Weird, choppy, jittery graphics issue

Unity Engine
1

I have used Unity v2.6 Pro before at my school and I never had this issue. I’m using 3.1 free now and the first thing I noticed when running around is that everything jitters and looks very bad. I even brought in some standard assets to see if it was my models imported wrong or what, but it effects everything.

It’s really hard to explain what is happening exactly. I have a white grid on all the walls and floors, when I move or look around the lines break up and I can partially see through some walls. It’s not extremely noticeable, but it’s noticeable. It gives me a headache to look at after a while.

I updated my graphics card and it’s fairly modern. My PC isn’t the issue. Has anyone else encountered soemthing like this? Can anyone explain what is happening? Is this a version 3.1 thing? Maybe I forgot to check some box to “don’t make graphics flicker randomly when moving”

Any help would be appreciated.

2

Without more details it’ll be hard to identify the possible source of the problem, but generally speaking Unity 3.x was a massive change from Unity 2.6.1. Shaders, lighting and physics were changed almost entirely. Also, many of us noticed a huge reduction in framerates when importing a 2.x project into 3.x. My advice is if you started the project with 2.6.1, then finish it with 2.6.1. Save 3.x for new projects. That’s what I’m doing (or hope to do when the next update is released).

3

Thanks Kahuna, I am working from scratch here, nothing has been imported from 2.6.

Like I mentioned before it’s hard to explain the problem.

The graphics flicker when the camera moves around. It’s almost like artifacts from previous frames are showing up. I was hoping this might be a common issue, but unfortunately it’s difficult to articulate the problem.

4

Might help if you posted a simple project that exhibits this problem or a video clip. Sounds like screen shearing though (caused by the monitor’s refresh rate). You might want to experiment with the “preferred refresh rate” setting ( Unity - Scripting API: Screen.SetResolution ) to see if that makes a difference. If the problem doesn’t exist on other computers it might be a graphics driver issue, or maybe even an issue with Unity. I haven’t been using 3.x much as I’m waiting for some issues to be resolved in the next version.

(BTW - My wife and I have been watching the Korean TV series, “Jejoongwon” and gotta say it’s become addicting!)

5

Hrmm. Well This is odd. The problem is most blatant with my test texture, standing in one spot and shaking the mouse left and right (I use the first person controller). When I tried using one of the textures from the standard assets, I found the fragmenting still occurs only it’s hardly noticeable.

In this case, I suppose it doesn’t really matter, as all the surfaces in any game I’d make will be covered with detailed textures. Still, it’s annoying because I never had to deal with this issue in 2.6. It just doesn’t look as solid as things were in 2.6. I bet a cell shaded game would look terrible with this problem.

Ah yeah, Korean TV shows, I’ve watched a few, I prefer the channel with star craft. It’s pretty much the only channel I watch since I got here.

6

I can’t visualize the problem so I’m at a loss what could be causing it. Have you checked the frame rate? How fast is it playing? Does it happen just in the editor or in a stand alone also?

7

I can replicate the problem easy. If I were to go up to a character in my game and shake the camera too much it looks like the character is fragmenting apart. If I move the camera slowly, everything looks fine. Another thing I noticed when trying to screen shot the problem, no matter when I print screen the result is a normal looking image with no artifacting.

If I could find where my video recording software went to I’d try that. I’ll have to look for it.

Anyway, I had a bit of a break through. When I built an EXE and ran it the problem was not present. The fragmenting only occurs when running the play in the editor. It’s still very annoying, but I suppose this means I can make a game and not have to worry about this issue happening to my users.

So, I’ve narrowed it down to a problem that occurs only in unity 3.1 and not 2.6, effects any mesh or texture, is isolated to running the play test in the editor and occurs when the camera is jerked around too fast or even moderately fast.

8

This issue isn’t Unity’s fault and is easily fixable - you just have to activate vSync. Go to "“Edit->Project Settings->Quality” and make sure “Sync to VBL” is checked in the quality setting you are using.

vSync even works in windowed mode (unlike in XNA) so you will definitely get rid of this issue once and for all. It won’t affect the performance of your game much either.

