The great Lod bias mystery. Amd users must know !

At least with GTA IV at LOD 1 it looks like I went back in time 20 years. Very ugly textures.

 

I am not able to explain this but reshade (sweetfx) totally helped. When I only add the injector to the game, shimmering is gone and mip maps are fixed.
As long as I dont enable smaa then it messes up.

So I've reinstalled windows and steam. Not messed with lod at all, enabled hl2 - it's shimmery mess. Added reshade - it's all fixed. even with all options turned off ! Just the fact of injecting something upon dx9, fixes the shimmery mip maps.

So I enabled ssaa which blurs hl2 a lot (hl2 fault) and used reshade for sharpen only. The game looks fantastic. It's like a postcard. loving it.
So we've learned a lot about mip maps and lod but all in all, I think it's either hl2 problem or dx9 renderer in hl2 conflicting with amd or something and injecting reshade breaks the chain of shimmering events at some point :infinity: :grin:

@Jack Hair
Be careful with changing lod for other games. after all it is proven that for now it only helps with hl2 on some amd configurations. It is tho, a great option to be aware about for some other games to try messing around with. Gta iv have blurry textures as it is, so maybe crank it other way around and add much smaa. Or maybe just set it to default 0 and add sharpening with reshade

 

Howdy HiCZoK, haven't seen you in years, maybe since the nVNews meltdown. I just happened across your thread while taking a break from playing HL2: Update @ 4K res with everyone maxed. This game never looked so good. Have you tried installing the Update mod? It's supposed to used higher-quality textures, and so far it's good.

Anyways, just wanted to say howdy, hope you're doing well. Stop by Rage3D and holler at us sometime. Some of your old pals are there.

 

Hey!
A little update since I've been asked about this. It might not be of use to anyone but here it is:


Oh It's been a few years since shimmering/lod issue.
The thing I describe in topic is mostly a specular aliasing. This means that specular highlights are so small/detailed that the monitor don't have pixels small enough to properly display it.

Just use 4k downsampling or just a 4k monitor. If that is not enough then it is down to LOD BIAS setting. Negative lod bias oversharpens textures and causes this specular and texture shimmering. While positive bias, oversmoothens this out.

The fix is very simple. In some games, You can use commands or .ini file to configure LOD bias but on NVIDIA graphics cards, You can globally fix this issue once and for all for all games.
Just globally force 16x AF in nvidia control panel. While this setting alone does nothing to help, it also forces on option "texture filtering negative lod bias to clamp" which does not allow any game to use negative LOD bias setting.


This works perfectly on Witcher 3 for example. The games uses negative bias and Geralts armor can be very shimmer(the chainmail texture with sepculars). Forcing 16x af and clamp setting in nvcp fixes this. For amd, there is .ini fix for witcher3 but I've been using nvidia past few years, so I am not sure if AMD also have the clamp bias setting now in their drivers.

 

Test with 3DCenter Filter Tester. You probably got screwed by placebo as the option shouldn't have an effect anymore since at least Kepler and is only left to confuse people.

 

Nice necro. Just from the title alone I could tell it was a necro, since lod bias settings are long dead, Nvidia and AMD alike.

 

Greetings, im new but for a long time I have studied this post in depth given my curiosity and because I have a problem similar to that raised by the HiCZo user. A few months ago I started experimenting with the LoD using the AMD LoD Adjuster Changer tool (https://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/AMD-LoD-Adjuster-Changer.shtml) which allows you to adjust the LoD in real time without the need to restart the game (since the registry is also valid) and the results were interesting.

I find it important to first clarify that I am not an IT expert and that for a few years I have been experiencing a series of serious problems with Draw Distance in practically all video games. Basically some minor objects disappear at a close distance and the shadows fade, giving a rather horrible look. This is a more accurate example:

https://imgur.com/hxUEPdI

https://imgur.com/FbeKdSy

So, I started looking for information and the first thing I came across was this great post that helped me better understand the LoD function in AMD, and how you can vary settings. But then I came to the conclusion that apparently the problem lies with my Power Supply, and that it is solved (apparently) by buying a better quality one. However, today morning I started doing some comparisons with the LOD set to 0 and -1 and I am honestly surprised again by the results, here I share some screenshots from my tests:

Borderlands GOTY (max settings + FXAA)

LoD 0:

https://imgur.com/ljUUhFo

LoD -1:

https://imgur.com/xuLFqj7

Red Orchestra 2 (max settings with SMAA antialiasing)

LoD 0:

https://i.imgur.com/PtM75HR.png

LoD -1:

https://i.imgur.com/9wy5ZEN.png

Dragon Age: Origins (max settings + MSAA x4 and Frame-Buffer effects active)

LoD 0:

https://imgur.com/5HE3oxf

LoD -1:

https://imgur.com/bOB28Bf

Dark Souls (Dsfix 2.4 SMAA x2 and active Bilinear filter)

LoD 0:

https://imgur.com/hxi1Ogy

LoD -1:

https://imgur.com/OllI2Xc

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (max settings MSAA x4, Anisotropic Filter x16)

LoD 0:

https://imgur.com/4kQtbSe

LoD -1:

https://imgur.com/ZwCQMqz

Pillars of Eternity (max settings MSAA x4)

LoD 0:

https://imgur.com/ODlB4mw

LoD -1

https://imgur.com/FhSMSQj

Being the poor quality of the images, my maximum resolution is 1360x768, however you get to appreciate the difference quite well. In Dragon Age Origins Leliana's hair looks sharper and the trees a bit more detailed, while in Dark Souls the difference between 0 and -1 is very evident, especially in the textures of the walls. Another thing I have noticed is that setting the LoD to -1 counteracts part of the blur caused by post-processed antialiasing such as FXAA and SMAA, in both cases I have noticed that the image looks sharper.

My final conclusion is that at -1 the LoD and the Draw Distance improves substantially, but it is also true that it sharpens the sharpness too much, which in some games like Morrowind, Counter-Strike: Source or any other Valve game, can be annoying.

 

how did you open this window?

 

I don't remember any more