Asheron's Call Homepage

[Chef Wubbie]

As you may or may not know there is a known bug with some series 8 cards and AC. In an attempt to locate the source of the problem and hopefully get a fix for everyone we need more data.

If you do or do not have the bug would you please provide the following information
its a few seconds of your life that can help so many other people. If you know people using series 8 cards please direct them here to add more information.

1 - What 8 series cards do you own. ie 8800 GTS 2048 ram.
2 - Do you have the bug?
3 - Is your CPU AMD or Intel?
4 - What PCIe revision does your motherboard use?
This one seems to be the hardest to answer.
Googling your motherboard to find a review is sometimes helpful.
If you can't find it just the brand and MB model number could be helpful.

This isn't really a general discussion, but I needed to generate more data than I have in the threads here and on the Vn boards. I try my best to troll these threads and provide more information as we get it.

Please try to keep this thread to just this data, any other questions or comments will be handled in the other 3 threads running...

Over on vn - http://vnboards.ign.com/ac_utilities...6142724/p1/?84
Here on turbine - http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=36609
as well as - http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=37535

We've just learned that models we thought were unaffected have this issue, and will be updating the data as we get time.

Thank you for your time and data.

wubbie - still don't own a series 8 card and still trying to help...

[The Elite Ua]

what series 8 bug?

[Deathspawner]

To be honest, I believe the issue resides with the 8-series in general, as I've had it occur on more than one model. These cards all varied in memory size and I've seen the issue with both PCI-E 1.1 and PCI-E 2.0 slots. My experience has always been with Windows XP... I don't use Vista unless I can help it :-)

I haven't seen the bug for the past week, but it might be because I've been focusing on gaining XP around Dark Isle. Where I noticed it most (and it's almost a definite thing) was around Slaughterhouse while hunting for Diamond Powder. I could be wrong, but I am led to believe it occurs even more often when setting the camera to deliberately include the sky in your viewpoint.

Good luck with getting this figured out... it would be nice to see it fixed. If I can somehow offer more help in some way, let me know. In truth, it could be something that can be fixed using the NVIDIA Control Center (individual program settings), but that might take a little time to deal with (since the problem is random to begin with).

Originally Posted by The Elite Ua

what series 8 bug?

The sky flickers... sometimes so often that it becomes incredibly annoying and can also result in ruined screenshots. There might be more issues than just that, but that's the one that's plagued me the most, personally.

[overslept]

Originally Posted by Deathspawner

The sky flickers... sometimes so often that it becomes incredibly annoying and can also result in ruined screenshots. There might be more issues than just that, but that's the one that's plagued me the most, personally.

was starting to wonder why it was doing that...

it hasnt been a hassel for me though as it only does it when im dual logged and have one client overlapping the other (backround one is logged in and bigger window)

edit-

just going to copy off the invoice (newish pc)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor HH80562PH0568M - 2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, Kentsfield, Quad-Core, OEM, Socket 775, Processor

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT Superclocked Video Card - 512MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card

EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard CPU Bundle - A1 Version, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.40GHz OEM

[Chef Wubbie]

Deathspawner - if you remember which cards you had issues with please check the http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=37535 thread and let us know if they fall in the expected bug range.

There is a break in that list showing where Nvidia switched to the 65nm gpu and it was thought that was a difference, we've now proven that false. The break also signaled a known issue with the PCIe implementation and how far back it was compatible. We've also gained reports of at least one 85 series showing the issue when it was thought to only show up in the 86 and 88.

This issue seems to be unique to Asheron's Call and Series 8 cards so I've not found much other online information. Compiling the data for this thread is the last valid idea in trying to find the common problem and trying to work towards a solution.

I don't own a series 8 card, I don't even have access to one myself but I've been trying to help people hunt this issue down. Its an interesting problem but its frustrating as players affected by the bug unsubscribe or don't add to the pool of data or "guinea pig" testing ideas we've tried.

So please if you have a Series 8 card, add your information.

Thanks
wubbie - this tagline left intentionally blank.

[Deathspawner]

To be honest, I am not sure I can recall all of the models I used. I think do remember having a problem with an 8500 GT, however, so I don't think that assumption is unfounded. The problem is, I wish I knew of an area in-game where this issue would be sure to arise, because it would be tedious testing out all of the GPUs I have.

8500 GT 512MB
8600 GT 256MB
8600 GT 1024MB
8600 GTS 256MB
8800 GT 512MB
8800 GT 1024MB
8800 GTS 512MB
8800 GTX 768MB

I am short of time, so normally when I log in I don't plan to just dilly dally, but would there be a preference of the first card I should use out of that list? I'll just test by running around Slaughterhouse for a bit when I have some free time (perhaps tomorrow if I get lucky).

Out of curiosity, has this bug never been shown with an ATI card?

[Chef Wubbie]

Ok here is a quick test that helps see if this is the right thought spot...

If you have access to a 2.0 and a 1.x would you please test a GeForce 8800 GT 512 in both. This was the card we thought was unbugged, until someone with a 1.x PCIe revision reported it as bugged. If you have access to both types and can confirm bugged in 1.x and unbugged in 2.0 it would help support the idea that it is a PCIe implementation.

The bug is a little different for everyone, but if you check some of the screen shots referenced in the other threads you will see that it occurs everywhere thats outside and takes about 1/3 of the screen. Some people report its fine for 5-10 minutes then starts. Some people it starts on login.

