Texture storage question

[Krystara]

<p>I seem to be having an increase in errors when loading the textures for the game. I.E. I will be logging in and all of a sudden the background becomes lovely pictures of icons instead of the pretty picture it is supposed to be.  And as this is apparently NOT the only game this is happening to me on (*glares at her machine*), I can only conclude that it is something hardware related.</p><p>I don't know if it is my RAM that is becoming no good or my video card.  Does EQ2 store the textures for the game on the video RAM or the system RAM.  I know something is dying, I just don't know which yet.</p>

[Rothgar]

<p><cite>Lysari@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I seem to be having an increase in errors when loading the textures for the game. I.E. I will be logging in and all of a sudden the background becomes lovely pictures of icons instead of the pretty picture it is supposed to be.  And as this is apparently NOT the only game this is happening to me on (*glares at her machine*), I can only conclude that it is something hardware related.</p><p>I don't know if it is my RAM that is becoming no good or my video card.  Does EQ2 store the textures for the game on the video RAM or the system RAM.  I know something is dying, I just don't know which yet.</p></blockquote><p>Both actually.  Most textures are loaded as "MANAGED" textures by DirectX.  This means that they are loaded into your system RAM and then propogated to video RAM when needed.  If your device becomes lost, like when you minimize the window, DirectX will automatically restore the textures in video RAM by using the copies in system RAM.</p><p>Heat can be the culprit in many cases.  If you don't have a way to measure the temperature on your video card, make sure the fans are still working or try running with your case off.  If cooling your system doesn't fix the problem you could have a faulty video card or system RAM.</p>

[Kigneer]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Lysari@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I seem to be having an increase in errors when loading the textures for the game. I.E. I will be logging in and all of a sudden the background becomes lovely pictures of icons instead of the pretty picture it is supposed to be.  And as this is apparently NOT the only game this is happening to me on (*glares at her machine*), I can only conclude that it is something hardware related.</p><p>I don't know if it is my RAM that is becoming no good or my video card.  Does EQ2 store the textures for the game on the video RAM or the system RAM.  I know something is dying, I just don't know which yet.</p></blockquote><p>Both actually.  Most textures are loaded as "MANAGED" textures by DirectX.  This means that they are loaded into your system RAM and then propogated to video RAM when needed.  If your device becomes lost, like when you minimize the window, DirectX will automatically restore the textures in video RAM by using the copies in system RAM.</p><p>Heat can be the culprit in many cases.  If you don't have a way to measure the temperature on your video card, make sure the fans are still working or try running with your case off.  If cooling your system doesn't fix the problem you could have a faulty video card or system RAM.</p></blockquote><p>Rothgar, in this game are the zones divided between CPU and GPU utilization? I keep hearing EQ2 is CPU intensive, and wondering if more and more will be offloaded onto the GPU, as they're faster in processing.</p><p>In the F.E.A.R. game the Jupiter EX engine <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithtech">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithtech</a> allowed to subdivide the zones to even out loading issues, making it easier to push larger textures and polys without load grinding (a momentarily glitch maybe seen when entering a switched zone, but loading is much easier). It made level designing mods for such a game a-l-o-t less of a chore, and allowed adding particle effects without as much a fps hit.</p>

[MurFalad]

<p>Hmm, its a long shot, but if the graphics cooler on there is the enclosed plastic sort with a fan built in then I'd definitely check it out for dust.  I had a ATI 3870 that looked clean and shiny from the outside, but inside a wedge of dust had gotten trapped and built up just in front of the cheap looking heatsink, this blocked the airflow across the heatsink and was hard to spot from the outside.</p><p>18 screws later I had the heatsink apart and could clean it, although since then I've avoided those sorts of coolers whenever possible!</p><p>With this card the fan was ramping up really loud and eventually the card errored and locked up, your one sounds like the ram chips overheating and probably the timing going out of spec at a guess.</p>

[Krystara]

<p>Thank you, I'll try checking the temp in the case and seeing if the fans are still working.  If that doesn't help, anyone know how to figure out whether it is the video vs. the system other than replacing one and hoping that helps. >.<</p><p>I'd really rather purchase only one of them.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Lysari@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thank you, I'll try checking the temp in the case and seeing if the fans are still working.  If that doesn't help, anyone know how to figure out whether it is the video vs. the system other than replacing one and hoping that helps. >.<</p><p>I'd really rather purchase only one of them.</p></blockquote><p>What kind of RAM config do you have?  I assume you have more than one stick of ram in the computer, right?  If so, you should be able to remove one or more of the sticks and try running the game.  Then you can swap the sticks to try each one individually.  If it is a system RAM issue then you should be able to locate the bad stick.  If it crashes with each one then the video memory would seem like the issue.</p>