Wanted: A driver fix for the HORRIBLE Nvidia shadow IQ in Farcry...

[Qbah]

welcome to AT and thanks for taking the effort to post all that mate

Thanks. Well, it would be kinda silly to write about my nVidia problems and not show any proof THe more each of us writes and posts screenies/movies, the easier it will be to perhaps find a solution.

Seen FarCry at my old 9700-M (had a lappy). No shadow problems. The same with a friends' 9800Pro. Really makes me wonder how can one not notice a thing like that...

The amazing thing is... if You were a nVidia user all the time, shadows like those were regular to You! You could not see the problem (as You never saw how it should've looked :laugh: ). This is the sad thing...

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I'm switching over to a 6600GT from a mobile R9600. Oh well, it's only temporary till Dec

 

[Topweasel]

If you read the latest from the new beta driver the games is going to need to be patched before it goes away. In fact as with this or another game where an ATI card had the same issue a game patched was required, i am sure the same applies here.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Topweasel
If you read the latest from the new beta driver the games is going to need to be patched before it goes away. In fact as with this or another game where an ATI card had the same issue a game patched was required, i am sure the same applies here.

if you read it again you'll see it makes no reference to this problem, at all, in any shape or form...

 

[Qbah]

No mentioning in the patch notes about this particular issue. Let's hope they will fix it quietly

 

[CaiNaM]

so.. does this issue show iteself in any other game besides farcry (which i haven't played in over a year)?

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so.. does this issue show iteself in any other game besides farcry (which i haven't played in over a year)?

why does that matter? i don't know personally...but since this is one of the most commonly benchmarked games out there and among most people i talk to, one of the most played games, (and thus a benchmark that people pay a lot of attention to)...i'd say it was a pretty serious point, and the fact YOU haven't played it in over a year means squat...at least as far as i can see.

It's still one of the best looking games out there (i've never heard that disputed anway...), and there's no doubt this is a significant IQ blight for those of us with nvidia cards (like myself)...

It's one of those things that, unless you've just come from one company to the other, you would never know about, and merely assume the shadows always looked like that, but thats no excuse for ignoring the massive IQ difference that exists once it's been brought to your attention...

 

[Qbah]

With the 64bit and ECU patch and HDR the visuals are simply breathtaking! I know I was in awe... and I have seen alot. It's just those shadows that need to be fixed... Please?

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: dug777

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so.. does this issue show iteself in any other game besides farcry (which i haven't played in over a year)?

why does that matter?

because you're making it a huge issue. it's kind of like not being able to play sacrifice on any of my rigs with ati cards. while it's certainly not right, one has to consider the relevancy of it..

also, if it only applies to a single game (haven't noticed it in any other similar games such as hl2, doom, far cry, fear, quake 4...), isn't it possible it's a bug in the game itself and you should be griping at crytek, or at least include them in your campaign as well?

i don't know personally...

perhaps you should?

but since this is one of the most commonly benchmarked games out there and among most people i talk to, one of the most played games, (and thus a benchmark that people pay a lot of attention to)...i'd say it was a pretty serious point, and the fact YOU haven't played it in over a year means squat...at least as far as i can see.

while at the time i spent a fair time playing it, as i said, i haven't played it in over a year. i've also read many posts stating similar sentiments - either they haven't played it in forever, or they simply hadn't noticed it (i myself never noticed it, but you're right, it's easy to notice if you're looking for it, and certainly is some type of "bug").

It's still one of the best looking games out there (i've never heard that disputed anway...), and there's no doubt this is a significant IQ blight for those of us with nvidia cards (like myself)...

i just loaded it again, and yea, it is a very good looking game, but i disagree with you. while it's certainly a "blight" for some of you, it's hardly a blight for "those of us with nvidia cards"; most ppl simply don't or didn't even notice it (or no longer play the game).

It's one of those things that, unless you've just come from one company to the other, you would never know about, and merely assume the shadows always looked like that, but thats no excuse for ignoring the massive IQ difference that exists once it's been brought to your attention...

well, again i disagree, as i have 2 pc's that run ati cards. it's neither "massive" nor does it significantly impact the overall game. i do agree it's not right, and would also agree it would be nice to have it fixed, but again, it's hardly the failure you make it out to be. i'd even go so far as to say this is similar in scope to the "shiny pipe" issue from a year ago

to each their own...

