Black Circles, z-fighting and texture shimmering

[torminater]

NEW UPDATE:

I have tried the Skyrim Special Edition, and there seems to be no more z-fighting for me. As if that is linked to the fixes towards the shadow processing or has something to do with the new 64bit engine, I cannot say for sure. If you have further insight, please share below.

 

OLD post:

I am still working on my fix, as it does not solve all of the z-fighting and there is a performance drop of about 0-8 FPS. Further testing is therefore welcomed!
For the original little fix head over here !

For the guide (WIP) against z-fighting head over here !


Hey folks,
at the moment I'm fiddeling around with nvidia inspector, skyrim ini and prefs to get rid of black circles on mid-distant terrain, reduce z-fighting as much as possible and eliminate texture shimmering if possible.
I don't remember if z-fighting has been such a big problem for me before the last drivers update, but now it really gets on my case. It's only visible on very distant mountain sides but in a large area. The good thing is, if it's cloudy I don't notice it as much. The bad thing is, if it's sunny all of the great graphics cannot overshine the flashing mountains in the Background.
Texture shimmering is annoying but it's on the very end of my 2dolist.
What annoys me know the most is this black circles glitch. I just can't find the setting that causes me all that trouble.
It is very prominent and extremely disturbing. Reading through this forum I stumbled upon a lot of threads that were highly interesting and revealed that there are a whole lot of bright minds around.
I guess if STEP tries to make Skyrim an unforgettable experience, then it should include some details about very common bugs and glitches as those three I'm referring to. If anyone of you guys knows any tricks considering them I would be too glad to try them out!
I have had problems with artifacts probably caused by too much graphic mods and ini tweaks (no ugrids changes whatsoever...)
My rig is the following:
Crucial m4 SSD 128GB, 2.5"
Samsung EcoGreen F4 1500GB
Intel Core i7-2600K, 4x 3.40GHz
Kingston ValueRAM DIMM Kit 8GB
2 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Phantom, 1.25GB GDDR5 SLI
ASRock P67 Extreme4
Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750 750W
All drivers are absolutely up2date. By all means I should be able to run Skyrim without problems. So far that doesn't work out...
EDIT: Those Black Circles seem only to pop up in the lower half of the screen o_O but somewhat diagonal... maybe cuz of the Sun angle?
I found out how to remove them:
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500 revert to fShadowBiasScale=0.2500 in SkyrimPrefs.ini
There are still black stripes on some rocks and mountainsides. they disappear from the center the closer you come...

[Vond]

how do I use the .inf file? i never installed any drivers that didn't come from the manufacturer's homepage...

 

 

 

Download the .inf file from here: https://www.mediafire.com/?zz6s1pwf2lssnlc (or just copy it from C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\301.24\WinVista_Win7_64\English\Display.Driver\nv_disp.inf as the .24 inf works for .25. Then drop that .inf into ...\Display.Driver\ for .25 and run the setup, it will now detect your card.

 

Apparently the 301.32 beta is actually older than 301.25 (.32 = r300_00-124, .25 = r301_07-14), and are developer drivers. 301.25 runs Skyrim a lot better, so can ignore the .32 beta I'd say.

[Vond]

Using 301.25 and the fSplitDistanceMult=2.5000and fSkycellRefFadeDistance=300000.0000 (thanks for those tips) seems to have removed the flickering mountains for me. Atleast it wasn't nearly as noticeable as before. Still have some other shadows flickering, and ofcourse the annoying grass-shadows that we can't do anything about, but it was a clear improvement.

[torminater]

Well, congratulations ;-D

I'm actually checking out the shadow-problem, too. whether I find anything interesting or not will show next week. This weekend Im too busy otherwise.

[torminater]

Z-Fighting-Elimination-Crusade

 

What I will try to do is the following:Z-fighting became a far greater nuisance with the beta-patch for me. Don't ask me why, but that's the way it is...

This is how I will try to get rid of z-fighting without loss of graphic quality (if possible):

Setting:

- Skyrim 1.5.26.05

- Launcher by SKSE

- near Helgen (Screenshot )

- daytime: afternoon 2 pm.

- viewing the mountain range behind the lake (strongest z-fighting for me EVER)

Nvidia-Drivers:

- Download the 5 latest drivers for my graphics-card: incl. latest beta, the 4 newest WHQL-certified versions: 280.26, 285.62, 295.73, 296.10, 301.24.

- Check where there is the least z-fighting.