9

The setting is checked on by default and no it doesn’t fix the problem. But thanks anyway.

Also I think it’s important to note that the artifacting only occurs horizontally. It’s definitely some kind of rendering issue.

You know that jenga game? Where you pull the blocks and the tower wobbles? It’s like that. If I shake the mouse camera back and forth some sections go left some go right. God, this is impossible to explain in words, I need to just draw a picture.

10

What’s the quality setting in the Editor? Does it include Vsync on?

11

It is only checked at the highest setting which isn’t activated by default. You have to select the highest setting for the editor and the standalone build to fix your problem.

12

There are three options at the top; Stand Alone, Web Player and Editor. All are on fantastic and all the setting modes have this sync to VBL on. I remember Game Maker having the same issue with horizontal rendering lines until a vsync was checked on in options. Only here I have is totally checked on and activated but the problem persist.

And here’s a picture I drew to help illustrate the problem:

well hold on let me figure out how to post an image…http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?b712ec20ae.jpg

Okay I cant figure out how to post an image but here’s a link.

13

I’m pretty sure that the only thing that could cause this is missing vSync. It seems like your editor is ignoring the quality setting, that’s really weird.

Try setting all the lower settings to “Sync to VBL”, if that doesn’t work either I would contact the Unity support with detailed information about your system and a description of the problem. It looks like something more serious, maybe even a bug in the editor.

EDIT: your GPU drivers are up to date I guess? Things like that will be the first the support will ask you, so make sure that your system is fine.

14

Yes, I set all the setting to VBL on and my GPU drivers are up to date.

Also, how do I check my frames per second? In 2.6 there was this short one line command to print it to the screen, but now … all i ended up with was this big green target thing under my feet.

nvm it shows about 2K frames per second in the stats! Why are the fps so high!? Could this be apart of the problem. What if the VSync is activated but something else is causing it to not be enough?

15

With vSync you should be limited to 60FPS on a 60HZ monitor, so vSync cannot be enabled if you get 2000FPS - that means the problem is that the editor ignores your quality settings.

Sorry I’m really out of ideas right now, I have never seen that before.

16

If I recall correctly, the framerate in the preview window is pretty inaccurate. Here’s the script I normally use:

var updateInterval = 0.5;

private var accum = 0.0; // FPS accumulated over the interval
private var frames = 0; // Frames drawn over the interval
private var timeleft : float; // Left time for current interval
var fpsTextColor = Color.white;

function Start()
{
    if( !guiText )
    {
        print ("FramesPerSecond needs a GUIText component!");
        enabled = false;
        return;
    }
    timeleft = updateInterval;
    guiText.material.color = fpsTextColor;
}
 
function Update()
{
    timeleft -= Time.deltaTime;
    accum += Time.timeScale/Time.deltaTime;
    ++frames;
    
    // Interval ended - update GUI text and start new interval
    if( timeleft <= 0.0 )
    {
        // display two fractional digits (f2 format)
        guiText.text = "" + (accum/frames).ToString("f2");
        timeleft = updateInterval;
        accum = 0.0;
        frames = 0;
    }
}

Attach this script to a guitext and it will display when the application is run.

17

Apparently the problem is because with Nvidia cards the Vsync only works with full screen mode

There is a post about it here:

So that explains why all the other quality setting apply correctly and also why it works in full screen builds. So my question now is: how do I run the editor in full screen so I don’t have to look at this tearing?

18

I am also using Nvidia GPUs in both my MacBook Air and my PC - and VSync works perfectly fine in windowed mode. I see a huge difference between “Sync to VBL” on and off.

19

I submitted my problem to unity with my dxdiag log. Hopefully they can reproduce the issue and solve it.

I checked the FPS and it’s about 70 fps. So who knows what the problem is. Also when I deactivate the vsync check boxes, there is absolutely no change in the game.