Graphics options messed up with Feb 8th patch

suaveks · February 2013

To keep things short:

- No shadow options to select above medium, even though I'm normally playing high on Holodeck
- AA is off by default, even though I play 4x on Holodeck
- Soft Particles, SSAO, Depth of Field and Underwater View are turned off automatically as soon as you enable AA... It even says so in the tooltip. So it's either... or...
- Textures tend to load longer and until then everything is black

As much as patch notes such as "Addressed many of the graphics-related issues players have reported." sound interesting, it would seem that in the end you've made the game look and run worse. What's the reasoning behind that? I'd call it a bug if not for the sudden tooltip information...

Running Win XP, DX9, GeForce GTX 460 with 310.70 driver version, if that's important.

EDIT:
Additional observations:
- Bloom Quality goes to Low automatically as soon as you enable AA
- High quality shadows seem to be available only without AA. Turning on the AA makes them all pixelated.

What is this I don't even... Why? Just why? What was wrong until now? The game looks ugly now without any kind of AA, while it lacks many visual effects without the rest of the options...

EDIT2:
Updated to the latest nvidia drivers. No change - AA still disables many visual options and gives me the info that my GPU/Drivers don't support them. All that despite the fact that it all works fine on Holodeck.

EDIT3:
Worst thing is, I can't seem to force AA through nvidia control panel in STO... There goes my hope for a workaround, should this "feature" go live... *sigh*

It's clearly an issue with AA solely. I certainly hope this will get looked into, because I'm sure I won't be the only one to experience this drop in graphics quality if this actually goes live (and, sadly, it proably will...).

omnimagus · February 2013

This started about a week ago on Holodeck for me. No idea why, I almost wonder if it's a problem with the gui like we have on the HUD options page.

xikinta · February 2013

I have this problem. I thought it is a driver, but it isn't.

FYI, My rig (sli mode) can handle STO on MAX/highest settings.

Now, STO graphic starts looking so ugly. I can't change graphics options to highest settings?!? No high bloom? No high shadow?? No 16xAA?? and more... why???

This problem happens in Holodeck, not tribble.

Why did cryptic change it?

suaveks · February 2013

That's strange, because everything works fine for me on Holodeck. At least for now... It's only the Tribble that's messed, and this started with the recent patch.

Screenshots to illustrate the issue:
Holodeck options - everything's fine
Default Tribble options - AA turned off
Tribble options with AA - the moment I turn AA on most effects go down and the tooltip states they're not available with my current GPU/Drivers.

I see absolutely no reason why this should be happening. I've got the latest drivers, rig that could handle such effects with ease, and the only thing I didn't try is reinstalling the game - assuming that would help in any way. Cryptic has changed something for whatever reason, perhaps when tweaking something in the game's engine, yet for some people it made things worse, not better.

Hope this will get looked into by the dev team...

xikinta · February 2013

Interesting... What version of driver? What kind of monitor? Mine is Asus VG278HE - I got a great deal on it and love it. After I switched an old monitor with that, everything changed. Graphic settings is locked. I can't stand ugly graphics. I decided to switch back to old monitor, and the problem is still there??? Is there a way to override the settings?

saltypineapple · February 2013

Very interesting about Cryptic turning of AA by default because during their Tribble test weekend for season 7 and subsequent Holodeck release, I was getting low rez texture problems and didn't know why. And after submitting a ticket and posting my problem on the forum with no response or solution, I was able to deduce the problem which I posted in this thread:

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=445381

saltypineapple wrote: »

Well I finally figured out my low rez texture problem and it had to do with antialiasing. Once I disabled it in game, my video memory overload problem leading to a texture reduction ceased resulting in textures loading properly once again. I than forced AA in my nvidia control panel to remove the jaggies.

To reiterate, this was not a problem in S6 but I noticed it within the tribble server prior to the release of S7. It has remained a problem, at least for me and of course others within this thread, ever since.

To those wondering I am using two MSI nvidia GTX580 cards with 3GB of vram a piece using driver build 310.64.