- Not used: 3D, SLI, Nvidia-tweaks, HD-DLC, Mods, ini-tweaks and on Ultra-Settings only.

Ok, currently I'm looking at the inofficial beta-driver 301.25!

I do like the 301.25 drivers. they give me extra FPS and i think a little bit less vram stuttering (although that's probably just my imagination xD)

Also I compared the videos of all the driver versions so i've tested so far and that's my ranking from best to worst z-fighting:

295.73

296.10

301.25

285.62

301.24

280.26

There are big differences between the first 3 and the last 2, but at the top there is only a very slight difference to be seen. If I had an acceptable internet connection I would upload all the vids in ultra-hi-res but 100 kbit/s won't do the trick. Also this is my own rig with it's own pros and cons and it is only my perception that leads me towards my conclusions. If you want the best set-up for your skyrim do the testing yourselves and decide which driver you like more. Also z-fighting ingame always looks worse as if you look at it on a video. and that's not only subjectivity.

I'm going to keep to the 301.25 driver cuz it grants me 3-5 FPS in almost every location more and the z-fighting is nearly weak as with 295.73.

NVidia-CP:

- SLI activation: +/-?

- 3D activation (hiding effects): +/-

- Not used: Nvidia-tweaks, HD-DLC, Mods, ini-tweaks and on Ultra-Settings only.

SLI activation has no negative effect on z-fighting. I think if there's any change at all then it makes it better.

3D activation and hiding 3d-effects has a minor negative effect on z-fighting. until the SLI-Water-Bug gets fixed 3D-activation will be more a have-to than a must-have...

Coming up:

Nvidia Inspector:

- try out all different tweaks using if possible the skyrim profiles

- every positive effect will be noted by it self

- all positive effects will be tried out together and adjusted to create the best effect.

- Not used: HD-DLC, Mods, ini-tweaks and on Ultra-Settings only.

[MadWizard25]

Firstly id like to say great job! You really sunk your teeth into this problem :P If you manage to work it out many interwebs props to you!

Well i mentioned i would help, but got sidetracked RL stuff. Back on track now!

 

Ok, ive got no difference with LOD z-fighting with the 301.24/25 beta drivers, as well as the 296.10. Its still horrendous, and just as bad as when skyrim was released where it was vanilla with no mods and i was using a radeon hd 5770 card with 11.1 to 12.3 drivers. Exact same problem with a geforce 560 ti.

 

Will try the ini tweaks next and will let you know.

[torminater]

Nvidia Inspector:- try out all different tweaks using if possible the skyrim profiles- every positive effect will be noted by it self- all positive effects will be tried out together and adjusted to create the best effect.

- Not used: HD-DLC, Mods, ini-tweaks and on Ultra-Settings only.

 

NOT confirmed yet:anti-aliasing gamma correction and line gamma tweaks may lead to worse z-fighting. maybe there is a config that helps? anybody inclined to try it out?

as long as nothing mindboggling is revealed about those settings I'll continue with the standard procedure.

Nvidia Inspector Anti-Aliasing configuration (except gamma)

Testing mode: Override any application setting

Setting: 4x4 Multisampling -> no setting has improved or worsened z-fighting, this has been my setting before testing, and will if nothing changes stay as it is.

Transparency Multisampling: Disabled -> did not help, TrSSAA instead

Transparency Supersampling: 4x4 -> FPS-Drop from no supersampling at least 15-20 FPS but it does look gorgeous!!! (and may help ignoring that stupid z-fighting on mountains ;-D)

NVidia FXAA: Disabled -> afaik it's still a WIP so I won't recommend it. it did not help noticeably. and the lighter structures "lighten" the darker ones in the background which looks odd and bad at the same time...

Coming up:

Texture filtering optimization

[torminater]

Hey guys!

Does anyone of you know how to work with the info and tips given in this article ?

 

I don't, but maybe some 3rd-party tools could be used to make the z-buffer more precise or sth like that. Maybe you know of somebody who is a crack in 3d-graphics?

[torminater]

So here's an update on my work

Nvidia Inspector:

 

- try out all different tweaks using if possible the skyrim profiles

 

- every positive effect will be noted by it self

 

- all positive effects will be tried out together and adjusted to create the best effect.

 

- Not used: HD-DLC, Mods, ini-tweaks and on Ultra-Settings only.

 

 

 

No setting in the Nvidia Inspector managed to reduce z-fighting at all.

My current settings are:

Min FPS 57.

