nVidia 8800 LOD/Texture bug [Archive] - Bohemia Interactive Forums

Sniperdoc

May 22 2007, 04:09

I can't believe this... this game, so long in the making... the 8800 series out for almost 7 months now... and all these INEXCUSABLE graphical issues.

I swear... when I started playing this game, I thought I clicked on the demo executable. That is not acceptable by any means. I cannot understand why they even bothered to release the game in this condition!

I don't even want to hear about some mumbo-jumbo about the fact that there is a relatively small usergroup of 8800's out there... This is a brand-spanking new game and NO OTHER games are having these issues. Supreme Commander, STALKER, C&C3, etc... none of them have issues... except this game.

This game is a frickin' joke. Unfinished, incomplete, back to the bargain bin! No wonder they only charged $39 for it on Direct2Download. None of these other games sold for that little upon release. This game was totally a premature push to the public and they lowered the price because of it.

Can't wait for Operation Flashpoint 2. Hopefully it'll be better than this half-finished script.

Sceaduwe

May 22 2007, 04:20

Stop your winning, I too have a 8800 card - I too have some graphical issues - I don't come on the forums and just start being a mouthy idiot. ***I am sure the developers are working hard on it and hopefully they will release a patch to correct the issue, if not this one then in another one.

You might want to try lowering your in game settings (yes, you shouldn't have to... yada yada..) which should help and try the -maxmem=512 solution some people have talked about.

The most important point to remember is that this bug has been logged on the Arma bug reporting system (http://bugs.armed-assault.net/main_page.php) and you can read about it and vote for it to be fixed there.

Naterstein

May 22 2007, 04:21

I am pretty upset as well, but from the looks of it, BIS will fix the issue. I have faith in them for now.

I could play the game fine for the first week, a few days after that I encountered the texture issue and some artifacting, now I am getting CTDs.

I play all sorts of more graphically demanding games with no issues. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

[SWAF]Lunatic

May 22 2007, 18:27

I too suffer from the same issues, and have to agree that ArmA was rushed out the door way too soon.

We have all paid good money to be beta testers, but i read a review that said it builds on OPFP was good had potential but is too buggy. So my bad!

Sniperdoc

May 22 2007, 21:55

You know... come to think of it. The problem is there are too many people that are accepting crappy software to start with. Whatever happened to the times when you didn't have to worry about games being buggy.

I'm getting sick and tired of people telling my hardware is too brand new, or the game is too brand new... Gimme a fricking break! It's about time that the consumers get what they paid for!!! We pay for games that work, we pay for hardware that's supposed to work, but it doesn't over 50% of the time.

I've been in the I.T. field for over 8 years now, and quite frankly, this half-a$$ed workmanship on hardware AND software developers is really getting old.

Oh, and by the way... here are my specs:

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 at 2.93GHz - stock
Corsair 8500C5D - 2 Gigs at 1066MHz - stock
eVGA 680i Mobo with latest chipset drivers
eVGA 8800GTX with latest drivers
2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10k HDD's - mirrored (system/game drive - XP Pro)
2x Seagate Barracuda 120GB 7.2k HDD's - mirrored (system/game drive - Vista 32-bit Business)
1x Seagate Barracuda 400GB 7.2k HDD (Data/Porn)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Lite-On DVD-RAM SH-16A7S

I shouldn't have to deal with buying a new game that doesn't perform as it should and I'm sick and tired of other people accepting CRAP as the norm. "Just deal with it" or "They're working on it" or "That's to be expected" doesn't cut it anymore. This is bullcrap and everyone should see it as that.

There are 2 major video card vendors out there... nVidia and ATI. And I tell you what, given that the 8800GTX has been out for more than 7 months, there's NO EXCUSE that they couldn't have fixed the 8800 series problems. If there's an issue, hold the game's release. If you're missing a deadline because other better games are going to come out before yours does, too bad. That's your fault for setting a crappy deadline or not getting your logistics straight for a sound and solid release of the game.

PPPPPP - Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Baddo

May 22 2007, 22:06

Be sure to let Nvidia also know your opinion.

