GTA4 - any way to stop the dithering?

[The_cranky_hermit]

Shadows and post-processing effects (like heat bending) produce this weird pixellated noise that to me is just distracting as hell. I don't think a still shot would demonstrate what I'm talking about - it's mainly the motion that looks odd.

A lot of games seem to have this problem with soft-shadowing, and I have no idea why (Riddick didn't have this problem and that was back in 2004). But GTA4's dithering seems far worse than normal.

[MobsterOO7]

I'm not sure if we are thinking of the same thing, but try hitting P while in-game. IIRC that is the toggle for some pretty horrendous post-processing.

[StingingVelvet]

I'm not sure if we are thinking of the same thing, but try hitting P while in-game. IIRC that is the toggle for some pretty horrendous post-processing.

That's a menu option now, forget what it is called... definition or something. Anyway with it on it is just a blur filter really, covered up the jaggies and low res on consoles a bit.

As for the shadows, I don't remember a moving effect like you talk about cranky. I know the shadows are sort of "grainy" and it annoys some people, not me. If that is what you mean then there is a shadow mod that makes them solid and I think you even gain fps from using it. There are mods that effect the lighting and such too, if that's also part of your problem. GTA4 is definately an effects-heavy game but people have modded all that out for the small group it annoys.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Here's a 10-second clip:
http://www.2shared.com/file/10608746/6fd3fad/gta4sm.html

The bright spots have this dithering effect, with speckled "grain" moving around semi-randomly.

Just found that it gets worse - far worse - if I turn the shadow quality down any. It's been on "high" and won't let me increase. I applied a tweak that unlocks higher settings, and upped shadow quality to very high, but noticed no difference.

[Tanuki]

Known Issue.

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=403764

Also you could try a higher resolution downscaled to see if there is any improvement.


EDIT - Not saying it is a fix just that it is a common complaint.

[infernus]

Ehh, I think you're talking about the deffered shading? Which is probably not possible to remove or "fix," only reduce the effect of. That'd be Tanuki's solution then.