Shadows Glitching (Harsh Lines)

[Naja XOXO]

So, i usually take snapshots and they end up just fine but after last update there's this glitch that make some of the shadows have very ugly harsh lines.

Info that might help: The shadows are perfect while ingame, the lines only appear on the saved snapshots. It happens when i'm with advanced lighting model on. I never had this problem before. I use Firestorm Viewer and NVIDIA Graphics Card. The lines are more noticeable in high contrast of lights and shadows, so i presume it has something to do with it, but i don't know. 

Heeelp.

[Coffee Pancake]

Sanity check time - Do you get the same result with another /  the official viewer ?

[Naja XOXO]

Just tested it and no, the official viewer saves the snapshot without problem. 

[Lindal Kidd]

That's very odd!  Please check between both viewers...you need to find out if ANYTHING is different, including

• Windlight (environment) settings
• Preferences, including
  • All Graphics settings.  Shaders, light and shadow options, LOD settings
  • There's a setting somewhere for rendering things attached to an avatar.  I'm not sure that affects lights, or your personal avatar, but check it
• The outfit you are wearing.  Check all Worn items in both viewers.

[Naja XOXO]

Tried the same windlight and same outfit and the problem persists, so that's not it. I also checked the settings and they too seem the same, unless i'm missing something. 

[Whirly Fizzle]

Yes this is a new bug that came to light on the new Firestorm BOM release.
Thanks for testing on the LL viewer.  Oddly one of the FS team reported they could also reproduce it on the LL viewer, I didn't test it on the LL viewer yet.

Firestorm bug report: FIRE-29038 - In high-resolution snapshots, the image appears broken up in segments

LL bug report (needs verifying if the bug also affects the LL viewer though): BUG-227731 - In high-resolution snapshots, the image appears broken up in segments (tiling in snapshots)

[Naja XOXO]

Thank god i'm not the only one. lol I started to think I messed up something in my configs. I hope they find a solution for the next patch then. I guess i'll have to keep myself away from advanced lighting until then.

[Whirly Fizzle]

20 minutes ago, Yoko Seetan said:

Thank god i'm not the only one. lol I started to think I messed up something in my configs. I hope they find a solution for the next patch then. I guess i'll have to keep myself away from advanced lighting until then.

Nope, this is absolutely a bug, nothing you did  lol.

[Mona Eberhardt]

Hi, I'm the one who filed the bug reports on the Firestorm JIRA and LL's own system. It affects both viewers, and I've updated the issue reports accordingly.

[Mona Eberhardt]

Mind you, this issue shows up in snapshots where you've enabled DoF.

[Naja XOXO]

For me it happens even with DoF disabled. I guess now we just have to wait until they solve it.

[Mona Eberhardt]

To let LL know that a sizeable number of people are affected by this bug, you need to go to https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-227731 and click on "Start watching this issue". The more people showing concern / interest, the sooner LL's developers will get on it.

[Naja XOXO]

Done!

[NiranV Dean]

Goddamn i told you high res snapshots are broken on the meeting!

 

I told you and Linden Labs that higher than screen resolution snapshots got broken with BOM, this was over a month ago. PAH.

Goddamn i told you even RIGHT at the beginning, i LITERALLY opened the meeting with it.

At that point i had it fixed already even. GRAA.

Edited October 9, 2019 by NiranV Dean

[Mona Eberhardt]

Niran, the issue I encounter seems to happen regardless of whether ambient occlusion is on or off; what triggers it for me and others is DoF.

[NiranV Dean]

2 hours ago, Mona Eberhardt said:

Niran, the issue I encounter seems to happen regardless of whether ambient occlusion is on or off; what triggers it for me and others is DoF.

Doesn't matter. The issue happens regardless of your settings post Deferred Rendering. Post Processing effects that are screen dependent like DoF and SSAO just make it more obvious due to the harsher light-tiling.

Additional note: The reason you don't see it happen with SSAO is because SSAO in all other-than-Black-Dragon-Viewers is basically non existant and could as well be just off when its clearly enabled.

Edited October 10, 2019 by NiranV Dean

[Aisling Caiben]

Isn't this an old issue that's rearing it's ugly head again? I've been in SL for more than 10 years and I remember struggling with it many times over the years, only completely having it go away back in 2015ish I think. It's unfortunate as well, as I was just getting more active in SL and noticed the issue when taking snapshots with shadows and DOF - though I have the same problem with DOF turned off. This may be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back for me - I don't think I have it in me to deal with this issue again.

[Mona Eberhardt]

You do have the option to not update and hold out instead until it gets fixed in a future release of your favourite viewer.

[Naja XOXO]

Do you know where i can find older versions of Firestorm? 

[Rolig Loon]

40 minutes ago, Yoko Seetan said:

Do you know where i can find older versions of Firestorm? 

You can never get Firestorm versions that are more than two versions older than the current release.  Previous versions are blocked.  The only "older" versions, therefore, are the ones at https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_older_downloads

[Naja XOXO]

To whom it may concern: i fixed the problem by doing the downgrade of Firestorm. BoM is not really that important in comparison to high quality snapshots, so i downloaded and installed the version 6.2.4 available at the link Rolig provided. My snapshots are fine again. I'll use this version until they fix the problem on a next patch. Thanks, all. 

[Mona Eberhardt]

OK everyone, just a quick update. The issue has come to LL's attention through the appropriate channel (i.e. a bug report on LL's JIRA), and a fix is currently being tested. That's all I can say for now.

[Toby Velvetleaf]

I am not sure if it's been mentioned above already but I was able to bypass this line problem by turning off Ambient Occlusion while in Advanced Lighting Model. The lines come and go as Ambient Occlusion is toggled on and off.  Granted, you lose some depth in your picture but you also lose the ugly lines. This is a workaround in lieu of a proper fix.

I have also found another problem while in Advanced Lighting Model, with specular maps.  The shine from highly reflective objects pass through walls or other objects creating a lit, glow-like section through walls or objects.  It is more evident on walls.  This is sun position dependent but creates a "glow" effect through the face of a wall, even if Render Glow is turned off.  I discovered it is the shine coming off a reflective texture on an object behind the wall.

[Sparklybootie]

This issue has existed for six months now. Is there a reason why it's taking so long to fix? And is there any estimate to when we will receive a fix?

I am capable of "fixing" my photos in Photoshop (and have been, for six months) but it often involves guesswork which can take anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour to fix, depending on the severity and placement of the glitch. And the result is often sloppy. But not everyone has Photoshop or the means necessary to "fix" their photos. I have seen people lose hours of work, creating beautiful photos only to discover the glitch in the editing process because everything in their snapshot window looked correct, resulting in otherwise wonderful, but ultimately unusable photos.

Do fixes like this get put on hold until there is a substantial number of other new features (and/or other bug fixes) to warrant an update? Is LL beyond the point of providing minor updates just to include bug fixes? In this case, a bug which also affects other viewers (such as Firestorm, meaning Firestorm has to hold off on updating until LL fixes this, I assume). I mean, at some point, a decision was made that it was ok for Second Life users to live with this for six months (and counting) rather than using whatever resources it would take to push out an update.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful or demanding - I am just curious about the process and motivation behind the decisions (or lack thereof). I know it's not exactly a "game-breaking" bug, but it does severely impact the usefulness and enjoyment for a pretty large number of users. I've never used software that has let a bug as significant as this exist for so long without fixing it, and I am just curious to know more about the process.