Strange artifacts in graphics

[13owman]

My system is composed of a Dual Loop water cooling system for CPU & Dual Cards, 2x EVGA SLI Quad nVidia GeForce GTX 295 &, i7 975 Extreme Edition Quad Core @ 4 GHz, an EVGA X58 SLI Classified MoBo &6GB DDR3 1866MHz Ram.
When I look at part like doors or railings or other things on most ships & my Sub I can see flickering black artifacts. As you can see from the picture the game was paused but the flickering goes along the side of the wall between the railing on 1 side & the railing on the other.


http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4773/image4f.png (http://img441.imageshack.us/i/image4f.png/)

I have tried probably everything I can think of, I have tried 3 different drivers. Changed the refresh rate between 60 & 120, Tried Letting nVidia manage the 3D settings & adjusted all of them, letting the 3D application decide. & enabled, disabled or adjusted all for the graphic setting in the game. Set my CPU Affinity to 1 or 2 out of 8. & finally I have checked over this post on Video Card Settings Optimization by "McHub532" http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=167357
Nothing works so I give up. Is there an expert out there that can tell me what is wrong with it other than is a buggy game, I thought I would have seen something about it here in the forum if it was happening to a lot of people but I haven't seen it & it's out there I am sorry for posting this, I must have missed it somehow. Thank you for any help you can give me with this.

[Nico71]

Is that Z-Fighting? I have that too!

[Decoman]

Why are the images linking to the same images at some other url?

[7thSeal]

Looks like a sign of the memory on one of your cards getting to hot or not receiving enough voltage. You mention watercooling which I use as well but does the heatsink cover the memory chips on the card? With SLI I'm guessing the cards are stacked pretty close together and simply need better air flow between them.

As a short term check, try lowering the clock on the cards memory and see if it stops. :)

[Ailantd]

zbuffer problem I would say.
I have that too in some ships.

[ncorpuz34]

Im sorry, it looks like your computer is OVER the maximum requirements to play the game. :yep:








...on a serious note, SH5 leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to optimization. Hopefully patch will fix it.

[Westbroek]

+1
Yeah...if you're having problems than I'm fuxored for life... ah me.

[Nordmann]

I see the OP has the same messed up shadows as myself, is this an Nvidia issue, or do they look that bad for everyone?

[Boats]

I had that in SH4. I chaulked it up to my video card (Nvidia) but I can't be certain.

[mcarlsonus]

If that's SH5 or something similar - are you sure this isn't yet another, "dynamic shadow" problem?

[13owman]

Is that Z-Fighting? I have that too!


Sorry I don't know what z-Fighting is?

If that's SH5 or something similar - are you sure this isn't yet another, "dynamic shadow" problem?


I didn't know how else to explain it. What I did was Pause the game & take a bunch of screen shots of the Flickering black between the two railing on the ship & then Cropped them all at the same spot & pasted them together with PSP. I'm sorry I didn't know how to explain it with out video. If you can imagine that the black is just flickering in a rectangular area between the 2 railing then you understand what is going on.


Looks like a sign of the memory on one of your cards getting to hot or not receiving enough voltage. You mention watercooling which I use as well but does the heatsink cover the memory chips on the card? With SLI I'm guessing the cards are stacked pretty close together and simply need better air flow between them.

As a short term check, try lowering the clock on the cards memory and see if it stops.

My cards are all running between 44 & 50 degrees c. The memory is covered. I did try to disable sli & I tried the game on each port of the video cards & I did lower the memory but it still has the same problem THANKS


zbuffer problem I would say. I have that too in some ships.


When you look at ships does the flickering happen just on certain spots on the ships like doors & other objects of the ships?



SH5 leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to optimization. Hopefully patch will fix it.


Yes, I was wondering if there was a way to adjust some of the Graphic setting in to the game by modifying a file. There are some games where you can bring up a console panel in the game and modify the setting that way. But I don't think SH5 has that. I did try to modify some of the lines in GFXSettings.cfg but the game changed them back or just disabled the setting altogether.



+1
Yeah...if you're having problems than I'm fuxored for life... ah me.

:salute:


I see the OP has the same messed up shadows as myself, is this an Nvidia issue, or do they look that bad for everyone?


So I'm not the only one. I haven't seen any one Else post the question so I figured I was it. Then it probably isn't my cards, It's the game.



If that's SH5 or something similar - are you sure this isn't yet another, "dynamic shadow" problem?


It probably is but I don't think that the Dev's are going to fix it. I think they are working on trying to get the other bug out to make the game even work.

THANK YOU for all the responses I thought I was the only one with this problem but it looks like a few of you are. I really like this game otherwise & most of the graphics are fantastic. If they weren't I would still just play SH3. I runs like XP compared to Vista. I'll just live with it I guess unless they fix it or someone knows how to modify a file or mod it some how.

THANKS again I Appreciate your help:salute:

[theluckyone17]

Yeah, it's definitely not you. My GTX 260 does it, too. SH4, SH5, even Oblivion (heavily modded) at times.

I've just gotten to the point where I don't let it bother me. Had a few bad runs a couple years back with ATI, so I won't switch. I managed to skip the driver update that cooked the GPUs, too... so I won't complain about my intermittent texture issues.

[Magnetyk]

"My system is composed of a Dual Loop water cooling system for CPU & Dual Cards, 2x EVGA SLI Quad nVidia GeForce GTX 295 &, i7 975 Extreme Edition Quad Core @ 4 GHz, an EVGA X58 SLI Classified MoBo &6GB DDR3 1866MHz Ram."

