HELP! Texture error \"washout\"

[Storm]

I am now getting a (fairly severe) texture error (on objects, not backgrounds) in Evochron Renegades.

When I start the game, everything is fine at first.

Within minutes, textures (on objects; such as asteroids, stations, planets, and my ship in 3rd person view) become "washed - out" - like an overexposed photograph. Then eventually the textures "seem" to disappear altogether and everything looks like pure white blobs with no surface detail. The shapes/meshes/polygons are fine, they just get "all-white". Backgrounds seem to be unaffected. But overall, I think it is some kind of "lighting/specular" error ? (since at first they get "washed out", but with SOME surface detail, before they become COMPLETELY washed out)

When I first configured the game, I had mipmaps turned off. I turned them on, but this does not seem to help.

Resolution setting is optimized (to my flat screen monitor, 1680x1050). All other settings are on their max (best) settings, color depth = 32 bits.

Now, this started happening after I first jumped out of Sapphire system... to Glacia... flew to the city on Glacia (snowy foggy atmosphere)... then through the rings until I found Beacon Two. Shortly after I flew by Beacon Two I noticed a weird washed out sort of cloud / fog on everything, but I flew out of it OK. Then back to Sapphire, and I noticed this "washout" thing happening.

Again - I restart the game, and everything is fine at first, then the error starts to occur after a few minutes.

I have the latest drivers for my NVidia 8800GTX card. No problems have been noted with anything until now (IE the drivers ARE stable).


[Edited on 1-7-2009 by Storm]

[Vice]

That's a sign of video memory corruption, which can have several causes:

- Your main memory is running out for some reason.
- Something external is interfering with the game, possibly video related, but could also be a program taking away resources the game needs.
- Finally, the most likely cause, your video card is failing or overheating. IIRC, 8800GTX's run hot and if it's starting to overheat, you may be getting signs like texture corruption, especially when it starts out fine and gradually degrades as you play a game.

Video cards are vulnerable to the same kinds of heat issues CPU's are if their cooling systems fail or get clogged with dirt (sometimes a card can just go bad or is flawed from the factory, sometimes they can work for a while, then fail later). The problem can be compounded by a case that runs too hot (which you can check with a program like SpeedFan). So an initial recommendation would be to inspect and if possible, carefully clean your video card (especially the GPU grill/heatsink), CPU grill/heatsink, and internals in general. Your description is a textbook example of a failing or overheating video card.

[Storm]

Vice;

Thanks, I will clean out my case (vacuum, compressed air, ETC). Quite possibly its overdue - I've just never had this happen before, today was the first time and my vidcard has never had problems (this computer will be 2 years old in May of 2009).

I restarted the operating system, set mipmaps to on, and restarted the game. THIS time I did not get the "washout".

BUT, something else peculiar happened. I was mining an asteroid, and I was frequently opening and closing the inventory console (F3) to check on the progress of the cargo bays. Suddenly, when I opened the console once it wasn't as bright as it should have been - somewhat dim, I would say 1/4 to 1/2 as bright as it should be. JUST the inventory console, and the area of my screen above the lower part of the cockpit... IE say the upper 75% of the screen looked like "I was looking at it through partially dimmed photogray sunglasses".

Then when I closed the inventory console, two rectangular gray patches showed up... just below the compass, down to the top edge of the cockpit / lower displays (IE the areas normally overlapped by the inventory and nav consoles). Nav console was dim too. The two gray patches overlapped. Again, like partially dimmed photogray sunglass material... partially transparant, dimming whatever was behind it.

I flew to a station to sell the contents of the cargobays... at that point evrything seemed suddenly fine. I docked and sold cargo, then undocked to save the game. Suddenly the two grayish patches were back. Also, targeting brackets around nearby objects (ships, jumpgates) looked like they also had partially dim partially transparant "photogray filters" attached to them - gray rectangular patches "attached" to the moving targeting brackets on moving ships, etc.

THEN, when I exited the game to the main menu (TRAINING, LAUNCH, OPTIONS etc) those menu boxes were BLACK and I couldn't read them! Just guessed at where "EXIT" was... exited, restarted the game, and now I've turned mipmaps OFF again (dunno if that has anything to do with it).

