Automobilista 2 April 2023 Development Update

Then I know what to do

 

When I first got VR, the track I used to test on was Long Beach, it is most obvious there with the fences trackside. As you drive past them there is what appears as a 'flicker' but I believe it is aliasing.

That can appear on shadows too. I'm on a G2 and have spotted a few others on here posting about the aliasing. Not sure how that could be tackled though nor whether it affects all headsets equally.

 

The same happens when using a monitor

 

Shadows were poor in PC2 and no better in AMS2. Reported many, many times on all parts of the forum. Only real solution is to race at times where shadows are minimal. They are probably the only real weak point to the Madness Engine imo.

 

There is an in-game filter which makes the fences look better, but I don’t remember which setting it was

 

Multiplayer is definitely another weak point. I can also say Overcast weather dropping a relevant amount of FPS is another. There is also the UI restrictions.

Disabling shadows do not make AMS2 look bad, so compared to all the other ME issues I would say it is even irrelevant.

 

lol! I take a break from the forum and what do I find? Crimson , putting down his pint and going 'Look, mate...'

Confirmed for Jason Statham!

 

I should maybe have clarified that a little with regards to a graphical weakness in the ME. I agree there are other issues elsewhere in the ME, much like every other graphics and physics engine from any other game/sim.

 

If for some reason shadow map resolution cant be increased (this should be possible anyway), you should be able to add a post process effect to blur the shadows, making them smoother. There are solutions, man. Even a simple shift left and right, alternatively, and then up and down, for every horizontal and vertical line of the map, respectively, and then averaging the pixels, should improve the shadows.

 

I appreciate your comments here! Great that the shadows are on the agenda. But what really really bothers me (and I tried ALL possible tweaks/nvidia/game/ini-settings to fix it, but none made a difference) the most/much more of the VR experience of AMS2 are the flickering textures in the distance. It are NOT fenches (that could be solved in the future by a very high res headset like the Pimax Crystal for example) but textures like road advertisements, objects in the distance. Almost all tracks have some textures/objects that flicker massively and it's almost always a "thin object" like a road advertisement sign with something behind it(like indeed for example the hanging advertisments on the fenches in Long Beach, but every track has some objects that flicker MASSIVELY).

High resolution+8xMSAA (I run 3400x3400px + max. MSAA on my Reverb G2 with the 4090) doesn't solve this, it only makes it more visible because on high resolution the aliasing on the rest is less but the flickering textures are always there!

Is this issue on your agenda too? I really hope to see this solved one day, for me personally it's by far the biggest issue that AMS2 currently has together with the multiplayer bugs. It doesn't happen in any other VR title/sim racing title except PC2. So it's clearly an issue with the SMS engine. So now that we know that you guys have the full sourcecode, there is hope that this major issue can be solved one day. If this is the case, then the VR experience is perfect for me! Any input on this is highly appreciated! Thanks.

 

He didn't actually say shadows are on the agenda.

I 1000% agree with you on the flickering items in VR. I've recently reported several in the bug reports thread and will continue to do so going forward.

However, what really should happen is that someone should take a close look at what causes this flickering and use a method that does not create the flickering.

I've found an interesting example I posted in the bug reports thread, where there is a row of 4 identical textures and 3 of them flicker, but 1 does not. - maybe this can be used as a clue to implement in a way that they do not flicker.

What's really sad is that the whole white painted line around the track in 1971 Nurb seems to be flickering. So there is one massive error put in that's probably never getting fixed. So its better to get to the bottom of this sooner than later, before more of these get put in that are too big to fix.

 

Spacewarp/timewarp? The fences are usually the first spot you can see artifacts. It makes sub 90 FPS bearable whenever it drops, but it's still a bit disorientating.

 

You have got to be kidding me right? The shadow problem in VR is biggest issue that have never been addressed...why does it need any details or explanations? The graphics speaks for itself. Did you even play the game in VR?

 

I have no doubt this had been reported in the report thread multiple times but never addressed.

 

They can for 100% sure drive on all tracks in VR and point out the objects/textures that are flickering and then change them to none flickering textures/objects. This can surely be done because a lot of objects don't flicker. It happens mostly(almost all cases) to VERY thin meshes/objects/textures with something behind/under it, if they simply made all those objects/roadsigns/tracksigns etc. "thicker" then it's probably already solved for ~95% of the cases and in the other cases it could be solved with some creative redesigning of the object/texture.

BUT the track designers of Reiza probably don't use VR before they release they tracks. I reported about Bathurst Historic for example:

Version: 1.4.6.4
Track & Layout Used: Bathurst 1983
Car Used: All
Applicable Settings: VR, max settings (Ultra all)
Report: The huge "Re-Po Hi-Tech CARE CAR" road sign at the top of the mountain (last corner, just before you drive down), gives HUGE flickering in VR as so many objects do on many tracks. But the flickering of this road side advertisement is really massive. It only happens in VR and it completely ruins the immersion.

It's IMPOSSIBLE that this is missed if the track designer used VR, it's one road advertisement sign which flickers so massively even ~20 meters in front of it.

So I really hope that one day Renato buys a Reverb G2+good GPU to get the graphics sharp enough for the main track designer and that he simply drives through all the tracks and fixes the flickering objects/textures one by one. This since they probably cannot fix it any other way.

 

Because of what I just wrote above here, I really think that Reiza doesn't own a VR hmd AT ALL.

Another example: The metal sparks are introduced in version ~1.2 (if I remember correctly). They simply don't work in VR: the metal sparks are rendered completely at a wrong place in the left or right eye of the VR glasses. They look horrible and completely ruin the experience for the Formula (especially Classic) cars when the create metal sparks.

If they tested this release ONE time with VR, then it was clear that it was bugged/looking terrible. But they never did, it got released with this bug in it and now we cannot turn metal sparks off. And I've never seen a official statement about this introduced issue. It has been reported multiple times, but never saw a comment on it sadly enough.

 

Those things are certainly not as easy to do. Upping the shadow map resolution normally comes with a hefty price. It will hurt performance very much.
And you make it sound like adding post process effect blur are such easy things. Those are not things you can do in one two three and then it normally always comes at a performance cost.

 

I agree 100%, except I find it very hard to believe they've got no VR head sets at hand. Rather, its not on the check list before releasing a track. And if its not on the check list, then its not really being addressed at all. Again, I think it starts with understanding in what way the items need to be created so that the flickering wouldn't happen in the first place. Understanding this would largely eliminate the underlying problem.

I've reported the same issue:

 

My day is ruined