Water shimmering with GermanyCE Terrain Tiles by Brain32

[geoff]

I've been reading a lot about problems with water shimmering post the latest patch and I've tried the fixes suggested in the KB, i.e.

 

[HeightOffset]

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

....but I've still got horrible shimmering in the distance when using GermanyCE Terrain Tiles by Brain32 and I'm running out of ideas.

 

Any help would be appreciated as I'm getting to the stage of going back to the pre-patched version of the game so that I can continue to enjoy this great terrain.

 

Thanks, Geoff

[+christian59]

change to

 

[HeightOffset]

NonTexturedMesh=-10.0

TexturedMesh=-5.0

DetailedMesh=0.0

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

christian

[geoff]

Thanks for the speedy reply christian, I'll give it a try later and let you know how it went, it's time to go out for a traditional Italian family lunch now so I guess it will be much later.

 

Grazie, Geoff.

[+drdoyo]

I've been reading a lot about problems with water shimmering post the latest patch and I've tried the fixes suggested in the KB, i.e.

 

[HeightOffset]

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

....but I've still got horrible shimmering in the distance when using GermanyCE Terrain Tiles by Brain32 and I'm running out of ideas.

 

Any help would be appreciated as I'm getting to the stage of going back to the pre-patched version of the game so that I can continue to enjoy this great terrain.

 

Thanks, Geoff

 

Continue reading the KB geoff. If you stopped there you missed something which might solve your problems. There was a followup post there by me. Also, some screenshots of what you are seeing would help. You never know, you might have found something new, or unsolved.

 

Christian, those are old entries, geoff posted the entries which are current since the Sept patch

Edited November 23, 2008 by drdoyo

[geoff]

O.k. I've tried just about everything, applied all the parameters suggested in the KB, adjusted various in game settings and no change, the flickering is always there and is most noticeable at altitude. I've also tried the stock terrain with no tweaks and I'm seeing the same thing, so I'm beginning to wonder if this is an ATI card problem.

Here are some screenshots that illustrate what I'm seeing, it's the darkish shapes on the water towards the horizon, and in game they flicker:

 

 

Once again any help on this would be much appreciated, thanks, Geoff

[+drdoyo]

Let me see your GermanyCE_data.ini geoff

[geoff]

It's on my other PC which isn't hooked up to the net, however as I said it's doing this with the stock terrain with an unmodded GermanyCE_data.ini!

The data.ini I'm using with PR_GermanyCE is the one that comes with widesky V1.0 by cellinsky.

[malibu43]

I've also had the same issue. The flickering is still there a little bit on the horizon at high altitudes. I'm using an Intel integrated graphics chip.

 

I posted about it in the "new patch" thread, but no one ever replied. It doesn't take away from immersion too much, so I just let it go...

[+drdoyo]

Again I would need to see the file to be sure, my problem stemmed from BOTH the [HeightOffset] values and the AlphaObjectxxxCount= entries. I had to fix BOTH sets of entries to get rid of this effect, neither set of entries alone fixed it.

 

Those screen shots look exactly like what I had happening. And is Germany CE the only terrain this problem exists in? If I'm correct those patches are caused by the game NOT allocating enough memory to draw the alpha shader points in the moving water, and this results in clipping (empty spots) in the distance where the water shader is not even being drawn over the background texture.

[mikeymead]

Hi,

 

I to have this problem in both WOI and WOE, I also have an ATI card and as far as I can gather it only effects PCs with these cards. The only way I can get over this is by setting the water level detail to low.

 

Regards

 

Mikeymead.

[+drdoyo]

Hi,

 

I also have an ATI card and as far as I can gather it only effects PCs with these cards.

Regards

 

Mikeymead.

 

Not true, I'm running a GForce 6600

[+Spectre_USA]

Just chiming in to say I am another nVidia user, 8800GTS, with the same issue.

 

Flying on the Bering Straits map, sun reflection ares do the splotchy shimmer as well.

 

Haven't done a blessed thing to alleviate, as I'd rather be flying!

