Completely black screen, except for NPCs

[Moralpanic]

I tried logging in today, and i get a completely black screen, except for my GUI and NPCs. NPCs show up fine, but PC characters (except pets, which are fine like other NPCs), including mine, are all black.I tried a full file scan, and it didn't help.I tried another EQ installation i had on another HDD (not just another partition, but another drive), and same thing.Tried it on another EQ2 account i have, and same thing.Tried the latest March 5 drives from ATI, same thingTried rolling back drivers (forget what date, but Nov i think), same thing.Tried resetting all options in the EQ2 Options, same thing.Using ATI 1600XT with Core2Duo @3Ghz and 4GB of ram (Vista x64). I haven't logged in for a few days, so when i tried today there was a huge update.

[Moralpanic]

Ok to update this... PCs and NPCs can be fine far away, but as soon as i get up close, they go all black too.Playing with Gamma, Brightness, Contrast, etc does not help at all.

[LordTuatha]

I've been having a very similar issue.  Everything on my screen blacks out as well (it comes and goes) but I can only see my UI and nothing else.  Sometimes I'll see the grass and such as well.  The odd part about seeing the grass is that in Kelethin the grass is very far from the platforms.  It seems to be harder to get out of the black screen if I am inside a small building.  When crafting with the black screen I can see the numbers that rise fromt he crafting station but nothing else besides the UI.  This started the day LU 44 was released, and not 12 hours prior everything was playable (I still had the normal 8800 GT problems).  I have tried absolutely everything to no avail.  I was running Vista and DX 10 at the time so I wiped my HD and installed XP Home.  I tried reinstalling all of EQ2 a grand total of 5 times.  I've tried swapping video and sound drivers.  I've updated my bios.  I've fiddled with all in game options and with the NVIDIA control panel options.  I've removed SLI mode both in the softare and physically with the hardware.  At this point I am simply out of options to try.Autenil asked me the following questions in my thread about this. <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=414186" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=414186</a><span class="postbody">What zone are you logging into?If you make a new character starting in a different city does it work?How much memory do you have in your system?If you can see your UI, open the persona window.  Can you see your character in the paperdoll window?The zone I log into doesn't matter as I have tried several.  I have 2gb ram.  I can see myself in the paperdoll window when the screen is blacked out.  Making a new character kind of helps as the screen doesn't go black.  My character simply disappears completely while in 3rd person mode.  I can still interact with the enviroment but I never reappear unless I zone.  At this point the screen starts doing it's blackout fun and games.This thread <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?&topic_id=393620" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here </a>was then referenced as users had a similar problem when Kunark was released.  However the main issue then was that a certain file was being corrupted by the Everquest 2 patcher.  I do not believe that is problem this time as I followed every piece of advice on that thread to no avail.  I have beaten my head against this wall and I am fed up.  I like LU's and I love EQ2 I am just upset that there is still ongoing graphical problems.  At least I am not alone anymore, I am very sorry Moralpanic because I know exactly how much this sucks, but I felt like I was talking to myself for a few days because this doesn't seem to have happened to many people.</span>

[Moralpanic]

Here are 2 screenshots.  The first you can see the NPC because i'm out wide in 3rd person view, but as soon as i zoom in close to first person view, the NPC becomes dark as well.<img src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6413/eq2000024yu2.jpg" alt="" border="0" />Now here is the 2nd pic with the NPC dark.<img src="http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8283/eq2000025rc5.jpg" alt="" border="0" />

[Moralpanic]

I've updated Vista to SP1 and it's still doing this.