obobski
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Posts posted by obobski
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I'm adding a weapon to the game from the depths of unused content in the main BSAs - it needs to glow and isn't. I have (what I assume to be) a glowmap (it has the _g and looks like a glowmap viewing it in gimp/paint.net), but opening the thing up in Nifskope (or in the game, or in GECK) very clearly it does not glow. I've been picking apart items that *do* glow, but I'm not seeing what needs to be changed. EmitMulti is at 4.0 (which matches a glowing item), and the files are all in the right place.
So what do I have to do next?
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i know, i was just listing the AMD that has the most power, esp since he went with the i5 2500, its the closest to it that AMD has (the i5 2500k is the one i was gunna go with for my PC)
the PSU price all depends on the Watts. i planned on a 600W on mine and it was $70 (-$50 after rebate) and its a corsair.
the graphics card will be the most expensive part of your build, and thats not a bad thing. dropping $10-$20 on your Case and/or PSU and/or CPU and/or Motherboard and/or anything else and putting that money into a Graphics Card is well worth it
PSU price is not dictated by wattage, its dictated by many factors (quality of components, mark-up, etc) and wattage does not dictate quality, and you should never skimp on the PSU for any reason - frying the entire system with a bad PSU is not a good day.
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Here's my new stuff:
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125367
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131710
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311
Computer case and PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.662122
HDD and Optical Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.667935
Any suggestions on better cases, PSU's? I'd still like them to be cheap, but I want to get the best options.
I agree with the suggestion to go AMD, I would also drop the case/PSU combo - you'll almost never find a top shelf PSU in such a combo. Look at Corsair, Seasonic, XFX, and Enermax - they're all quality boxes; you'll be spending ~$80-$120 on the PSU alone to get something super nifty. I wouldn't even go with that $200 AMD though, you can back way off on the CPU and still have top end performance (because quite honestly, it doesn't do a whole lot for your gaming performance - put the money into a better graphics card, you'll realize better returns).
Something like an X4 965 or 970 will be perfect (may even run faster for games), and take the $50 you saved (probably more once you switch to an AMD mainboard, they tend to be cheaper for the same features) and step up to a GTX 560 or something.
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I think the only situation that Windows wants the Internet for is WGA validation, but you can do that over the phone if no Internet connection exists (and it's a one time thing after you install the OS). Otherwise exactly what the other posters have told you - it isn't true at all. Some 3rd party applications will want an Internet connection, but they will usually state that on the packaging/in the readme what is required and if it needs to be continuously connected (for example you have to have an Internet connection to play World of Warcraft, but that should be fairly obvious).
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That's good to hear, the faint continuous beep thing is not so good to hear. Can you test the card in another computer? Otherwise I would just try and return it for a replacement - you don't want to say that lightning caused the damage, but you can say that it died (acts of god are usually never covered by warranty/service contracts, even ones that have you pay for the repairs; unfortunately). If the card somehow did die, that'd be a new one for me (not saying impossible, just very unlikely (but lightning is a fickle beast)).
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Well, if you dismiss them you can select the Lucky 38 as a place for them to go (if you've been given the suite/are that far along in the game), but if you're talking about NPCs you never met appearing at the Lucky 38 out of nowhere, I have absolutely no idea. Are you running any mods that play with the companions? (Any mods in general?)
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Depending on your monitor, either board would be perfectly fine. If your monitor isn't particularly high resolution, the 5850 will be just peachy, if you've got a monster to drive then the 6950 might be a good choice. The 5850 should have no trouble though. I'm not entirely sure what is meant by "crossfire not being supported by games" - it's generally assumed to be abstracted by the graphics driver and the hardware developer, if an application profile doesn't exist that's on AMD-GPD. Some games will "scale" poorly, but this is more to do with SMP in general (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl's_law). nVidia and AMD-GPD have both posted very respectable numbers for most mainstream games, and will usually work to correct problems in their drivers VERY quickly for mainstream titles. That said, you will never realize 200% gain real-world doing FSR (which is what all desktop graphics cards do), even with AFR (no matter how SLI-Zone and AMD spin it for marketing); expect 150-180% as more realistic (170% is, or at least was the last time I did numbers, mid-line).
