Visibility problem of shadows

Discussion in 'Technical & Support' started by unrealnoise, Jun 20, 2018.

  1. xzess

    xzess Registered

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    Shadows continue the same in this update. Really annoying
     
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  2. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

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    I've tried everything from changing graphic card drivers, to reinstalling rF2, tweaking BIOS settings and even starting with a fresh copy of Windows. No change.
     
  3. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    The hotfix didn't mention shadows, so a change didn't seem likely anyway. Since the devs haven't reproduced it (and the possibility it's not on the top of their list seems feasible) and even with these shadow discussions there are sometimes different things being talked about (even among those who are saying the same thing), I wouldn't really expect a change in the next proper update either.

    What we need is something from someone who sees no issue, first to confirm that there isn't an issue on their end (and not just that they haven't noticed it), then to identify the type of issue (short shadows everywhere, or short shadows only on cockpit view), and finally to look at possible causes and a solution. Perception of shadow length can vary greatly with, for example, different FOV, so I think there is easily some confusion about what is being seen.

    I think (hope) we can all agree hardware isn't a solution and isn't likely the problem. It's amazing but mystifying that hyperthreading for at least one person is making a difference, unless it's somehow related to the recent changes to dx11 and utilising multithreading. Still seems a long shot but I guess something is happening for it be a consistent factor. Obviously for those of us without the hyperthreading option it's a bit tough to test.

    There may well have been a discord discussion, but they get lost so easily.
     
  4. Travis

    Travis Registered

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    If your shadow issues are the same as those in the video then you aren't alone. I too have that issue and I see the very same shadow creep issue in pCARS & pCARS 2! R3E and AC shadows appear just fine. Interesting the 2 releases with 24 hour cycles have a similar shadow issue.

    I recall Tim Weatley making a post about the shadow creeping into view on the old ISI forums when DX9 was still in place & the ultra shadow setting was suggested or to turn shadows down to medium/low which I believe meands shadows are no longer dynamic and are static/baked (or whatever the term is).

    Shadows appearing to creep into view has been a long standing issue with rF2 and I doubt it'll get fixed because it's a gMotor thing (no idea about the Madness engine for pCARS).

    Further, no disrespect to the S397 dev's, but I strongly doubt the've never seen the shadow issue as shown in the video if Tim posted about the exact same thing many years prior.
     
  5. Marcel Offermans

    Marcel Offermans Registered

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    What would be helpful is for someone to post exact steps on how they can reproduce this and a few others that can confirm that, with these same settings, they get exactly the same issue. Be exact. If we can reproduce this, we will fix it.
     
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  6. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

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    I spoke with Christopher Elliot about this issue a couple of months ago and sadly he was unable to reproduce the problem at Studio 397. My original thread is here: https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/please-help-find-my-shadows.59891/

    Sadly the only repro steps for me are 'upgrade from build 1109 to 1110'. If I roll back to 1109, the shadows return to their normal draw distance. One peculiar thing is, if I run 1110 in dev mode, the shadows are fine.

    If I didn't live thousands of km away in Japan, I'd ship my computer to you for analysis.
     
  7. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

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    This shadow issue is definitely new to 1110

    Here's build 1109, where the shadows reach the sign at the start line:
    [​IMG]

    And now in 1110 the shadows draw in much closer (for the small number of drivers experiencing this bug). I asked a few friends to take identical 1110 screenshots and all their shadows went down to the sign.

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Marcel Offermans

    Marcel Offermans Registered

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    I have reread that whole thread again just now. It is a strange problem indeed All we can do is to keep trying to narrow it down.
     
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  9. Travis

    Travis Registered

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    What time of day is this Marvel? Obviously to us we've talked about this issue on the Reset ERA forums.

    Regarding my post, I was referring to the shadow crawling along the armco barrier which can also be seen in the OP video.
     
  10. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

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    Oh that shadow thing. And I usually race at 4pm.
     
  11. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

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    I've sent a message over discord, but please let me know if there's any testing that I can do this end or if there are logs that can be sent.
     
  12. Amanda Santini

    Amanda Santini Registered

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    I re-downloaded the game fresh on Steam, deleted cbash and shaders folders, tried different graphics settings, tried different cameras, different FOV's. Nothing helps.

    Steps to reproduce are: upgrade from version 1109 to 1110. That's when the problem started.
     
  13. Frankalexandre

    Frankalexandre Registered

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    I can reproduce the problem disabling hyperthreading. Let me know if i can help with logs or other test. My system is a i7 8770k with a Gigabyte z370 ultra.
     
  14. stonec

    stonec Registered

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    Hm... could perhaps be that this shadow rendering problem only happens when CPU reports certain core count, like six. I have laptop with HT on (2+2 cores) and desktop i5 with no HT available (4 cores). Neither shows this issue. Thread starter also seems to have six core i5.
     
  15. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    I too have a 6 core i5 (recent upgrade for me), the short shadows stood out but I couldn't say for certain that they were different before. But fresh install on a fresh windows, no extra software like inspector etc, and the shadows are short. Pitlane at Silverstone they are painfully obvious, especially with low FOV. Usually with rF2 I was bringing over my old files to avoid reconfiguring but on this PC I was starting from scratch, so there's no steps to reproduce.

    *(I've just realised I can't say for sure I ran without plugins while noticing these shadows, but I didn't install my usual plugin or two for a little while... I'll check that, just to be sure)

    **Confirming plugins made no difference. Deleted cbash and shaders, started with fresh player folder, no difference.

    One more note, the shadow length in the Silverstone pit, based on a visual comparison with the footpaths on the left and a quick measure in 3dsimed, is around 45m.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2018
  16. Amanda Santini

    Amanda Santini Registered

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    I do have a 6-core processor.
     
  17. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    And just to backup what's been said already, build 1109 draws properly. Approx measured shadow length in the Silverstone pitlane (Skip Barber by the way, same as before) is 150m. Non-cockpit views have a slightly longer shadow draw distance, which I presume is normal.
     
  18. stonec

    stonec Registered

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    Yep, so seems this theory would make sense. No idea though why six core specifically causes problems. I did read something about shadows being more multi-threaded now. But perhaps people with six or more cores can try disabling some in BIOS and see what happens.
     
  19. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

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    OMG. I switched off two cores in my bios (going from 6 to 4) and the shadows are back! Thank you

    Shadows, how I missed thee.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2018
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  20. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    For the sake of completeness, can confirm putting it down to 4 cores in the BIOS has fixed the problem here too. I wasn't able to reboot earlier and wasn't sure I'd seen an option to do that - after having only 4 cores for 8 years I really hadn't rushed into checking if I could go back :D

    So hopefully that will enable reproduction and testing at S397, since we appear to have confirmation of a cause. Thanks to @Frankalexandre for the tip and marvelharvey for checking (I remember you said you're normally good at finding the cause for issues; what's wrong with you? Why didn't you check fewer cores?! :p) Pretty sure devmode doesn't have the issue (or at least to the same extent; but I don't wholly trust content on that side of things being equivalent to the game itself) so probably something that was added to the main game sometime in 1110 that didn't get put into devmode.

    Unfortunately we know S397 doesn't care so this probably still won't get fixed. /sarcasm :rolleyes:
     

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