Is anyone seeing the surface of mountains undulating like a snake?

[Easyscor]

It's especially noticeable in cm eye but I can (barely) detect it in a fast plane when down low. It appears on the steep side sides of mountains (or cliffs if you build a terrain). I don't know if it's the surface texture or the clutter layer moving but my impression is that the surface texture is being covered by another texture from further back in the frame.
There are two pyramid mountains in a row south of A5 along the west coast of the island on ndisles. I see the textures rolling in and out with another when moving fast in cm eye mode. Also I noted the same thing on the steep sides of the map room when placed on a new default small field.

[Greebo]

I saw the same thing when flying through the steep canyons in CraterMA's tank town and the shifting textures made me a bit queasy after a while. I'd say anything steeper than 70 degrees suffers from it to a degree. As players are often close to the cliffs in TT I decided to get rid of them and have now bordered the area with lakes, which works in AH3 since everyone now sees shorelines.

[Karnak]

AH has always done that on my computers, all the way back to 2000.  No matter what card, CPU or drivers I've had there are always rendering sort issues with the terrain.

[Easyscor]

I saw the same thing when flying through the steep canyons in CraterMA's tank town and the shifting textures made me a bit queasy after a while. I'd say anything steeper than 70 degrees suffers from it to a degree. As players are often close to the cliffs in TT I decided to get rid of them and have now bordered the area with lakes, which works in AH3 since everyone now sees shorelines.

I created a small round island test terrain with the idea of seeing if I could make the bluffs of Normandy and the Cliffs of Dover with nothing but the TE. The slope I used for the test was 45 degrees, from 660' at the top of the cliff. The snake affect was still there and completely ruined the effect. The round shoreline contributed to accentuating the effect.

To recreate my favorite AvA terrain at this point, I'd need to stay with my custom objects for the cliffs and bluff. I'd probably need to do that anyway to have the appropriate cliff top heights and textures but I'd hoped it wouldn't be required.

[Chilli]

What do you suppose is making this effect?  Maybe another type of tile or clutter needs to be created specifically for mountainous cliffs, etc.  I know that in AH2 there were some pretty awesome looking mountain tops, and that seems to have been extended to AH3, but possibly something with shadows on steep angles makes a sort of waterfall effect (how cool would misty waterfalls be  ).

[Easyscor]

Here's the simplest test terrain I can imagine. I had to zip it up to attach it to this post. As you go around the island in cm eye, watch the base of the cliffs pull back from the shoreline. In a plane, you'll be going slower and it's less noticeable.

I was testing a number of things. One of them was what would happen if I drove a jeep off the top of the cliff. Usually every thing goes okay, but if you hit the side of a lower slope just right, you fall through the terrain. That's another something to watch out for in building cliffs. For now, I'll make sure the terrain is flat at the bottom if I expect to drive a GV to the top.

[hitech]

What do you suppose is making this effect?  Maybe another type of tile or clutter needs to be created specifically for mountainous cliffs, etc.  I know that in AH2 there were some pretty awesome looking mountain tops, and that seems to have been extended to AH3, but possibly something with shadows on steep angles makes a sort of waterfall effect (how cool would misty waterfalls be  ).

Go into the terrain editor, turn wire frame on, and water off. Move around and look at the mountains.

You will see how ah LOD's terrain, and what causes the issue.

Sharp changes in angles will cause the issue. It can be minimized by putting the sharp change on a 4 mile boundary.

HiTech