[Graphics] Can someone explain what this is?

[Dbrn47]

Can someone tell me what this is and how to get rid of it? I'm running at max settings already.. It looks like aliasing but anti-aliasing doesn't seem to affect it at all. It's sort of always been there, I'm just finally annoyed enough to ask about it, and movement seems to amplify it. As you can see, this is inside the hangar, so I'm not moving, yet it looks pretty bad and it's also on the ship.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Moire?

 

[Dbrn47]

Moire?

Is that normal to have in game like this?

 

[Asp Explorer]

Is that normal to have in game like this?

What resolution are you running at?

 

[Dbrn47]

What resolution are you running at?

1920x1080

 

[JetsonRING]

At 1920 x 1080 jaggies are still noticeable even at Ultra and with the highest anti-aliasing settings. I am getting a 4K monitor.

 

[Asp Explorer]

1920x1080

Hmmm - have you lowered your Supersampling? Setting it above 1 might improve things for you, at a performance hit.

 

[Jukelo]

Thin lines, big pixels, and poor anti-aliasing implementation will do that. It's particularly an issue in ED as there's a lot of situations where that happens and everything is pretty much always moving.
Increasing your supersampling or virtual super resolution should help with that at the cost of performance. If you can't afford that, the cheap FXAA is, ironically enough, the method that helps the most with shimmering.

 

[Don Alvarez]

I don't think AA is working in this game as it should. I read some time ago it wasn't, haven't heard anything since. Some people have had success I think setting AA using their graphics drivers instead of using the game settings - I haven't. While I notice the jaggies, mine certainly aren't as bad as this.

 

[Dbrn47]

I've just tried adjusting supersampling up to 2.0x with no visible effect on this particular issue, yet there is a definite performance cost of 15-20fps.

Here it is at 1.5x in classified camera mode:

I switched to classified cam and noticed that it is more stationary, though you can still see some small movement... It's strange. Staying perfectly still it seems to look better, but any movement and the quality is destroyed.

For reference, standard outfitting screen at 1.5 Supersampling:

It does seem to be related to thin lines from a distance and movement. Compared to 1.0x, little to no difference.

 

[Dbrn47]

Another example, but these are closer to where the camera is positioned. Still at 1.5x:

 

[Jukelo]

I've just tried adjusting supersampling up to 2.0x with no visible effect on this particular issue, yet there is a definite performance cost of 15-20fps.

Both AMD and Nvidia offer a Virtual super resolution option which might work better for that than ED's native supersampling.

It does seem to be related to thin lines from a distance and movement. Compared to 1.0x, little to no difference.

The issue here is really one of precision, each pixel is only going to be colored one way or the other to represent one object or the other. At horizontal/vertical angles for distant objects with heavily contrasting colors this can lead to a lot of flickering as there aren't enough pixels to represent everything, so bits will dissapear and reappear with just a tiny change in angle as the engine is trying to decide what to show.
VSR will double the amount of pixels to render these objects, and then scale it down, averageing out multiple pixels where at a smaller resolution two colors would otherwise be competing for the same pixel.

It wont totally remove shimmering lines like that since ED can render objects at pretty large distances and you'd need a crazy resolution to have enough pixels to render every distant detail, but it will help.
..and the anti-aliasing is notoriously bad in ED.

 

[Jon flint]

I think it's all been said, but yes, it's shimmering on sub pixel elements, especially noticeable on bright edges. The AA solution in Elite could use some improvement, even running at 4k with 2x supersampling you can still see these artifacts!

All you can do for now is either run at a higher resolution or go down the route of DSR/VSR. The smoothness filter with nvidia's DSR is actually pretty good at dampening some of the shimmering even if you're only supersampling a small amount (1.25x etc) it seems to have an effect, but it will also slightly blur the rest of the image too.

 

[Dbrn47]

Both AMD and Nvidia offer a Virtual super resolution option which might work better for that than ED's native supersampling.