 

[zanta]

Dug777,

Thanks for starting this thread. I appreciate all the pics and detail you and others have provided. I am about to build my first computer and am moving from a Dell 8300 with an ATI 9800XT to a possible AMD SLI with two EVGA 7800GTX KOs. The only games I plan on playing are Doom 3, Quake 4, BF2 and HFL2. As I understand it, this shadow problem does not impact those games?

Thanks for any input you or others can provide.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: dug777

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so.. does this issue show iteself in any other game besides farcry (which i haven't played in over a year)?

why does that matter?

because you're making it a huge issue. it's kind of like not being able to play sacrifice on any of my rigs with ati cards. while it's certainly not right, one has to consider the relevancy of it..

also, if it only applies to a single game (haven't noticed it in any other similar games such as hl2, doom, far cry, fear, quake 4...), isn't it possible it's a bug in the game itself and you should be griping at crytek, or at least include them in your campaign as well?

i don't know personally...

perhaps you should?

but since this is one of the most commonly benchmarked games out there and among most people i talk to, one of the most played games, (and thus a benchmark that people pay a lot of attention to)...i'd say it was a pretty serious point, and the fact YOU haven't played it in over a year means squat...at least as far as i can see.

while at the time i spent a fair time playing it, as i said, i haven't played it in over a year. i've also read many posts stating similar sentiments - either they haven't played it in forever, or they simply hadn't noticed it (i myself never noticed it, but you're right, it's easy to notice if you're looking for it, and certainly is some type of "bug").

It's still one of the best looking games out there (i've never heard that disputed anway...), and there's no doubt this is a significant IQ blight for those of us with nvidia cards (like myself)...

i just loaded it again, and yea, it is a very good looking game, but i disagree with you. while it's certainly a "blight" for some of you, it's hardly a blight for "those of us with nvidia cards"; most ppl simply don't or didn't even notice it (or no longer play the game).

It's one of those things that, unless you've just come from one company to the other, you would never know about, and merely assume the shadows always looked like that, but thats no excuse for ignoring the massive IQ difference that exists once it's been brought to your attention...

well, again i disagree, as i have 2 pc's that run ati cards. it's neither "massive" nor does it significantly impact the overall game. i do agree it's not right, and would also agree it would be nice to have it fixed, but again, it's hardly the failure you make it out to be. i'd even go so far as to say this is similar in scope to the "shiny pipe" issue from a year ago

to each their own...

man, i hate replying to these split quote threads

I never said/cared/implied i cared about any other games here...just farcry as far as i can see, so i can't see how any other game is relevant for this thread...and i can't see how it can be cryteks problem if it ONLY affects nvidia cards, that would seem to me to be nvidia's problem...

I haven't targeted nvidia generally or even in any other way than this problem in this thread, and neither do i have the time and money to investigate all other games for problems, it just so happens this is my favourite game and i moved from an ati card to an nvidia card and the problem jumped out at me.

As i said, i think farcry is still a very influential game (and unlike you, most of the people i personally talk to on here still play it regularly, as do those i know in my non-internet circle), and if it isn't generally the case, then why would almost every major site use it as a benchmarking tool today...?

As to a blight, i have to disagree again, since you spend perhaps half this game with shadows playing over your arms/gun, this problem would seem to spoil the beauty of the game quite significantly to me, and also most people who've posted in this thread, and i think it's totally unacceptable that my $250 AUD card should have this problem, let alone a $700-800 AUD plus 7800 GT/GTX.

I just want it fixed, and i plan to hang on in here until it is, nothing sinister about it other than my desire to have my favourite game look as it should...and regardless of whether some folk think it's a minor or non issue, i don't (or i wouldn't have bothered putting the time an effort i have into this thread), and a fix will benefit EVERY nvidia card owner who plays farcry..seems pretty benign to me...

just my 2c at the end of the day i guess...

