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Season 8 Graphics/Texture Glitch- Potential Dev-level Fix
forcemajeure
Member Posts: 212 Arc User
I found an interesting effect regarding the persistent graphics glitches since Season 8 intro.
This refers to the texture/rendering issues commonly discussed in other threads. Images rendering like a photo-negative, large polygonal blocks around graphics features, white cutout images, huge washes of glaring color obscuring backgrounds etc. These commonly occur after 30 minutes or more of play time, and usually (but not always) come after a scene change (ie., loading screen). A restart of the game normally fixes them temporarily.
While wrapping up the end of the Obelisk Carrier giveaway before Dec. 5, I was running Sphere of Influence 3 times on each of my characters. I noticed that, after the gate was activated and we zoned/loaded to the complex in subspace (where you gather useful items from the crates and heal the crew), my graphics issues went away. Several times.
I started keeping track of the transitions, and had my brother run a few as well.
On 13 runs of Sphere, starting with no graphics issues (except once) but some play time in (eg not a fresh log in).
5 runs - Starting the mission caused no graphics issues.
1 run - I had graphics issues in sector space prior to starting SoI.
7 runs - starting the mission activated the white cutout/negative image type bugs.
In all 8 glitched instances, when I witnessed the gate activation and was transported to the first room in the complex, the graphics issues were resolved.
No new issues arose during the mission, although since there are only transitions and not actual 'loading screens' inside the mish, this may not be unusual.
The only graphics issue noted before the mish end (including the space battle) was that twice, when the Obelisk carrier you man reached its crew full state, the little icon that appears with the angled pointer to your ship showed as the pink angle bar and a white square at the end of it where the icon normally resides.
Since it had happened a couple times before I tracked it, this amounts to a 10 out of 10 cure rate for the graphics problems, with 0 instances of causing a glitch.
I'm not a graphics guy, but I would suspect that they used a different kind of graphics command or texture reset or memory wipe or something in the SoI mission, that clears the problem.
If it is possible to either find out how/why that would fix the issue, or simply apply the same wipe to all loading screens, it might prove a (kludgey) fix to the issue.
If anyone else wants to test and see if the same results apply to them, for this specific kind of graphics issue - it would help to see if I just ran into some odd streak that only applies to my system.
Notes:
WinVista 32 bit, 4GB ram(3G useable I think), ATI Radeon 4830 graphics, latest drivers (13.something I think).
My Windows 7/Nvidia graphics machine does not experience these effects, although it has a couple other small glitches.
This refers to the texture/rendering issues commonly discussed in other threads. Images rendering like a photo-negative, large polygonal blocks around graphics features, white cutout images, huge washes of glaring color obscuring backgrounds etc. These commonly occur after 30 minutes or more of play time, and usually (but not always) come after a scene change (ie., loading screen). A restart of the game normally fixes them temporarily.
While wrapping up the end of the Obelisk Carrier giveaway before Dec. 5, I was running Sphere of Influence 3 times on each of my characters. I noticed that, after the gate was activated and we zoned/loaded to the complex in subspace (where you gather useful items from the crates and heal the crew), my graphics issues went away. Several times.
I started keeping track of the transitions, and had my brother run a few as well.
On 13 runs of Sphere, starting with no graphics issues (except once) but some play time in (eg not a fresh log in).
5 runs - Starting the mission caused no graphics issues.
1 run - I had graphics issues in sector space prior to starting SoI.
7 runs - starting the mission activated the white cutout/negative image type bugs.
In all 8 glitched instances, when I witnessed the gate activation and was transported to the first room in the complex, the graphics issues were resolved.
No new issues arose during the mission, although since there are only transitions and not actual 'loading screens' inside the mish, this may not be unusual.
The only graphics issue noted before the mish end (including the space battle) was that twice, when the Obelisk carrier you man reached its crew full state, the little icon that appears with the angled pointer to your ship showed as the pink angle bar and a white square at the end of it where the icon normally resides.
Since it had happened a couple times before I tracked it, this amounts to a 10 out of 10 cure rate for the graphics problems, with 0 instances of causing a glitch.
I'm not a graphics guy, but I would suspect that they used a different kind of graphics command or texture reset or memory wipe or something in the SoI mission, that clears the problem.
If it is possible to either find out how/why that would fix the issue, or simply apply the same wipe to all loading screens, it might prove a (kludgey) fix to the issue.
If anyone else wants to test and see if the same results apply to them, for this specific kind of graphics issue - it would help to see if I just ran into some odd streak that only applies to my system.
Notes:
WinVista 32 bit, 4GB ram(3G useable I think), ATI Radeon 4830 graphics, latest drivers (13.something I think).
My Windows 7/Nvidia graphics machine does not experience these effects, although it has a couple other small glitches.
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