Reduction in Graphics quality in Online play

[Napalm Nick]

So I have been monitoring things recently after noticing a terrible reduction in quality of my graphics when more than about 5 people are on a server together.  Note NO .ini tweaks are being used.

At first I thought I was imagining it but no more! In fact it is really quite bad especially now I acknowledge it I see it even worse! For anyone who played Codemasters disastrous F12015 on PC you will know what I mean when I say it suddenly looks like Vaseline has been applied over the monitor screen !

Next test I will do is to switch on the FPS monitor and see if a reduction occurs too. 

OK so I am not in the GTX club (Radeon 7850) but that generally eats anything and GPB should be a breeze. In fact with no issues other than online I doubt there is any relevance there.

Anyone else notice this or if just me what might be going on? What could be the correlation between graphics and online (in GPB)?

[doubledragoncc]

I have noticed nothing like that Nick but will do some tests too mate.

DD

[Hawk]

Is there any setting in Catalyst Control Centre for your Graphics card that is possibly auto reducing pic quality for some reason? Just a thought. 

Hawk.

[Napalm Nick]

Will have a look mate thx.

[HornetMaX]

Is there any setting in Catalyst Control Centre for your Graphics card that is possibly auto reducing pic quality for some reason? Just a thought. 

Never heard of something similar, for whichever card. Closest thing is throttling of clocks depending on temperature, but even this would only apply if the card has some sort of overclock first (stock clocks should stay just fine).

A drop of FPS is conceivable, but a drop of graphic quality is weird: I'd tend to think only GPB could trigger that.

[Napalm Nick]

I had considered maybe the GPU is starting to show its age (literally) or was struggling with temperatures (maybe also because of age) but it seems fine in other games with far higher GPU requirements than GPB.

I will also have to check that RAPTR software isn't doing something. It has good recording and streaming ability but in its OFF state it should be OFF! I don't trust it though especially as it has the ability to show snap replays of in game action - it must be recording them somewhere. But I still don't think this is the problem I don't see the correlation between online and offline.

[h106frp]

As MaX states it is hard to believe it is a change in resolution of the models but it could be excessive texture compression. This could be graphics card related or incorrect compression of the original texture.

Is this particular to any particular bikes?

The other possibility is incorrect LOD distancing with the LOD level appearing too early in the view with possibly the computed distance between the rider and other bikes jumping due to network latency.

Does the bike set have LODs? If it is a single model (no LODs) have the file been correctly modified to remove the LOD references (.hrc file)

[doubledragoncc]

Nick dont forget GPB is openGL so it will be a bit different from most games for your settings I  would think.

Just a thought

DD

[Napalm Nick]

All thoughts are good thanks.

H - my last 3 race events are where I have purposefully taken note of the phenomenon. All those were WIP bikes or bikesets. Trouble is now I cannot be certain how log this has been a problem.

[h106frp]

A quick google of 7850 indicates that texture issues are not uncommon in games with incorrect control center settings.

I doubt GPB supplies a profile so it could be default or whatever you have adjusted it too.

Letting the application control the values seems to be the fix. I am an Nvidia person so i am not familiar with your card software.

[HornetMaX]

I owned one (and even two) 7850 in the (distant) past, can't recall any texture issue.

Except of course the ones that were brought in by screwed updates to drivers (e.g. rear wheel looking very weird).

No specific settings for GPB in the control center (or crimson stuff recently, but I was then on a 7950).

[h106frp]

Most of the comments seemed to relate to the way the software controls the advanced AA modes with some sort of auto distance vs detail control - software driver thingy. Best to google 

[HornetMaX]

Most of the comments seemed to relate to the way the software controls the advanced AA modes with some sort of auto distance vs detail control - software driver thingy. Best to google 

interesting, but how could this be related to the number of bikes being on track ?

[h106frp]

Load balancing possibly - just looking at the later driver release notes AMD have all sorts of strange things that can be enabled - among others was frame rate balancing - if its balancing an open track vs one with 5 bikes something will need to take a hit.

Only guesswork though, that the problem with all these features when they do not supplement them with diagnostic tools 

I have not noticed any graphics issues with NVidia - maybe we could arrange to load DD or Nicks server up with bikes for an hours trackday users could comment whether they observe the issue from different platforms. I can probably get 5 bikes briefly in view at the same time as they go past me 

[Napalm Nick]

Thanks for thoughts.

Hardest thing is going to be reproducing it and making a change then testing it again. There is little point fiddling blind I think. Will wait till I see a busy server, dive in and fiddle about! I also want to grab some screens in the hope you can see my problem.  If you cannot, wait smear some Vaseline on your glasses or eyeballs.