[BUG-7627] [AMD 14.9 Catalyst] Projected Shadows not displaying properly

[sl-service-account]

I just got a brand new PC and was excited to see shadows they way they were intended. The first day it was amazing, however when I logged in last night I noticed that the shadows were either not displaying at all, or only at certain angles. I have attached photos of my platform, showing that at different angles the shadows are present.

Also included in the screenshots is a gigantic shadow that moves with the camera. I tried other sims thinking it was something on this sim (probably the megaprim that the owner placed out) but I got the same results.

(I am also having trouble uploading images to this issue, so I will attach photos when I can get it to work)

Edit (Whirly Fizzle): I can't comment on this issue so updating here.
Users are reporting that the new Catalyst 15.7 driver fixes this bug.

Attachments

• 1 - graphics settings.png 2014-10-26 19:50:50
• 2 - giant shadow 1.png 2014-10-26 19:50:50
• 3 - giant shadow 2.png 2014-10-26 19:50:50
• 4 - Platform 2.png 2014-10-26 19:50:50
• 5 - platform 1.png 2014-10-26 19:50:50

Links

Related

• [BUG-7653] AMD Catalyst 14.12 Release ( plus 14.9.2, 14.11.1, 14.11.2 Beta) drivers will not render rigged mesh unless hardware skinning is disabled. #15335

Duplicates

• [BUG-9658] no projector light and shadow appears #17134

Original Jira Fields

Field	Value
Issue	BUG-7627
Summary	[AMD 14.9 Catalyst] Projected Shadows not displaying properly
Type	Bug
Priority	Unset
Status	Closed
Resolution	Unactionable
Reporter	Janelle Arashi (janelle.arashi)
Created at	2014-10-26T00:02:26Z
Updated at	2015-07-12T01:36:10Z

{
  'Business Unit': ['Platform'],
  'Date of First Response': '2014-10-25T23:10:26.573-0500',
  'Severity': 'Unset',
  'System': 'SL Viewer',
  'Target Viewer Version': 'viewer-development',
  'What just happened?': '?',
  'What were you doing when it happened?': '?',
  'What were you expecting to happen instead?': '?',
  'Where': 'http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Andarah%20Island/25/151/646',
}

[sl-service-account]

Janelle Arashi commented at 2014-10-26T00:15:29Z

gave up on attaching photos to this website. the images either stalled in upload or the screenshot java app wouldnt accept the paste.

images can be found here : http://imgur.com/a/kGz1C#0

[sl-service-account]

Soft Linden commented at 2014-10-26T04:10:27Z

Not a security issue - moving to BUG section

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-26T18:32:38Z

Heya Janelle,

If you got a Java error, you were probably trying to use the attach screenshot method - this is flakey (JIRA bug on this version of JIRA).
For future reference, use More Actions -> Attach files to attach images to a JIRA issue.

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-26T18:37:26Z

Janelle, if you disable Object-Object occlusion, do the shadows behave more as you would expect?
When Object-Object occlusion is enabled, shadows can often disappear at certain camera angles.

Activate the Develop menu in the top menu bar with CTRL+ALT+Q
Develop -> Rendering -> Object-Object Occlusion

[sl-service-account]

Janelle Arashi commented at 2014-10-26T22:51:05Z

Whirly, Yes I did try to upload the images the way you suggested, but it would get about 30% through the upload and stall for 20 minutes (until I cancelled it).

I disabled Object-Object Occlusion, and it did not change anything. I even restarted the viewer after unchecking the option. Shadows still disappear at certain angles, and there seems to be a gigantic shadow that follows my camera, causing whatever projected shadows I do happen to see to be extremely faint regardless of windlight settings. I think the biggest issue I'm having is the fact that there is a giant shadow following my camera around.

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-26T23:51:07Z

I attached the images for you :)

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-27T00:21:24Z

Hmmm got me stumped here Janelle.

I found the location your images were taken - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Andarah%20Island/59/143/647
I matched my graphics settings with yours.
It looks like you are using the region default windlight on your images so I set that.

This is what I see on my system...

No giant shadow from any angle: http://i.imgur.com/VXslBPG.jpg
There does not appear to be any object above the platform to cast a shadow.
The shadows around the objects shown in your "4 - Platform 2" image do not disappear at any camera angle: http://i.imgur.com/tzvcdfO.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/GZhannr.jpg

If you remove all attachments from your avatar, does the giant shadow go away?

This is my test system:

Second Life 3.7.18 (295539) Oct 16 2014 09:21:29 (Second Life Release)
Release Notes

You are at 58.7, 143.0, 646.5 in Andarah Island located at sim10726.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.56.16:12035)
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Andarah%20Island/59/143/647
(global coordinates 168,763.0, 232,591.0, 646.5)
Second Life Server 14.10.07.295175
Retrieving...

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (3491.93 MHz)
Memory: 16268 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 750/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 9.18.0013.4448
OpenGL Version: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 344.48

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.37.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1h zlib/1.2.8
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.0
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.31
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Vivox 4.6.0009.20030

Built with MSVC version 1600
Packets Lost: 29/20,316 (0.1%)

[sl-service-account]

Janelle Arashi commented at 2014-10-29T19:27:45Z

I'm really confused as to why this issue is localized to my machine. It is a recent custom build so maybe something isn't lining up properly (already updated drivers n such).

Unfortunately, detaching everything did not resolve the issue :(

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-29T19:38:24Z, updated at 2014-10-29T19:40:13Z

You are seeing this giant shadow on all regions Janelle? You did say this in your report but I just wanted to be sure.

Did you tweak any shadow/rendering related debug settings?
Do you use any other SL viewers? If so, do you see this same giant shadow on the other viewers?
Do you see the giant shadow everywhere when the sun position is set to midday?