Also, I remember from when I was getting "washouts", on the main menu the picture of the station on the right of the menu was also washed out - just like other objects (including stations) in-game. Rest of the menu looked fine.

I almost think I need to tweak my 3D card global settings (anisotropic filtering, antialiasing settings, texture filtering settings, force mipmaps, buffering, etc... and "force on" or "3D application controlled"). I had a weird thing happen with one game before, I don't remember which game or what the problem was (a minor thing) but the game tech support suggested I tweak a particular thing, and it worked.

These are my settings:

Basic antialiasing panel (NVidia control panel): "Let the 3D application decide".

NVidia "manage my 3D settings" panel:
Anisotropic filtering: application controlled
Antialiasing gamma correction : ON
Antialiasing mode: application controlled

Antialising setting: application controlled (grayed out, I think because of the first panel

Antialising transparancy : OFF
conformant texture clamp: use hardware

error reporting: OFF (setting this to on as I recall with that other game I mentioned didn't help anything, I don't remember what it does exactly, but I could play with it)

extension limit: off
force mipmaps: none

multi display/mixed GPU acceleration : multiple display performance mode (I DONT know WHY it was at that setting(?) - I just changed it to single display)

texture filtering - anisotropic sample opti.. (column cut off): OFF
texture filtering - negative LOD bias: Clamp
texture filtering - quality: QUALITY
texture filtering - trilinear optimization : AUTO
triple buffering: OFF
vertical sync: Use the 3D application setting

I will clean out my computer, but if any of the above settings leap out at you or ring any bells or if (to the best iof your knowledge) ER needs a specific setting changed, please let me know.

Thanks... I will post again if cleaning seems to have helped.

[Storm]

Okay - I thoroughly cleaned out my computer (vacuum, compressed air - all fans, the inside of the case, and the two mesh/screen "filters" on the side of the case).

Afterwords I just let my computer stay shut down awhile (to let any moisture from compressed air evaporate).

It was NOT that dusty. Fairly little dust actually.

I checked my bios, and the NVidia control panel. I have no way of checking the GPU (vidcard) fanspeed or temperature - just the computers fanspeeds, CPU and motherboard temps.

MIPMAPS in ER are turned off (until the trouble started, I HAD them turned off, no problems until recently).

I tweaked a couple of MINOR settings in the NVideo control panel (after I read the help files); minor tweaks though, hard to say if they will help or cure anything. The only MAJOR thing that leapt out was that for some reason it was set up to support multiple displays (I mentioned that earlier); I installed these latest NVidia drivers a couple of months ago, the installation probably changed a couple of settings.

BTW my system is NOT overclocked.

All I can do is present more details, and wait...

It first occured after I did a flyby near beacon 2 (Glacia). I noticed that everything seemed SLIGHTLY washed out. I docked at the station near Glacia to refuel, and in the shipyard I tweaked my ship - moved the wings, engine ETC around a bit. When I undocked I noticed that the station seemed SLIGHTLY but noticeable washed out, and also my ship in 3rd person view.

Back in Sapphire, I took a Miners contract to clear asteroids. After it was complete, I mined among the asteroids that were left. That is when the washout first became severe - eventually resulting in all objects to be completely white shapes / outlines / silouettes (sp?) with no surface detail. HOWEVER this was somewhat "gradual" - things were WASHED OUT ("overexposed") before they turned into all-white shapes, though the "all-whiteness" did pop in suddenly. When I exited the game, I noticed that the picture of the station in the main menu was also fully white.

I turned mipmaps on (in ER options).

Things seemed to be fine. Did a miners contract to clear asteroids, when complete I started mining, and thats when the "photogrey semitransparant rectangles" occured.

(edit) at this point mipmaps in ER are turned OFF again.

Okay - so now that I have cleaned my computer and tweaked a couple of NVidia control panel settings, things SEEM to be fine, except that I went to Rivoch station (everything looked fine), did some contracts, then did some mining and when I approached Rivoch / Rivoch station again the planet texture disappeared. Looked like an all-gray basketball with "seams" on it. Everything else seemed fine.

