NFS Most Wanted: shadows issue

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 06:09 AM

anyone else is having distorted shadows in this game? 9800PRO, Cats 5.9

I'm purty sure they're not suposed to look like that

FnF · Nov 11, 2005, 06:48 AM

I know, I have the same issue :'( It seems that there is no Anti-Aliassing on the shadows...

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FnF

I know, I have the same issue :'( It seems that there is no Anti-Aliassing on the shadows...

but dood, even if the AA has no effect on shadows, they still shouldn't look that bad. I remember having the same issue on another game. Don't remember which one right now.

jumpyjim · Nov 11, 2005, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sanafabich

but dood, even if the AA has no effect on shadows, they still shouldn't look that bad. I remember having the same issue on another game. Don't remember which one right now.

Splinter Cell Pandora and Fable spring to mind ..

FnF · Nov 11, 2005, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sanafabich

but dood, even if the AA has no effect on shadows, they still shouldn't look that bad. I remember having the same issue on another game. Don't remember which one right now.

Battlefield 2 has the same problems

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FnF

Battlefield 2 has the same problems

yes! that's the one! WTF?!?!?! is it a driver problem?
BTW, I just upgraded to cats 5.10 (the ones recommended by the readme file) with no luck.

thegave · Nov 11, 2005, 09:25 AM

oh em gee nfsmw is out? what's it like? i've always been under the impression that its exactly like nfsu2 but not set in a city and with hot pursuit modes.

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 09:31 AM

the demo

ColtIce · Nov 11, 2005, 09:59 AM

I'm curious if when you were in the display options if you hit "2" to bring up the advanced options?looks like level of detail is set kind of low to me.

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColtIce

I'm curious if when you were in the display options if you hit "2" to bring up the advanced options?looks like level of detail is set kind of low to me.

nope, I did hit "2" (Advanced video settings), and all is set up to maximum.
could it be a PS issue? someone told me that since the 9800pro doesn't support PS 3.0, that's why it looked so crappy with shadows quality set to maximum. Maybe setting it to medium will use PS 2.0, I'm at college now so will try it later when I get home

jasonbourne · Nov 11, 2005, 12:05 PM

ati sucks with shadows , it looks so horrible same thing in bf2.i cant wait to switch to geforce7800gt bye bye ati!!

Spyre · Nov 11, 2005, 12:43 PM

Switch to a 7800 and you will notice that BF2 still has blocky shadows since its a GAME issue / feature

FnF · Nov 11, 2005, 12:58 PM

Agree Spyre, its a game issue, but still it looks horrible, and they should fix it (Both, BF2, and NFSMW)

Dark Lord · Nov 11, 2005, 01:09 PM

ive got cat 5.8s and have no problems here.

jasonbourne · Nov 11, 2005, 01:16 PM

turn it to high and u will see the crapy shadows

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 01:24 PM

Actually, the shadow quality slide only changes the ammount of shadows displayed on screen, not the quality of it. It goes something like:
Slide far left: no shadows.
Middle: Car shadows
Far right: car and tree shadows.
And, always looking like crap.
I'll try the cats 5.8

Dark Lord · Nov 11, 2005, 02:00 PM

ya, everything but road reflection and AA is maxed out for me. it looks just fine on my system.

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 02:51 PM

just tried cats 5.8. Same problem. Dammit!!!!!

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 11, 2005, 04:39 PM

so, does this have anything to do with dynamic shadows? just like in Battlefield 2?

ViRuS2k · Nov 11, 2005, 07:55 PM

dont know about you guys but this game plain sucks.

stick to NFS Underground 1 and 2

also whats with the cars shakeing like a maniac when your driveing and that slowmo is utter shit car slides all over the place in a unathenticated fasion.
and also whats with that bloom type filter. its like driveing with the sun shining in your face you cant see anything hardly.

EDIT:

CORRECTION: GAME ROCKS

thegave · Nov 11, 2005, 11:13 PM

bullet-time driving? ffs. urgh

if the shadows only screw up when set to high why not not set to high? i mean obviously setting to high doesnt make them look very good at all so surely normal would be better?

tech.Me · Nov 12, 2005, 01:44 AM

Hmmm... there's no problem.

The shadows are being projected onto the track. However, since the map used for projection is low-res, it'll become blocky like that.

OR...

In order to save your computer's performace, the developers chose to lower the resolution on the tree/object's shadows. This will make them look blocky.

There's no problem.

[edit]

OR...

Simply the trees/objects have low-res textures and/or transparent/alpha mappings. This will also make them blocky.

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 12, 2005, 06:07 AM

odd enough the screenshots look just fine

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 12, 2005, 07:06 AM

I just tried forcing PS 1.4, and shadows still look crappy. So, it's not the pixel shader version.

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 12, 2005, 03:26 PM

grrrrrr

tech.Me · Nov 12, 2005, 06:06 PM

The

button is very useful

Can you NOT see the difference?
I already stated the reasons for this to happen.

~~Sanafabich~~ · Nov 12, 2005, 07:12 PM

I don't understand what you're getting at

Sobek · Nov 12, 2005, 11:08 PM

This is a hardware issue with ATi cards. But don't be mistaken, it's not a bug, but rather a limitation that can't be fixed.

On their highest settings the shadowmaps are at 4000x4000 resolution, all ATi cards bar the x13/6/800 series can't handle this high a res for shadowmaps. So in theory, just like Fable and such, setting everything to it's highest and setting the shadow details to one lower than their highest should give you smoother looking, though less detailed shadows.

Let me restate, this is NOT a driver/hardware bug as such, but a pure hardware limitation. A particular combination of drivers/videocard may change some things that make it look normal right off the bat, but that'd be rare.

Just fiddle with the ingame settings, you'll work out the right ones to use. I had the same issue when I played it, fixed it by adjusting the settings too. I'd explain how but I uninstalled this shit so i'm not entirely sure what the settings were that I changed, just fiddle with the shadow options.

Dark Lord · Nov 13, 2005, 01:26 AM

i doubt its that because im running the game with all options maxed out and not haveing this problem.