"Very High" Shadows are BROKEN and GLITCHY!

[NeoRaider]

This started happening after Ultimate patch was released. They did something to shadows that messed up the game completely, making edges and hair look totally pixelated. I was using "Very High" setting for shadows since day one, and game looked perfectly fine. Since Ultimate patch everything that is not "Ultra High" or "Soft" looks broken, ugly and pixelated. And i can't use "Ultra High" or "Soft" because it's making my performance much worse. Looks like they downgraded the shadows which is now causing all these artifacts and the game to look even uglier than before.

Ultra High: https://abload.de/img/976310_20201120174836b3jdz.png
Very High: https://abload.de/img/976310_20201120174937j8joo.png

Ultra High: https://abload.de/img/976310_20201120174553v3k9j.png
Very High: https://abload.de/img/976310_202011201745189nj73.png

Just focus on the hair. Also it's the same in the game too, during the gameplay. Shadows even on Very High are pixelated and don't look good like they used to on the SAME settings!

Edit: Another comparison: https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8327

[Storm]

Yep, they added ugly dithering and hard edges to every setting below ultra high, which is regular shadows now, but with major performance hit. And soft shadows is the only hi-res option now but heavy on GPUs. Probably to make new console versions look "superior" and more affordable...

[NeoRaider]

Originally posted by Thunda Gawd:

Yep, they added ugly dithering and hard edges to every setting below ultra high, which is regular shadows now, but with major performance hit. And soft shadows is the only hi-res option now but heavy on GPUs. Probably to make new console versions look "superior" and more affordable...

They also managed to ruin the performance and introduce more frame drops and issues...

[V I D A L]

Game still runs great and look great. Upgrade your potato.

[Storm]

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

They also managed to ruin the performance and introduce more frame drops and issues...

Disable frame skipping, should help with some ingame frame drops.

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Game still runs great and look great. Upgrade your potato.

1. Upgrade will not solve new netcode issues and crashes.
2. No, you shouldn't upgrade it to keep same visual quality because QLOC fdup PC version.

[NeoRaider]

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Game still runs great and look great. Upgrade your potato.

Like i said game looks worse now on same settings and it runs worse too. I used to run the game just fine before "Ultimate".
If i upgrade, it definitely won't be for this game.

[NeoRaider]

Originally posted by Thunda Gawd:

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

They also managed to ruin the performance and introduce more frame drops and issues...

Disable frame skipping, should help with some ingame frame drops.

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Game still runs great and look great. Upgrade your potato.

1. Upgrade will not solve new netcode issues and crashes.
2. No, you shouldn't upgrade it to keep same visual quality because QLOC fdup PC version.

Frame skip is off. I am mostly talking about Towers and when there is a lot going in on screen. With dumb modifiers and effects. For example that Noob thing that comes out of the ground and hits you is ALWAYS droping frames no matter what.

[Storm]

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

For example that Noob thing that comes out of the ground and hits you is ALWAYS droping frames no matter what.

Yes, things like this one and some characters specials broken since release.

[V I D A L]

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Game still runs great and look great. Upgrade your potato.

Like i said game looks worse now on same settings and it runs worse too. I used to run the game just fine before "Ultimate".
If i upgrade, it definitely won't be for this game.

Well in any case shadows are not broken nor glitchy. You are probably aware that a new console generation was just released and those consoles are very high end. MK11 was updated to make the best use of those consoles and the console version got a graphical update that surpass the original PC version.. it now uses a completely new shadow system. What was called Very High before now is Medium... The maximum now is Soft and looks absolutely perfect. The game is more demanding now because technically the Ultimate update brings the game to next gen. Get on with the times...

PC gamers love to make fun of consoles saying they hold back the potential of PC.. but then when consoles get a new upgrade, PC gamers complain that the game is now too heavy. Tough luck.

So the game maxed out now looks better than it was maxed out last week.

[NeoRaider]

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

Like i said game looks worse now on same settings and it runs worse too. I used to run the game just fine before "Ultimate".
If i upgrade, it definitely won't be for this game.

Well in any case shadows are not broken nor glitchy. You are probably aware that a new console generation was just released and those consoles are very high end. MK11 was updated to make the best use of those consoles and the console version got a graphical update that surpass the original PC version.. it now uses a completely new shadow system. What was called Very High before now is Medium... The maximum now is Soft and looks absolutely perfect. The game is more demanding now because technically the Ultimate update brings the game to next gen. Get on with the times...