I will check Tribble and verify my AA is still working through the nvidia control panel.

suaveks wrote: »

EDIT3:
Worst thing is, I can't seem to force AA through nvidia control panel in STO... There goes my hope for a workaround, should this "feature" go live... *sigh*

It's clearly an issue with AA solely. I certainly hope this will get looked into, because I'm sure I won't be the only one to experience this drop in graphics quality if this actually goes live (and, sadly, it proably will...).

suaveks · February 2013

The only thing I was able to force through nvidia control panel was FXAA. Nothing changed with forced AA, sadly, while the FXAA itself made all the UI blurry as well.

th3xr34p3r · February 2013

I will test all the setting tonight once I get home see if I can reproduce it on my system and come up with a work around with the 313.96 beta drivers, I need to update the tribble build anyays.

xikinta · February 2013

Allright, let us know the result.

Thanks a lot!

saltypineapple · February 2013

Ok in tribble, not only did they not fix the memory overload issues resulting in texture reduction due to running higher in game AA (4x/8x and 16x is now missing from the settings) but I can no longer force AA (16x CSAA) in the nvidia control panel. Using in game 2x AA works fine, as it doesn't reduce my textures due to memory overload, but only looks marginally better as opposed to not running AA.

th3xr34p3r · February 2013

Question: Are you guys using the Dx9 mode or Dx11 mode under trouble shooting > video card?

16x AA only shows up for Dx11 mode, where as Dx9 mode only allows to 8x AA ingame, as been implemented from the intro of Dx11

I can't reproduce the issue under Dx11 nor Dx9 on my system on TTS, I have gone through all the AA settings ingame.

I do see the AA settings visualy applied at each tier.

my settings are as follows with nvidia inspector for the global profle under driverset 313.96: http://i.imgur.com/EbXoukF.png

losmartines · February 2013

Hello

I Tried the HElmets and i can equip them all at the Tailor on Tribble very nice but if i purchase them everything get erased to the default settings. And i still miss the K.H.G. Mk XII Accolade i got a hook on every part of the K.H.G. but i did not get the Accolade

suaveks · February 2013

saltypineapple wrote: »

Ok in tribble, not only did they not fix the memory overload issues resulting in texture reduction due to running higher in game AA (4x/8x and 16x is now missing from the settings) but I can no longer force AA (16x CSAA) in the nvidia control panel. Using in game 2x AA works fine, as it doesn't reduce my textures due to memory overload, but only looks marginally better as opposed to not running AA.

But I assume, from what you're saying, that enabling AA does not influence any of the Effects options for you, such as SSAO, Depth of Field, Soft Particles etc?

th3xr34p3r wrote: »

Question: Are you guys using the Dx9 mode or Dx11 mode under trouble shooting > video card?

I'm running Win XP, so DX11 is simply not an option for me.

No idea what to make of this. Several people I know have said that they do not have such problems, even on Nvidia card. Still, this sudden issue is disturbing to say the least, especially since it'll probably go live as it is, ruining the game's graphics for me and perhaps many other people. It'll be either playing without AA at all, or without many other visual options. Strange thing that you can't even force AA through Nvidia CP anymore...

th3xr34p3r · February 2013

suaveks wrote: »

But I assume, from what you're saying, that enabling AA does not influence any of the Effects options for you, such as SSAO, Depth of Field, Soft Particles etc?

I'm running Win XP, so DX11 is simply not an option for me.

No idea what to make of this. Several people I know have said that they do not have such problems, even on Nvidia card. Still, this sudden issue is disturbing to say the least, especially since it'll probably go live as it is, ruining the game's graphics for me and perhaps many other people. It'll be either playing without AA at all, or without many other visual options. Strange thing that you can't even force AA through Nvidia CP anymore...

Try deleting all the tribble files and let the launcher copy over the files from holo (same other way around if your having issues on holo and not tribble) then let it patch up again and test to see if its persistant.

suaveks · February 2013

th3xr34p3r wrote: »

Try deleting all the tribble files and let the launcher copy over the files from holo (same other way around if your having issues on holo and not tribble) then let it patch up again and test to see if its persistant.