You have a problem ? And why the informations about your configuration can help to the the resolution of your problem?
You have The Biggest CPU,allrihgt.
The Biggest Graphic Card and the biggest mobo and memory,fine.

Maybe just your OS and drivers version must be more usefull.

[mcarlsonus]

Disable the, "dynamic shadows!" See if that takes care of it!

[13owman]

You have a problem ? And why the informations about your configuration can help to the the resolution of your problem?
You have The Biggest CPU,allrihgt.
The Biggest Graphic Card and the biggest mobo and memory,fine.
Maybe just your OS and drivers version must be more usefull



I Apologize. Your right I should have posted it & forgot to mention it. As a matter of fact it is windows 7 64 bit & the drivers are 197.13.
But if I get the feeling even if I would have put it in there you would find something else that I didn't post. I tried to put as much information about the problem as I could. If I offended anybody I apologize profusely

[13owman]

Disable the, "dynamic shadows!" See if that takes care of it!


Thanks, But I already tried that. Actually I enabled / disabled & adjusted every setting on the game. I think there is no fix for this on the settings or the configuration file cause it looks like there are a lot of people that have it & are just living with it. I think I'll adjust the GFXSettings.cfg with really different values than 1's & 1's & if I find any thing for the better I'll report back about it.
Thanks Again

[Task Force]

Hmm... Its ither 3 things
1 your Gpu is haveing issues
2 The ingame model may have a texture issue, appears like it could be 2 surfaces,one just behind the other, untextured.
3 drivers.

My 3 guesses

[13owman]

My 3 guesses

"Thanks a lot" And here I thought my GPU was in the clear LOL. Are you having any problems when you look @ the ships?. It's not all of them & only a few objects on some of the ships, such as doors & landings
I hate to say this but isn't always one of those 3 things LOL

[Task Force]

Not really, but when I look at the model the issue appears to be between the two bridge thingys.(had to post a link, cant copy & paste from imageshack for some reason.

http://img72.imageshack.us/i/edite.jpg/

I think its a issue with the model.

[13owman]

Your Good. I should have put something like that on it But yes that is almost exactly where the flickering is going on. Even when paused. But actually it's in this area not all the way across. "Sorry" My PSP skills couldn't figure out how to make it hollow like yours , But you nailed it.

URL=http://img233.imageshack.us/i/rectangles.png/]http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7113/rectangles.png[/URL]





So its not happening to you? I thought it might be a driver or setting in nVidia or... Aww heck I give up.

[indycar]

this is the nvidia driver problem

few years ago i had a game and installed new drivers and most of the things were transparent (uber doober thing for an online FPS)

[Ailantd]

Your Good. I should have put something like that on it But yes that is almost exactly where the flickering is going on. Even when paused. But actually it's in this area not all the way across. "Sorry" My PSP skills couldn't figure out how to make it hollow like yours , But you nailed it.

URL=http://img233.imageshack.us/i/rectangles.png/]http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7113/rectangles.png[/URL]





So its not happening to you? I thought it might be a driver or setting in nVidia or... Aww heck I give up.

It is Z Buffer:
You see that two structures in both sides of problem zone?
In fact they are the same geometry that cross one side to another, very close from exterior front wall where you see the problem. So close that at certain angles computer can't calculate well enought what geometry is near or far from camera (fails test z buffer) and that produces that flickering. No way to solve it unless editing the 3d model of that ship.

[Commie]

Hmm, and these are screenshots with that cray supercomputer you have there 13owman? Where are the awesome graphics you all drool over? I tried SH5 on my modest old rig, and thought that it must be my settings that make it look like a game a few years behind graphically(even though I put everything on high), but if this is the best there is then it seems that most of you must have just made a leap from 688 attack sub straight to SH5 to have such awe over the graphics. Haven't seen anything that looks that great in any of the posted shots. Hell, PT Boats looks a damn sight better, and has animated crew leaping off into the water, unlike SH5's 'stand on the bridge and burn' crew!

Oh and I'm not a graphics whore. Hell I play 20 year old PC games from time to time. For me SH3 still looks very good, and some of the engine texture mods are so good anyway it would take until SH 10 to catch up! I just have noticed that many of the failings of this game have been glossed over with the cry 'but the graphics are great!' when it really seems like people are kidding themselves.

[robbo180265]

Hmm, and these are screenshots with that cray supercomputer you have there 13owman? Where are the awesome graphics you all drool over? I tried SH5 on my modest old rig, and thought that it must be my settings that make it look like a game a few years behind graphically(even though I put everything on high), but if this is the best there is then it seems that most of you must have just made a leap from 688 attack sub straight to SH5 to have such awe over the graphics. Haven't seen anything that looks that great in any of the posted shots. Hell, PT Boats looks a damn sight better, and has animated crew leaping off into the water, unlike SH5's 'stand on the bridge and burn' crew!

Oh and I'm not a graphics whore. Hell I play 20 year old PC games from time to time. For me SH3 still looks very good, and some of the engine texture mods are so good anyway it would take until SH 10 to catch up! I just have noticed that many of the failings of this game have been glossed over with the cry 'but the graphics are great!' when it really seems like people are kidding themselves.

You come to a thread about graphics issues and then say that the graphics are rubbish?:06::o

How's about you have a look at this thread matey

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=162521