Seems mildly better at 2.0x DSR, though it could be that where there was light to exacerbate the issue there is now very little light.

It sounds like there's not much to be done other than get a monitor that supports higher resolution in the first place, or will that even matter?

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I think it's all been said, but yes, it's shimmering on sub pixel elements, especially noticeable on bright edges. The AA solution in Elite could use some improvement, even running at 4k with 2x supersampling you can still see these artifact's!

All you can do for now is either run at a higher resolution or go down the route of DSR/VSR. The smoothness filter with nvidia's DSR is acasually pretty good at dampening some of the shimmering even if you're only supersampling a small amount (1.25x etc) it seems to have an effect, but it will also slightly blur the rest of the image too.

Sheesh even at 4K eh? Guess I just have to go back to trying to ignore it.

 

[madwax]

What type of station are you docked at? When I exit to desktop and am in the hanger as the station/dock models disappear (if I'm pointing in the correct direction) I see the local planet, moons star bar bar bar for a few frames. If the camera/hanger/ship is being rotated around the axis of the stations (like on the pad) you might be seeing a floating point "wobbles". That or it's got something to do with how shadows are done in ED which I've notices sometimes don't work properly.

 

[the100thmonkey]

I don't think AA is working in this game as it should. I read some time ago it wasn't, haven't heard anything since. Some people have had success I think setting AA using their graphics drivers instead of using the game settings - I haven't. While I notice the jaggies, mine certainly aren't as bad as this.

That was my first thought - it struck me that there was no AA at all in the images posted.

 

[Wylie28]

You need TXAA or Supersampling to fix that. FXAA and MSAA are solutions to jaggies. Those whatever you want to call them are your gpu trying to render things that are smaller than one pixel. Really this is a hardware problem. Our GPUs should spend a little bit more time per frame. But no, consumers are all about FPS and don't really give a damn about the quality and accuracy of said frames.

 

[SeanKye]

I see the exact same thing when wearing the Oculus. And I am adding this odd bit only because I have been searching everywhere for how to correct it. It goes away if I tilt my head about 15 degrees to the left or right. It is like the alignment is off.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Modern CPU's, GPU's and 3D engines e.g. Unreal, CryEngine and ED's Cobra engine are capable of rendering far more visual detail than earlier hardware/software.

However, display technology hasn't really changed all that much in the same time frame; mainstream monitors are still 1920x1200 or so.

Level designers are using much higher levels of detail - so we see far greater geometric complexity being rendered into essentially the same pixel density we were using 5 and even 10 years ago.

More complexity generally means more polygons, and often smaller or slimmer polygons - and thin vertical or horizontal polygons seen nearly edge-on are the main culprit for the shimmering aliasing effect. End result is that thos scenes contain quite a few vertical or horizontal (or nearly so) features that are only one or two pixels wide when rendered. Aliasing hell.
Antialiasing and supersampling help, but can't eliminate the effect altogether - you'd need a 4K monitor or better.

@Wylie28 - there's no loss of accuracy - its just the effect of rendering tiny/thin features on a not-so-fine resolution monitor.

CyEngine in Star Citizen does the same thing... lots of man-made ie horizontal and vertical structures... high contrast = aliasing hell again.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Hmmm - have you lowered your Supersampling? Setting it above 1 might improve things for you, at a performance hit.

I tried with 4k (eh supersampling x2) in a station and it still showed the pixel stairs. There is a post about temporarily anti aliasing or whatnot which looks pretty neat. It is just bad anti aliasing in Elite and that's it. The OP is right in this statement.
Frontier do something after almost two years. :|

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You need TXAA or Supersampling to fix that. FXAA and MSAA are solutions to jaggies. Those whatever you want to call them are your gpu trying to render things that are smaller than one pixel. Really this is a hardware problem. Our GPUs should spend a little bit more time per frame. But no, consumers are all about FPS and don't really give a damn about the quality and accuracy of said frames.

I need both. Triple A quality and ATLEAST 60fps