Terrain artifacts

[Fernando Oliveira]

Hi there, I have problem with BTB in some notebooks. I simply can't use it because of some strange artifacts when I place the terrain.

I start a simple track and I can even put some small objects but when I insert the terrain those artifacts comes up. Everything works fine except for this artifacts that makes impossible to work with. This happens on a Dell Inspiron 1525 and Toshiba, they are not top video cards machines but everything else works really fine, even rfactor.

Thanks in advance,

Fernando

 

[Fernando Oliveira]

Just a simple track, some terrain or a few objects and the effects comes up,

http://img116.imageshack.us/i/btbbug.jpg/

in two different notebooks.

Any idea ?

 

[Pablomartino]

I have the same problem in my labtop I guess it's a problem of the grafic card...
I decided to not use anymore my labtop with BTB and I only work with it in my PC... it's a shame cause I usually travel with my lab and in the travels or free time I use to work in some projects I have in BETA versions...

 

[Eric Tozer]

I have seen a similar problem on my Desktop (nvidia 8600GT).
But it's only when BTB has been minimised for a while & I've been doing lots of other stuff.
Then i go back in & have the display issue.
I just quit & restart BTB & it goes away.

Have you updated your graphics drivers lately?

Cheers

 

[Fernando Oliveira]

Thx Pablo, yeah, weird is that both notebooks are good machines that runs many games and rfactor quite well, of course not everything set on full but I can get over 30fps easy.

I have the same problem in my labtop I guess it's a problem of the grafic card...
I decided to not use anymore my labtop with BTB and I only work with it in my PC... it's a shame cause I usually travel with my lab and in the travels or free time I use to work in some projects I have in BETA versions...

 

[Fernando Oliveira]

Yeah, I did that recently but I'll some more to see if anything may minimize the problem. Thanks !

I have seen a similar problem on my Desktop (nvidia 8600GT).
But it's only when BTB has been minimised for a while & I've been doing lots of other stuff.
Then i go back in & have the display issue.
I just quit & restart BTB & it goes away.

Have you updated your graphics drivers lately?

Cheers

 

[miasmic]

It's probably to do with integrated graphics, those Intel jobbies are known for their bugs, probably the same thing would happen on a low-end desktop with the same graphics chip.

 

[jharro]

Thx Pablo, yeah, weird is that both notebooks are good machines that runs many games and rfactor quite well, of course not everything set on full but I can get over 30fps easy.

that's not the same thing unfortunately; the game deals with a fixed, and in most of the cases highly optimized data set while editors, by their nature, are supposed to handle dynamic data which puts a much higher strain on hardware than the target game.

in example, during the export operation the track is usually splitted/partitioned based by materials, LODs and other factors, in regions, to make the in-game loading and rendering much faster than it would be if the track was in one piece. to do the same splitting in editor would be an overkill because unlike exporting which is not a one time operation, it must be repeaded after each change you do to the track...

sure, in theory, one can optimise the hell out of the editor but that's not cheap nor easy and a better result is not guaranteed, and it may impose various limitations by reducing the number of features.

you can probably at this point do some research on how and why very expensive workstation hardware handles high quality editing well while it sucks at actually playing games and vice-versa but the bottom line is: "cheap" laptops+3d editing = smoke. (and yes, those artifacts you're getting there are not a stranger among overclockers and may be the first sign of overheating, which may very well lead to some permanent damage).

 

[miasmic]

I'm not sure if that's true about overheating jharro, particularly with onboard graphics. The intel chips are notorious for their poor 3d drivers which cause all sorts of bugs with different programs and games.

The sort of artifacts you are referring to usually manifest as flickering and colour distortions rather than what is seen here. Furthermore they are a symptom of overclocked memory chips, which is something that onboard graphics (since they use the main system ram) don't usually have.

I actually think it would be impossible to overheat an onboard graphics chip unless you messed around with the hardware.

 

[jharro]

I'm not sure if that's true about overheating jharro, particularly with onboard graphics. The intel chips are notorious for their poor 3d drivers which cause all sorts of bugs with different programs and games.

The sort of artifacts you are referring to usually manifest as flickering and colour distortions rather than what is seen here. Furthermore they are a symptom of overclocked memory chips, which is something that onboard graphics (since they use the main system ram) don't usually have.

yeah, i know how stinky integrated intel gfx chips are when it cames to 3d, not only for laptops but for onboard desktops too but the thing is if it were solely a driver issue errors would pop up in directX and the program will eventually crash; the artifacts would also be more various as well, like black textures and random clips(which are more related to poor shader support than overheat).

the random extruded polygons artifact can be recreated in software, in example if there is this mesh with 10 verts and set the indices of a polygon to values greater than 9(or less than 0) those artifacts will pop up, it's similar with a buffer overrun situation but on GPU.(from what i've tested both directx and the gfx driver would not bother to check for vertex index boundary) but in most of the cases this scenario would lead to driver failure and BSOD.

now since the meshes are obviously corect the only cause i see is ram coruption due to overheat.

I actually think it would be impossible to overheat an onboard graphics chip unless you messed around with the hardware.

is that a joke right? i have yet to see a laptop which can not do 3d and cook eggs the same time, if you know what i mean.
the situation is no different on desktops either, on my intel mobo the onboard gfx is integrated in north bridge(mem. controller) which has a lousy sink on it but runs damn hot despite the fact that i'm not actually using the onboard video at all.

 

[Fernando Oliveira]

Weird is that happens with two different notebooks, all new ones that runs smoothly games like rfactor (of course, some settings on low). Yeah, intel gfx, X3100 on the Inspiron 1525, not really fast graphing card but I can run in slowers machines. Maybe drivers...

 

[Ralf Ääro]

I had a similar problem. It looked like that screenshot. But it was just a problem, when I made the terrain with the "Whole Track" option and too less "reduce". When I raise the reduce number up, the problem dissapeared

 

[Satangoss]

My one-cent: I don't know why you're getting graphichs trouble, but it's almost impossible to enjoy a top-graphichs full experience using laptops.

A high-end VGA card could'n even be fit into a laptop because its dimensions. And it turns really hot during intensive graphics processing.

Higher temperatures implies graphichs issues very often. None laptop in world is capable to keep itself cooler as a usual PC desktop.

Laptops can be a interesting option to building tracks but not for play.