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starship-shadows flickering

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited August 2010 in Graphical and Sound Issues
Good day,
first of all my system:

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
-Radeon HD 5850 with Catalyst 10.5
-Windows 7 64 Bit
-4GB Ram

in the video-menu, i set the overall-graphic-settings-bar on max-quality which includes the "High"-setting for shadows. but somehow, the shadows that are cast on the ship's hull (they are cast by parts of the ship itself like the warp-drive tubes) start to flicker as soon as i move the ship in any direction.

the only way to stop the flickering is to set the shadows on "Low", which isn't really an alternative in my opinion.

can somebody help me out?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2010
    I think it does this for everybody.....

    I wish I could. I think it is a general game engine problem. My brother sees it and he has a new Nvidia card and I have a crossfire ATI....same thing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2010
    not 100% sure but i do think its just how the graphics work..maybe its meant to look like your traveling though multiple light sources

    I got annoyed with it enough that i just turned shadows off, it also means my fps stays high 50's even in very large scale battles or particle heavy maps
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2010
    NzFox wrote:
    not 100% sure but i do think its just how the graphics work..maybe its meant to look like your traveling though multiple light sources

    I got annoyed with it enough that i just turned shadows off, it also means my fps stays high 50's even in very large scale battles or particle heavy maps

    Turn off the shadows, it's what I had to do as well. I've learned to live without the shadows on since the days of Neverwinter Nights original release.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2010
    I find that shadows are sketchy in a lot of games. They tend to clip through objects ( such as seeing the shadow of some guy on the roof of the building on the ceiling INSIDE the building ) and have a unnatural look to them.

    Sometimes I turn them off, because they just don't match the artistic look of a game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2010
    'k,
    thanks for answering...too bad the shadows look that bad in the game....

    but still, my brother told me that he hasn't seen any flickering so far, so i guess it is NOT a stylistic device....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited June 2010
    This happens to me as well. ATI Radeon HD 4870
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    I had graphical glitches and flickering too. I checked the Option "force verify" at the game launcher option screen, so the game checks all game files on the next run. It took like 3 or 4 minutes at most and it solved this issue for me, the flickering is gone.

    On a sidenote, I use a single geforce 280 GTX with the newest driver.


    Salutations,
    Dani
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    Roukh wrote:
    I had graphical glitches and flickering too. I checked the Option "force verify" at the game launcher option screen, so the game checks all game files on the next run. It took like 3 or 4 minutes at most and it solved this issue for me, the flickering is gone.

    On a sidenote, I use a single geforce 280 GTX with the newest driver.


    Salutations,
    Dani

    thanks Roukh that seems to work but the next day it's back again. Is there something wrong with the files?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    It's because they use shadow mapping instead of shadow volumes, so the resolution of the shadows is limited by the resolution of the shadow map, whereas a shadow volume would have clean lines.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited July 2010
    conter1 wrote: »
    Good day,
    first of all my system:

    -Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
    -Radeon HD 5850 with Catalyst 10.5
    -Windows 7 64 Bit
    -4GB Ram

    in the video-menu, i set the overall-graphic-settings-bar on max-quality which includes the "High"-setting for shadows. but somehow, the shadows that are cast on the ship's hull (they are cast by parts of the ship itself like the warp-drive tubes) start to flicker as soon as i move the ship in any direction.

    the only way to stop the flickering is to set the shadows on "Low", which isn't really an alternative in my opinion.

    can somebody help me out?

    I have a very similar set up, the only difference is I have a 5830 video card, and I get the exact same problem. I have found no way to fix it. I just ignore the effect.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited August 2010
    its not related to the video card

    the shadowmaps r to small, so the flickering comes from the 'blocky' edges of the maps ... but larger/more accurate shadowmaps would require more videomemory

    volumetric/stencil shadows arent a perfect solution too, thier sharp edges arent that of an eyecatcher in many situations
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