Basically, with the exception of first-day problems (for example when Fallout 3 was first released, older versions of AMD Catalyst and the X2 boards had performance troubles, but it was fixed within hours, I'm reading about similar issues with Brink but haven't seen any numbers or played with it myself) and some less than mainstream titles (like Gothic) you'll probably never notice trouble with a CrossFire setup. That said, the extra investment is usually not worth it given the state of modern videogames - the demand for processing power simply isn't there beyond IQ enhancement (things like AA, AF, 3D, etc), and as always - if a single board/chip cannot do the problem, multiple boards/chips will not be able to do it either (at least not FSR, which you'll never get around).
If your monitor is in the 1024x768 to 1680x1050 range (or you're not rolling in money), keep the 5850 - it'll be perfectly fine; if you have a monster monitor (2048x1152 or larger) the 6950 should be considered, but again isn't required. Let's go to the numbers for more:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/1
Page through and look at the comparisons to other boards, like here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/15
Here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/16
And here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-6950-6970-review/22
Now, at first blush you might say "well, the 6950 surely wins!", not quite so simple. Your monitor is not going to give you 90 or 120 or 130 or 200 FPS (some high end CRTs and even fewer LCDs can do 120, do you have one of them?) - it simply cannot physically display it. Your monitor is going to give you something between 60 and 75hz refresh rate, which means a maximum framerate of 60-75FPS can be displayed (the monitor cannot physically draw any faster). This is still all very much above your lowest-common denominator, the human eye, which will generally perceive an image as "real motion" at 24FPS and above (gaming at 24FPS may feel choppy, for various reasons; motion pictures are shot at 24FPS, and most gaming above 30FPS is "good").
Bottom line: both boards should have absolutely no trouble with modern games, even at higher-ish resolutions, and if you're not using a high resolution display the 5850 should be kept without question. The benefits of the 6950 and CrossFire (for either the 5850 or two 6950s) are measurable, but the real question is whether or not they're tangible for you - I'm guessing they aren't. Save the few hundred bucks and have a nice dinner or something.
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I know this is probably the most basic of things, but have you checked that audio isn't muted? Have you checked that your media player is actually "pointed" at your soundcard? You can get the little meters in Windows 7 to dance around and still have the output set to 0.
If the strike damaged the onboard audio, you'd VERY likely have other problems with the system (Since that means the system mainboard, and for that matter, if it damaged the Xonar you'd have problems as well - because that draws power through the mainboard). Have you checked the PC for burn marks/smell? Did any surge arrestor (if present) trip or break?
Do the speakers/headphones work connected to something else, like an mp3 player?
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I think both are great, one thing I like (and I may simply have missed something for Photoshop here) is the DDS plug-in for Gimp, over the DDS plug-in for CS3; it just seems so much more logically put together. It isn't really a functionality thing either - both work just like they should.
If I still did print graphics or used any other Adobe product (Acrobat Pro, InDesign, Fireworks, etc), Photoshop would have a huge edge simply because of interoperability; for image retouching on stuff that'll never see paper, or modding for GECK/TESCS, Gimp is more than sufficient. Paint.NET is nice too - native DDS support, very clean UI, etc.
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Switch off the computer when you go to bed, enable speedstep if you have an Intel CPU.:thumbsup:
AMD has a similar feature, at least they did when I had an AMD chip (few years back) called Cool'N'Quiet, works just as well.
The high power demand of a gaming PC is basically the cost - you can get efficient power supplies, efficient graphics adapters that switch off when not in use, fancy green edition hard-drives that spin down when not being used, and so on and so on, but you're still fighting the power demand of the beast. Try to offset it with other things in your house - go with energy saver lightbulbs, turn the thermostat down/up (depending on season) a bit, go with energy saver appliances if possible, things like that.