As far as system resources go. All I have in the background is Avast antivirus (I am very sure about this). I have 4 Gb of RAM. My desktop is set to W98 "classic" to improve performance and help with resources - 2 years ago when I got Vista, I played with the fancy Vista desktop, gadgets etc, but I could tell that they were resource intensive "toys", so I turned all of that off and went to a plain, classic desktop. I don't even have any wallpapers activated.

All I can do is wait and see.

If anyone can shed light on those 3D card settings I posted; whether something looks wrong, please comment.


[Edited on 1-7-2009 by Storm]

[verbosity]

Originally posted by Storm
Things seemed to be fine. Did a miners contract to clear asteroids, when complete I started mining, and thats when the "photogrey semitransparant rectangles" occured.............
......... I approached Rivoch / Rivoch station again the planet texture disappeared. Looked like an all-gray basketball with "seams" on it.

I get that with my busted Graphics card. When I get it, its due to overheating.

[Edited on 1-7-2009 by verbosity]

[Storm]

Originally posted by verbosity

Originally posted by Storm
Things seemed to be fine. Did a miners contract to clear asteroids, when complete I started mining, and thats when the "photogrey semitransparant rectangles" occured.............
......... I approached Rivoch / Rivoch station again the planet texture disappeared. Looked like an all-gray basketball with "seams" on it.

I get that with my busted Graphics card. When I get it, its due to overheating.

[Edited on 1-7-2009 by verbosity]

I AM very afraid that is what the problem might be. Right now I might not be able to afford a new graphics card... or maybe an 8800GTX is cheaper than it used to be 2 years ago... but in any case I hate the thought of having to install it.

The SYMPTOMS imply that maybe my graphics card might be failing. However the TIMING of the symptoms, in relation to other things, might hopefully mean something else.

I just have to wait and see what happens.

[verbosity]

Originally posted by Storm
The SYMPTOMS imply that maybe my graphics card might be failing. However the TIMING of the symptoms, in relation to other things, might hopefully mean something else.

yeah, lol - I wasn't saying thats what the fault it, just noting its similar. I usually get the same effect after about 20 minutes of activity ( less if in combat etc), though Vice has mentioned that the 8800's run hot anyway.

keep the box open and run the game, check to see if the fan is running on your gfx card and that the airflow around it is not blocked.

You can get replacement fans for gfx cards, good ones are around £20, you can also get fans that sit in pci slots, which might help.

Lastly, while 8800's are a little cheaper than last year, there are quite a few reasonably cheap pci-e cards on the market, you can get one that will run Bioshock or gta:4 for around £20.

[Storm]

Well - I just did a run to Fauston system to the Blue Nebula - had to quit without saving, just too many bad guys and couldn't just fly with afterburners all the time. Anyway, the nebula cloud itself seemed to make a symptom apparant... a few moments into the nebula (maybe 20 seconds) one grey semitransparant rectangle - again, like a sheet of tinted sunglass material - hanging from the compass, extending down out halfway down the screen. Fairly narrow; I would say maybe 1/10 to 1/8 as wide as the cockpit view. But it came and went. It SEEMED to (maybe - sometimes) come OR go with the "lightning flashes". Nav and Inventory consoles were *dimmer than they should be* while the rectangle was active. When I exited the nebula, NO symproms, everything was fine. UNTIL I exited (without saving) and went into the Pilor Manager (to reload my pilot); the two ships that spin slowly in the pilot manager screen were not the usual nice metallic shiny detailed things... they were a uniform gray without texturing.

I powered down, took the side cover off the computer, git a flashlight and mirror because some things are tight and hard to inspect - expecially the vidcard. All fans are spinning normally. No clogs or dust or dirt.

I ran a few vista system diagnostics, looked for problem devices. No problems, no sign of trouble, no malware or unusual processes running. Device Manager indicates that the 8800GTX is operating normally.

I'm too tired - will investigate later, but in the meantime I left the computer side cover off in case its an overheating problem. The temperature in my "computer room" is about ~ 65 fahrenheit.

