anti-aliasing using minimum system setting available that results in better frame rate
>>>>>>>>>   NICEST // enables anti-aliasing using maximum system setting available that results in best visual quality
>>>>>>>>> }
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>> - Chien
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On 7/23/2013 1:29 PM, Chien Yang wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>   We appreciate all the feedback you have contributed to this topic. After listening to the feedback and an internal discussion, we would like to propose a minor change to the API for supporting scene anti-aliasing. We intentionally choose not to expose the number of samples and techniques used in this release, but this doesn't preclude future addition when the time is right for more options. This change will be tracked by RT-31878 (https://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-31878):
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Anti-aliasing API Change Proposal:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Constructors remove:
>>>>>>>>>> public Scene(Parent root, double width, double height, boolean depthBuffer, boolean antiAliasing)
>>>>>>>>>> public SubScene(Parent root, double width, double height, boolean depthBuffer, boolean antiAliasing)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Constructor add:
>>>>>>>>>> public Scene(Parent root, double width, double height, boolean depthBuffer, SceneAntiAliasing antiAliasing)
>>>>>>>>>> public SubScene(Parent root, double width, double height, boolean depthBuffer, SceneAntiAliasing antiAliasing)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Note:The antiAliasing argument will be used if the underlying graphics driver has anti-aliasing support.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Where SceneAntiAliasing is an enum with the following entries at the moment:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> public enum SceneAntiAliasing {
>>>>>>>>>>   DISABLED, // disables anti-aliasing
>>>>>>>>>>   DEFAULT, // enables anti-aliasing using a default system setting available that balances speed and quality
>>>>>>>>>>   FASTEST, // enables anti-aliasing using minimum system setting available that results in better frame rate
>>>>>>>>>>   NICEST // enables anti-aliasing using maximum system setting available that results in best visual quality
>>>>>>>>>> }
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>> - Chien
>>>>>
>>>
>>
>