Textures/Objects Change/flicker when zooming in and out

[galzohar 31]

IRL you can detect enemies at well over a kilometer. In the game something like 500m makes enemies practically invisible even when you're zoomed. I don't see how extra zoom is not realistic, if anything it's the opposite. I wish a realistic amount of zoom would be hardcoded into the game (based on estimating RL detection distances and then making it happen in game), as anything less makes you unable to see things you SHOULD be able to see (not to mention the AI has no such issues and sees you just fine).

[Motivator 10]

I updated the first post with videos of this problem in action.

[longers 10]

I updated the first post with videos of this problem in action.

just checked them, identicle to what i get and im pretty sure it's just the game and not related to our hardware/setup.

it's just the way the game is made, hopefuly they will find a way to sort it out because it really does look hideous and ruin immersion.

[Motivator 10]

just checked them, identicle to what i get and im pretty sure it's just the game and not related to our hardware/setup.

it's just the way the game is made, hopefuly they will find a way to sort it out because it really does look hideous and ruin immersion.

I dunno more people would be complaining if everyone had the problem. It is clearly something that needs to be fixed, no way its suppose to be like that.

What are your system specs?

[-=seany=- 5]

I dont mind the fact that arma2 changes lods when zooming, but all too often your get the kind of problems seen here in this video. Why does it need to unload things so near to you like your uniform/gun textures when your zoomed in? Surely that puts massive strain on the PC, swapping so many textures all the time.

The worst part about this for me is the amount of FPS you loose when its trying to swap/load LODs/textures. Put on fraps and watch your frame rate plummet as it attempts to load any object or texture. You can even see the stutter in the video posted here when zooming in and out. The flashing buildings are new to me, I have not seen that yet.

Motivator: what are your full specs and what gfx settings you use? Are you using -Maxmem=####?

[Motivator 10]

I dont mind the fact that arma2 changes lods when zooming, but all too often your get the kind of problems seen here in this video. Why does it need to unload things so near to you like your uniform/gun textures when your zoomed in? Surely that puts massive strain on the PC, swapping so many textures all the time.

The worst part about this for me is the amount of FPS you loose when its trying to swap/load LODs/textures. Put on fraps and watch your frame rate plummet as it attempts to load any object or texture. You can even see the stutter in the video posted here when zooming in and out. The flashing buildings are new to me, I have not seen that yet.

Motivator: what are your full specs and what gfx settings you use? Are you using -Maxmem=####?

these are my specs, runs every game great, arma2 runs fine as far as FPS but this texture problem is not right.

Antec 900

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Heatsink With LGA1366 Adapter kit

EVGA 9800GX2

EVGA 8800GS( Dedicated PhysX)

BFG Tech ES SERIES ES-800 800W PSU

Lite-On 20x LH-20A1L DVD Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB ( Storage Drive)

OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) ( OS/Boot drive )

Sound Blaster Xfi Xtreme Gamer fatality edition PCI sound card

Windows 7 Release Candidate

[berowe 0]

I think this issue is why they love their HDR/bloom/etc crap. It definitely works to hide the engine/texture limitations. I play on a res higher than I should and lower my other settings to low, so I get this a LOT (but I can at least nail them crunchies hiding off in the bushes 600m away!)

I think bis needs to look at the core engine and see what they can do to help this- it's a huge problem with modern weapons because of long ranges and high speeds. If this were "ARMA2: Teh Civil War", they'd have no problems at all!!!

[garack666 10]

same issue here with gtx275 new driver

[Overwatch 10]

I get same issue too except my tears are white. Often get little white squares too.

Do you get the same problems when the map is played at night??

[Balgorg 10]

Most games dev's are pretty strict on eliminating Z-fighting, but I think we should be a bit more forgiving in the case of Arma2 because like said earlier "No other game does what Arma 2 does either." but we can only hope they fix some of this stuff in a later patch.

Arma 2 was released befor it was ready, its full of tons and tons of bugs and incopatabilites. It has ugly textures, and loads them up badly, much worse than Arma 1.

This isnt a dig at BIS completely, cos they made Arma and OFp, both of which were fantastic (and bugged).

People who are loving this game must have brought a different game to me, cos this is awful. Maybe in 6 months and a few patches later Arma 2 may be worth playing, at the moment the only fun there is, is trying to get it to work properly, and messing about with different configurations.

Arma 1 for me looks 50 times better, clearer, smoother, nicer animation, nicer map design, less noob team killers, and as a whole, a ton of players who brought A2 have gone back to Arma to remind themselves how good a BIS game can be, so the servers are filling up again.

