Artifacts with ATI in Oblivion

[josh6079]

At first I thought that my TFT panel was going out in my 2005fpw. Then, it did it on my IBM grade A refurb CRT, then on my 2007fpw. Come to find out, They were/are artifacts (I wasn't sure what they were because I had Nvidia before and Nvidia and ATI artifact differently). Tiny dots that flash white squares (but sometimes red and green as well) very quickly and rapidly. It's not like it is constant either, and only with characters and animals (from my experience).

Does anyone else have this problem? Temps are fine (47-50C @ load), and it even did it when I had the old cooler at stock speeds. Just wondering if it is normal for this game.

 

[dug777]

I think it would be best for all of us if you traded in your ATI card for a nvidia card

If you don't think that's the case, at least post some screenshots to back up your claim, those of us without Oblivion or a ATI card have nothing to compare...

 

[Sc4freak]

I'm pretty sure its a bug in Oblivion. Some cards from both brands artifact, just differently. The artifacting you described isn't as serious as a lot of the artifacting on Nvidia cards (there are a lot of reports of missing textures and polygons stretched to the sky on the official forums, despite brand-new cards and normal temperatures), so I think that's why it hasn't been talked about much.

It is most likely a problem with Oblivion, causing cards from both manufacturers to artifact.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: dug777
at least post some screenshots to back up your claim, those of us without Oblivion or a ATI card have nothing to compare...

Here's what the dots originally look like. It is on the front brim of his hat, a tiny white dot. They happen very quickly and strike different areas of the textures very rapidly:

1680x1050 jpg to resized 1280x1024
1680x1050 jpg to resized 1600x1200

Here's what happens after the dot flashes:

1680x1050 jpg to resized 1280x1024
1680x1050 jpg to resized 1600x1200

Like I said, it doesn't happen all of the time. It just bugs me when it does happen.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Oblivion has lots of problems.

Have they fixed the self shadow bug? If you enable it on ATi cards, sometimes the shadows create a beard like facial feature on women characters.

That game serious is the RPG version of BF2. Too many bugs and glitches.

 

[Barkotron]

That's weird, to be honest - I've never seen anything like that in Oblivion. It almost looks like something is mistakenly putting a very bright light source on the edge of his hat for some reason.

Like I said, I haven't seen that, so I can't help I'm afraid. Just shows it's not everyone with ATI cards and Oblivion (X1900XT).

 

[Ulfhednar]

My card is at 720/900MHz, and I see no artifacts. This definitely means it's difficult to get them.

Sounds like a dodgy graphics card to me, possibly the memory as it's the most common component on the board to mess up at random.

 

[redbox]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: dug777
at least post some screenshots to back up your claim, those of us without Oblivion or a ATI card have nothing to compare...

Here's what the dots originally look like. It is on the front brim of his hat, a tiny white dot. They happen very quickly and strike different areas of the textures very rapidly:

1680x1050 jpg to resized 1280x1024
1680x1050 jpg to resized 1600x1200

Here's what happens after the dot flashes:

1680x1050 jpg to resized 1280x1024
1680x1050 jpg to resized 1600x1200

Like I said, it doesn't happen all of the time. It just bugs me when it does happen.

That hat is a mod for the game so it might not be the most stable thing to walk around in, unless it doesn it on clothing or armor or weapons that were originally in the game. If that is the case I would back down the memory clock as that has always stoped my artifacting.

 

[pacho108]

Originally posted by: dug777
I think it would be best for all of us if you traded in your ATI card for a nvidia card

If you don't think that's the case, at least post some screenshots to back up your claim, those of us without Oblivion or a ATI card have nothing to compare...

no kidding, it reminds me of someone who used to make tons of threads to complain about nvidia's blocky shadows in farcry and yet owned or still owns a 6600gt, people used to tell him to trade his nvidia card for an ATI one

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: josh6079
At first I thought that my TFT panel was going out in my 2005fpw. Then, it did it on my IBM grade A refurb CRT, then on my 2007fpw. Come to find out, They were/are artifacts (I wasn't sure what they were because I had Nvidia before and Nvidia and ATI artifact differently). Tiny dots that flash white squares (but sometimes red and green as well) very quickly and rapidly. It's not like it is constant either, and only with characters and animals (from my experience).