[verbosity]

Originally posted by Storm
because some things are tight and hard to inspect - expecially the vidcard. All fans are spinning normally.

Can you tell what temp your cpu is running? most mobos include apps that let you check in windows, else reboot and go into bios, it should say there. I know its not the cpu but if there isn't much space near the gpu a lack of cool air passing near it will mean the fan wont be cooling much.

It might not be a heat issue, try running you machine with the side open, and see if it makes a difference....

[Storm]

Originally posted by verbosity

Originally posted by Storm
because some things are tight and hard to inspect - expecially the vidcard. All fans are spinning normally.

Can you tell what temp your cpu is running? most mobos include apps that let you check in windows, else reboot and go into bios, it should say there. I know its not the cpu but if there isn't much space near the gpu a lack of cool air passing near it will mean the fan wont be cooling much.

It might not be a heat issue, try running you machine with the side open, and see if it makes a difference....

I checked that this morning (CPU temp) and it seemed normal (but I am looking at my CPU fan right now, with the side cover off - its running) - but your right, if the GPU Fan is ineffective against heat picked up from the *CPU*.... but the VidCard fan also seems to be working OK. And there has never been a problem until now.


[Edited on 1-7-2009 by Storm]

[Storm]

Review - this morning I was getting a possible error in the blue nebula in Fauston.

This morning AFTER my last post, I cleaned out my system again (this was after inpecting it with a flashlight and a mirror so I could observe ALL the fans, including the one that is hard to see (vidcard), and left the side cover off.

I flew thru the nebula in Sapphire for a while. Hopped thru a few systems (avoiding combat). Mined asteroids a few times (this was one event that seemed to be triggering the error... or actually, it was taking a miner contract to clear asteroids, then mining the ones that were left)... Went to Glacia, got killed by a black hole.

No errors, no weird texture effects.

My computer (and thus my 8800GTX vidcard) is 2 years old. I have to face the fact that the vidcard might be failing.

I will keep an eye on it.

[MMaggio]

Hi Storm. I read with some interest about your problem. Seems to me you are wishing for a magic fix. I can tell you what's wrong.
You need a new video card!
Or, you can leave the cabinet panel off, set up a small fan to blow air into the cabinet, and pray.
But it won't help for long. The card will get worse the more you use it.
There are many excellent cards available that will do the job for less than you think.
Verb is right.
Good luck:)

[Storm]

MMaggio;
Thanks for reply / feedback.

I have to make one caveat... something I just did. It may or may not be a valuable clue.

To explain... I use Paint Shop Pro 5 for my imaging (I'm a registered user). OCCASIONALLY, I will use the WinVista native image viewer by double clicking an image in a folder.

I downloaded a full map of the charted systems of the Evochron Universe from someplace - a JPG image.

In the NVidia control panel, at the top level menu, there are three basic settings, selectable by a checkmark:

(a) Let the 3D application decide
(b) Use the settings in the ADVANCED panel, (all kinds of complicated settings such as anisotropic triple buffer filtering mipmaps bla bla bla, which I don't understand).
(c) Use a slider that has about 5 tick marks that ranges from "Performance" to "Quality".

Paint Shop Pro doesn't seem to care.
(Paint Shop Pro versus Vista Native Image Viewer - I'm guessing Vista ImageView relies more on D3D, DirectX)

BUT, Now - using WinVista image viewer - using the slider on "QUALITY" - when I double clicked that big JPG, it was chopped up and diskombobulated, and oddly reminded me of the visual errors I was getting in Renegades.

When I changed FROM the slider TO the option (a) "Let the 3D application decide", WinVista image viewer displays it OKay.

I THINK, though, that I always had it on "Let the 3D application decide" when the visual errors started appearing. So yes, it looks most like vidcard is getting old and tired.

I experimented a LITTLE with option b and used the advanced panel (this morning on renegades) (the initial settings are near the top of this post) but I don't think I came up with anything conclusive.

[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Storm]

Vice - or anyone else that might provide something...

After I cleaned out my computer twice, and started operating with the cover off, everything seemed stable....

UNTIL I reproduced the conditions where the problems started the first time.