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I had Oblivion running across three displays with SoftTH (devolper's site here: http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/), had to configure the secondary displays within SoftTH to 16-bit color and some other restrictions to get it playable, still lagged like crazy in high graphics areas (forget the Orrery entirely) - I was using two PCIe cards as SoftTH advised, and my performance still took a huge hit (running it across two 1152x864 4:3 monitors and a single 1440x900 16:10 monitor for a total of 3477x900 and I was probably averaging 30-40 FPS at best, into a 2560x1600 16:10 monitor I probably averaged twice that on the same system (the single monitor is actually more pixels)). SoftTH must be configured/tweaked per-game, so you will add files to the Oblivion directory like a mod, and play with a configuration file to get things working right (like FOV and whatnot), if you want it to work with another game you must repeat this process.
If your computer doesn't let you have a pair of PCIe x16 cards, forget it entirely - PCI simply won't handle the bandwidth requirements.
Another option, if you're up to buying new hardware, would be AMD Eyefinity (you need a Radeon HD 5000 or 6000 series board and supported monitors (all digital, at least one must support DisplayPort either through active adapter or natively), which will use a single graphics adapter to drive all three monitors - I don't know what the performance hit is like, but it's supposed to be much lighter than SoftTH. This solution, and the two below it, don't require the same level of tweaking that SoftTH does (mostly because we've moved into commercial products).
Also, again if you're buying hardware, look at Matrox's TripleHead2Go, either the Digital or DP edition, its GPU agnostic so you can have nVidia, ATI/AMD, S3, whatever you want, and it will give you triple monitor gaming - downside is that you have some resolution restrictions, PowerDesk (Matrox's software) is a bit dated, and some people have trouble getting the thing to even work. The upside is it supports three DVI or DP monitors, an analog edition also exists (its cheaper), but it doesn't support as high of resolution (I think it only supports 3x1280x1024 or 3x1440x900 if I remember correctly, the digital versions will do 3x1920x1200).
Finally, nVidia has released their 3D Vision Surround tech, which even supports 3D Vision (the 3D glasses for gaming), you need a supported card or set of cards (the list is sorta long: http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dv-system-requirements-surround-technology.html), this will give you similar connectivity to the Matrox, with none of the resolution impositions, and the ability to run 3D if you have monitors that can do 120hz (high end CRTs, some DLPs, and some LCDs) - downside is the massive price if you don't already have the hardware (a GTX 590 is not cheap, for example).
My advice: if your hardware supports two PCIe x16 cards, and you have a spare card to test out (it will work with different brands of cards, but you have to have Windows XP or Windows 7 to install that - afaik Vista's WDM still doesn't let you run ATI and nVidia or whatever side by side), try SoftTH - if you like the experience, then look at buying some fancy hardware solution if this is something you're going to do as a regular thing (just because the hardware solution will let it port to basically any game, and will probably give you better performance).
The reason I say test it out first, is because the triple monitor gaming experience is a lot different than you might expect - I personally didn't care for it, and went back to a single larger monitor and just played with the FOV a bit; some people absolutely love it though.
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The GTX 295 is one of the fastest graphics adapters ever made, and I'm entirely unsure what you mean by "except my system isn't really built for it" - modern graphics adapters generally have better power/performance ratios, are physically smaller, and require less cooling capacity (as a function of their lower TDPs).
You should have no issues running Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas at maximum or near maximum settings depending on your monitor's resolution (base game out of the box, the GTX 295 will have no problems driving 1600p); mods can change this situation depending upon what you install and how you configure it (for example high resolution texture replacers and other image-quality enhancement mods will surely reduce your performance).
