Upset; problem that was suppose to be fixed isn't

[nefarious]

About a month ago I posted here about a graphics issue I was having in the demo with the textures artifacting or streching out, also like black triangular glitches; one of the devs posted that it's a out of memory issue or something and that it would be fixed in the full release. Now the full release is out and it still does it; I really don't wanna play the game like this because sometimes it gets so bad I cannot see important parts of the screen.

Video card is a 7600 GT and no it's not over heating or anything this is the only game that does it.

Any suggestions?

[nefarious]

Dug up the original topic; has a screenshot of what's happening.

http://www.titanquest.net/bugs/581-gfx-glitches.html?highlight=black+glitch

[Moose]

try all the usual voodoo .. upgrade/downgrade viddrivers/install directx/compatability mode/resolution/detail/etcetc

[frankenparrot]

Hi...can you post what you are running the game at? That may help. :)

[nefarious]

Tried many different drivers; direct x is fully up to date and gone through every settings possible with the game and it still does it.

Currently I played the game at 1280x1024 everything high with no vsync and AA; game runs really smooth just cannot stand these glitches; when I alt tab they go away just hate doing that every minute.

[Max]

I apologize for misleading you (although it wasn't intentional!). We fixed a significant video memory problem that was present in the demo, but it appears your issue is different. If you reduce your shadow or texture quality settings and restart the game does the problem appear less often?

Max

[nefarious]

I know it wasn't intentional; I just got my hopes up when I got the full version since I loved the demo so much.

I'll try both now and let you know. Also my power went out last time I was playing and when I started the game again my character was there but I lost all my quest; which really sucks is there any way to recover them?

*edit*
First test 1024x768 everything on low with no AA or vsync happened on one of the save fountain thingies about 20mins into the game; so that comfirms that it happens less often with lower settings; but it still happens.

Second test 1024x768 everything on med with no AA or vsync game crashed when I entered a temple area but up to the point of the crash I didn't see any glitches; I'll have to replay it again.

Wow now the game won't even start; everytime I select my character and go to load the game it just crashes.

[nefarious]

Full computer specs; incase it helps:

Asus P5VD1-X motherboard
Pentium 4 630; 3GHz HT
x2 512 mb pc 3200
Onboard soundMAX digital audio
250GB sata 2; 16megg cache; 7200rpm
Leadtek 7600 GT TDH

Latest drivers for everything possible and newest directx update; when playin the only things running are AVG (anti virus program) and APC PowerChute for my surge protector and back up power that's about it.

[Polemidas]

I know that for some reason when i had AVG and battlefield 2 came out i thought my video card that i bought the same day had bad onboard memory becuase alot of people were saying that some cards have that problem off the assembly from the company that i bought. Anyway i finally once turned off AVG but kept everything else running and everything ran perfect. so not saying this will help but hell i dont know maybe?
And use the new nvidia drivers to check your heat and play for a bit then when this problem happens( ofcourse if your able to play again) then alt+tab out and check how hot your card is at. may not heat up with other games but for some reason this game runs both my computers video cards hot. kept crashing and then finally thought maybe just maybe it was overheating. well it was and now everything runs great except slowdowns on my dual core.
anyway this was long and im sorry
oh and i deleted AVG it was artifacting in my games with it on. odd but try it.

[Quakes]

From my experience such artifacts are often the result of overclocking or overheating... If your card isn't overclocked, what happens if you underclock it a bit?

[spiralof5]

Are you running the antialiasing yourself or are you allowing TQ to?

Have you checked your AA on your Nvidia settings in windows? It should say whether you are allowing the software to set the AA or not. If you are not, then set it so that Titan Quest controls the antialiasing and let me know what happens :)

[nefarious]

It's default to application controlled but I dont even use AA in TQ; as for heating it's not that my card is factory clocked and runs to about 60C max while playing games.

I'm re-installing the game currently but I'll mess around with my graphic card settings; there is a Titan Quest profile I'll see if different configs change anything.

I know write combining can cause stuff like this; it actually has sorta happened in 3DMark but not nearly as bad during one of the test so I turned write combining off; just that having it on or off doesn't change anything in TQ but maybe it's still something along those lines.

[nefarious]

Got the game installed; tried a few things still no luck fixing the graphics. I'm strating to think its a issue between the compressed textures and my video card; I'm tempted to try and do what that one guy did and uncompress them but I don't wanna reinstall the game again; if something happens.

Just odd that the game can be glitching all over then when I alt+tab out and tab back in it's fine again.

[ID10T]

Here is a list of a few things that have helped many people out in the past (although some of the problems are simply problems with the engine itself), so maybe they might help you out too.

