Is there a way to fix the "jagged shadows" in some games?

[Rifter]

Would SSAA not fix this? I thought it ran AA on the shadows as well.

 

[BFG10K]

A shadow is not something represented by geometry,

Actually in the vast majority of 3D games it is.

 

[BFG10K]

Would SSAA not fix this?

No form of AA will fix this because it's related to the game's LOD system. This is not traditional aliasing but rather a transition of detail levels.

 

[Rifter]

No form of AA will fix this because it's related to the game's LOD system. This is not traditional aliasing but rather a transition of detail levels.

Im assuming changing the LOD bias would not fix this either then?

So what you are saying is its just bad game programming and nothing can be done about it?

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I see the same thing in FC2 so it's just the games. Doesn't bother me one bit since I'm too focused on the actual game. Plus I don't expect picture perfect visuals cause that's just not going to happen.

If it bothers you that much go play the same game on a console and suddenly these minor anomalies won't seem so bad.

 

[betasub]

^ Although in FC2 I find I do have plenty of time to hole-up & admire the scenery

 

[Red Hawk]

I get the same issue in Bad Company 2 on my 9800 GT with DirectX 10. Rather annoying. I tried the game on a Radeon HD 5670 in Windows XP (DirectX 9) and didn't see it, though. The game was running on a somewhat lower resolution monitor, though.

 

[railven]

Hey, I just played through all of BFBC2's Single Player Campaign on Sunday (great game.)

The shadowing in that game is bad. This isn't a slam on the developers or anything, it is a console port by the way.

The LOD issues are there too. It isn't just a driver/card issue. I run a 5870 2GB on Cata 10.11.

On the flip side, Radeon's do have issues with shadows in certain games. Not sure if I just never noticed it or it popped up on a driver, but for example certain spots in World of Warcraft for me have shadow banding. It drives me crazy. I can flip over to the GTX 460 and suddenly those issues are gone. So, yeah.

 

[Red Hawk]

Console port? Kind of...not many console ports incorporate DirectX 11 though.

 

[SickBeast]

I've noticed big time problems with the shadows in the Call of Duty games with my nVidia cards, particularly if you look where the soldier's helmets meet the rest of their heads.

Come to think of it, I think enabling ambient occlusion fixes the problem. That said, it takes a massive performance hit.

 

[brandonb]

Isn't this just inherent to shadow mapping?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee418791(v=vs.85).aspx

 

[Insomniator]

How the hell did you notice this anyway. I notice texture issues quite often in PC games and never bothered to think it was a card issue.

 

[bryanW1995]

MSAA works by sampling geometry in a scene. A shadow is not something represented by geometry, it is a post process shader effect- thus traditional MSAA does not work on shadows.

MLAA is forced through the driver not the game. I am uncertain as to how MLAA would handle shadow aliasing. I realize MLAA is a post process effect (Direct Compute) and that tries to identify possible aliasing by identifying high contrast edges...I would assume it would work as alpha textures are affected by MLAA aswell.

SSAA should work fine for this yet it is expensive and AMD's driver is limited to SSAA in DX9 games only at the present time. Some of the AA experts may care to pitch in.

Yes, you need SSAA enabled to fix aliasing on shadows.

 

[Red Hawk]

Odd. I upgraded my PC to a C2Q Q6600 and a Radeon HD 5770, and the problem virtually disappeared in Bad Company 2. But that's the same graphics card as the OP, and practically the same operating system. I'm running Catalyst 11.3 with Catalyst AI set to Quality, but I don't know if that would make a difference.

 

[zerocool84]

I thought the jagged shadows come from the type of lighting used in the games?