PC's Broken LoDs and Dithering vs PS3

[FeedMeCheese 22]

As you can see, the PS3's level of detail models are significantly better than the PC versions', with no dithering. This has been an issue with the PC version since the first or second patch, and currently the last and current gen console versions of the game exhibit far less pop-in than the PC version. Rockstar has no acknowledgement of the issue as of yet.

 

What are you guy's thoughts on this?

 

(Image courtesy of Reddit user bugbutt2)

 

[nyolc8 216]

I'm feeling a dejavu...

 

(gtasa: ps2 version ok, pc version have tons of broken things)

[PCMasterRace46 32]

Uhm you realize some of us play at 4k so graphic issues aren't one for us. PS3 really? Meh.

[FeedMeCheese 22]

Uhm you realize some of us play at 4k so graphic issues aren't one for us. PS3 really? Meh.

 

This issue is present at all resolutions, and even if it wasn't, why should the small amount of people who play at 4K have the exclusive benefit of working LOD models.

[CrisFormed 16]

There's so much wrong with this I can't even start. The post would be too long.

[FeedMeCheese 22]

There's so much wrong with this I can't even start. The post would be too long.

 

So much wrong with the graphics issue or my thread?

[El Dorado 3,747]

Patch fixes 1 problem, introduce 2 new ones. The 2 new ones will be eventually patched in a future patch (and introducing 4 new problems)

[BlackScout 7,092]

That's just disgusting, have been noticing it since ever, I knew it was somewhat excessive.

[FeedMeCheese 22]

Patch fixes 1 problem, introduce 2 new ones. The 2 new ones will be eventually patched in a future patch (and introducing 4 new problems)

 

Yeah, it's genuinely amazed me how Rockstar released a near perfect game and has continued to break the biggest of features in the game. Ansiotropic filtering is broken, MSAA does nothing, the framerate is decreasing patch after patch and LoD streaming has been like the picture above since the first few patches. Even with a maxxed out "Extended Distance Scaling" bar, fences and lamp posts pop in a metre infront of you. At it's current state, the LAST GEN versions have better LoD models than the PC version. What the hell's going on?

Edited May 4, 2015 by FeedMeCheese

[CrisFormed 16]

The comparison in general, from tech perspective to resolution comparisons to potato camera pictures compared to a real screenshot.

 

Something is wrong with your game, too, cause I have never seen anything like that screen unless draw distance is turned way down and even then it's not that bad. You have severely lowered or gimped the graphics somehow.

 

 

Look at the truck, has what you're talking about, but not much:

 

 

You're not realizing that 720p limts what you can actually see clearly so much that it just crunches and blurs everything so you're not noticing it because the image you're looking at is very low quality and not defined in the first place. Your tv screen is probably huge running a tiny 720p image, whereas my monitor is quite tiny running a 1080p image and so I do not notice lots of things people on lower res will notice. Like a retina display vs a PSP screen.

 

 

Ansiotropic filtering is broken, MSAA does nothing, the framerate is decreasing patch after patch and LoD streaming has been like the picture above since the first few patches.

 

And now I know you're trolling, blind, or broke something on your end. MSAA absolutely does something, the framerate has only steadied and increased for me with each patch, and the LOD streaming is more than fine, even without extended.

 

Something is wrong on your end if you're really serious. So let's turn this into a troubleshooting topic and find out what's wrong on your end and get your visuals fixed, because it's on your end.

 

I only had 4x AF or 8x in these screens. 16x is sharp all the way out.

Edited May 4, 2015 by CrisFormed

[El Dorado 3,747]

What's going on - They are focused on protecting GTA Online (Shark Cards) from modders. Any other issues, including graphical ones, like this lod system and that pathetic square shadow following the player are simply ignored.

[FeedMeCheese 22]

The comparison in general, from tech perspective to resolution comparisons to potato camera pictures compared to a real screenshot.

 

Something is wrong with your game, too, cause I have never seen anything like that screen unless draw distance is turned way down and even then it's not that bad. You have severely lowered or gimped the graphics somehow.

 

And now I know you're trolling, blind, or broke something on your end. MSAA absolutely does something, the framerate has only steadied and increased for me with each patch, and the LOD streaming is more than fine, even without extended.

 

Something is wrong on your end if you're really serious. So let's turn this into a troubleshooting topic and find out what's wrong on your end and get your visuals fixed, because it's on your end.

 

I only had 4x AF or 8x in these screens. 16x is sharp all the way out.

 

Well first things first, I'm absolutely not trolling. Try to remember that because you don't have the same issues as someone else, doesn't mean they're trolling or lying. The issues are beginning to annoy me quite a lot. I also understand how displays work, the image I posted is not mine, hence the "image courtesy of" written above it.

 

Here's a 1080p screenshot of my game. This is with both distance scaling and extended distance scaling maxed out. I've had to force Anisotropic filtering from the nVidia control panel to even get viewable textures. The setting in-game does nothing.

 

Edited May 4, 2015 by FeedMeCheese

[CrisFormed 16]

Looks great

 

If you lower textures (since veryhigh really only displays on 1080p or higher anyway and High looks great when on lower res but imo not that good on 1080p), you can MSAAx4 with less hit than running 1080p in a lot of cases, 60fps for me at 1366x768 with msaax4 - I would try that if you don't like the look. It will smooth it out a lot. You'll have to zoom closer to see detail on characters and stuff, but it'll be smoother and shimmer less for your taste.