I'm going to go over some things you may have done, but that's simply because other people who haven't done them will likely read this thread.


**ATTENTION!!!** Though what I list below has helped people in the past
(including myself) I make no guarantees, and you do them at your own risk.
I claim no responsibility for any problems you incur after attempting what I have listed, simply because you are doing it, not me. I am trying to give explicit instructions to help people, but I can't be held responsible for what problems may arise (a small variant from what I say could cause problems).

In short: Even though I KNOW this stuff CAN help you, I don't guarantee it, and you do them AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

** Any questions or added help, just PM me.

Drivers:

A. Firstly, let's make sure your chipset drivers AND your BIOS are up
to date. Go to your motherboard manufacturer's website &
download the latest chipset and bios software. For anyone that
is not comfortable updating your bios, fear not. Many
manufacturers now have windows based utilities that will do it.
They make it essentially idiot proof. These 2 parts are often
overlooked by gamers when they are updating, but they are
actually possibly the 2 most important parts. Software wise, they
are essentially the backbone of your system (aside from your OS).
*Nefarious, click here (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us) to get to your motherboard's stuff.

2. Next, nowadays, it's better to have the drivers that your video
card manufacturer provides. This is because many manufacturers
make modifications to the default drivers to better support their
line of cards. DO NOT get the nvidia drivers UNLESS your maker
does not have their own version they supply. The nvidia drivers
aren't bad, they just aren't specialized.
* Nefarious, Leadtek didn't have one at this time for your card,
but they seem to have them for EVERY other one. Keep
checking back at their site.

III. If your card manufacturer's drivers don't work, or don't exist, or if
you are just curious, you can try Omega Drivers. Omega drivers are
simply optimized versions of the standard Nvidia and ATI drivers.
For some people they actually fix some problems they experience.
I remember when Doom3 first came out, I had an ATI 9800 Pro,
and it would NOT run. Omega Drivers to the rescue. After I
installed them, it ran perfectly.
*You can get Omega Driver here (http://www.omegadrivers.net/).

Other Fixes:

1. A fav of mine for XP gamers is GameXP. It's a free program that
you run one time that optimizes your system for gaming. In my old
system, I got a 10+ fps increase in oblivion from it.
*You can get GameXP here (http://www.theorica.net/download.htm).

B. Are you the only one that uses that computer? If so, turn off ALL
antivirus / antispyware software that you have running. Don't
remove, just disable. ANYTHING you have running in the
background can have odd unwanted results in games. I don't run
any automatic av or anti-spy software, and I've been clean for
longer than I can count (and that's not just because I'm wearing
shoes right now). You just have to be careful where you go, what
you download and what you open.

I. For those that don't know how to disable such software.

a. Click start and go to run and type in msconfig then hit
enter. (Win2k user go here (http://www.techadvice.com/win2000/m/msconfig_w2k.htm).)

2. Click the Services tab and UNCHECK ANYTHING that
pertains to your av or anti-spy software. I recommend
checking the "Hide All Microsoft Services" firs though. This
should help prevent you disabling something important.

III. Next, click the startup tab. At this point, I recommend you
simply click disable all. Anything that Windows really needs,
will be re-enabled anyways. Most anything in here isn't
necessary for your programs to work, they just keep them
running so that either a small service is available to you
or so that it takes 3-5 seconds for the program to startup
when you open it.

0011. Now, we gotta check for rogue programs running. Just because
your startup tab in msconfig, or your taskbar doesn't show
something is running, doesn't mean it's not there. Spyware,
adware, and other malware don't always show up, but can wreak
havoc in games. I do this stuff for a living, and this is what I've
found works the best. Spysweeper (http://www.webroot.com/shoppingcart/tryme.php?bjpc=64021&vcode=DT02A&tocheck=1) is one of my all time fav
programs to remove this stuff. Rarely does it not find
EVERYTHING. Ad-Aware has never quite caught up with it. You can
also run Anti-Spy.Info (http://www.download3k.com/DownloadLink1-Anti-Spy.Info-adware-remover.html). It will Show you EVERYTHING that is
running on your system, and rate it and give you info on it. Lastly,
there is also HijackThis (http://216.180.233.162/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe). These programs help to identify and get rid
of rogue programs that can cause you problems in games and in
other things.
** If you don't know how to use these programs, feel free to PM
me and I will do what I can to help.

