https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56865
--- Comment #19 from Alex Deucher agd5f@yahoo.com --- (In reply to comment #18)
As far as I understand, expected usage of MLAA with Mesa is to enable it only for the applications where you want it (games etc) with either app-specific drirc settings or environment variables.
It is probably so. A **huge** problem for me is a common lack of documentation. I'm okay with English and not too lazy to read but I could hardly find what to read, though. I mean - relevant while not obsolete. Things usually work in default configuration, which may not be optimal for some cases, and if I want to do something about it - this is where troubles begin - for me and maybe for developers who have to answer my sometimes stupid questions. All this video stuff looks so complicated and chaotic for me due to lack of documentation... I even did not comprehend if mesa is commonly responsible only for 3D rendering how comes erroneously enabled MLAA blurs fonts, too. Fonts currently are rendered by DDX driver, aren't they?
MLAA affects all rendering that goes through OpenGL. While the text rendering for non-GL X apps may be rendered by the ddx using xrendr, the pixmaps end up going though OpenGL if you are using an OpenGL compositor (gnome shell/compiz/kwin/etc.). When the application window is composited to the front buffer by the OpenGL compositor, the MLAA is applied.