[WMCoolmon]

This is something that nags me, but I don't understand...why is it that the textures of ships in the distance appear to shimmer (as they move), and have some kind of artifacts on them, and overall look ugly? I thought it might be a zbuffer thing, but bumping the near clipdist to 3.0 doesn't seem to do anything, when it should (in theory) make a huge difference on things 1-2 km away.

Am I missing some simple graphics setting?

[CP5670]

I have noticed this too and can't seem to get rid of it completely no matter what I try. It seems to only occur in FS2; I haven't seen it in other games.

[Starman01]

Yep, and it's especially visible with glowmaps, and that for a long time now, I'd say it came in shortly after the switch to HT&L

[FireCrack]

Try turning on mip-mapping...

Or turning up AA, or AF...

[WMCoolmon]

AA seems to have a slight difference, but doesn't really solve the problem.

Here's an example (taken by Cobra, I believe). Note the Orion in the distance.

[CP5670]

AA only helps if it has a supersampling component and still doesn't get rid of it entirely. I have tried 16x combined AA and even 4x4 AA and it can be still be seen at long distances. As for AF, I would expect it to make things worse if anything, especially with the crap AF we have on modern cards. I need to see if this occurs in FS1, although there it might just be because of the very low resolution.

[Taristin]

AA seems to have a slight difference, but doesn't really solve the problem.

Here's an example (taken by Cobra, I believe). Note the Orion in the distance.

Seems to me that the problem is that no matter how far away the object is, the glowmaps and reflections are always at 100% brightness. Whereas, IRL the light is spread out and less focused frther away and therefore dimmer looking.


But I could be wrong.

[StratComm]

AA seems to have a slight difference, but doesn't really solve the problem.

Here's an example (taken by Cobra, I believe). Note the Orion in the distance.

That's a classical example of where anisotropic filtering is supposed to help, as it's a direct case of too few pixels available to keep the texture components from blending together.  Unfortunately, the mapping isn't repedative enough for anisotropic filtering to actually be able to do anything about it.  Playing at a higher resolution will help sort of, but ultimately it just pushes the problem farther away.  In theory, this is why we have LODs, as the artifacting could be managed with a different texture, but in practice it never works out that way.

[Mental Menace]

I long thought it was Radeon issue #123902, but it's far more common. Is it fixable by anything other than higher resolution?

[castor]

Esp. 640x480 used to be a mess.. Opting for lower texture detail helped a bit.

[Cobra]

Here's an example (taken by Cobra, I believe). Note the Orion in the distance.

while i'm flattered for the attention, nuclear1 took that.

myself, i haven't noticed any shimmering.

[Mehrpack]

hi,
ok second try.

i think that shimmering and grit are a bug in mip-mapping with openGL.
i had for two days used openGL again, after a long time, and i had the same problem.
with D3D look all nice.

it looks like mip-mapping dont or work not correctly, so that under openGL the engine use a to large texture for the objects, if there to far away.
so the texture oversampling and its beging to shimmering an get a grit.

i have here two screenshots, same mission, after start with the same options.
one time with D3D and the other with OpenGL:

Direct 3D

OpenGL

without the mv-vp its the same, so thats not a texture problem himself.

graphic-card 6800GT and Forceware 81.98.
maybe thats problem only with nvidia cards.

Mehrpack

[Taristin]

Was this with one of the latest builds? OGL mipmap support was supposedly fixed a little while ago.

[Mehrpack]

hi,
oh sorry forget.
yes was the lastet, 2/2/06.

it can a LOD problem too, but it that a LOD problem, than i think under D3D are the same thing, but isn't.
so i believe its a mip-map problem.

i dont know how exactly work the + - LOD options for the graphiccard.
but if my memories correct a negativ LOD use later smaller mip-map.
that can be a third option.
but im total not sure.

Mehrpack

[CP5670]

I should try messing with the forced LOD bias option in the nvidia drivers. I already have the zero LOD clamp on (to reduce AF shimmering), but it might be worth trying to go higher on it and see if it does anything.

[Mehrpack]

hi,
i have set all switchs to maximal quality.
thats are the normal setting by me.

Mehrpack