Shadows in FEAR2

FoxMcCloud

Newcomer
Some shadows in FEAR 2 seem to have a screen door-like effect to them - see the stool's shadow in this image:
fear2.png


Anyone got a clue as to what that could be?
 
Yes that's their very, very ugly SSAO implementation. More often than not it looks like an artifact rather than any type of AO.
 
Could be that they use dithering pattern to fade out shadows. This same thing happens in other engines with various types of LOD (very often with deferred shading).
 
Could be that they use dithering pattern to fade out shadows. This same thing happens in other engines with various types of LOD (very often with deferred shading).

I don't think they do that. There's nothing 'soft' about the shadows in this game and they definitely don't get softer as distance from the occluder increases. In any case, the screenshot in the OP is definitely their poor attempt at SSAO.
 
I agree. the effect is very ugly. I can't believe they shipped it like that. Then again, FEAR2 is more like FEAR 1.5. I don't think the engine made any significant steps between FEAR and FEAR 2.
 
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