Screen Tearing, ???

ussjtrunks

I used to have a 21" tv and replaced it with a new 40" samsung n87
The tearing ingame in uncharted and hevenly sword is getting annoying,
My old tv used to handle these games perfectly,
Whats wrong???

Charlie

Yeah I have an R88, which has worked beautifully with all my games, blu-rays, upscaled dvds etc. but I only started playing Uncharted and noticed tearing. It is really annoying.

From what I googled, it looks like tearing is a known problem with Uncharted.

ussjtrunks

It doesnt happen in other games except for uncharted and heavenly sword thank god,
Its minor in uncharted though,,
Is it the tv or cables no....

ongarite

You have never played Assasin's Creed then? It has far worse tearing than both.
Its very minor in Uncharted, only shows up in a few of the chapters.

yoyo

Is there an option in options called "V Sync" or "Vertical Sync", if there is enable it, that syncs the framerate to the tvs one and no tearing will occur, I've seen it as a option on some 360 titles, hence there could be one on the ps3

Nick

ussjtrunks

No theres no v-sync you'd think sony would fix it in a firmware upgrade.
Its odd how the old tv wins because the tearing is impossible to see.

guil

prob a stupid question but what is tearing???

ongarite

Its not a Sony FW thing, its in the game by design as a optimisation hack that lots of games are using these days, see AC or Mass Effect for example.
The game is coded with V-Sync off and plays at 60fps most the time.
In regular coded game, when you get get slowdown, then game gets choppy. Well with V-Sync off, it lets the framrate fluctuate and hence tearing is a side-effect.

You probably never saw it on CRT TV as it running at lower resolution and interlaced (half lines) too.

ussjtrunks

if I run the game in an interlaced mode, eg 1080i would it get rid of the tearing,
all be it at the expense in quality...
And why would people want this, couldnt they just downgrade the grapics slighty and code the game with no tearing??

ongarite

No increasing to 1080i wont work either as you double the video resolution to 1920x1080 but displaying every 2nd frame so its the same as 720p.

If its so easy to get a game running perfect, I suggest you join Naughty Dog as lead programmer. I'm sure the game was designed at fixed graphical quality and then tuned to run at its best at the gfx level. Delays cost money so comprimises are made.
Its something we're going to see more of this generation of consoles IMO.

Flaccus

No VSync options in console games (except on Saints Row) and probably a good thing. If you are running at 60fps, and your screen refresh is 60hz then eveythig is synched pefectly. If you go over that fps figure or if there is consistensies in your fps you see tearing (on pc games at least). However if you have a vsync option in the game and turn it on the games fps is locked to the refresh of the screen, so while the game is running at 60fps you do not get tearing. But due to the nature of LCD's if you drop below 60fps (most console games generally play below this), the framerate will half to 30fps, if the framerate drops again, you end up at 15fps. So developers generally do not hard code vsync into games as it can sacrifices performance. For PC games to get around this peformance drop video cards use tripple bufferig so the hit is generally not as bad, usually it drops from 60fps to 45fps. Of course the key is to design the game so it's a constant 60fps in the first pace, or if there is performance issues lock the game down at 30fps. Assasins Creed, Mass Effect, Saints Row, Command and Conquer 3 and Drakes Fortune are the worst offenders on consoles. GOW to a less extent.

ongarite

Thanks Flaccus, excellent discription.

yoyo

Flaccus wrote: »

No VSync options in console games (except on Saints Row) and probably a good thing. If you are running at 60fps, and your screen refresh is 60hz then eveythig is synched pefectly. If you go over that fps figure or if there is consistensies in your fps you see tearing (on pc games at least). However if you have a vsync option in the game and turn it on the games fps is locked to the refresh of the screen, so while the game is running at 60fps you do not get tearing. But due to the nature of LCD's if you drop below 60fps (most console games generally play below this), the framerate will half to 30fps, if the framerate drops again, you end up at 15fps. So developers generally do not hard code vsync into games as it can sacrifices performance. For PC games to get around this peformance drop video cards use tripple bufferig so the hit is generally not as bad, usually it drops from 60fps to 45fps. Of course the key is to design the game so it's a constant 60fps in the first pace, or if there is performance issues lock the game down at 30fps. Assasins Creed, Mass Effect, Saints Row, Command and Conquer 3 and Drakes Fortune are the worst offenders on consoles. GOW to a less extent.

Lol Flaccus, It was exactly Saints Row I saw it in

Nick

ussjtrunks

Some people on the net said buying a better hdmi cable would fix it,
in 576p there is no tearing because of the lower res, its really annoying,
The 360's tearing was fixed instantly by switching to game mode???

ongarite

ussjtrunks wrote: »

Some people on the net said buying a better hdmi cable would fix it,
in 576p there is no tearing because of the lower res, its really annoying,
The 360's tearing was fixed instantly by switching to game mode???

I don't know where you read that but its a load of bullsh*t. Changing the HDMI cable won't do anything for the issue. Its not your PS3, 360 or TV at fault but the coding of the games.
Also updating your TV firmware, won't fix it also. I think you update N87 through USB key.

ussjtrunks

thanks guys for all the help, turns out the tv is perfectly fine which is great news, still hate this tearing issue will get over it eventually

r3nu4l

guil07 wrote: »

prob a stupid question but what is tearing???

Not sure if the question was answered or not but this is tearing. Someone said it's visible in Heavenly Sword. I haven't noticed it on my 32" LCD but that's not to say it hasn't happened.

ussjtrunks

I fixed this problem by going down to 576i resolution, for some reason its impossible to see tearing at that res,,
The picture is sd though so you dont get the hd effects etc,
but if ya can stand the tearing you can just switch back..