For a more quantitative analysis, see here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-295-preview/11
Realize that driver enhancements over the last ~2 years will likely see realized performance improvements across the board, but that any numbers over 60 FPS are "worthless" (your monitor cannot physically display higher than 60 FPS (unless you have a true 120hz capable display, in which case it can display no higher than 120 FPS) - your eyes really can't pick apart much better than 30 FPS).
Assuming your system's power supply is up to the task, and your system has enough main memory and CPU power for the game to be satisfied, you should have absolutely no issues. A few specific spots within either game may demonstrate a performance dip, but this is to be expected on any system (and it should not be enough of a performance dip to defeat the illusion of motion).
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I will leave my final issue with it here: The compartmentalization seems to trap some heat in. All fans are working and all, but the lowest section gets extremely hot.
Define "extremely hot", what you feel with your hands/skin to be hot may not reflect a problem for your computer's devices.
In your installation, is the bottom compartment stuffed with wires or other obstructions? Does your power supply have adequate ventilation? (How is its fan oriented?)
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So essentially it all started when I over modded Oblivion and crashes my computer. :whistling: So I did a dirty wipe of Oblivion an attempted to fix it through system backups and perfect uninstaller. Finally I got it. Something went wrong, and now important things are missing that I do not know of I guess, idk it really doesn't matter. The point is, I need to reset my computer to factory settings and everything's gone wrong!! :wallbash:
Computer Specs:
Interl Core Duo CPU T9600 @ 2.80GHz
RAM: 4.00 GB
64 bit
yeahh. . . . that's all I can proved since my computer being a poopery face.
So I follow the instructions for the "AlienRespawn v2.0 DISC" and nothing happens. When I use the built in system recovery following the instructions it blue screens me saying to check for missing drivers or viruses. I've done both. My comp. seems to be fine from that stand point. Then it says "windows is missing s*** blah blah put in your windows 7 cd and click rebuild". I follow the instructions and do so, and all that happens is it crashes. I'm at a loss, I've done everything possible in my mind. Please help - - or I'm totally screwed! :facepalm: (Please don't post unless you're providing help cause I've gotten a lot of spam on other sites).
What are the specific errors that the blue-screen throws? What files does it explicitly want?
The easiest solution (in terms of time expenditure) at this point is like CommanderCrazy said - reformat and re-install Windows from the Microsoft media. If you can get any of your data off to another location before, that's always a plus. If you go this route, I would suggest (depending on the size of your hard-disk) creating two partitions - one for Windows and another for everything else (so that if you re-create this situation, you can re-install Windows without any data loss). Regarding the AlienRespawn solution - you should have a bootable recovery disc in that package, which will start the system up independently of the hard-disk, and allow you to re-image the system to factory defaults; whether or not this works as intended I do not know.
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The 800D I am using wasnt expensive at all. $40 from a guy on Ebay, with no damage.
That's an exceptional deal! You do realize that case retails for some $300 right?
I would keep it simply as a testament to the power of value hunting. 8)
And, probably lower on my list, the exceptional wire management and compartmentalization features it offers.
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And tbh, it's pretty much impossible to predict what will be good/decent in 3 years, unless you compare to what speed the technology has improven in the last 10 years.
Fortunately that work has been done for us; through the magical power of console stagnation.
Essentially, as a function of current development strategies (fueled both by economies of scale and the success of the game console as a platform (explicitly the Xbox360)), the overall requirements for new hardware are "fixed." To take this down out of a theoretical realm: basically any graphics adapter released since the GeForce 8 is entirely suitable for any game on the market (indeed, the GeForce 8 itself saw re-incarnation as both the GeForce 9 and the GeForce GTS). Yes, newer games slowly "eat away" at the performance margins of older hardware, but nothing like what we saw prior to 2005 (where a new game or new graphics adapter re-shaped performance demands).
Now, if we have a release date for a new console (or a new game engine) this situation changes - and then future prediction is absolutely impossible (and I'm guessing that we're closer to this than we were in 2006/7, when the GeForce 8 itself was new hat (and the GeForce 8 itself still does list as the required/recommended specification for many new titles, some five years later)).