PC gamers love to make fun of consoles saying they hold back the potential of PC.. but then when consoles get a new upgrade, PC gamers complain that the game is now too heavy. Tough luck.

So the game maxed out now looks better than it was maxed out last week.

Why very high shadows look worse than they used to and why are they more demanding than they were? That is my question. Why i have pixelated, LQ looking shadows but WORSE performance.

Also many reports are saying that only thing PS5 and XBSX got is bump in resolution (still not native 4K), faster loading times and 4K pre-rendered story cutscenes. That is all.

[NeoRaider]

My conclusion is that this game was designed to be supersampled. Only way to make it look good is to run it at higher than native resolution. And also with that blurry, disgusting TAA to cover and hide all the issues the game has since day one.

[Les Yeux De Ni ni]

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

Like i said game looks worse now on same settings and it runs worse too. I used to run the game just fine before "Ultimate".
If i upgrade, it definitely won't be for this game.

Well in any case shadows are not broken nor glitchy. You are probably aware that a new console generation was just released and those consoles are very high end. MK11 was updated to make the best use of those consoles and the console version got a graphical update that surpass the original PC version.. it now uses a completely new shadow system. What was called Very High before now is Medium... The maximum now is Soft and looks absolutely perfect. The game is more demanding now because technically the Ultimate update brings the game to next gen. Get on with the times...

PC gamers love to make fun of consoles saying they hold back the potential of PC.. but then when consoles get a new upgrade, PC gamers complain that the game is now too heavy. Tough luck.

So the game maxed out now looks better than it was maxed out last week.

You guys speak without leaving your specs here. I am highly curious how much powerful your rig is. You might be rite regarding the transition to next gen within the update however, visual glitches has ever existed even before the ultimate patch. For 2-3 months for me.

[Storm]

Originally posted by Lε∫ уευх ∂ε и! и!:

You guys speak without leaving your specs here. I am highly curious how much powerful your rig is.

Shortly, you need about 20% more GPU performance to maintain pre-update normal shadows on Ultra High now without any improvements. And about 40% more to get normal, high-res background shadows on "Soft".

Originally posted by Lε∫ уευх ∂ε и! и!:

You might be rite regarding the transition to next gen within the update

The problem is they didn't made PC version better, they made default Maximum setting look much worse without any performance improvements. With everything maxed out PC was and still better with native 4K and 60fps support. Meanwhile lower settings has almost no difference from higher, forcing players with weak PC out even if they played MK11 on low without problems before.
They clearly just screwed up majority of players to force them buy this game again on brand new consoles. Knowing WB I wouldn't be surprised if they will keep ruining PC version from this point because it's not profitable anymore.

[Les Yeux De Ni ni]

Originally posted by Thunda Gawd:

Originally posted by Lε∫ уευх ∂ε и! и!:

You guys speak without leaving your specs here. I am highly curious how much powerful your rig is.

Shortly, you need about 20% more GPU performance to maintain pre-update normal shadows on Ultra High now without any improvements. And about 40% more to get normal, high-res background shadows on "Soft".

Originally posted by Lε∫ уευх ∂ε и! и!:

You might be rite regarding the transition to next gen within the update

The problem is they didn't made PC version better, they made default Maximum setting look much worse without any performance improvements. With everything maxed out PC was and still better with native 4K and 60fps support. Meanwhile lower settings has almost no difference from higher, forcing players with weak PC out even if they played MK11 on low without problems before.
They clearly just screwed up majority of players to force them buy this game again on brand new consoles. Knowing WB I wouldn't be surprised if they will keep ruining PC version from this point because it's not profitable anymore.

Apparently yes. I feel like the game gets heavier over time since this update and key presses mostly are not registered.

[NeoRaider]

Yes, there is a memory leak and the longer you play the worse performance becomes. AS you play game is running slower and slower.

[Storm]

Originally posted by NeoRaider:

Yes, there is a memory leak and the longer you play the worse performance becomes. AS you play game is running slower and slower.

And DX12... It was barely playable at stable 60fps on high settings and decent PC, now it's just a disaster. I remember people was talking about how DX12 beta branch supposed to be testing ground for definitive next-gen upgrade. Ha!