I agree that in general the quality of software products can be awful at times. Unfortunately it can be said about ArmA's initial release too. In my opinion it starts to get ridiculous when a game needs hundreds of megabytes of patching after initial release... One explanation to problems in this industry is that large software programs are very, very complex beasts and thus it is no wonder the developers often fail. A bug-free large software program is in my opinion impossible to achieve. I believe the developers do what they can with the time and money they have available. In my opinion even increasing the number of developers is not an automatic solution as it can in itself create even more problems than it solves. Human beings have a hard time managing such complex beasts as there is required so abstract level of thinking that it goes over the top for most of us and also for the developers it seems.

Maybe the beta testing model should be revised. Give the product to public beta testing for a large group of people way before deadline. At least then those people know that they have a beta version.

I do not accept the bad quality present in many software products but unfortunately that's what we get. Some time ago I said consoles start to sound quite good after reading about all the hardware etc. problems here in these forums... one stable platform to develop for, sounds much better for a game developer than the hell-ish personal computer scene where you can have probably millions of combinations of components that the software developers have practically no chance to verify how it works with their products.

Sniperdoc

May 22 2007, 22:29

Be sure to let Nvidia also know your opinion.
Oh... don't you worry about that... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/crazy_o.gif They already know! http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/icon_rolleyes.gif
Don't know if you've heard about the 680i fiasco that's been going around... but check the eVGA or ASUS forums for the 680i mobo. I haven't had any problems with my build, but I built my dad a similar system and it had problems upon installation and I took twice the precautions with his, than I did with mine. Anyways... getting off topic.

If public betas it takes to get a larger hardware base, then so be it. But, I have to say, they should at least recruit individuals that know how to record issues to beta test. Just getting a bunch of kids that have no clue on how to recreate situations or log information won't do Bohemia any good...

It comes down to deadlines... I understand that. But then there is the ability to put off the deadline to a later date.

jimmc

Jun 9 2007, 13:01

Quote[/b] ]I shouldn't have to deal with buying a new game that doesn't perform as it should and I'm sick and tired of other people accepting CRAP as the norm. "Just deal with it" or "They're working on it" or "That's to be expected" doesn't cut it anymore. This is bullcrap and everyone should see it as that.

ok show me another game where you can make all things you can make in ArmA then i'll tell you ok dude you were right but i havent seen yet ... so for the moment play your bought game and wait for a patch and stop complaining like my 6 years old sister (btw i dont know if youre a man) ...

stalker, supreme commander c&c3 are better than Arma ? go play with them n00b ... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/rofl.gif

Switch0r

Jun 9 2007, 15:02

c&c3 is good bro http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/nener.gif

MattXR

Jun 9 2007, 15:26

Sailindawg

Jun 9 2007, 15:39

Id just like to comment that the 1.08 patch coming on monday, has NO lod bugs what so ever with the 8800. i have not seen one yet when i sometimes got them with 1.07 there all gone in 1.08 http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

Sounds very good. I may have to upgrade sometime over this summer..... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/inlove.gif ....I'm a hardware junkie!

Osi

Jun 9 2007, 23:33

I've largely stopped playing Arma until 1.08 comes out.

Have an 8800 GTS 320 Meg, non stop problems with Arma.

Due to instability with 1.07 my clan has reverted to 1.05, which means I get to hear about what they're doing on TS. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif
Pretty sad when I only recently 'upgraded' to the 8800 from an ATI x800XL 256 meg. Sure the ATI was slow as hell, but it at least worked http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

I really hope QA can wrap up 1.08 kinda soonish.
I really enjoy playing with my friends and look forward to the day when I can.

Be that as it may, I'm a software test lead, I understand QA needs time, please dont rush them ;-)

rcspikee

Jun 10 2007, 18:35

I've got graphical errors with my 8800 as well (obvious), no point stressing http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/whistle.gif http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/help.gif http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/rofl.gif

Spindry69

Jun 11 2007, 00:35

Id just like to comment that the 1.08 patch coming on monday, has NO lod bugs what so ever with the 8800. i have not seen one yet when i sometimes got them with 1.07 there all gone in 1.08 ***http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
Wow, sounds promising, I hope your right.

largepiece

Jun 25 2007, 10:24

Id just like to comment that the 1.08 patch coming on monday, has NO lod bugs what so ever with the 8800. i have not seen one yet when i sometimes got them with 1.07 there all gone in 1.08 http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif
So has anyone still got problems?

