Technical issue

[metamag]

I didn't want to post this before since it's only just a demo but I'm having this weird consistent graphical occurrence/bug where whole ingame screen(not in menus) has these subtle wavy horizontal lines, well they are not lines per se but more of something like an interference that you would get on old TVs with analog receiver. This is the first game I'm seeing this. I can't get a screenshot because it comes out as just black screen.

 

Here is my PC:

ATi Radeon HD 5670 1GB

4 GB DDR3 RAM, 1600MHz

AMD Phenom II X2 550

Samsung 22'' LCD, HDMI cable

 

Window 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

All drivers for every component are updated and all graphics settings are application controlled.

 

Please tell me this is just the demo.

Edited June 14, 2011 by metamag

[brandysnap]

I didn't want to post this before since it's only just a demo but I'm having this weird consistent graphical occurrence/bug where whole ingame screen(not in menus) has these subtle wavy horizontal lines, well they are not lines per se but more of something like an interference that you would get on old TVs with analog receiver. This is the first game I'm seeing this. I can't get a screenshot because it comes out as just black screen.

 

Here is my PC:

ATi Radeon HD 5670 1GB

4 GB DDR3 RAM, 1600MHz

AMD Phenom II X2 550

Samsung 22'' LCD, HDMI cable

 

Window 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

All drivers for every component are updated and all graphics settings are application controlled.

 

Please tell me this is just the demo.

 

 

i get that aswell on ps3, 360 and pc versions. leading me to realise its an engine problem.

say youre at the pilgrims path (just after the burning manor section) you can see it very easily at the top of the screen as youre wandering down the linear path. especially in the more brightly lit areas.

 

its like theres some horrible anistropic filtering going on in the distance and causing horizontal bars to wave. just like the interference you get from a tv that hasnt got correct x-pos, or has a speaker next to it.

ive tested on a samsung lc650 1080p tv, @ 1080p res. a panasonic viera @ 1366x768 native. a 1920x1200 viewsonic monitor. does it on all of them regardless of machine used to play the game.

 

taking a screenshot shouldnt result in a black screen though. it will just show the original picture unaffected by these wavey lines. i also dont notice it all the way down the screen, but more towards the top (ie. in the distance. further away from the main char, worse it gets)

Edited June 14, 2011 by brandysnap

[Tigranes]

I'm a tech moron, but perhaps it has to do with VSync? (Which... can we turn it off in the demo? I don't think we can?)

[metamag]

you can see it very easily at the top of the screen as youre wandering down the linear path. especially in the more brightly lit areas.

 

its like theres some horrible anistropic filtering going on in the distance and causing horizontal bars to wave. just like the interference you get from a tv that hasnt got correct x-pos, or has a speaker next to it.

 

Precisely like that, I'm really surprised I can't google find it, since surely it is a problem for tens of thousands of people if I never encountered such issue with any other game nor have I even had any kind of other graphical issues with other games.

 

 

I systematically went through changing and turning off different graphical options in the game but nothing makes it go away.

 

Hopefully someone from Obsidian will shine some light on this. I get the feeling now that the full game will have this problem too.

Perhaps a moderator can PM someone from Obsidian, maybe they don't even view this forum...

 

EDIT: Even if turning off Vsync would solve this I wouldn't do it because screen tearing looks horrible, that's why vsync exists in the first place.

Edited June 14, 2011 by metamag

[brandysnap]

I'm a tech moron, but perhaps it has to do with VSync? (Which... can we turn it off in the demo? I don't think we can?)

 

as you might have read ive been testing the pc engine extensively to compare texture quality. vsync is one of the things i tested.

 

on or off (yes you can turn it off - at least there is an option for it) it makes no difference to these lines/bars.

[Pidesco]

They view the forum, even if they might not reply to most questions/requests.

[brandysnap]

tested this anomaly more this morning.

 

on my 4890 - 11.5b driver, pc connected to a samsung lc650 1080p tv. it happens. and on the same pc connected to a viewsonic 1920x1200 monitor.

vysnc on. no difference.

vsync off. no difference.

 

on my gtx 550ti - 275.33 driver, pc connected to a panasonic viera 720p tv, it happens.

vsync on. no difference.

vsync off. no difference.

 

- vsync definitely works in the pc demo btw. i get screen tearing with it turned off and none with it turned on. -

 

earliest point you can notice it in the demo is the first interactive cutscene you get after leaving the manor, and youre outside.

its incredibly noticeable in the background sky as you talk to the guy you met in the manor asking questions about 'what happened at the estate' etc. once you notice it, you cannot un-notice it, and it looks pretty bad.