Got an idea, lots of modders are porting over old arma stuff into arma 2, how about doing this in reverse, porting arma 2 content into arma ! That way we can play Cheranus the way it aught to have been :bounce3:

[longers 10]

so is it basically confirmed that this is just how the game is and there won't be any kind of fix ? did this happen in arma 1 as well ? to the same extent ?

[kklownboy 43]

so is it basically confirmed that this is just how the game is and there won't be any kind of fix ? did this happen in arma 1 as well ? to the same extent ?

go look in the ARMA1 area... as for me its the windows or some lil texture here or there but not even as bad as that video, the more fillrate i have the less there is and the zoom is fine. The poping up out of nowhere can happen , but not all the time. I just go with the thought that its the sun reflecting of the windows, and trees moving in the wind...

not even a deal breaker.

[Motivator 10]

so is it basically confirmed that this is just how the game is and there won't be any kind of fix ? did this happen in arma 1 as well ? to the same extent ?

it can't be, no way.

[S!fkaIaC 10]

it can't be, no way.

Well, I can confirm for my case that it has been ALWAYS like that in ArmA 1 and ArmA 2, for OFP I can not remember. In ArmA 1 it was on all 5 test systems:

- DELL XPS Gen2

- DELL XPS M1710

- DELL XPS M1730

- 2 handcrafted towers

always the same flickering, on 2 systems I had Vista instead of XP, no difference.

I still own that clunky M1730 (as video player for the kids), it has 2x8600 GPU and even a Physix card, all that is not used I assume.

But hey, at least there is some continuity :p

EDIT:

I MIGHT find the time to put now ArmA 2 onto that M1730, but I feel sorry for the invested time.

[Basil Brush 10]

Well, I can confirm for my case that it has been ALWAYS like that in ArmA 1 and ArmA 2, for OFP I can not remember. In ArmA 1 it was on all 5 test systems:

- DELL XPS Gen2

- DELL XPS M1710

- DELL XPS M1730

- 2 handcrafted towers

always the same flickering, on 2 systems I had Vista instead of XP, no difference.

I still own that clunky M1730 (as video player for the kids), it has 2x8600 GPU and even a Physix card, all that is not used I assume.

But hey, at least there is some continuity :p

EDIT:

I MIGHT find the time to put now ArmA 2 onto that M1730, but I feel sorry for the invested time.

I've not once seen a comment from any BIS team member about this issue... for me I dont care so much about bugs in missions or mp issues this bug stops me playing the game full stop as its just too annoying.

:mad:

[Motivator 10]

happens like crazy in this UAV video

[S!fkaIaC 10]

Well, do not mix up the LOD pop-up while moving with the unnecessary texture flickering while observer does not move related to the flickering texture.

[Motivator 10]

Well, do not mix up the LOD pop-up while moving with the unnecessary texture flickering while observer does not move related to the flickering texture.

what?

[SnR 1]

i did FSAA=1; in my cfg and looks alot better

[Flanker15 0]

That flickering is more of a general graphic problem, I can't remember how it works but it can be seen in many games when zooming. I've seen it in ARMA, CS:S, Crysis and I even saw it in a Quake mod recently! It's most obvious in ARMA1/2 and BF2 though, probably due to the longer render distance.

As for the LOD changes on trees when you zoom in, that's just the way it is. You could force everything to run as the max LOD models always but I doubt you'd get a playable framerate. You could have them change suddenly into the different LOD but that doesn't look as nice as the progressive fade between LODs.

[Whisky_Delta 0]

This is not a hardware issue. This problem is called z fighting, and it occurs because the graphics engine cant work out which polygons to draw first, because they are close together, so you get that flickering effect. I also get this problem and as it happens when you zoom in to buildings, trees etc etc it is down to the near and far clipping planes of the view. It commonly happens when yu may have your ground terrain mesh, and then maybe polygons overliad ontop of the ground plain with possibly a different texture, say some dirt or something (just as an example). As to why it only happens when you zoom in, it would probably be due to the same reason, but the distances between the two sets of polygons could be meteres apart rather than millimeteres due to the fact you are now looking at the polygons which are physically a mile away. In the video example what seems to be flickering the most arethe windows of the buildings, ans the z fighting is occuring between the geometry of the windows glass, and the interior room walls inside the building. Hope i made sense.

This cant be rectafied by us, Bohemia Interative needs to pop this on the ever increasing list of problems that they need to fix. My belief is that BI have shot them selves in the foot releasing the game in such a poor state long beore OFP2 is out. At the moment i am reluctant to carry on struggling to the play the game due bugs and performance issues. As such i may ditch it, and go to play OFP2 when it comes out as it is very unlikely OFP2 would be released in such a poor state.