I decided to try dedicated trading for a while, so I bought ELEC at Rivoch and Rivoch Station.

Went to Glacia (where the trouble started the first time - review my previous posts).

Docked at Glacia / Starport 2 to buy energy products and check on their buying price for ELEC (though I intend to sell everything at Sapphire, where I will buy food).

Landed on Glacia, bought more energy products.

Set my nav point to the gate (Sapphire). When I gained enough altitude, I just afterburned to max velocity and went inertial until I was in the neighborhood of the gate... then went back to manual.

When I was in the vicinity... close to Starport 2, scenery stations, and the gate, all of the objects went *WHITE*.

Just the gate (solid part, not the "energy ball"), scenery stations and Starport 2. Planet Glacia looked fine. ODD THING - the Glacia-Sapphire gate only has a PARTIAL error. The central ring is fine, but the four "spokes" sticking off of it are white.

Jumped to the neighborhood of Sapphire - same thing. Objects are all white, but planet Sapphire looks fine.

This is more or less exactly what happened before - ** the trouble started after landing on Glacia to refuel before I went looking for Beacon 2 **

I have a screenshot this time; Glacia in the background, the *WHITE* Starport 2 and the *PARTIALLY WHITE* Glacia-Sapphire gate.

If Vice or anyone else is willing to take a look at a JPG (VisError01.JPG, 1680x1050, 205 Kb), please let me know how to get it to you. (can I put attachments in a U2U message?)

(edit) BTW, from previous experience, I know that when I restart the game everything will be fine (for a while?). I left off my quicksave just off of the station in orbit around Sapphire (haven't sold my stuff yet - wanted to report this).

What is suspicious is the error occuring under the same conditions twice now (Glacia) - and then (for a while, though, this has not been confirmed for a second time) under certain other conditions (miner contract / then mining, nebula in Fauston).

(edit again) BTW, immediately afterwords I did thorough diagnostics. Checked the 8800GTX VidCard in Device Manager, checked resources (system physical RAM at ~ 27% usage, 4 Gb RAM total), did Vista systems diagnostics, performance tests and a system Health Report. No problems reported.

(update)

I restarted the operating system, DID NOT shut down (IE DID NOT give anything a chance to cool off).

Started the game. I docked at Evochron Station (to check prices), landed on Sapphire and sold ELEC and energy products, bought food. Went back to Evochron Station and bought food.

Docked at Port Rivoch and sold the food.

NO graphics errors - everything seems stable.


[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[verbosity]

If can send me a copy of the pic in an email, or upload it to imageshack (or similar ) and use [ img ] [ /img ] tags ( remove the spaces to show it here.

I asked about the CPU temp to get an idea of how hot your system is generally, I wasn't suggestiong it had anything to do with the cpu itself.

Has your machine ever shutdown while playing a game? ( for instance with ER i get the texture issue myself, some other games don't cause texture errors but cause my system to freeze or turn off - Medieval2:total war for instance).

Seeing as you had no issues with the cover off would suggest a heating issue, there is nothing wrong with leaving the side of your case off ( though you have to dust it more often...). Take a pic of the inside of your machine, I might be able to suggest a physical solution ( moving cards or some sort of additional fan - which would be cheaper than a new fan).

Oh lastly, do not over clean your machine, unless you are very careful its possible to cause static damage. Doing it repeatedly over a few days wont do anything positive and will increase the possibility of damage being caused.

Reading back over the posts all the evidence points to it being a heating issuse, and not one of any settings.

[MMaggio]

I think Verb is suggesting a freeware program called "speedfan" which will monitor temps and fan speeds. Try:
http://www.brothersoft.com/speedfan-61805.html
There are prolly others, but I found that via google.
There are other things beside just time use that will cause a vid card to fail. Demand and display will cause failure.
I had a card that worked perfectly for desktop display and routine work performed on the PC, but wouldn't last 3 minutes playing most games. Suprisingly, it would play a couple of "mindless shooters" and the proverbial "solitaire" with out failure, but beyond that, it could not handle a fast paced game with good graphics.
You can count on your card getting progressively worse.
Good luck

[Storm]

Verbosity, MMaggio;

(whew!) I looked at the ImageShack site - there was no simple "HowTo" page and I was impatient (wanted to get this picture available). I DO have a yahoo account, though, so I checked out Flickr, which I've VIEWED and done some research, but never used before.

