Ray Traced Local shadows massive "noise"

[syklonis]

I'm getting massive noise on certian objects or areas when I enable ray traced local shadows. I never noticed it like this before after coming back to play after a couple months. I've uninstalled, re-installed the game. Used multiple recent nvidia drivers. Removed all mods. Tried multiple dlss files, turned off any scaling features or sharpening effects. Started a fresh clean game etc..the issue still persists. I 'm at a loss as I never noticed it this bad before...anyone have any idea? I'm on a 5900x, RTX 3080...

Ray traced local shadows off

Ray Traced local shadows on-notice massive noise on top of the equipment-

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Weird
By "clean" you mean you uninstalled completely the game and also manually deleted all the Cyberpunk files in AppData folder ?
(to be sure that no remaining mods datas/files or games corrupted/faulty files).

 

[syklonis]

Yes, completely removed everything including saves etc in user/aoo folder. Fresh install, no mods, everything clean and I'm getting weird artifact noise in certain areas when turning Ray Traced Local shadows on now

 

[Malautomedontolo]

I think it's normal. There is a low amount of samples/rays that should allow to render a more accurate shadow, that's why you get the noise... The light source is maybe too far from the object and not enough rays "hit" that surface. It's made to spare resources. I've seen this behavior also elsewhere, for instance in V's apartment in Santo Domingo at certain times of the day or in the entrance of one megabuilding (don't remember now which one) at sunrise.

 

[syklonis]

Yeah, I was thinking the same. After so many trial and errors I gave up trying to fix the issue. It's definitely the separate tick box for ray traced local shadows. I feel others may not notice it as much as its only in select areas as you mentioned and now only appears after CDPR made this a new feature with 1.5 patch.

 

[Spockprime]

Hmm ...

I'm not seeing it on my system. I tried it in the various apartments, with various ray trace lighting settings (medium to psycho). I don't doubt that it's happening, which is evident from the photos. But at least on my system, I haven't noticed it while playing, and didn't see it with a few test locations. I wonder if it's some combination of location, time of day, angle, graphics card, and other settings?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I'm not seeing it on my system. I tried it in the various apartments, with various ray trace lighting settings (medium to psycho). I don't doubt that it's happening, which is evident from the photos. But at least on my system, I haven't noticed it while playing, and didn't see it with a few test locations. I wonder if it's some combination of location, time of day, angle, graphics card, and other settings?

I suppose it could be "easy" to try if you encounter it or not. On the screenshots, I think it's right at the begining of the game, during "The Rescue" in the scav hideout when saving Sandra with Jackie (on one of the pieces of furniture next to the "disemboweled" woman to be scanned).
I never tried, but it's maybe possible to return in the hideout later, if you already completed "Sweet Dreams".

 

[Spockprime]

I suppose it could be "easy" to try if you encounter it or not. On the screenshots, I think it's right at the begining of the game, during "The Rescue" in the scav hideout when saving Sandra with Jackie (on one of the pieces of furniture next to the "disemboweled" woman to be scanned).
I never tried, but it's maybe possible to return in the hideout later, if you already completed "Sweet Dreams".

Thanks! I didn't realize that's where the photo was taken.

I just replayed that section on an early game save, and the video noise does show up. I played around with several graphics options with ray traced local shadows turned on, and none of them made a difference. Then I played around with several graphics options with ray traced local shadows turned off, and the video noise never appeared.

In sum, at the spot you indicated, I experienced exactly what @syklonis is describing. And it's 100% repeatable, depending on whether I turn ray traced local shadows on or off.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

In sum, at the spot you indicated, I experienced exactly what @syklonis is describing. And it's 100% repeatable, depending on whether I turn ray traced local shadows on or off.

Maybe a good idea to report it
It could be a problem in very few places and "easy" to fix (at least, if they know where are the problems^^)

 

[syklonis]

Yeah I forgot to mention where I saw it, should have done that Thx @Spockprime for being able to replicate what I am seeing. At least now I know I'm not going crazy lol

 

[Spockprime]

Maybe a good idea to report it
It could be a problem in very few places and "easy" to fix (at least, if they know where are the problems^^)

There were some threads a few months ago about shadow problems with Ray tracing. Maybe more than a few months ago. I don't remember anything this specific being reported, but maybe I missed it.

 

[Malautomedontolo]

I doubt it can be "fixed", unless they increment the amount of rays shot which would finally give more accurate shadows in trickier scenarios where an indirect light source produces more diffuse shadows, which means shadows that are more complex to render. It they'd do it we would get worse performance overall, cause it's something you cannot just apply to one single location.

 

[Spockprime]

I doubt it can be "fixed", unless they increment the amount of rays shot which would finally give more accurate shadows in trickier scenarios where an indirect light source produces more diffuse shadows, which means shadows that are more complex to render. It they'd do it we would get worse performance overall, cause it's something you cannot just apply to one single location.

That's sort of what I was thinking. They could address specific bad spots by adding another light source, but the problem is that short of some pretty good algorithm, I don't know how they would even find the places to fix. Even where I saw the shadow issue, it only happens on some items, when standing at certain angles. Since the OP mentioned the shadow issue, I've started noticing other Ray Tracing artifacts as well. Short of increasing the recommended specs to a 3090, I think it's just something that we have to live with to get the benefits that RT can bring.