IV. Sometimes, oddly enough, your video problems may stem from
issues with your soundcard (weird I know, but I've seen it
happen). To test this, click on start, then go to run, and type in
dxdiag. This will open your DirectX Diagnostics tool. We are going
to decrease your audio acceleration. This is a troubleshooting
feature, and will NOT turn off your sound. This will disable
advanced audio features, like 3D sound and such. With the DX
diagnostics too open click on the sound tab. You will see a slider in
the middle left. If it's all the way to right, bring it to the left one
notch. You don't have to restart, but I always do. Run the game
and see if it helped you any.

Five. Finally, some games have trouble with Hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading is a feature that attempts to let a single core
processor run as if it was a dual-core processor. It can actually
help in multi-tasking, and some games benefit from it too, but some
have problems with it. This is mainly in pentium machines. AMD
offers something called Hyper-Transport, which doesn't quite work
the same, but maybe disabling it could benefit you. For Pentium
users, do this to check to see if you have it enabled. Hit
Ctrl+Alt+Del. This will bring up the windows task manager. Click on
the performance tab, and look at the CPU Usage History. If this has
a vertical gray bar splitting it, you have hyperthreading
enabled. You have to disable it in the bios, so you will need to
consult your manual, your manufacturer, or a local computer friend
to get this done. Back when I had dial-up, I had an intel-chip
modem that would NOT run if my P4 3.0 had hyperthreading
enabled.
** If you need, you can PM me & maybe I can help direct you on
how to disable it.


That's enough for now. I hope this helps someone.

[nefarious]

Here is a list of a few things that have helped many people out in the past (although some of the problems are simply problems with the engine itself), so maybe they might help you out too.

I'm going to go over some things you may have done, but that's simply because other people who haven't done them will likely read this thread.


**ATTENTION!!!** Though what I list below has helped people in the past
(including myself) I make no guarantees, and you do them at your own risk.
I claim no responsibility for any problems you incur after attempting what I have listed, simply because you are doing it, not me. I am trying to give explicit instructions to help people, but I can't be held responsible for what problems may arise (a small variant from what I say could cause problems).

In short: Even though I KNOW this stuff CAN help you, I don't guarantee it, and you do them AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

** Any questions or added help, just PM me.

Drivers:

A. Firstly, let's make sure your chipset drivers AND your BIOS are up
to date. Go to your motherboard manufacturer's website &
download the latest chipset and bios software. For anyone that
is not comfortable updating your bios, fear not. Many
manufacturers now have windows based utilities that will do it.
They make it essentially idiot proof. These 2 parts are often
overlooked by gamers when they are updating, but they are
actually possibly the 2 most important parts. Software wise, they
are essentially the backbone of your system (aside from your OS).
*Nefarious, click here (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us) to get to your motherboard's stuff.

Bios and mobo drivers are fully up to date

2. Next, nowadays, it's better to have the drivers that your video
card manufacturer provides. This is because many manufacturers
make modifications to the default drivers to better support their
line of cards. DO NOT get the nvidia drivers UNLESS your maker
does not have their own version they supply. The nvidia drivers
aren't bad, they just aren't specialized.
* Nefarious, Leadtek didn't have one at this time for your card,
but they seem to have them for EVERY other one. Keep
checking back at their site.

Yea I noticed that; I actually emailed them about that and they even suggested to use nvidia's latest drivers

III. If your card manufacturer's drivers don't work, or don't exist, or if
you are just curious, you can try Omega Drivers. Omega drivers are
simply optimized versions of the standard Nvidia and ATI drivers.
For some people they actually fix some problems they experience.
I remember when Doom3 first came out, I had an ATI 9800 Pro,
and it would NOT run. Omega Drivers to the rescue. After I
installed them, it ran perfectly.
*You can get Omega Driver here (http://www.omegadrivers.net/).

I only used signed drivers; also the other 20 games on my system run fine so I don't want to start causing issues with them

Other Fixes:

1. A fav of mine for XP gamers is GameXP. It's a free program that
you run one time that optimizes your system for gaming. In my old
system, I got a 10+ fps increase in oblivion from it.
*You can get GameXP here (http://www.theorica.net/download.htm).

Hehe I use the full version of Game Gain 2; I wish I knew about that one though would of saved me a few bucks but I'm guessing they do the exact same thing.

B. Are you the only one that uses that computer? If so, turn off ALL
antivirus / antispyware software that you have running. Don't
remove, just disable. ANYTHING you have running in the
background can have odd unwanted results in games. I don't run
any automatic av or anti-spy software, and I've been clean for
longer than I can count (and that's not just because I'm wearing
shoes right now). You just have to be careful where you go, what
you download and what you open.

