Yes, you have approached to the reason very close ...
When I did lit ships (SH3), i had the same problem, when crack models did not coincide absolutely precisely with the basic model ...
I think it's not videocard bug ...

*next day*

Some may disagree, but I just have to report what I am actually finding...

I'm only getting these flickerings (artifacting?) after my vid card crosses the 77' Celcius threshhold. Not before.

That would indicate overheating.

All my in-game graphics settings are on max, at 1680 x 1050. If I set my anti-aliasing to 4x with adaptive AA, my cards temp will cross beyond 77C. Then I get the flickerings.

If I drop my AA down to 2 x with 'performance mode adaptive AA', there's less strain on the card, and it never crosses 74 to 75C. No flickering then.



Now, the same exact thing I'm seeing may not be what you guys are seeing, there may be two completely different issues here, but I'm just adding to the conversation what I know is happening on my end.

It would be good if you guys could say if you see the flickerings immediately when the game starts, or not until you are 5 to 10 minutes into it. (that would mean heat buildup in the card over time).

Also, do you see any texture flickering while inside the sub views (command room, etc) where the graphics load is low, or do you only see it on the exterior ocean views (where graphics load is high).

Thanks.

Ship flicker and water flashes for me at start up. Highest I've seen my card get
to temp wise is 62' c. and that's playing ArmA Combat Operations with settings at very high.

P4 3.2
2gig corsair dual
ATI X1950 pro 512

From the start too, ships flickering (many parts of the ships), water looks good.
GeForce 7800 GTX, newest DirectX and drivers, almost clean WinXP.

Stary Wuj

After playing awhile longer, I'll add that I am in fact having two seperate issues.

My card does heat up a bit (X1950Pro..known for heating issues), and that causes me the "lightning flashes" on the ocean and clouds...

I also get the black flickering on the distant ships, and that's right from the start up.

I'm thinking driver version issue, but this is on both Nvidia and ATI, yes?

Yes, and with different drivers......:shifty:

Stary Wuj

I was concerned about this as well, even though it didn't seem likely since the flickering was only on very specific parts of ships, and since I could control it in many circumstances by moving the damage graphics slider. Anyways, I totally opened and cleaned out my case, bringing the running temp of the card down over 10 deg. C. No changes whatsoever. The same flickering is still there and it is there from the moment the sim loads.

Yes, I see the flickerings immediately when the game starts.
And NO flickering in the sub, only distant ships.

Best Regards

Stary Wuj

Hey NVIDIA users, after long time new (6.xx, 7.xx) drivers are available,
version 94.24, I will test it, but now at work.

Any "flickering" fixes ???

Best Regards

Stary Wuj

Hmmm, any info about ?
Someone have solution for this ?

Stary Wuj

New idea!!

Do you get flickering on the ships imported from SH3?? The ones that lack the new "internal" damage model...??

Can anyone test this?

Otherwise I will give me half an hour to setup a new ship..

Geforce 7800 GT: noticed the flickering AFTER I updated my drivers to the then-beta ones. It increased my FPS marginally, but I began noticiing the flickering. I think it might have something to do with a broken transparancy setting, since it only happens (for me) in places that I should be seeing through something. IE. Water running over rails flickers white instead of showing both water and ship texture, ship elavators flicker black (they should be open areas, after all). In reference to overheating, my vid card never goes above 60 deg C.