Graphical artifacts in games

[Tibor Hazafi]

Hi all,
If I have a graphical artifact in game, what's the easiest way to determine whether it is software related issue or not?
For example in Shadow of Mordor a little piece of ground texture (blood, mud, slough) sometimes (once in 1-2 hours) flickers. Could it be hardware defect or simply game/driver related graphical bug?
My VGA: MSI GTX 980 with 358.50 driver.

 

[Mussels]

If its the same object and it doesn't change, then its a software/game bug.

 

[silentbogo]

It could be one of 3 things:
1) Game glitch. Had that in Arkham Origins and Shadow of Mordor (when it was still playable on my rig), so I wouldn't worry if it only appears in this WB title. Occasional jumpy polygons are quite common in both games, at least on my PC.
2) Your card is overclocked too high. Rarely, but even factory overclock may cause this. Try to downclock it to the reference specs, or if it is overclocked ATM, reset to defaults.
3) GPU overheating. Check the temps and see if they are within the safe spec. If not - check the HSF / RMA the card. Your GPU is new, so I doubt that's the case, but I've seen a couple of GTX970's with faulty cooling already.

 

[Tibor Hazafi]

Thank you guys!

If its the same object and it doesn't change, then its a software/game bug.

It is the same object, it just simply disappears/reappears

@silentbogo
1) I have noticed this only in Shadow of Mordor (I haven't tried Batman yet) so far
2) It is only overclocked by the manufacturer
3) I always monitor my temperatures under games (GPU temp was 66°C maximum so far)

 

[Mussels]

if its the same object, then its a game glitch.

 

[Jborg]

Check multiple games / benchmarks . Its probably just the game, I get some texture flickering in Fallout 4, but its definitely just from the game.

 

[silentbogo]

Yep, looks like nothing to worry about, then.

Shadow of Mordor is probably more buggy than latest Batman Arkham titles, it just did not bring attention because it was working fine upon release and got thrashed afterwards.
After the first batch of DLC it stopped running on my PC altogether (crash after 2-3 minutes in-game).

 

[rtwjunkie]

Yep, looks like nothing to worry about, then.

Shadow of Mordor is probably more buggy than latest Batman Arkham titles, it just did not bring attention because it was working fine upon release and got thrashed afterwards.
After the first batch of DLC it stopped running on my PC altogether (crash after 2-3 minutes in-game).

Which bugginess is that? I have 90 hours in Shadow of Mordor so far and yet to encounter a bug or glitch. I'm quite frankly in awe at how perfect the game runs in this day and age of half-finished games on release.

 

[silentbogo]

Which bugginess is that? I have 90 hours in Shadow of Mordor so far and yet to encounter a bug or glitch. I'm quite frankly in awe at how perfect the game runs in this day and age of half-finished games on release.

Since this is the only game I ever bought on the day of release or pre-ordered since Orange box, I can make a whole list of bugs in this game.
I had 43 hours in game on my first playthrough and besides minor flicker, texture popping and occasional dead freezes after 1-2 hours of play there was nothing serious to complain about.
Once I got stuck in a cave and couldn't get out during some side-quest cave battle, few times I got trapped in the environment while riding a caragor, fallen through textures a few times, on many occasions I couldn't use a bow (animation glitch or something like that). Then I deleted a game and forgot about it for some time, because in my opinion one full campaign playthrough is enough to exhaust all fun in game.

There was a series of patches later, and The Bright Lord DLC came out, so I decided to give it a try one more time. Installed the game, did not attempt to enable ultra-textures and played on the same settings as the first time: 2 minutes following a crash. No matter what config I used - always a crash within 1-2 minutes (even on lowest settings).

So, since my initial process of completing the campaign I was only able to clock 1 extra in-game hour mostly messing with settings. Now I'm simply too lazy to download 43GB of game data, but I might do it soon (twice) for my Linux games benchmark.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Since this is the only game I ever bought on the day of release or pre-ordered since Orange box, I can make a whole list of bugs in this game.
I had 43 hours in game on my first playthrough and besides minor flicker, texture popping and occasional dead freezes after 1-2 hours of play there was nothing serious to complain about.
Once I got stuck in a cave and couldn't get out during some side-quest cave battle, few times I got trapped in the environment while riding a caragor, fallen through textures a few times, on many occasions I couldn't use a bow (animation glitch or something like that). Then I deleted a game and forgot about it for some time, because in my opinion one full campaign playthrough is enough to exhaust all fun in game.

There was a series of patches later, and The Bright Lord DLC came out, so I decided to give it a try one more time. Installed the game, did not attempt to enable ultra-textures and played on the same settings as the first time: 2 minutes following a crash. No matter what config I used - always a crash within 1-2 minutes (even on lowest settings).

