FAO FRONTIER: List of Graphical Changes / Issues for since Patch 1.3

[Obsidian Ant]

Granite, no offense, your videos are a huge part of why I got into Elite Dangerous, but I noticed early on that there are a number of issues with the graphics in the game, especially in some of your early videos, and the ultra widescreen video you linked here clearly shows them.

In the rings, you've got entire sections of rocks suddenly appearing or vanishing, shadows changing all over without an actual light source change, and other oddities of that sort.

I've dropped into a few rings myself in the past few weeks, I don't have those things happening as they do in your video. I see them appear at distance suddenly, which is to be expected, draw distance is what it is(mine's maxed out), but in your video, those popping/vanishing aren't at the draw distance limit, they are closer, as rocks can clearly be seen behind them as they pop/vanish.

I can see that the graphics have changed over the course of the game's lifetime so far just watching your videos, some things are obvious, but I'm left to wonder how many of the things I can visually tell are different are due to the GAME'S changes and how many are due to the addons you run, and other people noticing the same in their own gameplay, how many of you are also running those addons?

I run nothing extra with Elite, and my game has some pretty highly detailed stuff in it. The cockpits of my ships are gloriously detailed, from carbon fiber patterns to scratches, dents and stains, the leather's grain on my Courier, and so on. I've maxed things out via manual editing of files, as the ingame settings don't actually go to Ultra for most settings, something that IS a bit...mucked up, and I definitely agree FD should fix that.

As an aside, Granite, could I trouble you to send me a copy of your graphics settings xlm? My own version is oddly totally blank, and any changes I make get removed every time I start the game. I've had to use another file to make the changes, but it's missing almost everything shown on yours from your video on editing your graphics to get the most out of them. I'm not worried about my system handling the ultra settings, as I max out well over 120fps and drop down to 60s whenever I'm in a really busy/visually intensive area. If you could be so kind as to just PM me a copy of your settings, I would greatly appreciate that. And please keep making your videos, they got me to get the game and I've directed friends and family to them, FD should be paying you, your videos are wonderful advertisments!

Thanks for the very nice comments Krostov!

The video I linked a few posts up had some serious issues with the rings, which I also mentioned in the post. Prior to Beta 1.06 the asteroids didn't pop-in or hang in cluster formation...then Betal 1.06 hit and the asteroids looked a lot 'worse' - there were claims for a graphical downgrade at the time...and I stamped my feet a little too. But eventually with a later patch the asteroids looked better than ever! Reason I showed that video was to highlight that we have had problems with the ring system before - which were later fixed.

I have run the game on a clean install before to ensure it wasn't my addons messing around, and it was clear that something in the game had changed. At this point I'm really wondering that these 'problems' may not actually affect everyone, which is why there is so much conflict in opinion. I know that for me, the graphics no longer look as good as they once did. I fully believe Frontier when they say that those changes are unintended, and that they generally are not inclined (i.e. do not like too) downgrade the graphics. But whatever the reason something has changed. But based on past experience, I suspect that in a few patches things will start to look better again.

I will send you a copy of my xml file.

 

[Kristov]

Thanks for the very nice comments Krostov!

The video I linked a few posts up had some serious issues with the rings, which I also mentioned in the post. Prior to Beta 1.06 the asteroids didn't pop-in or hang in cluster formation...then Betal 1.06 hit and the asteroids looked a lot 'worse' - there were claims for a graphical downgrade at the time...and I stamped my feet a little too. But eventually with a later patch the asteroids looked better than ever! Reason I showed that video was to highlight that we have had problems with the ring system before - which were later fixed.

I have run the game on a clean install before to ensure it wasn't my addons messing around, and it was clear that something in the game had changed. At this point I'm really wondering that these 'problems' may not actually affect everyone, which is why there is so much conflict in opinion. I know that for me, the graphics no longer look as good as they once did. I fully believe Frontier when they say that those changes are unintended, and that they generally are not inclined (i.e. do not like too) downgrade the graphics. But whatever the reason something has changed. But based on past experience, I suspect that in a few patches things will start to look better again.

