Strange graphic problem

[BoogeyFI]

This is really strange. If I have other apps on the background while playing f3 pitch black textures will actually show what is on my screen behind f3. For example if I have a vid player open and play f3 I can see whats going on in the vid on a black wall inside f3. Why is this?

 

Doesn't really matter since I can just close all other apps, but if anyone knows why, would be cool to know. Tried to take pics, but it just shows up correctly, without the strangeness.

[Alastair91]

Blackouts under XP - taken from http://www.nma-fallout.com

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If they only happen infrequently, you might consider ignoring the problem. If you bring a new screen with the 'C' or 'P' key and close it again, it will have wiped the blackness off the screen. This can reduce the problem to a minor nuisance.

 

OK, let me clarify things once and for all for those who are having problems launching the game or having blackouts in the game under Windows XP. Now, there is a workaround thats gonna cause a bit of inconvenience but it works for many old games including Fallout 1&2.

 

There is an option in XP in your hardware>device manager that allows you to disable your video card - do it! (dont worry, you will still be getting descent graphics), then restart your computer, close all your background programs on the taskbar(optional) and voila!

 

Note: This solution was tested only for ATI Radeon 6500 and 9000.

 

Also, if you need any patches(like "children fix" for UK version), some info or tweaks then check this site (http://www.teamx.ru/eng/files/utils/index.shtml)

 

I found this great article on how to optimize Windows XP by trimming some fats off it Check it out, Its a life-saver (http://www.3dluvr.com/content/article/123)

 

You can try turning down the amount of hardware acceleration on your computer, which can be found at Desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot. Try different settings on the hardware acceleration slider and see how they work.

 

Another thing you can try is adjusting the priority of the Fallout process. To do this, alt+tab (if this doesn't work, skip this step and just press ctrl+alt+del, which should minimize the game and bring up the Task Manager anyway) out of the game while it is running and press ctrl+alt+del. In the Windows Task Manager, click on the Processes tab and find the Fallout process, it will have 'Fallout' in the name. Right click on the process and choose "Set Priority" adjust this and see what effect it has on the game.

 

You can also try what helped a previous user by the name of duc:

 

Disable AGP Fast Writes in the System bios:

this is usually under chip set or PCI settings.

 

Disable AGP Write Combining:

For the Latest Nvidia Forceware Drivers this is under display properties -> settings tab -> advanced -> troubleshooting

and may only show up under certain hardware / driver combinations

 

Disclaimer:

These tweaks may only help certain hardware / software combinations, the result for me was improved fallout 1 stability and a reduced number of blackouts. Both of these settings give only a very small performance boost (~= 1%) and can have nasty system stability side effects so there is really not much reason to leave them on.

 

Here is a thread about running the DxWindow application to avoid blackouts.

 

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39638