Pixelated blocky artifacting hair from overlapping opacity maps - with complex Daz imported hairs, like OOT Ponytail

I had this issue back in an earlier version of iC7, when i was on Win 7....
I used to try and resize viewport in order to get hair to render properly...
In forum, users mentioned that upgrading to Win 10 resolved the issue. 
Sure enough, it did....

But now!  I am on Win 10...so, in 7.41, it appears it is Back!  (I am using latest build Win 10 and 417.71 Nvidia)

Have you tried using the Nvidia 417.35 driver? Some users have had issues with the latest one, but 417.35 appears to be working OK with RL products.

Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

There are also newer drivers available so I would suggest updating first but if that doesn't help, drop back to 417.35 as Gerry mentioned.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Thanks Peter and Gerry.
I would hope that a driver change would change this.  Is there anyone with 417.35 that could test a file on the default CC3 avatar, as it is happening in CC3 too. 
Thx!

Which file, and with which hair? I have the driver and can test if you want - you have my mail address. 

Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

Here's a default CC3 character with "Octavia" hair from the Conforming Hair Vol. 2 pack - and it has overlapping Opacity maps.





Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

@Tony,

The DAZ hair does have issues in both iClone and CC3. Look at the back of the neck in both images.









Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

Hi Gerry, thanks for looking at the file.  You know what, I forgot about this as well:
https://www.reallusion.com/FeedBackTracker/Issue/Multiple-Opacity-Mapped-Textures-Render-Artifacts-Workaround-is-Adjusting-Viewport-Size

This was my original FBT ticket when I was using Windows 7.  The last note by RL is the most notable.
In a nutshell, it states:
1) NVidia cards have a feature called Raster Order View (ROV) to handle multiple opacity layers
2) Feature was only available starting under Direct X 11.3, necessitating a user to have Win 10 in order for the feature to function properly
3) RL gave 3 options basically - (a) stay on Win 7 with the issue, (b) upgrade to Win 10 to enable ROV feature such that issue is handled by GPU, (c) use a special build or iClone which allows for more opacity layers at the expense of higher VRAM usage by default (~3 GB), since the regular build only has 4 layers of opacity built in to be handled outside of ROV.    

I upgraded to Win 10, issue went away.
Now that it is back, this could allude to a couple things:
1) latest Nvidia drivers no longer allow access to the ROV feature on all cards, or
2) Win 10's newest Direct X Version 12 does not allow ROV feature to be accessed by the GPU

If the above cases are true, RL might be able to provide a workaround with a build that has a higher level of non-ROV dependent opacity layers, at the expense of higher VRAM default requirement.

I was looking online about ROV and NVidia, not too much to get anything from regarding this subject.
The RL 'Octavia' Conforming Hair  works for me, which I have to believe is explained by the fact that that hair is just 2 overlapping opacity textures, whereas the OOT Ponytail is 9 (!!!) overlapping textures.

Some time ago RL provided registry files to turn ROV on or off. I believe ROV off was the preferred setting.

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