Graphical Question

[Cosminator]

Hey, this is my first time posting on the forums so I hope this is the correct place for something like this. I noticed while playing (particularly on grineer missions) that it seemed like the floors were drawing or increasing quality immediately ahead of me as I moved. I was wondering if this was something others have experienced and if there was some kind of fix. The effect is rather hard to explain, it looks almost like screen tearing but only on floors and nowhere else.

[Ailith]

That's apparently how Anisotropic Filtering works in this game (ie: poorly), it's supposed to increase the render distance of textures (usually ground textures) and make them look better. In most games, the gradient is much more subtle and extends further out from the player's perspective. Warframe's...not so much, it's 3 or 4 distinct sections of rendering qualities. I think I pointed this out once before, but never really tried to rally any support for a higher-quality option. Generally, it's not too big of an issue (since you're usually running and jumping around), but it's quite noticeable if you take a second to look for it.

 

Demonstration of Anisotropic Filtering (watch the lines on the road):

 

I believe Anti-aliasing is another effect with problems, as objects with any kind of lighting reflection appear extremely jagged, regardless of Anti-aliasing settings (even forced from the Nvidia Control Panel).

 

#YearOfQuality

Edited August 12, 2015 by Ailith

[taiiat]

that sounds like Texture Clipping/Flickering.

Texture Clipping (there isn't a scientific term for it that i know of) is when two objects that are near each other are unintentionally clipped inside of each other.

this is generally most apparent when you have things stuck inside other things, or when, on say, a floor, you have a floor panel clipped inside another floor panel. the textures for the two panels will therefore 'flicker' in the overlapped zone if they are the exact same physical size as each other.

this happens in many games, it's not uncommon to see. fixes aren't terribly complex, generally nudging objects a single unit so that they aren't trying to both be shown at the same time, and causing that flickering.

i may record an example in Warframe so you know for sure if your problem is what i'm thinking of.

Edit:

the Texture Filtering LOD levels could also be it as well. Warframe does by default have 3 Texture Filtering LOD's.

i personally fix this by overriding the Texture Filtering to all the same (higher) level.

Edit2:

here's what i'm talking about, Texture Clipping.

http://www.gfycat.com/KlutzyAgedGrosbeak

with more thought on it, it's perhaps more likely to be Texture Filtering, i suppose. you'd notice it the most on the floor since it's the largest open flat area there is, so you'd notice the most.

which then, that can be easily 'fixed' by forcing a global higher level of Texture Filtering for Warframe. then it'll go away. Video Drivers for both manufacturers have settings that you can set per application, so just Warframe in this case.

Edited August 12, 2015 by taiiat

[Cosminator]

Ah, thank you so much. At least its nothing wrong with my PC.