ThaMahstah

Join Date 12/2008

White Dots, anti-aliasing

There are other forum posts about this. About how turning on AA makes tiny (and annoying) white dots appear on ships. I've seen other people with this problem, but they are using Nvidia cards. However, I am using an ATI 4870x2. (Drivers most recent.) So while some fixes posted for this problem work (sometimes...) for Nvida users, I can't try their same solutions.

I've only downloaded the demo, so would this problem go away if I bought the full product? Or am I screwed? Also I'm having my doubts about buying it because it looks like every other thread (even in general chat) seems to be about one error or another or some kind of problem people are having with this game...

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Yep, I have the exact same problem: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/334308

I tried dozens of solutions, none worked (except turning AA off entirely).

Having a problem with a computer game is a frustrating experience lately. Whether you'll find a workable solution or not is a crap shoot... and once your post has been sinking to the bottom of the pile for a day or two with no resolution in a tech help forum, you know you're boned until something else gives (new drivers fix it, new patch fixes it, etc.).

Well, at least it's just AA and not, you know, CTDs.

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Hm, you know, it seems quite a widespread problem.

Even this guy...

http://frogboy.joeuser.com/article/331150/Life_with_Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_v11

...has it. (See second picture.) Someone comments that they have the problem too.

And apparently people have been posting about this issue for months on these forums. The "white glitter"...

It clearly effects both ATI and Nvidia, and cards of all types, so the almost knee-jerk reaction of, "It's a driver issue" should be dispelled.

But not everyone has it either...

I wouldn't expect a fix from a patch. If you can fix it on your own, fine, but not everyone can do that, and Stardock doesn't care.

Hm, I'm not sure I'll buy this game.

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Quoting ThaMahstah,

reply 2

Hm, you know, it seems quite a widespread problem.

Even this guy...

http://frogboy.joeuser.com/article/331150/Life_with_Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_v11

...has it. (See second picture.) Someone comments that they have the problem too.

And apparently people have been posting about this issue for months on these forums. The "white glitter"...

It clearly effects both ATI and Nvidia, and cards of all types, so the almost knee-jerk reaction of, "It's a driver issue" should be dispelled.

But not everyone has it either...

I wouldn't expect a fix from a patch. If you can fix it on your own, fine, but not everyone can do that, and Stardock doesn't care.

Hm, I'm not sure I'll buy this game.

Are you really that shallow? I get the dots too but they're hardly noticable unless you're looking for them. Besides, you spend 80% of your time zoomed out anyways.

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Quoting Cataclysm2000,

reply 3

Are you really that shallow? I get the dots too but they're hardly noticable unless you're looking for them. Besides, you spend 80% of your time zoomed out anyways.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I wouldn't buy the game because of it, and all things considered it's a fairly small problem, but the dots are definitely quite noticeable to me. I recently started playing Sins again after a six-month break, and I noticed them instantly — first on an Arcova frigate, then again when I zoomed in to see some fighters, then later, on various resource asteroids and asteroid fields.

It's a relatively minor blemish either way (whether dots or lack of AA), but it's disappointing because it detracts from the visual quality of the game. And apparently not everyone gets this problem, which means it's a FIXABLE problem in theory, which means it's even harder to just ignore since there's a solution out there somewhere.

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Quoting Cataclysm2000,

reply 3

Are you really that shallow? I get the dots too but they're hardly noticable unless you're looking for them. Besides, you spend 80% of your time zoomed out anyways.

Short Answer: Yes, I am.

Long Answer: I don't know about your dots, but I notice my dots quite a lot. And when it comes down to it, this appears to be a widespread problem; a problem that has been reported for months, with this game. It can be fixed by the player by tweaking some settings somewhere, but as evidenced by the second post, some(most?)times it can't. It effects both ATI and Nvidia cards, of all drivers and types. Yes, some (most?) people don't have this issue, but the number and uniqueness of the cases seem to indicate it's nothing we're doing wrong.

Put shortly, no matter how "minor" it may be to some people, the game is broken. Why would I want to buy a broken game?

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Yeah, I'm not a "graphics whore". I play lots of indie games and even ASCII games, and no matter the level of graphics technology used, I ask only that what's done graphically be done well. Even an 8-bit game can be aesthetically pleasing.

Sins is a beautiful game in every respect, and THAT is actually part of the problem. It looks so good, the dots simply stand out. The dots are a blemish and AA is a fairly important part of modern 3-D graphics, so it's a problem I really want to see fixed... and if you check my thread, you'll see I put quite a bit of effort into tweaking my settings in an attemp to get rid of the dots.

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