 

[geoff]

Again I would need to see the file to be sure, my problem stemmed from BOTH the [HeightOffset] values and the AlphaObjectxxxCount= entries. I had to fix BOTH sets of entries to get rid of this effect, neither set of entries alone fixed it.

 

drdoyo, I'd already read your post in the KB, and checked the values to make sure that they corresponded with those you suggest, in fact the stock GermanyCE_data.ini actually has higher values. However changing those values made not the slightest bit of difference which is why I'm beginning to suspect that it may be ATI related: i.e. you've eliminated your flickering and have a GForce card yet there are people like myself with an ATI card who are unable to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure I've read in a few places about problems with TW games run on ATI.

It would be great however to solve this as it's one of the few things spoiling an otherwise great game, at present the only way I can get rid of it is by setting water to low which eliminates the specular effect, but there doesn't seem much point because it completely fails to look like water.

Edited November 25, 2008 by geoff

[+Spectre_USA]

Just another note on the nVidia front.

 

I downloaded the Bear Hunter mission by paulopanz, and he included a new DBS_Data.ini. I tried it, and my shimmering is fixed.

 

I don't know what he did, probably along the lines mentioned above, and it did work for this GeForce user...

[mikeymead]

Just another note on the nVidia front.

 

I downloaded the Bear Hunter mission by paulopanz, and he included a new DBS_Data.ini. I tried it, and my shimmering is fixed.

 

I don't know what he did, probably along the lines mentioned above, and it did work for this GeForce user...

 

Tried it, didn't work for me with an ATI card unfortunately, never mind.

[Panama Red]

My ATI card did the same thing until I applied the "fix" and now everything is back to normal.

[+Brain32]

I have an ATI card and everything works fine, post the GermanyCE_data.ini here or send me a PM so I can take a look at it.

[mikeymead]

Hi Brain32

 

Here is my GermanCE data ini

 

 

 

Thanks for looking at it.

[+Brain32]

That's some strange stuff going on there, first my trees went berserk, there is also some strange effect on the water too.

Anyway here is mine germanyce_data.ini just note that mine is set up to use the tree mod.

 

I hope this can fix problems for you and other users :)

[mikeymead]

Sorry Brain32, I still get the problem, thanks for trying. I'm obviously a lost cause!

[+Brain32]

Naaah, just try a clean install, then first install all germany terrain mods, then add other stuff and see if maybe something else causes this...

[+drdoyo]

Mikey try this, there were a large number of variables different in your data.ini in many sections. I'm using Fubar512's watershaders BTW.

 

 

NOTE for ANYONE using this: BACKUP YOUR GermanyCE_data.ini before trying this.

 

drdoyos_GERMANYCE_DATA.zip

 

Hope this helps!

Edited November 28, 2008 by drdoyo

[geoff]

I too have more or less given this up as a lost cause. I don't know how many hours I've spent trying to solve this one, and I've lost count of the different GermanyCE_data files I've tried all to no avail. Brain32, thanks for your post earlier, the data file I'm using with your terrain is the one it came with so there's not much point in me sending it to you. Worst of all though is that I get the same flickering with the stock terrain with no mods or tweaks.

This is the stock terrain:

....and this is Brain32's terrain:

A couple of things I've noticed: a. the flickering gets worse the higher I fly, and b. it looks worse from the cockpit view rather than the exterior view, and yes I have thought of disabling cockpit reflections and it made no difference.

Funnily enough I had a play with First Eagles yesterday and managed to eliminate the flickering water in the high res terrain I'm using in that sim by extracting the stock data file and changing the parameters to those suggested for WOE:

 

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

I think default was:

 

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.2

 

If only it were that simple in WOE!

[+FastCargo]

One more question...is your Envirosystem.ini stock?

 

FC

[mikeymead]

I've pretty much given up as well, I get the problem in both WOE and WOI whether they are stock or modded installations, in all terrains and how ever the data inis are edited. I've tried different card settings etc. all to no avail. I've not tried WOV or FE yet, will have a look when I get round to patching them but I'll bet I'll get the same again!