I will send you a copy of my xml file.

One thing that could be a possible culprit in different people seeing different things, video cards and drivers.

Nvidia drivers tend to be stable and do better overall than ATI drivers, a well known and oft lamented issue with ATI cards. I have used both myself over the years, ATI used to produce far more beautiful graphics at a cost of speed, while Nvidia was less beautiful but ran much faster.

Anymore, the difference between the 2 types of cards is now that the ATI drivers are always less stable, unless a game has special driver updates for it specifically, and that's about it. Nvidia has gotten the visual quality up as high, if not higher sometimes, than ATI, while still maintaining the speed edge over ATI.

Check your drivers, make sure they are current, as both companies have released new updates with the release of Windows 10. Beta drivers for either card type could also cause issues.

And last but not least, the display device itself could be the issue. My HD 44" television screen makes things look great, but I quickly noticed that a lot of the detail I can see on my 24" Asus HD 3D Vision monitor was missing, so my big television is now limited to being used for my grandkid's XBox. I'm still looking for a good big screen UHD device for my PC, but I've yet to find an actual television that matches the specs of any monitor, and monitors tend to run quite a bit more than a television of the same size, and that's the reason why.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Sure I can share it. I've attached it to this post...here's a video that explains what it is all about:

[video=youtube;iIosivU9uVw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIosivU9uVw[/video]

NOTE:

1) Backup your GraphicsConfiguration.xml before you put this file in your game directory.
2) File can be found in these locations:

Default Game Installation Locations:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1001 - The number at the end will vary from game to game.

C:\Program Files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\Frontier\EDLaunch\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1001​

3) This file changes the texture resolution for planets and the galaxy background. On Ultra it sets Planets to 8k textures, on High it sets planets to 4k textures. In both cases the galaxy background is set to 4k textures. All of these are a lot higher than the default settings.

4) You may get some lag / stuttering on the loading screens and in hyperspace. Inside the game itself it is smooth for me as you can see from my video - however it may vary for other people as not all PC's are the same.

5) If you break something on your PC or game, I take no responsibility. As with all these things we try them at our own risk; that said, I have never had a problem with this.

6) It is possible to make these changes with the Graphics Override file but I haven't done it that way. Someone else maybe able to advise how to do that. Benefit of using the override is that the changes will remain after a patch. Otherwise everything gets set back to default.

7) Have fun!

View attachment 57520

 

[Kristov]

Thank you Granite, I've been looking over the settings and I think I'll do a little editing on it when I get home tonight and see what I can get out of it.

Again, love your videos, FD really should be paying you for advertising for them.

 

[Insomnia]

There....
First up the Demo version:
I accidentally hit the Reshade enable button instead of ending the vid. But it's only for a few seconds. Looks purrty tho! ^^
[video=youtube;gdfRiTPUhZI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfRiTPUhZI[/video]

------------------------------

Now the current version:
[video=youtube;Y3cueGcUFi4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3cueGcUFi4[/video]

 

[nexxo]

Shows that the fog has changed (and I agree the former looked better), which we know, and IIRC Frontier has promised to address.

 

[Yodafone]

There....
First up the Demo version:
I accidentally hit the Reshade enable button instead of ending the vid. But it's only for a few seconds. Looks purrty tho! ^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfRiTPUhZI

------------------------------

Now the current version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3cueGcUFi4

Well demonstrated, the fog is clearly missing (nothing to do with light angles, although when the star is ahead of you this does bring out the little fog there is now) and this was in a ring system where the background static roids are a very similar colour to the foreground 3d ones, in a darker roid system sometimes this background colour stands out so much the transition between the two can be clearly seen and is very noticeable. Again, hoping Frontier find a solution

edit: I'd give you some more rep but I can't right now

 

[Insomnia]

Well demonstrated,
edit: I'd give you some more rep but I can't right now

Thanks alot mate!

Shows that the fog has changed (and I agree the former looked better), which we know, and IIRC Frontier has promised to address.

