The wet ground shader is broken

viktorcodeneb18_ESO

[This issue has been fixed! Thank you!]

I hope developers will read this.

When it’s raining, the ground becomes wet and a special shader kicks in to model the light reflecting from the wet surfaces. The problem is that the effect is behaving weirdly. The three screenshots illustrate how the effect changes dramatically with the slightest angle variations.

First I look more towards the horizon and the wet ground is almost black.
<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/5020507/uploads/FileUpload/d7/49181a269f1fbd544aa6a6f78f3ab9.png&quot; />
Next, I look down a bit, the ground becomes much lighter and I can see some glossiness.
<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/5020507/uploads/FileUpload/dc/2688e1255121d4dd3dac69b5c43031.png&quot; />
And when I look even lower the ground becomes even more lighter and closer to its original dry colour.
<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/5020507/uploads/FileUpload/bc/86fa774bbc3c2486555666662dfeaa.png&quot; />

It’s a basic stuff for shader programmer to fix (unless the bug isn’t in the shader), let’s keep our fingers crossed it will be patched. It doesn’t happen on Windows.

Moonraker

@viktorcodeneb18_ESO it's a known issue and noted in the Known Issues (Mac) stickied here (though it's not written so clearly)

When I submitted details for it in beta testing they confirmed the Mac is still missing a correctly rendering SPLASH texture (same for PC OpenGL if I remember from testing it).

Apparently they are still waiting for one from the Graphics Team. No ETA as yet. But thanks for noting it here.

Karnaugh33

Does this include my weapon being reflected off bodies of water? I don't have a screenshot, but if I think of it I'll try to snag one tonight.

viktorcodeneb18_ESO

No, this one don’t include water reflection, it’s only about ground colour and “glossiness” not the true reflection.

viktorcodeneb18_ESO

Still problem after 1.1.2. Not that I actually expected for it to be fixed now; by all means it should be classified as low-importance cosmetic issue, but still.

Moonraker

viktorcodeneb18_ESO wrote: »

Still problem after 1.1.2. Not that I actually expected for it to be fixed now; by all means it should be classified as low-importance cosmetic issue, but still.

I think that at least something has been improved with this. The rain splash reflection still seems broken and I get a square around the character in water reflection. But the shader seems to be working properly now so not such a dark mess around while it's raining. This are from today after patch in rain.

On this one it is dark anyhow but the rain splash on tree leaf shadows doesn't work correctly still (the SPLASH texture I think)


But on this one more clearly you can see that the actual, shadows like of the horse show correctly now (Medium Shadow Quality) and when lit it is not such a dark colour all around as before.


Not totally fixed but seems at least better. One day we will get the proper SPLASH texture in OpenGL

lostnknox

Here is how you fix it. Go to your graphic settings in game, set them to low and then scale them up from there. For whatever reason it takes the effect away. I tried all the settings to see if i could see which one is effecting it but this is the only way I have found to turn it off.

Moonraker

lostnknox wrote: »

Here is how you fix it. Go to your graphic settings in game, set them to low and then scale them up from there. For whatever reason it takes the effect away. I tried all the settings to see if i could see which one is effecting it but this is the only way I have found to turn it off.

Unfortunately it doesn't change it for me and I had to change it back to get the same quality as before. But thanks for posting. Maybe it works for others.

LavaDrop

I think it's also affecting water bodies, because there's a place in Grahtwood were there's fog on top of a lake. If you tilt the camera a certain angle, the fog suddenly appears.

Moonraker

LavaDrop wrote: »

I think it's also affecting water bodies, because there's a place in Grahtwood were there's fog on top of a lake. If you tilt the camera a certain angle, the fog suddenly appears.

Grahtwood has some weird graphics glitches where whole structures can appear to disappear or appear. I think mostly due to the 3rd person view point clipping into trees etc.

The rain glitch is obvious on water as it appears as a distinct 'square' around the character which changes the reflective quality of the water and also as you move the camera angle up or down the shadow dark density changes. Also most noticeable on leaf shadows under trees where they go blotchy.

LavaDrop

@Moonraker Have you also noticed how objects that shouldn't reflect are shown on water, like trees in front of the player?

Moonraker

LavaDrop wrote: »

@Moonraker Have you also noticed how objects that shouldn't reflect are shown on water, like trees in front of the player?

Yes, in fact I believe it is a generic OpenGL issue. I also similar graphics glitches in reflections on water in WoW, for example. It actually seems more noticeable at higher quality settings. Due I think to the was OGL deals with reflections and close up objects and edges/ shadows.

It's annoying but not a big problem and only happens at certain angles of viewpoint. The rain SPLASH texture problem is a known one and requires a working texture for it to display correctly. It was worse as the shadows did not work also but that does seem to have improved since 1.1.2 at least (the ground is not so dark at certain angles now)

One of the things to consider with any Mac game is that it is using a graphics API which is a small slice of the gaming market place in OpenGL and this brings with it it's own set of potential problems as is set out nicely in this recent article, just as some background to the issues developing with OpenGL brings with it. And why TBH I find the actual general gameplay in ESO really very good in the Mac client despite these, apart from the memory issue, there are really no other major outstanding issues that haven't (or soon to be in the case of the language bug) been fixed.

That I can play ESO at Ultra-High at 2560 x 1440 with decent performance and great looking graphics (on my higher end iMac) is impressive to me.

LavaDrop

I used to look up to Blizzard's efforts on the Mac, but they're not very efficient. I'm still shocked at how much time they took to port Hearthstone to the iPad. But I am quite happy on ESO's Mac port and that it's maintained (AFAIK) by one programmer.

viktorcodeneb18_ESO

The shader is still broken, the same way as before. How to check: when it’s raining turn towards the direction of the sun. There should be a light path on wet ground, and on Windows it is present. On OS X the ground becomes darker, not lighter.

This bug has nothing to do with shortcomings of OpenGL as API. It is just a shader bug, could be Cg toolkit bug — I have no idea which exactly. But it is wrong to imply it cannot be fixed because of OpenGL, OS X, whatever…

Moonraker

viktorcodeneb18_ESO wrote: »

The shader is still broken, the same way as before. How to check: when it’s raining turn towards the direction of the sun. There should be a light path on wet ground, and on Windows it is present. On OS X the ground becomes darker, not lighter.

This bug has nothing to do with shortcomings of OpenGL as API. It is just a shader bug, could be Cg toolkit bug — I have no idea which exactly. But it is wrong to imply it cannot be fixed because of OpenGL, OS X, whatever…

The Mac client is still missing a correctly rendering SPLASH texture. How's that?

it was just my lazy way to say that it works via D3D in PC client but on via OGL in Mac client.

I just decided to have a little rant about OpenGL at the same time

Moonraker

Good news! looks like the missing SPLASH rain texture is now fixed.

No more bugged shadows , tree shadows or box around character when it rains. The correct texture is now in the client files and shows as wet ground and actual splashes of rain on the ground which was missing before causing the issue.

A really nice graphics quality fix.

Moonraker

Image of fixed rain texture.