 

 

Coming up:

 

Skyrim Graphic Profiles:

 

- try out, whether Low-, Medium-, High-Setting lets z-fighting vanish or

become close to invisible; if not good enough ULTRA will be used to

continue

 

- best profile will be used to continue

---

Skyrim Graphic Profiles:

 

 

 

- try out, whether Low-, Medium-, High-Setting lets z-fighting vanish or

 

become close to invisible; if not good enough ULTRA will be used to

 

continue

 

 

 

- best profile will be used to continue

 

So, here're my results so far:

 

No need to scale down to medium or low-quality. High-settings lets almost all of the z-fighting disappear ... at the cost of really fugly distant mountains. There is some z-fighting on mid-distant mountains nevertheless. The problem is the setting "Distant Object Detail". If set to high, distant mountains look really bad. If set to Ultra ... well z-fighting is really bad. I'm now going to work myself from High-Settings up to Ultra-settings concerning really nice mountains but evading the z-fighting part...

 

So, what the Distant Object Detail setting alters is this:

High Distant Object Detail settings

 

 

[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=40000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=150000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=40000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=25000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.1000
bShowLODInEditor=0

 

 

 

Ultra Distant Object Detail settings

 

 

[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0

 

 

[torminater]

Oh my god...

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen

there ain't no freaking z-fighting anymore in my skyrim... xD

 

I want some feedback on this fix from everyone.

Go to your skyrimprefs.ini and edit the TerrainManager section until it looks like this:

[TerrainManager]

fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000

fBlockMaximumDistance=500000.0000

fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000

fBlockLevel0Distance=75000.0000

fSplitDistanceMult=4.0000

bShowLODInEditor=0

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: I had a typo in my fix here before Gophers Video on Z-fighting. The value fBlockLevel1Distance was set to 1400000.0000. This actually should be 140000.0000 so divided by 10. Apparently it works both ways, but if you consider it being too big of a FPS-hit with the 1,400,000.0000 try out using fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000 instead. Sorry for that.

 

then head to the Main section and edit:fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=500000.0000

then save and exit.

go to your ini

now set your ugridstoload to 7 and cellbuffer to 64

 

and now ...

play skyrim.

[Bealdwine]

@torm

I made those changes and tested outside Whiterun, as you said, no noticable z-fighting, grats :)

 

However it does cost me around 3-4 fps although this may simply be down to setting my ugrids back up to 7.

 

As yet I haven't had time to do a visual before and after test to check on any other changes this might bring in, but as far as the distant to mid range mountain flickering, it certainly seems to help.

I know that the actual z-fighting can't be shown through still screen shots, but if someone gets the chance a good long distance mountain screenie from pre and post adjustment would settle my mind as to whether I was noticing any differences.

[torminater]

I can give you exactly that if you wait another couple of days ^^

[stoppingby4now]

I just tried these settings. The z-fighting was signifcantly reduced, but it's still there for me. Step in the right direction I suppose.

 

torminater, can you include your ini files here so I can compare them to mine.

[torminater]

skyrim ini

 

 

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH
uGridsToLoad=9
uExterior Cell Buffer=100
sIntroSequence=

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=1
fNearDistance=25.0000

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0
[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

 

 

skyrimprefs ini

 

 

 

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=16
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=5000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=1500.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1024
iSize W=1280
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=500000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=4
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=150000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=500000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=1500000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=75000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=5.0000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=2
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=512
iWaterReflectWidth=512
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

 

 

 

Atm I'm using uGridsToLoad 9. just for fun. Always wanted to try it out. I'm still around 40 FPS but it feels a bit laggy in big open places like on the way to whiterun ... whatever.

---

@bealdwine:

got the movie ready for upload. on monday it'll be on youtube! It is REALLY impressive what difference it makes!

[Bealdwine]

@bealdwine:got the movie ready for upload. on monday it'll be on youtube! It is REALLY impressive what difference it makes!

I'll be very interested to see that torm, unfortunately I may not be able to use these settings permanently (until I can upgrade my rig) as my old 1Gb 8800 GT can't afford to leak anymore fps, unlike your 570 SLi setup ;) But it will be very useful to others I'm sure, and I was happy to test it out :)

[torminater]

@bealdwine

try the following:

 

revert your uGrids and cellbuffer to 5 and 36.

add in your skyrim.ini under display

fNearDistance=25.0000

And then go to your SkyrimPrefs.ini and do the TerrainManager and skycellrefdistance tweaks I suggested. I think that'll do the trick, too!