Shader code: Smoothstep does not anti alias from a distance

Questions & Answers
1

Shader code Cg noob here: I’ve created a radial timer with smoothstep shapes inside the fragment shader. Looks great up close, but from a distance the antialiasing is lost. I’ve read mentions that this is common and can be solved with Screen Space derivatives? I there an example of how this is done, or is there a simpler solution? Thanks!
203593-sstep0.jpg

203594-sstep1.jpg

2

FYI I found a solution using fwidth()
change this:

//Draw progress ring with smoothstep
 float alpha = smoothstep(_Inner - _Soften,_Inner, length(i.position.xy))
                    - smoothstep(_Outer, _Outer + _Soften, length(i.position.xy));
fixed4 finalRingColor = fixed4(_RingColor.rgb, alpha);

to this:

float dist = length(i.position.xy);
float pwidth = fwidth(dist);
float alpha = smoothstep(_Outer, _Outer - pwidth * 1.0, dist)
 - smoothstep(_Inner, _Inner - pwidth * 1.5, dist);
fixed4 finalRingColor = fixed4(_RingColor.rgb, alpha);

Better antialiasing from a distance