My copy of ArmA is still pretty much unplayable with the 1.08 patch. If I turn post processing effects on, it even BSOD's then restarts my PC!

Meh, It's a real bummer to pay money for an unplayable game. The texture problems are all still just as bad for me under 1.08 and it gets really bad after 5-10 minutes. I still get crashes to desktop with post processing on low and mega loads of crazy vertical artifacts coming off some vehicles. Not to mention crazy shadows, slow drawing textures and super simplified geometric models.

Sickboy

Jun 25 2007, 10:30

Try starting the game with added to the parameters: -maxmem=512
Matt Rochelle even reported 256 needed on some systems.
Also Texture Detail and Shader on Low or Very Low seem to be problematic, in my system setting those 2 on normal or up all probs disappear.

Warpy

Jun 25 2007, 13:32

I can't believe ppl are having to tweak a game this much just to play it! It's mind numbing to know the developers of this game have the damn right cheek to release Arma when it quiet clearly lacks quality control... ignorance will bite you in the end... i never played OPF but from the vibe around here that too was nailed with bugs.... if you cant get it right with the second timer around with your games then perhaps making games isn't what you should be doing... But that's just common sense.

largepiece

Jun 26 2007, 05:48

Thanks sickboy, I've already tried both those solutions but no joy. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/sad_o.gif

The crazy thing is, I had similar problems with my old PC.
An athlon xp322+ with a 6800GT.

Haha, here's the really unfunny part though, the problems are even worse on my 2.4 gig core duo with an 8800GTS!

I loved OpFlash, why doesn't ArmA like me? Meh...

Sickboy

Jun 26 2007, 06:52

Try putting the texture+shader detail to normal or higher...
I also have all kinds of weird problems when those are set to low or lower.

redberon2003

Jun 26 2007, 07:09

largepiece

Jun 26 2007, 07:33

Thanks sickboy. I've tried that too!
I had everything on high with my new system seeing as it pretty much kicks ass (well at least in every other game).

Ah well, maybe the next patch aye?

I've emailed 505 games support and the PR person at BI. I doubt I'll get a reply though.

I'd be interested to hear from any 8800gts owners who don't have problems. I've seen posts other places indicating not everyone with 8800's have problems. I wonder what the systems that are having problems have in common...

redberon2003

Jun 26 2007, 07:35

well i have a GTX. and i haven't had video problems in a while, at max settings.

largepiece

Jun 26 2007, 07:45

well i have a GTX. and i haven't had video problems in a while, at max settings.
You b'stard! Lol.

What CPU?

redberon2003

Jun 26 2007, 07:54

Full specs

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @3.2GHz

-2GB Corsair, DDR2-800 running at 712?(think so) MHz, origanally rated for 5-5-5-12, down to 4-4-4-12

-eVGA 680i SLI motherboard (the one made on release, there are some newer revisions though for better FSB clocks, mine runs fine though for what i need)

-eVGA 8800GTX 768MB, no overclock. but the fan was put up to 90% cycle duty

-2x10000 RPM raptor hard drives in RAID 0

-good air cooling

-PSU 750 watt PC power and cooling Silencer

what it's running

Windows XP
Nvidia 158.22 drivers
Armed Assault 1.08
Firefox http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/firefoxlover.gif =P

largepiece

Jun 26 2007, 20:43

Hmmmmm strange how similar our systems are and you're not getting any problems.

Althoughhhhhhhhhh, another big thanks to sickboy!!!

Last night I realised after confidently pointing out that I'd already tried both the fixes you mentioned, I hadn't actually tried maxmem at 256. Wicked! It's all working, no worries! Cheers mate. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif I ended up setting it to 320 (seeing as my 8800 is a 320mb version) which runs fine too.

EDIT: This fix was only temporary. ArmA has started BSODing and crashing to desktop with the usual graphics artifacts again! Doh! Thanks anyway sickboy, you got me hopeful there for a bit...

