what does antialiasing do?

[PQ]

I always thought it "anti alias'ed" a lot, but I don't see a difference at all..
I modified some textures, but does that mean anti aliasing doesn't work?

This is what it looks like with antialiasing off
This is what it looks like with antialiasing on


And another question: I can't turn dithering on. Whenever I turn it on, it just seems to change back to off.

(yes I click at save and exit)

other soldat settings:

windowed at 67%, 800×600, bitrate 32, smooth polygons on.
computer specs: core 2 duo 6300, nvidia 6600 128mb, 1gb ram, windows XP.

[PaFel]

As I guess it makes edges softer.

[PQ]

As I guess it makes edges softer.

... duh

But I don't see a difference..

[PaFel]

... duh

But I don't see a difference..

Maybe because you have the "soft polys" option turned on?

[xmRipper]

windowed at 67%, 800×600, bitrate 32, smooth polygons on.

You must play fullscreen!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

[PQ]

... duh

But I don't see a difference..

Maybe because you have the "soft polys" option turned on?

I have. I do see the difference between smooth polygons on and smooth polygons off. But when turned off, I still don't see a difference between antialiasing turned on or off.
But my question was more like "is this normal", so could someone check if the difference really is negligible. 

windowed at 67%, 800×600, bitrate 32, smooth polygons on.

You must play fullscreen!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

I know what anti-aliasing is, and turning fullscreen on doesn't make me see a difference.