Flickering Textures

[Honnou]

Alright, I looked around a bit, both here and elsewhere. The only "fix" for the texture flickering that I get (See below for pictures, 2 and 3) is the Real FX mod. I also noticed that it's supposed to fix the sound problem during storms. It does neither (And, since I've installed it, I randomly get a sound-related crash during storms, although I admit I'm putting in the cheat to test them)

 

As well, when I look down outside, the whole world turns grey and somewhat laggy (And usually flickers for a bit when I look back up, although the flickering happens anyway from time to time). See Pic. 1 for example.

 

Does anyone know any way to fix any of those problems? I can't find any info on it.

 

OS: WIndows XP SP: 2

GFX Card: 8800 GTS 320mb

Sound Card: Soundblaster Live! 24-bit

RAM: 3gb

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4200+ 64-bit Dual Core(I do not run in 64-bit modes, only 32)

 

Thank you for any help, these are really very annoying problems.

 

Picture 1 (Grey Texture aiming down)

 

 

 

Picture 2 (Flicker)

 

Picture 3 (Flicker)

Edited August 4, 2007 by Honnou

[Ring_of_Fire]

Completely normal and graphically-looking, massive file size pictures. But in Picture 1, where exactly are you (ghostworld)?

 

 

Grey Texture aiming down

That's looks like a shadow. Come on, you do have a GeForce 8800 graphics card. Amazing graphics your eye can ever imagine!

Edited August 4, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[Honnou]

Directly outside the house in the middle of Balla territory. I forget the name of the 'hood...Washington maybe.

[Ring_of_Fire]

If you think everything is not normal, here's a guide for you: http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html

 

I'd also install Patch 1.01, update drivers, delete [.set] file, and reconfigure graphics in San Andreas' Display menu.

[Honnou]

Already 1.01, newest BIOS, GFX, Sound, etc drivers. Don't know exactly what a .set is or where to find the particular one I need to delete. Graphics I can reconfig right now.

[Ring_of_Fire]

[.set] file can be found in "My Documents" -> "GTA San Andreas User Files". Now you'll need to reconfigure the graphics again in San Andreas itself.

 

As for your "graphics/flickering problem", they say the game engine is what handles this and nothin' can change that. That was how R* programmed their rainy weather and their shadows in San Andreas.

 

I think you might have maxed out AA/AF too much. I hear that the 8800gts can use something like super AA/AF. Try to turn off these effects!

Edited August 4, 2007 by Ring_of_Fire

[Honnou]

Deleted the .set and redid the graphics. Turned AA off ingame and via nVidia console (I'd rather have it on App. Control, but it always switches to forced Off for some reason.). No luck.

[gillies]

Why are the fonts different, and what is that blue icon in the minimap in the first screenshot?

[Honnou]

Blue icon means I own that house. The font's different because I changed it.

[gillies]

How did you do that

Also, shouldn't it be a floppy disk icon if you own the house?

[Honnou]

Font I just downloaded and put into the GTASA/Models folder replacing Fonts.txd. Don't know what's with the house, it's always been a blue house shape for me. *Shrug*

 

Only real mods I've done are Real FX and a couple of retextures. Might be one of those changed the icon.

[Justin]

You don't meet the requirements of posting here if your game is modded. Chances are, the mods are the source of the problems.

 

That said, I see you're running Windows XP with a dual core processor. This is often a hint to use Windows 98 compatibility mode.

[Honnou]

Well, in that case, I'll reinstall and try to activate this Windows 98 Compatibility mode and see if that fixes this or not.

[Honnou]

Upon reinstalling and setting GTA_SA.exe to Win98 Compatibility, repatching, etc, I've noticed a few things in a couple quick tests.

 

1: The grey and flicker is gone. Can't say for the sound being fixed.

2: My save game is now, apparently, corrupt. Attempting to load it causes a crash with error (gta_sa.exe). I can start a new game with only one problem, see 3.

3: Right before finishing the first mission, when coming back to the Grove with the homies, there will be some artifacting, occuring especially when the Ballas are firing. Once, it only covered half the screen and everything seemed fine in the cutscene (Immediately after, a crash with gta_sa.exe error). The second time, the graphics...died. Only NPCs and CJ continued to exist, the world itself disappeared, leaving a "void" that is filled by the color around it in a large blur. In an attempt to fix it with Alt + Tab, it froze my system. Pictures when I get another chance.

 

Now, right now, my computer is somewhat underpowered, due to the upgrade to the 8800. I'm currently waiting on my check so that I can get a higher watt PSU (Two of my hard drives cannot run, and I do get artifacting and texture errors in at least one game, Battlefield 2. Any attempts to over or under clock my 8800 result in massive errors, artifacts, and BSoDs in almost all games). It is possible that is why it's doing this with GTA:SA, but I can't be sure until I get the new PSU. Hopefully, it is just the lack of power, and I'll be able to pick up San Andreas again.

[Ring_of_Fire]

 

My save game is now, apparently, corrupt.

Previous version save files are able to carryover with no issue they say! Assuming you had v1.01 in the first place, this never should be a problem. Did you downgrade SA v2.0 just to get v1.01 patch?

 

 

Only NPCs and CJ continued to exist, the world itself disappeared, leaving a "void" that is filled by the color around it in a large blur. In an attempt to fix it with Alt + Tab, it froze my system. Pictures when I get another chance.

Oh, I'm sorry. Set back compaitiblity to Windows XP (turn it off!)

 

 

Attempting to load it causes a crash with error (gta_sa.exe). I can start a new game with only one problem, see 3.

Normally other GTA gamers have to start over from the beginning cutscene.

 

 

Hopefully, it is just the lack of power

What wattage PSU you have now?

 

 

 

[Honnou]

Right now, a 600w. It's not a very good brand though. I burnt one of these out before, I was just using it until I got a job (Which I have now, although in hindsight I should have got a new PSU before a new video card, but both were starting to die on me anyway).

 

As for SA, turning OFF Win98 Comp. fixed the artifacts and void. My old save's still fried, no real idea why. Oh well, I wasn't that far along anyway.

 

Thanks for the help.