Shadow issues and potential fixes

Yep, this is as it is and has been since day one with rF2 and looks similar as on my end. Thanks for providing screenshots and we can now rule out any CPU or other specific bugs.

 

You were mainly referring to a quote, while referring to the OP (me, obviously) claiming I said I didn't think this was a bug (i.e. an issue) and effectively tried putting words in my mouth. Let's not dance around that now, let's just move on

"We all know that rF2 shadow distance and LODs are rather short, which is even more pronounced on old modded tracks."

Rather hilarious statement after you spent the thread claiming it was all because of modded tracks and the issue wasn't present on official stuff so the whole issue was user end or whatnot.
You might not have implicitly stated it, but you damn sure implied it.

...and now you simply admit it's an actual issue.
haha...ok then. Well, at least we're all on the same page now, and in the end, that's all that matters.

We'll see where it goes with devs. My bet is nowhere, but we'll see.

 

I'll provide you with different one on my end, so stay tuned!

 

Tagged Marcel in the gfx discord channel...hoping for some feedback there.


ETA: HEY, whaddya know, I got some dev feedback

 

And what was the feedback? Don't keep me in the dark any longer

 

Sorry, been busy and thought most would jump over to discord to see it
P.S. I'd recommend doing that, because there is a bit of brief talk from others there that may aide in reducing it for some.


In a nutshell though.....

MarrsToday at 10:13 AM
What are your shadow settings in game?
JakalToday at 10:18 AM
This happens on all shadow settings. Only on "low" or "off" does this not happen. At low or off, shadows often don't expand on the track this far, so it's not seen, but at all other settings this is an issue. I have a tech support thread on it in the forum. https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/shadow-issues-and-potential-fixes.61856/ I also posted it in my home league forum yesterday asking if others see it too. Every person in my league says they see the same thing. The forum thread says others see it to. And above some are saying the same.
Studio-397 Forum
Shadow issues and potential fixes
Since forever I've had a shadow issue in rF2, and I think it's time to address it. I'm hoping a bit of conversation here will aide me in that quest,...

If you read through a bit of that, you'll see I've tried everything. I've spent many many hours trying to remedy this myself, over the course of 2 years or so...without results. Thought it was on my end all that time. At this point, I can definitely say I don't believe that is the case any longer.
MarrsToday at 10:22 AM
Most racing sims that have dynamic shadows (and many other games too) use a system that is called "cascading shadow maps" where you have an area close to the camera where we render high resolution shadows and then several areas further away where we render them at lower resolutions.
The higher your shadow settings in the options, the less obvious the effect is as we use more and bigger maps that extend further.
xmlincToday at 10:23 AM
@Marrs that is also my issue in VR and that's why I made the shadow optimization on Tracks
Dmitri BukshaToday at 10:23 AM
Well yes , but for me after that diatance i dont get any shadows at all.
JakalToday at 10:23 AM
But it's apparently not working correctly then. Even at Ultra settings it does not change for me
BernixToday at 10:23 AM
it is common issue in VR as well. Suppersampling solving it there. So it calculate at higher res.
MarrsToday at 10:24 AM
That said, some of this is also dependent on the actual track design, and your video shows some third party track that I don't know how this is setup.
So the first step is to look at this using stock content.
JakalToday at 10:24 AM
Note these screens https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/shadow-issues-and-potential-fixes.61856/page-3 They are from official track and show the same issue I see
Studio-397 Forum
Shadow issues and potential fixes
That is a draw-ahead issue. The further out you draw nice clean shadows, the greater the drain on the fps. Since one of rF2's biggest failings is...

Well, meant to go directly to it. Ooops. Screens are on page 3 of the thread, poster called "Rikki"... That is exactly what I am seeing too...on all tracks, mod and official.
Dmitri BukshaToday at 10:25 AM
On december 29 I'll provide some screenshots or maybe video with official content that show the issue.
MarrsToday at 10:26 AM
That's not a bug, it's the border between two of those cascades I mentioned above.
JakalToday at 10:26 AM
And there is no remedy for it then? This cannot be fixed in any way?
xmlincToday at 10:27 AM
I have already presented my proposal for the solution to this problem at Marcel. The biggest problem is the incorrect declaration of ShadowGroups
MarrsToday at 10:27 AM
With more powerful graphics cards you can add more and bigger cascades but the effect is always there.
Dmitri BukshaToday at 10:28 AM
@Marrs Gtx 1060 with 6 gb good enough ?
JakalToday at 10:28 AM
And I can do this from user end without causing online issues? Or this needs to be done on dev/modder end? It's quite distracting at times, in certain lighting especially. In some lighting, it's not so bad...but mid day, it can be near game breaking at times, and completely destroys immersion, as one can clearly see.
MarrsToday at 10:28 AM
Set the shadows to their highest settings. Are you still happy with the framerate? If so, then good enough!
JakalToday at 10:29 AM
I did, and framerate is fine. I'm capped off at 60 on a 60hz monitor anyways. I have some overhead to play with. Settings shadows at their highest levels makes no difference on my end. It still looks identical to my video, and to the screens we've mentioned here.
xmlincToday at 10:30 AM
logically, it is not always possible in VR
Dmitri BukshaToday at 10:31 AM
Ok @Marrs i hope you get back to this issue when ill post how does it looks on my end. Because for me its not aboit cascades from full res to blured shadow. For me its going from good to no shadows at all.
BernixToday at 10:32 AM
shadow blur can help a bit here? Logicaly not, but worth to try it.
JakalToday at 10:33 AM
Out far ahead of my car, shadows seem fine...it's that area 3-5 or so meters away that is "blurred". Blur settings of all sorts make no difference for me in terms of the blurred shadow issue. Takes some jaggies out of shadows here and there, but does nothing for that blobby/blurry area out ahead of me

 

Well, found the discussion on discord. Apart from the conclusion the behaviour is as intended I still was encouraged to try some settings with super-sampling and super resolution. No improvements. For me at least the negatives seem to outweigh possible positives as promised by these technologies. Hope someone else is more successful.

Happy holidays.

 

Messing around with DSR myself.
If nothing better came of this, for me at least, AMS is looking amazing with DSR. Performance hit seems to be negotiable, but I was running a lot of AA, and was able to nearly turn that off, and turn game settings down, and it still looks better than it did maxed out with all that AA eating FPS

Now to try with rF2. Hopes aren't as high, as I've heard it works with better results in older game engines and DX9...but we'll see.
Maybe doing a similar thing will negate the obvious performance hit of DSR.

Sorry to hear it isn't working out on your end.

Happy holidays to you as well.

 

Something we know about these types of discussions is that it's hard to describe the problem in words, and easy to think what someone else is talking about is the same thing you are when perhaps it's not. Or vice versa.

In that context, I think it's important to avoid taking offense too much at what people say, as it could just be a misunderstanding.

 

Weird.
Messing around with DSR....works absolute wonders in AMS.

But in rF2, something weird is going on. I set the resolution for 4k with the DSR factors 4.0x.
And when I launch the game and open the menu, it's all disproportionate. ...almost like "fullscreen" isn't really fullscreen...?...
It's not fitting my screen, and I cannot click on things because the mouse pointer, and where it is actually pointing in game are two different things

Anyone know what would cause that?
Same resolution, and same process, in AMS....and everything works fine.
I don't understand.

 

I know this is an old thread.
So as an ex-track modder I know that this is an ISI-gameengine issue and we can't fix it with some setting in the game, only the creator of the track itself has some saying in how visible this is.
Here is a video by Gijs van Elderen which shows the problem: