Black spots on trees and sharpening halos in front of smoke

[dracontalon]

Ever since patch 2.0, there has been a bug where the trees have black spots that go away and come back as you come near them. I am pretty sure it's all related to ray tracing specifically where any combination of ray tracing, path tracing and ray reconstruction causes it to happen.

In patch 2.1 there seems to be some sharpening halo when objects, especially tree leaves and power lines, are in front of smoke. I don't remember it so much in 2.0

Post automatically merged: Dec 9, 2023

Here are some screenshots of this issue.

 

[dracontalon]

I've tried everything from different nvidia drivers to reinstalling and nothing fixes this bug. Are other people really not having this issue. I feel like I'm going insane and the only one that sees this.

 

[northwold]

I've seen sharpening halos courtesy of DLSS, not the underlying game without. They're pretty bad in 1080p. But it's been an issue since the beginning. (I remember trying DLSS way back when and ending up turning it off because of the look of power lines. I now use DLSS because I want path tracing, but the effect wherever there's smoke is very noticeable.)

 

[devivre]

Hm, I'd say all you can do is report the issue to CDPR support:

I want to report a visual issue — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

(click on "contact us" to send a ticket)

 

[Cz_BladE]

Everyone has this issue and it´s caused by RayReconstruction being enabled.

-Same problem here, where all of the destructible environments are completely black when destroyed while using Ray-Tracing and even worse with Path-Tracing: RT/PT Issue with destructible environment

 

[kindathicboi]

Having the same issue

 

[AstroCat01]

Same issue with me... there is a big tarp that has holes in it and it changes "black holes" as you move by it, same issue. it looks terrible, lessens with PT off, completely goes away with RT off.

 

[ksiazeboguslaw]

its not only the Trees ... see my post

BUGS AFTER PATCH 2.11

Posted on the wrong thing

forums.cdprojektred.com

Post automatically merged: Feb 17, 2024

Same issue with me... there is a big tarp that has holes in it and it changes "black holes" as you move by it, same issue. it looks terrible, lessens with PT off, completely goes away with RT off.

exactlly !!!
when ray tracing Off - problem is solved !!!
they should work on it with nvidia !!!!!

 

[ksiazeboguslaw]

After new Update ... Still....... nothing change with that !

Sad .. they said they are gathering data on that ....

 

[dracontalon]

We're never getting a fix for this issue, are we?

 

[Malautomedontolo]

We're never getting a fix for this issue, are we?

We have to wait for the next patch, which is in the works.

 

[SigilFey]

DLSS and ray-tracing are things that will change with driver updates. As Nvidia, AMD, etc. continue to update the way their hardware and drivers function, the way they display frames from a given game will get better or worse. Some key things to keep in mind:

1.) Ray-tracing is still newer tech. It's almost standardized, but not quite yet. I'm guessing another 3-5 years before gamers start "remembering back to those old, rasterized games." Until such time, RT will continue to create these little hiccups in games. There's probably few fixes that will happen quickly.

2.) As for DLSS, studios and GPU manufacturers certainly can tweak things on their end to ensure more accurate graphcis, but the heart and soul of DLSS is an AI learning algorithm. Most commonly, different versions of DLSS will offer different results in the same game, improving in one area while introducing new issues in another. It would be much more effective to bring this up with Nvidia. They may be able to recommend settings or a specific driver version that will work well with that feature.

3.) If / when you find a version that works well -- save it! GPU drivers will always be customized and tweaked for games popular on the present market. As time goes on and games begin to be phased out, newer drivers can and will create new issues with older games. Rolling back is very often the best choice if you know a specific driver version works well with a given game on your, specific hardware.

 

[ksiazeboguslaw]

DLSS and ray-tracing are things that will change with driver updates. As Nvidia, AMD, etc. continue to update the way their hardware and drivers function, the way they display frames from a given game will get better or worse. Some key things to keep in mind:

1.) Ray-tracing is still newer tech. It's almost standardized, but not quite yet. I'm guessing another 3-5 years before gamers start "remembering back to those old, rasterized games." Until such time, RT will continue to create these little hiccups in games. There's probably few fixes that will happen quickly.

2.) As for DLSS, studios and GPU manufacturers certainly can tweak things on their end to ensure more accurate graphcis, but the heart and soul of DLSS is an AI learning algorithm. Most commonly, different versions of DLSS will offer different results in the same game, improving in one area while introducing new issues in another. It would be much more effective to bring this up with Nvidia. They may be able to recommend settings or a specific driver version that will work well with that feature.

3.) If / when you find a version that works well -- save it! GPU drivers will always be customized and tweaked for games popular on the present market. As time goes on and games begin to be phased out, newer drivers can and will create new issues with older games. Rolling back is very often the best choice if you know a specific driver version works well with a given game on your, specific hardware.

So wich one driver would you suggest Best for the Game? ( for Nvidia)

537.42 WHQL

?

 

[SigilFey]

So wich one driver would you suggest Best for the Game? ( for Nvidia)

537.42 WHQL

?

Oh -- man -- there's no way to tell. Different PCs perform differently. It's all up to your PC, the drivers you've tried, and which one gave really good performance in game XYZ.

Think of it as simple happenstance. "I happened to update to GPU driver 123.45, and -- boom! This game I was playing ran smooth as buttah!" Save that driver.

Don't be surprised when the next person in line, who has a system with the same specs as yours, claims that the same driver makes their game crash. It's way to many variables for another person to say what will work best.

 

[ksiazeboguslaw]

Oh -- man -- there's no way to tell. Different PCs perform differently. It's all up to your PC, the drivers you've tried, and which one gave really good performance in game XYZ.

Think of it as simple happenstance. "I happened to update to GPU driver 123.45, and -- boom! This game I was playing ran smooth as buttah!" Save that driver.

Don't be surprised when the next person in line, who has a system with the same specs as yours, claims that the same driver makes their game crash. It's way to many variables for another person to say what will work best.

Well thanks anyway
tried differend Drivers and... sill the same..

 

[SigilFey]

As some guidance, in my experience, it's worked like this:

A game is released. There are the initial "Game-Ready Drivers for [InsertTitle]". Then, there will be 2-3 driver versions that will follow where Nvidia / AMD are continuing to tweak the performance of that game, the graphical fidelity of DLSS/FSR for that game, correctly graphical glitches on that game, etc. It's in that driver spread, usually about a year or so, where you'll be most likely to find a driver version that just makes the game sing on your PC. Keep that one, save the downloadable installation package somewhere on a backup drive, and you can now roll back to it whenever you want to play that game again.

Following that point, Nvidia / AMD will start focusing on more contemporary games on the market. Of course, they'll still support the older games, but the new drivers will be specifically focusing on newer releases. As time goes on (>3 years), you may even start noticing that older games perform worse than they used to. This is why.

 

[ASTROASS]

2.3 patch and the black shadows all over the place are still not fixed.

A random mod on nexus that disables moving vegetation can "fix" this (https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/12252), so it's literally a case of some broken static shadows that are being drawn where they are not needed as the foliage meshes dance around.

How hard is it to look at that in like...multiple years..? Look at these trees... This is what a maxed out game with PT looks like, ffs...

(P.S.: HDR image, so if this looks awfully dark or pale - you're probably on Firefox, which has no HDR support or tonemapping for SDR)

Even some random mods acknowledge there's an issue, so they don't use RT/PT, like this one in the description: https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/14408

In general there's this never-ending blackness flickering all over when LOD objects get swapped during play. Again probably the "shadows" showing through as one LOD model blends into another during traversal. Just that it's more obvious with trees and other foliage due to the constant movement.

Will there EVER be a fix for this?

And I'm not even mentioning the pixelated ads (middle screen) that randomly fail to load proper quality assets all the time...

I love the game otherwise, it performs well and looks fantastic on my PC (4090, 9950X3D, QD-OLED), but there are these glaring issues that haven't been looked-at for years! I get that maybe not that many people overall get to play with RT/PT cranked, but for those of us who can - and ESPECIALLY considering how big of a marketing focus this game's graphical fidelity is for both CDPR and Nvidia - why have these issues just been abandoned? It's ridiculous... patch after patch we get something else, but never a fix for this garbage...

 

[SigilFey]

2.3 patch and the black shadows all over the place are still not fixed.

A random mod on nexus that disables moving vegetation can "fix" this (https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/12252), so it's literally a case of some broken static shadows that are being drawn where they are not needed as the foliage meshes dance around.

How hard is it to look at that in like...multiple years..? Look at these trees... This is what a maxed out game with PT looks like, ffs...

(P.S.: HDR image, so if this looks awfully dark or pale - you're probably on Firefox, which has no HDR support or tonemapping for SDR)

Even some random mods acknowledge there's an issue, so they don't use RT/PT, like this one in the description: https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/14408

In general there's this never-ending blackness flickering all over when LOD objects get swapped during play. Again probably the "shadows" showing through as one LOD model blends into another during traversal. Just that it's more obvious with trees and other foliage due to the constant movement.

Will there EVER be a fix for this?

And I'm not even mentioning the pixelated ads (middle screen) that randomly fail to load proper quality assets all the time...

I love the game otherwise, it performs well and looks fantastic on my PC (4090, 9950X3D, QD-OLED), but there are these glaring issues that haven't been looked-at for years! I get that maybe not that many people overall get to play with RT/PT cranked, but for those of us who can - and ESPECIALLY considering how big of a marketing focus this game's graphical fidelity is for both CDPR and Nvidia - why have these issues just been abandoned? It's ridiculous... patch after patch we get something else, but never a fix for this garbage...

Firstly...that's not what the game should look like with path tracing on. Path tracing does not "darken" shadows. It may create more contrast with shadows, but overall, it will more accurately reflect light onto surfaces, brightening most scenes.

Those trees especially look as if the shadows are simply crushed black -- no color gradients. It looks almost as if there is no data for the path tracing to reflect off of, so it's simply drawing no light at all.

That could be the result of the mods you're using, as they do alter the models of the trees, possibly using a technique that the game can't read. Try beginning a new game in vanilla with exactly the same settings, and see if the issue continues. If not, we now know it's an issue with the mod.

If so, then it's likely the drivers not correctly applying the path tracing. An update or roll-back using a CLEAN installation of the drivers may help there.

If even that doesn't fix it, then it does seem that there's an issue with path tracing and your particular model of GPU. That is something that can be sent into CDPR Support, but it has to be 100% confirmed that it's happening in vanilla. Support cannot assist with a modded game, as it's impossible to be sure where the problem is stemming from.

But yes, those shadows are...not correct.

 

[Malautomedontolo]

No, that is a rendering issue that started occurring a long time ago. Those black patches appear every time the trees start swaying, plus, all the vegetation shadows are now static. Idk if there's a fix for that (apparently not) but since path tracing has been added it's been like that.

 

[SigilFey]

No, that is a rendering issue that started occurring a long time ago. Those black patches appear every time the trees start swaying, plus, all the vegetation shadows are now static. Idk if there's a fix for that (apparently not) but since path tracing has been added it's been like that.

Whenever it started is irrelevant. It's clearly happening.

1.) Can anyone confirm it happens in a 100% vanilla run of the game. No mods are installed, and no mods were ever installed in the past during the entirety of that playthrough.

2.) Only if "yes" to the question above, does it occur the same way using rasterization, ray tracing, and ray tracing + path tracing? Any differences in the way these crushed black sections of trees behave could help sort out where the issue is stemming from.

3.) What hardware are you using, primarily GPU, amount of VRAM, and the driver version?

^ That's the information that CDPR Support needs if someone wants to submit a report.

Lastly, and unfortunately, if anyone is playing a modded game, there's limited-to-no official support that can be offered. If any of the data involving trees, lighting, texture, draw detail or draw distance, etc., etc., etc. has ever been used, even if it was in the past, the reference data from those mods will still be in the save state of the saved game files and cannot be removed. It is often removing mods that causes exactly this type of issue.