Texture pop in/draw distance problem

[gnb]

If you can move back and forth and make the transition happen yourself, then it is the game, plain and simple. There is nothing else to it.


You're just seeing model LOD. The graphics API doesn't do this, your hardware doesn't do this. It's up to the game engine to handle... which also makes it easy to take pictures of since in COD4 it's just a console command. You won't find a solution outside of turning detail settings up in game.


http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/1900/iw3mp2010071520511521.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/4596/iw3mp2010071520512137.jpg
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/508/iw3mp2010071520512560.jpg
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8929/iw3mp2010071520513214.jpg

And if it is possible can you say what games you have installed (or can install) so we can test in the same environment (same game, same location) without using console commands. For example the first level in COD MW2
Thanks in advance


If you switch quickly between the 2nd and the 4th screenshots you can see what is happening when i move backward and forward.

Can you do the same (move backward/forward) and make a gif (or 2 screens) to show that this is happening to you? (Although if you say it is the game engine, why I haven't noticed it before? And why the Oblivion video is so "bugged", while on my pc i run it without those bugs shown above? This guy is having low lod, while i don't)


@XibaD- Were you always using more that 2GB ram, or you put more recently

 

[Mussels]

And why the Oblivion video is so "bugged", while on my pc i run it without those bugs shown above? This guy is having low lod, while i don't)

oblivion have in game settings that control the view distance, he could simply have different settings set to you. some are in the launcher, some are in game. We also dont know if that guy tweaked his video card driver settings for extra performance.

 

[SuperSonic X 316]

Yeah, sounds like something that could be affected by Rivatuner or ATI Tray Tools advanced options but I don't mess with those settings so I don't know. One thing I've seen is ATT increased LODs or so but that would just make the textures clearer and not the models correct?

 

[gnb]

The guy in Oblivion has everything maxed out. I have tried with Rivatuner, but it only made difference when increasing LOD( which makes things worse, when reducing it i saw no difference)

Anyway, this is the COD MW2 gif i made http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6186/asddeee.gif
This is the beginning of the game.

Can someone make the same gif, with the same truck, and if this is happening to others, then it is the game itself.

Thanks

 

[Mussels]

The guy in Oblivion has everything maxed out. I have tried with Rivatuner, but it only made difference when increasing LOD( which makes things worse, when reducing it i saw no difference)

how do you know? because he said so? because he showed screenshots of the launcher + in game options?

is maxed out with HDR or with AA (you cant have both in oblivion)?

 

[ctrain]

And if it is possible can you say what games you have installed (or can install) so we can test in the same environment (same game, same location) without using console commands. For example the first level in COD MW2
Thanks in advance


If you switch quickly between the 2nd and the 4th screenshots you can see what is happening when i move backward and forward.

Can you do the same (move backward/forward) and make a gif (or 2 screens) to show that this is happening to you? (Although if you say it is the game engine, why I haven't noticed it before? And why the Oblivion video is so "bugged", while on my pc i run it without those bugs shown above? This guy is having low lod, while i don't)


@XibaD- Were you always using more that 2GB ram, or you put more recently

Yes I can mimic the same thing moving back and forth, I'm at the absolute edge of where the transition takes place in those pics. If I moved up a smidgen it would go into greater detail. IT'S NORMAL ACTIVITY FOR ALL GAMES

Here's MW2
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6048/iw4sp2010071612133993.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5066/iw4sp2010071612134125.jpg
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/1346/iw4sp2010071612135547.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9027/iw4sp2010071612140218.jpg

Driver LOD settings refer to textures, it has nothing to do with geometry. LOD bias controls the mip-mapping.



You didn't notice it because !! YOU DIDN'T NOTICE IT !!
There is no solution outside of adjusting settings or ignoring it. There is no problem.

 

[gnb]

The last two screens definatelly prove your point. Although i'm still think it wasn't like that before, i have to agree with you, especially with this proof.

Is there any way to control the LOD settings (except Rivatuner- it is not working, maybe becouse it doesn't work with newer drivers.)

 

[ctrain]

No, your only options are changing it ingame.

Any LOD settings in your drivers are referring to textures. Lower (negatives) will make your textures sharper at the cost of possibly making them "shimmer" or sparkle in motion by moving the mip-maps away. Higher will use the downsized versions and you'll get blurry textures.

 

[char[] rager]

+1 to everyone who said it is level of detail change. That is exactly what it is.

If a character in a game is far away from an object, that object does not necessarily have to be fully detailed. You can not really see it anyways. I believe it is designed as a way to increase frame rates. As you move closer towards it, the detail will become better, because you are looking right at it and the object should look better.

 

[gnb]

+1 to everyone who said it is level of detail change. That is exactly what it is.

If a character in a game is far away from an object, that object does not necessarily have to be fully detailed. You can not really see it anyways. I believe it is designed as a way to increase frame rates. As you move closer towards it, the detail will become better, because you are looking right at it and the object should look better.

OK, i agree with both of you, but you can't convince me, that the thing happening in the Oblivion video is normal (i know because i have played it recently and was absolutely normal) and here the tree change is obvious and i dont think is normal. The same tree "appear" happens to me in HL2 episode 2. (The cannopy appearing before the stalk and something like that.)