Warpy

Jun 26 2007, 23:16

So these symptoms... are they caused by the patch 1.08 or hardware? From the look's of things the Arma crew aren't in a hurry to fix it, so I'm guessing it's been written of as "deal with it" till the next patch?

largepiece

Jun 27 2007, 09:30

ARghhhhhhhh! I wish they were fixing it!

Tried turning post processing effects on again, seeing as I thought this new maxmem=256 line was fixing my problems. ArmA BSOD'd and restarted my computer again!!!!!!!

Hate it when you think a fix is working but it only works for a wee while...

Arghhh! I so wish they'd fix this game! I just spent all day making a custom face and a squad patch, logged onto a multiplayer server and it only lasted 5 minutes!

WarProphet

Jun 27 2007, 14:11

I had problems too.
The "cannot find surface texture" was the worst.
Anyway, I downloaded the latest nvidia BETA drivers and I the prob went away. I HAVE NOT CRASHED YET.

Asus Extreme mb
Intel Quad
2x evga 8800gtx/sli
Creative Xfi
Vista Ult.64

quiet_man

Jun 27 2007, 15:43

Tried turning post processing effects on again, seeing as I thought this new maxmem=256 line was fixing my problems. ArmA BSOD'd and restarted my computer again!!!!!!!
Maybe your searching at the wrong end?

Have you tried to disable your soundcard and see what happens when you run Arma?

QuietMan

EDIT:
Quote[/b] ]Having the same problem, but with vista and BSOD (thought this was meant to be a thing of the past with vista, what gives?!?) - Ha10kx2k.sys problem which when traced down is the creative drivers.

from another thread here

TheVoodoo

Jun 27 2007, 17:24

one more thing you could try is to start Arma with following parameter:

arma.exe -wthamistillplayingarma=dontknow

sorry could not resist. arma pissed me off like no game did before!

quiet_man

Jun 27 2007, 20:46

arma.exe -wthamistillplayingarma=dontknow
yea, while I'm absolutely against "this should BIS have included from beginning" people, real bugs are a different thing.

But as I'm playing only very few other games, I don't know if others are better. And for sure there is no other game like Arma out there than OPF. Might be the reason why you still play it?

Also you should not forget that Arma revealed some bugs in hardware drivers. I think some improvements during the last months were not only from Arma itself.

QuietMan

largepiece

Jun 28 2007, 08:41

Hmmm no I haven't tried disabling sound quiet_man. I've got a budget creative labs card in there too. Disabled my onboard sound seeing I have nothing but trouble with it. Hmmmmm might give that a shot, cheers mate!

binkster

Jun 28 2007, 23:14

Ive been posting this any a few threads but I have 8800gtx and I play with settings on high and texture on Normal. Usually my text gets blurry or its gets a little choppy so I type SHIFT plus MINUS (numpad) then type FLUSH. This flushes video ram and I can continue to play without CTD. I have to do this every 10min or so. Do it if you spawn far away or when u enter new towns because of all the textures being loaded. Also Im using rivatuner to display Video ram in game so I watch that. Seems when it goes over 400mb the FPS starts going down. I flush it and gets back to around 250mb. Then gradually goes up.

heliosjet

Jun 28 2007, 23:18

great however I don't understand why BIS is not doing the VRAM flush automatically.
They could detect if your character is idle, check the VRAM usage and flush.
Doing it manually is not very good programming.

largepiece

Jun 29 2007, 02:04

Well the sound thing didn't work. Thanks anyway quiet. I tried another sound card and still got CTDs.

I've just had three CTD's in the last 30 minutes playing online and didn't have any in three hours last night. Weird.

Thanks for that tip about manual flushing blinkster. I'll try that. I might try to setup riva tuner to keep track of my VRAM too... Is there in option in the hardware monitoring somewhere?

binkster

Jun 29 2007, 03:07

Check the forums for rivatuner, there are some links to some good tutorials on how to set up overhead display of FPS, Gpu Temps, FAN speeds, vram, ram and tons of stuff. ***I just have video temps and ram and fps running. ***Another thing is I just downloaded and installed the new beta drivers for xp. ***Seems to work better. ***I still have to flush the vram, but it seems not as often. ***But for you guys that keep crashing you can just flush, I know its difficult, like me you get used to it and you can do it in seconds its the only way to get a good game in. ***

Ive also noticed if you put textures on low and very low it makes it worse. ***Just do normal. ***If you flush durring low or very low you will go to a black screen while it flushes and may take up to 15 seconds. ***But this doesnt happen with normal textures. ***Most people are playing evolution so just get used to flushing everytime u respawn and everytime u are in a town.