 

going to test the ps3 and 360 demos again upto that same point to see if my memory is correct and its in those aswell. will update here once done.

Edited June 14, 2011 by brandysnap

[metamag]

once you notice it, you cannot un-notice it, and it looks pretty bad.

 

 

Yep, I've never seen or heard of anything like this.

[brandysnap]

ive just come from testing both the ps3 demo and the 360 demo.

it happens in both of those demos aswell.

 

the brighter the screen gets at distance (like when talking in said dialogue cutscene - or when viewing ravens rill at a distance at the very start of the section after the manor) the more the screen has horizontal waves travelling up from the around the middle of the screen.

 

the darker the screen the less it appears. which leads me to think its a distance fogging/lighting bug in the engine.

they are applying some sort of filtering so its slightly foggy at a distance but it looks awful because its wobbling very slightly. like the phase is wrong on that part of the screen. doesnt ever seem to appear below the centre line of the screen - like the fogging routine only works from the middle upwards.

Edited June 14, 2011 by brandysnap

[LadyCrimson]

I have Vsync off and get no screen tearing. Just putting that out there for comparison. I always have it off in all games.

 

The wavy lines...I've seen those I think, but for me I only notice them in the "sky" sections of the game. Indoors and the rocks/trees/ground/bricks etc. not there.

They don't really move for me at all, it's more like looking at low-res cloud/sky textures that have a little shimmer, and generally doesn't bother me. They don't show up in screenshots...that is, again, in screenies it just looks like low-res textures to me...it doesn't appear as actual lines. Turning gamma down so things are darker makes it less noticeable as well.

Edited June 14, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[LostStraw]

Never noticed it before.. it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it but it's there. It looks like some sort of full screen effect filter as it appears consistently in the area no matter if looking at close objects, the distant landscape or the sky.

 

Upon further investigation it looks as if it's an effect that makes the top portion of the screen brighter to simulate the sun in the more open areas. I also noticed that when hitting the "Print Screen" key to take a screenshot the effect disappears and then fades back in quickly.

[brandysnap]

well im all tested out at the moment and i wanna have a blast on duke nukem.

 

but perhaps someone will test if this 'filter' can be removed by altering some of the shader quality or visual effect quality options?

[LadyCrimson]

Never mind, I went through and found a single screenshot where it does show up, and in non-sky to boot:

 

http://crimsonkeep.com/wallpapers/data/med...DS3-0000013.jpg

 

In-game when moving I guess I don't notice in those situations because I'm zoomed out more than in the pic so it just looks like soft shimmer lighting...or something.

And it reminds me how character forms look terrible at very close range a lot of the time, w/the AA & texture settings seeming to do nothing much, in the demo.

[LostStraw]

Here's a comparison showing the effect both on and off (temporarily disabled by "Print Screen"). The wobble/color banding effect doesn't show up in the screen shots but is easily noticeable in game.

 

[LadyCrimson]

Huh. I'd like it very much if the game looked like it does in the pic on the right all the time. I don't like all this fog/bloom/shimmer/air-atmosphere effects so many games do now. To my eyes it just makes things blurry and indistinct, or too blindingly glare-y.

 

It doesn't go away when I use FRAPS for screens far as I could tell. Odd.

[brandysnap]

ive got a really nice place in the game where it shows off this effect to a tee.

 

just at the point where your companion from the manor says 'there it is. the entrance to the temple'

you should have a save point near, a well lit path and a dark rock wall to the left of you.

 

the dark wall is effectively being made to glow with this horrible effect and you can see the dark blue shimmering happening on the rocks.

pressing prtscrn fades it out temporarily. although it doesnt get rid of the effect completely, its still present. then it will fade back in.

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/d...iblefilter.jpg/

 

(if you zoom into that image on the top left where its darker you can actually see the damn bands. now bare in mind for all those just looking in, that those bands are actually moving in the game. constantly rippling upwards on the screen even if you dont move. effin awful.)

 

its really very poor. the top of the half of the screen (say top 1/3rd of the screen to be more precise) is having this awful awful awful glow filter applied to it even in tight corridors where you wouldnt expect it to be - as you rotate around slowly the effect remains fixed on the screen. making it look like someone is shining a torch onto the screen. bad.

 

get rid of it devs or give us an option to get rid of it. whoever coded that shader effect cannot code for ****.

Edited June 14, 2011 by brandysnap

[metamag]

So, it turns out that this technical issue is a congenital condition due to game not being developed for PC.

[Pidesco]

How do you mean?