PC1 Shimmering, wavy road surface - gfx setting problem

[Billy Pilgrim]

Hi
I've got pCARS running reasonably well (60 to 100 fps depending on conditions) and looking quite good, with high and medium settings, on my system (triples with 780 sli).

But the road surface can sometimes have a weird, wavy, shimmering aspect that's off putting. It's not always there: It's worse when it's sunny/clear and will be better or worse depending on the angle of the road to my (virtual) eyes. On some tracks I don't see it at all, on others it's so bad I'll stop using it.

Any tips? I can't afford to turn up AA that much. Currently, I've got my AA settings at (I think) MSAA and one of the others (can't remember, not at my PC now).

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

It's heat haze. Even when you set it to "off" it is still there.

I don't think it's heat haze as it doesn't move like pCARS' heat haze moves

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

use steam, F12 to take a screen shot.

Thanks for the tip. And Steam is on anyway, isn't it? That is, if I bought my pCARS on Steam.

 

[Hor-hay]

Thanks for the tip. And Steam is on anyway, isn't it? That is, if I bought my pCARS on Steam.

If you didn't buy it on steam you can always add it. I also use steam to screen shot the car photo's, as I haven't been able to find them on the HD.

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

here's a screenshot of this wavy track surface problem

 

[Sinner_McSaint]

I would say that it has something more to do with shadows and/or lighting than AA, I'm not at home right now, so I can't help you with specific settings, but try to change shadow detail and other related settings to see if it helps.

 

[Kyle Pearson]

IIRC, that is an issue with shadows. What shadow level are you currently using?

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

I'm at shadow detail: low

I'd lose a lot of fps at medium or high, wouldn't i?

I'll give it a go though (changing shadow detail levels)

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Yeeay!
I put shadow detail at medium: it totally fixed it. That's great. Thanks for your help.

and fps has hardly changed

 

[Kyle Pearson]

Good deal! There was an undocumented fix in the 1.4 patch for running shadows at low and medium which give them booth a performance boost.