And I myself have never heard of this bug on an ATI card or outside of the 8 series... althou who owns a 9 series or better for playing AC?

wubbie - trudging along on SLI 6600's

[Blackmancer]

I bought a 8600 GT 256MB and tried for 2 days to get it to work right. I had horrible flickering much worse than the screenshot I saw in one of your links. I spent several hours on the phone also with the 1800 support number and finally was told I needed a bigger power supply. I have a 250watt.

I havent done that yet to see if it works

[-Jaguar-]

Originally Posted by Blackmancer

I bought a 8600 GT 256MB and tried for 2 days to get it to work right. I had horrible flickering much worse than the screenshot I saw in one of your links. I spent several hours on the phone also with the 1800 support number and finally was told I needed a bigger power supply. I have a 250watt.

I havent done that yet to see if it works

That's not the problem. Don't waste your money. I have a more than adequate power supply and have the same problems as everyone else. I have SLI 8600 GTS (256 MB) , AMD, nForce 4 mobo.

There are actually people with 8 series cards who don't get sky flickering? It seems almost definetly that it is a driver problem, nothing hardware related.

I spoke with Nvidia about some months ago and they told me to install old drivers. What kind of solution is that? I guess I don't want to play any new games.

[Chef Wubbie]

Blackmancer - while not enough power could be an issue, its not real likely with the volume of Series 8 cards that are being reported as bugged. 2 questions you could answer and help out with thou...

1 - AMD or Intel CPU?
2 - Do you know what revision of the PCIe interface your Motherboard uses?
If you can't find ie please post manufacturer and model.

-Jaguar- - your actually the first person to respond using AMD CPU... I was holding some CPU thingy in the back of my head as a possibility behind the problem.

Can you track down your PCie revision on your motherboard? This has been a HUGE pain in the behind to get information about so far. But I am thinking part of the problem is there.

One of the other threads posted here, someone posted details he used to lower the effect of the shimmer, but I do not know if people would get the same result.

If Deathspawner actually has access to a 1.x and 2.0 rev slot and can prove the bug is slot related we have a solid place to look for fixes at that point.

Please keep the info posting the more data the more we can learn.

[Deathspawner]

Originally Posted by Chef Wubbie

If you have access to a 2.0 and a 1.x would you please test a GeForce 8800 GT 512 in both. This was the card we thought was unbugged, until someone with a 1.x PCIe revision reported it as bugged. If you have access to both types and can confirm bugged in 1.x and unbugged in 2.0 it would help support the idea that it is a PCIe implementation.

I can do this no problem, but I can't promise fast action due to work and other things. I have that card installed right now, which is convenient, in the PCI-E 2.0 board, so I will try to test it out a bit in the next day or two. I need to rebuild the PCI-E 1.1 machine (I've been meaning to do this anyway), so once that's built, I'll test it out there as well.

I hope to have my findings as soon as possible. Is there still an area in game where this is most prevalent though? Or is it just completely random? I think I'll still go to the Slaughterhouse area, but if there's another surefire area, I'd check it out first (since I've spent too many hours in Slaughterhouse ;-)).

[atbestvague]

If the bug youre speaking of is what I think it is, than it doesnt ONLY affect the sky ingame, but can cause flickering of environment structures such as ceilings and floors etc as well.

If so, a sure way to cause this bug to arise is to put yourself in an environment where MANY missile weapons are being thrown constantly. Dual logging in this environment makes the bug even more assured.

There are many places ingame where you can provoke this.

Hopefully, the problem youre speaking of is what I am experiencing as well.

I do play on a system with an nvidia 8 series.

[Deathspawner]

Alright... I lied, because I hopped in-game right after I made that post. It was a good excuse to take a break and game it up a bit.

I ran all around Slaughterhouse for about fifteen minutes and then around Shoushi area (an area where I recall this happening before) and saw the effect once. It was so quick though, it could have been just the game... I don't even think most people would have noticed it, so I could have even mistaken it for what it was. But aside from that, I've been using the same GPU to hunt around Dark Isle the past few nights and don't remember seeing the effect then either.

That testing was with PCI-E 2.0... I'll report PCI-E 1.1 results tomorrow night if I can.

[Chef Wubbie]

Deathspawner - Woots! I await your rebuild of the 1.1 Please check some of the screenshots linked to in the other threads links above, so you can see exactly what we are talking about.

Ok to be clear, the "Shimmer" glitch we are talking about isn't 1 texture flipping out or the screen strobing/blinking for a second. Approx 1/3 of the upper right of the screen becomes "streaked" for lack of a better term and stays that way.

If you check a couple of the links I've posted there are plenty of shared screenshots that show the "shimmer" Its called a shimmer because even in the still pictures you can sort of see how it would waver when it was happening.
This isn't a little tiny annoying glitch, this is screen taking over bothersome and it stays that way. Its only really reported outdoors and in the sky.

wubbie - pinning my hopes on Deathspawners test!

[Joshou]

New system build and has the shimmering

Running XP SP2 with all drivers current from system to DX9 to Video Card.

MB

DFI Infinity NF SLI-M2 NF4 775

Processor

AMD X2 5400

Video Card

BFG BFGE85256GTE 8500GT 256MB

Sky is a real issue with shimmering when outside.

Hope that helps