I just upgraded the PC and got a 7970 AMD card. The game looks and plays pretty well now, but I am getting a strange shimmering, halo like effect around characters and objects. It's especially noticeable when there is smoke or a dust cloud behind the object.

Any ideas on how to eliminate this effect? I've set all options in Catalyst to "application controlled" and I've tried a few different settings with post processing, AA, and AF in-game but the shimmer persists.

EDIT: It's not the issue with the white grass. I've already gone into the .cfg file and changed ATOC from 7 to 0.

Make sure your in-game resolution and in-game 3d resolution are the same. I'd also turn the in-game post-processing off.

Both resolutions are the same and the shimmering is there regardless of post-processing settings. It's actually worse with post processing off because it gets rid of the blurring effect, making the shimmer stand out even more due to the jaggies.

Can you post a screenshot of what it looks like?

I never had much luck letting the graphics card software control the settings, I got weird glitches. I ended up letting the game control everything.

Its associated with the difficulty settings - I guess its to help you locate enemies and friendlies.

HTH

WM

No, I'm not referring to the peripheral vision indicator. What I'm talking about is a thin outline of flickering, shimmering haggis that surrounds objects on screen (tree branches are the worst) when they are in front of a plume of smoke from a fire or explosion.

Here are a couple of screens. I've cropped them to highlight the effect. Of course, the effect isn't as pronounced in a static screenshot as it is when game is running, but you can still see what I'm talking about, especially on the telephone pole in the second shot.

It's a bug in combination with Anti Aliasing, when you turn AA off it will be gone. It has something to do with the way AA works and you can see it in other games, too.

You could try and use a bigger 3D resolution instead, the border smoothing will not be as good, but texture filtering is improved further and especially the foliage benefits from it. Maybe couple it with SMAA post processing (for example PPAA=3; PPAA_Level=1; in if.cfg).
150% 3D resolution runs about as good in Arma 2 as AA on low for me. That's in 1920x1200 with a 5870, so you should be fine.

And if you don't mind testing, tell me how 200% works with your card, maybe even with AA low added or SMAA, I might want to do the upgrade

I've given up with this 'game'. Keep seeing on the official forums that a patch is coming but getting nothing...