Created an account (same username as yahoo), uploaded the photo. CHECKED the link, made sure it could be viewed (by others). (I cleared my cookies and history, hit the link as an anonymous person - link works - you MIGHT have to have cookies, java, ActiveX enabled to view at max size & download image, not sure).

For some reason neither it (the image) nor my username shows up in a Flickr search (yet). Maybe it takes a while. The tags are "evochron" and "renegades". Username is "jeffbrdx". "renegades" brings up too many nonrelevant items, but "evochron" is unique, only about 4 photos by one other user. But again, this link works when NOT logged on (IE you are an anonymous Joe-Schmo):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34159828@N06/3180042294/

At the top of the image - magnifying glass with "View All Sizes" - click it (image will get bigger, but NOT full resolution), and from there you can click "download...." to get the full 1680x1050 image.

It might pop up in a search for the tag "evochron" in a day or two. For some reason my username does NOT pop up in a search (yet).

I didn't want to waste bandwidth, so I will not use image tags. ALSO I DO NOT know what Flickr's policy is on hotlinking - its bad for the web in general when people indiscriminately hotlink too much.

Okay - to answer the last questions by Verbosity and MMaggio;

No, my computer isn't having any problems, its never had any - this system was purchased and built in May of 2007 by a local merchant / computer specialist. So the system and vidcard is almost 2 years old.

The only other game I played was VegaStrike. Thats more-or-less WHY I bought THIS computer. My previous mainstream computer was lost in an accident in 2005 (related to another apartment flooding); it took a while for me to want to get another system. Anyway - Vegastrike 0.4.3 was NOT fully what I expected, so eventualy uninstalled, but I played it throughout summer/fall/winter of 2007 with NO problems.

NO other computer problems apparant, just THIS one with ER.

System seems to be operating normally. Visually, and in the BIOS, fans and temperature are FINE.

Early this morning I was here in the forum and playing ER from 9 PM yesterday evening to about 3 AM in the morning, when this second "Glacia" thing occured.

After I finished diagnostics, last posts, etc and before I shut down and went to bed, I CAREFULLY checked the heat with my HAND. I built my first computer a long time ago - AND I am a ham radio operator, I know the risks. The VidCard was just a LITTLE warm, NOT hot, there IS air getting into it. The area around the CPU is "just warm".

I agree evidence points to a graphic card fault / overheating.

Its odd though that the visual error is caused under teh same conditions twice.

ALSO - on a previous computer, another game...
My last computer was an AMD 1.2 Ghz with an NVidia chipset - forget which one - and the game was X-Tension (I was a beta tester). Beta testing went fine, but for the final release I was gettings errors. Docking lights that should have been glowing, blinking spheres in space were instead glowing "blocks". Texture were "tearing", offsetting, DISAPPEARING (sound familiar?). Tech support at Egosoft talked me through using teh NVidia control panel advanced settings, and we found ONE LITTLE setting that fixed EVERYTHING. As a matter of fact, in one of the later patches, the problem completely disappeared - even with rolling back that NVidia setting (I may have found a minor flaw in the program that got fixed).

Overheating or vidcard failing - PROBABLY. But possibly not.

I will do more experiments to collect data. I need to see if I the fault occurs CONSISTANTLY under the same conditions - just twice isn't enough to be definitive. Since it involves landing on Glacia (over and over again) I have to *set aside the time* to do it (as opposed to just playing the game).

[Storm]

Update;

That image at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34159828@N06/3180042294/
for some reason the max size stored by Flickr is smaller than the original (1680x1050, converted to 1024x640 by Flickr); so ignore the aliasing / blurring on the edges. Its a Flickr thing.

I downloaded the 1024x640 image myself from Flickr anonymously (not logged on); resized with Paint Shop Pro back to 1680x1050. Its easier to see what I am talking about. I notice a slight gamma correction problem - strictly a Flickr thing I think. The cockpit is a little brighter in-game.



