Hard Light Productions Forums

Community Projects => The FreeSpace Upgrade Project => Topic started by: Brat_Boy on January 13, 2008, 12:09:03 pm

Title: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 13, 2008, 12:09:03 pm
I just started playing Freespace 2 again, and I found FS2 Open. Needless to say, the work done is incredible. My game looks much better, but there are some odd things happening. Ships/stations often have artifacts on them. Here are some screens of what I mean:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v510/BratBoy/screen0001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v510/BratBoy/screen0000.jpg

The first one is the Colossus, and the second is an Orion-class destroyer. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I tried turning off all the graphical options in the FS2 Open Launcher, but that only made it worse. Sorry if this should be in the Open Source forum, by the way.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: General Battuta on January 13, 2008, 12:17:58 pm
They (the people who are good with these things) are going to need your system specs (especially video card) and the version of FSOpen you're running.

Also, are you using the MediaVPs? If so, which ones?
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 13, 2008, 12:23:47 pm
Or even FreeSpace and FreeSpace Open Support. Oh well. But yes. Please provide at least the following information: OS, graphics card, graphics card driver version, fs2_open version, Direct3D or OpenGL.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 13, 2008, 12:56:58 pm
I have an 8800GT 512mb with 167.26 Forceware.
I'm not sure whether I have MediaVPs loaded - the MediaVP directory is selected as my mod directory, but I don't know whether any of the files are being used. How could I check this?
Freespace 2 is running in OpenGL at 1680x1050 with 16xAF and 4xAA.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 13, 2008, 01:00:52 pm
Well, if you are using the mediavps folder as a mod, the files in it will be used. More importantly, how and what mediavps have you acquired? If they are the 3.6.8 Zetas, you should also have the patch files, that start with mp-710_. And, if you used Turey's Installer, I assume that it still downloads the 3.6.8 Zetas.

Oh, and I recommend that you play in 1024x768 or in some other forced 4:3 resolution. Widescreen resolutions tend to cause annoying HUD distortions and further highlight the suns' movement in relation to the background.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 13, 2008, 01:12:08 pm
I have the patch files, so they must be the 3.6.8 Zetas. I'm using FS2 Open 3.6.9 btw.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: General Battuta on January 13, 2008, 01:17:16 pm
There are people here who can probably help you very quickly, but I'm not one of them.

I'm just making some noise until they turn up.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 13, 2008, 01:20:53 pm
16xAF and 4xAA.
One of those didn't actually do anything. I think it was AF. This is a really long shot, but you could always try to set those to Off and run the game.

If that isn't it, this almost sounds like a driver issue or something. I'm not an Nvidia person, so I don't know which drivers those are that you're using. But there are some issues with the newest version, so using the second newest is usually a good option. Maybe.

There are people here who can probably help you very quickly, but I'm not one of them.

I'm just making some noise until they turn up.
You and me both, brother.

Edit: Oh my, we forgot something. Again.
:welcomered:
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Cobra on January 13, 2008, 02:00:01 pm
Actually, it's AA, though I've never really seen a difference with AF either.

And why is he using the 3.6.8 Zetas? Get the 3.6.10s, man! :P
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 13, 2008, 02:15:43 pm
Actually, it's AA, though I've never really seen a difference with AF either.

And why is he using the 3.6.8 Zetas? Get the 3.6.10s, man! :P
Meh, I'd rather wait til a final release. I appreciate the work, though!
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Bobboau on January 13, 2008, 02:23:01 pm
FYI, this forum is for media updates, however this here forum (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/board,50.0.html) is the board related to the FSO engine, it would be the more appropriate forum to report an issue with. however don't post a bug report there at least not unless you have already made a bug report whith mantis (http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/)!
(hint: use mantis :) )
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: castor on January 13, 2008, 02:58:11 pm
If it happens to be a driver issue, it might be worth the trouble to try with a newer FSO build from this thread:  http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50258.0.html
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 13, 2008, 03:25:02 pm
Could running in Direct3D 8 help?
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Cobra on January 13, 2008, 03:26:47 pm
Nope. D3D is broken.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 13, 2008, 03:28:17 pm
You could always give it a shot, but generally it is as Cobra said. Direct3D isn't supported anymore and there are more issues with using it, including but not limited to blurry effects, general graphical errors and cutscenes not playing.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Bobboau on January 13, 2008, 03:51:48 pm
actualy, I think D3D is disabled, it just runs in OGL (though it still says D3D)
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 13, 2008, 04:13:34 pm
I get noticeable differences depending on whether I select Direct3D or OpenGL. With Direct3D I get, as I already listed, blurry subspace effects and non-playing cutscenes, among other things. And severe slowdowns on certain occasions. Then again, that happens with 3.6.9. Haven't tried Direct3D with any 3.6.10 builds yet.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: MikeRoz on January 14, 2008, 12:08:59 am
Stupid question: Have you tried any other games on this PC, and if so, do you notice any artifacts?
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Bobboau on January 14, 2008, 04:32:50 am
if you have it enabled try disabling environment mapping;
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 14, 2008, 10:12:00 am
Stupid question: Have you tried any other games on this PC, and if so, do you notice any artifacts?
Yep, I play CoD4, GalCiv2, Crysis, and Battlefield 2 regularly. No issues like this with any of them.

