Shadow anti-aliasing - best options to improve AA?

Hi All,

I'm using the v1.2.0.8 with MSAA High and Shadows Ultra but still can't get shadows to look nice.
This is 18:00 at long beach and the tree/fence shadows look awful.

There is lots of anti-aliasing / line break up and shimmering.



I'm using 49" super ultra wide powered by an Nvidia 2070s. I've tried the Post AA methods without much improvement but big FPS hits.
Attempted to DSR 1.7 with similar results.

Is there any bundle of configuration options to fix the shadow quality? It gets noticeable worst around sunset as the shadows get longer.

 

Shadows still suck even with the recent update to them.
For best shadows run in cloudy conditions, still looks bright but shadows are less visible.
AA has been my biggest grip in all Madness engine games and AMS2 is no exception.
I used to run MSAA high but recently went through all settings again and found SS to be much cleaner but harder to run so settled for SS low (still as good as MSAA but clearer) and still always run in rain or cloudy as clear weather looks BAD.

You can see this thread I made back in 2019 asking about it even before AMS2 was born.
Anti aliasing

 

Oh yeah, definetly run FXAA in in NVCP, massive gains there that the ingame FXAA doesn't do....I also run MFAA in NVCP bug not sure it does anything.

When I went back and compared AMS2 Long Beach to pC2 Long Beach it is clear that Reiza have made some ground on the aliasing compared to pC2. The fences used to look awful in pC2 on the same settings where AMS2 has less fence shimmer.
Things are getting better.. just slowly.

I really need that 3080 so I can run SS Ultra.

 

At 4K, shadows are mostly a non-issue and image quality is much better than 1080p.
Thus, if shadows were rendered at 2x their resolution (in both directions), they may look how they do at 4K (a bit less sharper though due to less pixels).

 

I already have a 3080 and 11900K and still can't run any MSAA if I want to race at night or rain mid pack (Its the cars behind headlights that cause the serious drop in performance).

As a result, I have given up on night racing because it looks god damn awful without any MSAA. This is the worst engine for aliasing I have ever seen. Can never get any feedback on optimisation plans from the Devs so give up believing there will be any. I'm playing in VR on a Vive Pro with SteamVR 100% SS.

With MSAA on high at any other time though.. it looks fantastic so its a real pity.

 

And yes, It will cost a lot fps

 

I have a 4k monitor and still find shadows to look awful! Still the shimmer across the track at low sun long shadow times.

Renato did mention it in one of his posts in the latest updates (can't remember other than 4000 something).

I find MSAA to look good on edges but still that night time lighting on the back of cars looks terrible, but SS even on low looks better at night and as such have started using SS at low instead of MSAA and seem to be pretty well ok for performance at 5760x1080.

I think rF2 is the worst for that fence issue.

 

The SS setting for me does not have any options. Perhaps this is a Oculus specific setting? Putting SteamVR SS to 140% still looks bad without MSAA. VR does chew up resources quite a bit but I am surprised how seriously bad this game is at night in terms of looks and performance.

I wish they would add some options to the headlights of AI cars.. eg a maximum number of cars behind that cast headlight shadows would probably be enough for me to then be able to run some MSAA. Fat chance of that ever happening.

 

Ultra SS i guess that's the one good thing about running a single screen


Can someone please "lend" me a 3090 so I can test SS Ultra at 5760x1080

 

I only get about 50 fps, so I only use it as photo mode.

 

As a 3080 owner using 1080p triples, I don't think a 3090 would give you decent FPS with that setting in all conditions ...in fact, I find any SS is incredibly taxing for triples. For me, framerate is king, so I'm using everything set to ultra (excl. environment map). Framerate capped at 68fps (with gsync enabled). I take your point about the back of cars when racing at night, but I actually think some of that is not an AA issue, but rather an intentional way of showing specular highlights on certain materials (esp. carbon fibre). Shadows are another matter though...

 

Agree but maybe other way round, that night shimmer drives me nuts and the shadows can be worked around by running overcast conditions.
Have you tried SS instead of MSAA for night time running? To me it looks a lot better but is hard to run.

I don't care for this specular reflection at all and think it detracts massively and should be removed asap. It was there in pC2 and made night racing a no go for me and has done the same thing in AMS2 but SS even on low seems better. I just wish i could run it better at 5760x1080 on my poor old 1080Ti.

 

Yeah thats what Ian Bell said back in the pC2 days, i asked if it could be set to a setting so those who hated it could turn it off, nothing came of it. To me it looks like AA, like a reflection aliased edge and completely ruins the image.
I don't believe you about the SS on 3080/90 prove it do you want to pass that 3080 here for a while so i can test it and see if your right

 

AAGGHHHHHHHH you guys!!!!!!! I never had a problem running MSAA on ultra and I thought I would try some SMAA and SS to what you were on about and now my game won't even load and I just get a bugsplat!! You killed my game!!!

 

Sorry mate....But i change back and forth without any issue so not sure why its giving you grief??