Cities: Skylines (Steam) - Broken vanilla tree causes short-distance object flickering

[CHMulti.ca]

Describe your issue
Broken vanilla tree causes short-distance object flickering

What is your game version?
1.16.1-f2

What expansions do you have installed?
After Dark, Snowfall, Natural Disasters, Mass Transit, Green Cities, Parklife, Industries

What mods are you using?


Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.


Can you replicate the issue? If yes, please explain how you did it.
I'm here to report that a vanilla asset seems broken.

[h1] Context [/h1]

Since update 1.16.1-f2, portions of my new, fresh city would start flickering at certain angles, at certain positions, but without any obvious cause. I spent hours troubleshooting the issue. This drove me mad and I noticed that the issue was tied indeed to distance or LOD from an unknown item, in those certain areas. I sat in a flickering area and reduced Level of detail in the game's settings, which only worsened the situation. Increasing it helped reduce the afflicted area. Hmm...

I used Move It! to select clusters of props and trees and move them further away from a flickering area. Sure enough, the flickering radius moved with my cluster!

Then came trial-and-error testing, erasing objects by type. It seemed like none of them yielded any results, until I've noticed a very, very peculiar type of tree that I'd erased accidentally, owing to its small size.

Here it is, in all its infamy. The name of this devious fiend is "Wild_Hedge_vnl". It seems vanilla assets are marked with this "_vnl" appendix. Moreover, it isn't shown in the Resources panel in the Content Manager. Do note its peculiar appearance, completely black. It is definitely broken, and its near LOD breaks everything in its wake. The game's preview image of that hedge showcases a green, lively little plant.

I've already posted my discoveries on Steam and was invited to post here too. So here we are.

[h1] Caught in the act [/h1]

Of course, I have gathered evidence to back up my accusation.

Look, this area has a green zone, indicating tree resources are there. But I can't see any such tree! Why don't we peer closer, I'm not wearing my glasses I think.

Oh! Not only is there a suspicious tree-less tree area, but now some trees vanished! Still, let's lean in further...

WHOA! WHERE DID THOSE COME FROM?!?

When viewed up quite close, the effects vanish and any nearby item is displayed properly.

An afflicted area. Feels barren here...

By selecting the flickering fowl with Move It!'s selector, we see that...

there's only one of them, very hard to miss, quite far from the area.

Now, we delete it.

And we are free from flicker. My expressway is a bit barren still, but that's because I'm not done working there.

[h1] Fix [/h1]

For those suffering from this issue, I have a workaround. Use BOB to fix this mess efficiently. Open it with Alt+B, select any of the maleficient bushes and replace them all in one fell swoop. Once these accursed trees are deleted, nothing flickers at all.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2197863850

This, I believe, is a tree brought recently in the Map Pack 2 DLC, which I have. The afflicted map was also part of said pack. I can't find any other asset broken that way.

Attachments File(s) attached

 

[akeela84]

Please attach your games output and error log.

 

[co_avanya]

I'm seeing a few more mods beyond Move It in your screenshots. Does this issue also occur without any mods in use when testing on a new city using the launch options -noWorkshop and -disableMods?

How To Set Launch Options

• Right-click on the game title under the Library in Steam and select Properties.
• Enter the launch options you wish to apply in the box (be sure to separate each code with a space). Should look like this:
  

  -noWorkshop -disableMods

• Close the game's Properties window and launch the game.

 

[Gummistiefel]

I'm seeing a few more mods beyond Move It in your screenshots. Does this issue also occur without any mods in use when testing on a new city using the launch options -noWorkshop and -disableMods?

How To Set Launch Options

• Right-click on the game title under the Library in Steam and select Properties.
• Enter the launch options you wish to apply in the box (be sure to separate each code with a space). Should look like this:
  

  -noWorkshop -disableMods

• Close the game's Properties window and launch the game.

Hello co_avanya,
I can confirm that this issue happens in my game too, even when the game is launched in -NoWorkshop mode. As soon as the asset "Wild Hedge" is placed, be it from the landscaping menu or as part of another asset like for example the football fields from the recent Sports Venues CCP, the game objects immediately start flickering. As soon as all instances of the "Wild Hedge" asset are removed from the map, the flickering stops and the game behaves normal again.
The flickering affects not only trees, but also buildings, props, citizens and vehicles.

As a temporary workaround, I saw a recommendation to replace the asset using the "BOB, the Tree and Prop Replacer" mod and, just in case, also add the asset to the Prefab Skipping list text file that the "Loading Screen Mod" uses in order to prevent the asset from being placed in the game world. That might work for now, but I'd very much prefer to see the asset being fixed of course

In case you need some more material like output logs, I will happily provide these.
Cheers and thank you for your hard work on the game!
- Gummistiefel

 

[AndrewT]

I can confirm that this issue happens in my game too, even when the game is launched in -NoWorkshop mode.

That option does not prevent the loading of mods, just of access to the workshop. Try -noWorkshop -disableMods