Strange shadows/ black dots

[valcugen]

Strange shadows/ black dots

Hello
I'm having this strange issue with witcher 3, i do have it on 1.22 before anyone asks and i did try the latest crimson drivers (since i'm on a sapphire r9 fury nitro) gpu

I spoke to amd and sapphire supports, they both asked me to verify its not only in this game, and its not, but i saw today that a friend of mine that is on nvidia is also having those problems. (he has a 980ti) , so i kinda got a bit relieved that i'm not the only one having this problem
Now this is exactly the problem- (my friend with the 980ti)'s pic: View attachment 63101
Now those are mine:View attachment 63111 and also here's a video of the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSS7uz7TIDA

p.s: my specs:
OS: Windows 7 ultimate sp 1 x64
motherboard: z77-up5-th rev1 running latest bios f12e
cpu: i7 3770k oc @ 4.4ghz
gpu: sapphire r9 fury nitro
ram: 2x8gb corsair vengeance ddr3 1600mhz
hdd: 2tb seagate barracuda @ 7200rpm
sound card: creative sound blaster z
psu: seasonic 750mk3

 

[Zultre]

I have also noticed it - But In other games as well .... I think it's part of the LOD of shadows .... It's normal

 

[valcugen]

I have noticed it in doom 2016 as well, was full of it,even on the ground reflections....but that's not really normal ! I saw that if you max out the AA in the settings it does vanish almost...its still there but its almost gone.But again that's not really normal !

 

[Mezziaz]

The game has many issues with LOD and this is just one of them.

 

[valcugen]

The game has many issues with LOD and this is just one of them.

The only other 2 things i dont like about the graphics in general are:
1. that strange yellow spot which should be the sun's reflection yet looks as if someone pissed on that spot in the water
2.the far trees's branches look really crappy(the most far ones only)
Other than those, the engine itself is a damn marvel !

 

[Mezziaz]

Other than those, the engine itself is a damn marvel !

Agreed, if we were able to push the LOD settings way further than what the game currently allows I would become vary happy with the visuals and would keep the game from looking dated in a few years.

 

[Zultre]

But again that's not really normal !

True but what I ment was that it is normal in TW3 ... There is nothing wrong with his gpu ....

 

[Michael_Knelius]

I have noticed the same issues with shadows in Witcher 3. I have NVidia GTX970. I noticed a lot graphical issues and glitches with Witcher 3 after updating the game to 1.12 and then to 1.21, which I didn't notice when I played W3 versions 1.06 and then 1.11 (continued my earlier 1.06 playthrough to finish Hearts of Stone).

 

[Guest 2364765]

Shadow cascade distances and dithering.

It's not an "issue" it's a design choice. Only solution is to increase cascade distance scales and shadow resolution.

 

[valcugen]

Shadow cascade distances and dithering.

It's not an "issue" it's a design choice. Only solution is to increase cascade distance scales and shadow resolution.

I have everything on max settings, the only thing that actually dampens the ISSUE is when i turn AA on max seettings in catalyst control center and make a specific profile for the game with enchanced AA.

But CLEARLY its not the distances, since i have shown a picture where the shadows are exactly behind the character, and i've shown a picture that the shadows are at a long distace (my video clip)

 

[Guest 2364765]

But CLEARLY its not the distances, since i have shown a picture where the shadows are exactly behind the character, and i've shown a picture that the shadows are at a long distace (my video clip)

Firstly, you're uploading compressed jpegs and i can't really see your problem on that image. Secondly, by default game is split into 4 different cascades with 0 being fairly close to the camera (and blending between them is dithered too). Default "Ultra" setup isn't all that great as far as shadows go.

 

[valcugen]

Firstly, you're uploading compressed jpegs and i can't really see your problem on that image. Secondly, by default game is split into 4 different cascades with 0 being fairly close to the camera (and blending between them is dithered too). Default "Ultra" setup isn't all that great as far as shadows go.

I'm not on default ULTRA preset i have customized it fully on max myself without bloom or blur since i hate those....Also check the video then ! ITs as good quality as possible and i'm showing exactly what the problem is and where.

 

[Mezziaz]

I'm not on default ULTRA preset i have customized it fully on max

Have you tried any of the things mentioned here?

 

[valcugen]

Have you tried any of the things mentioned here?

Not on nvidia first of all, and the only thing from everything i tried (even flashing my bios and making it as if i have a fury X aka unlocking my gpu's cores) is boosting AA in catalyst control center that DOES dampen a bit the dots, but they are still visible

 

[verdwhisper]

Go to user.settings, make some tweaks. Cascadeshadowmapsize=8096
Cascadeshadowdistancescale0=6
Cascadeshadowdistancescale1=4
Cascadeshadowdistancescale2=4
Cascadeshadowdistancescale3=2
Cascadeshadowquality=4

This should improve the shadow quality in general, see if it helps.

Expect a fps loss.

 

[Mezziaz]

Not on nvidia first of all

Config file tweaks is not an Nvidia exclusive feature.

 

[Guest 2364765]

Cascadeshadowmapsize=8096
Expect a fps loss.

Bro,
BRO.

Ultra shadowmap is 3072x3072, 4096 is a cheap stretch for most GPUs, but double of that? (besides, it should've been 8192)
I know my 970 chokes with 8192 shadowmap.

 

[verdwhisper]

Yeah, sorry, I am not a computer guy, not sensitive to these numbers. I mean, I have tested these numbers a lot, 4096 is fine for scale0=4, but if you go bigger than 4, the shadow in kaer morhen is noticebly buggy, 8192 can barely handle 6. 8192 causes a huge fps drop on my aged 980sli setup though, so I am not using it myself. : ) I dont know whats wrong with kaer morhen shadow, maybe these are some settings that we missed.

 

[valcugen]

Go to user.settings, make some tweaks. Cascadeshadowmapsize=8096
Cascadeshadowdistancescale0=6
Cascadeshadowdistancescale1=4
Cascadeshadowdistancescale2=4
Cascadeshadowdistancescale3=2
Cascadeshadowquality=4

This should improve the shadow quality in general, see if it helps.

Expect a fps loss.

Ok i did try with 8192 but it sacrifices about 21 fps. and i go from 73 to 51-2 but it feels a bit laggy and i dont know how but it adds some kind of invisible walls near some rivers and i cant cross with the horse, which defies all logic, but still
this is the result: View attachment 63211 <---- no more dots, but it does sacrifice about 20fps
---------- Updated at 05:56 PM ----------

Config file tweaks is not an Nvidia exclusive feature.

yep my bad didnt read lol

 

[Guest 2364765]

Ok i did try with 8192 but it sacrifices about 21 fps. and i go from 73 to 51-2 but it feels a bit laggy and i dont know how but it adds some kind of invisible walls near some rivers and i cant cross with the horse, which defies all logic, but still
this is the result: View attachment 63211 <---- no more dots, but it does sacrifice about 20fps
---------- Updated at 05:56 PM ----------



yep my bad didnt read lol

What wastes your FPS is just Cascadeshadowmapsize=8096, i assume you would be just fine with it either being 4096 or 3072. What is necessary, however are the distance scale settings.