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sirkam

texture flicker

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Hi.

There is a certain kind of texture flicker I am experiencing in ArmA 2. I am not sure if its related to the models of the buildings; kind of texturing method; lod or if it is driver related. This flickering is something I experienced in lots of games throughout my whole 3D gaming experience.

I made some screenshots and uploaded them to imageshack:

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/9900/arma2flicker1.png

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4301/arma2flicker2.png

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1488/arma2flicker3.png – (map)

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5222/arma2flicker4.png

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/8008/arma2flicker5.png

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/8077/arma2flicker6.png

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7326/arma2flicker7.png

I saw this flickering on that building in all versions of Arma2 (1.02, 1.03) with all driver versions I tried out (9.6, 9.7, 9.8). It starts to flicker at a distance of about 80-90m and gets worse with growing distance to it.

With the older drivers I saw it on more buildings (like the windows of the church, road near coast) - just a subjective feeling. Some of the flickering has gone or has been reduced with the newest drivers, but not all. The drivers are fresh, so had not much time to look around.

Is there someone else experiencing this kind of flickering?

Is there something I could do to help get rid of them? I am thinking about some kind of list of buildings and objects...

Vista 32 Bit SP2, C2D, ATI 4870 with Cat. 9.8, Arma2 v1.03

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Yes we do. But live with it in the hope that it will be fixed in the future (it happened with A1 and will do now!)

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OK,

found this thread which deals with the "Z fighting":

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=75328&highlight=texture+issue

The last post was made just before the 1.03 patch was released. The issue is still there.

Edit:

Have searched the bug tracker and found no entry dealing with that problem or an response from BIS on this forum, correct me if wrong...

Edited by sirkam
further investigation of the issue

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This is one of the things I don't like about the OFP/ArmA/ArmA II engine (it's been there since start) and it doesn't matter what driver or GFX card I tested. Honestly, I don't think there is much they can do about it. But I would be happy if BIS proved me wrong!

On a related note, I experience a strange graphic glitch on the ground approx 5-10 meters ahead of me while walking/running. It's kind a hard to explain but it looks like a "seam" that distort the ground (that moves along as I move) and is most notable when walking down from hills etc. Anyone else seeing this or is it something on my end?

/KC

Edited by KeyCat

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On a related note, I experience a strange graphic glitch on the ground approx 5-10 meters ahead of me while walking/running. It's kind a hard to explain but it looks like a "seem" that distort the ground (that moves along as I move) and is most notable when walking down from hills etc. Anyone else seeing this or is it something on my end?

/KC

that's normal and is where the grass detail changes (there's actually two "waves"). If you turn terrain detail to low it's very obvious

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Well. Why use/implement a feature which isn't working/can't be fixed?

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that's normal and is where the grass detail changes (there's actually two "waves"). If you turn terrain detail to low it's very obvious

No, it's not that! The grass/vegetation "morphing" in short distance ahead of you as you move is another small thing thats kinda annoying.

The "seam" I try to describe deforms the ground under the grass/vegetation ~5 m ahead of you. Tried to get it on a pic but it's hard to spot on a still image (to see this "seem" in action look down ~5 m ahead of you while moving in sloping terrain), but here we go, I marked the area with red lines...

ArmA_II_103_issue_01.jpg

It's not a major issue but unfortunately all thoose little annoying things like Z-fighting, flickering, LOD popups, grass/vegetation morphing etc. adds up...

/KC

Edited by KeyCat

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ahhh, still not sure but that might be the texture LOD's changing from lower (further away) to higher resolutions. I only really notice it on roads or where there's no vegetation

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I get the same thing Keycat, have a look around and its like your own 5m halo of shimmering ground lol. Very annoying, but not a showstopper

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I get the same thing Keycat, have a look around and its like your own 5m halo of shimmering ground lol. Very annoying, but not a showstopper

Thanks for chiming in DJH now I know it's another one of thoose little "engine annoyances" and not my particular setup.

Well. Why use/implement a feature which isn't working/can't be fixed?

@Sirkam: I really don't know!? IIRC there was a time with OFP when this Z-fighting/flickering wasn't this bad. I'm not a 3D programmer but as far as I understand it (I could be completely wrong on this tho) that times GFX cards (GeForce 3/4 etc) had some other/different way of handling the Z-buffer (higher precision?) than todays GFX cards.

Maybe it's since the engine was developed back when GFX cards handled the Z-buffer in a different way but it seems a bit strange that with todays much more powerfull GFX cards (i.e ATI 48xx, nVidia GTX 2xx etc.) we see worse result in that particular aspect!? Hopefully someone with more/right knowledge will jump in and explain all this better...

Last night I was on a server and overlooked a village with binocs and the flickering on buildings etc. (some partly destroyed) was really bad, it's really noticable when looking at stuff thru scope/binocs at long distance.

Anyway, many of us know that this series improves like an old fine wiskey in lots of areas by the devs long term support and I still hope they are able to polish and improve also this, as I said... these small annoying things unfortunately adds up!

Edit: Here is some general info about Z-fighting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-fighting

/KC

Edited by KeyCat

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yep I have had the seam effect with ATI 3870 in AA2

and I get the flicker in AA2 and ARMA with 9800gt

LOL I fixed one thing when I swapped cards but gained another......

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