Black Circles, z-fighting and texture shimmering

[torminater]

NEW UPDATE:

I have tried the Skyrim Special Edition, and there seems to be no more z-fighting for me. As if that is linked to the fixes towards the shadow processing or has something to do with the new 64bit engine, I cannot say for sure. If you have further insight, please share below.

 

OLD post:

I am still working on my fix, as it does not solve all of the z-fighting and there is a performance drop of about 0-8 FPS. Further testing is therefore welcomed!
For the original little fix head over here !

For the guide (WIP) against z-fighting head over here !


Hey folks,
at the moment I'm fiddeling around with nvidia inspector, skyrim ini and prefs to get rid of black circles on mid-distant terrain, reduce z-fighting as much as possible and eliminate texture shimmering if possible.
I don't remember if z-fighting has been such a big problem for me before the last drivers update, but now it really gets on my case. It's only visible on very distant mountain sides but in a large area. The good thing is, if it's cloudy I don't notice it as much. The bad thing is, if it's sunny all of the great graphics cannot overshine the flashing mountains in the Background.
Texture shimmering is annoying but it's on the very end of my 2dolist.
What annoys me know the most is this black circles glitch. I just can't find the setting that causes me all that trouble.
It is very prominent and extremely disturbing. Reading through this forum I stumbled upon a lot of threads that were highly interesting and revealed that there are a whole lot of bright minds around.
I guess if STEP tries to make Skyrim an unforgettable experience, then it should include some details about very common bugs and glitches as those three I'm referring to. If anyone of you guys knows any tricks considering them I would be too glad to try them out!
I have had problems with artifacts probably caused by too much graphic mods and ini tweaks (no ugrids changes whatsoever...)
My rig is the following:
Crucial m4 SSD 128GB, 2.5"
Samsung EcoGreen F4 1500GB
Intel Core i7-2600K, 4x 3.40GHz
Kingston ValueRAM DIMM Kit 8GB
2 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Phantom, 1.25GB GDDR5 SLI
ASRock P67 Extreme4
Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750 750W
All drivers are absolutely up2date. By all means I should be able to run Skyrim without problems. So far that doesn't work out...
EDIT: Those Black Circles seem only to pop up in the lower half of the screen o_O but somewhat diagonal... maybe cuz of the Sun angle?
I found out how to remove them:
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500 revert to fShadowBiasScale=0.2500 in SkyrimPrefs.ini
There are still black stripes on some rocks and mountainsides. they disappear from the center the closer you come...

[stoppingby4now]

Right - I'd only it noticed on the mountains so far. Would you agree that it only seems to affect LODs though?

 

For z-fighting, yes I would agree.

[z929669]

Once this wraps up, we may want to move part of this threaed to the "Advice, Hints & Spoilers" under "INI Tweaks" just for reference.

 

I will be interested in looking at this as well.

[torminater]

I'm not using any FXAA but maybe RLwC is the bad guy causing the shimmering

Also that SLI-3D-Fix didn't help so far. I'm still on it though...

I've seen some flickering on buildings, too. But all the flickering got a lot worse as I turned up my uGrids to 7. Before it was a lot less.

Also I'm trying to change the TerrainManager section as to where the z-fighting will be reduced as far as possible at least for LODs and textures popping up from the middle of nowhere will be smoothened out to a nice blend. If anybody has a clue as to where I can tweak that I'ld be glad for the advice...

[stoppingby4now]

Some of these issues are most likely going to be ongoing. I would just create a new thread with any relevant settings that are determined as this conversation continues.

[z929669]

Some of these issues are most likely going to be ongoing. I would just create a new thread with any relevant settings that are determined as this conversation continues.

 

 

Good point...

[Nachtfrost]

I'm not using FXAA or RL or somethig like that either.

 

@torminater: Well guessed. German indeed. ;) I just forgot to mention I am using the HD-DLC-fix.

 

I don't remember having this issue with the 1.1 patch, I think.

[MontyMM]

For the water distortion, could you try testing with SLI disabled? It would be good to pinpoint if that is a factor.

[torminater]

Water distortion eliminated!

Just kinda hard to figure it out without 3d-hardware ;-)

but eventually i guessed the pictures right and it worked out!

no more water problems! :)

I went down to ugrids 5 and now I'm going to check z-fighting nearing whiterun...

[stoppingby4now]

I'm not using any FXAA but maybe RLwC is the bad guy causing the shimmering

Also that SLI-3D-Fix didn't help so far. I'm still on it though...

I've seen some flickering on buildings, too. But all the flickering got a lot worse as I turned up my uGrids to 7. Before it was a lot less.

Also I'm trying to change the TerrainManager section as to where the z-fighting will be reduced as far as possible at least for LODs and textures popping up from the middle of nowhere will be smoothened out to a nice blend. If anybody has a clue as to where I can tweak that I'ld be glad for the advice...

 

RLwC shouldn't be causing texture shimmer. What are your settings currently for AA and AF in both Skyrim and in nVidia Control Panel (or Inspector)?

[torminater]

OK. I think I fixed the texture flickering closing up to whiterun.I used uGrids=7, too. It does look a whole freaking lot better. you

still see some flickering but it's only mid-distance darkness variation

(Walls in shadow) or long-distance grey variation (mountains).

[Bealdwine]

@torminater

Could you be a little more specific about what actions you are taking or settings you are changing? I'm pleased you are managing to eliminate or at least control these visual issues, but it would help the community at large a lot more if they could see how you have done it. Someone else may well find themselves with the same problems down the line :)

[torminater]

Well I don't know what did the trick, cuz I've been implementing a whole ton of config changes. Just came back from this one...

Though it seems as if there are still a whole lot more probs with z-fighting.

I'm just going to post my ini configs and Nvidia settings.

Maybe sunday I'll be able to go more into the details.

Here's my prefs ini config. Copy and resize to view the details.

 

[font=Courier New][size=x-small][General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=32
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=1000.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1024
iSize W=1280
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.2500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=4
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=25000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=25000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=10000.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=3.0000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=40
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=2
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1[/size][/font]

 

Here's my nvida setup

 

It's not perfect but it's pretty good for me at least. Different rigs, different mods, different configs.

Still I like the fSplitDistanceMult=3.0000 for mid-distance. maybe increasing it by even more can result in less z-fighting.

I'll check it out later.

As for the Water bug with SLI: The 3-D-Fix did work perfectly.

[z929669]

@torminater

 

I wrapped your giganjumama ini code into a spoiler and a code block to maintain a little sanity. Just FYI for future use, go into the source editor to see the syntax ;)

[MontyMM]

I've now seen a good few satisfied customers with that Nvidia 3D fix for water corruption. I think it's worth adding to the troubleshooting section. Also, a warning against using the 'quick' texture optimizers to mangle the water textures. Where is to be the place for that sort of thing - the Guides subforum, or a new spot on the wiki?

 

EDIT: I know what torminator is talking about with 3D hardware and and guessing images. When you enable the 3D setting, it forces you to go through a little wizard to make sure you can see the 3D images correctly. You just have to guess which pictures it thinks are the correct ones, and eventually it allows you to enable the setting.

[frihyland]

Go ahead and start up a best practices and troubleshooting guide on the wiki, I have no doubt it will balloon pretty fast.