Game unplayable due to shimmering/flickering

[Herzbube]

Hi guys

I have tried playing theHunter Classic again but unfortunately it is nearly unplayable for me due to the constant shimmering and flickering of ground textures, foliage and tree trunks. It is very visible on low LOD tree trunks. They all have jagged, shimmery white edges that move up and down when I am moving. This makes spotting moving animals in the distance (>10 metres) almost impossible. I have tried capturing it on videos but unfortunately the rendering and uploading it on YouTube made the shimmering almost disappear.

Here is my video, please pay attention to the ground in front of me (especially in the area where a section of the road is visible), the leaves (shimmering unfortunately hardly visible) and when I pan the camera 180 degrees look at the tree trunks in the center and slightly to the right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toi83IXWYJU

For a much better visualization of my issue please watch these two videos (they are from another game but show exactly what I mean by shimmering/flickering textures):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkIqCV7s-IA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-farqmZrLM

I have tried using Nvidia Inspector with the following settings (and many iterations thereof): https://i.imgur.com/oJFvL6D.png
I have also removed my graphics card driver with DDU and reinstalled it. It didn't help. I feel like something is wrong in this game with transparency textures or DX coding.

My hardware:

OS: Windows 10 Pro x64
CPU: i7-4790 @3.6GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3
Graphics card: GeForce GTX 780Ti
Hard drive: SSD

[RedWolf]

This should solve it: https://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=81373

I just noticed that you also posted in that thread, one of your comments was:

It helps with the ground shimmering due to the SGSSAA setting used (which should be equal to the level of MSAA used by the way) but those settings also make the tree trunks jaggy and foliage shimmer.

I get the impression that you're trying to fix things that aren't caused by aliasing. Shimmering caused by aliasing is almost completely fixed by using the proper Nvidia inspector settings. I even use the same method in Flight Simulator X and it gets rid of all the shimmering instruments in cockpits while moving the camera. As for your comment "make the tree trunks jaggy"; if you still see aliased tree trunks, then you're doing something wrong. Secondly, when you move around you will have details popping in and out and nothing is going to fix that, every open world game will show this behavior (it's done for performance reasons).

This makes spotting moving animals in the distance (>10 metres) almost impossible.

You're extremely exaggerating. I could spot a tiny red fox at distance of around 200m at only 1680x1050 resolution on my old monitor without even using any additional aliasing techniques.

[Herzbube]

Yeah, I've been having this issue(s) for quite some time now.

What I have noticed is the following: Everytime light touches an object, especially a vertical one such as posts or tree trunks, the edge on the light side starts flickering UNLESS the object is really close (at maximum LOD). I have observed this flickering on tree trunks in low LOD with a binocular and the problem seems to be that shadow and light are somehow "fighting" each other.

Also there are many other games which have this issue. Someone with much more expertise than me describes this problem on a technical level in great detail: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/63 ... nt-8294471

As for the shimmering in the leaves and on the ground I feel like this might be a separate problem with transparent textures.

This makes spotting moving animals in the distance (>10 metres) almost impossible.

You're extremely exaggerating. I could spot a tiny red fox at distance of around 200m at only 1680x1050 resolution on my old monitor without even using any additional aliasing techniques.

It's especially problematic when moving through a forest (e.g. on Whiteheart Island). The low LOD tree trunks flicker. The foliages shimmers. The ground shimmers. So my eyes can't focus on spots where things are moving (animals), because way too many things are moving that shouldn't move at all.

[RedWolf]

I just tested with 4xS and 4xSGS combined with 1.5 DSR on Whitehart with max settings and the graphics looks absolutely great and it shows no shimmering foliage or shimmering ground textures while walking around, so I don't know why you're having these issues. Sure the shadows can be slightly "jumpy" or details can be popping in or out, but other than that I don't see any major issues and mind you, I'm the kind of guy who can be absolutely anal about these things.
Are you sure that you're applying it to the correct executable and that you're using all the proper additional settings?

This makes spotting moving animals in the distance (>10 metres) almost impossible.

You still haven't explained that one. Why is it almost impossible for you to spot animals at more than 10 meters, like a rabbit, a coyote or even an elk?

[VonStratos]

From what i understand you played The Hunter some time ago and was fine, then now you came back and the game has that bug, this may sound idiotic but have you tried to downgrade your graphic drivers to an older version?, sometimes with new actualization this kind of issues happen with some specific games, not always the latest drivers are the best, at least for specific games, give a try, it may work, and good luck.

[Herzbube]

From what i understand you played The Hunter some time ago and was fine, then now you came back and the game has that bug, this may sound idiotic but have you tried to downgrade your graphic drivers to an older version?, sometimes with new actualization this kind of issues happen with some specific games, not always the latest drivers are the best, at least for specific games, give a try, it may work, and good luck.

I have played it half a year ago and stopped due to the constant shimmering and flickering. After researching for the entire day today I think the problem is very wide spread in all kinds of games. It would help if the devs implemented TXAA.

I just tested with 4xS and 4xSGS combined with 1.5 DSR on Whitehart with max settings and the graphics looks absolutely great and it shows no shimmering foliage or shimmering ground textures while walking around, so I don't know why you're having these issues. Sure the shadows can be slightly "jumpy" or details can be popping in or out, but other than that I don't see any major issues and mind you, I'm the kind of guy who can be absolutely anal about these things.
Are you sure that you're applying it to the correct executable and that you're using all the proper additional settings?

This makes spotting moving animals in the distance (>10 metres) almost impossible.

You still haven't explained that one. Why is it almost impossible for you to spot animals at more than 10 meters, like a rabbit, a coyote or even an elk?

What are your hardware specs and could you please post a screenshot of your NVIDIA Inspector settings? Also what ingame settings are you using?
Maybe it's just my computer...

Maybe that was a bit exaggerated but I have great trouble spotting anything that moves if I myself am moving too (because low LOD trees flicker, the grass and ground textures in front of me shimmer so there is movement all over the screen). Normally you spot moving things quite quickly because everything else is more or less static. As a human being your eyes and brain are very good at spotting moving things in static surroundings. Often your view will be drawn to the moving object in a reflex. But if everything is shimmering and flickering then it becomes very difficult to spot a moving animal.