Does anyone else have this problem? Temps are fine (47-50C @ load), and it even did it when I had the old cooler at stock speeds. Just wondering if it is normal for this game.

First of all, your ATI card is probably between 80-90C+ at full load in Oblivion. Oblivion absolutely destroys modern shader based cards, my X850 PE was topping out over 90C and that was causing instability in the game.

What fixed the issue for me was installing ATItool and using the fan override feature. At default my ATI fan never went faster than 24%. With ATItool I could set my fan speeds at seperate values based on heat. So if I hit 90C it could ramp up to 80%, but you'll find 50% fan speed will probably keep it solidly in the 70C range.

Maybe it's worth a try. That or open your case and put a box fan in front of it.

 

[redbox]

Originally posted by: Thera

Originally posted by: josh6079
At first I thought that my TFT panel was going out in my 2005fpw. Then, it did it on my IBM grade A refurb CRT, then on my 2007fpw. Come to find out, They were/are artifacts (I wasn't sure what they were because I had Nvidia before and Nvidia and ATI artifact differently). Tiny dots that flash white squares (but sometimes red and green as well) very quickly and rapidly. It's not like it is constant either, and only with characters and animals (from my experience).

Does anyone else have this problem? Temps are fine (47-50C @ load), and it even did it when I had the old cooler at stock speeds. Just wondering if it is normal for this game.

First of all, your ATI card is probably between 80-90C+ at full load in Oblivion. Oblivion absolutely destroys modern shader based cards, my X850 PE was topping out over 90C and that was causing instability in the game.

What fixed the issue for me was installing ATItool and using the fan override feature. At default my ATI fan never went faster than 24%. With ATItool I could set my fan speeds at seperate values based on heat. So if I hit 90C it could ramp up to 80%, but you'll find 50% fan speed will probably keep it solidly in the 70C range.

Maybe it's worth a try. That or open your case and put a box fan in front of it.

I don't know if he mentioned it but he is on water, so temps don't really concern him.

 

[videopho]

What it looks like to me is that your video card that exhibits the artifacts rather than the game itself. I've been playing this game using both 2405fpw (@1920x1200) & 2005fpw (@1680x1050) display @ max settings (HDR mode) and I do not recall I have ever seen any sort of artifacts. May I suggest to tone down your settings a tad?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Oblivion has lots of problems.

Have they fixed the self shadow bug? If you enable it on ATi cards, sometimes the shadows create a beard like facial feature on women characters.

That game serious is the RPG version of BF2. Too many bugs and glitches.

nonsense . . . for a HUGE game it is relatively bug free.

. . . and there is a patch that fixes most everything [if you 'start over'] also an UNofficial patch that addresses game bugs still in progress before the patch.

and if your system is even slightly unstable [read: O/C'd], Oblivion will 'highlight' it.

try turning your setting down and/or dropping any O/C . . . bet your artifacts disappear.

[oh yeah - 807 hours into Oblivion . . . Level 63 . . . *Everything Maxed* - except Personality and Luck]
:Q

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: Thera

Originally posted by: josh6079
At first I thought that my TFT panel was going out in my 2005fpw. Then, it did it on my IBM grade A refurb CRT, then on my 2007fpw. Come to find out, They were/are artifacts (I wasn't sure what they were because I had Nvidia before and Nvidia and ATI artifact differently). Tiny dots that flash white squares (but sometimes red and green as well) very quickly and rapidly. It's not like it is constant either, and only with characters and animals (from my experience).

Does anyone else have this problem? Temps are fine (47-50C @ load), and it even did it when I had the old cooler at stock speeds. Just wondering if it is normal for this game.

First of all, your ATI card is probably between 80-90C+ at full load in Oblivion. Oblivion absolutely destroys modern shader based cards, my X850 PE was topping out over 90C and that was causing instability in the game.

What fixed the issue for me was installing ATItool and using the fan override feature. At default my ATI fan never went faster than 24%. With ATItool I could set my fan speeds at seperate values based on heat. So if I hit 90C it could ramp up to 80%, but you'll find 50% fan speed will probably keep it solidly in the 70C range.

Maybe it's worth a try. That or open your case and put a box fan in front of it.

They are not 80-90C. Never were, even with the stock cooler on it.

