What is anti-aliasing in Minecraft?

Ever wondered what anti-aliasing means in Minecraft? Anti-aliasing is a widely used technology in graphics technology, and it has made its way to video gaming in the past few decades. Gamers can now find anti-aliasing in almost all popular games like CS 2, Apex Legends, and Minecraft.

Anti-aliasing has been around since Minecraft version 1.2, or the "Better Together" update. What is anti-aliasing, though? That will be the question this article will be answering today. It will also go over how someone on PC can adjust it.

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What is anti-aliasing in Minecraft?

Anti-aliasing is a visual setting for virtual reality and Windows 10 PC gamers (Image via Mojang)

Anti-aliasing can be explained as a visual setting available by default for virtual reality and Windows 10 PC gamers. It is used to smooth out edges and add a small amount of realism. As Minecraft is a pixelated-block game, many players will have noticed rough edges on the blocks far from them.

Anti-aliasing is used for smoothing the texture of blocks to improve the overall visuals of the game. However, this does come at a cost. Turning on anti-aliasing might affect the FPS negatively on low-end devices as it is a resource-intensive feature.

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What does it look like?

The default game visual (Image via Mojang)

Here's a look at how anti-aliasing in Minecraft works. Currently, this player's settings are at default and have not been changed.

The following image will show the anti-aliasing at its lowest setting and its highest setting side by side. The lowest being labeled one and the highest being labeled 16.

Comparison of different settings of anti-aliasing (Image via Mojang)

There isn't much of a visual difference. However, the lack of blurring while the player zooms past the rose bush on setting 16 compared to 1. This shows anti-aliasing in action.

Changing settings

Changing the anti-aliasing setting in-game (Image via Mojang)

To change the anti-aliasing settings, players on Windows 10 can open their video settings and scroll to the very bottom. Once there, players can adjust the level of anti-aliasing using the slider underneath it.

As for Java Edition users, anti-aliasing is vailable as a feature in Optifine mod. Players will have to download Optifine to use anti-aliasing feature. This mod is available for free and is one of the best optimizations mods available for the game. To enable anti-aliasing in Java Edition, go through the following steps:

Antialiasing in Optifine (Image via Mojang)

1. Download Optifine from optifine.net and install it.
2. Start playing Minecraft with Optifine.
3. Go to Video Settings.
4. Click on Antialiasing
5. Switch it to 1-16x and restart the game.

Whether a player is going for a slight boost in performance or looking for better visuals, adjusting the anti-aliasing can help with their needs.