ATI Shadows

[drakenabarion]

Hi All,

I've just spent awhile on the internet searching for a solution to a problem I have with newer games and shadows.

I run a good setup with 2 ATI 4870 cards in crossfire.

The problem I am having is that the edges of shadows are flickering. I am not very concerned about the resolution of the shadows, so if they were just pixelated, I'd have no problem, but in most games (noticable very much in Tomb Raider Underworld, and sometimes in certain camera angles in The Last Remnant), they flicker, even when nothing is moving. It doesnt seem to matter what settings I run the game in either.

It appears that alot of people with ATI cards have different problems with shadows. These cards are new and were highly rated in a number of reviews online, so I dont want to have to look for a refund so I can buy nVidia cards.

Many thanks in advance for your help with this.

 

[draconia34]

lol my last remnant does the same . the main characters shadow looks horrid when it flickers hey ? idk what to say. but my tomb raider works fine

im guessing its just a ati issue as all other games shadows work perfect. ati drivers have never been the best

 

[tsiberious]

Try running one card at a time (disable catalyst ai) I have found using a 4870X2 that some games have difficulty with the two cards which shows itself with a nasty flickering effect.
My guess for the cause is shadows are assigned to a card, if each card renders a frame in turn then every other frame would contain shadow data which would make it flicker.

potential solutions:
Download the latest drivers and direct x
update your game
last resort - run one card only

 

[drakenabarion]

Thanks for the advice!

Running one card doesnt help much.

Actually looking at the issue in more closely, It appears that its only last remnant that shows the flickering effect.

For other games, the shadows seem to be made up of large pixels and when they move, the shadow appears to flicker as the square of shadows appears/disappear pretty fast. This is more noticeable in closeups in cut-scenes.

I guess the next question is: Is there any way to make the shadows smoother? (Less Jagged shadows wouldn't have such a bas effect).

Unfortunately, what I've read on the internet has been no. "That's the way its meant to look". (I personally feel that would be unacceptable, and if ATI/AMD really think that what a shadow should look like then I feel ripped off :s).

 

[drakenabarion]

{Apologies for typos, I cannot re-edit to fix them}

 

[tomvertommen]

I have a 4850 x2...I had the same with GTA IV and Crysis.

I solved it by adjusting in game video settings.

I don't remember exactly what I changed, cause I now only play Warcraft III Frozen Throne and Civilization IV Beyond The Sword.

I think I set the shadow option to the second best, but it can also have been another option. So if you want to try this, you might have to test a few things. It did solve my problem though.

If that doesn't work, you can also try using DirectX 9 instead of DirectX 10. It's not like a game looks so much better in DirectX 10; well atleast not the ones I saw. And I have the impression there are still a few bugs in DirectX 10 or in the games that try to use it,

good luck

 

[drakenabarion]

Thanks for the advice.

For prince of Persia and Tomb Raider, there are no options for shadow quality. Prince of Persia has nothing for shadow settings and Tomb Raider had shadows on or shadows off.

I wish I could maybe super sample the shadows by default. I know that the hardware I have hamore than enough power to do so.