The little things that make a big difference

[vecchio]

I have had this little graphic glitch as far back as I can remember, and I bet I am not the only one. I have never been able to get a decent answer what this is, or if there is a way to fix it, but it really ruins immersion when you entire screen is one big glitch. Look at all the trees and how they flicker. Now this kind of problem has been around for years so it is known, but is it getting any attention? Just an example of something I would love to see done over eye candy. This was taken from the 88 commanders binocs dbl zoomed. What the heck is this? (I know this is probably more suited for the support forum but I am getting no help there)

_ANKUqS8GwA

[echelon4]

Yes I have had not only this but something even worse. Most times it happens when its raining, maybe only when its raining I'm not sure.

Its hard to describe with text and happens too rapidly to catch in a Screenshot but the grass flashes to this grey type of fine grid that spreads itself along the surface then clips back under the ground at some distance maybe 200 meters when it meets a incline or decline. It happens in a series of flashes for me.

[mrfancyp]

I have had this little graphic glitch as far back as I can remember, and I bet I am not the only one. I have never been able to get a decent answer what this is, or if there is a way to fix it, but it really ruins immersion when you entire screen is one big glitch. Look at all the trees and how they flicker. Now this kind of problem has been around for years so it is known, but is it getting any attention? Just an example of something I would love to see done over eye candy. This was taken from the 88 commanders binocs dbl zoomed. What the heck is this? (I know this is probably more suited for the support forum but I am getting no help there)

_ANKUqS8GwA

Maybe this is flickering caused by the driver of your graphics card. Try to change your anisotropic filtering settings (in Catalyst Control center or the corresponding Nvidia software), if you disable it the flickering might go away.

[flanker15]

That's "Z fighting" artifacts. Everyone will have it to some extent, it's hard to fix so it's better to just ignore it.

[lipton]

It's not a bug...it's a feature.

Pretend it's the simulated "wind" blowing through the trees.

[vecchio]

This is something I can't ignore. The entire screen looks like one big glitch. There has to be some acknowledgement of this problem and some effort put towards correcting it. It really does make the game look terrible, and makes picking out moving targets really hard as everything is moving.

[geckopow]

That's "Z fighting" artifacts. Everyone will have it to some extent' date=' it's hard to fix so it's better to just ignore it.[/quote']

I have heard it is something related to the Z...Not neccesarily a bug, different drivers might help. Sometimes i get it, and sometimes i dont, i have seen it recently again, due to me using the latest drivers.

[MOTORMOUTH]

Moving this here to see if any changes can be made to resolve this.

[AHWULF]

It is Z fighting, basically at the distances we support your ability to see the math has insufficient bits to distinguish what is in front - depending on the angle different things will be drawn in front than at other angles. Anisotropic filtering can help smooth this out and that's a feature you have to turn on on your video card's controls as it's not controllable by an application. Of course it does slow down the game and doesn't work in all circumstances either.

It is possible to improve this at distance but then you trade off by having more issues close to your eye. Most games don't give you 6KM viewing distance so you see it less. There are only so many bits in a 32 bit float depth buffer.

Future video cards will likely support more detailed depth buffers (64bit or 128bit) but for now we're stuck.

[vecchio]

Yeah I remember there being an issue like this where towns would flicker in the air, and that was due to the z-buffer. Thanks for the answer.

[AHWULF]

There are issues where parts of buildings/roads etc flicker close to you where they overlap, thats also z-fighting but generally thats a bug. It's just the far distance thats the math problem.

[jwilly]

I wish there was a system for copying answers like this into a public FAQ.

[AHWULF]

I wish there was a system for copying answers like this into a public FAQ.

Motor.

[GOPHUR]

@jwilly

This should be what the wiki is for.