Please help, wierd flickering and rainbow ribbons

Donavan · 04-17-07, 09:35 PM

I love the game as I did SH3 and have been nursing it to playability. But, I've been getting strange geometric flashes, and now multicolored ribbons accross the screen after 1.2.

specs: Dual AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processors
SLI NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX's ( i know, not officially supported)
Driver: 93.71

It doesn't seem to matter what graphic performance I select, low,med,high, it's the same problem. The only thing I haven't tried is getting a priest to sprinkle holy water on it while mumbling stuff in latin.

Help me. Please.

Ilpalazzo · 04-17-07, 09:39 PM

Not sure what to tell you but may as well ask, do you know if your card may be overheating? Do you have AA on?

Chock · 04-17-07, 09:55 PM

I've experienced that kind of thing in a couple of other sims, namely Armed Assault and Wings Over Europe. In Wings Over Europe, I had to turn off shadows to stop it and in Armed Assault I think Geometry Instancing was the guilty party in the (ATI) Catalyst Control Centre.

However, it sounds very similar to a problem many have experienced with NVidia cards running Armed Assault (I know this because I spent a lot of time ploughing through threads on the Armed Assault forum trying to sort it out for my ATI card). Might be a long shot, but if nothing else works you may want to take a look on those forums (Bohemia Interactive website) and see if it offers you any clues. I do know some (NVidia card users) had suggested that they lost the problem by installing slightly older drivers, and yes, many were suggesting that overheating might be the cause on that site too, although most people suffering the problem regarded this as not being the case.

Of course this might not be the problem at all, but if you've tried everything else, I guess it's worth a try - good luck with it.

Donavan · 04-17-07, 10:13 PM

Mine are water cooled, but I'll try canceling AA and shadowing. Thanks guys.

MONOLITH · 04-17-07, 10:22 PM

It does sound like a stressed VPU (overheating), especially if it's intermittent.

Next time you get a chance, the first time of the day you begin to play (when the PC/VPU is cold), see if they do not happen the first 10 minutes you play, but grow more frequent the longer you play.

If it's not heat, try to see if there's some pattern to when they show up,like only in exterior view, or a particular texture is showing. That would indicate a driver problem.

Donavan · 04-17-07, 10:42 PM

I cut off AA, but don't have an option to cut off shadows, that I can tell. Didn't help I'm afraid.

Monolith, it starts as soon as the game starts, it's not overheating. It's constant from the moment the game loads. Temp is around 53 at loading.

04-17-07, 09:35 PM	#1
Donavan Seaman Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 31 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Please help, wierd flickering and rainbow ribbons I love the game as I did SH3 and have been nursing it to playability. But, I've been getting strange geometric flashes, and now multicolored ribbons accross the screen after 1.2. specs: Dual AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processors SLI NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX's ( i know, not officially supported) Driver: 93.71 It doesn't seem to matter what graphic performance I select, low,med,high, it's the same problem. The only thing I haven't tried is getting a priest to sprinkle holy water on it while mumbling stuff in latin. Help me. Please.

04-17-07, 10:22 PM	#5
MONOLITH Grey Wolf Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 997 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	It does sound like a stressed VPU (overheating), especially if it's intermittent. Next time you get a chance, the first time of the day you begin to play (when the PC/VPU is cold), see if they do not happen the first 10 minutes you play, but grow more frequent the longer you play. If it's not heat, try to see if there's some pattern to when they show up,like only in exterior view, or a particular texture is showing. That would indicate a driver problem. __________________

04-17-07, 09:39 PM	#2
Ilpalazzo Frogman Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 309 Downloads: 20 Uploads: 0	Not sure what to tell you but may as well ask, do you know if your card may be overheating? Do you have AA on?

04-17-07, 09:55 PM	#3
Chock Sea Lord Join Date: May 2005 Location: Under a thermal layer in chilly Olde England Posts: 1,842 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I've experienced that kind of thing in a couple of other sims, namely Armed Assault and Wings Over Europe. In Wings Over Europe, I had to turn off shadows to stop it and in Armed Assault I think Geometry Instancing was the guilty party in the (ATI) Catalyst Control Centre. However, it sounds very similar to a problem many have experienced with NVidia cards running Armed Assault (I know this because I spent a lot of time ploughing through threads on the Armed Assault forum trying to sort it out for my ATI card). Might be a long shot, but if nothing else works you may want to take a look on those forums (Bohemia Interactive website) and see if it offers you any clues. I do know some (NVidia card users) had suggested that they lost the problem by installing slightly older drivers, and yes, many were suggesting that overheating might be the cause on that site too, although most people suffering the problem regarded this as not being the case. Of course this might not be the problem at all, but if you've tried everything else, I guess it's worth a try - good luck with it.

04-17-07, 10:13 PM	#4
Donavan Seaman Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 31 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Mine are water cooled, but I'll try canceling AA and shadowing. Thanks guys.

04-17-07, 10:42 PM	#6
Donavan Seaman Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 31 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I cut off AA, but don't have an option to cut off shadows, that I can tell. Didn't help I'm afraid. Monolith, it starts as soon as the game starts, it's not overheating. It's constant from the moment the game loads. Temp is around 53 at loading.