Did just that. No effect. Graphics options reset, but as soon as I enabled AA (even 2x) many other options went off (SSAO, Depth of Field, Soft Particles, Underwater View and Bloom Quality, to be precise).

And as I say, it all works just fine on Holodeck (for now...), so this has to be something in the latest patch that broke the AA in a way...

As I've said, I'm using Windows XP SP3 on Athlon II X2 240, 3,1GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 with the latest drivers. Can't do anything with AA, and I can't even force it through the nvidia control panel.

I just wish someone at Cryptic could look into the issue before the patch goes live...

th3xr34p3r · February 2013

Sorry I could not be of much help on this atm, but ye they are looking at threads when they can; seeing as its persistent on your system and assuming the same for others, it needs to be fixed.

I'm also thinking you might see a fix once they update the sto code from porting whats needed from neverwinter. (hopefully)

suaveks · February 2013

Still, thanks for your help.

As for the update, there are speculations that the "big" feature in May is going to be just that - an overhaul of the game's engine, which foundations are being already set up in the game. Although it saddens me that specific configurations are probably going to have to deal with the consequences till then...

*sigh* I guess no Antialiasing for me from thursday...

suaveks · February 2013

Today's patch didn't fix a thing, sadly.

What is more, I've noticed that ALL the sliders in the Video options menu suffer from some weird lag that sometimes just stop the game for nearly a minute for them to take effect. Even something as simple as brightness.

Oh, and I can't change the refresh rate - it keeps reseting to 60 all the time.

Once again, no such problems on Holodeck.

hithereyou · February 2013

We're looking into this. I think we may have missed merging a bug fix. I'm not sure when STO production will make another build, if that turns out to be the problem.

Dave

kalani · February 2013

hithereyou wrote: »

We're looking into this. I think we may have missed merging a bug fix. I'm not sure when STO production will make another build, if that turns out to be the problem.

Dave

Now my question is what is in this patch that would justify pushing it now with these issues?

omnimagus · February 2013

I tried using the DX11 drivers but once I toggled them the game wouldn't start, would just freeze after the Cryptic loading screen. Had to log in on safe mode to reset the options.

Just to re-confirm, I have the same exact issue as the original poster, but on Holodeck, not tribble.

suaveks · February 2013

kalani2 wrote: »

Now my question is what is in this patch that would justify pushing it now with these issues?

Now, surely you don't think that the Tribble TEST Server is for - I don't know... - testing any new builds for bugs that might need fixing before going live? Nah, that would be silly! Think of it more like a preview of all that is to come, regardless of the player feedback. It's always been like this.

But seriously, it's good to know that Cryptic is investigating the issue, but it would be even better if they would focus on fixing such things instead of pushing them live because of some schedules. And we can't even be sure this'll get fixed at all, as there are many other graphical issues that have persisted for over a year now. This one though, at least for me personally, is more serious, and quite honestly discouraging from playing the game.

I'm going to wait for the holodeck patch to see if this persists. I'll remove any tribble data as a precaution and patch everything anew. If this'll continue I'll create a new thread in the Support section.

jcsww · February 2013

suaveks wrote: »

Now, surely you don't think that the Tribble TEST Server is for - I don't know... - testing any new builds for bugs that might need fixing before going live? Nah, that would be silly! Think of it more like a preview of all that is to come, regardless of the player feedback. It's always been like this.

But seriously, it's good to know that Cryptic is investigating the issue, but it would be even better if they would focus on fixing such things instead of pushing them live because of some schedules. And we can't even be sure this'll get fixed at all, as there are many other graphical issues that have persisted for over a year now. This one though, at least for me personally, is more serious, and quite honestly discouraging from playing the game.

I'm going to wait for the holodeck patch to see if this persists. I'll remove any tribble data as a precaution and patch everything anew. If this'll continue I'll create a new thread in the Support section.

Hopefully you will link to it here to make it easy tof ind.

suaveks · February 2013

jcsww wrote: »

Hopefully you will link to it here to make it easy tof ind.

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=551041

Graphics options messed up with Feb 8th patch

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