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: dug777
As to a blight, i have to disagree again, since you spend perhaps half this game with shadows playing over your arms/gun, this problem would seem to spoil the beauty of the game quite significantly to me, and also most people who've posted in this thread, and i think it's totally unacceptable that my $250 AUD card should have this problem, let alone a $700-800 AUD plus 7800 GT/GTX.

but the shadow on the arms/gun is perhaps <5% of what is rendered on the screen. see, that's the thing.. there are so many cool things (and brightly colored, i might add) rendered onscreen, that i (and i've read many others state the same thing) never noticed the blockiness of the shadows. they are in the right spot, so it's not like you notice peripherally that somehting is wrong/out of place. you have to look directly at it, which i never did as my focus was fixed on many other things.

I just want it fixed, and i plan to hang on in here until it is, nothing sinister about it other than my desire to have my favourite game look as it should...and regardless of whether some folk think it's a minor or non issue, i don't (or i wouldn't have bothered putting the time an effort i have into this thread), and a fix will benefit EVERY nvidia card owner who plays farcry..seems pretty benign to me...

just my 2c at the end of the day i guess...

i don't blame you for wanting it fixed.. and you're certainly entitled (i'd like sacrifice to fixed by ati.. fun game, but that is never going to happen after 4 years, lol). i just find it funny how so many ppl have taken this issue and made it seem so... disproportionate, that's all...

 

[Qbah]

Well, the deal is that, as far as I have noticed, every shadow is drawn this way. It looks really bad, when seeing for example the shadow of a helicopter fly above you... The shadow looks absolutely terrible (reminds me of regular C64 graphics, really!). I'll make a movie and place is somewhere for You all to see... Just give me a few mins

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Qbah
Well, the deal is that, as far as I have noticed, every shadow is drawn this way. It looks really bad, when seeing for example the shadow of a helicopter fly above you... The shadow looks absolutely terrible (reminds me of regular C64 graphics, really!). I'll make a movie and place is somewhere for You all to see... Just give me a few mins

really? doesn't do that on mine. while the shadows on the guns/arms are blocky, the rest are fine... as for the helicopter, you may be right.. but it's not like it follows you around the entire game, lol...

 

[Topweasel]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: dug777

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so.. does this issue show iteself in any other game besides farcry (which i haven't played in over a year)?

why does that matter?

because you're making it a huge issue. it's kind of like not being able to play sacrifice on any of my rigs with ati cards. while it's certainly not right, one has to consider the relevancy of it..

also, if it only applies to a single game (haven't noticed it in any other similar games such as hl2, doom, far cry, fear, quake 4...), isn't it possible it's a bug in the game itself and you should be griping at crytek, or at least include them in your campaign as well?

i don't know personally...

perhaps you should?

but since this is one of the most commonly benchmarked games out there and among most people i talk to, one of the most played games, (and thus a benchmark that people pay a lot of attention to)...i'd say it was a pretty serious point, and the fact YOU haven't played it in over a year means squat...at least as far as i can see.

while at the time i spent a fair time playing it, as i said, i haven't played it in over a year. i've also read many posts stating similar sentiments - either they haven't played it in forever, or they simply hadn't noticed it (i myself never noticed it, but you're right, it's easy to notice if you're looking for it, and certainly is some type of "bug").

It's still one of the best looking games out there (i've never heard that disputed anway...), and there's no doubt this is a significant IQ blight for those of us with nvidia cards (like myself)...

i just loaded it again, and yea, it is a very good looking game, but i disagree with you. while it's certainly a "blight" for some of you, it's hardly a blight for "those of us with nvidia cards"; most ppl simply don't or didn't even notice it (or no longer play the game).

It's one of those things that, unless you've just come from one company to the other, you would never know about, and merely assume the shadows always looked like that, but thats no excuse for ignoring the massive IQ difference that exists once it's been brought to your attention...

well, again i disagree, as i have 2 pc's that run ati cards. it's neither "massive" nor does it significantly impact the overall game. i do agree it's not right, and would also agree it would be nice to have it fixed, but again, it's hardly the failure you make it out to be. i'd even go so far as to say this is similar in scope to the "shiny pipe" issue from a year ago

to each their own...

