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Starmade | Mip mapping broken
Confirmed task for development, HighPublic

Description

There seems to be a set distance at which the render quality will drastically go down and weird lines will start to appear. The ripples found on the wedges have always occurred, from what I can remember. However, the lines on the flat surface have only started occurring since the last update. In fact, there seems to have been a gigantic increase in graphical anomalies (moiré effect) since the last update (can confirm by looking at older pictures of the same ship). The effect also appears to happen in segments, as in if I move closer to it it'll disappear in chunks/segments, not block-by-block. The image below shows what I mean, it was zoomed in to make it easier to see. The upper part of the ship seen in the image is clearly shittier than the lower part, and there's a clear separation between the two.

In-game settings for that picture:
2560x1440 resolution
256p textures
8x Anti-aliasing (no difference no matter what I use)
No shadows
64 block light quality
Everything else is default, and the light source is located above the ship (it's in the lower half of the system, no sun).

I'd also like to add that the moiré paterns/ripples that appeared all over the place in addition to those lines makes everything look weird, so I hope that it'll get fixed. Can provide an example image with before/after comparison if needed. It happens on everything, not just that specific ship.

How to reproduce:

  1. Spawn in or make a ship with a large flat surface made out of std armor (not sure about other block types).
  2. Look at it while slowly flying away (build mode helps for this), you should see the lines at a certain distance.

Details

Commits
Restricted Diffusion Commit
Task Type
Bug
Testing Results
Affected Gamemode(s)
Single and Multi
Reproducible
Yes
Last tested (version)
0.19457 (Dev)
Category
Engine
First occurrence (version)
0.19431
Hardware/Software/System
OS-Specific
No
Hardware-Specific
No
Video Card Vendor
NVIDIA
Video Card Model
GTX 980ti
Serverconfig (server.cfg)
<replace this line with the file content>
Clientconfig (settings.cfg)
<replace this line with the file content>

Event Timeline

Keptick updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 19 2015, 6:11 PM
Keptick changed Video Card Vendor from uncertain to NVIDIA.
Keptick set Video Card Model to GTX 980ti.
Keptick edited Serverconfig (server.cfg). (Show Details)
Keptick edited Clientconfig (settings.cfg). (Show Details)
Keptick added a subscriber: Keptick.
Keptick created this task.
Restricted Application added a project: Issue Navigation. · View Herald TranscriptOct 19 2015, 6:11 PM

I forgot to mention that up close it doesn't happen, so you might think that it's a non-issue. But from around 100-150m away it's REALLY noticeable (and uggly), especially with a large computer monitor. Detracts from the overall look of the game tbh.

Keptick updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 19 2015, 6:14 PM
Keptick set Task Type to Bug.
Keptick set Category to none/unspecified.
Keptick set Affected Gamemode(s) to none/unspecified.
Keptick set Reproducible to uncertain.
Keptick set OS-Specific to No.
Keptick set Hardware-Specific to No.
Keptick updated the task description. (Show Details)
Keptick renamed this task from Render quality goes down at a set distance to Sharp render quality decrease at set distance.
Keptick updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 19 2015, 6:20 PM

Can you try and change a value in your settings.cfg?
G_MIPMAP_LEVELS = 5
to something like
G_MIPMAP_LEVELS = 3

And see if it's a bit better or not. It looks like the mip map issue we had from before but not entirely sure.

lancake claimed this task.Oct 19 2015, 9:02 PM

Yea, that pretty much fixed it. There's still some graphical bugs like this:

However, that's nothing new, and it only happens with rather thin entities (like that door) when seen from a good distance, so it's not much of an issue.

Thanks a lot, this looks MUCH better (pretty much like what it did before the update)! From some pictures I've seen on the forums I also think that I'm not the only one getting this, so it might be worth looking into. Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I lowered the setting more?

lancake changed the task status from Open to In Queue (Game).Oct 21 2015, 9:33 PM

-Validated- & -Confirmed-

The last note from Keptick is a different issue.
Mip mapping doesn't seem to work well or it works differently than what you expect.


Left is without mip mapping and what looks similar to what we have in game than the right example which has mip mapping.
It should smooth everything out from a distance, not the opposite. I'm sure we had this for a while now, but it only became a bigger issue when the texture pack got updated and received better textures.

Changing G_MIPMAP_LEVELS from 5 to something like 3 improves on it but it's still there.
If this is fixable, great, if it's not then mipmap levels should be configurable in the connection startup menu (and in-game options if possible).

Restricted Application edited projects, added Game Development, Starmade; removed Issue Navigation. · View Herald TranscriptOct 21 2015, 9:33 PM
lancake shifted this object from the S1 Public space to the S3 Starmade space.Oct 21 2015, 9:34 PM
lancake changed the visibility from "Custom Policy" to "Public (No Login Required)".
lancake changed the edit policy from "Task Author" to "Starmade (Project)".
lancake changed Category from none/unspecified to Engine.
lancake changed Affected Gamemode(s) from none/unspecified to Single and Multi.
lancake set First occurrence (version) to 0.19431.
lancake changed Reproducible from uncertain to Yes.
lancake set Last tested (version) to 0.19433 (Dev).
lancake changed Video Card Model from GTX 980ti to GTX 980ti .
lancake triaged this task as High priority.
Restricted Application added a subscriber: AndyP. · View Herald TranscriptOct 21 2015, 9:34 PM
Keptick added a comment.EditedOct 21 2015, 11:53 PM

Well, it fixed the issue on flat (non-wedge) surfaces. However, I can still see some ripples on wedged surfaces, so I guess it didn't completely fix it. Still much better than without (can provide image comparisons if you want)

lancake renamed this task from Sharp render quality decrease at set distance to Mip mapping broken.Oct 22 2015, 10:07 AM
lancake added a subscriber: kupu.Oct 22 2015, 8:15 PM

In game examples provided by @kupu



No doubt about it that mip mapping is not working at all.

schema added a subscriber: schema.Oct 29 2015, 2:25 PM

those pictures show working mipmap, but the levels aren't enough for a checkerboard, so it looks bad in distance

schema added a commit: Restricted Diffusion Commit.Oct 29 2015, 3:59 PM
schema changed the task status from In Queue (Game) to Resolved by committing Restricted Diffusion Commit.
Restricted Application edited projects, added Quality Assurance; removed Game Development. · View Herald TranscriptOct 29 2015, 3:59 PM
lancake changed the task status from Resolved to In Queue (Game).Oct 30 2015, 8:23 PM

Fix breaks hazard blocks so it's not applied anymore. Normal maps got removed for hull to improve on it a bit.

Restricted Application edited projects, added Game Development; removed Quality Assurance. · View Herald TranscriptOct 30 2015, 8:23 PM
lancake changed Last tested (version) from 0.19433 (Dev) to 0.19457 (Dev).Oct 30 2015, 8:23 PM

Turning on AA breaks mipmapping. With AA off the mipmapping is acceptable, but when it's on it gets just as bad if not worse than the initial screenshots I posted.

With that said, I currently keep AA off because jagged edges still look better than messed up mipmaps (and I have a 1440p monitor so it's not that bad).

lancake mentioned this in Unknown Object (Maniphest Task).Apr 26 2016, 10:13 AM
AndyP changed the task status from In Queue (Game) to In Queue.Mar 10 2017, 5:07 PM
Restricted Application added a project: Engine. · View Herald TranscriptMar 10 2017, 5:07 PM
AndyP moved this task from Backlog / Unclassed to Rendering on the Engine board.Mar 24 2017, 8:13 PM
AndyP edited projects, added Engine (Rendering); removed Engine.