I'm not saying that progress is not happening, but I am saying that barring some major transition by the industry at large, a moderately high end computer built today should be quite relevant in 2-3 years (and even prior to 2005, quality gaming machines had a life expectancy in the ~2 year range).
To narrow this even further, I would suggest an AMD processor (I'm a fan of the triple-core models right now, although the quad-core parts are barely more expensive (and all use the same common platform - so you can pick whatever motherboard you like and fit the processor in as your budget allows)) - not only does the total ticket price come in lower than an Intel solution, AMD has consistently shown a willingness to support older platforms with new releases over the last few years.
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If you can't wire-manage the 800D, the Phantom will not improve the situation - it's physically smaller and lacks a number of internal dividers that aid wire management. I would suggest looking into zipties, sleeves, loom, and similar products to improve the wiring in your (very expensive) existing case, rather than a new case. The 800D itself probably could not be better suited to wire-management out of the box - use that functionality (the idea is you run the wires behind the mainboard, not over it). Like this demonstration system:
http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1036/corsair_installed_complete.jpg
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The graphics adapter is being reported as a GeForce 7900 due to a mod or emulation software, for example this (yes I know both are related to New Vegas, still relevant):
http://anthonydamasco.net/blog/aleinware-m11x-fallout-new-vegas-framerate-fix/
Or this:
http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/851242-fallout-nv-essential-mods-thread.html
Are you using that dll? I know it exists for Fallout 3, here:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13245 (and potentially elsewhere)
By itself, the game thinking you have some oddly named graphics adapter is not a problem - it can call the thing whatever it wants (it's just an ID string).
I would first re-install FOMM, the latest version, it's a very quick install and may fix your problem. If the game still crashes frequently, I would re-install it and go from the official patch and FOSE to one mod at a time; so you know which one is the problem child.
You can adjust graphics settings through FOMM - simply select Game Settings at the top, and from that menu select Graphics Settings. Alternately you can make the adjustments by hand directly from fallout.ini, if you know what you're doing.
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So I've recently re-installed Fallout 3 and started playing again, only to notice a new and exciting error from the land of Bethsoft.
Anytime my character is in the same cell as a Mister Gusty, Mister Handy, and a few random non-moving objections (the purifier is one, the emergency over-ride terminal in Tranquility lane is another), and I select first-person view, the entire screen turns green (like the underwater shader color). The game doesn't crash, and doesn't even seem to know something is wrong, and if I select third-person it works just fine. I'm at a total loss as to what is causing this (I have no mods that modify textures or shaders).
Currently I have all of the DLCs running, the 1.7 patch, and three companion mods (Amata, Bittercup, and Knight Finley), as well as a mod that replaces Wadsworth with a Protectron (which actually makes the issue go away with Wadsworth, and I can use the player house without a problem), I've re-installed my graphics drivers and updated them, and that still didn't help the problem. My computer runs Windows 7 64-bit, and I'm using a CrossFire X system (but disabling it still doesn't solve the problem). I have re-installed the game as well, which also didn't help - made it more stable overall, but this issue persists.
Again, it doesn't really affect playability - I can and have done quests/dungeons that involve those robots, and can deal with the purifier just fine, there's just no first person (which is mildly annoying, but not the end of the world).
Any thoughts as to what to try next?
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My most favorite NPCs in Fallout 3, would probably be (in no particular order):
Abraham Washington
President Eden
Fawkes
Paulson
Sally
And my most disliked:
Allen Mack
The Preacher
Brand
Madam Panada
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no issues with the nexus, or any other site, but gmail complained at me a few hours ago and said it locked my account (yet it's been working fine since the 9th until then - they can have a bucket of fun with the new password :thumbsup: ) - makes me believe the database is slowly being crawled by the wonderweasels
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So, I've exhausted the included FAQ/other reading sources on this one - figure its time for human help:
I've created a number of CM based partners with no issues before, this time I wanted an import of a previous character - all went well with Wrye Bash and making the new companion, everything works in game, except her inventory absolutely refuses to behave - it never increments ammo (so if she starts with 50 arrows, she can fire 50 arrows and still have 50 arrows) and everything will reset on leaving an oblivion gate...