[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[verbosity]

Originally posted by Storm
I built my first computer a long time ago - AND I am a ham radio operator, I know the risks.

Cool!

I was an avid Ham in my teens !

[Vice]

Hi Storm,

I wouldn't give up on the video card just yet, even though it likely is the culprit. Even the video memory could be bad or failing (also a potential cause for losing the textures like that). Although I doubt anything else will come up, if you'd like me to take a closer look at your system configuration, you can complete the steps at this link (zip the msinfo report to make it a lot smaller): http://www.starwraith.com/evochronrenegades/faq.htm#8

[Storm]

Originally posted by verbosity

Originally posted by Storm
I built my first computer a long time ago - AND I am a ham radio operator, I know the risks.

Cool!

I was an avid Ham in my teens !

My current callsign is AD5WY (My fourth... previously KA1NLE, N1EZW, and I had a German call DA2YO while I was stationed in Berlin). Here in the USA, ham radio operators have "no privacy"; I know that in Germany a while ago there was a stink, the German hams were at issue with the Bundespost (German postal system, but they are the licensing authority there); they wanted references removed from the web. Here, the American FCC (Federal Communications Commission) insists on publishing our data - maybe because we are considered a "service" and a "national resource in times of emergency"; though you certainly can't tell from politicians action concerning antenna legislation or the BPL (broadband over power line) issue.

If you know where to look, you can find me.

Equipment I have :
Icom R75 general communications receiver (what we used to call a "tabletop shortwave radio", but this goes up to 60 Mhz).

Yaesu VX7R(b) handheld / quadband 6 meter (50 Mhz band), 2 meter (144 Mhz band), 1.25 meter (220 Mhz band) , 70 cm (440 Mhz band). TECHNICALLY a tribander because the 220 band only has low-power (I think a quarter watt), while the other three are full 5W.

For HF: ICOM IC-703 Plus (HF / 6 meter, QRP(Low Power). Up to ten watts output.

For HF antennas, I live in an apartment. I have two Outbacker multiband verticles and an ICOM AH-703. Also a Z-Match tuner for longwires.

I have 3 genuine Vibroplex keys / paddles (I am still VERY MUCH into CW (morse code).

Sunspots are the pits right now for HF communication. We are at an all time low, and the sunspot cycle is overdue / sluggish. Its like there is no ionosphere.


[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Storm]

Originally posted by Vice
Hi Storm,

I wouldn't give up on the video card just yet, even though it likely is the culprit. Even the video memory could be bad or failing (also a potential cause for losing the textures like that). Although I doubt anything else will come up, if you'd like me to take a closer look at your system configuration, you can complete the steps at this link (zip the msinfo report to make it a lot smaller): http://www.starwraith.com/evochronrenegades/faq.htm#8

Done - and thanks for looking, I don't know if it will help.

Storm.nfo is a rather large attachment....
since the original picture is only 205Kb, I sent VisError01.JPG also. Hope I'm not overstepping...

I'm thinking it could also be the VidCard driver; sometimes that happens - I will investigate this in the next couple of days. I have trouble getting the drivers from NVidia to work sometimes, so I will check the manufacturer's website (XFXForce).

EDIT
Ooops I forgot to zip the info file. SORRY!
Do I need to do that a second time, but ZIP the NFO file?
I guess I am kinda hyper on this issue.
My apologies.

I really feel bad about that. One time someone sent me an unasked-for X:BTF savegame - unzipped - so I know it can make you mad (it made ME mad, I was on dialup back then, this savegame was HUGE). I had a reputation for being able to hack X:BTF savegames (I developed a hack using a hex editor to boost asteroid yields for ore factories)... I POSTED the info and how-to in a forum (a user forum - not Egosoft forum) - and this random turkey just emails me his savegame and says "hack this for me". I sent him an EXTEMELY caustic reply, he clogged my email reader for over an hour.



