Graphical error on transparent textures

[Mightyena]

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light on how to fix this annoying graphical glitch.

I've just upgraded my GPU, from a GTX 1070 to an RX 6800, and now any textures with transparency are... dotty. On closer inspection, it appears to be because the transparency is being achieved by alternating grey opaque and transparent pixels, rather than just making all the pixels darker. This happens in both T:ANE and TRS19, so I'm hoping it's just some esoteric setting I need to adjust, and not some AMD nonsense I'm going to have to put up with.

Some screenshots of the issue:
In T:ANE:

With the 1070:


With the 6800



And in TRS19:

With the 1070:


With the 6800:

[JCitron]

James,

What are your graphics settings? It looks to me that they're set pretty low which can make things blotchy and pixelated. Your RX 6800 is a more substantial card than the GTX 1070 so I think it can handle a bit more stuff.

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

This looks reminiscent of how alpha blended opacity was handled (so badly) by TS2010. There was a name for it but I can't remember exactly; alpha-to-mask? interlacing? dithering?.... TANE and TRS19 don't have that problem, as the GTX1070 shots demonstrate, so my guess too is that it is probably related to the graphics card settings on the RX 6800, not some inherent deficiency in the card.

[Vostrail]

In TANE, if your anti-aliasing (Launcher Settings Performance tab) is set to anything lower than 8x you will get that dotty effect. Your 6800 should be able to handle that with no issues (my GTX1080 does).

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I assumed that the in-game settings were the same for both graphics cards in those comparison screenshots. Maybe that was an incorrect assumption.

[Mightyena]

Correct, both cards in those shots are using the same graphics settings in-game.

These are my settings in TANE and TRS19 (the images are zoomed in to capture the effect more clearly):





I tried setting antialiasing to 8x, but all it did was bring my framerates down from 40 to around 15, without making a noticable difference in image quality

[clam1952]

Not a driver issue is it, strange things do occasionally happen with drivers, maybe try a newer or older version?

[Mightyena]

I've tried the two most recent driver versions, with no change. I'll try an older version when I get some time, though the current driver actually fixes a long standing issue with reflections in one of my other gams, so having to switch driver versions to play a game would be annoying.

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Hmmm…it’s looking more like AMD nonsense then. There must be lots of other trainzers out there using AMD cards. It would be valuable to know if any have seen this problem and how they dealt with it.

[afe_uy]

With nVidia GTX 750 Ti I never had any problems...
Today, with Ryzen 5600G Integrated Graphics only : GE cab, central window open , four little fixed windows double glass ( normals exterior and normals interior )

[Mightyena]

This is what it looks like for me at the various Antialiasing levels:

2x




4x




8x



Notice that even at 8x there is still this weird dotting effect.

I'm going to try the helpdesk, but from the message on their site they'll just refer me back to the forums. If it is an AMD problem, they really need to make it known that Trainz doesn't play nice with AMD cards before anyone else spends £500 on "dot simulator 2022"

[afe_uy]

Hmmm ... Getting a 6600XT or an RTX 3060 was in my plans, but it seems that no one else uses AMD graphics, since there are no comments about it. The balance tips nVidia... to me.

[autodctr]

I do not have that issue with my RTX 2070.

[JAGG]

I did met this dotting issue in my TANE, I was able to remove it by modifying the material properties. I suspect it to be caused by e2 engine. As far as I understand, it should not be related to that "great" alpha-to-coverage invention previously mentioned by dinorius.

[clam1952]

This is what it looks like for me at the various Antialiasing levels:

I'm going to try the helpdesk, but from the message on their site they'll just refer me back to the forums. If it is an AMD problem, they really need to make it known that Trainz doesn't play nice with AMD cards before anyone else spends £500 on "dot simulator 2022"

Forget the help desk, use the bug reporting system, it can be used for non beta issues https://www.trainzportal.com/pages/beta-test-center.