SF2 TOD buildings shimmering bug

[+gerwin]

Not so long ago I was still mainly running SF1 2010, but now I am quite settled in SF2. There is still on thing ugly in SF2 that is fine in SF1.

It is a shimmering effect of TOD buildings. Even with a slight change of zoom level the offset of the buildings seem to noticably change in relation to the terrain tile.

As illustrated with the picture, which is a detail of a screenshots scaled 200% to make it clearer. The situation in the two pictures is the same except that one is slightly

more zoomed in.

I tried a few things with the "SolidObjectTextureMaterial"in the terrain datafile, but currently I don't think that the problem is in that datafile.

[+Wrench]

happens a lot on non-stock TOD buildings ... could be a mesh error?? Flipped face??

[+russouk2004]

could also be 2 polys in same space,another cause is,polygons from a distance shimmer as they are so close they appear to overlap,causing you to see 2 faces (polys) at same time,hence shimmer.

Edited April 16, 2012 by russouk2004

[+gerwin]

I have this with any terrain in SF2, both stock and modded. DirectX 9.

At a certain distance the lower building's roofs get hidden below the terrain tile at random, it seems.

Edited April 16, 2012 by gerwin

[+gerwin]

These entris in FLIGHTENGINE.INI solved it for me:

 

[ForegroundSceneClip]
FarClipDistance=14000.0
//SF2: NearClipDistance=0.45 
//SF1: NearClipDistance=249.9
//5.0 stops the shimmering of TOD building roofs, but intruduces sky color at the bottom when hugging the ground with the camera
//The latter issue is worked around by setting MinHeight=3.0.
NearClipDistance=5.0

 

[WorldSettings]
SectorWidth=20
SectorHeight=20
SectorMaxObject=256
Border=80000.0
//SF2: MinHeight=1.0 
//SF1: MinHeight=2.0 
MinHeight=3.0
MaxHeight=35000.0

 

Also the TOD visibility was actually reduced in SF2 vs SF1!? so I changed it back.

 

[LowDetailOption]
//HorizonDistance=30000.0
HorizonDistance=45000.0
//DetailMeshSize=tod popup distance in km
//DetailMeshSize=2
DetailMeshSize=3

...

[MedDetailOption]
//HorizonDistance=42000.0
HorizonDistance=50000.0
//DetailMeshSize=2
DetailMeshSize=4

...

[HighDetailOption]
//HorizonDistance=50000.0
HorizonDistance=60000.0
//DetailMeshSize=3
DetailMeshSize=5

...

[unlimitedDetailOption]
//HorizonDistance=62000.0
HorizonDistance=75000.0
//DetailMeshSize=4
DetailMeshSize=6

[+gerwin]

Correction.....

MinHeight=3.0 gives problems in cockpits when on the runway.

This combination of values seems better so far:

 

[ForegroundSceneClip]

FarClipDistance=12500.0

NearClipDistance=4.0

 

[WorldSettings]

MinHeight=2.0

 

Edit: this has another side-effect. when zooming in on an aircraft too much, you start to see through them... not to big a deal.

Edited April 18, 2012 by gerwin

[+Stary]

poor engine handling of depth buffer, only way is through flightengine ini tweaks I suppose, as Gerwin posted

[SFP1Ace]

Gerwin, your settings do have one disadvantage though: they disable cockpit night lighting, at least that is the case with my computer .

[+gerwin]

poor engine handling of depth buffer, only way is through flightengine ini tweaks I suppose, as Gerwin posted

 

OK, I was already hoping to get your opinion on this one.

 

Gerwin, your settings do have one disadvantage though: they disable cockpit night lighting, at least that is the case with my computer .

 

Argh... I will see what can be done, but I fear it remains a matter of choosing one bug over the other.

[+gerwin]

The maximum value that does not break the F-15 and Harrier 3 cockpit light:

NearClipDistance=1.5

(=1.6 breaks the light)

 

And I leave this unchanged now:

MinHeight=1.0

 

So the TOD shimmering is still there, but hopefully to a slightly lesser degree.

The shimmering is expected to be worse with the lower TOD buildings. As their roof is closer to the ground tile.

[+PureBlue]

Wonderful fix for the shimmering Gerwin!

I'm using NearClipDistance=1.5 and this makes it a pleasure to look at far objects.

((Also using a larger MeshSize for more drawdistance)

Edited July 7, 2012 by PureBlue

[Wilches]

Well, this works fine for outside views, but when inside the cockpit with the ¨ExternalClipDistMin=0.01¨, for better view for close objects when ¨OpenCockpit=TRUE¨ is on, it still gets a lot of shimmering. Conclusion - no luck yet...