@Bobboau, I already tried disabling that.

I think I'll try updating my graphics drivers to see if that makes a difference.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Wanderer on January 14, 2008, 10:14:10 am
Are you running vista?
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: ARSPR on January 14, 2008, 10:37:19 am
I have the patch files, so they must be the 3.6.8 Zetas. I'm using FS2 Open 3.6.9 btw.
Ooops this could be another ForceWare rendering issue.

Read this thread: SCP Troubles (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50345.0.html)

And please follow Castor suggestion. Try this build (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50258.msg1015671.html#msg1015671) instead of 3.6.9. The reason is that this beta builds have shader rendering (GLSL) which seems to work with latest ForceWare versions, while old rendering still doesn't work, (and 3.6.9. doesn't have shader rendering).
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 14, 2008, 12:11:12 pm
I downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers and it seems to have fixed everything. I already downloaded the build you mentioned, ARSPR. Thanks.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: ARSPR on January 14, 2008, 12:23:25 pm
I downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers and it seems to have fixed everything. I already downloaded the build you mentioned, ARSPR. Thanks.
Quote nevertheless, with the latest ForceWare, please test:

Please post if you can reproduce your first looking screenshots.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Brat_Boy on January 14, 2008, 03:15:12 pm
I tried the mission where the Colossus and Enif Station showed major artifacts using the -no_glsl flag, but everything looked fine.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Kosh on January 23, 2008, 02:47:46 am
actualy, I think D3D is disabled, it just runs in OGL (though it still says D3D)

I realize this is a little late to the thread, but why was D3D abandoned/disabled?
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Bobboau on January 23, 2008, 07:02:58 am
because it was in the way.
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Cobra on January 23, 2008, 11:37:47 am
Actually, D3D loads everything insanely fast. :nervous:
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: ARSPR on January 23, 2008, 12:29:47 pm
I realize this is a little late to the thread, but why was D3D abandoned/disabled?

Actually, D3D loads everything insanely fast. :nervous:



 :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

You're risking a really HARSH answer from the whole SCP team...

As already said about 10 billion times, D3D is dead because SCP team lacks a reliable and constant D3D coder. So, unless you are applying for the job, this kind of comments can make some coders really angry.

(I feel that D3D is going to become a greater taboo than FS3 really really really soon)
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Cobra on January 23, 2008, 12:50:00 pm
I know why it's discontinued, but damn, man. :P
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Topgun on January 29, 2008, 08:38:17 pm
oops, didn't see the second page :nervous:
Title: Re: Artifacts on ships
Post by: Woolie Wool on January 29, 2008, 08:42:42 pm
Well, if you are using the mediavps folder as a mod, the files in it will be used. More importantly, how and what mediavps have you acquired? If they are the 3.6.8 Zetas, you should also have the patch files, that start with mp-710_. And, if you used Turey's Installer, I assume that it still downloads the 3.6.8 Zetas.

Oh, and I recommend that you play in 1024x768 or in some other forced 4:3 resolution. Widescreen resolutions tend to cause annoying HUD distortions and further highlight the suns' movement in relation to the background.

I find the effect of widescreen on the HUD's usefulness to be trivial. Brackets are misaligned at the edges of the screen, yes, but what you're supposed to shoot at ought to be in the CENTER of the screen, where there are no distortions. Many people's widescreen monitors do not have vertical letterboxing to make the viewable area narrower and prevent stretching in 4:3.