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Environment lighting quality issue

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited February 2010 in Graphical and Sound Issues
On the ground side, I'm getting these "block shadows" in the envrionment. Toggling the light quality from low to high appears to fix it for a short time, but then it usually happens again within a few minutes. I tried to leave the light quality on low and then high for a while and it doesn't matter, it still happens. I have shadows turned off. I'll post some pics to give an example, maybe some others have the same problem.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Ok, here is an example of lighting problem:

    http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/jdb2006/LightQualityBug1.jpg


    I will go into video settings, down to Light Quality and toggle from low to high and it will correct it. I have to do this all the time though.

    http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/jdb2006/LightQualityBug2.jpg
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    same exact problem here. hope this gets resolved soon. my game looks like a disco with all this light flickering going on.

    im running dual Geforce 8600 GTS cards. SLI is disabled.

    my dxdiag:

    System Information
    Time of this report: 2/22/2010, 20:25:34
    Machine name:
    Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
    Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
    System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
    System Model: AWRDACPI
    BIOS: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG
    Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
    Memory: 4096MB RAM
    Available OS Memory: 3838MB RAM
    Page File: 4380MB used, 3295MB available
    Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
    DX Setup Parameters: Not found
    User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
    System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
    DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode

    Display Devices
    Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
    Manufacturer: NVIDIA
    Chip type: GeForce 8600 GTS
    DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
    Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0400&SUBSYS_C7613842&REV_A1
    Display Memory: 1904 MB
    Dedicated Memory: 241 MB
    Shared Memory: 1663 MB
    Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)
    Monitor Name: ViewSonic VX2235wm
    Monitor Model: VX2235wm
    Monitor Id: VSC591E
    Native Mode: 1680 x 1050(p) (59.954Hz)
    Output Type: DVI
    Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
    Driver File Version: 8.17.0011.9621 (English)
    Driver Version: 8.17.11.9621
    DDI Version: 10
    Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
    Driver Attributes: Final Retail
    Driver Date/Size: 1/11/2010 23:03:33, 11862120 bytes
    WHQL Logo'd: n/a
    WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
    Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4740-11CF-677E-6AE71FC2C535}
    Vendor ID: 0x10DE
    Device ID: 0x0400
    SubSys ID: 0xC7613842
    Revision ID: 0x00A1
    Driver Strong Name: oem18.inf:NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1:Section003:8.17.11.9621:pci\ven_10de&dev_0400
    Rank Of Driver: 00E62001
    Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeVC1_C ModeWMV9_C
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Hey there!

    I wanted to drop in and let you know this bug has been a hot topic of conversation for awhile today. In other words, we're looking into a fix for this already. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    How about things like this?

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1044396/Star%20Trek%20Online/screenshot_2010-02-22-14-02-25.jpg

    The fluorescent ceiling lights have a visible solid edge, as if the light itself was a solid object. This is seen on many, many exploration missions that require you to go into some sort of facility. Also the lighting in general on these maps appears like there's a hard pinlight shining down on the models, no real ambient lighting from the sides. It makes for a hard contrast in shadows. Additionally, the lighting on most of the interior exploration maps looks like it affects the health bar portraits as well as the mission update headshots too.

    (there are other things going on in this pic, such as the dual pistols not aligning with the right hand on idle animations, and the memory alpha armor not displaying on BO's, but that's for another thread)

    Also, in this shot:

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1044396/Star%20Trek%20Online/screenshot_2010-02-20-14-19-59.jpg

    This is from another interior exploration mission, and again a very common tileset, but I'm beginning to think this is a texture error. The models are the same set used in Memory Alpha, but it looks like the textures are all color negatives of that tileset. As an aside, I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to work, but could we get some more variety in the color palettes for these structures, I'm not digging the Galactic Standard of a Cyan/Teal color scheme.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Yeah, lighting and shadows are really messed up. There is too much darkness. It seems lights don't "shine" but shadows are cast over everything. IE, you can't face your character towards a light source and see the brightness, but any sort of shadow will always drape over them.

    I compensate by turning up brightness to around 140% but that only makes light blooms painful to see.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I am also seeing all of these graphic problems.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010

    I can confirm both problems, the second one happened yesterday in every single research laboratory I entered in the Khazan Cluster (the were no other missions there but "investigate research labs" and all of them had the same interior graphics - derived from memory alpha - and were just different by layout. I even got one and the same mission twice in a row, just space graphics and station layout were different). I could also see, that the display of the floor graphics changed when I entered the corridors. It looked like a heavily overdone bloom effect to me, something that I already filed as a bug in OB. I reduced bloom level in the settings, but to no avail. When I really entered the corridors they got their overdone lighing effects that were okay when I looked at them from the nearby room.

    The first one happened to me first day in OB and I filed a bug report.

    Additionally the portraits of my BOs in the crew list to the left and in the character detail screen (K-key) are often way too dark when in stations or caves (even very bright ones as in the bugs described above) so you can nearly not make them out. This is only cosmetic, but should be worked on.

    I'm on Win XP Pro SP 3 on a quadcore intel 9550 with Asus mobo and ATI 4770 video card. I do not use the newest catalyst and do not intent to, as it interferes with other applications and older versions are confirmed as more stable in those cases.

    I also agree that the lack of variation in the station interiors is highly annoying.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I had this problem as well, the fix that worked for me was to tweak the Lighting settings under the Video options. (In my case i just turned lighting and shadows up to full)

    I realize that it was only a temp fix for you, but keep tweaking it. Might take a bit to get the correct combo, but I'm running around with no random dark areas now.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Phoxe wrote:
    Hey there!

    I wanted to drop in and let you know this bug has been a hot topic of conversation for awhile today. In other words, we're looking into a fix for this already. :)

    YES! Finally, had this /bugged since beta ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I get the "unlit" areas a lot as well - I workaround it by hitting my "Transfer Power to Shield" skill, which resets the lighting for my immediate area... didn't know about changing the lighting settings, though. :)
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