Originally posted by: videopho
What it looks like to me is that your video card that exhibits the artifacts rather than the game itself. I've been playing this game using both 2405fpw (@1920x1200) & 2005fpw (@1680x1050) display @ max settings (HDR mode) and I do not recall I have ever seen any sort of artifacts. May I suggest to tone down your settings a tad?

Do you mean the game settings or clock frequencies? I've got some copper heatsinks that I'm going to be replacing the alum. voltage regulator heatsink with. Temps for those puppies are the hottest thing in my case, 82C sometimes!! I think that might fix it since temps will be fine everywhere on the video card then.

 

[skooma]

I think its the mod myself.

I had a couple mods conflict with official plug-ins or the beta patch and it created some crazy artifacts in certain areas/events. Re-installing the game worked for me.

 

[TheRyuu]

As others have said, if your system is even the least bit unstable, Oblivion has that way of "showing it".

I have 2 7900GT's in SLI @ 670/1920 and Oblivion is pretty much rock solid as it's going to get on my rig. Every ONCE in a great while the game will freeze and I'll be forced to reboot my computer. But that doesn't happen a lot. And it happens even less now that I reduced the OC on my video cards.

So does the artifact happen a lot? Just ignore it.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: skooma
I think its the mod myself.

I had a couple mods conflict with official plug-ins or the beta patch and it created some crazy artifacts in certain areas/events. Re-installing the game worked for me.

True, this texturized mod has it happen on it more than official/original armor. That makes me wonder if it isn't so much a stability issue but rather incomplete texture points that sometimes begin to spaz out or something. It doesn't happen very much, but I'll try setting everything back to stock just to see if that cures it. Stock speeds with water cooler would fix the problem I would hope.....

 

[LittleNemoNES]

That pic looks like you used a photoshop brush to paint a white circle...

I call SHENS!

 

[redbox]

It's not SHENS I have seen it on his computer. Josh6079 I haven't seen anything like that while playing through oblivion and I have my 7800gt overclocked at 540/1250 and my AMD 3000+ overclocked to 2.6 so I think it is something with your set up or that mod I don't know if it is your overclock as I consider my overclocks to be quite high, and I have yet to see any problems. Of course I made sure my overclocks where stable though. Have you used any graphic benchmark besides ATI fuzzy cube? I would try that rhtidbl thing or what ever it is called and see if it doesn't artifact.

 

[josh6079]

Originally posted by: gersson
That pic looks like you used a photoshop brush to paint a white circle...

I call SHENS!

LOL. Oh no, you caught me....

Seriously, I'll try the new heatsinks and see if that cures it, if not, I'll go back to stock since temps will be great.

What about keeping my current clocks, but raising the voltages? That should give it more stability, right?

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: gersson
That pic looks like you used a photoshop brush to paint a white circle...

I call SHENS!

LOL. Oh no, you caught me....

Seriously, I'll try the new heatsinks and see if that cures it, if not, I'll go back to stock since temps will be great.

What about keeping my current clocks, but raising the voltages? That should give it more stability, right?

Yes, assuming the problem isn't heat related. (More voltage means more heat, right?)

 

[josh6079]

That's what I thought, and no, heat isn't an issue.

I'll give the core more than just 1.475 volts for 740. 1.5 or 1.525 aught to do it.

My mem is at 850 @ 2.2 so I think its getting enough juice.

We'll see what happens.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: josh6079

Originally posted by: dug777
at least post some screenshots to back up your claim, those of us without Oblivion or a ATI card have nothing to compare...

Here's what the dots originally look like. It is on the front brim of his hat, a tiny white dot. They happen very quickly and strike different areas of the textures very rapidly:

1680x1050 jpg to resized 1280x1024
1680x1050 jpg to resized 1600x1200

Here's what happens after the dot flashes:

1680x1050 jpg to resized 1280x1024
1680x1050 jpg to resized 1600x1200

Like I said, it doesn't happen all of the time. It just bugs me when it does happen.

Never seen anything like that with my XTX.

 

[akugami]

Never seen anything like that on my XT. I have however seen something like blurred textures on some landscape every rare once in a while. Seen it maybe 3 times and not in the same places, usually hills far away. It looks like someone took the normal textures on the hillside and stretched it like a rubber band, the polygons are fine, just the texture seems messed up on that one piece of the hillside. Moving will cause it to "reset" to normal.