Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Open Beta Test => Topic started by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 11:04:27 AM

Title: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 11:04:27 AM
I posted this in the bug thread but I think it got lost among all the other posts. It may not be a bug but my graphics setup. With FPS of 55-60 (so it's not a low FPS issue) the trees shimmer/flicker if my point of view is moving. It's true if I'm driving a GV, flying low in a plane, or rotating a turret or manned gun. While trying to land a Spit on a field that was lined with trees it almost made me lose my lunch. I've tried multiple combinations of graphics settings in the game but nothing helps. My first thought was anti-aliasing but it made no difference.

Dobs suggested it may be due to a video card setting (anisotropic filtering) and suggested I turn it off. It was already set at "use application settings"  which I assume is the equivalent of off. I changed it to override application and set the filtering level at 2x. There was no improvement.  (Its now back to use application settings.)

Is anyone else having this problem and is it unique to AMD cards? I have an HD6950 and am not using the new crimson driver. DxDiag attached.

I will appreciate any help I can get with this.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Drane on September 14, 2016, 11:37:46 AM
Does the shimmering occur in both versions of AHIII, DX11 and DX9?
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: hitech on September 14, 2016, 11:42:38 AM
I posted this in the bug thread but I think it got lost among all the other posts. It may not be a bug but my graphics setup. With FPS of 55-60 (so it's not a low FPS issue) the trees shimmer/flicker if my point of view is moving. It's true if I'm driving a GV, flying low in a plane, or rotating a turret or manned gun. While trying to land a Spit on a field that was lined with trees it almost made me lose my lunch. I've tried multiple combinations of graphics settings in the game but nothing helps. My first thought was anti-aliasing but it made no difference.

Dobs suggested it may be due to a video card setting (anisotropic filtering) and suggested I turn it off. It was already set at "use application settings"  which I assume is the equivalent of off. I changed it to override application and set the filtering level at 2x. There was no improvement.  (Its now back to use application settings.)

Is anyone else having this problem and is it unique to AMD cards? I have an HD6950 and am not using the new crimson driver. DxDiag attached.

I will appreciate any help I can get with this.

What is your Tree Detail slider set to in Graphic Options?

HiTech
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 12:03:27 PM
Mid range. I'll try some different settings.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 12:20:32 PM
What is your Tree Detail slider set to in Graphic Options?

HiTech

It was at mid range. I just tried ten different positions from far L to far R and saw little difference until I was close to and at far left. At and near far left they didn't shimmer but they constantly change shape which is almost as bad.  The close trees (within 10-20 ft) don't appear to shimmer. But those out a couple of hundred feet and further do.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 12:27:34 PM
Does the shimmering occur in both versions of AHIII, DX11 and DX9?

Just tried DX9. Shimmering there also. No discernible difference.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: iikie on September 14, 2016, 02:09:34 PM
Yep, I have same thing. The trees shimmer in a very annoying way and I have tried many different settings to make them look normal. Nothing seems to work.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 02:36:20 PM
Yep, I have same thing. The trees shimmer in a very annoying way and I have tried many different settings to make them look normal. Nothing seems to work.

What video card do you have?
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: iikie on September 14, 2016, 02:51:12 PM
I have 2 GTX980TIs in SLI
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: 715 on September 14, 2016, 08:10:21 PM
I get something like that with my HD7870.  Trees at medium near distances have random pure white stationary pixels in them.  If you slightly change the view, by turning a turret for example, the white pixels jump all over the place and the tree shimmers.  I tried different settings and I think this is what I found: with Post Lighting and AH AA on the white pixels went away, but I normally run with Post Lighting off and I don't like the AH AA anyway.  With Post Lighting off and the graphics card set for MSAA I get the white dots.  With the graphics card set for adaptive MSAA the dots go away (but the frame rate drops).  With the graphics card AA turned off I think the white dots went away, but then you get aliasing (which I personally hate with a passion).  I have Tree Detail at about 18% (i.e. just at the trailing "l" in "Low Detail").  Note I have only seen this with the latest patch.

Edit: the shimmering I see (which may be different from that the OP sees) is most obvious at dawn and dusk and occurs only on certain trees or even parts of trees, like the vines on the Banyon.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 14, 2016, 10:57:01 PM
Tonight the shimmering was gone. Graphics were great. I hadn't changed a thing in my system. Interesting, I guess.
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: N95KF on September 14, 2016, 11:27:49 PM
I can confirm the shimmering trees.  Even with a GTX 1080 with 8xAA overriding the application settings, FSAA, and 16x Anisotropic Filtering, nothing fixes it.  I tried Anti-aliasing Transparency 8x Super-sampling and nothing.  The higher the altitude the less noticeable, if at all.  But on takeoff and low flying it is definitely noticeable.  Something similar happened on FSX awhile back and then it was fixed somehow.

I would also like to add that the very same shimmering and aliasing effect is apparent in the tower when looking around.  The window bars and ESPECIALLY THE RADAR TOWER is aliased like CRAZY.  This was not so in AH2.  Other than that, great game!!
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: 715 on September 15, 2016, 09:44:40 AM
In my experience if you have Post Lighting on it doesn't matter what you set the graphics card AA to; AH overrides it even if the graphics card AA setting is Override Application.  To use the graphics card AA you have to set it to override AND turn off Post Lighting.  (At least it is that way on my system.)
Title: Re: Shimmering Trees
Post by: Condor on September 15, 2016, 04:36:08 PM
 :bhead :bhead :bhead It's back in release 1.0. The only way I can stop the shimmering/flickering is to move the tree detail slider completely to the left. Last night on tank island there was no flicker regardless of tree detail slider position. I have not touched the graphics settings since last night except for experimenting with the tree detail slider after I saw the shimmering trees.  :headscratch:

Is anyone else still seeing it?