Regards

Whisky

Edited June 24, 2009 by Whisky_Delta

[BlackLord 0]

My problem is a bit different. No matter which settings I use the game doesn't load the high detail LOD for some bushes and trees even if I stand relatively close to them so they look like water paintings and worse than some distant trees. I don't care if the vegetation looks ugly in the distance but bushes that are 50 meters in front of me should look decent.

[Skeptic 10]

This is not a hardware issue. This problem is called z fighting, and it occurs because the graphics engine cant work out which polygons to draw first, because they are close together, so you get that flickering effect. I also get this problem and as it happens when you zoom in to buildings, trees etc etc it is down to the near and far clipping planes of the view. It commonly happens when yu may have your ground terrain mesh, and then maybe polygons overliad ontop of the ground plain with possibly a different texture, say some dirt or something (just as an example). As to why it only happens when you zoom in, it would probably be due to the same reason, but the distances between the two sets of polygons could be meteres apart rather than millimeteres due to the fact you are now looking at the polygons which are physically a mile away. In the video example what seems to be flickering the most arethe windows of the buildings, ans the z fighting is occuring between the geometry of the windows glass, and the interior room walls inside the building. Hope i made sense.

This cant be rectafied by us, Bohemia Interative needs to pop this on the ever increasing list of problems that they need to fix. My belief is that BI have shot them selves in the foot releasing the game in such a poor state long beore OFP2 is out. At the moment i am reluctant to carry on struggling to the play the game due bugs and performance issues. As such i may ditch it, and go to play OFP2 when it comes out as it is very unlikely OFP2 would be released in such a poor state.

Regards

Whisky

Great explanation! You nailed it. I have to say that for me it happens not often at all now with 1.02 patch.

what?

See Flanker15's post explaining differences between the two: one is bug (flickering) another is feature of streaming engine (LOD pop-up)

That flickering is more of a general graphic problem, I can't remember how it works but it can be seen in many games when zooming. I've seen it in ARMA, CS:S, Crysis and I even saw it in a Quake mod recently! It's most obvious in ARMA1/2 and BF2 though, probably due to the longer render distance.

As for the LOD changes on trees when you zoom in, that's just the way it is. You could force everything to run as the max LOD models always but I doubt you'd get a playable framerate. You could have them change suddenly into the different LOD but that doesn't look as nice as the progressive fade between LODs.

Edited June 24, 2009 by Skeptic

[Balgorg 10]

Great explanation! You nailed it. I have to say that for me it happens not often at all now with 1.02 patch.

See Flanker15's post explaining differences between the two: one is bug (flickering) another is feature of streaming engine (LOD pop-up)

I would say that I have the LOD pop up problem, thanx for putting a definition on it. The 'z fighting does also occur, but this has often been a problem with FPS games. I dont find 'z fighting' to much of a problem, its probably something gfx card drivers will sort out.

The LOD pop up though does ruin the experience, and it would be nice to fix this. Its like the Day of the Triffid's ! with the bushes looking like they are springing into life......run away........

Its interesting that some people report no problems at all, even with lower end systems.

[Motivator 10]

thanks for the info but as I have said there is no way the game should be like that, they must be able to fix it somehow.

---------- Post added at 11:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 PM ----------

This is not a hardware issue. This problem is called z fighting, and it occurs because the graphics engine cant work out which polygons to draw first, because they are close together, so you get that flickering effect. I also get this problem and as it happens when you zoom in to buildings, trees etc etc it is down to the near and far clipping planes of the view. It commonly happens when yu may have your ground terrain mesh, and then maybe polygons overliad ontop of the ground plain with possibly a different texture, say some dirt or something (just as an example). As to why it only happens when you zoom in, it would probably be due to the same reason, but the distances between the two sets of polygons could be meteres apart rather than millimeteres due to the fact you are now looking at the polygons which are physically a mile away. In the video example what seems to be flickering the most arethe windows of the buildings, ans the z fighting is occuring between the geometry of the windows glass, and the interior room walls inside the building. Hope i made sense.

This cant be rectafied by us, Bohemia Interative needs to pop this on the ever increasing list of problems that they need to fix. My belief is that BI have shot them selves in the foot releasing the game in such a poor state long beore OFP2 is out. At the moment i am reluctant to carry on struggling to the play the game due bugs and performance issues. As such i may ditch it, and go to play OFP2 when it comes out as it is very unlikely OFP2 would be released in such a poor state.

Regards

Whisky

thanks for the info but does everyone have this problem? there is no way because more people would be complaining about it.