Yes but I also wanted to show this demonstration because I was wrong about the assets. The assets are still intact in the game and no texture has been altered. I apologise for believing the opposite.
Right now, we have the fog effect and some lighting changes. Fog is probably not something we could change. However the lighting does have some knobs in the .xml config file... I wonder if we could bring this Beta lighting style into 1.3.8 by copying some HDR numbers.

 

[RedRaven]

Blame the port to console!

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Shows that the fog has changed (and I agree the former looked better), which we know, and IIRC Frontier has promised to address.

I might be wrong, but it looks like the asteroids don't self-shadow in the same way as previously. Also the asteroids used to cast shadows across each other, as well as your ship. I haven't seen that in any ring system for a very long time.

 

[majogl]

About the asteroid belts... They look ok to me...

Spoiler

 

[Obsidian Ant]

About the asteroid belts... They look ok to me...

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/Jro8gCe.jpg

Very nice screenshot!

There are a few issues, the rocks are missing self-shadows. Also checkout the rocks in the distance they are grey/white and do not match the colour of the rocks in the foreground. In both cases this is something that has changed since release. I suspect at some point it will be improved again.

Some people may not mind too much. Others may not really notice. However it is really noticeable in VR, and doesn't look all that good at all.

 

[Lupin]

Blame the port to console!

Yep I would also say this down to dumbing it down for console market

 

[Insomnia]

I guess it's both easy and convenient to blame consoles for everything when it comes to optimization. But we don't really know why changes are being made.
Hopefully the devs will see what we see and how we see it, and change or make things better for us. Having a low-end rig while still maintaining 50+ fps at 1080p in RES is both great and a little worrying.

 

[Vasea Azure]

Blame the port to console!

I still do. Its the best explanation for me. Kid wants to buy Elite and asks - what version to choose - PC or Xbox? - obviously he will choose the one that looks better - the PC. So they need to make them look similar.

 

[nexxo]

Would be no point. The choice of PC or console is not determined by graphics quality but by ease of use and input devices.

I might be wrong, but it looks like the asteroids don't self-shadow in the same way as previously. Also the asteroids used to cast shadows across each other, as well as your ship. I haven't seen that in any ring system for a very long time.

The self shadow has possibly changed --I find it hard to tell. But they definitely don't cast shadows on each other anymore.

 

[Kristov]

Mucking about in the xml I found some settings related to fog, I'll try to play around with them as I get the chance, once I can get the bloody thing to actually work properly, seems my install doesn't actually USE the graphicsconfig files, still trying to find out what it does use, as I can make changes and they obviously get saved somewhere...I just can't find where, and I'm an IT guy...talk about driving me nuts.

Otherwise, if someone wants to, there's settings for Fog in a few sections of the xml, most of them are set to 1, might try to bump that to 2 or 3 and see what happens. I would suggest finding a good ring, preferably one you KNOW had lot of fog pre-1.3, save and log while there, make the xml edit and log in and see what, if any, changes occur.

 

[Insomnia]

Mucking about in the xml I found some settings related to fog, I'll try to play around with them as I get the chance, once I can get the bloody thing to actually work properly, seems my install doesn't actually USE the graphicsconfig files, still trying to find out what it does use, as I can make changes and they obviously get saved somewhere...I just can't find where, and I'm an IT guy...talk about driving me nuts.

Otherwise, if someone wants to, there's settings for Fog in a few sections of the xml, most of them are set to 1, might try to bump that to 2 or 3 and see what happens. I would suggest finding a good ring, preferably one you KNOW had lot of fog pre-1.3, save and log while there, make the xml edit and log in and see what, if any, changes occur.

I just did that. No change. There's also a type of brightness settings for fog. Increased it but no visible change can be seen ingame.

I did however increased the Milky Way texture size lol.
Pic:

 

[nexxo]

Ooh, that looks rather interesting!

 

[_Agamemnon_]

Nothing wrong with shadows for me, but no fog at all.



Might be there is no fog in this ringsystem....