[sl-service-account]

Janelle Arashi commented at 2014-10-29T21:15:32Z

Yes, I am seeing the giant shadow on all regions.

I did tweak things after discovering the shadow issue. I am also using the Firestorm viewer, and it is having the same issue.
The shadow also appears regardless of windlight setting or sun position.

Another thing I discovered was I installed secondlife onto my boyfriend's computer (he also uses an AMD graphics card) and we encountered the exact same issue. (he has never had secondlife installed on his computer before today)

I have also tried disabling OpenGL Vertex Buffer Options as a friend of mine mentioned that the setting does not play nicely with AMD graphics cards. I logged into my iMac (ATI Raedon card) and it did not have an issue at all. I even attempted to back up and restore my settings from the mac onto the windows machine and the giant shadow remains.

[sl-service-account]

Janelle Arashi commented at 2014-10-29T21:44:35Z, updated at 2014-10-29T22:00:50Z

I discovered this driver workaround in the firestorm jira. http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-12100
I currently have shadows working perfectly now. The only drawback is there is some noticable flickering on my avatar.
Here is a .gif of the flickering http://gyazo.com/89d96bb35a110664727d8edd5d11f91a I know this is not a supported workaround and I should have expected it to be glitchy, but I figured you would want to see what I'm talking about :)

Due to this workaround and going back to an older graphics card driver, I am concluding that it is the most recent AMD Catalyst driver that is conflicting with something within secondlife's shadow rendering

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-29T21:57:35Z

Okay great!

But that workaround is a bit dodgy and best avoided if you can.
When you update your viewer in the future or uninstall the viewer, be sure to manually remove those old driver dlls from the viewer install folder, the uninstaller/updater will not remove them.

You were using:
Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1315
OpenGL Version: 4.2.13084 Compatibility Profile Context 14.301.1001.0

This is the 14.9 catalyst release.

Try rolling back to the 14.4 catalyst version and remove those older driver dlls from the viewer install folder while testing it.
If shadows render correctly on the 14.4 catalyst I would stick with that driver for now.

Stay clear of the 14.9.2 beta catalyst version - because of this problem - BUG-7653

[sl-service-account]

Janelle Arashi commented at 2014-10-29T22:38:01Z

Ok, I just had my boyfriend roll back the driver to 14.4 and everything seems to be working fantastic. Thank you so much for your help :D Hopefully LL will update on their end soon so that I can use the current drivers

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-10-30T00:03:58Z

Great!

Hopefully someone with an AMD system can check shadows on the 14.9 catalyst to see if they can reproduce this issue.

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-11-10T22:18:24Z, updated at 2014-11-10T23:25:54Z

Okay, looks like this is a bug with the 14.9 Catalyst release driver.
Catalyst 14.4 does not reproduce the bug.

I just had a Firestorm user getting the exact same symptoms given in this report - the giant shadow following her around and the shadows disapearing at certain camera angles - when turning camera around an object that projects a shadow, the shadow dissapears when looking towards where the lights coming from.

She can reproduce this same problem on the official viewer, Firestorm and Singularity.

Here is her official viewer system information:

Second Life 3.7.20 (296094) Oct 29 2014 14:05:13 (Second Life Release)
Release Notes

You are at 107.6, 107.7, 1,194.7 in Bull God Choppers located at sim10541.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.52.47:13001)
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bull%20God%20Choppers/108/108/1195
(global coordinates 218,476.0, 350,316.0, 1,194.7)
Second Life Server 14.10.24.295913
Retrieving...

CPU: AMD A8-5500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics     (3194.03 MHz)
Memory: 7576 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit  (Build 9600)
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7560D

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1315
OpenGL Version: 4.2.13084 Compatibility Profile Context 14.301.1001.0

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.38.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1h zlib/1.2.8
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.0
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.31
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Vivox 

Built with MSVC version 1600
Packets Lost: 23,186/57,895 (40.0%)

She rolled back to 14.4 Catalyst and this bug no longer reproduces.

Her system information after rolling driver back:

Second Life 3.7.20 (296094) Oct 29 2014 14:05:13 (Second Life Release)
Release Notes

You are at 246.2, 181.3, 22.9 in Mesh Sandbox 3 located at sim9753.aditi.lindenlab.com (216.82.33.213:13005)
SLURL: secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/Mesh%20Sandbox%203/246/181/23
(global coordinates 205,814.0, 178,869.0, 22.9)
Second Life Server 14.10.24.295913
Retrieving...

CPU: AMD A8-5500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics     (3194.02 MHz)
Memory: 7576 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit  (Build 9600)
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7560D

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1280
OpenGL Version: 4.2.12874 Compatibility Profile Context 14.100.0.0

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.38.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1h zlib/1.2.8
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.0
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.31
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Vivox 4.6.0009.20030

Built with MSVC version 1600
Packets Lost: 13/890 (1.5%)

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-11-10T23:24:47Z

14.4 Catalyst - does not reproduce this bug: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/previous/detail?os=Windows%208.1%20-%2064&rev=14.4
14.9 Catalyst - does reproduce this bug: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64

[sl-service-account]

Whirly Fizzle commented at 2014-11-11T19:14:22Z

Reopening this issue now it looks pretty certain this is a bug with the 14.9 catalyst driver.

[sl-service-account]

Marissa Linden commented at 2014-11-14T00:22:02Z

Unfortunately, there's not much that we can do regarding issues that hardware vendors introduce in their drivers. The best thing to do would be to file a bug report with AMD, so that they can fix the issue on their end.

You can file bug reports with AMD here:
http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D23A3DE979