I finally found the solution to a problem I've been having, so I thought I'd share it.

The problem:

If you enable Sparse Grid SSAA on your nVidia card, the game goes blurry. Worse, the blur changes as you pan the view around. For example, in a certain location you might get blur facing North but not facing West (with an unpleasant and noticeable switch-over as you pan your view between the two).

The solution (updated 4th Feb with better settings):

• Download nVidia Inspector if you don't already have it
  
• In SkyrimPrefs.ini set iMultiSample=0 (or 1, it doesn't matter which)
  
• Use nVidia Inspector to make the following changes to your Skyrim profile:
  
  • Antialiasing Compatibility = 0x000010C1
    
  • Antialiasing - Behaviour Flags = "None"
    
  • Antialiasing - Mode = "Override Application Setting"
    
  • Antialiasing - Setting = 4x
    
  • Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling = "Disabled"
    
  • Antialiasing - Transparency Supersamping = "4x Sparse Grid"

Voila. Perfect Full Scene SGSSAA. Note that a negative LOD bias is not required with these compatibility bits.

I never fizzle with my schnizzle, but thanks all the nizzle.

I don't see any reason why you would use unsupported SGSSAA over supported SSAA, since SSAA does an almost perfect job with Skyrim.

Hmm, well, I don't see any reason why you would post that comment in this thread, but since you did...

I use SGSSAA because regular SSAA does not do a perfect job with Skyrim. Nowhere near perfect. It totally fails to AA most transparent textures like snow on rock, or moss on stone, and totally fails to AA the specular highlights on normal maps. SGSSAA does all of that and more.

Well, we're talking about AA modes and SGSSAA will totally kill performance for most people without knowing why. SSAA does do an almost perfect job to what most people can see, even on transparent textures.

You really think people are that dumb? This is the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race we're talking about!

I haven't the foggiest idea what you are talking about. Sounds like a lot of work for little return to me but hey, have fun Bubba.

Should be in the PC part but LOL anyway.

I know one reason...

Well, it would be the Glorious Master PC gaming race, but you posted in the General forum. Might wanna brush up on your glorious masterness there chief, yer makin' us look bad here. Before long the plebs might think they have a chance of tinkering with their games and doing things like trying savagely unsupported and ugly forms of anti-aliasing for the lulz, too.

Sheesh... I've been on some seriously unfriendly forums before but...

Well anyway, I'd post before and after screens showing the immense improvement of SGSSAA, but something tells me the responses here would only get worse, so I'll stop trying to be "helpful" and try not to bruise any fragile egos on my way out...

Hi GSJ1977:
Please don't take it personally, or too seriously. People are simply trying to be lighthearted, especially since your topic is fairly obscure and doesn't necessarily apply to many users in this forum (XBox and PS3 users).

I do appreciate the information you have provided, but I also agree that your post would attract more attention in the Hardware->PC forum, and I'm hoping one of the mods will move it there anyway.

For the time being:
I tried SGSSAA through the nVidia Inspector a while back, and noticed the blurring and the severe performance hit, so I decided to stick to regular SSAA (I'm using 2x currently).

Then, I also use FXAA (the built-in one in Skyrim), which may slightly blur textures but goes a long way in reducing shader/specular aliasing and shimmering.
Even if the textures don't look quite as crisp as without FXAA, I think the overall look is better and smoother, especially when moving around. Vegetation in particular looks awesome in combination with SSAA 2x.
And with most mid and high range videocards, FXAA has a fairly low performance impact.

HardOCP agrees:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/28/skyrim_amd_crossfirex_performance_iq_review/3

I used auto-detect settings for a moment today and noticed that the difference between High Shadows with 8xAA, and Low shadows with 0xAA is about 350 or 400 MB of VRAM!

Mine says 1

but 1x = no multiplier, right? I want it off, totally. I set it to 0 in the display options, and it says 1 in the .ini, so I figure 1 is off.

Er, I guess 1 or 0, both should be off

One does not need much anti-aliasing these days compared to the past. 2xAA together with FXAA and TAA is good enough. Do not forget that a bloom shader will soften highlights, too. Smoke, fog and other effects and depth blurr reduce the need for much anti-aliasing further. You just will not notice much of a difference beyond 2x.

Hmmm, I do, actually, even with FXAA. Certain objects, like fences, posts, window and door frames, at a medium distance show a lot of "crawling" if set to anything less than 4x.
However, I run at 1680x1050, so maybe at 1080p and higher there isn't much difference between 4x and 2x. It may also have to do with the kind of monitor you may be using, and how far away you're sitting from it. I imagine that running on a 1080p 52" HDTV and sitting 8' away you will probably not notice much aliasing anyway.

By the way, I believe the OP is actually referring to **Transparency** SuperSampling Antialiasing, which only applies to transparency textures and alpha channels (things like foliage, grass, hair, etc.).

Fallout 3 and Fallout NV had an option for Transparency Multisampling, which made use of "Alpha-to-Coverage", but Skyrim unfortunately doesn't have the functionality, even if you force the setting in the ini.

Yes, he is, and it is off by default and needs to be enabled with an .ini-file option from what I remember.

From my own post:
Fallout 3 and Fallout NV had an option for Transparency Multisampling, which made use of "Alpha-to-Coverage", but Skyrim unfortunately doesn't have the functionality, even if you force the setting in the ini.

Can anyone confirm this?

No, I'm not. I'm referring to Full Screen Sparse Grid Supersampling, or SGSSAA for short. The option is found under the Transparecy AA section of nVidia Inspector, but SGSSAA is not a form of TRAA. It's actually, technically, an extension of MSAA which is intended to produce superior results to FSOGSSAA, but often requires compatibility bits to work correctly. It has absolutely nothing to do with transparency AA.

Well, yes you are. It may not be the same, obviously, but it originates from it. Technically is it a buggy TAA. http://naturalviolence.webs.com/sgssaa.htm

LOL, your own reference (correctly) states that you're wrong. Read it again. Or just keep posting nonsense, whatever.

OP updated with an improved setting I found today.

Wow. I jumped-in onto this thread because I didn't want you (the OP) to get it too badly after a few slightly "humorous" responses by other forum members. I really thought that your post had value, and wanted to contribute a bit of info and experience from my side, hopefully to the benefit of the conversation.

Reading your further posts, I see that you really deserved the flames. You are condescending, smug and snobbish.

And assuming that SGSAA only applies to transparency textures makes sense since it is available ONLY under the "Transparency Supersampling" setting in the nVidia Inspector. The fact that it works as full screen antialiasing appears to be an implementation bug, as sdack suggested.

By the way, don't bother replying to my post. I will not follow this thread any longer.
Good luck.

It actually fixes the shimmering on distant rocks and probably provides best possible setting, so well done. Looks great when combined with fxaa

I do wonder why you were "following" the thread in the first place, given that you clearly aren't interested in the help being offered, nor in contributing anything helpful of your own.

Your mistake is to believe that "SGSSAA" is an actual technology. It is not and giving it a name and an abbreviation is just misleading. It is a bug in a driver, which only works for some cards and some versions of the driver. It is pretty useless to the majority and belongs at best into the technical section of this forum. Please accept that what you believe to be helpful may not be helpful at all.

It also does not mean that when people disagree with you that they are against you. They are in fact trying to get you out of your narrow-minded thinking that got you into this argument in the first place. So let's just agree to disagree.