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Horrible color banding for lighting & fog

Discussion in 'High Definition Render Pipeline' started by bonickhausen, Jun 15, 2020.

  1. bonickhausen

    bonickhausen

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2014
    Posts:
    115



    Hi there!

    Why am I getting these horrible color banding artifacts with HDRP?

    I'm using the latest HDRP version from the Package Manager.

    I have literally messed with every single parameter available on my HDRP asset to try and remove these artifacts but no success so far.

    How can I fix this?
     
    bonickhausen, Jun 15, 2020
    #1

  2. thornebrandt

    thornebrandt

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    thornebrandt, Dec 15, 2020
    #2

  3. pierred_unity

    pierred_unity

    Unity Technologies

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    Hey, a few things to try:
    1. On the camera, enable dithering.
    2. In the HDRP asset, enable FP16 for Color Buffer Format, and also enable higher precision buffers for the color grading, that's Grading LUT Format and Grading LUT Size. This will have a memory cost.
    Also, lower-quality monitors can amplify banding. If you see strong banding in this test (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php), then one of the root causes is your monitor/its calibration. Run colorcpl.exe, and check that you don't have some odd color profiles loaded.

    With a higher-end, well-calibrated monitor, you should get near-zero banding on the image gradient below.

    gradient-h.png


    If after all these steps, you still encounter banding and you are certain the issue doesn't come from the monitor, please file a bug, with a repro scene.

    As you can see here, it is possible to get zero banding in HDRP with volumetric fog with the settings above (#1 and #2): https://forum.unity.com/threads/vol...ultiplier-caps-out-at-16.916547/#post-6019913
     
    pierred_unity, Dec 16, 2020
    #3
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  4. bonickhausen

    bonickhausen

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    The Color Buffer format did it for me. Thank you for your help, Pierred!
     
    bonickhausen, Dec 16, 2020
    #4

  5. thornebrandt

    thornebrandt

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    These both worked for me. In my case, dithering was enough to smooth the banding. Thanks!
     
    thornebrandt, Dec 16, 2020
    #5
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  6. SniperED007

    SniperED007

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    @pierred_unity
    I have the same issue but in the URP (Unity 2021.2) but can't find the "enable FP16 for Color Buffer Format" setting, is it possible in URP?
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2022
    SniperED007, Jan 16, 2022
    #6
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  7. theghostronaut

    theghostronaut

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    theghostronaut, May 5, 2022
    #7
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  8. KarlKarl2000

    KarlKarl2000

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    @pierred_unity
    @pierred_unity
    I'm also having this banding issue with URP. Do you have any suggestion for us URP users?
    Thanks for your help

    upload_2022-8-29_18-5-5.png
    upload_2022-8-29_18-5-20.png
     
    KarlKarl2000, Aug 29, 2022
    #8
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  9. SniperED007

    SniperED007

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    @KarlKarl2000 it's worth logging this as a bug or re-positing this in the URP forums.
     
    SniperED007, Aug 31, 2022
    #9
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  10. Neonage

    Neonage

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    Neonage, Dec 22, 2022
    #10
    GDevTeam likes this.

  11. Zarod

    Zarod

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    I am sorry to necro-post. but this bug has nothing to do with LUT or postprocessing.

    The banding is simply dictated by the format of the Camera Texture ... i fixed the banding by changing it from UNFRM to SGRB

    ( 8 bit precision is fine in my case, i am targeting hardware that can't tell the difference)

    hope this helps
     
    Zarod, Mar 5, 2023
    #11

  12. andrew-lukasik

    andrew-lukasik

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    URP enjoyer here. I fixed both my color texture banding and post-processing - related color banding by following these steps:
    sources:
    https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/c...l@15.0/manual/post-processing/hdr-output.html
    https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HDR.html
    https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/custom-srp/color-grading/
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2023
    andrew-lukasik, Sep 1, 2023
    #12
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  13. SniperED007

    SniperED007

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    SniperED007, Sep 5, 2023
    #13
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  14. marcospgp

    marcospgp

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    I'm using URP, but these did not make a substantial difference for me - and the HDR grading mode did not work (a warning showed up next to it when I checked that option, likely because my monitor does not support HDR rendering).

    The previously mentioned "enable dithering" setting in the camera inspector is what fixed it for me.
     
    marcospgp, Oct 3, 2023
    #14

  15. captain_blah

    captain_blah

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    @theghostronaut
    @KarlKarl2000
    @SniperED007
    I fixed my banding issue with URP by changing the HDR COLOR BUFFER PRECISION to 64Bits (instead of 32Bits)
    To find this setting you need to be in 'Debug' mode in the inspector.
    To enter Debug mode, click the 3 dots at the top left of the inspector pane (next to the padlock) and click 'Debug'.
    Next, open your URP Asset, and in my version (2022.3.8f1) the HDR Color Buffer Precision is the 16th item in the inspector. Simply change this drop-down value to 64Bits.

    I really think that such an important setting should be Serialized.
    I hope this helps somebody :)

    debug-mode-inspector.png

    hdr-color-buffer-precision.png
     
    captain_blah, Oct 6, 2023
    #15
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  16. Timten

    Timten

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    Nov 11, 2017
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    Thanks a lot! This solves the problem.

    I wonder why Unity not public this setting. How do other people solve this issue? Every URP project will meet the color banding problem. Is it just because not obvious enough so nobody cares?
     
    Timten, Nov 1, 2023
    #16

  17. mgeorgedeveloper

    mgeorgedeveloper

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    Not sure but maybe this is a bad idea due to extra memory allocation? Did you check in memory profiler to see how much memory this buffer is eating at high res like running 4K?
     
    mgeorgedeveloper, Nov 1, 2023
    #17

  18. wwWwwwW1

    wwWwwwW1

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    Seems that the HDR precision property is already exposed in URP 14.
     
    wwWwwwW1, Nov 1, 2023
    #18

  19. KLGames8207

    KLGames8207

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    "In the HDRP asset, enable FP16 for Color Buffer Format, and also enable higher precision buffers for the color grading, that's Grading LUT Format and Grading LUT Size. This will have a memory cost."

    Where is this option in HDRP? Cannot find it.
    Only:

    R16G16B16A16 and
    R11G11B10
     
    KLGames8207, Nov 21, 2023
    #19

  20. m0nsky

    m0nsky

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    R16G16B16A16 = FP16, for example, R16G16B16A16_SFloat (64-bit) uses a 16-bit float for every (R + G + B + A) channel. (more info here)
     
    m0nsky, Nov 21, 2023
    #20
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