Ghosting/Aftifacting

[Ghaleon]

<p>I was just recently playing the beta, and I didn't have any issues, and I was playing live as well before the expansion with no issues.   I've updated my drivers, tried old drivers, turned sli on/off and tweaked different performance profiles and settings but nothing seems to really help.  Suggestions?</p><p><img src="http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9349/eq2000012.png" /></p>

[Ghaleon]

<p>0 views after 3 days? Come on, someone at least make an attempt.  I work nights and customer service is "closed" on the weekends.</p>

[Leinna]

<p>This can be a typical sign that your Graphics Card can be overheating. Does it happen on inital login or does it take time for it to occur?</p><p>Make sure your computer case is clean (dust, lint, etc) and all fans are working.  Most graphic cards support thermal monitoring as well so take a look at your tempature and see what the safe zone is for your card is.  Ensure you are looking at the Temp when the game is running.</p>

[TSR-JoshuaM]

<p><cite>Ghaleon wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I was just recently playing the beta, and I didn't have any issues, and I was playing live as well before the expansion with no issues.   I've updated my drivers, tried old drivers, turned sli on/off and tweaked different performance profiles and settings but nothing seems to really help.  Suggestions?</p><p><img src="http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9349/eq2000012.png" /></p></blockquote><p>If installing the latest drivers do not clear these artifacts up for you there are a few additional steps you can take.</p><p>The first would be to run a Validate Game Assets scan from our LaunchPad to rule out any missing information causing the problem.  Next, take a video card temperature reading when you are experiencing the ghosting and post it here. Finally, I've seen the Widescreen Letterbox cause something that looked similar in the past, see if removing the Widescreen Letterbox bars gets rid of them (after restarting the game) by unchecking the border box and sliding the bar down to Min</p>

[Ghaleon]

<p>Thanks for the replies, guys.  </p><p>I've actually looked into all of the above suggestions.  Last night I ran a full asset scan, and it was still the same result.  The scan didn't find anything out of sorts, oddly enough.  Nothing has changed on my system - I was playing live, then played the AoD beta on the streaming client for a while, then when I came back to live on my full install, this was happening (in case I didnt explain that well enough earlier).</p><p>When I said artifacting earlier, perhaps I should have used a better word.   It's not artifacting as per graphics card artifacting, it's like everything on the screen has a second image that a little lower and to the right of the real image.  It even does this on the character select screen, so it's as soon as that pops up.  No delay.</p><p><img src="http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9532/eq2000013.png" width="640" height="379" /></p><p>My graphics cards (in both SLI and single modes) are running fine on the temps.  Only one of my cards runs on the warm side (cramped SLI slots, so this is normal, but it's well within the standard load for this card) , the other card never goves above 35-40°C.</p><p>These were my temps for the top (warm) card in game.  SLI is off currently while I figure this out.</p><p>Current - 71°C    Min - 52°C  Max - 82°  (cards are 1gig Gefore 460s - nvidia max temps are 104°C)</p><p>Since I was just playing the beta fine the day before the live patch, I decided to downloaded the streaming client - and everything is as it should be, so it's something with the full install.  I think it has something to do with the shadow mapping or pixel shaders, but I've tried every combination I can think of, and reset my profile options to defaults in game.  Looking through the forums, I see lots of people have had trouble with that.  Could it be related?</p><p><img src="http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7096/eq2000015.png" width="640" height="379" /></p><p>I'm trying to avoid uninstalling/reinstalling if at all possible,  because my isp has recently capped our bandwith.  I was hoping this particular issue was common or something, but apparently not!  I just recently came back to the game...and this just came out of nowhere.  </p><p>*edit* I stand corrected, it's also affecting the streaming client, it just wasn't as apparent (different settings).  It does improve with GPU shadows, but I've always used CPU shadows before.</p><p>*edit* Ok, so I missed the part about the letterbox.  I did that, and it seemed to fix the problem without even restarting.  It even moves pieces of the terrain (flora, etc) up from underneath the ground that I wasnt even aware was missing - so everything was out of phase slightly.   But I dont have double vision now, so thanks for that =D.  I have been playing with letterbox since 2004, however, so whatever has caused this with me happened within the last few days.  Any suggestions on how to get the letterbox back now that we know what's causing it, or am I just pushing my luck now?</p>

[Gadfly299]

<p>Go in and make sure the 3d graphiphics are turned off.  It looks almost like it is drawing both screens from that Screen shot.</p>

[TSR-JoshuaM]

<p>82C is well in to the red area.</p><p>Nvidia cards might be thermal rated up to 104C, but it would fail long before it got to that temperature, it just wont melt - literally.</p><p>You can start seeing artifacting in temps above 75C with that particular card, I own a few and we have dozens for testing in the office.  Great little cards, not immune to heat issues.  You want to do what you can to lower those temps.</p><p>Now for the problem itself, I can't say it even has anything to do with overheating but its very possible.   The full assets patcher doesnt induce an issue like this so I would have to assume this is a file corruption issue.  A validate game assets scan may have simply overlooked the problem (which is something we're working on).  I would suspect a fresh Full Assets install wouldn't suffer from this problem either on your PC.</p>

[Ghaleon]

<p>I thought the same thing at first too, gad! That unfortunately isnt it though.</p><p>Thanks for looking into this for me Josh, I appreciaite it!</p><p>I think you missed my edit/addendum to my last post (at the bottom).  You were definitely correct about the letterbox.  I just dont understand why I cant use it all of the sudden - on any client.</p><p>"<span style="background-color: #221f1c; color: #d2c5a9; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">*edit* I stand corrected, it's also affecting the streaming client, it just wasn't as apparent (different settings).  It does improve with GPU shadows, but I've always used CPU shadows before.</span></p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #221f1c;">*edit* Ok, so I missed the part about the letterbox.  I did that, and it seemed to fix the problem without even restarting.  It even moves pieces of the terrain (flora, etc) up from underneath the ground that I wasnt even aware was missing - so everything was out of phase slightly.   But I dont have double vision now, so thanks for that =D.  I have been playing with letterbox since 2004, however, so whatever has caused this with me happened within the last few days.  Any suggestions on how to get the letterbox back now that we know what's causing it, or am I just pushing my luck now?"</p>