[REPORTED]Has anything changed with tree rendering?

[lwalter]

I'm using the latest open beta.

Until the last 2 or 3 open beta updates, the trees in Caucasus were all really nicely rendered.

Lately, I have noticed that there are now these ugly and simplistic 2D-like trees appearing. It seems to be only 1 sort of trees as all the other ones still look nice.

Is it something others have noticed lately? Note that I haven't changed settings or hardware.

 

I attached a screenshot. Granted the screenshot doesn't look as nice as in-game (I don't know why) but you can definitely see the "2D" trees.

[Motomouse]

There is a shading error, propably a plane of this tree model has a wrong normal setting.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Motomouse

[JasonJ]

Before the last Stable release the betas were having big FPS issues over April/May/June. Then the last beta came and went stable (2.5.6) It was at this exact time I also noticed the tree models at the medium distance range (viewed at low altitude) became simpler LOD (level of detail) and look more ugly. Also the near/close range Trees viewed at about 2000ft altitude also have distracting constant pop-in/pop-out. Very disappoint.

 

I make sure all new releases/betas I delete all fxo/metashaders2 files in user files and let them rebuild.

....AND also I delete core shaders - "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\terrains\Caucasus\misc\metacache\dcs"

\nevada

\PG

etc and dcs_repair these.

 

I deduced to myself the Tree LOD was reduced/changed to help ramp up the frames for a stable release 2.5.6 that was initially struggling with framerate. I mean, the FPS impoved the same time the trees changed their LOD. I know other things were also problematic, TGP, HSI, FLIR screen etc all were eating FPS & were improved. But noticed the last FPS improvement the same time stable 2.5.6 was released and the trees looked worse. Sorry if not true but, I observed this, it was quite obvious.

 

BTW: I have trees visibility at 100% and Visible Range at HIGH.

 

I do hope Motomouse is correct and it can be fixed with no impact on Framerate.

 

But I am have come to terms with that it (maybe?) was necessary to make 2.5.6 at least playable with better FPS, especially in VR. I shed a tear at the lesser looking trees and then the tears blur my vision so the bad trees are harder to see and I don't notice so much :cry:

 

NB : New hotfix for VR users - lots of tears

Edited June 20, 2020 by JasonJ

[unknown]

This is a reported LOD bug with the trees since at least january 2020, not just since the latest patch(s).

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=260918

[JasonJ]

My point being, it (trees) was okay-ish in OB before it went to stable this month. Then a big difference appeared when we went stable - as pointed out by our OP lwalter

 

But thanks for pointing out it has been reported.

[unknown]

My point being, it (trees) was okay-ish in OB before it went to stable this month. Then a big difference appeared when we went stable - as pointed out by our OP lwalter

 

But thanks for pointing out it has been reported.

 

If you are using the stable version then you would only notice this bug/problem after the latest stable update because the last stable update before that was sometime last year? (i don't use stable). But it's in OB version since january of this year, but it seems to only affect one type of tree....so if you not know it its likely you miss seeing it if you don't spend much of your time down at tree top level.

[prccowboy]

I actually have had this since speedtrees were released 2 years ago, see:

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=201459

[lwalter]

I can't argue whether these "2D trees" already existed before 2.5.6 or not.

Maybe I never noticed them before, but for sure I noticed them since early of June without changing any graphic settings.

 

If I'd like to see "3D tress" instead, which setting or settings should I update?

Here are my main current settings:

- Textures: high for both

- Visib range: low

- Shadows: flat only

- clutter/grass: 1000

- tree visib: 80%

[Northstar98]

I definitely noticed that trees in new 2.5.6 stable, compared to the old 2.5.5 stable looked worse, to me they seem washed out + the level of detail.

 

EDIT: Messing around with my terrain object shadows (switched from flat to default) made a massive improvement in close (now the trees cast shadows on themselves), just hoping it isn't too nasty on my system.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Northstar98

[JasonJ]

I can't argue whether these "2D trees" already existed before 2.5.6 or not.

Maybe I never noticed them before, but for sure I noticed them since early of June without changing any graphic settings.

 

If I'd like to see "3D tress" instead, which setting or settings should I update?

Here are my main current settings:

- Textures: high for both

- Visib range: low

- Shadows: flat only

- clutter/grass: 1000

- tree visib: 80%

 

I had found both these settings change the look of the trees:

-Visible Range

-Trees Visibility

 

My settings

-Visible Range HIGH

-Trees Visibility 100%

And never saw low-def trees in 2.5.5 (at least they were just out of my perceivable range)

You could try that to reduce the problem somewhat.

 

The Trees Visibility % is easy to experiment with because you can change the slider while in game and see the results while changing the slider. Do this one first and make a mental note what changes in the trees.

 

Visibly range changes requires restart. Now with the problem seemingly worse in 2.5.6, you might even need to increase Visibility Range to HIGH or even Ultra or Extreme if your Rig can handle it. Possibly this setting may not even fix it since many users saying it's been around for a long time. At least try out HIGH. I think the difference between Ultra/Extreme isn't much noticeable, but you need to test to see.

You can always put it back if no better or your frame rate is struggling.

 

I think like myself, you were on a setting which low-def trees weren't so noticeable to you. Now on 2.5.6 something is different and exaggerates the LOD more at your current settings somewhat. So you gotta maybe tweak your trees up to 100% to get back were you were.

Edited June 20, 2020 by JasonJ

[JasonJ]

I definitely noticed that trees in new 2.5.6 stable, compared to the old 2.5.5 stable looked worse, to me they seem washed out + the level of detail.

 

Washed out:

The new lighting effects in 2.5.6 are quite different. Try knocking down your gamma in DCS a few points, you can adjust while playing in game. (I had to go down a touch)

But the new lighting effects makes the trees look a bit more realistic at dawn/dusk. And agree, a little more washed out in the bright daylight.

[BIGNEWY]

Hi all

 

the tree issue is reported.

 

thank you

[lwalter]

Thanks JasonJ!

 

I tried comparing visibility range low and visibility range extreme, when trees visibility is at lowest (30%)

Whether in low or extreme, I get these "2D trees". The only difference in extreme is that when I get closer to them, they transform into "3D trees". It doesn't do that in visibility low or really when you almost touching the tree.

 

----However, when I put tree visibility to 100%, in visibility range extreme, I seem to have no more "2D trees". With visibility range low, even with 100% tree visibility, still "2D trees".

----I may now have to find a sweet spot for both these settings.

 

 

EDIT:

Actually, even with visibility range extreme and 100% tree visibility, I can see the "2D trees". It's just that they're further away and they change to 3D trees from further away than when in visibility range low, but they're still too easy to spot :(

Edited June 20, 2020 by lwalter