topic Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering in ArcGIS Pro Questions

3D extruded polygons flickering

SteveCline — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 16:35:33 GMT

I am new to ArcGIS Pro but would like to use it to create a local 3D scene using a vector shapefile where polygons are extruded based on an attribute. I have tried several different feature classes and I am getting the same result in every case. The features are "flickering" when viewed in 3D. Here is a screenshot:

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Steve

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 18:49:26 GMT

Just to make sure it isn't a video thing, did you run the system check?

ArcGIS Pro system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS for Desktop

And apparently emulating the video driver isn't the same as having the actual one (but I can't put my hands on the link)

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

SteveCline — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 19:26:48 GMT

After checking the requirements I found no issue as the computer I was using met all the minimums. This morning, I updated to 1.2 and the flickering went away.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 19:34:34 GMT

maybe you can find it on the what was fixed list Release Notes for ArcGIS Pro 1.2—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS for Desktop

There is also one for 1.1.1 (don't mind the link title)

Release Notes—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS for Desktop

and 1.1.0

Release Notes—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 02:06:10 GMT

This isn't anything wrong with your graphics card or ArcGIS Pro.

The polygons are "z-fighting" with the ground surface. This is expected, and you can repro in ArcScene even by stacking a world-extent polygon with extruded polys with a small extrusion value.

The graphics card can't decide which polygon is on top (ground or the extruded polys) when their values are very close to each other.

To prevent them from z-fighting, the polygons can be OFFSET from the "Ground" (using "relative to ground") by some amount. Alternatively you can add MORE extrusion to ensure that the polygons' tops are "Above ground".

Z-fighting is pretty well explained here if you're feeling like reading more about it: Z-fighting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 02:06:48 GMT

you could also set the ground surface color to fully transparent. You can do this in Map properties->Elevation Surface. Set the color picker to "no color" and hit OK.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

SteveCline — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 23:09:37 GMT

Jeremy -

I appreciate the response and suggestions here. Since this reply was posted I updated ArcGIS Pro and the issue is now resolved. Apparently someone was working on this somewhere.

Thanks

Steve

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 23:12:10 GMT

We made some changes to default options on some layers, so perhaps that resolved the issue.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JoãoMartins4 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 00:32:27 GMT

Hi Steve and Jeremy,

I´m having a similar problem, 3d extruded polygons flickering, 2 years later... ArcGISPro 2.1.3

I don´t think this is z-fighting though. I checked the system requirements, passed the test. The only thing short maybe the graphics card with only 1Gb memory (AMD FireProV5800).

What can I do?

Thank you.

João

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

NoelPeterson — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 20:50:55 GMT

Same issue here. I also have a 1GB graphics card (AMD Radeon HD 7450). Not only do the polygons flicker, but the awful flickering polygons take forever to render in the first place. Quite infuriating.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:03:19 GMT

Joao (and Noel) this looks like a GPU driver bug.

Somethings you can try:

1. Switch to OpenGL in the Project->Options->Display dialog.

2. Try a driver update from AMD for your chipset (unfortunately the Radeon is under "legacy" drivers - meaning they're not actively updated) Radeon: Legacy

3. Try going to an OLDER version of the driver (this is counter-intuitive but has been known to fix the problems in "legacy" hardware.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JoãoMartins4 — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 01:02:42 GMT

Hi Jeremy and Noel, thank you for your reply.

I've been following your advice and here's how it went:

1. in OpenGL things get even more dramatic, here's a picture:

2. the latest driver was installed when I first used 3d extruded polygons and realized there was a problem.

3. yes, I had a problem in other machine with other 3d software that wasn't working with the latest driver so that makes sense to me.

I've tried all the versions of the Firepro driver for v5800 available for download in AMD's site and also a version that Windows Update installs, a total of 4. I always cleaned up the previously installed drivers before installing a new one and currently I'm running the latest again. I noticed that the Direct3d version of the drivers is always the same, don't know if that has any relevance.

I have no issues with any other 3d software that I use. Don't know what else to do. I have an ArcGIS license for personal use so I'll try to contact support and I'll also try the AMD support. Is there any other settings I can try to change to pin down the problem? Thanks in advance.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

BrianE — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 01:55:34 GMT

I get this problem too from time to time. Try changing camera views.

It is really unbelievable that this is still an issue.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

TimothyKippo — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:59:37 GMT

I've been getting this problem when I use an extruded object with no colour used on the edges. If I use no colour it goes crazy almost like it doesn't know when to stop drawing, but applying on outline makes sure ArcGIS Pro keeps it's colouring in within the lines. To have no edge line I have found that having a colour but a line weight of 0 works.

However as soon as I apply a transparency it goes crazy again. I really want a transparency but haven't found a workaround just yet.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 22:35:08 GMT

Joao,

did you send your repro case to technical support? If so can you send me your incident number so I can follow up with our support liaison?

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 22:40:12 GMT

Brian,

do you also have a "legacy" Radeon GPU as Joao does? Did you contact support and do you have a incident number I can follow up with our support liaison?

If you're using a "Legacy" GPU that means AMD isn't going to release any new driver updates for it, so the bug is unlikely to be resolved.

And if it's a driver bug, there's not much ArcGIS Pro can do to resolve it. We can verify that it's a driver bug by switching to pure software rendering with a regkey, but performance for the software rendering is gonna be abysmal - the only solution is to change the GPU or find an older driver revision that doesn't have the same artifacts.

Regards,

Jeremy W.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

BrianE — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:45:24 GMT

I have a NVIDIA K2200

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JeremyWright — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 19:07:52 GMT

OK Brian,

Kepler-core GPUs are still supported, and I assume you've updated to the latest driver from NVidia.com (391.89 is the latest release)?

Can you post a screenshot or video of the problem you're experiencing? The above issues look clearly like driver bugs, it sounds like yours may be something else which we've not seen locally (lots of our devs and some of our holistic lab all have Kepler-cored Quadros and do not have a problem as shown in above images). So we need a report and your help to narrow it down to fix it.

Regards,

Jeremy W.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

BrianE — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 17:20:24 GMT

I am on version 391.33. I am hesitant to upgrade any drivers since every single graphic program is working fine. If there is no guarantee this will work I cannot upgrade.

Re: 3D extruded polygons flickering

JoãoMartins5 — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 14:40:27 GMT

Hi Jeremy,

Sure, #02132179.
Just to summarize, the support team made a remote connection to my machine (AMDFireProV5800) to see what was going on and found the following:
In Direcx mode the geometry looked like this allways:

In openGL mode the problem stoped when triple buffering and vertical sync options were turned on in the driver settings panel. Later I reset driver options to default and the problem went away even with the triple buffer and vsync options off (??).

After the support assistence session I found that the problem allways occurs when I used a procedural symbol called "Stacked Blocks"

I've tested on a pc with a AMD Radeon HD7700 (with two driver versions) and the problem occurs only in openGL mode with the "Stacked Blocks", directx is fine.

Using latest ArcGISPro version 2.2.1 now. No reply from AMD support yet.
Thanks