So about those shadows....

[Bob Lighthouse]

I honestly tried to find it against my better judgement, but went to two asteroid belts with beige roids and all the shadows close and far looked fine.

I do agree with others, the colours are too overblown. Its like fake HDR but without the improved contrast ratio. Station interiors like pzyko says are just foggy over saturated mess inside.

+1

I do see some nice stuff too, like dust in the rings and some cool light beams I've never seen before.
Even the space dust in SC looks improved.
'Roids looked very detailed and I didn't have any of the weird shadows.

My Mamba has some issues...
Paint wasn't showing up properly, sparkling seams, it stole a ship name, and the initial station menu/text looks like mis-sized.

 

[Old Duck]

I can't believe I am the only one seeing all this flickering. Am I becoming Old Duck? I tried restoring the PS4 database, illtsee if it helps.

It starts with one. Then two. Then four.. Eventually, we will win

FWIW, my performance and visuals in general have been all over the map. I was in Jenny's Type-7 when I went down to the surface of a planet and encountered terrible "elephant butt leather", but I haven't tried that with Duck's Dolphin yet. I was noticing all sorts of stutter (especially in supercruise) in her account, yet stations seem to perform better than usual in Duck's account.

I also was able to "compensate" for the new lighting system quite a bit by adjust both the game's gamma and my monitor settings, though there are still places where it feels like an artistic HDR photo.

What fascinates me is that you are seeing the flickering in Quality mode. Even I had good shadows in that mode when I owned a PS4 Pro for 24 hours (before this last patch, obviously).

 

[stormyuk]

Tried an ice belt to see if I could get them flickering there, nope, slight shimmer with the ice but nothing like what those videos show. No idea.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Here's another one, in a metal-rich ring. If you look closely, even the support beams of the Asp's cockpit have the same "noise" or flickering. This is really bad.

[video=youtube;CaWFRS8QMdA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaWFRS8QMdA[/video]

 

[Old Duck]

This is really bad.

Welcome to my world, a world I've been trapped in for over a year! And people wonder why Old Duck went off his rocker, LOL

What really pulls my goat whiskers is that Frontier said they fixed a specific issue with "low quality shadows" in the patch notes, yet what I observed yesterday was WORSE, not better... Then again, they "fixed" Minecraft textures for about 5 patches until it "took", so at least they are trying?

 

[pzykozomatik]

Played for a bit just now and have to add, I think they sacrificed some other enhancements to enable the new stuff and keep the frame rate steady. I’ve seen those “flickering edges” all around, and iI believe they’ve lowered the general antialiasing factor; stations, megaships and planetary bases look really bad from afar. I really hate how it looks, although I like that the general framerate seems to be more stable in turn than before.

FD really need to step up their PS4 game, we know from other games what the console is capable of if you put some effort into optimisation.

 

[Old Duck]

I’ve seen those “flickering edges” all around, and iI believe they’ve lowered the general antialiasing factor; .

I noticed this as well, especially in an asteroid base with the ladders and catwalks on the walls - the aliasing* is off the charts compared to before. On the other hand, other station interiors look better and smoother to me... Like the new lighting, some stuff looks better, other stuff looks way worse. The shadows on the outside of my Dolphin, for example, look like a PS2 (TWO) game after this update [mad]

I haven't purposefully done any detailed graphics "analysis" (been having too much fun learning the new exploration tools), but I hope to get out today and get some screenshots and possibly open a few bug reports.

* I do wonder if the aliasing, like the poor shadows, has been amplified by the extra saturation that this new color system brings.

 

[stormyuk]

Here's another one, in a metal-rich ring. If you look closely, even the support beams of the Asp's cockpit have the same "noise" or flickering. This is really bad.

I've just had the geometry issue where spinning asteroids grow and get smaller like graphical corruption around the edge, shadows look ok though. LOL.

Edge thing is defiantly new.

AA was never great on this game with the PS4.

 

[Olyver]

Played for a bit just now and have to add, I think they sacrificed some other enhancements to enable the new stuff and keep the frame rate steady. I’ve seen those “flickering edges” all around, and iI believe they’ve lowered the general antialiasing factor; stations, megaships and planetary bases look really bad from afar. I really hate how it looks, although I like that the general framerate seems to be more stable in turn than before.

FD really need to step up their PS4 game, we know from other games what the console is capable of if you put some effort into optimisation.

Steady? More stable? ? I wonder whether you are a fanboy or just simply blind... :O

 

[Ayho]

#madmatt
Only the shadows in fog volumes are ultra setting on pc. Godrays is more a lighting effect instead of shadow effect. So it must be available on console.