So, since my initial process of completing the campaign I was only able to clock 1 extra in-game hour mostly messing with settings. Now I'm simply too lazy to download 43GB of game data, but I might do it soon (twice) for my Linux games benchmark.

Ok then. I'm still amazed that we can how two vastly different experiences. Which means it's not the game, or else I would have the same issues. Anyway....

 

[silentbogo]

There is an opposite experience on my rig with Arkham Knight: when it was still off Steam I dared to try a pirated version to see what all the fuss is about. To my surprise I had not a single bug or glitch and even Batmobile framedrops weren't too bad.
BTW, my GPU is actually not supported and is allegedly far below the official spec, but I could run the game at 1080p a bit below medium settings, or 900p at medium-high with Gameworks disabled in both cases.

 

[KrachB00Mente]

There is an opposite experience on my rig with Arkham Knight: when it was still off Steam I dared to try a pirated version to see what all the fuss is about. To my surprise I had not a single bug or glitch and even Batmobile framedrops weren't too bad.
BTW, my GPU is actually not supported and is allegedly far below the official spec, but I could run the game at 1080p a bit below medium settings, or 900p at medium-high with Gameworks disabled in both cases.

Same thing here with the original Steam Version. Except the one time a door glitched somehow and i fell into nothingness. I was not able to repeat it though.

 

[Tibor Hazafi]

So guys, do you say that this is a software (game and/or driver) issue? (I recorded the video yesterday)

 

[Ebo]

it could be both, but like RCoon says if it happens on same place everytime in the game, is a glitch

 

[the54thvoid]

Watch forum rules - post 13 exists as a brand new topic thread. Don't duplicate threads with the same problem please.

 

[Tibor Hazafi]

it could be both, but like RCoon says if it happens on same place everytime in the game, is a glitch

"RCoon says"?

#15 the54thvoid

Sorry, I just simply wanted to be sure about this problem.

 

[Mussels]

thats a game issue for sure. you can tell its switching between two different quality textures there - neither is distorted, or changing between glitchings.

"RCoon says"?

It was me, actually.

Watch forum rules - post 13 exists as a brand new topic thread. Don't duplicate threads with the same problem please.

post 13 is the same problem in video form?

 

[the54thvoid]

thats a game issue for sure. you can tell its switching between two different quality textures there - neither is distorted, or changing between glitchings.




It was me, actually.



post 13 is the same problem in video form?

Yar

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/ground-texture-artifact.217919/#post-3377960

 

[Mussels]

Yar

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/ground-texture-artifact.217919/#post-3377960

bonus thread was deleted. was not aware of that.

 

[Tibor Hazafi]

Thank you guys, I have calmed down.
I had to RMA my previous 280X card, and ever since I'm afraid of these glitches.
Is there a simple method to decide about an artifact whether it's software related or not?

 

[Mussels]

Thank you guys, I have calmed down.
I had to RMA my previous 280X card, and ever since I'm afraid of these glitches.
Is there a simple method to decide about an artifact whether it's software related or not?

as a previous owner of a 280x, those cards were just goddamn terrible. super high failure rates.

 

[Tibor Hazafi]

as a previous owner of a 280x, those cards were just goddamn terrible. super high failure rates.

Besides the memory failure mine had an another annoying problem: The screen sometimes jumped in 2D mode, unless I locked the memory clock to a fix 1500 value (later I had to lower this to 1300 to restrict the artifacts to a minimum level.)

 

[xorbe]

If it's very occasional it can be hard to tell. For instance, in TF2 for me, the water and intelligence flicker occasionally, but it happens on 3 different computers, so I'm confident it's the game. Games definitely have a lot of glitches themselves. That youtube video looks like a game issue to me, eh.

 

[Tibor Hazafi]

I had another weird glitch in Resident Evil - Revelations 2 yesterday. Additional detail about this: Whenever I walk out, and came in again (even after restart the game / restart the PC / change display driver), this glitch always happens with the SAME visual artifact (as you can see the water in the youtube video twice). That's the reason I really hope this is another software/game related issue. Or should I worry about this?

Clocks at stock speed (only factory OC), GPU temp: 50°C

 

[RCoon]

RCoon says

somebody called my-

It was me, actually.

-nevermind

I had another weird glitch in Resident Evil - Revelations 2 yesterday. Additional detail about this: Whenever I walk out, and came in again (even after restart the game / restart the PC / change display driver), this glitch always happens with the SAME visual artifact (as you can see the water in the youtube video twice). That's the reason I really hope this is another software/game related issue. Or should I worry about this?

Clocks at stock speed (only factory OC), GPU temp: 50°C

Looks like VRAM. Seen it before a long while back for BF3 users. Usually video corruption like that is some dodgy stuff with (vmemory)voltages, or poignantly just broken VRAM. RMA seems the best option.
Hurrdurr, read the thread Coon.

Out of curiosity, do you have VSync on?