Strange Graphical Issues

[Tormey]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything specific to my issue that made sense or offered solutions to address it.

First, some System Specs (the ones I think matter?)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 1080Ti
CPU: i7-7700K
RAM: 18 GB

I've been having weird graphical artifact/shimmering/afterimage things happen in my game. I'm not sure when it started but I noticed it pretty obviously in Update 7. Update 8 seems to have fixed it slightly but it's still pretty noticeable, and now my animations are wonky at higher qualities.

I'm not suffering any FPS drops. My temperatures are fine. My specs are higher than the minumum requirement. To top it all off, this animation/artifacting problem doesn't happen in every game I play. I do run into some issues in a few games that seem similar so I can say that a lot of the issues seem to pop up in relation to reflections or transparency.

I have read that sometimes these issues are the signs of a dying graphics card but given the inconsistency of this type of thing and my checks of GPU health, this is highly unlikely.

I don't have a recording to share of these issues but I do have two screen shots I took of constructors mid animation on their "press down" phase.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3089106851
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3089107566
I don't know if it's obvious from the pictures but if you look at the constructor second from the closest one in the high/ultra screenshot, you should see the strange graphical issue I'm talking about. That's related to the animation part.

The shimmering I'm talking about is mostly on edges. It's not an anti-aliasing setting as it remains no matter what I put the AA on. I've tried lighting and shadows but that doesn't change it either. It seems to only be on edges where there is light shining, however it does appear in places with no light really interacting with a structure or object. Adding light does make it worse, edge or no edge.

I've messed with global illumination, having it off helps. It has nothing to do with screenspace reflection or contact shadows. LOD dithering doesn't do anything to the shimmer. I'll post a screenshot and describe what I mean and hopefully it'll make sense.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3089121543
The top grill/platform of the constructor shimmers on the grill part. I don't know if anyone has ever done this but the effect is almost exactly like when you take two fine toothed combs and look through them and slide them back and forth at an angle. If anyone knows what I'm talking about it's like watching lines bend or move around.

This shimmer effect is most pronounced on grills like the above picture but it does it in a line along machine edges as I've described before. Also does it with trees in the distance.

So my question is: what is this?

I realize the game is early access and I'm not complaining about that. Though I do wonder if there's some way I can get this to stop or become less noticeable than it currently is. What setting would this be connected to graphically? Why doesn't this happen in other games with edges or grills? Why do afterimages seem to blur into existence when on higher settings in relation to animation? Or have odd animation/reflection in water bugs when placing/moving foundations over water?

Help, explanations (in layman's terms preferably as I am but a humble and ignorant end-user), recommendations would be appreciated.

[Zaflis]

Afterimage comes primarily from 2 subjects:
- Motion blur (you can turn it off).
- Anti Aliasing; where you now have 4 options: None, FXAA, TAA, TSR.

Then there's also upscaling methods that may or may not have to do with it too.

[Tormey]

Originally posted by Zaflis:

Afterimage comes primarily from 2 subjects:
- Motion blur (you can turn it off).
- Anti Aliasing; where you now have 4 options: None, FXAA, TAA, TSR.

Then there's also upscaling methods that may or may not have to do with it too.

Okay so I checked through those settings. It seems that the thing responsible for the weirdness related to the glitchy and odd animation was TAA and TSR (no idea why). I now have solid objects with no blur or afterimage so that's nice. The weird shimmer/sparkle is mostly gone but it does appear still on things like wires at a distance, it's still a tone better than what it was doing before though.

However, now the clouds are doing an odd, fuzzy, kind of lines grid checkerboard kind of thing. It's extremely faint but it is noticeable when standing or looking at certain things. This applies to far away tree leaves as well. I took a couple screen shots but I am not sure if anyone will be able to see what I am talking about as it's probably not something most people would notice? Still, in case someone can see it, I'd still like to know what's going on and where I might be able to fix it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3089224577
You can also probably see what I mean by the wires in this picture, even if it's static and I don't have video of it.

For now though, FXAA seems to be helping with a lot of what was going on. I'm curious as to why TAA and TSR were causing such problems. If anyone has any more info and can guide me through settings or maybe something within nvidia's control panel itself that would be great (still wondering if someone can sate my curiosity on what the heck is going on).

I would like to add that there is a lot of edge artifacting going on when I move, but not when I stand still. No idea what that's about.

[Tormey]

I did some more experimentation and I can offer more information. So, the animation stuff shows up when in TAA or TSR and the scaling is anything less than 100. I haven't checked each number between 90 and 100 but I doubt it'd matter all that much.

At 100, moving objects and machines are more solid and don't blur/afterimage horribly. At 90 everything becomes a mess. The weird checkerboard/line thing I talked about in my previous post goes away. As does the line jagged-ness when moving around.

In FXAA there is no afterimage animation problems at all. However I end up with the jagged lines I mentioned in the paragraph above this one. I also get the odd lines/checkerboard issue.

I've noticed this odd line/grid I talked about mostly with textures or graphics that relate to transparency or fog. It happens in some of my other games as well but not all of them.

It don't know if it's worth mentioning at this point but my motion blur has been off this entire time I've been messing with this.

Also, the afterimage in water doesn't seem to fully go away no matter what I do with any setting or graphics preset. I actually decided to take a screenshot of what I am talking about and I have no idea if it'll help at all.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3089267356
To make this clear: it only happens when I move and am looking at a water surface.

[Admiral Genocyde]

I have similar problems. I keep my antialiasing low and on FXAA while upscaled to 100% to get rid of ghosting and other weird issues. Then things usually shine weirdly and there is a mild static on my screen. This game used to strain my eyes until I tinkered with the settings. After update 8 settings got reset, lots things with graphics changed, and I cant find a happy medium. I'm experimenting with Nvidia screen filters now until I find something. I notice the color filtration is more intense in certain biomes so I use console command r.color.grading 1 or 0 when I'm changing biomes and sometimes it will reduce the eye strain. Hopefully someone will post some tips because I'm all for it.

[HardXcoreXdave]

sorry to hear you're having issues but this should have been posted in the bugs forum

[Zaflis]

Originally posted by Admiral Genocyde:

I notice the color filtration is more intense in certain biomes so I use console command r.color.grading 1 or 0 when I'm changing biomes and sometimes it will reduce the eye strain.

Yeah i notice that as i started in the north desert, it's very bright red. At least i turned gamma down to 1.0.

About clouds, i turned them off in the video settings but there is still some thin moving clouds. They don't show any artifacts for me though, and my texture quality is at medium.

[Tormey]

Originally posted by HardXcoreXdave:

sorry to hear you're having issues but this should have been posted in the bugs forum

I wasn't sure if it was a bug or just something that could be tweaked in settings. I figure a bug report would just sit there for them to get to but posting it here would make it so that maybe someone out there has a rough fix through various graphical settings that can make this less obnoxious.

Right now, with FXAA i'm pretty happy. Just wondering if there's a way to soften the edge artifact shenanigans when moving around.

I'll throw some version of my starting post in the bug area I guess. Once I get around to it.

I'm also curious as to why it's happening in the first place. Just casually curious as I do like to try and understand stuff. Unfortunately, computer stuff is a bit beyond me so I just hope for someone to tell me something that's a simplified and dumbed down version of whatever would be explained normally.

[Achievement Potato]

Didn't really read anybody's post too lazy, but pretty sure they just address this in today's video. It is because of anti aliasing and upscaling/downscaling.