Missing Rendering Areas - Lighting related?

[SteveP]

In Direct X 9 indoors, there are frequent rendering problems where the screen doesn't display areas of the room. This problem does not occur when using Direct X 11 however, there are frequent crashes with that outdoors. The problem seems to occur when there are multiple sources of ambient light however, it's difficult to be certain.

I have several debug screen captures but not sure how to upload them. I gather we need to have a specific forum for that type of problem where attachments are permitted. I do not think I can add attachments to the messages in this forum.

Steve

[Guest mcopeman]

The attach image button is there! Its just hard to find. To add your images press "quick reply", then "Full Editor" and then at the bottom "Upload attachment" like so:

[SteveP]

The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 850 KiB.

Your message contains too few characters.

The file is 920 KB in size. Many of the screen capture files are larger.

Steve

[octavian]

The file is 920 KB in size. Many of the screen capture files are larger.

You can try a free image hosting service, or whatever you call them, like Imgur, upload it there and post the link here.

[RJIII]

The game saves screen shots as .png which is not a compressed file format. You can simply open the screenshot in Paint -> save as .jpg and the image will be considerably smaller.

[SteveP]

Using direct X 11, we don't have this problem. It's some sort of bug.

[Guest mcopeman]

If you haven't already, please verify your cache integrity: left clicking on the Long Dark, selecting Properties, click the tab "Local Files" and press "verify integrity of game Cache".

If that doesn't work post your recent debug log and a screenshot of this lighting issue. If the file is too big, you can always zip the file or try octavian/RJIII solution. Thanks!

Melody~

[SteveP]

All files successfully verified. Can I delete local content and let the game recreate?

[Guest mcopeman]

All files successfully verified. Can I delete local content and let the game recreate?

I haven't tried it, but it should. With the exception of the files specific to your save file which are not saved on steam, only locally. (If you deleted all of the local files it would be like your character died.)

Melody~

[SteveP]

Here is a screen shot

[Guest mcopeman]

Yup I'm seeing this. I'll pass it on to the team. Thanks!

Melody~

[SteveP]

Yup I'm seeing this. I'll pass it on to the team. Thanks!

Melody~

You can reproduce? Maybe others just accepted it as part of the game. Yet compare with other videos on youtube and they never seem to have problems.

I think we should track the system configuration for these type of crashes. The other thing this bug could be is a transient memory over write. I've seen evidence of that in other bug reports. Those kinds of problem are very difficult to troubleshoot. You CANNOT easter egg them. There was an excellent book from several years ago by Microsoft on the subject of writing solid code. They suggest prefilling data areas with patterns and many other approaches. If you use memory protection mechanisms, a core dump can be extremely useful and get you within a few procedure calls of the errant subroutine. Simply rearranging things can make it suddenly be visible in a way that is easier to find. The other idea is to place several dummy data areas with a known pattern between various data structures and periodically inspect it for a spurious overwrite. Sorry for rambling; I wish I could come and work for you guys for a week or two. Often there is a psychological obstacle for getting help. Think of it as collaborating. For me, I strive to have this in S/W development teams. Take away ownership and make everyone share. Agile programming also has techniques for breaking psychological blind spots.

Steve

[Guest mcopeman]

I don't think I've seen this lighting problem in other areas... but in this specific instance the lighting is cutting outside of the vehicle which is causing some parts of the roof to appear black. They are still being rendered. If you are having weird lighting issues in other areas it could be related to your system or to the game. That's why we need to see screenshots of what you are experiencing to help diagnose the issue. If you have other lighting issues please feel free to post them!

Melody~

[SteveP]

I don't think I've seen this lighting problem in other areas... but in this specific instance the lighting is cutting outside of the vehicle which is causing some parts of the roof to appear black. They are still being rendered. If you are having weird lighting issues in other areas it could be related to your system or to the game. That's why we need to see screenshots of what you are experiencing to help diagnose the issue. If you have other lighting issues please feel free to post them!

Melody~

These lighting issues do not occur with D 11; they occur with D 9. Sorry, this is a bug. Believe me. I've been QA for years. Also s/w developer, designer and performance engineer. :-)

I will check this out again for you guys. -sigh- I thought I had noticed changes recently. Maybe there is some improvement. I think to be a good QA person, you have to make a stand at times when things are broken. It can be different at various workplaces according to culture. Microsoft believes strongly in supporting the QA staff but they are expected to stand up. QA at Amazon.com is "problematic" and that's all I'm permitted to say due to confidentiality agreements. I remember at one certain work place, they really really hated to have bad news about performance. I made my reports with the data to support. It's not always easy. This is just fun for me so I won't stress. Remember, the quality of your game depends upon QA!!

[Guest mcopeman]

I don't think I've seen this lighting problem in other areas... but in this specific instance the lighting is cutting outside of the vehicle which is causing some parts of the roof to appear black. They are still being rendered. If you are having weird lighting issues in other areas it could be related to your system or to the game. That's why we need to see screenshots of what you are experiencing to help diagnose the issue. If you have other lighting issues please feel free to post them!

Melody~

These lighting issues do not occur with D 11; they occur with D 9. Sorry, this is a bug. Believe me. I've been QA for years. Also s/w developer, designer and performance engineer. :-)

I will check this out again for you guys. -sigh- I thought I had noticed changes recently. Maybe there is some improvement. I think to be a good QA person, you have to make a stand at times when things are broken. It can be different at various workplaces according to culture. Microsoft believes strongly in supporting the QA staff but they are expected to stand up. QA at Amazon.com is "problematic" and that's all I'm permitted to say due to confidentiality agreements. I remember at one certain work place, they really really hated to have bad news about performance. I made my reports with the data to support. It's not always easy. This is just fun for me so I won't stress. Remember, the quality of your game depends upon QA!!

I have seen this lighting issue in the barn on Mac (which doesn't use DirectX) as well as on both DX9 and DX11. I haven't experienced it elsewhere. I find it puzzling that DX9 and DX11 are appearing differently for you. If you have the time it would be great to see screenshots of the differences you are seeing. Testing it in house, they appear the same.

Melody~