Shadows

[loony1]

I notice that the shadows cast everywhere are very...Blocky...like minecraft. While in flight they flicker almost strobe like. In the hanger and the tower, shadows cast by window frames are very blocky. I understand they need to move as you and the position of the sun moves but the are very choppy and don't move smoothly. i tried maxing all my settings but it didn't change the look.

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System Information
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      Time of this report: 1/13/2016, 15:51:04
             Machine name: GREGS-PC
         Operating System: Windows 10 Home 32-bit (10.0, Build 10586) (10586.th2_release.151121-2308)
                 Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
      System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
             System Model: Inspiron 560 
                     BIOS: Default System BIOS
                Processor: Pentium(R) Dual-Core  CPU      E6700  @ 3.20GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
                   Memory: 8192MB RAM
      Available OS Memory: 3582MB RAM
                Page File: 1883MB used, 5283MB available
              Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
          DirectX Version: 12
      DX Setup Parameters: Not found
         User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
       System DPI Setting: 144 DPI (150 percent)
          DWM DPI Scaling: UnKnown
                 Miracast: Not Available
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
           DxDiag Version: 10.00.10586.0000 32bit Unicode

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DxDiag Notes
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      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

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DirectX Debug Levels
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Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

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Display Devices
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          Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 
       Manufacturer: NVIDIA
          Chip type: GeForce GTX 660
           DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
        Device Type: Full Device
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11C0&SUBSYS_26623842&REV_A1
     Display Memory: 3779 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 1988 MB
      Shared Memory: 1791 MB
       Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (59Hz)
       Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
      Monitor Model: VF550M
         Monitor Id: VIZ0057
        Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
        Output Type: HDMI
        Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll,nvwgf2um.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver File Version: 10.18.0013.6143 (English)
     Driver Version: 10.18.13.6143
        DDI Version: 12
     Feature Levels: 11.0,10.1,10.0,9.3,9.2,9.1
       Driver Model: WDDM 2.0
Graphics Preemption: DMA
 Compute Preemption: DMA
           Miracast: Not Supported by Graphics driver
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Not Supported
     Power P-states: Not Supported
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 12/16/2015 12:00:00 AM, 14103800 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: n/a
    WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
  Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-5280-11CF-0D4C-6F061CC2C735}
          Vendor ID: 0x10DE
          Device ID: 0x11C0
          SubSys ID: 0x26623842
        Revision ID: 0x00A1
 Driver Strong Name: oem2.inf:0f066de34ffc3860:Section007:10.18.13.6143:pci\ven_10de&dev_11c0
     Rank Of Driver: 00D12001
        Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeVC1_C ModeWMV9_C
    D3D9 Overlay: Supported
            DXVA-HD: Supported
       DDraw Status: Enabled
         D3D Status: Enabled
         AGP Status: Enabled
           MPO Caps: Not Supported

[Chilli]

Loony,

I concur, shadows take on an "unreal" texture close up.  Now, this may not be the case for all.  When you say that you maxed your settings, there is one other that you might be aware of.  Nvidia has a way to give you dynamic resolution that is above your monitor's physical limits.  By using this dynamic setting you may see a smoother / less blocky rendering. 

I have seen the flickering too, but that seems to be attributed to having the distance graphic settings too high (in my case).  The quicker the trees fade away, usually the better performance including less flickering.

In any case, I either turn off the cockpit shadows or seem to not notice the jagged edges as much anymore.  I will test to see which and report back shortly.

Edit:  (to report test result)  Survey says:  I stopped noticing the blocky shadows, but they were there.  If they are too annoying, for anyone there is a check box to turn them off (however, such a nice feature; really wish they were more transparent and less dark).

[streakeagle]

Cockpit shadows are especially jaggy and flicker a bit for me too. As annoying as this is, I would rather see them than turn them off.

[bustr]

When I was testing for the last 18 months with a 1G GDDR5 card my best graphics was in 1024 mode. And the shadows were blocky, and they caused trees to flicker. When I recently installed a GTX 760 card and could run 4096 mode mostly 55-60 FPS, the shadows acted like shadows and the tree flicker was gone for the most part. When I tested the 760 in 1024 and 2048 the shadows were once again blocky respective to the mode and the trees flickered respective to the mode.

[loony1]

Yea i am running in 1024 res. will try 4096 and see if there is a difference for me.

[streakeagle]

I am running the latest Beta 4 and continue to see problems with shadows being jittery and blocky. I am curious if this problem is unique to my install, my video card (7970), my brand (AMD), or if a lot of people have similar problems. I have a screenshot that illustrates the problem in a unique way. In one small circular area off my starboard wing, the shadows are well rendered with no jitter. Outside of that area, you can see how blurry/jaggedy/blocky the shadows look and I can assure you they are jittery too when animated.

I have tried toggling any and all video settings, both in-game and the AMD driver (currently the latest "crimson", but no change in behavior from when I had "catalyst").

Any ideas?

[bustr]

I can run the game in 4096 with the defaults. Your graphics card has about 2x my shaders and band width. 1.5x my data paths.

My Graphics card is a Geforce GTX 760 2G.

Your shadows.





My shadows.

[Bizman]

My shadows look the same as Streakeagle's and they flicker, too, both before and after the latest update (Beta 4). 4096, default settings, Radeon HD 6970 2 GB.

[Chilli]

As a trial, could we have a slider (.sliders command) that lightens shadows?  My belief is that shadows might appear smoother, and still give us the realism desired.  If it were possible to do so, there might be a happy medium across the board. 

I must add a "pretty please"    but only if there is not tons of coad, or too much of a graphics hit or collateral effect.

Forgive me for speaking of things that I am clearly ignorant about, but my fears are that increase in polygon count, or antialiasing in order to smooth the shadows might  carry with it a framerate hit that lesser cards may not do well with.

For the benefit of those who are just beginning to notice the jaggies, they have been much improved since the early on alpha test patches.  (Referencing a time when shadows on the frames of cockpits had a cross-hatch appearance).

[Bizman]

+1 for lighter shadows.

Another idea, again from someone who knows absolutely nothing about coding: Would it be easy to change the update rate of the shadows? If so, wouldn't slower and lighter shadows mask the flickering of the odd black squares popping here and there and everywhere?

[TheFox]

Yes, mine is the same with all sliders up to max setting.

Intel i7-6700K 4.00GHz
32GB memorey
MSI GTX970 4GB latest drivers

I also have tried using SweetFX running in the Beta and while there is a little improvement in shadow rendering, it's not that much better - though to be fair, I am running it on standard settings and haven't fiddled with it yet

[streakeagle]

So:
I am not alone.
Based on the other screenshot, we are seeing exactly the same thing.
It is not card or driver or manufacturer specific since an nVidia card produced exactly the same results.

I toggled every setting imaginable looking for a smoking gun. Turning off the shadows is not an option for me, they add too much to the image quality. But the cockpit canopy frame shadows can be very annoying and make me seriously consider turning them off.