Antialiasing (commonly abbreviated as AA) refers to a range of methods used to smooth out jagged or pixelated edges—often called “jaggies”—in an image.
In Corona, antialiasing is handled differently than in some other renderers. Instead of allowing direct control over the minimum and maximum number of samples per pixel, Corona uses a progressive rendering approach. This means the image is built up gradually through a series of passes, with each pass refining the image by adding more antialiasing samples. Rendering continues until one of the following conditions is met: the time limit is reached, the specified number of passes is completed, the desired noise level is achieved, or the user manually stops the render.
You can monitor the current pass count in several places: the VFB Stats tab, the render stamp (if enabled), and the Rendering dialog.
It’s helpful to think of each pixel as receiving one sample per pass. However, thanks to adaptivity, Corona automatically adjusts this on a per-pixel basis—allocating more samples where they’re needed most to optimize image quality and rendering efficiency.
You can adjust how rendering power is distributed between antialiasing and global illumination (GI) sampling using the GI vs. AA balance and Light Samples Multiplier settings. However, in most situations, the default values provide an optimal balance and do not require any changes.
You can choose a specific image filter and adjust its width in Render Setup > System > Frame Buffer > Image Filter.
Enabling High-quality image filtering is equivalent to using a Tent filter with a width of 2. This option delivers noticeably higher image quality, even with fewer rendering passes. For the best balance between rendering speed and image quality, it’s generally recommended to keep the default image filter settings.
Note: Setting the image filter to “None” does not turn off antialiasing. Instead, it applies a box filter, which provides the lowest-quality antialiasing (a common default in many renderers). To completely disable antialiasing, refer to: How to disable antialiasing?
For optimal rendering performance and image quality, it’s best to leave the Corona image filtering settings at their default values.
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