Hi all, made a pixel filter comparison.
The green tip is chosen to get a hard shiny edge.
The other settings (which stay the same for all renders)
Samples: 25
Ray bounces: 4
AA: 8
Shadow quality: 10
Global illumination quality: 5
DOF quality: 1 (not used)
Sharp shadows enabled
Sharper texture filtering: disabled
---
Ground reflection enabled
Ground shadows enabled
Detailed shadows enabled
Detailed indirect illumination enabled
Ground indirect illumination enabled
Other options, if not mention... not enabled.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T2J2cnwvozI/TlaqygxFiCI/AAAAAAAAAQo/OR5v0uD36W0/s1024/potlood%2525201.jpg)
Pixel Filter 1
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iGpeyhki8_M/TlaqwkVDXeI/AAAAAAAAAQY/XVlssUg9lRY/s1024/potlood%2525201%25252C5.jpg)
Pixel Filter 1,5
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TCgb_wY9tDo/TlaqxC3gQII/AAAAAAAAAQg/j6ay_dJyqoM/s1024/potlood%2525202.jpg)
Pixel Filter 2
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-IgGso_FJelc/Tlaqw-IEFMI/AAAAAAAAAQc/YA6YeYfvJ4A/s1024/potlood%2525202%25252C5.jpg)
Pixel Filter 2,5
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-OoiXHQw0IwU/TlaqyL0JidI/AAAAAAAAAQk/qKhUblAN-Oo/s1024/potlood%2525203.jpg)
Pixel Filter 3
Will do more comparisons in the future
Pixel Filter Size will put a small blur around the image. The higher the number, the blurrier it is. 1 means no blur.
Indeed, it's also very helpful if you find that sharp edges get "blocky" (even on high aa) because of a large amount of light.
I made this so you can more easily determine which setting would be appropriate for your scene.
If you go 8 with AA, make sure you crank up your samples, too! Yes, that eats into render time, but gives better results.
Maybe something to work on in the future ... sample images which show the FX in the help files.
That's the one thing I've always adored about 3D Max ... their help files are damn well illustrated !!