graphical glitch/bug? or just my card.

from Stardock Forums

i'm having a bit of a problem with the game, but go easy on me, I just bought it. :-"

I did search the forums, but nothing came up, so i'm posting it here: when playing the game, and zoomed a little bit out from the closest view, I see what seem to be random spikey lines/columns appearing for about half of a second on the ship i'm currently viewing, and any in my viewing radius, jutting out of of the ship. this happens randomly and continuously, but if I zoom out more it stops happening. i'm guessing it's something with my graphics card. anyone know about this?

card: HIS radeon 4850 w/latest CCC/drivers 8.9

for posterity, rest of system specs

Ram: 3GB ddr2 800mhz

proc: e8500 Duo 3.16 GHZ

OS: vista home premium 32-bit

 

7,664 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

umm - I don't suppose you are getting large black bands around you planets as well are you?  The reason for me asking is that I have graphical problems which are related to zoom level as well and my system spec is totaly different from yours!

To answer your question though - no, I don't think it is your card - there does seem to be alot of minor graphic issues in the game.  Does a save and reload sovle the problem?  This works for me, however the problem can then happen somewhere else later on.

The only thing I can suggest is the normal - update all your drivers and make sure your using the latest version of Sins.  Stick with it, the game is awesome and the more you play it the better it gets!

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

hey, sorry to say i'm not having the same problem with the bands as you. :S it's only when I zoom close enough to see all the details on a ship that I have the afforementioned problem, and only with ships. this may be unrelated, but sometimes blue circles randomly pop up all over a planet at the same intervals as the spikey lines/columns. but zoom up a bit (for both) and it magically goes away. wierd huh? Oh, and to answer your question before I played the game for the first time I downloaded impulse and updated sins to the latest patch. i'm used to troubleshooting software  :grin:

 and I haveoh the latest drivers for my card, its a radeon so I said latest catalyst CC plus drivers.

and you're right, the game looks quite awesome from what i've played so far, but it's quite daunting, all the depth of a 4x game but in real time! I can't wait to dive in fully sometime this week.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I had a feeling you would have tried the normal stuff - still, it never hurts to check.  I'm sorry I could not help more, with any luck one of the mods or stardock devs might read this and offer some helpfull advice! :thumbsup:

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I had a friend with a similar problem, but he was using a different .dll file from another game, because Windows 2000 is not supported for Sins.  Since you're using Vista 32, the only thing I can suggest is to make double sure Vista has all its updates installed.  Also, every file in Sins is official right?  No mods or anything?  I don't think it's your graphics card, but maybe a driver not cooperating with your card itself, or a driver in Sins that your card is not decoding properly...  In today's computing world, it could be almost anything. O.o

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I've had an oddd graphic problem a couple of times.

I was playing as normal and the game froze, then the screen went black and a message saying something like "graphic driver has stopped functioning" (words to that effect), then the PC went to desktop but I was only running in 8bit colour. I had to reboot.

It's only done it on SOASE.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting peteuplink, reply 5
I've had an oddd graphic problem a couple of times.

I was playing as normal and the game froze, then the screen went black and a message saying something like "graphic driver has stopped functioning" (words to that effect), then the PC went to desktop but I was only running in 8bit colour. I had to reboot.

It's only done it on SOASE.
End of peteuplink's quote

Sounds like you're using an Nvidia card with an old driver. The latest from Nvidia fixes the "Display driver has recovered" error, which is probably what you got.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting IrregularCape, reply 4
I had a friend with a similar problem, but he was using a different .dll file from another game, because Windows 2000 is not supported for Sins.  Since you're using Vista 32, the only thing I can suggest is to make double sure Vista has all its updates installed.  Also, every file in Sins is official right?  No mods or anything?  I don't think it's your graphics card, but maybe a driver not cooperating with your card itself, or a driver in Sins that your card is not decoding properly...  In today's computing world, it could be almost anything.
End of IrregularCape's quote

yep, no mods, and all official files for sins and all new drivers :annoyed: . chances are you're right about the graphics card though. I got a radeon 4850 thinking it would be the cheaper, more powerful alternative to the 9800gtx, and oh how I was wrong. It runs as hot as a griddle without the fanfix, (75-80C+ load) I have problems all the time with ati's display drivers (when I first got it I had to keep switching to VGA just to set it up so it would work, it crashes in games all the time, and I get artifacts all the time as well ((probably a by product of the heat))) and running the fanfix sounds like a fucking hair dryer. In other words, a dandy little peice of manufacturing.