Edit: @largepiece I dont think bis will do it automatically. There is something else going on. This shouldnt happen in the first place. Imagine being in a firefight and all of a sudden your screen goes black and then back to normal. This is what happens sometimes but most of the time its a click flicker of the screen.

The.D

Jun 29 2007, 18:35

Hey Everyone!

I think I just found a (temporary?) solution to the problem(s) for Vista64 users.
Still need confirmation on whether this works for everybody - here's the story:
There were some similarities to glitches/performance problems encountered in "STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl".
The following procedure is pretty much the same as in STALKER and hence will probably only work properly with 64-bit operating systems (sorry).

Try this:

0) First of all, create a backup of your original "arma.exe"

1) Download "Explorer Suite" found here (http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php).

2) Run "CFF Explorer.exe" and open your Arma.exe with it.

3) Open up "NT Headers/File Header" in the left column. Check the right column now. You will find a "Click here" button. Click it. (..)

4) Check "App can handle >2gb addresstest"

5) Save the whole thing.

6) Run Arma.exe with your preferred parameters* (I'm using ' "...\Armed Assault\arma.exe" -nosplash h -maxmem=256 -mod=@ModWarSound', for instance)

*Note that -maxmem=xxx is still used and apparently required here. I DO hope a real patch will be released to address this issue. ("Sniperdoc" is 100% right. It's intolerable and rather embarrassing for BIS. But frankly, I also blame myself for ever having bought Vista.. I fell for DX10.)

By doing all this, I was finally able to play the game in "Very high" Detail with 8xFSAA enabled and "default Textures", not encountering any CTDs or even LOD/texture load problems for the time I played.
I can give you the detailed system specs if needed.
This will still require some confirmation by others especially for longer periods of playing time, as I just can't do that myself at the moment (Uni's a bitch).

Good luck, guys - hope it works!

largepiece

Jul 1 2007, 23:36

Nice post there blinkster. That's clarified a few things for me. I'm not sure I know enough about programming to put the blame in the Nividia camp or BI camp, although my brother (head dev for a large freight company here in NZ) reckons it should go more with BI. At any rate, your manual flush method has certainly made it more playable for me. I'm getting used to doing it pretty quick too. Lol, usually just before the chopper I'm in lands at a FARP near the present obj.

I think I'm using the 1.60 something beta drivers for XP. Is there a newer version that that out?

Evolution is a pretty wicked mission aye. I did some scripting in OpFlash and I have some appreciation for the huge amount of time the guy who designed that mission must have put into it.

Ah well, guess I'll keeping waiting to see if Nividia and BI can come up with a solution for us. http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/smile_o.gif

I've just started reading about this bug too:
http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....9;st=30 (http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=68;t=64129;st=30)
and realised I get that one as well! Lol!

ArmA is still a flippin awesome game in my opinion, despite these issues.

Barry the baldy

Jul 5 2007, 02:12

The original poster, while a bit over the top, has a valid point with gamers accepting cruddy first versions of retail games as "The Norm" BUT.... It's part of the industry now, with cable in almost every gamers home the 'patch culture' is easier for developers to deal with.

Better get used to it mate, its here to stay. Just do what I do and don't buy the game until you've spent some time on the games forums, read the issues people are having and the devs have released 2 or 3 patches.

ArmaVidz

Jul 7 2007, 11:27

The original poster, while a bit over the top, has a valid point with gamers accepting cruddy first versions of retail games as "The Norm" BUT.... It's part of the industry now, with cable in almost every gamers home the 'patch culture' is easier for developers to deal with.

Better get used to it mate, its here to stay.
I agree. I would like to point out this is why piracy is also here to stay.

http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/wink_o.gif