 

[Old Duck]

I just verified that on PS4 Slim, shadows on stations and my own ship are still absolute rubbish, and "elephant butt leather" is alive and well (tried two different ships in two different accounts). I'll open yet another bug report, but it is painfully obvious that Frontier doesn't give a damn about the PS4 Slim.

 

[dm06]

Why not FD provide console users with pc-like graphics settings to let them choose and play with whatever butt leather they want?...

 

[Old Duck]

Why not FD provide console users with pc-like graphics settings to let them choose and play with whatever butt leather they want?...

I would love that.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

I just verified that on PS4 Slim, shadows on stations and my own ship are still absolute rubbish, and "elephant butt leather" is alive and well (tried two different ships in two different accounts). I'll open yet another bug report, but it is painfully obvious that Frontier doesn't give a damn about the PS4 Slim.

Duck, it is not only the slim now. It's a PS4-wide problem obviously. This is the clearest video I could take. Once again PS4 Pro, Quality Mode.

[video=youtube;G4M_9qtLnNo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4M_9qtLnNo[/video]

This was most definitely NOT happening to me before 3.3, and beside that it's really NOT something that should happen in ANY PS4 game.

 

[Old Duck]

Duck, it is not only the slim now. It's a PS4-wide problem obviously. This is the clearest video I could take. Once again PS4 Pro, Quality Mode.

This was most definitely NOT happening to me before 3.3, and beside that it's really NOT something that should happen in ANY PS4 game.

Don't take this wrong, but your bad shadows look way better than my bad shadows. I'm curious, what do your shadows look like in performance mode? I'm pretty sure PS4 Slim is just set to performance mode graphics settings, even though a Slim can handle higher settings and still hit 30 FPS (it's laziness on Frontier's part).

FWIW, I wish everyone had my terrible shadows on all PS4s, because Frontier doesn't care about me as a single customer (not one single post from Lloyd in this thread, whereas he's having a full-blown conversation with Stormy in a Trophy thread). Perhaps Frontier would care if enough other customers started complaining....

If I didn't find the new exploration tools so compelling, I'd just put this game back on the shelf where it's been for the last few weeks, but I really like the new features in this update. I just wish they'd get rid of the old "features", aka these horrendous shadows and shaders.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Don't take this wrong, but your bad shadows look way better than my bad shadows. I'm curious, what do your shadows look like in performance mode? I'm pretty sure PS4 Slim is just set to performance mode graphics settings, even though a Slim can handle higher settings and still hit 30 FPS (it's laziness on Frontier's part).

FWIW, I wish everyone had my terrible shadows on all PS4s, because Frontier doesn't care about me as a single customer (not one single post from Lloyd in this thread, whereas he's having a full-blown conversation with Stormy in a Trophy thread). Perhaps Frontier would care if enough other customers started complaining....

If I didn't find the new exploration tools so compelling, I'd just put this game back on the shelf where it's been for the last few weeks, but I really like the new features in this update. I just wish they'd get rid of the old "features", aka these horrendous shadows and shaders.

Later I'll do the same exact experiment in performance mode.

 

[Old Duck]

Patch Notes:
Fixed low quality shadows appearing when entering Orbital Cruise on PS4

Reality* (taken just now):

* reminder that these shadow-bands flicker and move like a moire pattern, making for a gosh-awful experience.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Duck, oddly enough the shadows cast by the asteroid onto itself as it spins are better in Performance mode than they are in quality. (but note that the black-squares flickering around asteroids in a distance is always present)

[video=youtube;H4q_2cT6nuU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4q_2cT6nuU[/video]

 

[Old Duck]

Duck, oddly enough the shadows cast by the asteroid onto itself as it spins are better in Performance mode than they are in quality. (but note that the black-squares flickering around asteroids in a distance is always present)

As long as you are testing, do you get "crappy shadows" in performance mode when light shines through the "toaster rack" on a station, or my "elephant butt leather" when down on a planet?

Also, what are your video settings? Here are mine (note that the RGB is full, not limited):

I tried switching to limited RGB, lower resolution, I even swapped in a different HDMI cable, but it all looks like the same terrible crap. The only thing I didn't try was a different monitor, as I don't have spare on hand. Maybe this weekend I'll take this PS4 to work and try a monitor* there, just in case. That said, all my other games look great. I wish there were other PS4 Slim owners in this forum I could run tests with. Unfortunately I think Frontier has written off the PS4 Slim because everyone in this forum is on a Pro. Oh well..


* Though I can't imagine it's the monitor, because I'm looking at my own screenshots on my laptop now, and they still look terrible. Screenshots come directly from PS4, not the monitor.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

I'll try the planetside EBL later