Done the clean save, "Quest Item" is checked, everything is the same as my other companions (and the vanilla companions) in terms of configuration, and all of those companions actually use up their ammunition and manage to keep their clothes when they leave oblivion
None of the other described bugs in the FAQ occur - there is no double-face bug, the items in the inventory do wear, she does equip new items correctly, she hasn't gone crazy and attacked everyone, party/individual commands all work as intended, and so on - just the inventory reset and the item counter
So, did I manage to muck something up with the face import? (there is no dependency on my face library.esp or anything but the appropriate CM Partners and Oblivion.esm - I did check that)
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I'm pretty sure there's actually a mod that already does this - saw something yesterday while browsing Nexus:
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I could be wrong, but isn't there a dummy amulet in the CS that looks like, but is scriptless? Or maybe I'm thinking of some mod or another...
there's actually a vanilla quest that gives you a fairly similar look-a-like as well
"Flashing Neck" - Texture clipping during dialog
in Mod Troubleshooting
Posted · Edited by obobski
** Think I solved it. **
Alright, so basically what's happening is: any time any NPC speaks (and they animate the talking), their neck flashes blue-grey (like their head is clipping). Obviously searching for "fallout flashing neck" or similar yields nada, and there's not really a better way to describe it.
Having said that, things I have thus far tried:
- Playing with load order, including BOSS
- Reverting to previous load orders, masters, etc
- Full nuke and re-install of the game
As of right now I'm sitting on a freshly installed FONV that has zero mods and a brand new ini file, and it still happens. I've shut off AA/AF and V-Sync in the video options, no dice. So what am I missing? (This was seriously not an issue when I "put the game down" a few months ago after getting Skyrim).
My PC's hardware has not changed over the last few months either, but just to clarify for folks, I've got:
- Core 2 Quad CPU
- Radeon HD 4870X2 graphics (with latest 13.1 drivers)*
- Creative Sound Blaster (and I don't use ALchemy because I've had bad experiences in past games, so I just avoid it in all games)
* I know the 4870X2 or other multi-GPU graphics can cause weird flickering in Skyrim (you can find this on youtube), but this is not the same problem.
Some setting in video options that I'm missing? Or am I just hosed?
Any help is appreciated.
** Think I solved it. **
I may have solved the issue, figured I'd at least share what I found in the event someone else comes across this in the future and looks for "flashing neck" or something:
I went into the ATI driver control panel and checked all of the 3D settings, the following were enabled:
- Anti-aliasing was set to Narrow-tent 12x
- AF was set to 16x
- "Adaptive Anti-Aliasing" was enabled
I turned off the last one, and switched the first two to "application controlled" and started NV up - things seem to work now. Just for the sake of testing things, I re-enabled anti-aliasing and AF (to 12x/16x as before) and started it up again - still seems to be fixed. So it appears "Adaptive Anti-Aliasing" was/is the culprit here. I don't fully know what "Adaptive Anti-Aliasing" actually does, but the driver tool-tip offers the following:
"Substantially improves visual image quality by anti-aliasing transparent textures."
Seems like that might've had something to do with something... :geek: (also, is it me, or does "visual image" seem kind of redundant?)
I'll also add that I did not notice any dramatic image quality changes here, beyond jaggies everywhere with AA dropped. So I don't think turning off that feature will adversely effect your gaming experience (I know I won't be losing sleep over it, and the lack of "crazy flashing neck" is for the better :blush:).
I am guessing that this probably did not require a re-install of the game ( :facepalm: ), but for all I know that also helped. Hope this may help someone in the future.