I agree with you. I just wonder why every body thinks that this is a driver repairable issue. We have already seen the same thing resolved for ATI cards with a software patch once before. Nvidia while not mentioning directly the problem at hand mentions the fact Crytek is going to be releasing a patch with several fixes for problems with Nvidia cards. What we also have to remember is this game was developed on an ATI platform and had ATI as the plays best hardware. We see this all the time, In fact I start to wonder if One of the 2 was 100% with in specification on something core wise and optimizations either way may cause problems with the other. Not to point fingers but I think we notice a lot more problems on ATI developed games working with Nvidia cards then Nvidia games with ATI hardware.

A lot of speculation there just dots connecting in head that probably shouldn?t have been connected. But If I am even partially right and for performance reason they may have to branch out their shadow code in game, one branch for Nvidia and one branch for ATI. So I won?t be surprised if takes them awhile to get a patch out for it.

Then again if a 5800 series does it correctly but a 7800 series doesn?t then something probably is up on the Nvidia side, but I wouldn?t assume right away that it is a driver fixable issue. I guess only time will tell.

 

[Qbah]

Right, made a short movie. Seems only the shadows of objects that move, are bad. And most of the shadows that fall on the characters. Here's the link... http://media.putfile.com/fc-shadow

 

[DPmaster]

Well I'm glad this issue is finally coming to light. I've had this problem for over a YEAR now (ever since September of last year). The blocky shadows just annoyed me and I knew something wasn't right. I emailed both nVidia and Ubisoft but never got a reply...again over a year go. Hopefully they'll do something about this if they receive more and more complaints.

 

[dug777]

Cheers lavaheadache for these screenshots

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dug777/F5.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/dug777/F6.jpg

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: DPmaster
Well I'm glad this issue is finally coming to light. I've had this problem for over a YEAR now (ever since September of last year). The blocky shadows just annoyed me and I knew something wasn't right. I emailed both nVidia and Ubisoft but never got a reply...again over a year go. Hopefully they'll do something about this if they receive more and more complaints.

we can but try :thumbsup:

 

[BFG10K]

it's kind of like not being able to play sacrifice on any of my rigs with ati cards.

Actually it's nothing like that at all.

 

[dfloyd]

OT, But just a suggestion for forumposter32. Many people do not use or prefer the CCC or the Control Panel for Ati. Try out what many of us do, do not install the control panel or uninstall it and just use Ati Tray Tools.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/

It gives you all the functionality and more with alot less of the hassle. Give it a shot and you will see what I mean. Just a suggestion from one Ati user to another.

And on topic I am very suprised some of the big Nvidia fans seem to be ignoring this post all together. I mean after seeing every single post about Sm 3.0 this that and the other being posted on by all of them numerous times. Now you see a huge IQ issue and its ignored. Very very strange, at least I hope thats all it is. Surely no one is avoiding this post on purpose, I guess its worse because some of those people could get some insight from the boys at Nvidia to at least let us know what is going on. If its a cheat then say so, if its not and it is in the works to be fixed then say so, but please dont leave us to wonder.

This puts a dent in my purchasing route as well. I have a X800Xl and cant really afford to upgrade, and nor do I really want to, but I would kill for higher settings in BF 2 than my X800XL wants to allow. But I dont want crappy looking shadows either. And I think those people claiming that its hardly noticeable never bothered to look at some of the shots where the guy in Farcry was in a room and the crappy shadows were everywhere. They are very very noticeable and very annoying. Thanks for posting this and for keeping it going, if we bug em enough maybe they will do something about it. Want to really spread the word? Start up this post on every forums you go to, let everyone know about it then Nvidia will have to listen.

Oh and good luck, hopefully something will be done soon. I am not sure what this is but I will say this: If this is a cheat at this point in the game, after all thats happened in the past with cheats and so on its just lame and low. If it turns out it is, and right now everything looks like it is, Nvidia will of lost alot of stock in my book and will have to really keep on their toes to win it back.

 

[Jeff7181]

Bring this to the attention of The Inquirer. They don't seem to be afraid to stir the pot. Lets get them to demand some answers from nVidia or Crytek.

 

[dfloyd]

Hmm might be a good idea. Get some websites to post news stories on it and can get something done about it

Good advice Jeff.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Bring this to the attention of The Inquirer. They don't seem to be afraid to stir the pot. Lets get them to demand some answers from nVidia or Crytek.

excellent idea mate :thumbsup:

 

[Qbah]

Tested FarCry with the new 81.85 WHQL. Shadows still broken.