Nvidia came out with a feature with its 7800 line of cards called Transparency Antialiasing. All it does (not that it is simple to do) is look inside a texture and apply anti-aliasing to it instead of just the edges. So textures like chain-link fences and the like look less jaggy and more like the rest of the 3d environment.

For more information, there’s a couple of good reviews on transparency antialiasing on the web. I didn’t realize that it is disabled by default, you can enable it in the standard driver control panel. Performance & Quality Settings->Transparency Antialiasing.

World of Warcraft looked much better right away. Although apparently, the effect is not captured using the WoW screenshot tool. The AA effect must be in a different and later stage/buffer. 2d textures with the AA effect look way better. Textures look more in-place with the rest of the 3d world. It will do wonders for any game that still uses 2d sprites and the like.

Here’s an example in HL2. Look at the fence.
geek/hl2/hl2-taa.jpg

On to HL2

First up, one of my favorite parts in the game. Where you come up on the beach and are greeted by these structures with these absolutely gorgeous lights coming off of them. I <3 them. Full image here.

Hopefully the effect is visible here to you in the grass. If not, see the full image here.

What great image quality. Zoomed in with the gun zoom. Full image here.

Zoomed out. Full image here.