Serious 100% repeatable graphical glitch

[Raistlindantilus]

I have duplicated this with 100% success with or without mods installed. My video card drivers are definitely up to date and I definitely uninstalled the previous version completely. I have re-installed the game completely. I have reformatted my harddrive. No avail.

 

I have an intel core 2 duo e8600 on an intel dp43tf motherboard windows xp 32 bit and 4 gigs of ram. My video card is an Nvidia Geforce 260 GTX

 

I can definitely run the game, I have before. I cannot find anything that changed to start this problem, not to mention I've formatted my harddrive since then.

 

It started in megaton. Whenever I would look up at the sky or even just slightly above the rooftops the game would behave is if I were alt-tabbing to and from the desktop repeatedly, about.....3 times a second. In between flashes of fallout and the desktop there are strange colors, nonsense symbols and other characters. Gibberish data, basically.

 

If I look back down it would go away. And come back again if I look up. I was given the advice to change "water multisampling" to low and that worked.

 

Now I played all the way to Meresti Station. Several hours with no problem whatsoever. Now in one of the tunnels near where *small spoiler* The Family are living, if I look in a particular direction it happens again.

 

Oh...and I went back to Megaton to see if the problem there had returned, it has not. Megaton still functions perfectly.

 

Any ideas?

 

[Edit] I just discovered it. If I turn actor fade to 8 or below it fixes this one. Does anybody know why this is happening when it never did before? Could it be a symptom of something behind the scenes that I should take care of? I really don't like having to turn down my graphics settings.....even if it is minimal.

 

[Edit2] It happened again just a few more steps down the tunnel now I turned actor fade to 5. I was fine for a few more steps....

 

It seems as I get closer to the Family, the different actors in different places are triggering this glitch....anybody?

Edited April 29, 2010 by Raistlindantilus

[Raistlindantilus]

I know, bad form to bump yourself. But...I really need some help with this one, I've been beating my head against the wall for weeks on this.

 

[Edit] If anyone thinks a screenshot would be of use let me know and I'll post one.

[evilneko]

I have a GTS 250, one step below your card. Never seen this before.

 

It sounds very strange based on your description, like the mouse is trying to escape Fallout and show something from the desktop. I've seen that before with games that didn't like the custom shell (bbLean) I was running at the time--I'd see elements of the shell like the leanbar or quicklaunch/tray popouts if the mouse rolled over them, flickering in and out of the game. I could even click and it would minimize the game.

 

However your statement that tweaking actor fade mitigates the problem is puzzling. If it's the shell (or anything, really) trying to show through the game this shouldn't matter. Still, I'd like to know what's running in the background. Also, are you running the default shell (explorer) or a third-party one, and does the same thing happen if you try Fallout in windowed mode?

[Raistlindantilus]

I have a GTS 250, one step below your card. Never seen this before.

 

It sounds very strange based on your description, like the mouse is trying to escape Fallout and show something from the desktop. I've seen that before with games that didn't like the custom shell (bbLean) I was running at the time--I'd see elements of the shell like the leanbar or quicklaunch/tray popouts if the mouse rolled over them, flickering in and out of the game. I could even click and it would minimize the game.

 

However your statement that tweaking actor fade mitigates the problem is puzzling. If it's the shell (or anything, really) trying to show through the game this shouldn't matter. Still, I'd like to know what's running in the background. Also, are you running the default shell (explorer) or a third-party one, and does the same thing happen if you try Fallout in windowed mode?

 

 

I'm running the default shell, and it does still happen in windowed mode. In windowed mode however it doesn't flicker to and from the desktop its just a persistent graphical error with gibberish data, thats what I can screenshot and post if you would like to see.

 

[Edit] Restoring my fallout directory from a backup file, it isn't perfect but it lets me run the game well enough to duplicate the error again so I can show it to you, should be ready in a few minutes.

[Raistlindantilus]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j280/Raistlindantlus/Fallout3GraphicalFuckup.jpg

 

There it is. When running the game in fullscreen it flickers between something similar to that, pieces of fallout, and whatever is showing on my desktop.

 

In windowed mode it will do a persistent glitch, but usually the game will freeze in the last frame that looked normal and will return when I move my mouse away from the direction causing the error. I had to try a few times to get the graphical scramble to show in windowed mode.

[evilneko]

That is some nasty stuff right there. :yucky: Looking at that reminds me of the kind of stuff I've seen from bad hardware. I don't think that's the case here, software conflicts can cause corruption that severe.

 

You say you have 4GB of RAM in that XP32 box of yours. Do you have the /3GB switch in your boot.ini? I ask because when I ran XP32 and tried the /3GB switch, Fallout performed absolutely horribly for some reason. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then most likely, you don't have it. :wink:

[ecksile]

That has to be the DOPEST! glitch Ive ever seen :thumbsup: GJ on achieving that one!! Heres the best Ive been able to pull off http://www.youtube.com/user/kurupt408#p/u/5/vzsrTVd2b3o...I know i have a bad memory module on my card though..Check this could be a hardware problem http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html I Get a lot of graphic glitches but they are small yours are like all mine thrown into 1 xD.

[Raistlindantilus]

No I don't have the /3 GB switch, I have no clue what that even is. And yeah...its a hell of a glitch. Since I reformatted Fallout 3 was the only game I had installed so I couldn't test if it was hardware or software. I installed Far Cry 2 last night and played it for 2+ hours on max graphics settings. Great framerate, no stutters, no crashes, no glitches. It seems like it must be software related. But it used to work fine and then one day it didn't. I've been thinking possibly a windows update or hotfix? But which one? I'm at a loss still. I appreciate you guys reading and trying though. I am aware this is one bad angel (I actually said mo fo but the forum inserted angels. Those good for nothing sons of biscuit eaters) of a glitch.

[Raistlindantilus]

That has to be the DOPEST! glitch Ive ever seen :thumbsup: GJ on achieving that one!! Heres the best Ive been able to pull off http://www.youtube.com/user/kurupt408#p/u/5/vzsrTVd2b3o...I know i have a bad memory module on my card though..Check this could be a hardware problem http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html I Get a lot of graphic glitches but they are small yours are like all mine thrown into 1 xD.

 

 

Those screenshots of examples of hardware problems look like they happen on places like the title screen and are generally there during gameplay of all sorts. This one only occurs during Fallout 3 (going to test with Oblivion soon since it uses the same engine) and only at particular places in Fallout 3. Once I've found a place it happens I can trigger it and untrigger it multiple times. I can even leave the area and resume playing as normal (what I'm probably going to do) with my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen anywhere else.

[ecksile]

Well actually fallout3 is the only game that gives me those kind of heavy glitches i can play Oblivion full settings 4xAA with temporal enabled 16xAF and full texture packs, stalker maxed, crysis maxed pretty much any other game i own (which is many)..but fallout3 xD the only one that ever shows other glitches is CSS and then my desktop it self often display left over data. So i wouldn't count it out because fallout3 tends to be very temperamental to anything hardware related weather it be overclocking or bad hardware..