Slivers in 3D Rendering

[lmstearn]

Hi there

 

Spex:

Windows XP SP 3

Intel Pentium 4 3.0G dual core w. 2G RAM

GeForce AGP 7600 GS 512M driver: 6.14.13.0142

Shader model for DX 9.0: 3_0.ps_3_0

Oblivion Script Extender v0020

GOTY Oblivion & mods sit on my H drive

Macron 350W Power Supply ("Graphic card functionality reduced to insufficient power" on startup/shutdown hopefully only accorded to extra power consumption on startup/shutdown)

 

 

Grizzle:

I am having a problem with quasi random slivers appearing 3D render display. The slivers act as invisible walls, and can appear anywhere in the game. Also some streaky/missing text in scene changes/ dialogue. The sprites, music, audio, and game interface / dynamics are (to date) fine.

I suspect memory fault on card, but neither NVIDIA nor Havok provide a (small) test for this.

 

Ran Dxdiag, ver 9.0c ok,

OpenGL Extensions detects OpenGL 2.1.2, but no ICD registry entry,

Have disabled all mods, no change,

Have reset to v.low quality in options no change,

Have turned off all effects, sliders in-game, no change,

Tweaked NVIDIA control panel, no change,

Tried some tweaks in .ini file, no joy.

 

Notes:

 

The slivers seem to persist in areas where there is at least one building, "height" and/or NPC's. They consist of dithered textures similar to that of a nearby structure. Along with the streaking/ missing text, it might indicate some problem dealing with refresh of pre-rendered frames. Directx might also be suspect, but will post developments or changes when doing a clean install of Windows 7.

 

Extensive googling has produced no similar problems, except that someome with this model of card running on Ubuntu had some lines and polygons appearing on one side upon exiting the sewers. This was cured by an upgrade of Wine!

 

Oldblivion crashed before blitting the Bethesda logo.

 

Aa a matter of interest I installed OBGE_Core-30054, but the game crashes before the Bethesda logo as well, no warnings.txt created. This is because the 7600 GS & GT have a problem with shaders 3.0 (as verified by RivaTuner)

 

Any clues?

Edited August 23, 2012 by lmstearn

[lmstearn]

Update: I re-inserted the old Galaxy FX5500, and hey presto- no slivers. I then (successfully) installed Directx 9.0c from the ~2008 Galaxy NVIDIA CD which didn't seem to care whether there was a newer DX 9.0c resident on the PC. Replacing the 7600 card, running the driver installation from the Galaxy CD (with the extra tweaked option of "conformant texture clamp") and the slivers have unfortunately, returned. So its likely the 7600 is a dud. Such a pity a big corp. like NVIDIA has no general testing program for 3D cards. Is it because of lack of competition I wonder?

Shame that the play of this well-done game with the better card has to be marred by the perseverence of these hideous slivers.

Edited August 25, 2012 by lmstearn