Shimmering/AA downgrade since SU5 (in-game, not menus/overlays)

Bug Reporting Hub Install, Performance & Graphics
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Edit 20211011: added shimmering to the title of the issue, as it is one of the main unpleasant symptom of the issue: buildings (many report it to be more severe on autogenerated buildings) and trees that shimmer, even in active pause. It may also be that the shimmering is not related technically to AA (despite appearances) but to something else.

There is already a bug report concerning the lack of AA in the overlays and menus ( https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/no-aa-anymore-on-menues-in-vr/ ). This is a separate issue, concerning in-game AA. On my setup (Fresh install of MSFS post hotfix, no add-ons, no dev mode, 5800X/32GB/RTX3080Ti), I tried with multiple different settings, in particular different render resolutions (low and high) and different Nvidia Control Panel settings (including the default settings), on two different headsets (Oculus Quest 2 via Oculus Link and via Virtual Desktop, as well as HP Reverb G2). Note that for all tests, I had reflections set to OFF, as reflections have their own issues in VR. AA was always set to TAA for these tests.

Starting with the same settings I had in SU4, I can see that thin (antennas, towers, etc.) or high contrast objects (shorelines, buildings) are much more jagged than they were in SU4, and the aliasing of these objects moves as point of view moves, causing visible shimmering on sharp borders. Sometimes thin objects can even end up being either a jagged, shimmering blob (ILS antennas), or even just transparent/not appearing.

While this happens in pretty much any scenario and lighting conditions, it is very visible in the Rio Landing Challenge, in particular:
When the Rio landing challenge starts

  • buildings in the sun are shimmering due to the antialiasing (to the left, close to us)
  • the bridge crossing the bay is a shimmering jagged mess especially in the sun
  • some of the shore line decks and peers are the same
  • The white bars at the top of the glass cockpit display (within the display) are jagged, shimmering as I move my head

When turning on final

  • to my left there is an orange-ish building (right in front of a peer) is a shimmering mess, I can infer it’s supposed to have lots of horizontal lines/window rows, but all I see are jagged lines shimmering diagonally, like moirĂ©
  • the peninsula covered in trees front left of the runway is a jagged, shimmering mess until I get closer
  • The bridge to the left of the runway, crossing to the mainland is a jagged shimmering mess
  • The coastline beyond the airport and to the left is a very aliased line (not so shimmering)
  • The small oval shaped island on the left of the runway is very thing with perspective, and appears jagged and shimmering
  • The airport buildings to the right of the runway are a shimmering mess
  • The antenna array at the start of the runway is a jagged, shimmering mess
  • Ditto for the light poles to the right of the runway

Note that I spend several hours fiddling with settings (OpenXR render res, in-game render res and graphics settings, UserCfg, nvidia settings, etc.) and the issue is consistent. Also, some players report not seeing the issue at all, which could mean there is a workaround (but if there is, I haven’t been able to find it).

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Same issue here. For me it happened after the hotfix. After SU5 and before the hotfix the graphics and performance were fabulous. After the hotfix, the Aliasing is terrible independent of whether reflections are on or off and the colours are extremely washed out. It looks terrible.

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There is clearly a new issue with AA/shimmering in VR that we need the Devs to look at (affecting menus and in game). Personally I think we should have one combined item in order to not split/dilute votes and get as high up the developer issue tracker as possible

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Agreed - just worried since the original description of the issue specifically calls out in-game AA as being fine (“The rest (cockpit and landscape) are fine. It’s these windows only.”), and only the menus having issues.

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Ah yes you are right. Maybe a mod could somehow merge the two topics and all the votes or something? As I think we all agree there is a new VR AA issue, visible in many different places. In the meantime I voted in both !

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As the original poster I think two seperate threads is better. It’s more specific.
And let’s be realistic: I’m sure Asobo is aware of it by now. I also reported it via Zendesk.
Wheter they care is a different topic.
They have bugs in “Sim Downgrade 5” to keep them busy for months…

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Yea, I noticed that too, it’s not a big deal, but a bit odd.

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I wonder if the hotfix was just a quick way for them to address a wide variety of crashes, so that they could buy some time to really nail a good fix and eventually restore the way things were in the original SU5.
The consoles are now on DX12, so maybe it’s related, and they do need to bring PC up to date.

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Not sure whether it’s related, but other VR games have also regressed in terms of AA such as Half-Life Alyx, Boneworks, and H3VR, that I think the problem might be deeper than we think (Nvidia drivers? SteamVR? OpenXR?). See these thread I’ve made (can’t include link so correct them yourself)

reddit dot com/r/HalfLifeAlyx/comments/nu5r7c/3090_vive_pro_extremely_bad_aliasing_even_at/

reddit dot com/r/H3VR/comments/nry2ol/nvidia_bad_aliasing_even_at_200_ss_previously_not/

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Same problem with oculus 2

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Upvoted it. Menu’s anti aliasing is clearly broken after SU5 (using Vive Pro 2). Let’s put this to Asobo’s radar.

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Same issue for me. Terrible downgrade in AA after the first hotfix, both in-game and on the menus

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Is the shimmering linked to a problem with the sharpening filter?

I have always had extreme scenery shimmering with AA disabled, which is removed at the cost of constant slight blur by using TAA. This is at native resolution in the Quest 2, 100 render scale.

Now I have extreme shimmering with TAA disabled, and occasional shimmering as described above even with TAA enabled. I also seem unable to get the clarity I used to achieve using external super sampling. I believe the VR Sharpening filter in the UserCfg remains switched on at all times, even if I try to turn it off by setting it to 0. Please can devs investigate?

Note captain lucky has described other/similar issues with the sharpening in much more accurate and detailed language here:

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Same here, the sim has gone from flyable enjoyment in VR to essentially not being used now. The performance seems to have gone down slightly for VR but the biggest thing is that the VFR Map just unusable, the AA is worst than mario on the NES hehe.

Looking forward to it being fixed as I had gotten so use to MSFS being such a fun VR sim!

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I’m glad to see that other people are reporting the same issue as me!

So this really is a problem with Microsoft or NVIDIA at this point!

We need an anti-aliasing fix ASAP!

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Check the following posts surrounding this strange issue:

Microsoft/NVIDIA please hear us out on this problem. Thank you.

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Same here, terrible shimmering.

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Please guys,

Everyone get together and go into your “Feedback Hub” app.

Select the category “Gaming and Xbox” then the subcategory “Game Performance and Compatibility”

Write to Microsoft and tell them how bad your AA looks! This needs to be fixed as it’s affecting other titles as well!

I’ll upvote any anti-aliasing post that I come across on there, I check it regularly until this issue is solved! This is ridiculous to have a 10900K/1080Ti in 2021 and having these graphical bugs…

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You are right about AA much degraded lately in MSFS, mostly likely for Xbox release, and up voted but I don’t quite get the idea that it would affect other titles as well.

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Same issue. I thought my 3080 gone bad. It’s also in other games like battlefield.

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