I'm pretty firm with how I manage my computer; I haven't had a virus on my machine ever; some will say ya that you know of but I know 100% my system is clean

I. For those that don't know how to disable such software.

a. Click start and go to run and type in msconfig then hit
enter. (Win2k user go here (http://www.techadvice.com/win2000/m/msconfig_w2k.htm).)

2. Click the Services tab and UNCHECK ANYTHING that
pertains to your av or anti-spy software. I recommend
checking the "Hide All Microsoft Services" firs though. This
should help prevent you disabling something important.

I went through this the day I installed windows xp sp2; I turned off all none essentials services; always do it on a fresh install.

III. Next, click the startup tab. At this point, I recommend you
simply click disable all. Anything that Windows really needs,
will be re-enabled anyways. Most anything in here isn't
necessary for your programs to work, they just keep them
running so that either a small service is available to you
or so that it takes 3-5 seconds for the program to startup
when you open it.

Only run two things on my startup and that's AVG and my APC monitor program both of which I tried to disable and the game still had problems.

0011. Now, we gotta check for rogue programs running. Just because
your startup tab in msconfig, or your taskbar doesn't show
something is running, doesn't mean it's not there. Spyware,
adware, and other malware don't always show up, but can wreak
havoc in games. I do this stuff for a living, and this is what I've
found works the best. Spysweeper (http://www.webroot.com/shoppingcart/tryme.php?bjpc=64021&vcode=DT02A&tocheck=1) is one of my all time fav
programs to remove this stuff. Rarely does it not find
EVERYTHING. Ad-Aware has never quite caught up with it. You can
also run Anti-Spy.Info (http://www.download3k.com/DownloadLink1-Anti-Spy.Info-adware-remover.html). It will Show you EVERYTHING that is
running on your system, and rate it and give you info on it. Lastly,
there is also HijackThis (http://216.180.233.162/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe). These programs help to identify and get rid
of rogue programs that can cause you problems in games and in
other things.
** If you don't know how to use these programs, feel free to PM
me and I will do what I can to help.

Used to run most of those programs never found anything; mostly because I do not use IE anymore; strickly a Firefox user now and I don't download crap or visit pr0n sites on this computer so it's safe

IV. Sometimes, oddly enough, your video problems may stem from
issues with your soundcard (weird I know, but I've seen it
happen). To test this, click on start, then go to run, and type in
dxdiag. This will open your DirectX Diagnostics tool. We are going
to decrease your audio acceleration. This is a troubleshooting
feature, and will NOT turn off your sound. This will disable
advanced audio features, like 3D sound and such. With the DX
diagnostics too open click on the sound tab. You will see a slider in
the middle left. If it's all the way to right, bring it to the left one
notch. You don't have to restart, but I always do. Run the game
and see if it helped you any.

I can try it but I honestly believe its a pure video issue because alt+tabbing will reload the textures getting rid of the glitches

Five. Finally, some games have trouble with Hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading is a feature that attempts to let a single core
processor run as if it was a dual-core processor. It can actually
help in multi-tasking, and some games benefit from it too, but some
have problems with it. This is mainly in pentium machines. AMD
offers something called Hyper-Transport, which doesn't quite work
the same, but maybe disabling it could benefit you. For Pentium
users, do this to check to see if you have it enabled. Hit
Ctrl+Alt+Del. This will bring up the windows task manager. Click on
the performance tab, and look at the CPU Usage History. If this has
a vertical gray bar splitting it, you have hyperthreading
enabled. You have to disable it in the bios, so you will need to
consult your manual, your manufacturer, or a local computer friend
to get this done. Back when I had dial-up, I had an intel-chip
modem that would NOT run if my P4 3.0 had hyperthreading
enabled.
** If you need, you can PM me & maybe I can help direct you on
how to disable it.

Mines enabled but honestly if they designed a game that won't run on HT then ya they have a problem; there's millions still running p4 HT systems; again though I'll try it but I don't see it being that either

That's enough for now. I hope this helps someone.

Thank you for the suggestions though; I will looking into the sound and HT thing, never know. I'm still thinking it's an issue between my card and how it reads the compressed texture archives in the game; sometimes I play for 20mins no glitches sometimes I get them every minute but alt+tabbing fixes them 100% of the time which always reloads everything.

[ID10T]

Thank you for the suggestions though; I will looking into the sound and HT thing, never know. I'm still thinking it's an issue between my card and how it reads the compressed texture archives in the game; sometimes I play for 20mins no glitches sometimes I get them every minute but alt+tabbing fixes them 100% of the time which always reloads everything.

I had a similar problem like that before on my old 6800GToc. Let me poke around and see what it was that I did to fix it.