[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Vice]

What you sent is fine. After a quick browser, here is a step to try:

- You're running the 6369 driver, dated Sept. 2007. Update to something at least in the 18X series. Latest WHQL is here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x ... _whql.html The driver you are using is pretty early for Vista and may be one that still had issues. By early 2008, it seemed many/most quirks had been worked out and the more recent drivers are pretty stable (along with significant performance improvements). It may not fix this problem, but it's a good step to try because of how old the driver is.

[Storm]

Originally posted by Vice
What you sent is fine. After a quick browser, here is a step to try:

- You're running the 6369 driver, dated Sept. 2007. Update to something at least in the 18X series. Latest WHQL is here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x ... _whql.html The driver you are using is pretty early for Vista and may be one that still had issues. By early 2008, it seemed many/most quirks had been worked out and the more recent drivers are pretty stable (along with significant performance improvements). It may not fix this problem, but it's a good step to try because of how old the driver is.

Hmmm... that is 181.20, my last download/install was 175.19 on 9/22/2008 (downloaded from XFXForce). Maybe XFXForce left out something in THEIR version, and they had the old "6369 driver".

I WILL give that a shot. Shortly I will download it, archive it to DVD - I will wait till much later to install though - doing this usually gives me a bit of the jitters, and I am most alert / most competent in the early morning (midnight to say 6 AM or so). I'm a retired old coot, something of a "nightwalker".

Again - sorry about that big file attachment and THANKS for spotting the driver thing - I will post and advise if it helps (probably tomorrow before I get around to installing - I want to just play a little for the rest of the day).

OKAY! Downloaded and archived, along with the two PDF files (which I WILL read thoroughly before I install). I usually have to psych myself up a little for this kind of thing - and I want to play ER - may be a day or two before I install.

A minor oops.

Halfway through the download I noticed it was for WinVista 32 bit - so I cancelled, and navigated to the 181.20 WinVista 64 bit download.

Captain Kirk : "Scotty, I need warp speed NOW!"
Scotty : "I kenna do it captain, your consoles got Vista!"
Kirk : "So what?"
Scotty : "You downloaded the wrong driver, you shmuck! ... errr.... CAPTAIN!"
Kirk : "You suck!"
Scotty : "Go pack haggis into yon photon torpedo tubes! If you dinna know haggis, I be cramming some down yer fat throat!"



[Edited on 1-8-2009 by Storm]

[Storm]

Minor update, possibly more clues; I haven't installed the new NVidia drivers yet, they might very well fix things - but I am seeing more consitancy here:

I wanted to further explore trading, so I did a run from Port Rivoch and Rivoch (electronics) to Starport 2 and Glacia (sell electronics, buy energy products), and back to Rivoch to sell the energy products.

While docked on planet Glacia;
I entered the shipyard on the off chance that they had better than a Raven. Texture on the spinning graphic representing my current ship was glitched with a kind of "Z-Buffer" effect. Texture on the NEAR parts of the ship was the normal "cold steel/shiny/textured" look, and as it was rotating parts of the ship farther away would "pop" to gray and lose their texture. As the ship rotated, parts of the textures were popping in and out - as a part rotated towards the viewer, the texture would "pop in", as parts of the ship rotated away from the viewer, they "whited out" (more like "grayed out" which was something I noticed in the earlier events - shipyards = grayed out, in space objects = whited out).

When I took off, I immediately nosed straight up... then adjusted my course to aim at the Glacia-Sapphire gate (I had selected it already as my nav point before I landed). The gate, Starport 2 and scenery stations LOOKED a bit whited out through the fog, but that was probably normal (Glacia atmosphere). As I broke atmosphere, everything was normal and stayed normal (this time). Gated to Sapphire, flew to Rivoch. At port Rivoch after selling energy, went into the shipyard. The spinning ship graphic was normal. So THIS time, the only glitch was in the Glacia shipyard.

It is as if something in the Glacia atmosphere corrupts graphics, or for some reason makes the problem worse or brings on the problem (if it is my vidcard); as if there is an extra "stresser" in the Glacia atmosphere or terrain or whatever that instigates the problem or pushes my vidcard over the edge.

I am going to spend time now popping in and out of Lambda to get kills. After I install the new drivers, I will agressively reproduce the Glacia conditions over and over and see what happens.