I know you are getting sick of me but

 

[char[] rager]

Did you run the Unigine Heaven 1.0 Demo. One of the scenes had it where, as it zoomed in, the grass slowly started to appear.

It is level of detail thing designed to only have to process things that are near the camera's view.

 

[Mussels]

OK, i agree with both of you, but you can't convince me, that the thing happening in the Oblivion video is normal (i know because i have played it recently and was absolutely normal) and here the tree change is obvious and i dont think is normal. The same tree "appear" happens to me in HL2 episode 2. (The cannopy appearing before the stalk and something like that.)

I know you are getting sick of me but

its definitely normal in oblivion. if you open and close the graphics options in the launcher, it resets the in game options (which is where the distance sliders are). I've been playing oblivion the last couple of days and its a night and day difference between default settings, and maxing them out manually.

 

[XibaD]

Did you run the Unigine Heaven 1.0 Demo. One of the scenes had it where, as it zoomed in, the grass slowly started to appear.

It is level of detail thing designed to only have to process things that are near the camera's view.

Yes! That is happening to me. In some scene near the end also a tree lod is noticeable. I seen in youtube that every other people is having this issue but as I also observed it in other games too, I thought that maybe could be a hardware/drivers issue.

I'm not at home now, but I'll try to add some videos in the future. But the game in which is most detectable is Bad Company 2, but STALKER series also present that bug and Crysis series too.

 

[Mussels]

Yes! That is happening to me. In some scene near the end also a tree lod is noticeable. I seen in youtube that every other people is having this issue but as I also observed it in other games too, I thought that maybe could be a hardware/drivers issue.

I'm not at home now, but I'll try to add some videos in the future. But the game in which is most detectable is Bad Company 2, but STALKER series also present that bug and Crysis series too.

calling it a bug, implies its not intentional... its a deliberate thing that is done in games to help boost performance.

 

[scope54]

I remember back when i was playing COD4 ATI released a driver that increased performance for it. What I also remember was seeing the major pop in with the trees and grass. Like it was noticeable from the previous driver. I went back today and I think its the 8.6 driver that did it. So if you have an older ATI card (HD3 series) try out the 8.5 driver. I already tried getting the driver to work on my 5850 but it wouldn't install and I dont have my 3870 anymore.

I could be horribly wrong but if your REALLY bored, have Vista intalled, and have an older card...DO EET!

 

[gnb]

Just read about a guy that changed his 8800gt with a 5870 and started noticing the same thing i was talking about. He was complitely sure it wasn't happening with the 8800gt.
I agree that there is LOD thing and a draw distance to improve performance, but the thing that's happening it's not what it should be

 

[XibaD]

Just read about a guy that changed his 8800gt with a 5870 and started noticing the same thing i was talking about. He was complitely sure it wasn't happening with the 8800gt.
I agree that there is LOD thing and a draw distance to improve performance, but the thing that's happening it's not what it should be

Yeah, I also tested BC2 with a 9800GT last week, and I didn't notice any popups like with the 4870 in my rig.

 

[phanbuey]

def sounds like cheating drivers.

 

[gnb]

def sounds like cheating drivers.

I have tried with different drivers, using driver sweeper to delete the old ones and there was no change....

 

[phanbuey]

I have tried with different drivers, using driver sweeper to delete the old ones and there was no change....

I notice that you are playing at 1280x1024. Is there a way you can test the higher resolutions?

The one thing in common i see is that everyone is seeing this at 1280x1024 and below... and everyone at 1680x1050 and above doesnt know what the hell the other people are talking about.

Its possible that game engines assume that low resolutions cannot see very far anyways, so they use lower LOD's in areas that would otherwise be visible at higher resolutions.

Ive definitely seen texture popping before, especially in Crysis, where plants seem to pop up 30 feet in front of you. But the COD MW i play every day and see nothing like that at all.

Im going to go home and try dropping my resolution to try and re-create the gif that you made to test the theory.

 

[gnb]

I can't test at higher res, but i have always played on 1280x1024, even when this wasn't happening
I had a monitor with higher res for a while, and as i can remember it was the same

Im going to go home and try dropping my resolution to try and re-create the gif that you made to test the theory.

Thanks alot. It also happens with the NPC models. Try moving forward/backwards to see if you notice it

 

[phanbuey]

I can't test at higher res, but i have always played on 1280x1024, even when this wasn't happening
I had a monitor with higher res for a while, and as i can remember it was the same

does the texture pop, and then pop back into low rez as you move away from it? or does it pop and then stay?

Edit: you said back and forth in the above post so that means it goes back and forth... not a disk streaming problem then.

Ill try it out tonight and see... what level is that in COD MW? so i can find the same spot

 

[gnb]

It pops up, and then goes away/low res when i step back
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6186/asddeee.gif This is the first level in MW2. I can also install MW if you can't test with MW2
You can also see for NPCs, sandbags and especially trees

What would happen if i had a disk streaming problem. Is it has something to do with texture behavior?

 

[phanbuey]

It pops up, and then goes away/low res when i step back
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6186/asddeee.gif This is the first level in MW2
You can also see for NPCs, sandbags and especially trees

Ok ill give it a run when I get home to see if the GTX260 pops like that too.

 

[gnb]

I will try to post examples with trees later (it is more obvious there)