Edited May 4, 2015 by CrisFormed

[FeedMeCheese 22]

Looks great

 

If you lower textures (since veryhigh really only displays on 1080p or higher anyway and High looks great when on lower res but imo not that good on 1080p), you can MSAAx4 with less hit than running 1080p in a lot of cases, 60fps for me at 1366x768 with msaax4 - I would try that if you don't like the look. It will smooth it out a lot. You'll have to zoom closer to see detail on characters and stuff, but it'll be smoother and shimmer less for your taste.

 

Well, I think from the console versions of the game that lower resolutions can mask the effect of pop in quite a lot, but here's a picture in Los Santos (Trevor's spawn point) that I think illustrates the issue best.

 

Open that one up at 100% scale, it gets really messy towards the end of the street. Just seems a little wierd that the ps3 version doesnt exhibit the artifacts.

[bugbutts 16]

I love how whenever someone who doesn't have top of the line gaming computer has a problem, there's always someone trying to hit you in the face with their 4k $3000 system e-peen and tell you your problem is invalid.

[bugbutts 16]

Here are some more pics that highlight the broken LOD model bug. (Some have AA off to show it better).

 

http://imgur.com/a/jqCLK

 

At least one of these is present on the ps3 as well. The telephone poles aren't though.

Edited May 5, 2015 by bugbutts

[CrisFormed 16]

I see what you mean, and if that's where your focal rests you might notice it more. But look at this downscaled version, I ctrl+scroll zoomed the page and gyazo'd it, but it's close to 720p at least:

 

 

See how the artifacts of the dithering are almost gone? And yet, see how it's so much smoother than the output of the PS3? If you turn down to 720p, and MSAAx4, it will run better than 1080p no AA and give you an image like that, except you will notice a bit less detail on the textures at that resolution, will basically always be seeing "high" versions instead. But it will be smoother and very high fidelity compared to the PS3 output.

 

I put mine in 1366x768 and ramped up a lot of settings including MSAAx4 and it ran better than native and looked "f*cking amazing" for 720p and compared to console screenshots at the time, but I missed seeing the very high textures (since 720p can't display them unless very zoomed in enough space for the pixels region of any given texture to exist):

 

You may also fix the effect and gane a bit more clarity with 2xMSAA and 1600x900. I prefered no AA 1080p but if that was bothering me, I'd go to 1366x768 4xMSAA.

[bugbutts 16]

I see what you mean, and if that's where your focal rests you might notice it more. But look at this downscaled version, I ctrl+scroll zoomed the page and gyazo'd it, but it's close to 720p at least:

 

 

See how the artifacts of the dithering are almost gone? And yet, see how it's so much smoother than the output of the PS3? If you turn down to 720p, and MSAAx4, it will run better than 1080p no AA and give you an image like that, except you will notice a bit less detail on the textures at that resolution, will basically always be seeing "high" versions instead. But it will be smoother and very high fidelity compared to the PS3 output.

 

I put mine in 1366x768 and ramped up a lot of settings including MSAAx4 and it ran better than native and looked "f*cking amazing" for 720p and compared to console screenshots at the time, but I missed seeing the very high textures (since 720p can't display them unless very zoomed in enough space for the pixels region of any given texture to exist):

 

You may also fix the effect and gane a bit more clarity with 2xMSAA and 1600x900. I prefered no AA 1080p but if that was bothering me, I'd go to 1366x768 4xMSAA.

 

As I recall in my testing MSAA killed performance even in low res. (That's not mentioning the fact that MSAA is glitched on AMD still).That doesn't really negate the fact that the lod models are broken, and at the same settings as a ps3 it looks worse.*edit* in some ways. In other ways it looks much better.

 

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/GPU-608.aspx

 

I'll have to give the lower settings a try just for kicks though. I can run it at pretty respectable settings, but the LOD and dithering are really making the game look a lot worse than it should. Even the LOD mismatching that has been present since the ps3 version if it were to be tweaked would make this game look so much better.

Edited May 5, 2015 by bugbutts

[bugbutts 16]

Here's another LOD transition that doesn't happen on PS3.

 

https://gfycat.com/ComplicatedConsiderateHalibut

 

On ps3 the dither is absent from the stop light arms, and the switch in LOD is not noticeable at all. Not really sure why it gets smaller before it gets bigger on PC.

 

I feel like the LOD pop in would be a lot less noticeable without the long dither periods that are present in a many of them.

[QuickGhosty 9]

I can honestly say I haven't been noticing this at 4K but I do notice the odd "high detail shadows" box around your character

[bugbutts 16]

I can honestly say I haven't been noticing this at 4K but I do notice the odd "high detail shadows" box around your character

Try turning extended shadows all the way down. It actually makes the shadows directly around you worse.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2015 by bugbutts

[Kampret 2,108]

Patch fixes 1 problem, introduce 2 new ones. The 2 new ones will be eventually patched in a future patch (and introducing 4 new problems)

 

It's typical to R* since like last-gen.

[NachoLZ 41]

Thats a FXAA bug, when I changed the FXAA quality in the settings.xml to 3, it got worse, it happens also to beards and some hair styles. FXAA gets in between and dissapears half of the model.

Edited May 8, 2015 by NachoLZ