[Graphics] Why does my horizon look weird?

[DerDuderich 149]

Hey guys!

 

I have a problem that really bothers me.

 

So I usually don't watch many streams or videos because I think it's more fun playing myself. However, last friday (I think?) I was watching the dev stream and I noticed something weird.

 

While I have almost all my graphic settings as high as possible (except for shadows i think to gain a few extra FPS), objects that are far away look "bad" on my system. It's not terrible, I didn't even notice it before because it has always been like this but now that I know that it actually can look better I get somewhat angry every time I watch the horizon (yes, I am what some people call a "graphics-whore" :P)

 

Please have a look at these screenshots I took right from last weeks stream:

 

(The small text is hard to read, sorry for that, looked better in GIMP, it says: "The mountains far away are pretty dark and the contours aren't clear to see").

 

http://i.imgur.com/3nS3JGf.jpg

 

Well to sum it up, DayZ does look... good there.

 

Now please have a look at this screenshot I took half an hour ago on my system:

 

http://i.imgur.com/dEXvFZ6.jpg

 

As stated, the mountains far away are way to bright and I don't know, it just looks bad imho. Any speculations, tipps or ideas?

 

---

 

My PC:

OS: Windows 64B w. 8GB RAM

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500 @ 3.30Ghz

Mainboard: ASUS P8H61-M LE

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6870

Edited September 23, 2014 by DerDuderich

[Ben_uk 24]

I think its because the fog is a standard colour, and its just pot luck whether the sky happens to match it at any given time. When it rains for example, the clouds go much darker, but the fog stays the same colour, so it stands out then as well. The fog needs to change colour with the colour of the sky.

[friendlypilot 37]

squint a little bit

 

joking put textures on normal

Edited September 22, 2014 by friendlypilot

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

Can you post your current ingame video settings?

[Ben_uk 24]

Its the same in my game bud.

 

See image here;

 

 

Fog stays the same colour, clouds change colour, so at some points the horizon may blend well, at others it will stick out like a sore thumb.

[Judopunch 523]

I think they have implemented weather systems that effect visibility. I have noticed significant variations in how far I can see before fog takes over. I was noticing last night that depending on the amount of atmospheric distortion and the position of the sun that the color in the scene was also drastically different. 

 

So I think this is all intended behavior.

 

I now live in a mountain valley IRL, the smoke from some of the Canadian and Idaho fires settles here. I have noticed it looks almost EXACTLY like how dayz is using fog and whatnot. Visibility goes from to the horizon to only 2 miles or so depending on the day.

 

Edit: If you note, all three screen shots are taken at slightly different times of day and appear to be facing away from or towards the sun. This also has an impact.

 

Edited September 22, 2014 by Judopunch

[karlkurtz32 59]

I noticed this last night.  I was heading to Green Mountain and everything looked like a glowing white color.  Struck me as kind of odd.  My settings are all maxed out.

[TEST_SUBJECT_83 465]

It is the weather system.

It is actually quite impressive and it was the first thing that I noticed when I got back on Dayz.

I took about a 3 month break after selling my gaming laptop and saved up for my current PC.

(i7-4790k with a Corsair H110, Asus Z97 Deluxe mobo, 780ti-sc, 32gb Corsair Vengeance, Cooler Master V850 PSU, in a Corsair 650d)

Along with the frame rate I definitely noticed a difference in the weather and the way the game looked in the horizon.

Night time clouds look better too, but clouds in general move a little to fast IMO.

So happy to see the progress that happened in the past 3 months and Im sooooo glad to be playing Dayz at playable frame rates.

[DerDuderich 149]

Can you post your current ingame video settings?

 

Overall Quality: Custom

VSync: Enabled

 

Textures

 

Video memory: 2048MB

Texture Detail: Very high

Texture Filtering: Very high

 

Quality

 

Everything on very high except shadows only on High

 

Rendering

 

Antialiasing: Normal

Alpha to coverage: All trees + grass

Edge Smoothing: FXAA Very High

HDR Quality: Low

Ambient Occlusion: Enabled

Post Processing: Very high

 

 

 

I tried to reproduce the issue by serverhopping to servers with different time and weather and the landscape/horizon always looked good:

 

Morning

Noon

Rainy

 

But then, like 10 Minutes later, the issue shows up again, at "normal" sunny weather at a completly different location:

 

Picture

 

I'm not sure if it's about the weather because on one screenshot it's sunny and everything is fine, on the next screenshots it's sunny and the mountains look bad. I also think that something is wrong with the fog (not matching the clouds color), but somehow it woorks sometimes (note how there is a difference in the color of the fog between the "Morning" and "Rainy" image) while not working at other times.

 

And overall there is a huge difference between how the game looks for me and how it looked at the dev's computer (even though my settings are all on max). Is it maybe a driver/hardware issue? Like the game is better optimized for nvidia cards?

Edited September 23, 2014 by DerDuderich

[Ben_uk 24]

Again, its because the fog is 1 colour which is set at a given time, but the clouds and skybox are many varying colours and brightness. So you will get a clash and it won't always look correct.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Ben_uk

[irl-calibre 744]

should try using very low hdr during the day, and then low at night.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Calibre